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We report the development and application of a prototype tool for integrated assessment of chemical status in aquatic environments based on substance- and matrix-specific environmental assessment criteria (thresholds). The Chemical Status Assessment Tool (CHASE) integrates data on hazardous substances in water, sediments and biota as well as bio-effect indicators and is based on a substance- or bio-effect-specific calculation of a 'contamination ratio' being the ratio between an observed concentration and a threshold value. Values1.0 indicate areas potentially 'unaffected', while values1.0 indicate areas potentially 'affected'. These ratios are combined within matrices, i.e. for water, sediment and biota and for biological effects. The overall assessment used a 'one out, all out principle' with regard to each matrix. The CHASE tool was tested in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea in 376 assessment units. In the former, the chemical status was1.0 in practically all areas indicating that all areas assessed were potentially affected. The North Sea included areas classified as unaffected or affected. The CHASE tool can in combination with temporal trend assessments of individual substances be advantageous for use in remedial action plans and, in particular, for the science-based evaluation of the status and for determining which specific substances are responsible for a status as potentially affected.

Cambodia continues to have a high prevalence of acute malnutrition. Low acceptability has been found for standard ready-to-use-therapeutic-food (RUTF) products. Therefore, NumTrey, a locally-produced fish-based RUTF, was developed. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of NumTrey compared to an imported milk-based RUTF for weight gain among children aged 6–59 months in the home-treatment for acute malnutrition. Effectiveness was tested in a single-blinded randomized controlled trial with weight gain as the primary outcome. Anthropometry was assessed at baseline and bi-weekly follow-ups until endline at Week 8. In total, 121 patients were randomized into BP-100TM (n = 61) or NumTrey (n = 60). There was no statistical difference in mean weight gain between the groups (1.06 g/kg/day; 95% CI (0.72, 1.41) and 1.08 g/kg/day; 95% CI (0.75, 1.41) for BP-100™ and NumTrey, respectively). In addition, no statistically significant differences in secondary outcomes were found. Although the ability to draw conclusions was limited by lower weight gain than the desired 4 g/kg/day in both groups, no superiority was found for eitherRUTF. A locally produced RUTF is highly relevant to improve nutrition interventions in Cambodia. A locally produced fish-based RUTF is a relevant alternative to imported milk-based RUTF for the treatment of SAM in Cambodia.

The Mediterranean, and particularly its Eastern basin, is a crossroad of air masses advected from Europe, Asia and Africa. Anthropogenic emissions from its megacities meet over the Eastern Mediterranean, with natural emissions from the Saharan and Middle East deserts, smoke from frequent forest fires, background marine and pollen particles emitted from ocean and vegetation, respectively. This mixture of natural aerosols and gaseous precursors (Short-Lived Climate Forcers—SLCFs in IPCC has short atmospheric residence times but strongly affects radiation and cloud formation, contributing the largest uncertainty to estimates and interpretations of the changing cloud and precipitation patterns across the basin. The SLCFs’ global forcing is comparable in magnitude to that of the long-lived greenhouse gases; however, the local forcing by SLCFs can far exceed those of the long-lived gases, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Monitoring the spatiotemporal distribution of SLCFs using remote sensing techniques is important for understanding their properties along with aging processes and impacts on radiation, clouds, weather and climate. This article reviews the current state of scientific know-how on the properties and trends of SLCFs in the Eastern Mediterranean along with their regional interactions and impacts, depicted by ground- and space-based remote sensing techniques.

The dependence of hunter-gatherers on local net primary production (NPP) to provide food played a major role in shaping long-term human population dynamics. Observations of contemporary hunter-gatherers have shown an overall correlation between population density and annual NPP but with a 1,000-fold variation in population density per unit NPP that remains unexplained. Here, we build a process-based hunter-gatherer population model embedded within a global terrestrial biosphere model, which explicitly addresses the extraction of NPP through dynamically allocated hunting and gathering activities. The emergent results reveal a strong, previously unrecognized effect of seasonality on population density via diet composition, whereby hunter-gatherers consume high fractions of meat in regions where growing seasons are short, leading to greatly reduced population density due to trophic inefficiency. This seasonal carnivory bottleneck largely explains the wide variation in population density per unit NPP and questions the prevailing usage of annual NPP as the proxy of carrying capacity for ancient humans. Our process-based approach has the potential to greatly refine our understanding of dynamical responses of ancient human populations to past environmental changes.

