Category Archives: Physiology

CU regents hear from DiStefano, others on move-in, testing, response, more – CU Boulder Today

In a special virtual meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 12, the University of Colorado Board of Regents heard an update from CU Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano about the Boulder campuss plans for a COVID-19-ready fall semester, which included student move-in and testing, as well as ongoing controls and response plans.

DiStefano reported 33,027 students have enrolled for classes; 29,310 of those students have enrolled for at least one fully in-person course or a hybrid course with an in-person component; and 3,717 students have enrolled in courses that are fully remote or fully online.

More than 7,500 students are moving into residence halls between Aug. 17 - 21.

Im very proud of what weve been able to accomplish over the last several months, DiStefano said. What our students are going to be experiencing this semester will be unlike any other semester at CU Boulder.

DiStefano reported that all first-year students living on campus will either provide proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test or will undergo testing before moving in. He explained that the RT-LAMP test that CU Boulder faculty members at the BioFrontiers Institute have developed has enabled campus to return test results rapidly as part of the move-in process.

DiStefano reported that when resident advisors returned to campus last week, all of them tested negative for COVID-19.

DiStefano told the board that the Boulder campus is monitoring many different factors, such as infection rates, hospital capacity and campus density, as the campus makes decisions about how to proceed during the course of the semester. DiStefano announced a new dashboard that will be regularly updated to provide transparency about campus data.

Professor Matt McQueen, a faculty member in the Department of Integrative Physiology and the director of the Epidemiology Laboratory, updated the board in further detail about campus plans for testing, response and environmental controls.

McQueen told the board that while CU Boulder is not planning to conduct move-in testing for off-campus students, the campus does plan to conduct surveillance testing of off-campus students throughout the semester.

McQueen explained that the campus will need to make day-to-day decisions about how to test based on campus and community needs. He said that testing resources will be used to respond to potential events on campus, such as an outbreak in a particular community, and that he hopes campus will be able to regularly test students beyond such events in order to understand how the virus is moving through the community.

McQueen emphasized to the board the need to be able to gather data that will allow the university to assess the health of the campus and the community. He told the board that because CU Boulder will be conducting surveillance testing, rather than testing symptomatic people only, there should be no surprise when positive cases start to appear.

While we will rely upon some data that is collected by other public health authorities, the campus has also built capabilities for COVID-19 testing that exceed the capabilities that exist in the community, McQueen said.

McQueen says that because the campus will be discovering asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers, the numbers may look high.

That's a good thing because it will allow us to work to prevent the spread of disease from individuals who are infected, McQueen said.

McQueen reported that in addition to testing, CU Boulder has stood up a robust contact tracing program that involves medical staff as well as more than 50 students who are earning academic credit to support campus contract tracing efforts.

McQueen briefly highlighted work to reduce the ability of COVID-19 to spread in campus facilities, such as by evaluating each campus building to make sure the flow of air exceeds the recommended requirements. McQueen also cited other environmental controls, including following standard public health measures such as cleaning protocols. More information on these and related topics can be found on the Infrastructure Mitigation Efforts website.

McQueen also told the board that emphasizing behaviors such as social distancing and the wearing of face coverings are some of the most important strategies for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 on campus.

While testing and contact tracing are good, limiting the spread of infection is better. Social distancing and masking are the best tools in our arsenal to prevent the spread of the disease, McQueen said.

Regent Heidi Ganahl proposed a resolution that would provide a tuition discount. President Kennedy and several regents expressed concern over further budget cuts that they predicted would negatively impact the quality of education. The board voted against the resolution in a 5-4 vote.

Link:
CU regents hear from DiStefano, others on move-in, testing, response, more - CU Boulder Today

How to tell if your vaginal discharge is normal: The colour, consistency and other things you need to know – Firstpost

As long as the vaginal discharge is white or clear, thick or stretchy, has no smell and causes no itchiness, it is normal

Finding a bit of discharge on your toilet paper or underwear is nothing new for most women, though it often leads to concerns about sexual and reproductive health. While this worry is absolutely natural, its important to remember that so is vaginal discharge - in most cases, at least.

Whats normal about vaginal discharge?

Vaginal discharge is a normal part of the female physiology, and experts, as well as research from around the world, underlines this fact. As a 2007 study in the British Medical Journal points out, normal discharge from the vagina is white or clear, non-offensive discharge that varies with the menstrual cycle". You might already know that the menstrual cycle has four stages which are marked by hormonal changes: menstruation, follicular phase, ovulation and luteal phase.

Each of these stages may have a different type of vaginal discharge depending on what the mucous lining of the uterus is going through and how much moisture is needed inside the vagina. The vaginal microbiome and hormones manage this discharge throughout the menstrual cycle, and other regular activities like sex and exercise can also affect it. As long as it is white or clear, thick or stretchy, has no smell and causes no itchiness, your vaginal discharge is normal.

Signs that something is wrong

While vaginal discharge may be a normal physiological process, changes in your health status can cause it to change. The study mentioned above shows that these changes in vaginal discharge could be caused by non-sexually transmitted infections like bacterial vaginosis and candida infections, or by sexually transmitted infection (STIs) like chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis. The following are some signs you should take note of:

If you notice any of these signs, its time to consult a gynaecologist without delay to discover the underlying cause and treat it.

Types of discharge and what they say

The following are the types of vaginal discharge based on their colour, and what they say about your health.

1. White: As mentioned before, white or clear discharge thats thick and stretchy is normal. However, if the white discharge is very thick, foamy or like cottage cheese, and causes itching in the vagina, it could indicate a yeast infection.

2. Yellow: This is an abnormal type of discharge, especially when accompanied by a foul or fishy smell. It could be a sign of a bacterial infection or STI.

3. Brown: Old blood looks brown, so if this vaginal discharge occurs right before or after your period, its just a normal cleanup. If it happens in the middle of the cycle, it could indicate anything ranging between spotting due to uterine or hormonal issues like fibroids or polycystic ovary syndrome and uterine or cervical cancer. Its best to consult a doctor immediately.

4. Green: This discharge, just like the yellow one, can be a sign of infections. Its best to get treated for it sooner rather than later.

For more information, read our article on White discharge.

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.

Read the original here:
How to tell if your vaginal discharge is normal: The colour, consistency and other things you need to know - Firstpost

D&E professor’s paper is published | News, Sports, Jobs – The Inter-Mountain

Stover

ELKINS An international education journal has taken notice of the Davis & Elkins College biology program for its use of clinical case studies in pre-medical curriculum.

Bioscene: Journal of College Biology Teaching recently published a paper by D&E Professor of Biology Dr. Shawn Stover detailing how the program is successfully preparing students for medical school.

In the paper, Stover explains the integration of clinical cases in human physiology, functional histology and biochemistry courses strongly recommended for pre-medical students. Each semester, students are presented with at least five clinical cases to analyze. The traditional small class sizes and strong faculty-student interactions at D&E are conducive to active learning, allowing students to work on cases in small groups as part of laboratory activities, in-class discussions and homework assignments. Clinical cases cover a range of medical conditions, including Alzheimers disease, Bells palsy and emphysema.

Small group learning has become very popular in medical schools in recent years, and the clinical case study is one of the primary teaching tools of medical education, Stover said. By providing multiple opportunities to experience clinical case teaching, D&E is preparing its pre-med students for the active learning environment associated with current medical education.

Stover points out that previous research indicates that the use of case studies is effective for promoting critical thinking, enhancing interest in curricular content, and improving student understanding of core concepts.

The Department of Biology and Environmental Science at D&E offers multiple specialization tracks for biology majors, including general biology, pre-medical, pre-veterinary and secondary education.

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

Continue reading here:
D&E professor's paper is published | News, Sports, Jobs - The Inter-Mountain

4 breathing techniques to get you through high-stress moments – Big Think

Emma Seppl, science director at Stanford Center For Compassion And Altruism Research And Education, says American culture values intensity yet undervalues calmness. We never shut off. While intensity has its place, every animal in nature inherently knows the necessity of rest in order to store up energy for when it's actually needed. Americans are careless with our energy reserves, which is why so many of us are chronically tired, overworked, and stressed out.

Seppl knows that breathing changes our state of mind. She recommends a popular yogic breathing technique, nadi shodhana, also known as alternate nostril breathing.

Place the index and middle fingers of your right hand on your forehead. Use your thumb to close your right nostril while inhaling through the left nostril, then close the left nostril with your ring finger and exhale through your right nostril. Repeat this for at least two minutes, then sit quietly for another minute or two, breathing normally.

There are many variations of this technique. My favorite is a four-cycle breath: inhale for a count of four through one nostril, retain your breath for a count of four, exhale for four, hold your breath out for four. If you're new to this breathing technique, retention might initially create more anxiety than it relieves, so try the basic inhale-exhale pattern until you can last for at least five minutes before moving onto breath retentions.

Game designer and author of "Superbetter," Jane McGonigal, recommends the Power Breath: exhale for twice as long as you inhale. She says this will shift your nervous system from sympathetic to a parasympathetic toneyou'll calm down. Simply sit comfortably, close your eyes, and begin by inhaling for a count of four and exhaling for a count of eight.

This is also a popular yoga breathing technique. As with nadi shodhana, it can initially kick up rather than diminish anxiety. If you find long exhales challenging, begin by inhaling and exhaling at an even rate: a count of four in both directions. Then try to slowly increase your exhale to a count of five, six, and so on. Longtime practitioners can inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of 50. As with any muscle, you can train your breathing. The benefits are immense.

