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Localised effects of sparse natural tree colonisation on soil physicochemical propertiesNARA Subscribed
Tree establishment via natural colonisation is increasing globally, due to treeline expansion under climate change, and changing land management practices, such as reduced grazing pressure, land abandonment, and initiatives to increase tree cover such as restoration and rewilding. Natural colonisation of organo-mineral soils at high densities is associated with altered soil physicochemical properties, with consequences for eco...
Radon is an established lung carcinogen, but more research is needed to inform whether area-based measures of radon exposure reflect underlying cancer risk. This study, the first of its kind in the UK, aimed to investigate the association between a nationwide indicative radon atlas and lung cancer risk in Northern Ireland, a region in which lung cancer screening programmes are under design. A population-based case–control stud...
The genetic structure of the ash obligate moth prays fraxinella suggests that it is not affected by current habitat fragmentationNARA Subscribed
Tree diseases may cause the extirpation or functional extinction of a common tree species on large spatial scales. For example, ash dieback ( Hymenoscyphus fraxineus ) is expected to cause widespread loss of European ash ( Fraxinus excelsior ). This type of widespread loss of a tree species may have consequences for the ability of some insects to move between woodlands, particularly obligate species (species reliant on one tre...
A host-based approach for the prioritisation of surveillance of plant pests and pathogens in wild flora and natural habitats in the UKNARA Subscribed
Non-native plant pests/pathogens are a mostly overlooked threat to biodiversity. Surveillance for plant pests and pathogens is key to early detection yet is rarely undertaken in natural habitats. Current methodologies to prioritise surveillance are pest-based, there is no methodology available to help managers identify 'at risk' hosts and habitats for targeted surveillance. This study compares four host-based methods. Prioriti...
Prolonging survival in good health is a fundamental societal goal. However, the leading determinants of disability-free survival in healthy older people have not been well established. Data from ASPREE, a bi-national placebo-controlled trial of aspirin with 4.7 years median follow-up, was analysed. At enrolment, participants were healthy and without prior cardiovascular events, dementia or persistent physical disability. Disab...
Common, low-frequency, rare, and ultra-rare coding variants contribute to COVID-19 severityNARA Subscribed
The combined impact of common and rare exonic variants in COVID-19 host genetics is currently insufficiently understood. Here, common and rare variants from whole-exome sequencing data of about 4000 SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals were used to define an interpretable machine-learning model for predicting COVID-19 severity. First, variants were converted into separate sets of Boolean features, depending on the absence or the pr...
Tree planting in organic soils does not result in net carbon sequestration on decadal timescalesNARA Subscribed
Tree planting is increasingly being proposed as a strategy to combat climate change through carbon (C) sequestration in tree biomass. However, total ecosystem C storage that includes soil organic C (SOC) must be considered to determine whether planting trees for climate change mitigation results in increased C storage. We show that planting two native tree species ( Betula pubescens and Pinus sylvestris ), of widespread Eurasi...
Species composition of coastal dune vegetation in Scotland has proved resistant to climate change over a third of a centuryNARA Subscribed
Climate change is expected to have an impact on plant communities as increased temperatures are expected to drive individual species' distributions polewards. The results of a revisitation study after c. 34 years of 89 coastal sites in Scotland, UK, were examined to assess the degree of shifts in species composition that could be accounted for by climate change. There was little evidence for either species retreat northwards o...
In recent decades the rate and geographic extent of land‐use and land‐cover change has increased throughout the world's humid tropical forests. The pan‐tropical geography of forest change is a challenge to assess, and improved estimates of the human footprint in the tropics are critical to understanding potential changes in biodiversity. We combined recently published and new satellite observations, along with images from Goog...
Biotic interactions and plant invasionsNARA Subscribed
Introduced plant populations lose interactions with enemies, mutualists and competitors from their native ranges, and gain interactions with new species, under new abiotic conditions. From a biogeographical perspective, differences in the assemblage of interacting species, as well as in abiotic conditions, may explain the demographic success of the introduced plant populations relative to conspecifics in their native range. Wi...
Performance of Macrolichens and Lichen Genera as Indicators of Lichen Species Richness and CompositionNARA Subscribed
In the search for cost‐effective methods for measuring and monitoring lichen diversity, we tested the performance of two possible indicators: lichen genus diversity and macrolichen diversity. We studied the lichen vegetation of eight European countries situated in six different biogeographic regions. In each country, six land‐use units (each 1 km 2 ) representing a land‐use gradient ranging from old‐growth forest to farmland w...
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