Here we conduct the first comprehensive assessment of mesozooplankton abundance, biomass, and taxa composition in Cyprus coastal waters (Levantine Sea). Mesozooplankton abundance and biomass sampled at several locations around the island ranged from 153 – 498 individuals m-3 and 0.7 – 5.2 mg dry weight m-3, respectively, with significantly larger biomass observed in winter-early spring (March) than in summer (September). The community was dominated by calanoid and cyclopoid copepods throughout the year (80% of total numbers), with higher abundances of predatory taxa (chaetognaths and medusae) in winter and cladocerans in summer. Overall, we find that coastal mesozooplankton communities around Cyprus appear to be more similar to communities in offshore waters or those around the island of Rhodes than to communities along the mainland Levantine coast. We further highlight regional differences in the eastern Mediterranean by comparing our data with mesozooplankton in the western Aegean (Saronikos Gulf) and northeastern Aegean Sea (NEA). Distinct spatial differences were observed, for example anthropogenic influences in the Saronikos Gulf and the outflow of Modified Black Sea Water in the NEA drove generally greater biomass and abundance in these regions. Overall, our comparison supports the concept of a latitudinal gradient in oligotrophy in the eastern Mediterranean, with ultra-oligotrophic conditions found in the Levantine Sea.

Abstract Summary: BioTextQuest combines automated discovery of significant terms in article clusters with structured knowledge annotation, via Named Entity Recognition services, offering interactive user-friendly visualization. A tag-cloud-based illustration of terms labeling each document cluster are semantically annotated according to the biological entity, and a list of document titles enable users to simultaneously compare terms and documents of each cluster, facilitating concept association and hypothesis generation. BioTextQuest allows customization of analysis parameters, e.g. clustering/stemming algorithms, exclusion of documents/significant terms, to better match the biological question addressed. Availability: http://biotextquest.biol.ucy.ac.cy Contact: vprobon@ucy.ac.cy; iliopj@med.uoc.gr Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Abstract. The atmospheric oxidation capacity (AOC) characterizes the ability of the atmosphere to scavenge air pollutants. However, it is not well understood in China, where anthropogenic emissions have changed dramatically in the past decade. A detailed analysis of different parameters that determine the AOC in China is presented on the basis of numerical simulations performed with the regional chemical-meteorological model WRF-Chem. The model results, with the aerosol effects of extinction and heterogeneous processes taken into account, show that the presence of aerosols leads to a decrease in surface ozone of approximately 8–10 ppbv in NOx-limited rural areas and an increase of 5–10 ppbv in VOC-limited urban areas. The ozone reduction in NOx-sensitive regions is due to the combined effect of nitrogen dioxide and peroxy radical uptake on particles and of the light extinction by aerosols, which affects the photodissociation rates. The ozone increase in VOC-sensitive areas is attributed to the uptake of NO2 by aerosols, which is offset by the reduced ozone formation associated with HO2 uptake and with the aerosol extinction. Our study concludes that more than 90 % of the daytime AOC is due to the reaction of the hydroxyl radical with VOCs and carbon monoxide. In urban areas, during summertime, the main contributions to daytime AOC are the reactions of OH with alkene (30–50 %), oxidized volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) (33–45 %), and carbon monoxide (20–45 %). In rural areas, the largest contribution results from the reaction of OH with alkenes (60 %). Nocturnal AOC is dominantly attributed to the nitrate radical (50–70 %). Our results shed light on the contribution of aerosol-related NOx loss and the high reactivity of alkenes for photochemical pollution. With the reduction of aerosols and anthropogenic ozone precursors, the chemistry of nitrogen and temperature-sensitive VOCs will become increasingly important. More attention needs to be paid to the role of photodegradable OVOCs and nocturnal oxidants in the formation of secondary pollutants.