Lolly, a Mind-Body Specialist at the University of Maryland Heart Center, offers what she calls Focus Word Breathing. Traditionally, this is known as Mantra meditation. Choose a word that has meaning to youcalm, grace, easeand repeat it during every inhalation and exhalation. As your mind wanders, the word becomes a sort of flagpole that you've mentally planted to bring you back to this moment.

As a former sufferer of anxiety disorder, I remember how important my thoughts were when having a panic attack. The power of the physiological symptoms increased when I dwelled on negative thoughts. This spiral felt like being sucked into a vortex. By contrast, when I was able to redirect my thinking, the symptoms lessened.

Mantra meditation never completely worked during an attack. By that point, my physiology had been hijacked. But as a regular practice, this breathing technique is powerful. Think of it as training for the big game of life. You teach yourself to focus on beneficial words. Your attention goes where thinking leads you, but you also have control of your thoughts. By integrating a mantra with breathing, you're priming your mind to focus at will.

This exercise is commonly used by yoga instructors to bring their students into Corpse Pose (Savasana). Place your hands over your stomach while lying down and focus your attention there. Take deep, even breaths into your hands. As with the last technique, focus your mind there. Relax the muscles at your extremities: your toes, fingers, and forehead. Allow yourself to melt into the floor.

I love doing this breath while in Viparita Karani, otherwise known as Legs Up the Wall posture. The video above explains how to enter this pose; a blanket or pillow under your lower back makes the posture comfortable. Once there, I practice deep belly breathing. This technique always calms me down. I've recommended it to friends suffering from insomnia; they all responded with positive anecdotal feedback.

--

Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter, Facebook and Substack. His next book is "Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

Go here to read the rest:
4 breathing techniques to get you through high-stress moments - Big Think

WGHP: HPU’s Dr. James Smoliga Shows the Science Behind the Golf Swing – High Point University

Dr. James Smoliga, professor of physiology in High Point Universitys Congdon School of Health Sciences, demonstrates for Fox 8 how technology in HPUs Human Biomechanics and Physiology Lab can track every aspect of a golfers swing to pinpoint any problem areas, assist in injury rehabilitation, and ultimately improve how a golfer moves to avoid injury and get better results.

Read more:
WGHP: HPU's Dr. James Smoliga Shows the Science Behind the Golf Swing - High Point University

WVU toxicologist wins NIH grant to study impact of air pollution on lung tissue regeneration – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 11 2020

Each time we breathe in, we're not inhaling just one component that seeps into our lungs. It's a medley of gasses and particles - both natural and human-made - that can unleash unknown consequences on respiratory health.

One knowledge gap to understanding the effects of inhaling outdoor air pollution, according to Salik Hussain, assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, is that the scientific community has largely focused on studying only individual toxicants, such as particles or gases.

In reality, Hussain said, "we inhale a mixture of everything."

Through the aid of a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Hussain will delve into the impact of inhalation co-exposure, namely from particles and ozone, on lung tissue regeneration.

"If we look at how environmental particles or gasses are studied at this moment, they are studied as individual components 99 percent of the time," said Hussain, who runs the Hussain Lab, which researches pulmonary and systemic health effects of inhalation exposure. He's also a member of the WVU Center for Inhalation Toxicology.

Developing and studying the co-exposure scenario in a standardized, controlled fashion, such as a laboratory setting, will enable a better mechanistic understanding of how environmental exposures result in adverse outcomes."

Salik Hussain, Assistant Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, West Virginia University School of Medicine

His aim is twofold: To steer policy and decision-making pertaining to mixed environmental pollutants, and to improve health and well-being in susceptible populations.

Specifically, he plans to identify adverse outcomes of carbon black (a surrogate of the carbon core of ultrafine particles) and ground level ozone (the most reactive gas component of air pollution) inhalation, and study mechanisms leading to lung injury and impairment of lung regeneration.

In real world/co-exposure situations, unanticipated outcomes can occur such as ultrafine air pollution particles carrying other pollutants into areas of lungs usually not affected by those pollutants.

Gaseous components can modify the surfaces of particles to make them more reactive, Hussain said. This can lead to either aggravation or heightened susceptibility to more severe clinical outcomes such as acute lung injury, a serious pulmonary condition with up to 40 percent mortality that kills nearly 200,000 Americans each year.

With this funding, Hussain plans to study how air pollution inhalation leads to changes in susceptibility to develop ALI and impact the ability of the lungs to regenerate after ALI. He will be studying mechanistic pathways of lung stem/progenitor cells reprogramming after inhalation of the toxicants.

According to the World Health Organization, more than four million deaths are linked to outdoor environmental pollution each year.

"Environmental health is not a developing country's problem," Hussain said. "It is also a developed country's problem. My work has a translational angle, where the goal is to improve the health of the communities and people across the world."

The NIH grant awarded to Hussain is part of one of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences signature programs, the highly-competitive Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award, designated to cultivate the next leaders in environmental health sciences.

Hussain holds a secondary appointment in the department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology.

Originally posted here:
WVU toxicologist wins NIH grant to study impact of air pollution on lung tissue regeneration - News-Medical.Net

Ozone affects plant, insect, and soil microbial communities: A threat to terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity – Science Advances

Abstract

Elevated tropospheric ozone concentrations induce adverse effects in plants. We reviewed how ozone affects (i) the composition and diversity of plant communities by affecting key physiological traits; (ii) foliar chemistry and the emission of volatiles, thereby affecting plant-plant competition, plant-insect interactions, and the composition of insect communities; and (iii) plant-soil-microbe interactions and the composition of soil communities by disrupting plant litterfall and altering root exudation, soil enzymatic activities, decomposition, and nutrient cycling. The community composition of soil microbes is consequently changed, and alpha diversity is often reduced. The effects depend on the environment and vary across space and time. We suggest that Atlantic islands in the Northern Hemisphere, the Mediterranean Basin, equatorial Africa, Ethiopia, the Indian coastline, the Himalayan region, southern Asia, and Japan have high endemic richness at high ozone risk by 2100.

Above- and belowground trophic interactions play pivotal roles in maintaining plant diversity. Plants respond to herbivores by various physiological mechanisms, affecting plant performance and plant-microbe interaction and potentially regulating ecosystem processes and community dynamics (13). Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) likewise involve interactions among plants, soil microbiota, and abiotic factors, affecting structural and functional features at different scales of biological organization. These effects allow plants to readily respond to environmental changes and mediate ecosystem processes (4). Trophic interactions depend on environmental conditions, so changes in the environment may affect biodiversity and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems (2, 4, 5).

Ground-level concentrations of ozone (O3) increased considerably in the second half of the 20th century due to increased levels of NOx, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and radical precursors responsible for its production (68). For example, current O3 levels in rural areas of the temperate and polar zones of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) have increased by 30 to 70% compared to 18961975 (6, 7). The O3 concentrations have remained elevated (see the Supplementary Materials) but are also projected to remain high throughout the 21st century (9), raising concerns about O3 phytotoxicity, despite policies for reducing precursor emissions. Many programs have documented the incidence of visible injury from O3 in numerous field-grown species of forbs, shrubs, and trees worldwide, but O3 has often not been included in global assessments of threats to biodiversity (5, 10). Preliminary analyses suggest that O3 will continue to pose risks to terrestrial biodiversity at various trophic levels and ecosystem processes and feedbacks in the future (10).

Despite the progress in our understanding of numerous physiological mechanisms specific to plants for responding to O3 (11, 12), we still know little about the responses of communities and ecosystems to O3. Identifying plant mechanisms that may drive the structure and function of plant communities and interactions with insect and soil communities in O3-polluted atmospheres is challenging, and the effects on the functioning and biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems are underexplored (5, 10, 13).

This paper addresses how O3 affects plant communities, plant-insect interactions, and PSFs and thus plant, insect, and microbial diversity (Figs. 1 and 2). We have four aims. (i) Review the relationships between plant ecological traits and susceptibility to O3. We thus collated empirical evidence to determine whether O3 affects the structure and diversity of plant communities depending on functional groups. (ii) Discuss how O3 affects plant-insect interactions and whether ecosystem functioning and the structure and diversity of insect communities are threatened by O3-caused changes in VOCs and foliar chemical composition. (iii) Assess how O3 affects plant-soil interactions and thus soil ecosystem functioning, with special reference to plant litter, decomposition, nutrient cycling, and microbial biomass. The hypothesis that O3 can affect microbial communities and diversity was verified by a series of studies demonstrating that PSF responses to O3 can lead to changes in the community structure and diversity of soil microbes. (iv) Analyze global endemic richness of vascular plants versus predicted O3 exposure by 2100 for assessing whether foci of the endemic richness of various biomes overlap with areas of high O3 risk, with adverse effects on plant productivity. We use these discussions to seek to identify important gaps in our knowledge and to draw some conclusions about how O3 can affect plant interactions with insects and microbiota and, thus, alter PSFs and community composition and diversity of plants, insects, and microbiota.

Ecological processes occurring at the ecosystem and foliar levels in a natural (not polluted) ecosystem (A) versus an ecosystem disturbed by increased levels of O3 (B). Gray icons represent the loss of insect or plant diversity but not for particular species. O3 reduces the growth rate and biomass of plants (including forest trees) (I). Deciduous broadleaf species are usually more susceptible than evergreen broadleaf and needle-leaf species (I). O3 can also reduce plant species richness and alter community composition (II). O3 reduces the abundance of insect species but not species richness in forest ecosystems (III). O3 and OH degrade biogenic VOC (BVOCs), thereby impeding plant-pollinator communication (IV). O3-plant-insect interactions may be quite complex and species specific. O3 inhibits isoprene emissions, increases monoterpene emissions in tolerant and evergreen species, reduces foliar size, induces foliage prematurity (V and I), and increases plant susceptibility to insects and pathogens (I and VI). In other cases, O3 induces the accumulation of phenolic compounds in leaves, discouraging herbivory by insects (thus reducing insect abundance), increases insect mortality, and inhibits the growth of insect body mass (VII). O3 also alters foliar phytochemistry, thereby impeding insect oviposition (VIII).

