| 1. |
- Christmas, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
-
Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 380:6643
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Zoonomia is the largest comparative genomics resource for mammals produced to date. By aligning genomes for 240 species, we identify bases that, when mutated, are likely to affect fitness and alter disease risk. At least 332 million bases (similar to 10.7%) in the human genome are unusually conserved across species (evolutionarily constrained) relative to neutrally evolving repeats, and 4552 ultraconserved elements are nearly perfectly conserved. Of 101 million significantly constrained single bases, 80% are outside protein-coding exons and half have no functional annotations in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) resource. Changes in genes and regulatory elements are associated with exceptional mammalian traits, such as hibernation, that could inform therapeutic development. Earth's vast and imperiled biodiversity offers distinctive power for identifying genetic variants that affect genome function and organismal phenotypes.
|
|
| 2. |
- Barker, Philip A., et al.
(författare)
-
Carbon cycling within an East African lake revealed by the carbon isotope composition of diatom silica: a 25-ka record from Lake Challa, Mt. Kilimanjaro
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791. ; 66, s. 55-63
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The carbon cycle of a lake is a balance between supply from the atmosphere and catchment, and the net demand exerted by primary producers, minus losses back to the atmosphere and to sediment storage. Evaluating the sum of these processes and reconstructing them from sediment records of lake history requires a range of methods and a multi-proxy approach. One promising technique is to explore the carbon-isotope composition (delta C-13(diatom)) of organic matter incorporated within the silica frustules of diatom algae. Here we present a 25,000-year record of delta C-13(diatom) from the sediments of crater Lake Challa on the eastern flank of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and along with other proxy data we make inferences about the three major phases in the history of the lake's carbon cycle. From 25 ka to 15.8 ka years BP, delta C-13(diatom) is positively correlated with the delta C-13 of bulk sediment organic matter (delta C-13(bulk)), indicating that high diatom productivity, as recorded by high % biogenic silica at this time, was preferentially removing C-12 and enriching the delta C-13 of lake-water dissolved inorganic carbon. From 15.8 to 5.5 ka the correlation between delta C-13(diatom) and delta C-13(bulk) breaks down, suggesting carbon supply to the lake satisfied or exceeded the demand from productivity. From 5.5 ka BP the positive correlation resumes, indicating an increase in the internal demand for carbon relative to external supply. Diatom frustule-bound carbon isotopes offer an original tool in examining long-term fluctuations in a lake's carbon budget and how the balance between supply and demand has changed through time. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
|
| 3. |
- Glynn, Liam, et al.
(författare)
-
The Limerick Declaration on Rural Health Care 2022
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Rural and Remote Health. - 1445-6354. ; 23:1, s. 7905-7905
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The 19th World Rural Health Conference, hosted in rural Ireland and the University of Limerick, with over 650 participants coming from 40 countries and an additional 1600 engaging online, has carefully considered how best rural communities can be empowered to improve their own health and the health of those around them. The conference also considered the role of national health systems and all stakeholders, in keeping with the commitments made through the Sustainable Development Goals and the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health as one of the fundamental rights of every human being. This conference declaration, the Limerick Declaration on Rural Healthcare, is designed to inform rural communities, academics and policymakers about how to achieve the goal of delivering high quality health care in rural and remote areas most effectively, with a particular focus on the Irish healthcare system. Congruent with current evidence and best international practice, the participants of the conference endorsed a series of recommendations for the creation of high quality, sustainable and cost-effective healthcare delivery for rural communities in Ireland and globally. The recommendations focused on four major themes: rural healthcare needs and delivery, rural workforce, advocacy and policy, and research for rural health care. Equal access to health care is a crucial marker of democracy. Hence, we call on all governments, policymakers, academic institutions and communities globally to commit to providing their rural dwellers with equitable access to health care that is properly resourced and fundamentally patient-centred in its design.
|
|
| 4. |
- Saurer, Matthias, et al.
(författare)
-
Spatial variability and temporal trends in water-use efficiency of European forests
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 20:12, s. 3700-3712
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere in combination with climatic changes throughout the last century are likely to have had a profound effect on the physiology of trees: altering the carbon and water fluxes passing through the stomatal pores. However, the magnitude and spatial patterns of such changes in natural forests remain highly uncertain. Here, stable carbon isotope ratios from a network of 35 tree-ring sites located across Europe are investigated to determine the intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE), the ratio of photosynthesis to stomatal conductance from 1901 to 2000. The results were compared with simulations of a dynamic vegetation model (LPX-Bern 1.0) that integrates numerous ecosystem and land-atmosphere exchange processes in a theoretical framework. The spatial pattern of tree-ring derived iWUE of the investigated coniferous and deciduous species and the model results agreed significantly with a clear south-to-north gradient, as well as a general increase in iWUE over the 20th century. The magnitude of the iWUE increase was not spatially uniform, with the strongest increase observed and modelled for temperate forests in Central Europe, a region where summer soil-water availability decreased over the last century. We were able to demonstrate that the combined effects of increasing CO2 and climate change leading to soil drying have resulted in an accelerated increase in iWUE. These findings will help to reduce uncertainties in the land surface schemes of global climate models, where vegetation-climate feedbacks are currently still poorly constrained by observational data.
|
|
