Near-infrared digital hemispherical photography enables correction of plant area index for woody material during leaf-on conditions (2023)
Journal Article
Brown, L., Morris, H., Morrone, R., Sinclair, M., Williams, O., Hunt, M., …Dash, J. (2024). Near-infrared digital hemispherical photography enables correction of plant area index for woody material during leaf-on conditions. Ecological Informatics, 79, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2023.102441

Indirect optical measurement techniques enable efficient and non-destructive estimation of plant area index (PAI). However, because they cannot distinguish between foliage and other canopy elements, corrections are needed to determine leaf area index... Read More about Near-infrared digital hemispherical photography enables correction of plant area index for woody material during leaf-on conditions.

Brown Bear Cognition and Welfare (2023)
Journal Article
O'Hara, S., & Chambers, H. (2023). Brown Bear Cognition and Welfare. #Journal not on list, https://doi.org/10.1079/abwcases.2023.0014

The welfare of large-brained wide-roaming carnivores in captivity has been of longstanding public and professional concern. Bears are one such example. Ursids have unexpectedly large relative brain sizes, indeed showing brain size increases similar t... Read More about Brown Bear Cognition and Welfare.

Macrophage-mediated trogocytosis contributes to destroying human schistosomes in a non-susceptible rodent host, Microtus fortis (2023)
Journal Article
Shen, J., Zhao, S., Peng, M., Li, Y., Zhang, L., Li, X., …Wu, Z. (in press). Macrophage-mediated trogocytosis contributes to destroying human schistosomes in a non-susceptible rodent host, Microtus fortis. Cell Discovery, 9(1), 101. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41421-023-00603-6

Schistosoma parasites, causing schistosomiasis, exhibit typical host specificity in host preference. Many mammals, including humans, are susceptible to infection, while the widely distributed rodent, Microtus fortis, exhibits natural anti-schistosome... Read More about Macrophage-mediated trogocytosis contributes to destroying human schistosomes in a non-susceptible rodent host, Microtus fortis.

The Lobster Pregnancy Test: A Molecular Tool In Support Of Lobster Stocks And Fisheries In The UK (2023)
Thesis
Irwin, L. (2023). The Lobster Pregnancy Test: A Molecular Tool In Support Of Lobster Stocks And Fisheries In The UK. (Thesis). University of Salford

The European Lobster (Homarus gammarus) is one of the highest value shellfish species landed in the UK and accounts for a large part of British shellfish fisheries. However, high demand for this sought-after commodity has led to overfishing and decli... Read More about The Lobster Pregnancy Test: A Molecular Tool In Support Of Lobster Stocks And Fisheries In The UK.

Stage 1 Validation of Plant Area Index from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (2023)
Journal Article
Brown, L. A., Morris, H., Meier, C., Knohl, A., Lanconelli, C., Gobron, N., …Danson, F. M. (2023). Stage 1 Validation of Plant Area Index from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 1-1. https://doi.org/10.1109/lgrs.2023.3319528

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) aims to provide improved characterization of forest structure, and plant area index (PAI) is one of many variables provided in the official GEDI Level 2B (L2B) product suite. However, since release,... Read More about Stage 1 Validation of Plant Area Index from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation.

Social return on investment: reflections on advancing the method within cities & health (2023)
Journal Article
Mitchell, L., Hardman, M., Goodspeed, T., Atkinson, L., & Howarth, M. (2023). Social return on investment: reflections on advancing the method within cities & health. Cities and Health, 7(5), 677-681. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2023.2192333

Social return on investment has received attention from a spectrum of disciplinary areas and practitioners. In the post-COVID city, the use of the approach has increased, in part to provide data on green and blue schemes, arts and culture projects,... Read More about Social return on investment: reflections on advancing the method within cities & health.

HemiPy: A Python module for automated estimation of forest biophysical variables and uncertainties from digital hemispherical photographs (2023)
Journal Article
Brown, L. A., Morris, H., Leblanc, S., Bai, G., Lanconelli, C., Gobron, N., …Dash, J. (in press). HemiPy: A Python module for automated estimation of forest biophysical variables and uncertainties from digital hemispherical photographs. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.14199

Digital hemispherical photography (DHP) is widely used to derive forest biophysical variables including leaf, plant, and green area index (LAI, PAI and GAI), the fraction of intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (FIPAR), and the fraction of... Read More about HemiPy: A Python module for automated estimation of forest biophysical variables and uncertainties from digital hemispherical photographs.