A healthy holobiont in a clean atmosphere (with natural background O3 levels), where mutually beneficial PSFs occur (A), versus a suppressed holobiont and disturbed PSFs due to O3 (B). Gray icons represent the loss of microbial biomass but not for particular species. O3 decreases root biomass, reduces the quantity, and affects the quality of foliar and root litter, potentially affecting litter-feeding soil macrofauna, decomposition, and cycling of nutrients. O3 may influence the chemical composition of roots and soluble root exudates, including reduced exudation of some extracellular enzymes (e.g., -glucosidase). The rate of decomposition can be increased or decreased species-specifically. Soil microbial biomass also decreases. O3 alters the composition and structure of soil microbial communities, with fungi being likely more susceptible to O3 than bacteria. Some N-fixing bacteria are promoted by O3, but N fixation is reduced by O3 in other studies. Some denitrifying bacteria are likewise promoted by O3, and the abundance of some nitrifying bacteria can be either reduced or increased by O3. The decrease in microbial biomass disturbs the rates of N and C cycling as feedback, potentially reducing N2O and storing less C in the rhizosphere. The changes in C and N cycling in PSFs may occur in tandem with changes in the cycling of other nutrients due to poor leaf and root litter as well as affected decomposition processes.

Indicators of plant susceptibility to O3. The main indicators of the susceptibility of plants to O3 are stomatal conductance, specific leaf area, and genetically controlled defensive capacity (14, 15). Classification of plant species into tolerant and susceptible, however, is difficult because of their high intraspecific variation in tolerance (5, 16, 17). High intraspecific genetic variation has been detected in grasses and herbaceous and woody plants [e.g., Phleum alpinum, Trifolium repens, and Plantago major (16), as well as Betula pendula and Populus spp. (18)] and has been studied in detail in, for example, willows and silver birches (18). The genetic variation of O3 tolerance in these species has been attributed to a range of factors, including foliar phenolic composition (19), effective pathways of ascorbate-glutathione detoxification, remobilization of amino acids (20), genetic plasticity, chemical composition of foliar surface waxes (21, 22), stomatal closure, and foliar structural traits, such as apoplastic volume, thickness, and leaf dry mass per unit area (LMA) (18, 23). Model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana clearly indicate that O3 tolerance is due to a unique set of alterations of various defensive mechanisms, e.g., signaling pathways, regulatory genes, plant hormones, antioxidants, and physiological processes (function and regulation of stomata) (24, 25). These indicators of tolerance can be useful for individual plants or plant mixtures but are challenging in studies at evolutionary and population levels. The selection for O3 tolerance in the field is further complicated by the multiple environmental factors and stressors that usually affect plants, such as drought, salt, heavy metals, light, nutrient availability, and changeable meteorological conditions (16, 26, 27). Agrobiodiversity and the compositions of seminatural plant communities, among other factors, are often affected by management practices such as grazing, cutting, and fertilization, all of which further obscure the influence of O3.

Plant leaves are most exposed to elevated O3 and have therefore been extensively examined for structural modifications and adaptations to elevated O3 and associated plant susceptibility (5, 15, 16). The O3 susceptibility in silver birch and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) has been associated with foliar thickness, i.e., the most susceptible genotypes had thinner leaves (28). An extensive survey of subtropical, temperate, and Mediterranean tree species found that O3 tolerance at the foliar level was associated with LMA, and a reduction in whole-tree biomass was linked to high stomatal flux per unit foliar mass, indicating high O3 uptake per unit mass (29). High LMA and sclerophyllia can provide O3 tolerance by (i) cross-protection (e.g., resistance to several stress factors such as drought), (ii) the so-called dilution effect (lower O3 load per unit foliar mass), and (iii) a large apoplastic compartment, which is often associated with high antioxidative capacity (5, 15, 30, 31). Trichomes are foliar-surface structures that may provide protection against high levels of O3 by acting as physical barriers or by physiological detoxification (32). LMA, sclerophyllia, and trichomes are relatively easy to measure and can, therefore, be widely used for assessing the threat of O3 in the field.

Relationships between O3 susceptibility and plant diversity. Studying how elevated O3 affects plant diversity requires focusing on functional traits associated with ecological fitness, such as reproductive fitness (seed output), plant health, and competitiveness. The responses of plant communities to O3, however, are ultimately driven by changes in growth, physiology, biochemistry, or genetics at the level of individuals or species (10). Many indirect and well-known effects of O3 on plants may lead to changes in community composition and diversity, including impacts on growth, plant vitality (assessed as crown defoliation), photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, water balance, the trade-off between biomass production and defensive processes, flowering, competition, and susceptibility to pests and pathogens (5, 10, 33, 34). These impacts can ultimately reduce the ability of species of a plant community to compete (interspecific competition) and the ability of communities to compete. Specific indicators of biodiversity, however, may not represent the direct effects of O3 such as reduced biodiversity within a plant community but rather variations in the competition for resources among plant species.

Visible foliar injury induced by O3 is an important attribute for epidemiological assessments because it manifests susceptibility of plants to O3 and is the only indicator of adverse effects of O3 that can be used for routine field surveys (10, 35). The visible foliar injury appears as chlorosis, necrosis, flecks, stipples, bronzing, and/or reddening (see the Supplementary Materials for more information). While it is difficult to distinguish whether chlorosis and necrosis are induced by O3 or normal senescence in the field, a characteristic of O3-induced symptoms is that they usually occur on interveinal areas of the upper leaf surface only and older leaves show the most symptoms. Species-specific visible injuries have been widely found in nature (10, 3537), although evidence for the relationship between O3-induced visible injuries and damage is contradictory and uncertain especially for forest trees (38). Visible injuries may be associated with negative impacts on fitness traits [e.g., the reduction of carbon (C) assimilation/allocation limits growth and seed production, making the species uncompetitive] (38). Little is known, however, about the relationship between short-term phenomena such as visible foliar injury and longer-term processes affecting plant-community structure and ecosystem biodiversity (5, 10).

Ozone susceptibility varies among plant functional groups. On the basis of ecological strategies of competition and survival, some susceptible plants may be affected more than nonsusceptible plants by O3-induced stress and may thus be competitively penalized (17, 3942). The degree of susceptibility differs widely among species but also functional groups (Table 1), although current rankings of O3 susceptibility are based on the susceptibility of individual species (5, 17, 43) and the modeling of different indicators (44). For example, elevated O3 may decrease the aboveground biomass of therophytes (annuals) more than non-annual plants (e.g., chamaephytes) (43), suggesting that variations in response of annual and perennial species in a community under O3 are also important for long-term biodiversity effects. High oxidative stress induced by O3 can also adversely affect the fitness of O3-susceptible genotypes when combined with harsh inter- and intraspecific competition within communities, ultimately altering the timing of flowering and seed development and reducing the number and biomass of flowers in some species in a community (33, 45, 46). The community composition of terrestrial ecosystems may thus exhibit long-term changes, and plant diversity may be at risk (Fig. 1), especially in areas where O3 occurs at potentially phytotoxic levels (Fig. 3).

The reader may refer to the references for further details.

Surface mean AOT40 [parts per million (ppm)hour] for 20002003 (A) and for RCP2.6 (B), RCP4.5 (C), and RCP8.5 (D) by 2100, overlapping the global patterns of the endemic richness of vascular plants (number of species of vascular plants per 10,000 km2) across biogeographic regions worldwide (except Antarctica). RCP represents a representative concentration pathway, and AOT40 represents accumulated ozone exposure above a threshold of 40 parts per billion (ppb). Data sources: (9) and (197). The ozone maps are from (9).

Empirical evidence for O3 threats to plant-community composition and diversity. Empirical evidence from several experiments conducted in different regions of the world indicates that O3 can affect the structure and diversity of plant communities (table S1). Several experiments with open-top chambers (OTCs) in pasture communities exposed to O3 (commonly up to twofold above the ambient O3 concentrations) for two to four growing seasons have demonstrated changes in species composition (table S1), with some species being lost over time, and in community structure (42, 4751). For example, there is evidence for reduced plant species richness (total number of species), diversity (Shannon-Weaver index), and evenness of an early successional community due to exposure to ambient and elevated O3 levels over two growing seasons (49). These elevated O3 concentrations occur in highly polluted areas of NH nowadays. Solardome experiments have also suggested potential changes in the structure of grassland communities (33, 45). An O3 treatment accounted for 40% of the variation in species composition (41). Reduced species richness (total number of species), diversity (Shannon-Weaver index), and evenness due to exposure to O3 were particularly important over two growing seasons in an early successional community (49). The species richness of communities with different histories of O3 exposure was similar, but the relative abundance of the dominant species differed among the communities (50). Changes in community structure due to past exposure to O3 suggest that O3 might have already contributed to changes in natural communities.

