Global biodiversity and productivity: The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem productivity has been explored in detail in herbaceous vegetation, but patterns in forests are far less well understood. Liang et al. have amassed a global forest data set from >770,000 sample plots in 44 countries. A positive and consistent relationship can be discerned between tree diversity and ecosystem productivity at landscape, country, and ecoregion scales. On average, a 10% loss in biodiversity leads to a 3% loss in productivity. This means that the economic value of maintaining biodiversity for the sake of global forest productivity is more than fivefold greater than global conservation costs. Science , this issue p. 196

In this study, the distribution of steroid hormones, phytoestrogens, and estrogenic activity was thoroughly characterized within the anaerobic waste lagoon of a typical commercial swine sow operation. Three independent rounds of sampling were conducted in June 2009, April 2010, and February 2011. Thirty-seven analytes in lagoon slurry and sludge were assessed using LC/MS-MS, and yeast estrogen screen was used to determine estrogenic activity. Of the hormone analytes, steroidal estrogens were more abundant than androgens or progesterone, with estrone being the predominant estrogen species. Conjugated hormones were detected only at low levels. The isoflavone metabolite equol was by far the predominant phytoestrogen species, with daidzein, genistein, formononetin, and coumestrol present at lower levels. Phytoestrogens were often more abundant than steroidal estrogens, but contributed minimally toward total estrogenic activity. Analytes were significantly elevated in the solid phases of the lagoon; although low observed log K_OC values suggest enhanced solubility in the aqueous phase, perhaps due to dissolved or colloidal organic carbon. The association with the solid phase, as well as recalcitrance of analytes to anaerobic degradation, results in a markedly elevated load of analytes and estrogenic activity within lagoon sludge. Overall, findings emphasize the importance of adsorption and transformation processes in governing the fate of these compounds in lagoon waste, which is ultimately used for broadcast application as a fertilizer.

Smoke from forest fires is a growing concern in Korea as forest structures have changed and become more vulnerable to fires associated with climate change. In this study, we developed a Korean forest fire smoke dispersion prediction (KFSDP) system to support smoke management in Korea. The KFSDP system integrates modules from different models, including a Korean forest fire growth prediction model, grid-based geographic information system (GIS) fuel loading and consumption maps generated by national forest fuel inventory data, and the Korean Weather Research and Forecasting Model, into a Gaussian plume model to simulate local- and regional-scale smoke dispersion. The forecast system is operated using grid-based fires and simulates a cumulative smoke dispersion of carbon monoxide (CO) and <2.5 µm and <10 µm particulate matter (PM_2.5 and PM₁₀, respectively) ground-level concentration contours at 30-min intervals during the fire in concert with weather forecasts. The simulated smoke dispersions were evaluated and agreed well with observed smoke spreads obtained from real forest fires in Korea, and the performance of the KFSDP system was also analyzed using “what-if” scenarios. This is the first study to develop an integrated model for predicting smoke dispersion from forest fires in Korea.