Spatio-Temporal Variation of Drought within the Vegetation Growing Season in North Hemisphere (1982–2015)

Drought disasters jeopardize the production of vegetation and are expected to exert impacts on human well-being in the context of global climate change. However, spatiotemporal variations in drought characteristics (including the drought duration, intensity, and frequency), specifically for vegetation areas within a growing season, remain largely unknown. Here, we first constructed a normalized difference vegetation index to estimate the length of the growing season for each pixel (8 km) by four widely used phenology estimation methods; second, we analyzed the temporal and spatial patterns of climate factors and drought characteristics (in terms of the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)), within a growing season over vegetation areas of the northern hemisphere before and after the critical time point of 1998, which was marked by the onset of a global warming hiatus. Finally, we extracted the highly drought-vulnerable areas of vegetation by examining the sensitivity of the gross primary production to the SPEI to explore the underlying effects of drought variation on vegetation. The results revealed, first, that significant (p < 0.05) increases in precipitation, temperature, and the SPEI (a wetting trend) occurred from 1982 to 2015. The growing season temperature increased even more statistically significant after 1998 than before. Second, the duration and frequency of droughts changed abruptly and decreased considerably from 1998 to 2015; and this wetting trend was located mainly in high-latitude areas. Third, at the biome level, the wetting areas occurred mainly in the tundra, boreal forest or taiga, and temperate coniferous forest biomes, whereas the highly drought-vulnerable areas were mainly located in the desert and xeric shrubland (43.5%) biomes. Our results highlight the fact that although the drought events within a growing season decreased significantly in the northern hemisphere from 1998 to 2015, the very existence of a mismatch between a reduction in drought areas and an increase in highly drought-vulnerable areas makes the impact of drought on vegetation nonnegligible. This work provides valuable information for designing coping measures to reduce the vegetative drought risk in the Northern Hemisphere.

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Relationships between GPP, Satellite Measures of Greenness and Canopy Water Content with Soil Moisture in Mediterranean-Climate Grassland and Oak Savanna

Applied and Environmental Soil Science ◽

10.1155/2011/839028 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 2011 ◽

pp. 1-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Shishi Liu ◽

Oliver A. Chadwick ◽

Dar A. Roberts ◽

Chris J. Still

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Water Content ◽

Gross Primary Production ◽

Resistance Index ◽

Growing Season ◽

Middle Part ◽

Oak Savanna ◽

Similar Response ◽

The Impact ◽

Canopy Water

We investigated the impact of soil moisture on gross primary production (GPP), chlorophyll content, and canopy water content represented by remotely sensed vegetation indices (VIs) in an open grassland and an oak savanna in California. We found for the annual grassland that GPP late in the growing season was controlled by the declining soil moisture, but there was a 10–20-day lag in the response of GPP to soil moisture. However, during the early and middle part of the growing season, solar radiation accounted for most of the variation in GPP. In the oak savanna, the grass understory exhibited a similar response, but oak trees were not sensitive to soil moisture in the upper 50 cm of the soil profile. Furthermore, while we found most VIs to be more or less related to soil moisture, the Visible Atmospherically Resistance Index (VARI) was the most sensitive to the change of soil moisture.

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Physiological and Psychological Effects of Nature Experiences in Different Forests on Young People

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12101391 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (10) ◽

pp. 1391

Author(s):

