The Future of the Shortgrass Steppe

Author(s):  
Ingrid C. Burke ◽  
William K. Lauenroth

Where lies the future of the shortgrass steppe? In prior chapters we have described the remarkable resilience of the shortgrass steppe ecosystem and its organisms to past drought and grazing, and their sensitivity to other types of change. Emerging from this analysis is the idea of vulnerability to two main forces: future changes in precipitation or water availability, and direct human impacts. What are the likely changes in the shortgrass steppe during the next several decades? Which of the changes are most likely to affect major responses in the plants, animals, and ecosystem services of the shortgrass steppe? In this chapter we evaluate the current status of the shortgrass steppe and its potential responses to three sets of factors that will be driving forces for the future of the steppe: land-use change, atmospheric change, and changes in diseases. Referring to the early 1900s, James Michener in his novel Centennial (1974) wrote the following:… The old two-part system that had prevailed at the end of the nineteenth century— rancher and irrigator—was now a tripartite cooperation: the rancher used the rougher upland prairie; the irrigation farmer kept to the bottom lands; and the drylands gambler plowed the sweeping 0 eld in between, losing his seed money one year, reaping a fortune the next, depending on the rain. It was an imaginative system, requiring three different types of man, three different attitudes toward life. . . . (p. 1081)… Even today, because of the strong water limitation for cropping, the shortgrass steppe remains relatively intact, or at least unplowed, in contrast to other grassland ecosystems (Samson and Knopf, 1994). More than half of the shortgrass steppe remains in untilled, landscape-scale tracts, compared with only 9% of tallgrass prairie and 39% of mixed-grass prairie (The Nature Conservancy, 2003). These large tracts, including those in the national grasslands (Pawnee, Cimarron, Comanche, and Kiowa/Rita Blanca), provide the greatest opportunity for preserving key ecological processes and biological diversity.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 306-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirini Politi ◽  
Shona K. Paterson ◽  
Rory Scarrott ◽  
Eimear Tuohy ◽  
Cathal O’Mahony ◽  
...  

The coast is home to unique ecosystems, where complex ecological processes take place through the interaction of terrestrial, aquatic, atmospheric, and human landscapes. However, there are considerable knowledge and data gaps in achieving effective and future change-proof sustainable management of coastal zones around the world due to both technical and social barriers, as well as governance challenges. Currently, the role of Earth observation (EO) in addressing many of the recognised information gaps is small and under-utilised. While EO can provide much of the spatiotemporal information required for historical analysis and current status mapping, and offers the advantage of global coverage; its uptake can be limited by technical and methodological challenges associated mostly with lack of capacity and infrastructure, product accuracy and accessibility, costs, and institutional acceptance. While new initiatives and recent technological progress in the EO and information technology arena aim to tackle some of these issues so that EO products can be more easily used by non-EO experts, uptake is still limited. This paper discusses how EO can potentially inform transformative practices of planning in the coastal water zone, by using examples to demonstrate the EO potential in providing information relevant to decision-making framed by international agreements, such as the United Nations Agenda 2030, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction. By presenting evidence for how EO can contribute to innovative opportunities and data synergies at scale, the paper discusses opportunities and challenges for a more solution-led approach to sustainable coastal management.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1455-1466
Author(s):  
Hristina Oreshkova

Over the most recent decades corporate reporting has proved to be essential to achieving the strategic goals of humankinds and the ever-increasing necessity of truthful information and transparency. Corporate reporting is a socially significant process and practice. The quality of corporate reporting reflects the degree of relevance of the manner enterprises and businesses communicate with the surrounding world and environment (natural or industrial) and millions of people concerned – societies, present and future generations, employees, workers, and many other people, and other living beings. On most authoritative international scientific forums – symposia, conferences, congresses, assemblies, summit meetings and events, conducted in Europe and worldwide, it is pompously declared that corporate reporting should provide useful and reliable information both financial and non-financial one. The responsibilities of accountability and stewardship seem out to be of great importance to the fulfillment of the strategic goals of our centuries.The belief of the author is that the simultaneous analysis of the global problems challenging humankinds such as climate changes, destruction of biological diversity on the Planet, the matter of the necessity of actions of creating Green Ethics and Green Economy worldwide, the increasing need for combined and well-coordinated efforts in the combat supporting the eradication of poverty globally, and the relevance of corporate reporting to solving these unique problems the mankind is facing, would highlight and confirm their intricate interrelation (the key aim of the present research), consequently rendering the debate on the future of corporate reporting more meaningful and constructive. The debate would most probably promote the standpoint we personally maintain, which is also endorsed by an increasing number of supporters in Europe and around the world, implying in particular that apart from a process of unification and reduction of essential differences in the international financial reporting, what is also necessary is the radical change in the philosophy and culture of corporate reporting and presentation. Undeniably, it includes revealing of the financial state and the substantial effects and impacts of the businesses operating activities in a straightforward manner, as complete insights and understanding of the broader and far-reaching goals to which the corporate reporting must be subordinated – at present and in the long-lasting future.


