ABSTRACT
Eutrophication in marine waters is traditionally assessed by checking if nutrients, algal biomass and oxygen are below/above a given threshold. However, increased biomass, nutrient concentrations and oxygen demand do not lead to undesirable environmental effects if the flow of carbon/energy from primary producers toward high trophic levels is consistently preserved. Consequently, traditional indicators might provide a misleading assessment of the eutrophication risk. To avoid this, we propose to evaluate eutrophication by using a new index based on plankton trophic fluxes instead of biogeochemical concentrations. A preliminary, model-based, assessment suggests that this approach might give a substantially different picture of the eutrophication status of our seas, with potential consequences on marine ecosystem management. Given the difficulties to measure trophic fluxes in the field, the use of numerical simulations is recommended although the uncertainty associated with biogeochemical models inevitably affects the reliability of the index. However, given the effort currently in place to develop refined numerical tools describing the marine environment (Ocean Digital Twins), a reliable, model-based, eutrophication index could be operational in the near future.
ABSTRACT
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a motor neuron disease characterized by the progressive atrophy of both the first and the second motor neurons. Although the cognitive profile of ALS patients has already been defined by the occurrence of language dysfunctions and frontal deficit symptoms, it is less clear whether the degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons affects motor imagery abilities. Here, we directly investigated motor imagery in ALS patients by means of an established task that allows to examine the presence of the effects of the biomechanical constraints. Twenty-three ALS patients and 23 neurologically unimpaired participants have been administered with the (1) hand laterality task (HLT) in which participants were asked to judge the laterality of a rotated hand and the (2) mirror letter discrimination task (MLD) in which participants were asked to judge whether a rotated alphanumeric character was in its canonical or mirror-reversed form (i.e. control task). Results show that patients present the same pattern of performance as unimpaired participants at the MLD, while at the HLT, they present only partially with the effects of biomechanical constraints. Taken together, our findings provide evidences that motor imagery abilities, related to the mental simulation of an action, are affected by this progressive disease.