Qiaohui Liu ◽

Xiaoping Wang ◽

Jinglan Liu ◽

Congying An ◽

Yuqi Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Blood Pressure ◽

Heart Rate ◽

Coniferous Forest ◽

Mixed Forest ◽

Well Being ◽

Positive Mental Health ◽

Urban Site ◽

Walking Activity ◽

The Impact

Many studies have proved that having nature experiences in forests is conducive to human physiological and psychological health. However, currently there is little research focusing on the effects of forest characteristics and the experiential characteristics of nature experiences on changes in health. In the study, three types of forest (mixed forest; deciduous forest; coniferous forest) and an urban site were used to measure the effects of these environments on participants’ physiological and psychological restoration after nature experience activities (sitting and walking activities). The study participants were 30 young adult students from Beijing Forestry University. Restorative effects were measured by physiological indicators (blood pressure and heart rate) and four psychological questionnaires (Profile of Mood States (POMS); Restorative Outcome Scale (ROS); Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS); Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS)). Results demonstrated that all types of forest were beneficial to lower blood pressure and heart rate as well as to reduce negative feelings while boosting positive emotions. The mixed forest was more effective in lowering blood pressure and heart rate as well as increasing vitality. The levels of restoration and positive mental health increased significantly, while all subscales of the POMS (with the exception of vigor) decreased greatly in the coniferous forest. Relative to the sitting activity, obvious decreases in blood pressure and negative emotions were observed, while significant increases in restoration, vitality and positive mental health were observed after the walking activity. In conclusion, the impact on subjects’ health restoration varied with different forest characteristics, and the experiential characteristics of exposure may be helpful for creating supportive interventions and lifting the benefits of forest therapy as people interact with the forest.

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The Role of Vitamin D in Pregnancy and Lactation: Emerging Concepts

Women s Health ◽

10.2217/whe.12.17 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 323-340 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Carol L Wagner ◽

Sarah N Taylor ◽

Donna D Johnson ◽

Bruce W Hollis

Keyword(s):

Vitamin D ◽

Health Status ◽

Bone Metabolism ◽

Critical Time ◽

Well Being ◽

Vitamin D Status ◽

Pregnancy And Lactation ◽

The Impact ◽

In Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a critical time in the lifecycle of a woman where she is responsible not only for her own well-being, but also that of her developing fetus, a process that continues during lactation. Until recently, the impact of vitamin D status during this period had not been fully appreciated. Data regarding the importance of vitamin D in health have emerged to challenge traditional dogma, anD'suggest that vitamin D – through its effect on immune function anD'surveillance – plays a role beyond calcium and bone metabolism on the health status of both the mother and her fetus. Following birth, this process persists; the lactating mother continues to be the main source of vitamin D for her infant. Thus, during both pregnancy and lactation, maternal deficiency predicts fetal and infant deficiency; the significance of this is just beginning to be understood and will be highlighted in this review.

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The Impact of Social Support on Dementia Caregivers’ Psychological Well-being: Is Online Comparable to Offline?

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.2967 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 813-813

Author(s):

Eun-Hye Yi

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Well Being ◽

Estimation Methods ◽

Dementia Caregivers ◽

Online Social Support ◽

Moderation Effect ◽

Logistic Regression Models ◽

Support Theory ◽

Positive Direct ◽

The Impact

Abstract Along with the groundbreaking development of communication technology, caregivers have migrated to online platforms to seek help. Social support theory, including main effect and moderation effect models, has provided a framework to understand the association among caregivers’ stress, support from others, and their well-being. Despite the prevalence of online use for seeking help among caregivers, studies on the use of online social support within the context of caregivers’ stressors and well-being are still underdeveloped. Guided by social support theory, this study aimed to examine the association of online social support (OnSS) and caregivers’ mental health (MH) as compared with offline social support (OffSS). A subsample of caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s from the Health Information National Trends Survey from 2017-2018 was selected (n=264). For an analysis, ordered logistic regression models with Jackknife estimation methods were applied using Stata 15.1SE. First, OffSS had a positive direct association with caregivers’ MH (Odds Ratio=12.48, p<.05) while OnSS did not. Next, the moderation effect model analysis found that OffSS interacted with caregiving burden while OnSS interacted with life stressors. The MH of caregivers who are in less favorable situations, such as working part-time while caring for a person with Alzheimer’s, living with economic hardship, and having health problems, tended to be significantly affected by OnSS. Identifying the different roles of OnSS and OffSS for caregivers’ MH, the findings of this study call for more attention to developing novel strategies and sensitive approaches to support family caregivers, especially those who fall in underserved groups.

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A simple method to improve field-level rice identification: toward operational monitoring with satellite remote sensing

Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture ◽

10.1071/ea02182 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 379 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