The use of free-air O3 concentration enrichment (FACE) experiments can generate more realistic estimates of the impacts of O3 on vegetation because the plants fully interact with the surrounding natural environment. A few FACE studies have assessed the impacts of O3 (commonly up to 1.6-fold higher than the ambient O3 concentrations) in subalpine and other types of grasslands after two to seven growing seasons (table S1). Some experiments found O3-induced shifts in the fractions of plant functional groups, changes in species composition depending on the functional component, and increased abundance of some species such as Nardus stricta (52). Empirical evidence from long-term FACE experiments, therefore, supports the suggestions from OTC experiments that O3 induces alterations to the structure and species composition of grassland communities.

Forbs are generally more susceptible to O3 than grasses, but the relative abundance of a grass species may decrease, depending on potential interacting environmental factors (table S1). Note that some species may increase in abundance and others may decrease but without necessarily a large loss of species richness or a shift in their distributional evenness (53). These changes in community composition may also lead to changes in the nutritional value of vegetation used for animal consumption. For instance, reductions in the legume fraction, but not the grass fraction, of harvested biomass as a result of elevated O3 exposure occurred in intact and managed pasture (54, 55), T. repensLolium perenne mixtures established under field conditions from seed (56), and T. repensL. perenne established in mesocosms (57). Similarly, reductions in the clover/grass ratio due to elevated O3 appeared in T. repens and L. perenne (58) and for T. repens and Festuca arundinacea (59). Comparable reductions can also occur if the aboveground biomass of the grass component increases due to reduced competition from the legume. Altered pasture quality from samples analyzed from seven component studies also occurred (60). This was the result of species composition alterations and the nutritional quality change of individual species within the community.

The hypothesis of impacts on community composition associated with O3 was also supported by an assessment of the impacts on community composition at 64 field sites selected from the U.K. National Vegetation Classification of U4 Festuca ovinaeAgrostis capillarisGalium saxatile grasslands, which represent calcifugous grasslands, widely distributed in the British Isles (table S1) (53). The use of genetic markers and DNA fingerprinting in wild populations also demonstrated that genetic diversity is declining in areas with high levels of O3 [reviewed in (5)]. These studies suggest potentially changing diversity in the real world. Recent technological developments are providing powerful tools for monitoring the loss of biodiversity in vegetation with various plant functional groups, e.g., remote sensing and hyperspectral imaging techniques combined with drones (61); drone techniques are particularly useful in wetland ecosystems. These techniques can potentially more robustly assess the global threat of O3 to biodiversity in the future.

Some studies have reported negligible or no significant effects on species composition, community structure, or diversity. Several factors, which can affect the estimated impacts of O3, such as OTC environments, can affect the species composition of pastures (55). Within-family competition can also be a major driver of the general response of a community (42), and competition between species can be affected by both O3 and the mixing ratio of the individuals within a community (62). The compositions of species with low abundances may also not greatly change, even if the species are strongly affected by O3 (52, 63). The outcome of inter- or intraspecific competition also depends on other environmental factors such as soil-water content (62), soil nitrogen (N) content (42, 52), and spatial heterogeneity (64). A mixture of contaminants may also occur in the environment, and multiple co-occurring environmental contaminants may have larger effects than the effects of single contaminants (53). A new generation of studies accounting for various co-occurring factors is therefore needed to provide a basis for assessing real-world risks.

Foliar quality drives plant-insect interactions. Ozone can affect both the foliar content of N, a major nutrient driving insect dynamics (65), and secondary metabolites. For example, several studies show that elevated O3 enhanced the concentration of lignin, a key secondary metabolite determining the palatability of biomass to insects (66). Secondary metabolites play important roles in the defense of plants against herbivores by deterring feeding and reducing digestibility by being toxic at high concentrations (2, 6771) but may also attract herbivores at lower concentrations (70, 72). Elevated O3 doses that exceed the toxicological threshold inhibit photosynthesis and thus the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, whereas low O3 doses that are below the toxicological threshold stimulate defensive signaling pathways and induce the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites (21, 73). Insect herbivores are expected to damage plants more if O3 decreases the rate of C assimilation so that less C is available for C-based defensive chemicals (74). Numerous studies have demonstrated that O3 affects phenolics and terpenes, especially in angiosperms (75), although different groups of phenolics and terpenes may respond differently to O3 (19, 76, 77). Despite the recent advancements in the understanding of O3 effects on foliar quality, O3 effects on latex and other constituents of saps exuded from damaged tissues remain completely unknown, although plant latex plays an important role in defense against herbivores (78).

Plant defense modulates insect growth and development directly via toxic secondary metabolites or indirectly by recruiting the natural enemies of insect pests via herbivore-induced plant volatiles and extra floral nectar (67, 79, 80). For example, the mortality of gypsy moths increased when fed with leaves treated with O3 (81). A recent study also found that the increase in body mass in Samia ricini larvae was inhibited when the larvae were fed with cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) leaves treated with O3 (65), similarly to Pieris brassicae reared on Brassica nigra (82). This inhibition was due to the effect of O3 on foliar quality and could, thus, affect herbivory levels by overcompensating for the poor nutritional quality of the tissues (65, 83). These effects suggest potential shifts between generalist species, which can adapt easier to plant defensive compounds and thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions, and specialist species, which have a limited diet and can thrive only within a narrow range of environmental conditions (84).

Shifts in secondary metabolites under elevated O3 may lead to changes in relative insect performances, including feeding and ovipositional preferences, longevity, and the ability to reproduce, potentially influencing the population density and community composition of the insects (73, 81, 85). Recent studies of a community of trees grown in a FACE system for 5 years, however, found that populations of different species of insects, with different host plants, decreased significantly in elevated O3 (74, 86). These studies suggest that these decreases were not due to foliar palatability, also confirmed by laboratory assays (74, 86, 87), or to direct negative effects of O3 on insects (88), leading to the suggestion that VOCs played an important role in plant-herbivore interactions under O3 (89). These observations agree with those from other studies of different plant-insect systems (85).

Impacts of O3-induced changes in VOC emissions on insect dynamics. Biogenic VOCs (BVOCs), i.e., VOCs emitted by plants, play important roles in a range of conspecific and heterospecific interactions and plant survival (9092). They are emitted by most plant components, both above- and belowground (roots), and provide pivotal ecological cues detectable over a range of distances (9396). Typical BVOCs include isoprene, terpenes, green leaf volatiles, carbonyls, organic acids, halides, sulfurous compounds, and benzenoids (97). Ozone can induce, reduce, or have no effect on BVOC emissions, depending on the species and conditions of exposure (98100). Isoprene emissions are typically inhibited under elevated O3, but monoterpene emissions of O3-tolerant and evergreen species are stimulated (101).

Interactions involving O3, BVOCs, and insects are highly complex. Ozone can react with a multitude of VOCs in the atmosphere, breaking them down into mostly unknown reaction products, which may impair communication between plants and insects mediated by volatiles and may compromise pollination (82, 93, 102105). For example, a laboratory study assessing the effects of O3 on the orientation of a beetle (Acalymma vittatum) to flowers reported that O3 levels <80 parts per billion (ppb) did not affect orientation, whereas levels >80 ppb disrupted orientation toward floral volatiles (106). Similar results were found for the attraction of other beetles (Agelastica coerulea) to leaves (89). Both elevated O3 (107) and diesel exhaust (108), which comprises some precursors of O3, have recently been reported to rapidly degrade floral volatiles. The distance over which floral scents can be detected by pollinators thus decreased, negatively affecting the orientation of the pollinators toward floral food sources (107).

Behavioral tests run at elevated O3 concentrations indicated that elevated O3 could also considerably alter the composition of volatile blends induced by herbivory and consequently alter tritrophic interactions by influencing the behavior of the natural enemies of the herbivores (109111). The results from these studies, however, were inconsistent. For example, O3 affected plant volatile bouquets induced by herbivory, but the changes did not affect the orientation of parasitoids, indicating a minimal role of oxidation products in signal perception for this system (109). A combination of elevated O3 and P. brassicae larval feeding on B. nigra, however, induced substantially larger volatile emissions than either stress alone, which decreased the attractiveness of the plants to the parasitoid Cotesia glomerata relative to plants exposed to herbivores alone (111). Exposure to elevated O3 may also typically reduce insect oviposition on host plants (86, 112), which may be influenced by multiple mechanisms such as the degradation by O3 of specific VOCs that stimulate oviposition (105, 113).

Understanding the knock-on effects on insect diversity and the impact of O3-induced VOC emissions on insect diversity is needed, despite the growing number of studies addressing the effects of O3 on the composition of BVOC emissions and specific ecological interactions. The impact of O3-induced VOC emissions on insect diversity should also be studied further.

Empirical evidence for O3 risks of insect community composition and diversity. Numerous studies have addressed how O3 alters insect performance by modifying secondary metabolism and VOC emissions, but the impacts of O3 on insect diversity remain relatively understudied. The fecundity of individual insects does not predict the responses of populations or communities to O3 (114), but three studies of the effects of O3 on insect diversity suggest that O3 can alter species abundance and community structure, thereby threatening diversity (50, 115, 116). For example, an examination of >47,000 insects from four orders and 83 families sampled in a FACE system at regular intervals over four growing seasons found that O3 tended to increase the abundance of phloem-feeding herbivores and decreased the abundance of chewing herbivores and parasitoids in aspen (115). This study also found that elevated O3 reduced the total abundance of insects (17%) compared to ambient O3, with prominent effects on parasitoids such as Braconidae (33%), Chalcidoidea (26%), Figitidae (59%), and Ichneumonidae (41%) (115). Arthropod communities also changed in two experiments when seeds from a community of natural plants previously exposed to filtered air, 90-ppb O3 or 120-ppb O3, with episodic patterns of varying daily peak concentrations over four growing seasons, were used to reestablish the plant community in a new environment with low-level O3 pollution (50). The carnivore/herbivore ratio particularly increased (increased abundance of carnivores) with increasing historical levels of O3 in the 2 years following historical exposures (50). The effects on insect abundance and species richness are specific to plant species and vary temporally (116). More studies are needed, but these results suggest that O3 may influence biotic communities and pose a threat to biodiversity even years after exposure.

