Explore the vast range of titles available.

Soil disturbance threatens native perennial grasslands and savannas worldwide, including pine savannas of the North American Coastal Plain. Disk harrows are used in the region to plow linear features for firebreaks to contain prescribed fires, to manage game and other wildlife, and to reduce wildfire hazard to protect forest resources. However, the long‐term response of vegetation to these disturbances has not been well investigated. Our aim was to compare vegetation changes over time (0–9 years) following repeated disturbance by disking and a single disturbance by disking for firebreaks with undisturbed vegetation within a native pine savanna. We hypothesized that (1) a single disking event has multiyear effects on plant species composition and abundance because of the loss of perennial, dispersal‐limited species, but that partial survival of propagules allows the recovery to be more complete than following repeated disturbance, and (2) post‐disturbance changes are determined by species' life‐history characteristics resulting in a successional trajectory toward the undisturbed community. We established 10 plots within a repeated‐disturbance firebreak and a single‐disturbance firebreak, and in undisturbed vegetation (n = 30). We identified plant species within the plots six times over nine years, categorized plant species by life span, seed bank persistence, and dispersal mechanism, and assessed changes in the plant community using ordination. Changes in species  composition in both repeated and single disturbance treatments showed a pattern consistent with succession toward the undisturbed plant community, but vegetation in neither disturbance treatment matched undisturbed treatment conditions within the nine years of study. Repeated‐disturbance plots progressed from a high occurrence of annuals to species with persistent seed banks and wind‐dispersed species. Single‐disturbance plots were more strongly associated with perennials, species lacking a persistent seed bank, and species dispersed by vertebrate consumption, but not to the same degree as undisturbed plots, although differences decreased slightly over time. Our results relating to narrow mechanical soil disturbances in pine savanna vegetation are consistent with studies concluding that similar but larger scale disturbances have long‐term degradational effects on the plant community. Therefore, conservation management plans should consider the possible negative long‐term effects of soil disturbance on native perennial herbaceous plant communities.

Background Fire maintains many grasslands and savannas worldwide, including pine savannas of the southeastern US. In these ecosystems, lightning initiates fire during the spring and summer, while humans have more often managed these systems with winter burning. Changes in season of fire potentially alter ecosystem function, including flowering phenology, i.e., the seasonal pattern of flowering, which could ultimately influence species composition. On the other hand, ability to burn in different seasons increases capacity to maintain frequent fire regimes. Little research has been conducted on the effects of fire season on flowering phenology in pine savannas, and the few studies available mostly focus on the differences among winter, spring, and summer fires. In order to more fully understand the effects of season of fire, including fall fires, on flowering phenology, we compared number of species flowering, co-flowering assemblages, and month of first flowering among plots burned in each of the four seasons over the course of a year. Results We found 175 species flowering during the study, with peak flowering in September and October. There were no differences in the average number of species flowering among season of fire treatments, but there were among months. Co-flowering assemblages did not differ among season of fire treatments, but spring, summer, and winter burns showed delayed flowering of certain species. We also identified species that flowered following fire regardless of season, did not flower when burned during a particular season, reflowered if burned while flowering, or, most commonly, showed delayed flowering following the most recent burn. Conclusion Our results suggest that flowering phenology of upland pine savanna species is generally resilient to differences in season of fire, with a few exceptions mentioned above. The mostly subtle shifts in flowering phenology in response to season of fire suggest that any resulting changes to plant community composition would occur over periods much longer than this study. These results suggest that spreading prescribed burns more widely over the course of the year to achieve management objectives would have minor impacts on flowering of the plant community.

Animals frequently engage in anti-predator behaviour, but the intensity and choice of behaviour is likely dependent on the environment. We used a common-garden experiment to test whether Allenby’s gerbils (Gerbillus andersoni allenbyi) from different sites in the Negev Desert show different responses to the same level of risk. We tested whether animals from less covered (more risky) environments cope with predation risk better by foraging longer and faster in open microhabitats. To do so, we captured individuals from three areas that differ in vegetation cover and then quantified food consumption and apprehension in a standard outdoor vivarium (an enclosure). This vivarium simulated a natural environment, with natural moonlight, artificial cover, and two live owls. Animals from less vegetated environments consumed more food but foraged slower and with more apprehension. We also found that some populations prefer to forage more in the first quarter of the lunar cycle than the third, and others prefer the opposite, despite these moon phases having equal luminosity. That suggests an evolutionary coordination game might be at play. Our results show anti-predator behaviour is diverse among populations and similar within, which may hint the existence of different ecotypes if further differences are found.Significance statementIn this study, we analysed whether anti-predator behaviour is consistent within populations, and different among them. We found that gerbils have different anti-predator behaviour depending on their site of origin, and that difference continues even when placed in a common environment. Animals from environments poor in cover foraged slowly and more carefully but did so for a longer time. Interestingly, we also found that when animals from different locations are placed in the same environment together, the average behaviour of this mixed group is similar to the most cautious of the mix.