T. G. Van Niel ◽

T. R. McVicar

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Atmospheric Correction ◽

Critical Time ◽

Growing Season ◽

Simple Method ◽

Rule Based ◽

Irrigation Area ◽

Field Level ◽

The Impact

Discriminating crops by remote sensing remains reasonably complex and expensive for many agricultural land managers. The current study was conducted to facilitate the operational use of remote sensing for field-level rice monitoring in Australia by determining (i) whether existing methods relating to simple moisture-based rice classification could be further simplified, and (ii) whether the high accuracies resulting from that moisture-based methodology could be further increased. First, the impact of removing the most complicated processing step, atmospheric correction, on rice classification accuracies was assessed for the 2000–01 summer growing season at the Coleambally Irrigation Area, New South Wales. The primary error sources of rice classification were then identified and simple rules developed in an attempt to reduce errors associated with confusion between unharvested winter cereals and flooded rice paddies early in the summer growing season. These newly defined rules were then used on imagery acquired in the subsequent summer growing season (2001–02) in order to assess their repeatability. The assessment of atmospheric correction showed that during the critical time frame associated with high rice identification (October–November), using non-atmospherically corrected data increased overall accuracy, although the improvement was small (about 1%). Overall accuracy also increased for every case tested for both growing seasons as a result of the rule-based classification (ranging from about 1 to 14%), revealing that the methods were sufficiently repeatable. This study moves per-field rice monitoring at the Coleambally Irrigation Area closer to an operational application and shows that simple rule-based remote sensing classifications can be very effective when site practices are known.

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Effects of Soil Nitrogen Addition on Crown CO2 Exchange of Fraxinus mandshurica Rupr. Saplings

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12091170 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 1170

Author(s):

Chunjuan Gong ◽

Anzhi Wang ◽

Fenghui Yuan ◽

Yage Liu ◽

Chen Cui ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nitrogen Deposition ◽

Carbon Sink ◽

Gross Primary Production ◽

Growing Season ◽

Nitrogen Addition ◽

Co2 Exchange ◽

Fraxinus Mandshurica ◽

High Nitrogen ◽

Four Levels ◽

The Impact

The impact of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on carbon exchange between forest and atmosphere is one of the research hotspots of global change ecology, past researchers have extensively studied the impacts on leaf level, while the impacts on crown CO2 exchange are still unclear. Therefore, we explored the impacts of different nitrogen addition levels on crown CO2 exchange of Fraxinus mandshurica saplings and their responses to the changes of major meteorological factors (photosynthetically active radiation, PAR; vapor pressure deficiency, VPD; and air temperature, Tair) with a novel automated chamber system. There are four levels of nitrogen addition treatments: control (no nitrogen addition, CK), 23 (low nitrogen addition, LN), 46 (medium nitrogen addition, MN), and 69 kgN·hm−2·a−1 (high nitrogen addition, HN). Our results showed that all nitrogen addition treatments increased daily average and accumulated gross primary production (GPP), crown respiration (R), and net crown CO2 exchange (Ne), especially at medium and high nitrogen levels. Similarly, maximum net photosynthetic rate (Nemax) and apparent quantum efficiency (α) were promoted. The change of Ne with PAR, Tair, and VPD showed that nitrogen addition postponed the appearance of photosynthesis midday depression. In addition, the monthly accumulation of R with all nitrogen addition treatments showed an increasing trend (June to July), and then decreased (July to September) during the growing season, while the Ne and GPP decreased gradually with seasonal vegetation senescence. Finally, the crown shifted from carbon sink to carbon source at the end of the growing season, however, the change under high nitrogen treatment occurred 3 days later. The crown CO2 exchange measurements provide a new perspective to better understand the response of forest ecosystem CO2 exchange to elevated nitrogen deposition and provide a basis for related carbon model parameter correction under the influence of nitrogen deposition.

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How are Indigenous Communities Being Affected by Deforestation and Degradation in Northern Argentina?

10.20944/preprints202011.0568.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

María Vallejos ◽

Ana L. Álvarez ◽

José M. Paruelo

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Growing Season ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Well Being ◽

Forest Productivity ◽

Spectral Indices ◽

Landsat Images ◽

Growing Season Length ◽

Indigenous Forest ◽

The Impact

Agricultural expansion is altering the provision of ecosystem services and seriously affecting the well-being of the indigenous communities still living in forests. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of forest loss and degradation on the indigenous forest dependent communities of Eastern Salta, Argentina, between 2001 and 2015. First, we identified the demand area of ten final ecosystem services for 202 indigenous communities using participatory mapping data. Second, we calculated the remaining usage area using a deforestation geodatabase based on Landsat images. Third, we analyzed the significance of trends in forest productivity processing vegetation spectral indices from MODIS products. By last, we detected changes in the growing season length by evaluating monthly trends in spectral indices. Our results show a reduction of 21% in the area used by indigenous communities for capturing final ecosystem services, and significant negative trends in forest productivity for the demand area of 64% of the communities, indicating that the area of use is not only being reduced, but also remnant forest area is being degraded and the growing season is being shortened. These aspects indicate an important loss in the provision of ecosystem services that deeply affects the wellbeing of indigenous communities.