Plant-microbe coevolutionary relationship. Diverse communities of bacteria and fungi live near and on the surfaces of plant roots (rhizosphere) and leaves (phyllosphere) and in internal plant tissues (endosphere). Beneficial microbes help plants to acquire water and nutrients, defend against pathogenic microbes, tolerate abiotic stress (including drought and O3 and other air pollutants), adapt to environmental changes, establish mycorrhizae, and regulate plant growth (117121). Microbes can regulate plant growth directly by releasing phytohormones or organic growth promoters, contributing to ecosystem processes, such as N fixation, ammonia oxidation, and phosphate solubilization, or indirectly by producing biocontrol compounds, such as antibiotics, siderophores, and enzymes, or signaling compounds (121123). Microbes, in return, benefit from a stable niche, and the supply of primary and secondary metabolites and C from root exudates (123, 124). Microorganisms are evolutionarily older than land plants, and our current understanding is that plants are coevolving species assemblagesholobionts (Fig. 2), consisting of plants and their microbiota (125). The long coevolution of plants and their associated microbiota has likely led to phylogenetically and functionally divergent microbiomes in different environments and climatic zones. Our current knowledge of the impacts of O3 on plant microbiota and biodiversity is mainly restricted to rhizospheric processes.

Plant-soil feedbacks. An extensive body of literature addresses the interactions between plants and biotic and abiotic soil properties, known as PSFs (4). The effect of increasing atmospheric concentrations of O3 on these interactions, however, has rarely been studied (10, 13). A few studies have investigated the effects of manipulated O3 levels on community structure and composition and the function of soil microbial communities, but the results have been inconclusive (126131), perhaps due to varying durations of the experiments or other experimental factors such as the facilities used for exposing plants to O3, ecosystem type, and type of management (132). Many of these new studies, however, suggest potentially important impacts of elevated O3 on PSFs, including soil microbial diversity and decoupled PSF interactions (Fig. 2).

Soil ecosystem functioning. Elevated O3 can modify resource allocation between above- and belowground parts of the plant, an important response in all plants under O3 stress (13, 133). A meta-analysis showed that O3 generally inhibits the allocation to roots, relatively to shoots, albeit a variable phenomenon (133). A more recent analysis of 239 data entries of dry root mass of woody plants revealed that 40% of the entries reflected a statistically significant decrease and only 3% of the entries reflected a statistically significant increase (13). Likewise, an analysis of 104 data entries of root/shoot biomass ratio showed that 27% of the entries reflected a statistically significant decrease and only 5% of the entries reflected a statistically significant increase (13). Hence, it appears that elevated O3 generally reduces the allocation of resources to roots more than to shoots, suggesting potential feedbacks to the soil ecosystem.

Rhizospheric microbial communities are highly diverse and have a fundamental role in nutrient acquisition, water economy, growth, and disease tolerance (118). Elevated O3 reduces the allocation of C derived from the soil, which reduces the amount of resources for heterotrophic microbes and thereby affects belowground processes driven by microbes (132, 134, 135). O3 can thus modify decomposition rates, activities of soil enzymes, root turnover, rhizodeposition (all material lost from plant roots and deposited into the soil) and belowground cycling of C and N, although the magnitude and direction of the influence are plant specific and depend on various environmental conditions other than O3 (136139). The role of rhizodeposition is particularly important in northern biomes, where productivity is often strongly limited by the uptake and cycling of N (140). Exudation of other molecules such as chelators or organic acids is also crucial for the acquisition of phosphorus or microelements, but they lack experimentation regarding their role in O3 effects.

Many studies have reported that O3 accelerates foliar senescence, thereby changing the timing of litter deposition, and reduces the amount of leaf litter due to diminished foliar area (13, 141, 142). O3 can also affect litter quality (12, 13, 143). A series of experiments on the effects of O3 on nutrient translocation from senescing to younger leaves identified species-, soil-, and study-specific changes in the levels of micro- and macronutrients in the foliar litter, which appeared early during stress, altering ecological stoichiometry (144, 145). More studies are needed to draw general conclusions about these highly complex phenomena. These changes in the amount and quality of litter could affect soil macrofauna that feeds on litter, including detritivores [e.g., (143)].

Ozone reduces rhizodeposition because ecosystems exposed to elevated O3 support a lower net primary productivity, similar to leaves. The rate of turnover of fine roots may also be higher, which may also affect decomposition (13). Many experiments have found that O3 affects the chemical composition of fine roots, such as decreasing or increasing the contents of monosaccharides, total soluble carbohydrates, and total sugars, depending on the severity of stress (13). The levels of fatty acids, starches, and nutrients were also affected but not consistently in direction or magnitude, which are expected to vary with time and stress level (13)). Ozone influences the chemical composition of both roots and soluble root exudates (146, 147). All these alterations can lead to species-specific changes in the rates of decomposition (138, 148).

Recent advances show that elevated O3 alters the expression of microbial genes involved in C cycling, which, in turn, likely affects C cycling regulated by microbes (149). For instance, in two Chinese wheat cultivars exposed to elevated O3 in a FACE system, the abundance of C cycling genes was generally decreased in both cultivars (including fhs genes involved in the reductive acetogenesis pathway), although the abundance of a few genes increased in both cultivars (mcrA and mannanase and xylanase genes) or one of the cultivars (amyX, nplT, and lip genes in one cultivar; pcc, aceA/B, bacterial ara, and carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and phenol oxidase genes in the other cultivar) (149). Ozone can also reduce the ability of microbes to use C sources, especially in the rhizosphere, as indicated by the reduced signal intensity of some C degradation genes (e.g., related to hemicellulose, aromatics, and chitin) detected in a soil depth of 0 to 5 cm (129). The excretion of some extracellular enzymes involved in C metabolism (e.g., -glucosidase) can be similarly suppressed by O3 (150, 151), reducing the availability of C sources, which can also decrease the methanogenic activity of microbes in paddy fields (152). Ozone generally decreases C cycling by decreasing C-based exudation caused by a reduced translocation of photosynthates to the roots (13).

Ozone can also impair N cycling in soil driven by microbial activity (139, 150, 153157). For example, N fixation by legumes can decrease in response to increasing O3 concentrations (158). Several studies show that N-fixing plants (e.g., legumes) grown within multispecies plant communities can be more sensitive to O3 than their co-occurring species (table S1), although it remains elusive how O3 affects their N-fixing capacity in these multispecies communities. Ozone can also negatively affect N2O emissions from meadows and soybean fields (159, 160) and rice and wheat fields (161163), suggesting that reduced denitrification due to decreases in plant-derived C inputs induced by O3 may play a dominant role. The direction of the effects of O3 on N2O emissions is also driven by the system of cultivation (163). Recent advances suggest that O3 can reduce the expression of microbial genes involved in N fixation, denitrification, and N mineralization associated with legumes (129), including decreased abundances of nirK, nirS, and nosZ (which are widely used to describe denitrifier communities) and amoA (an indicator of nitrifier communities) (160). Reduced availability of soil N and/or labile C for nitrifiers or denitrifiers may account for these observations in the abundances of genes associated with N cycling. The effects of O3 on the cycling of soil N, however, clearly vary among plant genotypes or cultivars depending on their susceptibility to O3 (139, 149, 163). These findings demonstrate the decoupling of PSF interactions by O3.

Several studies suggest that O3 usually decreases soil microbial biomass (127, 150, 152, 164166). The negative response of microbial biomass to O3 is most likely due to a reduction in root biomass and substrate availability (13). O3 can reduce both fungal biomass and the ratio of fungi to bacteria, suggesting that fungi may be more susceptible than bacteria to O3 (149, 165, 166). Elevated O3 can significantly decrease microbial biomass in microaggregates (inhabited predominately by bacteria) relative to macroaggregates (132), suggesting that bacteria in microaggregates may be more susceptible to O3. Ozone, however, increased microbial biomass in a community dominated by sedges (167), perhaps due to an increase in substrate availability, because O3 slightly increased the total number of sedge leaves toward the end of the experiment, and/or to a faster turnover of fine roots caused by O3 (168). A decrease in soil microbial biomass would also contribute to a suppressed holobiont and disturbed PSFs (Fig. 2).

Empirical evidence for O3 threats to microbial community composition and diversity. Elevated O3 can alter the composition and structure of soil microbial communities (127, 129, 130, 165, 166, 169171). For example, 11 years of exposure to elevated O3 doubled the ratio of Basidiomycota to Ascomycota in soil microbial communities (128). The relative abundances of bacteria at the order level in the phylum Actinobacteria (which may promote the degradation of recalcitrant substances) increased under O3 (130). O3 also reduced the relative abundance of bacterial groups belonging to the family Rhodospirillaceae and the order Clostridiales in rice systems (169). Further studies have recently reported the effects of O3 on bacteria that facilitate the oxidation of ammonia, the rate-limiting step of nitrification. Elevated O3 decreased the relative abundances of some nitrifiers (e.g., Proteobacteria and Nitrospira) but increased those of some denitrifiers (e.g., Acremonium and Bacillus) in soils growing Machilus ichangensis and Taxus chinensis (127). O3 likewise increased the relative abundances of some nitrifying bacteria (e.g., Nitrososphaeraceae, Nitrospiraceae, Nocardioidaceae, and 0319-6A21) and N-fixing bacteria (e.g., Sphingomonadaceae, Rhizobiaceae, Termomonosporaceae, Micromonosporaceae, Streptomycetaceae, and Bradyrhizobiaceae) in the soil microbial community of a maize field (131). The abundance of microbes is an important indicator of N mineralization (172), and these results suggest that the effects of O3 on microbial structural diversity can affect N mineralization.

