| 1. |
- Rydberg Sterner, Therese, et al.
(författare)
-
The Gothenburg H70 Birth cohort study 2014-16: design, methods and study population.
- 2019
-
Ingår i: European journal of epidemiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7284 .- 0393-2990. ; 34:2, s. 191-209
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To improve health care for older persons, we need to learn more about ageing, e.g. identify protective factors and early markers for diseases. The Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies (the H70 studies) are multidisciplinary epidemiological studies examining representative birth cohorts of older populations in Gothenburg, Sweden. So far, six birth cohorts of 70-year-olds have been examined over time, and examinations have been virtually identical between studies. This paper describes the study procedures for the baseline examination of the Birth cohort 1944, conducted in 2014-16. In this study, all men and women born 1944 on specific dates, and registered as residents in Gothenburg, were eligible for participation (n=1839). A total of 1203 (response rate 72.2%; 559 men and 644 women; mean age 70.5years) agreed to participate in the study. The study comprised sampling of blood and cerebrospinal fluid, psychiatric, cognitive, and physical health examinations, examinations of genetics and family history, use of medications, social factors, functional ability and disability, physical fitness and activity, body composition, lung function, audiological and ophthalmological examinations, diet, brain imaging, as well as a close informant interview, and qualitative studies. As in previous examinations, data collection serves as a basis for future longitudinal follow-up examinations. The research gained from the H70 studies has clinical relevance in relation to prevention, early diagnosis, clinical course, experience of illness, understanding pathogenesis and prognosis. Results will increase our understanding of ageing and inform service development, which may lead to enhanced quality of care for older persons.
|
|
| 2. |
- Capo, Eric, et al.
(författare)
-
How Does Environmental Inter-annual Variability Shape Aquatic Microbial Communities? : A 40-Year Annual Record of Sedimentary DNA From a Boreal Lake (Nylandssjon, Sweden)
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2296-701X. ; 7
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To assess the sensitivity of lakes to anthropogenically-driven environmental changes (e.g., nutrient supply, climate change), it is necessary to first isolate the effects of between-year variability in weather conditions. This variability can strongly impact a lake's biological community especially in boreal and arctic areas where snow phenology play an important role in controlling the input of terrestrial matter to the lake. Identifying the importance of this inherent variability is difficult without time series that span at least several decades. Here, we applied a molecular approach (metabarcoding on eukaryotic 18S rRNA genes and qPCR on cyanobacterial 16S rRNA genes) to sedimentary DNA (sed-DNA) to unravel the annual variability of microbial community in 40 years' sediment record from the boreal lake Nylandssjon which preserve annually-laminated sediments. Our comparison between seasonal meteorological data, sediment inorganic geochemistry (X-ray fluorescence analyses) and organic biomarkers (pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analyses), demonstrated that inter-annual variability strongly influence the sediment composition in Nylandssjon. Spring temperature, snow and ice phenology (e.g., the percentage of snow loss in spring, the timing of lake ice-off) were identified as important drivers for the inputs of terrestrial material to the lake, and were therefore also important for shaping the aquatic biological community. Main changes were detected in the late-80s/mid-90s and mid-2000s associated with increases in algal productivity, in total richness of the protistan community and in relative abundances of Chlorophyta, Dinophyceae as well as Cyanobacteria abundance. These changes could be linked to a decline in terrestrial inputs to the lake during the snow melt and run-off period, which in turn was driven by warmer winter temperatures. Even if our data shows that meteorological factors do affect the sediment composition and microbial communities, they only explain part of the variability. This is most likely a consequence of the high inter-annual variability in abiotic and biotic parameters highlighting the difficulty to draw firm conclusions concerning drivers of biological changes at an annual or sub-annual resolution even with the 40-year varved sediment record from Nylandssjon. Hence, it is necessary to have an even longer time perspective in order to reveal the full implications of climate change.
|
|
| 3. |
- Myrstener, Erik, et al.
(författare)
-
Environmental footprint of small-scale, historical mining and metallurgy in the Swedish boreal forest landscape : The Moshyttan blast furnace as microcosm
- 2019
-
Ingår i: The Holocene. - : Sage Publications. - 0959-6836 .- 1477-0911. ; 29:4, s. 578-591
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The history of mining and smelting and the associated pollution have been documented using lake sediments for decades, but the broader ecological implications are not well studied. We analyzed sediment profiles covering the past similar to 10,000 years from three lakes associated with an iron blast furnace in central Sweden, as an example of the many small-scale furnaces with historical roots in the medieval period. With a focus on long-term lake-water quality, we analyzed multiple proxies including geochemistry, pollen and charcoal, diatom composition and inferred pH, biogenic silica (bSi), visible near-infrared spectroscopy (VNIRS)-inferred lake-water total organic carbon (LW-TOC), and VNIRS-inferred sediment chlorophyll (sed-Chl). All three lakes had stable conditions during the middle Holocene (similar to 5000 BCE to 1110 CE) typical of oligo-dystrophic lakes: pH 5.4-5.6, LW-TOC 15-18 mg L-1. The most important diatom taxa include, for example, Aulacoseira scalaris, Brachysira neoexilis, and Frustulia saxonica. From similar to 1150 CE, decreases in LW-TOC, bSi, and sed-Chl in all three lakes coincide with a suite of proxies indicating disturbance associated with local, small-scale agriculture, and the more widespread use of the landscape in the past (e.g. forest grazing, charcoal production). Most important was a decline in LW-TOC by 30-50% in the three lakes prior to the 20th century. In addition, the one lake (Fickeln) downstream of the smelter and main areas of cultivation experienced a shift in diatom composition (mainly increasing Asterionella formosa) and a 0.6 pH increase coinciding with increasing cereal pollen and signs of blast furnace activity. The pH did not change in the other two lakes in response to disturbance; however, these lakes show a slight increase (0.3-0.5 pH units) because of modern liming. LW-TOC has returned to background levels in the downstream lake and remains lower in the other two.
|
|
| 4. |
- Norström, Elin, et al.
(författare)
-
Late-Holocene climate and vegetation dynamics in eastern Lesotho highlands
- 2018
-
Ingår i: The Holocene. - : SAGE Publications. - 0959-6836 .- 1477-0911. ; 28:9, s. 1483-1494
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The eastern Lesotho highlands are of considerable hydrological importance to southern Africa as a so-called water tower' for the surrounding region. Here, we contribute proxy-data inferring climate and vegetation changes over the past 1600 years, assessing in parallel inorganic and organic chemical analyses on a sediment core from Ladybird wetland, eastern Lesotho. Several proxies were used to determine changes in local vegetation dynamics, productivity, hydrology ((13) C, (15) N, C/N, TOC) and the input and source of the detrital components (Ca/Ti, CIA). The first part of the multi-proxy record (AD 400-800) shows stable terrestrial conditions and low detrital input, followed by higher variability in almost all proxies between ca. AD 900 and 1200. The (13) C record infers a higher proportion of C-4 vegetation, tentatively associated with higher temperatures during this phase, coeval with the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA). After AD 1200, local conditions change gradually from purely terrestrial, towards the typical wetland environment prevailing today. A higher proportion of C-3 plants and possibly an increase in aquatic organisms within the organic matrix corresponds with decreasing detrital input, suggesting locally high available moisture in this part of Lesotho during the Little Ice Age (LIA). Although age-model constraints impedes a robust regional comparison, the inferred climate variability is discussed as a tentative response to enhanced mid-latitude cyclonic activity during LIA, and the variable MCA climate conditions as indirectly dictated by changes in solar activity.
|
|
