| 1. |
- Hudson, Lawrence N., et al.
(författare)
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The PREDICTS database : a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts
- 2014
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Ingår i: Ecology and Evolution. - : Wiley. - 2045-7758. ; 4:24, s. 4701-4735
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species' threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project - and avert - future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups - including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems - ). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.
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| 2. |
- Nyokabi, Ndungu S., et al.
(författare)
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Exploring veterinary students' awareness and perception of zoonoses risks, infection control practices, and biosecurity measures in Ethiopia
- 2024
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Veterinary Science. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2297-1769. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Universities and colleges are often regarded as playing a key role in educating veterinarians and animal health workers who advise farmers on herd health and animal husbandry. However, to date, studies examining veterinary students' knowledge of zoonotic diseases of public health importance and the source of this knowledge, as well as their preparedness to respond to these diseases, have focused on the Global North rather than the Global South. This study takes Ethiopia as a case study in exploring veterinary medicine students' knowledge of zoonosis risks, infection control practices and biosecurity measures, recognizing that it is imperative to reconcile national-level veterinary education curricula with emerging global trends, such as One Health-focused training. This training advocates for a collaborative, interdisciplinary response at local, national, and international levels to the adverse impact of zoonotic diseases on animal health and productivity, and human and environmental health. Data for this study were collected through a pre-tested online questionnaire administered to 154 veterinary students from several universities in Ethiopia. The findings of this study suggest veterinary students were aware of the public health risks posed by zoonoses and the important role that collaboration between the disciplines of human and animal health can play in addressing zoonoses and emerging health risks. However, students demonstrated poor knowledge of the need to adopt infection control measures (ICPs) and biosecurity measures to reduce occupational risks and prevent within and between herd transmission of infection. Moreover, students' vaccination rates against zoonotic diseases associated with occupational risks, such as rabies, were low. The results of this study suggest that there are currently gaps in Ethiopia's veterinary curriculum and that enhancing veterinary students' access to information regarding infection control practices and biosecurity measures could contribute to reducing their future occupational exposure to zoonoses. This study highlights the policy implications of the current veterinary medicine curriculum in Ethiopia and the scope for aligning the curriculum with important global initiatives, such as One Health-focused training.
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| 3. |
- Kininmonth, Stuart, et al.
(författare)
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Is Diversity the Missing Link in Coastal Fisheries Management?
- 2022
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Ingår i: Diversity. - : MDPI AG. - 1424-2818. ; 14:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fisheries management has historically focused on the population elasticity of target fish based primarily on demographic modeling, with the key assumptions of stability in environmental conditions and static trophic relationships. The predictive capacity of this fisheries framework is poor, especially in closed systems where the benthic diversity and boundary effects are important and the stock levels are low. Here, we present a probabilistic model that couples key fish populations with a complex suite of trophic, environmental, and geomorphological factors. Using 41 years of observations we model the changes in eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua), herring (Clupea harengus), and Baltic sprat (Sprattus sprattus balticus) for the Baltic Sea within a Bayesian network. The model predictions are spatially explicit and show the changes of the central Baltic Sea from cod- to sprat-dominated ecology over the 41 years. This also highlights how the years 2004 to 2014 deviate in terms of the typical cod–environment relationship, with environmental factors such as salinity being less influential on cod population abundance than in previous periods. The role of macrozoobenthos abundance, biotopic rugosity, and flatfish biomass showed an increased influence in predicting cod biomass in the last decade of the study. Fisheries management that is able to accommodate shifting ecological and environmental conditions relevant to biotopic information will be more effective and realistic. Non-stationary modelling for all of the homogeneous biotope regions, while acknowledging that each has a specific ecology relevant to understanding the fish population dynamics, is essential for fisheries science and sustainable management of fish stocks.
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| 4. |
- Franke, James A, et al.
(författare)
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Agricultural breadbaskets shift poleward given adaptive farmer behavior under climate change
- 2022
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 28:1, s. 167-181
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modern food production is spatially concentrated in global "breadbaskets". A major unresolved question is whether these peak production regions will shift poleward as the climate warms, allowing some recovery of potential climaterelated losses. While agricultural impacts studies to date have focused on currently cultivated land, the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison Project (GGCMI) Phase 2 experiment allows us to assess changes in both yields and the location of peak productivity regions under warming. We examine crop responses under projected end-of-century warming using 7 process-based models simulating 5 major crops (maize, rice, soybeans, and spring and winter wheat) with a variety of adaptation strategies. We find that in no-adaptation cases, when planting date and cultivar choices are held fixed, regions of peak production remain stationary and yield losses can be severe, since growing seasons contract strongly with warming. When adaptations in management practices are allowed (cultivars that retain growing season length under warming and modified planting dates), peak productivity zones shift poleward and yield losses are largely recovered. While most growing-zone shifts are ultimately limited by geography, breadbaskets studied here move poleward over 600 km on average by end of the century under RCP8.5. These results suggest that agricultural impacts assessments can be strongly biased if restricted in spatial area or in the scope of adaptive behavior considered. Accurate evaluation of food security under climate change requires global modeling and careful treatment of adaptation strategies.