The structure of microbial communities may be affected by the soil environment and plant functions. Decreases in root exudation caused by elevated O3 represent a plausible mechanism by which plants could modulate their interaction with microbes. Root exudates have an important role in plant-microbe interactions and help to determine the composition of the rhizospheric microbiome (173175). Plants generally exude up to 20% of the fixed C and 15% of the N, which includes an array of simple molecules such as sugars, organic acids, and secondary metabolites and complex polymers such as mucilage (174, 176). The amount and composition of root exudates vary among plant genotypes. Root exudation is modulated by various abiotic stresses (177, 178). For example, microbial composition differed between maize genotypes, a phenomenon linked to differences in the amount of root exudation induced by O3 (131). Few studies, however, have focused on the effect of O3 on the relationships between root exudates and soil bacterial communities, so our understanding of the response of soil microorganisms to O3 is incomplete.

The alpha diversity of soil fungi (especially ectomycorrhizae), bacteria, and archaea is often reduced by O3 as an indirect consequence of changes in plant (and rhizospheric) structure and function caused by elevated O3 (130, 179182). Ozone in other cases, however, has increased microbial alpha diversity (130, 183, 184), highlighting the degrees to which the literature remains inconclusive and additional studies are needed for a comprehensive mechanistic understanding.

Rationale. The previous sections documented that the effects of O3 on insects and microbiota were mediated by plants and that the effects of O3 on plants could affect the composition and diversity of plant, insect, and microbial communities (Figs. 1 and 2). The impacts of O3 on plant diversity is not clear, but the evidence of indirect impacts on the diversity of plant microbiota is much clearer, suggesting that microbial diversity may be at a higher O3 risk than plant diversity. Plant biomass, a trait critical to fitness that also indicates permanent adverse effects of O3 (17), can be used as an indicator of the threat of O3 to the health of the plant, insect, and microbial communities. The productivity of plant communities, such as in predominant global forests, is also positively correlated with species richness (185). We identified areas with overlapping O3 risk and high terrestrial endemic richness for vascular plants under scenarios of representative concentration pathways (RCPs).

Methodology. Projected changes in O3 vary considerably among models (186) and scenarios of emission of O3 precursors (9). The latest emission scenarios, the RCPs, were developed for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (187). The RCP scenarios include various assumptions on climate, policies of energy access, and changes in land cover and use (188). Different RCP scenarios lead to different concentrations and emissions, e.g., CH4, O3 (even stratospheric O3 inputs), and emissions of NOx from lightning, associated with climate change, all of which affect O3 levels. The RCPs have been described elsewhere (9, 186, 189).

Sixteen global or regional chemical models within the Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP) were validated and used to evaluate projected changes in air quality under various scenarios of emission and climate (186, 189). On the basis of (9), we selected the global three-dimensional (3D) chemistry transport model MOCAGE (Modle de Chimie Atmosphrique Grande Echelle) among the 16 ACCMIP models to assess the worldwide threats of O3 to plant endemic richness.

MOCAGE is a global 3D chemistry transport model with a high grid resolution (0.5 by 0.5), which provides numerical simulations of the interactions between dynamical, physical, and chemical processes in the troposphere and lower stratosphere (190). It uses a semi-Lagrangian advection scheme to transport the chemical species (190). MOCAGE reproduces well the spatial pattern of O3 exposure at the global scale, e.g., in high-elevation areas or areas downwind of O3 precursor sources (9). The MOCAGE historical runs cover the period 20002003, while the time slice of RCPs is centered around 2100. MOCAGE can simulate 110 gas species including VOC species as well as soil and lightning NOx, with a horizontal resolution of 2 by 2, and includes 47 vertical pressure levels from the surface up to 5 hPa. MOCAGE simulates biogenic emissions of hydrocarbons from vegetation (isoprene, monoterpenes, and other VOCs) and also parameterizes dry deposition of hundreds of compounds including O3 (190). A shortfall of the MOCAGE model is that it overestimates O3, especially near sea surfaces, essentially in NH (190, 191). This phenomenon was due to limitations of the thermodynamic equilibrium hypothesis in a marine atmosphere and an overestimation of NOx emissions in the lowest part of the troposphere, especially in the winter months (190, 191). It may result from a positive bias in OH and CO emissions at the south of the Equator, which are mainly from a biomass burning origin, and are too strong (191).

The O3 exposurebased index AOT40 [parts per million (ppm)hour] is a metric used to assess the potential O3 risk to vegetation from local to global scales and adopted by European regulatory agencies (192194). AOT40 is less biologically relevant than flux-based metrics because, among other reasons, it does not incorporate species-specific O3 influx (11). However, O3 flux information can be obtained for only few ecotypes of (semi)natural plants, thus not permitting reliable O3 flux estimates across large regions of the globe. Global flux data for (semi)natural vegetation, which is the focus of this study, are not available. Furthermore, mapping global-scale O3 flux at high spatial resolution cannot be practically performed because of physical scarcity of data, such as hourly meteorological data, hourly soil moisture, dominant tree species per pixel, and stomatal conductance per dominant species. Moreover, world-leading agencies base regulatory ecological risk assessment upon estimated environmental concentrations (exposures) and not upon dose intake by organisms (influx), including the Deterministic Approach and the Probabilistic Approach [e.g., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scientific Advisory Panel of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Ecological Committee on FIFRA Risk Assessment Methods; http://www.epa.gov/%5D. AOT40 is computed as the sum of the hourly exceedances above 40 ppb, for daylight hours (radiation, >50 W m2) over vegetation- or species-specific growing seasons (195), namely, April to September for temperate climates (e.g., Europe) and all year round for Mediterranean, subtropical, and tropical-type climates (196). On the basis of (193), we calculated AOT40 for a model grid (8:00 to 20:00, local time) for all days of the year. A critical level of 5 ppmhour calculated over the growing season has been recommended for the protection of trees (5% reduction, total biomass) and (semi)natural vegetation dominated by perennials (10% reduction, above- or belowground biomass and/or cover of individual species) (195). We selected this level as a stringent reference point for both annual and perennial (semi)natural vegetation; a level of 3 ppmhour (195) would produce exceedances of critical level throughout NH. Details of the O3 data used and the procedure followed are provided by (9).

Kier et al. (197) analyzed the endemism richness of vascular plants (i.e., ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms) in large datasets and maps across 90 biogeographic regions worldwide (excluding Antarctica) using a standard area of 10,000 km2. This index (endemic richness) combines both endemic and species richness and is considered superior to species richness or species endemism, and it can indicate the specific contribution of an area to global biodiversity (197). The dataset contains the full spectrum of abiotic conditions and includes all major biomes. We used the dataset provided by Kier et al. (197) to map the endemism richness of <5, 5 to 10, 10 to 20, 20 to 50, and >50 species of terrestrial vascular plants per 10,000 km2. Mean richness for mainland areas was 18.2 species per 10,000 km2, so we created these arbitrary categories and considered an endemic richness of 20 species per 10,000 km2 to be high, i.e., exceeding the average endemic richness (see the Supplementary Materials).

AOT40 averaged 31.8 ppmhour in NH and 3.5 ppmhour in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) in the 2000s (Fig. 3A). In the early 2000s, AOT40 below the critical level of 5 ppmhour occurred mainly in the SH: South America, Pacific islands, the Cape region of South Africa, Madagascar, Polynesia-Micronesia, Melanesia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, Tasmania, New Caledonia, and New Zealand (Fig. 3A). Higher O3 burdens (AOT40, >25 ppmhour) have been simulated for areas at high elevations, e.g., the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau, and for Greenland, northeastern Siberia, the Mediterranean Basin, and areas downwind of precursor sources, e.g., southern Asia (Fig. 3A).

Changes in AOT40 compared to the early 2000s were 60% (NH) and +69% (SH) for RCP2.6 (most optimistic), 28% (NH) and +203% (SH) for RCP4.5, and +67% (NH) and +449% (SH) for RCP8.5 (most pessimistic). Surface AOT40 for RCP2.6 would decrease worldwide, except in equatorial Africa, where AOT40 was higher (Fig. 3B). Mean surface O3 concentrations decreased most where historical O3 concentrations were high. The O3 foci (AOT40, >25 ppmhour) for RCP2.6 were in Greenland, India, the Near East, and equatorial Africa (Fig. 3B), but the vegetation in Greenland was very limited. AOT40 for RCP4.5 was slightly lower than historical runs, except over Canada and eastern Asia (particularly Siberia) where a high increase was observed (Fig. 3C). The surface O3 levels and AOT40 were higher for RCP8.5 than historical runs and increased the most in northwestern United States, Greenland, the Mediterranean Basin, the Near East, and eastern Asia (Fig. 3D). AOT40 greatly exceeded 25 ppmhour worldwide, except in Central and South America and Australia (Fig. 3D).

AOT40 for the three RCPs did not change significantly in SH. MOCAGE indicated that the critical levels for the protection of perennial (semi)natural vegetation for RCP8.5 based on AOT40 (5 ppmhour) would be exceeded over many areas of NH by as much as 10-fold, despite improvements for RCP2.6 and RCP4.5.