Functional screening reveals Toxoplasma prenylated proteins required for endocytic trafficking and rhoptry protein sorting (2023)
Journal Article
Wang, Q., Sun, M., Tang, T., Lai, D., Liu, J., Maity, S., …Long, S. (2023). Functional screening reveals Toxoplasma prenylated proteins required for endocytic trafficking and rhoptry protein sorting. mBio, https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.01309-23

In the apicomplexans, endocytosed cargos (e.g., hemoglobin) are trafficked to a specialized organelle for digestion. This follows a unique endocytotic process at the micropore/cytostome in these parasites. However, the mechanism underlying endocytic... Read More about Functional screening reveals Toxoplasma prenylated proteins required for endocytic trafficking and rhoptry protein sorting.

Remotely sensed localised primary production anomalies predict the burden and community structure of infection in long‐term rodent datasets (2023)
Journal Article
Jackson, J. A., Bajer, A., Behnke-Borowczyk, J., Gilbert, F., Grzybek, M., Alsarraf, M., & Behnke, J. (in press). Remotely sensed localised primary production anomalies predict the burden and community structure of infection in long‐term rodent datasets. Global Change Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16898

The increasing frequency and cost of zoonotic disease emergence due to global change have led to calls for the primary surveillance of wildlife. This should be facilitated by the ready availability of remotely sensed environmental data, given the imp... Read More about Remotely sensed localised primary production anomalies predict the burden and community structure of infection in long‐term rodent datasets.

Dune slope, not wind speed, best predicts bare sand in vegetated coastal dunes. (2023)
Journal Article
Smyth, T., Rooney, P., & Yates, K. (2023). Dune slope, not wind speed, best predicts bare sand in vegetated coastal dunes. Journal of Coastal Conservation, 27, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-023-00957-9

Globally vegetation cover on coastal sand dunes has increased since at least the 1950s. With the aim of restoring or increasing biodiversity, land managers in several countries have removed vegetation and/or reprofiled dune slopes to reinvigorate geo... Read More about Dune slope, not wind speed, best predicts bare sand in vegetated coastal dunes..

Universal closed-tube barcoding for monitoring the shark and ray trade in megadiverse conservation hotspots. (2023)
Journal Article
Prasetyo, A. P., Cusa, M., Murray, J. M., Agung, F., Muttaqin, E., Mariani, S., & McDevitt, A. D. (2023). Universal closed-tube barcoding for monitoring the shark and ray trade in megadiverse conservation hotspots. iScience, 26(7), 107065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.107065

Trade restrictions for endangered elasmobranch species exist to disincentivise their exploitation and curb their declines. However, trade monitoring is challenging due to product variety and the complexity of import/export routes. We investigate the... Read More about Universal closed-tube barcoding for monitoring the shark and ray trade in megadiverse conservation hotspots..

The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates. (2023)
Journal Article
Gao, H., Hamp, T., Ede, J., Schraiber, J. G., McRae, J., Singer-Berk, M., …Jolly, C. J. (2023). The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates. Science, 380(6648), https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8197

Personalized genome sequencing has revealed millions of genetic differences between individuals, but our understanding of their clinical relevance remains largely incomplete. To systematically decipher the effects of human genetic variants, we obtain... Read More about The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates..

Research with marginalised communities: reflections onengaging Roma Women in Northern England (2023)
Journal Article
Hubbard, L., Hardman, M., Race, O., Palmai, M., & Vamosi, G. (2023). Research with marginalised communities: reflections onengaging Roma Women in Northern England. Qualitative Inquiry, https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004231176770

This paper critically explores research with marginalised communities. We provide an insight into our work with the Roma community, reflecting on innovation, opportunities and barriers, alongside the need for more work in this area. A particular f... Read More about Research with marginalised communities: reflections onengaging Roma Women in Northern England.

Limited environmental and yield benefits of intercropping practices in smallholder fields: Evidence from multi-source data (2023)
Journal Article
Li, C., Kambombe, O., Gulule Chimimba, E., Fawcett, D., Brown, L., Yu, L., …Dash, J. (2023). Limited environmental and yield benefits of intercropping practices in smallholder fields: Evidence from multi-source data. Field Crops Research, 299, Article 108974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2023.108974

Context To ensure food security in sub-Saharan Africa, it is necessary to improve crop yields while minimizing environmental impacts. Intercropping has been demonstrated to deliver such outcomes, but their performance in smallholder fields has recei... Read More about Limited environmental and yield benefits of intercropping practices in smallholder fields: Evidence from multi-source data.