2017 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramanitharan Manikandan ◽  
Oscar Rodriguez ◽  
Rubén Parada ◽  
Joan Palou Redorta

Purpose Nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is a challenging disease to manage primarily due to its varied clinical course. The management of NMIBC has witnessed a widespread change with respect to its diagnosis and treatment. Although transurethral resection (TUR) and adjuvant bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG) stills remain the cornerstone, newer protocols has come into vogue to achieve optimal care. On the basis of a literature review, we aimed to establish ‘what changes has already occurred and what is expected in the future’ in NMIBC. Methods A Medline search was performed to identify the published literature with respect to diagnosis, treatment and future perspectives on NMIBC. Particular emphasis was directed to determinants such as the quality of TUR and the newer modifications, Re-TUR, current status of newer macroscopic and microscopic imaging, role of urinary biomarkers, clinical, histologic and molecular predictors of high-risk disease, administration of intravesical agents, salvage therapy in BCG recurrence and the current best practice guidelines were analyzed. Results and Conclusions Optimal TUR, restaging in select group, incorporation of newer endoscopic imaging and judicious administration of intravesical chemo-immunotherapeutic agents can contribute to better patient care. Although there is a plethora of urinary markers, there is insufficient evidence for their use in isolation. The future probably lies in identification of genetic markers to determine disease recurrence, nonresponders to standard treatment and early institution of alternative/targeted therapy.


2010 ◽  
Vol 143-144 ◽  
pp. 67-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Ping Li ◽  
Zhi Ming Qu

The networking approach to the World Wide Web is defined not only by the exploration of architecture, but also by the confirmed need for interrupts. Given the current status of authenticated archetypes, steganographers dubiously desire the analysis of scatter/gather I/O. the focus in this position paper is not on whether Moore's Law can be made concurrent, distributed, and pervasive, but rather on proposing an analysis of 32 bit architectures (Grange). It is concluded that, using probabilistic and interactive information and based on relational modality, the machine system and kernels are verified, which is widely used in the future.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaibhav Chaudhary ◽  
Rakhee Kulshrestha ◽  
Srikanta Routroy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the perishable inventory models along various dimensions such as its evolution, scope, demand, shelf life, replenishment policy, modeling techniques and research gaps.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 418 relevant and scholarly articles of various researchers and practitioners during 1990-2016 were reviewed. They were critically analyzed along author profile, nature of perishability, research contributions of different countries, publication along time, research methodologies adopted, etc. to draw fruitful conclusions. The future research for perishable inventory modeling was also discussed and suggested.FindingsThere are plethora of perishable inventory studies with divergent objectives and scope. Besides demand and perishable rate in perishable inventory models, other factors such as price discount, allow shortage or not, inflation, time value of money and so on were found to be combined to make it more realistic. The modeling of inventory systems with two or more perishable items is limited. The multi-echelon inventory with centralized decision and information sharing is acquiring lot of importance because of supply chain integration in the competitive market.Research limitations/implicationsOnly peer-reviewed journals and conference papers were analyzed, whereas the manuals, reports, white papers and blood-related articles were excluded. Clustering of literature revealed that future studies should focus on stochastic modeling.Practical implicationsStress had been laid to identify future research gaps that will help in developing realistic models. The present work will form a guideline to choose the appropriate methodology(s) and mathematical technique(s) in different situations with perishable inventory.Originality/valueThe current review analyzed 419 research papers available in the literature on perishable inventory modeling to summarize its current status and identify its potential future directions. Also the future research gaps were uncovered. This systemic review is strongly felt to fill the gap in the perishable inventory literature and help in formulating effective strategies to design of an effective and efficient inventory management system for perishable items.


Desalination ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 397 ◽  
pp. 185-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofen Chen ◽  
Zhenxing Zhang ◽  
Li Liu ◽  
Rong Cheng ◽  
Lei Shi ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 122 (9) ◽  
pp. 972-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Chau ◽  
R Dasgupta ◽  
V Sauret ◽  
G Kenyon

AbstractObjective:To demonstrate the use of an optical surface scanner, with associated software, in the assessment of rhinoplasty patients, and to discuss the possible clinical applications of this technology in the future.Design:Case study analysis of pre- and post-operative scans of a patient undergoing septorhinoplasty at Whipps Cross University Hospital, London, UK.Subject:A 21-year-old man undergoing septorhinoplasty underwent pre-operative optical surface scanning of his face. The scans were repeated at one week and one year post-operatively. Software developed at University College London was then used to analyse the scans.Results:The scans clearly showed that the man's dorsal hump had been well reduced and the nose straightened, with a resulting 1600 mm3 gain on the right side and a 1000 mm3 loss on the left side of the nose. Tip projection had also been achieved.Conclusion:This technique allowed objective quantification of facial features and analysis of change. It may well prove useful in the future in predicting change following surgical intervention.


Author(s):  
Mirjana Lenhardt ◽  
Marija Smederevac-Lalić ◽  
Aleksandar Hegediš ◽  
Stefan Skorić ◽  
Gorčin Cvijanović ◽  
...  

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