AOT40 is expected to be high (>5 ppmhour) by 2100 for 23 to 51% of the land areas with an endemic richness of 20 to 50 or >50 species per 10,000 km2, depending on the RCP (Table 2). Only 4% of the land areas with an endemic richness of >200 species per 10,000 km2, however, is projected to be exposed to high AOT40 values (>5 ppmhour) and only for the most pessimistic scenario, RCP8.5 (Table 2).

All NH areas with very high endemic richness (>50 species per 10,000 km2) in the 2000s overlapped with high O3 exposures (>5 ppmhour), except Central America, northern South America, and the Philippines. Plant endemic richness was high in regions with a Mediterranean climate, and regions in NH where endemic richness was high (e.g., California, the Mediterranean Basin, and Ethiopia) had high O3 levels in summer (198, 199).

A comparison of the global distributions of the endemic richness of vascular plants (>20 plant species per 10,000 km2) where AOT40 was >5 ppmhour for the three RCPs indicated that both endemic richness and O3 risk were high for NH Atlantic islands in the latitude band 15 to 45N (e.g., the Canary Islands, Azores, and the Caribbean), the Mediterranean Basin, equatorial Africa, Ethiopia, the Indian coastline, the Himalayan region, southern Asia, and Japan.

A gap of knowledge exists in O3 effects on natural and seminatural communities in tropical and subtropical environments; thus, these studies are encouraged. The long-term impacts of O3 on biodiversity remain completely unknown, especially in terms of global biodiversity. A new generation of long-term real-world experiments designed to study the effects of O3 on biodiversity are greatly needed. The complex structure, physiognomy, and high biodiversity of southern biomes are obstacles to conducting field or laboratory studies of this subject.

Can elevated O3 alter the ecological plasticity of wild and semi-wild plant species? Potential selection pressure due to plant-plant competition under O3 is likely weak and will be difficult to demonstrate. Previous studies have reported controversial results (16, 200) due to the high intraspecific variation of many species (5). Little evidence has been found for the impact of temporal changes in O3 concentrations on diversity. Understanding and improving the tolerance to O3 are more advanced for crop plants than wild and semi-wild species, but the tolerance of genetically improved plants to O3 has rarely been demonstrated in the field (201). The use of genetic markers and DNA fingerprinting in wild populations has demonstrated that genetic diversity is decreasing in areas with high O3 levels [reviewed in (5)], which may lead to reduced ecological plasticity in changing environments. Population differentiation studies at high-risk areas under future scenarios may provide further insights and are thus encouraged. Limited information is yet available for the impacts of O3 on mosses, ferns, lichens, algae, and fungi, although current data suggest high tolerance to O3 for many of these organisms (5). More research is needed to understand the role of belowground processes and phyllospheric microbiota for assessing biodiversity.

Can O3 affect insect diversity? The effects of elevated O3 on insects could be indirect and would depend on the magnitude of change in the quality of the host plant (bottom-up factors) and/or the impact on natural enemies (top-down factors) (83). Elevated O3 may affect populations of natural enemies by shifts in the diversity, abundance, and quality of prey or changes in behavior that may affect finding hosts (85, 115). Information about the temporary and long-term impacts of elevated O3 on insect diversity remains elusive.

Can elevated O3 alter the diversity of phyllospheric microbiota? The differences in the composition of microbiota from different plant tissues represent an adaptation to different plant niches and the specific function of the tissue, such as C assimilation in leaves and the uptake of water and nutrients by roots. The atmospheric environment has direct contact with the phyllosphere, which forms the largest area of bioactive surfaces on Earth, at the interface between the plant and atmosphere, mediating plant responses to a changing environment (202). The phyllosphere is a habitat for a large variety of microbes (phyllobiome), with microbial densities of up to 107 cells cm2 (203), but the impacts of elevated O3 or other air pollutants on the phyllobiome are poorly known (169). Rhizospheric and phyllospheric microbiotas are interconnected and overlap with endophytic microbiota through regulatory traits, particularly for the promotion of plant growth (hormone biosynthesis) and catalytic pathways (degradation of C-based and defensive compounds) (120). A preliminary study did not detect significant effects of O3 on the phyllosphere microbiome; however, it was conducted in an artificial environment, outside the natural habitat of rice, where plants were grown in pots inside a greenhouse (169). Hence, new research is needed for understanding the impacts of elevated O3 on the phyllobiome.

Despite several uncertainties, some key conclusions of our review are the following:

The composition of a plant community may exhibit long-term changes, and diversity may be at risk, due to a genotype-specific susceptibility to O3, especially in areas where O3 is at potentially phytotoxic levels. The consensus is that elevated O3 affects plant-community composition but if and to what extent O3 may contribute to changes in biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems remain unclear. Climatic scenarios for 2100 suggest that regions with high endemic richness, e.g., NH Atlantic islands in the latitude band 15 to 45N, the Mediterranean Basin, equatorial Africa, Ethiopia, the Indian coastline, the Himalayan region, southern Asia, and Japan, are most threatened by high levels of O3.

Ozone affects the foliar chemical composition and the composition of BVOC emissions, altering plant-insect interactions and thus threatening key ecosystem functions (e.g., plant-insect communication). O3 can indirectly affect species abundance and the structure of insect communities.

Ozone also alters plant properties and soil processes that define plant-soil-microbe interactions and PSFs, such as the input of plant litter, plant exudation, root turnover, nutrient cycling, activities of soil enzymes, and decomposition, threatening the functioning of the soil ecosystem. Soil microbial communities can be indirectly affected, including decreasing microbial biomass, altering the composition and structure of communities and usually reducing alpha diversity.

The responses of plant-insect interactions and PSFs to O3 are species specific and affected by several factors, such as the spatial variation of O3, temperature, relative humidity, degree of urbanization, and the quality of control services in urban, rural, and forested areas. Ozone has, nonetheless, been demonstrated to decouple plant-insect interactions and PSFs, which should be considered when predicting the impacts of climate change.

Potential threats of elevated O3 to biodiversity and ecosystem services should be considered when adopting the post-2020 global biodiversity initiative Roadmap for EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China (October 2020), for curtailing biodiversity loss and preserving and restoring its ecosystems.

A. M. Trowbridge, in Ecology and the Environment, R. K. Monson, Ed. (Springer, 2015), pp. 128.

C. Calfapietra, E. Pallozzi, I. Lusini, V. Velikova, in Biology, Controls and Models of Tree Volatile Organic Compound Emissions, . Niinemets, R. K. Monson, Eds. (Springer, 2013), pp. 253284.

G. Myhre, D. Shindell, F.-M. Bron, W. Collins, J. Fuglestvedt, J. Huang, D. Koch, J.-F. Lamarque, D. Lee, B. Mendoza, T. Nakajima, A. Robock, G. Stephens, T. Takemura, H. Zhang, Anthropogenic and natural radiative forcing, in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, T. F. Stocker, D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S. K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex, P. M. Midgley, Eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 659740.

B. Kirtman, S. B. Power, J. A. Adedoyin, G. J. Boer, R. Bojariu, I. Camilloni, F. Doblas-Reyes, A. M. Fiore, M. Kimoto, G. Meehl, M. Prather, A. Sarr, C. Schr, R. Sutton, G. Van Oldenborgh, G. Vecchi, H. J. Wang, Near-term climate change: Projections and predictability, in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, T. F. Stocker, D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S. K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex, P. M. Midgley, Eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013), pp. 9531028.

J. L. Innes, J. M. Skelly, M. Schaub, Ozone and Broadleaved Species. A Guide to the Identification of Ozone-Induced Foliar Injury (Birmensdorf: Eidgenssische Forschungsanstalt WSL, 2001).

M. Schaub, P. Jakob, L. Bernhard, J. L. Innes, J. M. Skelly, N. Kruchi, Ozone Injury Database (Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 2002).

K. O. Burkey, E. Agathokleous, C. J. Saitanis, A. M. Mashaheet, T. Koike, Y.-T. Hung, in Handbook of Environmental and Waste Management Volume 3, Acid Rain and Greenhouse Gas Pollution Control, Y.-T. Hung, L. K. Wang, N. K. Shammas, Eds. (World Scientific Publishing Co., 2020), p. 1055. ISBN-10: 9811207127.

S. N. Singh, Climate Change and Crops. Environmental Science and Engineering (Springer-Verlag, 2009).

M. Schaub, V. Calatayud, M. Ferretti, G. Brunialti, G. Lvblad, G. Krause, M. J. Sanz, in Manual on Methods and Criteria for Harmonized Sampling, Assessment, Monitoring and Analysis of the Effects of Air Pollution on Forests (UNECE ICP Forests Programme, 2010), p. 22.

J. M. Skelly, J. L. Innes, J. E. Savage, K. R. Snyder, D. Vanderheyden, J. Zhang, M. J. Sanz, in Water, Air, and Soil Pollution (Springer, 1999), vol. 116, pp. 227234.

S. Brace, D. L. Peterson, D. Bowers, A Guide to Ozone Injury in Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest - [United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, General Technical Report PNW-GTR-446, September 1999 (1999)].

M. J. Sanz, G. Sanchez, V. Calatayud, M. T. Minaya, J. Cervero, La Contaminacion Atmosferica en los Bosques: Guia para la identificacion de danos visibles causados por ozono (Organismo Autonomo de Parques Nacionales, 2001).