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| 5. |
- Nyokabi, Ndungu S., et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the composition and structure of milk and meat value chains, food safety risks and governance in the Addis Ababa and Oromia regions of Ethiopia
- 2023
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2571-581X. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Demand for animal-source foods (ASF) is increasing globally, driven by population growth and changing dietary preferences. In global south countries, low compliance with good agricultural practices (GAPs) and food safety standards in the production of ASF is a major public health concern due to the high prevalence of foodborne diseases. This study examines the composition and structure of milk and meat value chains and explores food safety risks and governance in the Addis Ababa and Oromia regions of Ethiopia. Stakeholder discussions, key informant interviews and participant observation were undertaken to collect data on milk and meat value chain actors' perceptions of opportunities and constraints to improving access to safe, high-quality milk and meat products. The results reveal low compliance with rules and standards by milk and meat value chain actors which could compromise food safety and quality and expose consumers to public health risks. There was stricter enforcement of GAPs and food safety standards in the case of milk and meat products destined for export compared to products sold in the local market. The main barriers to compliance with food safety regulations were actors' low knowledge, small profit margins, absence of critical food safety infrastructure such as electricity and road and low access to capital to invest in the recommended equipment such as aluminum containers, coolers and fridges. This paper concludes there is a need for targeted efforts to support the adoption of low-cost technologies that could mitigate food safety risks. Additionally, there is a need for improved communication and tailored training for value chain actors that reflect local social, cultural and economic context to incentivise compliance with rules governing food safety and quality.
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| 6. |
- Nyokabi, Ndungu S., et al.
(författare)
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From farm to table : exploring food handling and hygiene practices of meat and milk value chain actors in Ethiopia
- 2023
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1471-2458. ; 23:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Livestock value chains constitute a source of livelihood for meat and milk value chain actors in Ethiopia, from dairy farmers to other associated value chain actors such as milk traders, abattoir workers, public health officials, veterinarians, butcheries selling meats, milk cooperatives, artisanal milk processors, and transporters. The development of these livestock value chains, however, is constrained by poor food safety and quality, while consumers are also exposed to public health risks due to milk and meat value chain actors' food handling and hygiene practices.This study used Photovoice and participant observation to explore meat and milk value chain actors' food handling and hygiene practices in suburban areas of Addis Ababa and neighbouring Oromia in Ethiopia. The results of this study reveal that milk and meat value chain actors' food handling practices are not aligned with the recommended Ethiopian food safety and quality standards. Low compliance with food safety and quality standards reflected a combination of factors such as lack of incentives, poor road infrastructure and low enforcement of food safety standards.Participatory and visual research methods enable a researcher to collect context-aware data that can lead to the development of policies and intervention strategies that reflect local needs and priorities. The results of this study affirm the need to identify socially acceptable and economically viable policies and intervention strategies that are acceptable to all chain actors; and suggest there is an imperative to train milk and meat value chain actors on good hygiene handling practices, improve road infrastructure, and facilitate access equipment such as fridges and freezers that can contribute to maintaining food safety and quality.
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| 7. |
- Crona, Beatrice, et al.
(författare)
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Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 616:7955, s. 104-112
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Blue foods, sourced in aquatic environments, are important for the economies, livelihoods, nutritional security and cultures of people in many nations. They are often nutrient rich1, generate lower emissions and impacts on land and water than many terrestrial meats2, and contribute to the health3, wellbeing and livelihoods of many rural communities4. The Blue Food Assessment recently evaluated nutritional, environmental, economic and justice dimensions of blue foods globally. Here we integrate these findings and translate them into four policy objectives to help realize the contributions that blue foods can make to national food systems around the world: ensuring supplies of critical nutrients, providing healthy alternatives to terrestrial meat, reducing dietary environmental footprints and safeguarding blue food contributions to nutrition, just economies and livelihoods under a changing climate. To account for how context-specific environmental, socio-economic and cultural aspects affect this contribution, we assess the relevance of each policy objective for individual countries, and examine associated co-benefits and trade-offs at national and international scales. We find that in many African and South American nations, facilitating consumption of culturally relevant blue food, especially among nutritionally vulnerable population segments, could address vitamin B12 and omega-3 deficiencies. Meanwhile, in many global North nations, cardiovascular disease rates and large greenhouse gas footprints from ruminant meat intake could be lowered through moderate consumption of seafood with low environmental impact. The analytical framework we provide also identifies countries with high future risk, for whom climate adaptation of blue food systems will be particularly important. Overall the framework helps decision makers to assess the blue food policy objectives most relevant to their geographies, and to compare and contrast the benefits and trade-offs associated with pursuing these objectives.
