Implementing voluntary assisted dying laws in healthcare: Exploring beliefs to identify implementation hurdles.

The number of countries introducing voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws is increasing. Actively taking steps to end a person's life is contentious so implementing these laws into healthcare services presents unique challenges. Theoretically underpinned by the Advocacy Coalition Framework, this study identified the beliefs of classes of stakeholders who engaged with the parliamentary process associated with the introduction of VAD laws in Queensland, Australia. Submissions about VAD made to a parliamentary inquiry were allocated to a class and qualitatively analysed to identify underlying beliefs. The data were then subjected to statistical analysis including nonmetric dimensional scaling and one-way analysis of similarity. Data visualisation techniques were used to generate a chord map and heatmap, to identify the belief types, as well as similarities and differences between beliefs and among classes. Fourteen different beliefs were identified in the 91 reviewed submissions. Six were deep core beliefs and eight were policy core beliefs. Beliefs could be associated with a positive or negative sentiment toward VAD. In this study, the class of Health Services expressed more negative sentiments to VAD than neutral or positive sentiments. The sentiments expressed by the class of Health Professionals were equally divided between positive, neutral and negative. These findings provide important insights for implementors as laws become operational. In particular, for organisations that provide health services, clear articulation of their stance in relevant policy and guidance documents is recommended.

Temporal dynamics in alpine snowpatch plants along a snowmelt gradient explained by functional traits and strategies.

Alpine snowpatches are characterised by persistent snow cover, short growing seasons and periglacial processes, which has resulted in highly specialised plant communities. Hence, these snowpatch communities are among the most threatened from climate change. However, temporal dynamics in snowpatch microclimate and plant composition are rarely explored, especially in the marginal alpine environments of Australia. Seven snowpatches were categorised into early, mid and late snowmelt zones based on growing season length, with soil temperatures recorded from 2003 to 2020 and plant composition surveyed in 84 1 m2 quadrats in 2007, 2013 and 2020. Microclimate, species diversity, plant cover and composition, along with community-weighted trait means and plant strategies were assessed to understand snowpatch dynamics in response to climate change. We found that growing season length and temperatures have increased in late melt zones, while changes were less consistent in early and mid melt zones. There were few changes in species diversity, but increases in graminoids and declines in snowpatch specialists in mid and late melt zones. Community-weighted plant height, leaf area and leaf weight also increased, particularly in mid and late melt zones, while plant strategies shifted from compositions of ruderal-tolerant to stress-tolerant. Here, we show that snowpatch communities are rapidly changing in response to longer growing seasons and warmer temperatures, with the greatest changes occurring where snow persists the longest. The results highlight the climate-induced loss of defining biotic and abiotic characteristics of snowpatches, as temporal convergence of compositions along snowmelt gradients threatens the distinctiveness of snowpatch plant communities.

Alpine vegetation in the context of climate change: A global review of past research and future directions.

Climate change is causing extensive alterations to ecosystems globally, with some more vulnerable than others. Alpine ecosystems, characterised by low-temperatures and cryophilic vegetation, provide ecosystems services for billions of people but are considered among the most susceptible to climate change. Therefore, it is timely to review research on climate change on alpine vegetation including assessing trends, topics, themes and gaps. Using a multicomponent bibliometric approach, we extracted bibliometric metadata from 3143 publications identified by searching titles, keywords and abstracts for research on 'climate change' and 'alpine vegetation' from Scopus and Web of Science. While primarily focusing on 'alpine vegetation', some literature that also assessed vegetation below the treeline was captured. There has been an exponential increase in research over 50 years, greater engagement and diversification in who does research, and where it is published and conducted, with increasing focus beyond Europe, particularly in China. Content analysis of titles, keywords and abstracts revealed that most of the research has focused on alpine grasslands but there have been relatively few publications that examine specialist vegetation communities such as snowbeds, subnival vegetation and fellfields. Important themes emerged from analysis of keywords, including treelines and vegetation dynamics, biodiversity, the Tibetan Plateau as well as grasslands and meadows. Traditional ecological monitoring techniques were important early on, but remote sensing has become the primary method for assessment. A key book on alpine plants, the IPCC reports and a few papers in leading journals underpin much of the research. Overall, research on this topic is increasing, with new methods and directions but thematic and geographical gaps remain particularly for research on extreme climatic events, and research in South America, in part due to limited capacity for research on these rare but valuable ecosystems.