1. |
- Cornelissen, Johannes H C, et al.
(author)
-
Global negative vegetation feedback to climate warming responses of leaf litter decomposition rates in cold biomes
- 2007
-
In: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 10:7, s. 619-627
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Whether climate change will turn cold biomes from large long-term carbon sinks into sources is hotly debated because of the great potential for ecosystem-mediated feedbacks to global climate. Critical are the direction, magnitude and generality of climate responses of plant litter decomposition. Here, we present the first quantitative analysis of the major climate-change-related drivers of litter decomposition rates in cold northern biomes worldwide.Leaf litters collected from the predominant species in 33 global change manipulation experiments in circum-arctic-alpine ecosystems were incubated simultaneously in two contrasting arctic life zones. We demonstrate that longer-term, large-scale changes to leaf litter decomposition will be driven primarily by both direct warming effects and concomitant shifts in plant growth form composition, with a much smaller role for changes in litter quality within species. Specifically, the ongoing warming-induced expansion of shrubs with recalcitrant leaf litter across cold biomes would constitute a negative feedback to global warming. Depending on the strength of other (previously reported) positive feedbacks of shrub expansion on soil carbon turnover, this may partly counteract direct warming enhancement of litter decomposition.
|
|
2. |
- Mikkelsen, T N, et al.
(author)
-
Experimental design of multifactor climate change experiments with elevated CO2, warming and drought: the CLIMAITE project
- 2008
-
In: Functional Ecology. - : Wiley. - 1365-2435 .- 0269-8463. ; 22:1, s. 185-195
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent findings indicate that the interactions among CO2, temperature and water can be substantial, and that the combined effects on the biological systems of several factors may not be predicted from experiments with one or a few factors. Therefore realistic multifactorial experiments involving a larger set of main factors are needed. We describe a new Danish climate change-related field scale experiment, CLIMAITE, in a heath/grassland ecosystem. CLIMAITE is a full factorial combination of elevated CO2, elevated temperature and prolonged summer drought. The manipulations are intended to mimic anticipated major environmental changes at the site by year 2075 as closely as possible. The impacts on ecosystem processes and functioning (at ecophysiological levels, through responses by individuals and communities to ecosystem-level responses) are investigated simultaneously. The increase of [CO2] closely corresponds with the scenarios for year 2075, while the warming treatment is at the lower end of the predictions and seems to be the most difficult treatment to increase without unwanted side effects on the other variables. The drought treatment follows predictions of increased frequency of drought periods in summer. The combination of the treatments does not create new unwanted side effects on the treatments relative to the treatments alone.
|
|
3. |
- Aulchenko, Yurii S, et al.
(author)
-
Loci influencing lipid levels and coronary heart disease risk in 16 European population cohorts
- 2009
-
In: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 41:1, s. 47-55
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent genome-wide association (GWA) studies of lipids have been conducted in samples ascertained for other phenotypes, particularly diabetes. Here we report the first GWA analysis of loci affecting total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglycerides sampled randomly from 16 population-based cohorts and genotyped using mainly the Illumina HumanHap300-Duo platform. Our study included a total of 17,797-22,562 persons, aged 18-104 years and from geographic regions spanning from the Nordic countries to Southern Europe. We established 22 loci associated with serum lipid levels at a genome-wide significance level (P < 5 x 10(-8)), including 16 loci that were identified by previous GWA studies. The six newly identified loci in our cohort samples are ABCG5 (TC, P = 1.5 x 10(-11); LDL, P = 2.6 x 10(-10)), TMEM57 (TC, P = 5.4 x 10(-10)), CTCF-PRMT8 region (HDL, P = 8.3 x 10(-16)), DNAH11 (LDL, P = 6.1 x 10(-9)), FADS3-FADS2 (TC, P = 1.5 x 10(-10); LDL, P = 4.4 x 10(-13)) and MADD-FOLH1 region (HDL, P = 6 x 10(-11)). For three loci, effect sizes differed significantly by sex. Genetic risk scores based on lipid loci explain up to 4.8% of variation in lipids and were also associated with increased intima media thickness (P = 0.001) and coronary heart disease incidence (P = 0.04). The genetic risk score improves the screening of high-risk groups of dyslipidemia over classical risk factors.
|
|
4. |
|
|
5. |
|
|
6. |
- Hicks, Andrew A., et al.