Assessment of active LiDAR data and passive optical imagery for double-layered mangrove leaf area index estimation: a case study in Mai Po, Hong Kong (2023)
Journal Article
Li, Q., Wong, F. K. K., Kwan, F., Wong, K., Fung, T., Brown, L. A., & Dash, J. (2023). Assessment of active LiDAR data and passive optical imagery for double-layered mangrove leaf area index estimation: a case study in Mai Po, Hong Kong. Remote Sensing, 15(10), 2551. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15102551

Remote sensing technology is a timely and cost-efficient method for leaf area index (LAI) estimation, especially for less accessible areas such as mangrove forests. Confounded by the poor penetrability of optical images, most previous studies focused... Read More about Assessment of active LiDAR data and passive optical imagery for double-layered mangrove leaf area index estimation: a case study in Mai Po, Hong Kong.

Validation of Simplified Level 2 Prototype Processor Sentinel-2 fraction of canopy cover, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation and leaf area index products over North American forests (2023)
Journal Article
Fernandes, R., Brown, L., Canisius, F., Dash, J., He, L., Hong, G., …Sun, L. (in press). Validation of Simplified Level 2 Prototype Processor Sentinel-2 fraction of canopy cover, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation and leaf area index products over North American forests. Remote Sensing of Environment, 293, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2023.113600

Canopy biophysical variables such as the fraction of canopy cover (fCOVER), fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR), and leaf area index (LAI) are widely used for ecosystem modelling and monitoring. The Sentinel-2 mission was... Read More about Validation of Simplified Level 2 Prototype Processor Sentinel-2 fraction of canopy cover, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation and leaf area index products over North American forests.

Problem-solving and spontaneous tool-using ability in European Brown Bears (Ursus arctos arctos) (2023)
Journal Article
Chambers, H., & O'Hara, S. Problem-solving and spontaneous tool-using ability in European Brown Bears (Ursus arctos arctos). Animal Behavior and Cognition, 10(1), 40-61. https://doi.org/10.26451/abc.10.01.03.2023

Little is known about the cognitive abilities of bears, despite possessing relatively large brains for their body size. One reason this group is perhaps overlooked is because they are thought to fail to conform to the “social brain” hypothesis, by be... Read More about Problem-solving and spontaneous tool-using ability in European Brown Bears (Ursus arctos arctos).

The Toxoplasma micropore mediates endocytosis for selective nutrient salvage from host cell compartments (2023)
Journal Article
Wan, W., Dong, H., Lai, D., Yang, J., He, K., Tang, X., …Long, S. (in press). The Toxoplasma micropore mediates endocytosis for selective nutrient salvage from host cell compartments. Nature communications, 14(1), 997. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36571-4

Apicomplexan parasite growth and replication relies on nutrient acquisition from host cells, in which intracellular multiplication occurs, yet the mechanisms that underlie the nutrient salvage remain elusive. Numerous ultrastructural studies have doc... Read More about The Toxoplasma micropore mediates endocytosis for selective nutrient salvage from host cell compartments.

Good practice guidelines for long-term ecoacoustic monitoring in the UK (2023)
Report
Metcalf, O., Abrahams, C., Ashington, B., Baker, E., Bradfer-Lawrence, T., Browning, E., …Smith, S. Good practice guidelines for long-term ecoacoustic monitoring in the UK

The popularity of ecoacoustics as an innovative environmental discipline has enjoyed immense growth within the last five years, to a point where it is now becoming difficult to keep up with all the new research papers published. What soon becomes a... Read More about Good practice guidelines for long-term ecoacoustic monitoring in the UK.

Determination of bioavailable arsenic threshold and validation of modelled permissible total arsenic in paddy soil using machine learning (2023)
Journal Article
Mandal, J., Jain, V., Sengupta, S., Rahman, M. A., Bhattacharyya, K., Rahman, M., …Mondal, D. (in press). Determination of bioavailable arsenic threshold and validation of modelled permissible total arsenic in paddy soil using machine learning. Journal of Environmental Quality, https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20452

Minimizing arsenic intake from food consumption is a key aspect of the public health response in As-contaminated regions. In many of these regions, rice is the predominant staple food. Here we present a validated maximum allowable concentration of to... Read More about Determination of bioavailable arsenic threshold and validation of modelled permissible total arsenic in paddy soil using machine learning.