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Measuring Impact of Stress in Sandwich Generation Caring for Demented Parents

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000114 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 171-179 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Laurence M. Solberg ◽

Lauren B. Solberg ◽

Emily N. Peterson

Keyword(s):

Factor Analysis ◽

Exploratory Factor Analysis ◽

Social Worker ◽

Resource Availability ◽

Well Being ◽

Sandwich Generation ◽

Item Questionnaire ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Adult Caregivers ◽

The Impact

Stress in caregivers may affect the healthcare recipients receive. We examined the impact of stress experienced by 45 adult caregivers of their elderly demented parents. The participants completed a 32-item questionnaire about the impact of experienced stress. The questionnaire also asked about interventions that might help to reduce the impact of stress. After exploratory factor analysis, we reduced the 32-item questionnaire to 13 items. Results indicated that caregivers experienced stress, anxiety, and sadness. Also, emotional, but not financial or professional, well-being was significantly impacted. There was no significant difference between the impact of caregiver stress on members from the sandwich generation and those from the nonsandwich generation. Meeting with a social worker for resource availability was identified most frequently as a potentially helpful intervention for coping with the impact of stress.

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Efficacy of Crisis Intervention

Crisis ◽

10.1027//0227-5910.20.2.78 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 78-85 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Thomas Reisch ◽

Petra Schlatter ◽

Wolfgang Tschacher

Keyword(s):

Crisis Intervention ◽

Intervention Program ◽

Suicide Ideation ◽

Indirect Evidence ◽

Well Being ◽

Term Therapy ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Step Therapy ◽

Long Term Therapy ◽

The Impact

This study assesses the efficacy of the treatment approach implemented in the Bern Crisis Intervention Program, where particular emphasis is placed on the remediation of suicide ideation and suicidal behavior, and depression, fear, and phobia are generally considered to be contributing factors. Four questionnaires addressing psychopathology, emotional well-being, social anxiety, and personality were administered prior to and after the treatment of 51 patients over a period of 2 to 3 weeks. The reduction of symptoms contributing to suicidal ideation and behavior was interpreted as indirect evidence of an antisuicidal effect of the program. Significant improvements were found in the psychopathology ratings, with depression and anxiety showing the largest reductions. The impact on personality and social phobia, however, was only moderate, and on average patients still exhibited symptoms after attending the program. This residual symptomatology points to the necessity of introducing a two-step therapy approach of intensive intervention targeted at the precipitating causes of the crisis, augmented by long-term therapy to treat underlying problems.

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The Therapist’s Reaction to a Patient’s Suicide

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000062 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 99-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Friedrich Martin Wurst ◽

Isabella Kunz ◽

Gregory Skipper ◽

Manfred Wolfersdorf ◽

Karl H. Beine ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotional Responses ◽

Well Being ◽

Emotional Reaction ◽

Emotional Reactions ◽

Analog Scale ◽

General Hospitals ◽

Item Questionnaire ◽

Retrospective Nature ◽

The Impact ◽

Over Time

Background: A substantial proportion of therapists experience the loss of a patient to suicide at some point during their professional life. Aims: To assess (1) the impact of a patient’s suicide on therapists distress and well-being over time, (2) which factors contribute to the reaction, and (3) which subgroup might need special interventions in the aftermath of suicide. Methods: A 63-item questionnaire was sent to all 185 Psychiatric Clinics at General Hospitals in Germany. The emotional reaction of therapists to patient’s suicide was measured immediately, after 2 weeks, and after 6 months. Results: Three out of ten therapists suffer from severe distress after a patients’ suicide. The item “overall distress” immediately after the suicide predicts emotional reactions and changes in behavior. The emotional responses immediately after the suicide explained 43.5% of the variance of total distress in a regression analysis. Limitations: The retrospective nature of the study is its primary limitation. Conclusions: Our data suggest that identifying the severely distressed subgroup could be done using a visual analog scale for overall distress. As a consequence, more specific and intensified help could be provided to these professionals.

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