University of Vermont

About: University of Vermont is a education organization based out in Burlington, Vermont, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 17592 authors who have published 38251 publications receiving 1609874 citations. The organization is also known as: UVM & University of Vermont and State Agricultural College.

Preparing for Climatic Change: The Water, Salmon, and Forests of the Pacific Northwest

Abstract: The impacts of year-to-year and decade-to-decade climatic variations on some of the Pacific Northwest's key natural resources can be quantified to estimate sensitivity to regional climatic changes expected as part of anthropogenic global climatic change Warmer, drier years, often associated with El Nino events and/or the warm phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, tend to be associated with below-average snowpack, streamflow, and flood risk, below-average salmon survival, below-average forest growth, and above-average risk of forest fire During the 20th century, the region experienced a warming of 08 °C Using output from eight climate models, we project a further warming of 05–25 °C (central estimate 15 °C) by the 2020s, 15–32°C (23 °C) by the 2040s, and an increase in precipitation except in summer The foremost impact of a warming climate will be the reduction of regional snowpack, which presently supplies water for ecosystems and human uses during the dry summers Our understanding of past climate also illustrates the responses of human management systems to climatic stresses, and suggests that a warming of the rate projected would pose significant challenges to the management of natural resources Resource managers and planners currently have few plans for adapting to or mitigating the ecological and economic effects of climatic change

Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of win-win solutions

Abstract: In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over-reliance on payments as win-win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly among policy makers and practitioners, about the limitations of such instruments and to encourage a dialogue about the policy contexts in which they might be appropriate.

Null model analysis of species nestedness patterns.

Abstract: Nestedness is a common biogeographic pattern in which small communities form proper subsets of large communities. However, the detection of nestedness in binary presence-absence matrices will be affected by both the metric used to quantify nestedness and the reference null distribution. In this study, we assessed the statistical performance of eight nestedness metrics and six null model algorithms. The metrics and algorithms were tested against a benchmark set of 200 random matrices and 200 nested matrices that were created by passive sampling. Many algorithms that have been used in nestedness studies are vulnerable to type I errors (falsely rejecting a true null hypothesis). The best-performing algorithm maintains fixed row and fixed column totals, but it is conservative and may not always detect nestedness when it is present. Among the eight indices, the popular matrix temperature metric did not have good statistical properties. Instead, the Brualdi and Sanderson discrepancy index and Cutler's index of unexpected presences performed best. When used with the fixed-fixed algorithm, these indices provide a conservative test for nestedness. Although previous studies have revealed a high frequency of nestedness, a reanalysis of 288 empirical matrices suggests that the true frequency of nested matrices is between 10% and 40%.

Disparities in stroke incidence contributing to disparities in stroke mortality

Abstract: Stroke mortality rates declined dramatically in the 20th century, yielding 1 of the top 10 public health achievements of that era.1 Despite this, rates have remained consistently higher among blacks than any other race/ethnic group in the United States.2–5 This disparity in stroke mortality is largest at younger ages; at age 45 years, the mortality rate is 3 times higher for blacks than whites, with a decreasing racial disparity with increasing age: by age 85 years the difference is no longer apparent.2–4,6 There are also substantial geographic disparities in stroke mortality with higher rates in the southeastern United States, termed the “stroke belt.” First identified in 1965, excess stroke mortality rates in this region have existed since at least 1940 and have persisted.6–8 A 153-county region including the coastal plain of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia is referred to as the “stroke buckle” due to even higher stroke mortality than the rest of the stroke belt.9 Because the stroke belt and buckle contain counties with very high stroke mortality rates and counties with average or even low stroke mortality, the overall stroke mortality is approximately 20% higher in the stroke belt than rest of the nation, with rates in the stroke buckle approximately 40% higher than rest of the nation.6–9 In the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Stroke Study (GCNKSS), the black-white disparity in stroke mortality was primarily due to higher stroke incidence among blacks, with little contribution of case fatality, the other potential contributor to disparities in stroke mortality.10 National racial and geographic disparities in stroke mortality are documented based on death certificates through the national vital statistics system. National data on stroke incidence based on validated stroke events are not available. The goal of this report was to describe black-white and geographic differences in stroke incidence in a national population-based cohort and assess if the pattern and magnitude of stroke incidence rates mirror the disparities in stroke mortality.