Ecological restoration is increasingly employed to restore degraded or destroyed ecosystems and evaluation of restoration success requires that natural community dynamics be understood. Wet prairies in the Southeast US have diverse plant communities subject to disturbances including fire, drought, flooding, tropical storms, and freezes. This habitat covers a fraction of its former range and reversing that trend requires ecological restoration; but, long-term data on the dynamics of this system are rare. We analyzed a 12-year plant community composition dataset from a fire-maintained Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain wet prairie to characterize plant community dynamics and identify indicator species. The site was compared to a nearby wetland mitigation project attempting to restore a wet prairie that had been converted into slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantation. The reference site had higher species richness, was dominated by Aristida spp., and was stable despite extreme climatic conditions. The restoration site transitioned from dense pine and understory canopy to an open, grassy community, but did not follow a trajectory toward the reference state. Restoration efforts were impeded by woody debris, accumulated duff, soil disturbance from logging, and storm surge from hurricanes. Continued application of prescribed fire and decomposition activity should remove the organic matter and promote establishment of wet prairie species, but on a longer time scale than expected. Although the pine plantation did not return to a typical wet prairie during the study period, the record of community dynamics of the reference wet prairie provides information on the resilience of the habitat type under prescribed fire management, and serves as a reference for restoration efforts and management of this threatened habitat.

Exposomics is a conceptual framework positioned at the intersection of environmental health sciences and precision medicine. It seeks to comprehensively understand how environmental exposures and the body's response to these exposures impact human health across the life course. Introduced in 2005, the exposome concept represents a paradigm shift from single-pollutant studies to an integrated approach considering a broad range of exposures. This commentary explores the ongoing efforts to operationalize the exposome, with a focus on NIH initiatives aimed at building capacity in exposomics research and integrating lifecourse exposure data into health research. This commentary draws on a structured review of current NIH funding opportunities, initiatives, and strategic documents related to exposomics. Key NIH-supported projects and collaborations were identified through analysis of publicly available agency reports, grant announcements, and program descriptions. Additional insights were gathered from relevant literature and international research activities to contextualize the NIH's role in promoting exposomics and integrating life-course exposure data into health research. Operationalizing the exposome is essential for advancing the field of environmental health and precision medicine. NIH-supported initiatives, alongside international collaborations, aim to standardize methodologies, develop tools, and promote interdisciplinary research. Addressing the complexities of exposomics requires integrating diverse datasets and fostering global coordination, paving the way for innovative strategies to improve human health outcomes. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP15561.

Crowding and limited resources have increased the strain on acute care facilities and emergency departments worldwide. These problems are particularly prevalent in developing countries. Discrete event simulation is a computer-based tool that can be used to estimate how changes to complex health care delivery systems such as emergency departments will affect operational performance. Using this modality, our objective was to identify operational interventions that could potentially improve patient throughput of one acute care setting in a developing country. We developed a simulation model of acute care at a district level hospital in Ghana to test the effects of resource-neutral (eg, modified staff start times and roles) and resource-additional (eg, increased staff) operational interventions on patient throughput. Previously captured deidentified time-and-motion data from 487 acute care patients were used to develop and test the model. The primary outcome was the modeled effect of interventions on patient length of stay (LOS). The base-case (no change) scenario had a mean LOS of 292 minutes (95% confidence interval [CI], 291-293). In isolation, adding staffing, changing staff roles, and varying shift times did not affect overall patient LOS. Specifically, adding 2 registration workers, history takers, and physicians resulted in a 23.8-minute (95% CI, 22.3-25.3) LOS decrease. However, when shift start times were coordinated with patient arrival patterns, potential mean LOS was decreased by 96 minutes (95% CI, 94-98), and with the simultaneous combination of staff roles (registration and history taking), there was an overall mean LOS reduction of 152 minutes (95% CI, 150-154). Resource-neutral interventions identified through discrete event simulation modeling have the potential to improve acute care throughput in this Ghanaian municipal hospital. Discrete event simulation offers another approach to identifying potentially effective interventions to improve patient flow in emergency and acute care in resource-limited settings.

The pediatric emergency department (PED) is a venue that underuses parental tobacco screening and brief cessation counseling. We sought to explore PED practitioners’ attitudes and perceived barriers regarding the implementation and adoption of tobacco screening/cessation counseling of parental smokers in the PED setting, as well as to solicit suggestions for improving the sustainability and maintenance of such practices. We conducted an exploratory, qualitative study of a convenience sample of PED practitioners using the RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) framework. Individual, focused interviews were conducted to determine factors that would maximize the implementation and maintenance of parental tobacco screening and intervention counseling as standard PED practice. Thirty interviews were conducted from which relevant data, patterns, and themes were identified. Reach factors included targeting parental smokers with children with respiratory diseases, having adequate training of practitioners, and providing “prearranged” counseling packages. Effectiveness factors included practitioner desire for outcome data about intervention effectiveness (eg, changes in children’s secondhand smoke exposure and parental quit rates). Solutions to increase intervention adoption included quick electronic health record prompts and the provision of onsite tobacco cessation experts. Implementation suggestions emphasized the importance of financial support and the alignment of tobacco screening/counseling with strategic plans. Maintenance factors included institutional and technical support, as well as the importance of intervention “champions” in the PED. By highlighting important viewpoints of practitioners regarding tobacco screening and counseling, the findings can help guide and direct the development and evaluation of sustainable interventions to facilitate tobacco use treatment in the PED.