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| 8. |
- Folberth, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Parameterization-induced uncertainties and impacts of crop management harmonization in a global gridded crop model ensemble
- 2019
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 14:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global gridded crop models (GGCMs) combine agronomic or plant growth models with gridded spatial input data to estimate spatially explicit crop yields and agricultural externalities at the global scale. Differences in GGCM outputs arise from the use of different biophysical models, setups, and input data. GGCM ensembles are frequently employed to bracket uncertainties in impact studies without investigating the causes of divergence in outputs. This study explores differences in maize yield estimates from five GGCMs based on the public domain field-scale model Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) that participate in the AgMIP Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison initiative. Albeit using the same crop model, the GGCMs differ in model version, input data, management assumptions, parameterization, and selection of subroutines affecting crop yield estimates via cultivar distributions, soil attributes, and hydrology among others. The analyses reveal inter-annual yield variability and absolute yield levels in the EPIC-based GGCMs to be highly sensitive to soil parameterization and crop management. All GGCMs show an intermediate performance in reproducing reported yields with a higher skill if a static soil profile is assumed or sufficient plant nutrients are supplied. An in-depth comparison of setup domains for two EPIC-based GGCMs shows that GGCM performance and plant stress responses depend substantially on soil parameters and soil process parameterization, i.e. hydrology and nutrient turnover, indicating that these often neglected domains deserve more scrutiny. For agricultural impact assessments, employing a GGCM ensemble with its widely varying assumptions in setups appears the best solution for coping with uncertainties from lack of comprehensive global data on crop management, cultivar distributions and coefficients for agro-environmental processes. However, the underlying assumptions require systematic specifications to cover representative agricultural systems and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the interlinkage of parameter sensitivity from various domains such as soil parameters, nutrient turnover coefficients, and cultivar specifications highlights that global sensitivity analyses and calibration need to be performed in an integrated manner to avoid bias resulting from disregarded core model domains. Finally, relating evaluations of the EPIC-based GGCMs to a wider ensemble based on individual core models shows that structural differences outweigh in general differences in configurations of GGCMs based on the same model, and that the ensemble mean gains higher skill from the inclusion of structurally different GGCMs. Although the members of the wider ensemble herein do not consider crop-soil-management interactions, their sensitivity to nutrient supply indicates that findings for the EPIC-based sub-ensemble will likely become relevant for other GGCMs with the progressing inclusion of such processes.
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| 9. |
- Frieler, Katja, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding the weather signal in national crop-yield variability
- 2017
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Ingår i: Earth's Future. - 2328-4277. ; 5:6, s. 605-616
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Year-to-year variations in crop yields can have major impacts on the livelihoods of subsistence farmers and may trigger significant global price fluctuations, with severe consequences for people in developing countries. Fluctuations can be induced by weather conditions, management decisions, weeds, diseases, and pests. Although an explicit quantification and deeper understanding of weather-induced crop-yield variability is essential for adaptation strategies, so far it has only been addressed by empirical models. Here, we provide conservative estimates of the fraction of reported national yield variabilities that can be attributed to weather by state-of-the-art, process-based crop model simulations. We find that observed weather variations can explain more than 50% of the variability in wheat yields in Australia, Canada, Spain, Hungary, and Romania. For maize, weather sensitivities exceed 50% in seven countries, including the United States. The explained variance exceeds 50% for rice in Japan and South Korea and for soy in Argentina. Avoiding water stress by simulating yields assuming full irrigation shows that water limitation is a major driver of the observed variations in most of these countries. Identifying the mechanisms leading to crop-yield fluctuations is not only fundamental for dampening fluctuations, but is also important in the context of the debate on the attribution of loss and damage to climate change. Since process-based crop models not only account for weather influences on crop yields, but also provide options to represent human-management measures, they could become essential tools for differentiating these drivers, and for exploring options to reduce future yield fluctuations.
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| 10. |
- Mellin, P., et al.
(författare)
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Bonding EBM-built blocks of 316L steel, using hot isostatic pressing
- 2017
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Ingår i: Proceedings Euro PM 2017: International Powder Metallurgy Congress and Exhibition. - : European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA).
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- To enable production of the First Wall Beam in the ITER fusion reactor; we attempt to join EBM-built blocks of 316L, by Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). For highly critical components, EBM-built material is usually HIPed anyway to heal defects such as pores and cracks. Using HIP to simultaneously bond several print-jobs together into a larger component saves time and reduces manufacturing complexity. We found by carrying out this research, that fine surface roughness is an important enabler for a complete bond. The raw printed surfaces that are obtained straight from the Arcam machine (Ra = 19.2 μm) do not enable a good bond. Instead, traditional machining, which in this paper reached Ra = 2.0 μm, enabled a good bond. HIP parameters are also important. The best bond in this study was achieved after increasing holding time from 1 h to 2 h.
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