A dataset with complete geographic distributions of eight zonal monospecific forest types in mainland Spain.

Distribution area and surface are both parameters of paramount importance for habitat management, monitoring and conservation. Here we present the distribution of eight zonal forest types of mainland Spain that are consistent with the Habitat Types (HT) listed in Annex I of the European Union Habitats Directive 92/43 EC. Their dominant species and HT codes are Fagus sylvatica (9120, 9130 and 9150), Quercus robur and Q. pyrenaica (9230), Q. suber (9330), Pinus uncinata (9430), P. nigra ssp. salzmannii (9530) and P. pinea (subset of 9540). These distributions are based on tesserae from the 1:50,000 Spanish Forest Map and are the result of sorting assisted by supplementary databases. The distributions are presented as vector coverages, and provide three information levels of increasing detail: geographic distribution, basic forest type and structural forest patch. Two R scripts are also included with the dataset. They implement a segmented regression approach to investigate forest fragmentation on these or other patch-like data.

Doomed to collapse: Why Algerian steppe rangelands are overgrazed and some lessons to help land-use transitions.

This work illustrates the application of a simulation model to analyse how swiftly large-scale land-use changes can drive broad territories to collapse. In this sense, the economic needs of a population should not clash with the natural environment but rather be reconciled with it. Abundant literature deals with the integration of socioeconomic drivers, ecological aspects, farming management, and climatology related to Algerian rangeland degradation. The present study seeks to compare the time course of Alfa grass biomass and the livestock raised on these distinctive rangelands under two different land-use strategies. The traditional one has nomads as the main inhabitants of these lands. For centuries, their strategy for alleviating pressure on resources was to move from one area to other. The more recent sedentary land-use leads to overgrazing supported by the massive use of cheap supplemental feed. Additionally, the model was used as a platform to launch scenarios for sustainable land-use management under a competitive market-economy. A key finding for preserving grazing resources was the increment of supplemental feed prices, which is compatible with stocking rates higher than the historical ones.

Present and future of desertification in Spain: Implementation of a surveillance system to prevent land degradation.

Mitigation strategies are crucial for desertification given that once degradation starts, other solutions are extremely expensive or unworkable. Prevention is key to handle this problem and solutions should be based on spotting and deactivating the stressors of the system. Following this topic, the Spanish Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (SPACD) created the basis for implementing two innovative approaches to evaluate the threat of land degradation in the country. This paper presents tools for preventing desertification in the form of a geomatic approach to enable the periodic assessments of the status and trends of land condition. Also System Dynamics modelling has been used to integrate bio-physical and socio-economic aspects of desertification to explain and analyse degradation in the main hot spots detected in Spain. The 2dRUE procedure was implemented to map the land-condition status by comparing potential land productivity according to water availability, the limiting factor in arid lands, with plant-biomass data. This assessment showed that 20% of the territory is degraded and an additional 1% is actively degrading. System Dynamics modelling was applied to study the five desertification landscapes identified by the SPACD. The risk analysis, implemented on these models, concluded that 'Herbaceous crops affected by soil erosion' is the landscape most at risk, while the Plackett-Burman sensitivity analysis used to rank the factors highlighted the supremacy of climatic factors above socioeconomic drivers.

Partial defects in transcriptional activity of two novel DAX-1 mutations in childhood-onset adrenal hypoplasia congenita.

OBJECTIVE: Mutations in DAX-1, an X-linked gene encoding an orphan nuclear receptor, have been associated with adrenal hypoplasia congenita and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Here we describe two novel DAX-1 mutations, Y214X and I361T, associated with childhood-onset primary adrenal failure. We aimed at analysing their effects on protein localization, transcriptional activity and propose a structural-function relationship. DESIGN: We have directly sequenced the DAX-1 gene from PCR-amplified DNA. The effect of the mutations on protein localization was assessed by immunocytochemistry in transfected cells. The impact of mutations on transcriptional activity was determined by transfection using a StAR promoter-luciferase reporter system. RESULTS: The mutation Y214X produces a protein lacking the C-terminal half of DAX-1. The other one, I361T, affects a highly conserved amino acid within the putative ligand-binding domain. The mutant Y214X displayed a wild-type subcellular localization while I361T was partially retained in the cytoplasm. Both mutants retained subtantial transcriptional repressive activity, compared to mutants producing early onset adrenal failure. Interestingly, I361T displayed similar in vitro transcriptional repressive activity to the mutant I439S previously described in a case of late-onset AHC. This shows that molecular alterations of DAX-1 leading to similar in vitro activities may result in very different ages of onset of adrenal failure, which suggests that additional genetic and epigenetic factors are important in determining the clinical course of AHC. CONCLUSIONS: Our results help the understanding of structure-function relationships in the DAX-1 molecule, suggesting that the N-terminal domain is relatively autonomous and add credence to presumed molecular interactions within ligand binding domain of the protein.