K. Stolte, Symptomology of Ozone Injury to Pine Foliage, in Evaluating Ozone Air Pollution Effects on Pines in the Western United States, P. R. Miller, K. W. Stolte, D. M. Duriscoe, J. Pronos, Eds. (USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PSW-GTR-155, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service US Department of Agriculture, 1996).

R. Kohut, Handbook for Assessment of Foliar Ozone Injury on Vegetation in the National Parks (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Air Resources Division, 2005).

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, C. B. Field, V. R. Barros, D. J. Dokken, K. J. Mach, M. D. Mastrandrea, T. E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K. L. Ebi, Y. O. Estrada, R. C. Genova, B. Girma, E. S. Kissel, A. N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P. R. Mastrandrea, L. L. White, Eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014), 1132 pp.

See more here:
Ozone affects plant, insect, and soil microbial communities: A threat to terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity - Science Advances

SPT enzyme can be used as metabolically responsive switch to slow tumor growth – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 12 2020

The enzyme serine palmitoyl-transferase can be used as a metabolically responsive "switch" that decreases tumor growth, according to a new study by a team of San Diego scientists, who published their findings Aug. 12 in the journal Nature.

By restricting the dietary amino acids serine and glycine, or pharmacologically targeting the serine synthesis enzyme phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase, the team induced tumor cells to produce a toxic lipid that slows cancer progression in mice. Further research is needed to determine how this approach might be translated to patients.

Over the last decade researchers have learned that removing the amino acids serine and glycine from animal diets slows the growth of some tumors.

However, most research teams have focused on how these diets impact epigenetics, DNA metabolism, and antioxidant activity. In contrast, the researchers from the University of California San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies identified a dramatic impact of these interventions on tumor lipids, particularly those found on the surface of cells.

Our work highlights the beautiful complexity of metabolism as well as the importance of understanding physiology across diverse biochemical pathways when considering such metabolic therapies."

Christian Metallo, Study Corresponding Author and Professor of Bioengineering, Jacobs School of Engineering, University California, San Diego

In this case, serine metabolism was the researchers' focus. The enzyme serine palmitoyl-transferase, or SPT, typically uses serine to make fatty molecules called sphingolipids, which are essential for cell function.

But if serine levels are low, the enzyme can act "promiscuously" and use a different amino acid such as alanine, which results in the production of toxic deoxysphingolipids.

The team decided on this research direction after examining the affinity that certain enzymes have to serine and comparing them to the concentration of serine in tumors. These levels are known as Km or the Michaelis constant, and the numbers pointed to SPT and sphingolipids.

"By linking serine restriction to sphingolipid metabolism, this finding may enable clinical scientists to better identify which patients' tumors are most sensitive to serine-targeting therapies," Metallo said.

These toxic deoxysphingolipids are most potent at decreasing the growth of cells in "anchorage-independent" conditions--a situation where cells cannot easily adhere to surfaces that better mimics tumor growth in the body.

Further studies are necessary to better understand the mechanisms through which deoxysphingolipids are toxic to cancer cells and what effects they have on the nervous system.

In the Nature study, the research team fed a diet low on serine and glycine to xenograft model mice. They observed that SPT turned to alanine to produce toxic deoxysphingolipids instead of normal sphingolipids.

In addition, researchers used the amino-acid based antibiotic myriocin to inhibit SPT and deoxysphingolipid synthesis in mice fed low serine and glycine diets and found that tumor growth was improved.

Depriving an organism of serine for long periods of time leads to neuropathy and eye disease, Metallo pointed out. Last year, he co-lead an international team that identified reduced levels of serine and accumulation of deoxysphingolipids as a key driver of a rare macular disease called macular telangiectasia type 2, or MacTel.

The work was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, serine restriction or drug treatments for tumor therapy would not require the prolonged treatments that induce neuropathy in animals or age-related diseases.

Source:

Journal reference:

Muthusamy, T., et al. (2020) Serine restriction alters sphingolipid diversity to constrain tumour growth. Nature. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2609-x.

View post:
SPT enzyme can be used as metabolically responsive switch to slow tumor growth - News-Medical.Net

Brain’s Ability to Rewire Itself is Connected to Gene Expression – University of Michigan Health System News

From birth, the normal human brain rewires itself in response to sensory stimulation from the outside world. To put it simply, it does this by strengthening the connections between certain brain cells through a junction called a synapse. The brains ability to change in this way is known as synaptic plasticity.

With certain cognitive disorders, like autism and Alzheimers disease, this rewiring process is disordered. Shigeki Iwase, Ph.D., associate professor of human genetics, and his team have been attempting to understand why, using a gene called RAI1. The genetic deletion of RAI1 causes Smith Magenis Syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized with autistic behavior and sleep disturbances.

In a new paper published in Cell Reports, the team describes how they developed a new experimental approach for monitoring gene expression across the genome in neurons while they are in the process of rewiring. Using this method, we found that synaptic activity can change the expression of many more genes than we previously thought, says Iwase.

The new method also enabled them to discover that RAI1 plays a criticalrole inthe gene expression underlying synaptic plasticity. In collaboration with Michael Sutton, Ph.D., professor of molecular and integrative physiology, and his team, they found evidence that neurons lacking RAI1 have impaired capability to rewire upon sensory inputs.

Says Iwase, Our new method can be a powerful tool to determine the molecular mechanisms of how normal and diseased neuronal networks integrate environmental information, change geneexpression, and ultimately generate our behavior, and identify potential drug targets for relevant brain diseases.

Paper cited: "RAI1 Regulates Activity-Dependent Nascent Transcription and Synaptic Scaling," Cell Reports.DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108002

Read the original:
Brain's Ability to Rewire Itself is Connected to Gene Expression - University of Michigan Health System News

Study points to health disparities among former NFL players – Harvard Gazette

A career in professional football may yield an array of health benefits that extend beyond playing years: NFL players engage in vigorous training, tend to be more educated than other men in the U.S. and have higher median incomes than most fellow Americans all factors associated with better overall health.

But new research from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggests that even these advantages may not be enough to neutralize persistent gaps in health outcomes among Black, white, and players of other racial backgrounds.

The analysis, based on self-reports among former NFL players, found that Black players were significantly more likely than white players to experience diminished quality of life due to impaired physical function, pain, cognitive troubles, depression, and anxiety. In four of five health outcomes, the gaps were greatest between Black and white former players.

The findings, published Aug. 4 in Annals of Epidemiology, are based on a survey of 3,794 former NFL players, ages 24 to 89, conducted as part of the ongoing Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, a research initiative that encompasses a constellation of studies designed to evaluate various aspects of players health across the lifespan.

The researchers categorized former players into three groups based on self-identified race: Black (1,423), white (2,215), and Hawaiian and other races (109) a group that included American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Asian, among others. The researchers then compared self-reported symptoms in five categories: physical functioning, pain, cognitive function, depression, and anxiety.

The analysis showed that Black former NFL players were 50 percent more likely than white former players to have pain that interfered with daily activities, as well as depression and anxiety. Black former players were 36 percent more likely to have cognitive symptoms including memory deficits and attention problems that impacted their quality of life. Black former players were also nearly 90 percent more likely to report impaired physical functioning, compared with their white peers.

The study found that other players of color, including Native Hawaiians, had a higher risk for all categories of adverse health outcomes, except impaired physical functioning.

Our analysis points to persistent and dramatic gaps in health outcomes among former NFL players that are particularly pronounced among Black athletes and also present among other Hawaiians, Native Americans and Asian players, said study lead author Andrea Roberts, senior research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

These gaps echo well-documented health disparities in the general population and demand both short-term interventions and long-term solutions.

Marc Weisskopf

Our findings underscore the urgent need to develop public health interventions and policies that address underlying systemic factors that give rise to such disparities both among former athletes and in the general population, Roberts added.

To examine the role of other factors that may affect health outcomes, the researchers also looked at the number of seasons played in the NFL, position played, concussion symptoms, surgeries, body-mass index, use of performance-enhancing drugs, lifestyle habits including drinking and smoking, as well as pain medication use. The differences persisted even when the researchers accounted for the possible influence of these factors.

Next, the researchers examined whether differences in health varied by a players age, as a surrogate marker for diversity and equity in the era that they played in. Although younger players of color were in the NFL during a period marked by greater diversity and greater equity, their risk for adverse health outcomes remained the same as that of older players.

The researchers suggested that factors such as discrimination prior to, during, or following a players time in the NFL could account for the disparities. Systemic and structural racism has been linked with worse mental and physical health and higher mortality. Additionally, past research indicates that nonwhites are more likely to receive lower quality health care than whites.

We tend to think that elite athletes may be shielded from health inequities, but our findings counter that notion and reveal important differences in quality of life among former athletes, said study senior author Marc Weisskopf, professor of environmental epidemiology and physiology at the Harvard Chan School. These gaps echo well-documented health disparities in the general population and demand both short-term interventions and long-term solutions.

As we begin to unpack the complexities around these health disparities between white and nonwhite players, we can begin to see the confluence of challenges that extend beyond the socioeconomic benefits of playing in the NFL, said study co-author Herman Taylor, a co-investigator of the Football Players Health Study and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine. Meaningful solutions to systemic inequities that fuel health disparities will not emerge overnight. In the meantime, we urge players to consult their physicians about the health concerns weve outlined in this study that might impact their quality of life.

The research was funded by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA).

Other investigators on the study included Alicia Whittington, Frank Speizer, Aaron Baggish, Ross Zafonte, and Alvaro Pascual-Leone.

Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews.

See original here:
Study points to health disparities among former NFL players - Harvard Gazette