Search results for "unity"
showing 10 items of 3852 documents
Soil feedback does not explain mowing effects on vegetation structure in a semi-natural grassland
2009
Due to its ability to create aboveground conditions that favour plant diversity, mowing is often used to preserve the high conservation value of semi-natural species-rich grasslands. However, mowing can also affect belowground conditions. By decreasing plant carbon supply to soil, mowing can suppress the activity of soil decomposers, diminish plant nutrient availability and thus create a feedback on plant growth. In this study, we first documented the effects of three-year mowing on plant community structure in a species-rich grassland. We found that mowing decreased the total areal cover of woody plants and increased the total cover of leguminous forbs. At the species level, mowing further…
Response to reindeer grazing removal depends on soil characteristics in low Arctic meadows
2014
In Arctic tundra, grazing is expected to exert a positive influence on microbial activity thus enhancing nutrient cycling and promoting the presence of high productive graminoids. We investigated the changes occurring in two low Arctic meadow sites after 10 years exclusion from grazing. We compared plant, soil fauna and microbial community composition, extracellular enzymes activities, and soil nutrients in ungrazed and adjacent grazed area in two low Arctic meadows. The two closely located experimental sites were both dominated by the common grass Deschampsia flexuosa which covered more than 50% of the meadows. Plant community was affected significantly by site and grazing, but the effect …
2017
Summary Objectives Neisseria meningitidis is the major cause of seasonal meningitis epidemics in the African meningitis belt. In the changing context of a reduction in incidence of serogroup A and an increase in incidence of serogroups W and C and of Streptococcus pneumoniae , a better understanding of the determinants driving the disease transmission dynamics remains crucial to improving bacterial meningitis control. Methods The literature was searched to provide a multi-disciplinary overview of the determinants of meningitis transmission dynamics in the African meningitis belt. Results Seasonal hyperendemicity is likely predominantly caused by increased invasion rates, sporadic localized …
Water-extractable organic matter linked to soil physico-chemistry and microbiology at the regional scale
2015
10 pages; International audience; A better understanding of the links between dissolved organic matter and biogeochemical processes in soil could help in evaluating global soil dynamics. To assess the effects of land cover and parental material on soil biogeochemistry, we studied 120 soil samples collected from various ecosystems in Burgundy, France. The potential solubility and aromaticity of dissolved organic matter was characterised by pressurised hot-water extraction of organic carbon (PH-WEOC). Soil physico-chemical characteristics (pH, texture, soil carbon and nitrogen) were measured, as was the δ13C signature both in soils and in PH-WEOC. We also determined bacterial and fungal abund…
Testing & Opening in Augustusburg A Success Story?
2021
AbstractThe city of Augustusburg allowed for opening of, inter alia, restaurants and hotels joint with large-scale testing. We evaluate this testing & opening (T&O) experiment by comparing the evolution of case rates in Augustusburg with the evolution in other communities of Saxony. We have access to small-scale SARS-CoV-2 infection data at the community level (” Gemeinde”) instead of the county level (” Landkreis”) usually used for disease surveillance. Despite data challenges, we conclude that T&O did not lead to any increase in case rates in Augustusburg compared to its control county. When we measure the effect of T&O on cumulative cases, we find a small increase in Augu…
The COVID-19 vaccines rush: participatory community engagement matters more than ever
2021
Engaging with local communities: Five key lessons that businesses can learn from universities
2020
As businesses are coming to terms with the challenges derived from the Covid-19 crisis, they are realizing the need to do more for and with their local communities than being co-located or having business relationships. Business leaders are learning that engaging with local communities can be helpful in steering their business through crises and helping to prepare for the future. The central idea of this article is that businesses can learn from universities about engaging with local communities. It outlines five key lessons, illustrating them with examples and relating them to key concepts and perspectives from the literature. The emphasis in these lessons is on their potential to make bu…
The impact of weather on COVID-19 pandemic.
2021
AbstractRising temperature levels during spring and summer are often argued to enable lifting of strict containment measures even in the absence of herd immunity. Despite broad scholarly interest in the relationship between weather and coronavirus spread, previous studies come to very mixed results. To contribute to this puzzle, the paper examines the impact of weather on the COVID-19 pandemic using a unique granular dataset of over 1.2 million daily observations covering over 3700 counties in nine countries for all seasons of 2020. Our results show that temperature and wind speed have a robust negative effect on virus spread after controlling for a range of potential confounding factors. T…