(author)
-
Genetic determinants of circulating sphingolipid concentrations in European populations
- 2009
-
In: PLoS genetics. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-7404. ; 5:10, s. e1000672-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sphingolipids have essential roles as structural components of cell membranes and in cell signalling, and disruption of their metabolism causes several diseases, with diverse neurological, psychiatric, and metabolic consequences. Increasingly, variants within a few of the genes that encode enzymes involved in sphingolipid metabolism are being associated with complex disease phenotypes. Direct experimental evidence supports a role of specific sphingolipid species in several common complex chronic disease processes including atherosclerotic plaque formation, myocardial infarction (MI), cardiomyopathy, pancreatic β-cell failure, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, sphingolipids represent novel and important intermediate phenotypes for genetic analysis, yet little is known about the major genetic variants that influence their circulating levels in the general population. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) between 318,237 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and levels of circulating sphingomyelin (SM), dihydrosphingomyelin (Dih-SM), ceramide (Cer), and glucosylceramide (GluCer) single lipid species (33 traits); and 43 matched metabolite ratios measured in 4,400 subjects from five diverse European populations. Associated variants (32) in five genomic regions were identified with genome-wide significant corrected p-values ranging down to 9.08×10−66. The strongest associations were observed in or near 7 genes functionally involved in ceramide biosynthesis and trafficking: SPTLC3, LASS4, SGPP1, ATP10D, and FADS1–3. Variants in 3 loci (ATP10D, FADS3, and SPTLC3) associate with MI in a series of three German MI studies. An additional 70 variants across 23 candidate genes involved in sphingolipid-metabolizing pathways also demonstrate association (p = 10−4 or less). Circulating concentrations of several key components in sphingolipid metabolism are thus under strong genetic control, and variants in these loci can be tested for a role in the development of common cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological, and psychiatric diseases.
|
|
7. |
- Jonasson, J M, et al.
(author)
-
Insulin glargine use and short-term incidence of malignancies-a population-based follow-up study in Sweden.
- 2009
-
In: Diabetologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-0428 .- 0012-186X. ; 52:9, s. 1745-54
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: In the light of a report suggesting that insulin glargine may increase cancer occurrence, the EASD asked us to perform this study. METHODS: We followed 114,841 individuals who had a prescription dispensed for insulin between 1 July and 31 December 2005. From 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2007, we noted the occurrence of malignancies. Seven different nationwide registers were used to obtain information on insulin exposure, outcome and possible confounders; these were linked using the unique personal identity number assigned to every Swedish resident. RESULTS: After adjustment for age and, when appropriate, sex, users of insulin glargine alone (no other types of insulin), compared with users of types of insulin other than insulin glargine, had an RR of 1.99 (95% CI 1.31-3.03) for breast cancer, 0.93 (95% CI 0.61-1.40) for gastrointestinal cancer, 1.27 (95% CI 0.89-1.82) for prostate cancer and 1.07 (95% CI 0.91-1.27) for any type of malignancy. Adjustment for age, smoking, BMI, age at onset of diabetes, age at birth of first child, cardiovascular disease and oestrogen use gave an RR for breast cancer of 1.97 (95% CI 1.29-3.00). The 95% CIs crossed 1.0 for the RR calculated in all analyses of users of insulin glargine in combination with other types of insulin. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: In Sweden, during 2006 and 2007, women using insulin glargine alone (no other types of insulin) had an increased incidence rate of breast cancer as compared with women using types of insulin other than insulin glargine. This result may be due to a random fluctuation; the possibilities for examining validity are limited, and no statistically significant results were obtained for any other individual cancer site or for the outcome 'all malignancies'. No definitive conclusions regarding a possible causal relationship between insulin glargine use and the occurrence of malignancies can be drawn from the results of this study.
|
|
8. |
|
|
9. |
|
|
10. |
- Callaghan, TV, et al.
(author)
-
Key findings and extended summaries
- 2004
-
In: Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment. - 0044-7447. ; 33:7, s. 386-392
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)
|
|