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Expansion of US wood pellet industry points to positive trends but the need for continued monitoring.

ABSTRACT: Implementation of the European Union Renewable Energy Directive has triggered exponential growth in trading of pelletized wood fibers. Over 18 million tons of wood pellets were traded by EU member countries in 2018 of which a third were imported from the US. Concerns exist about negative impacts on US forests but systematic assessments are currently lacking. We assessed variability in fundamental attributes for timberland structure and carbon stocks within 123 procurement landscapes of wood pellet mills derived from over 38 thousand forest inventory plots in the eastern US from 2005 to 2017. We found more carbon stocks in live trees, but a fewer number of standing-dead trees, associated with the annual operation of large-scale wood pellet mills. In the US coastal southeast-where US pellet exports to the EU originate-there were fewer live and growing-stock trees and less carbon in soils with every year of milling operation than in the rest of the eastern US-which supplies the domestic market. Greater overlap of mills' procurement areas exhibited discernible increments across selected carbon stocks. These trends likely reflect more intensive land management practices. Localized forest impacts associated with the wood pellet industry should continue to be monitored.

SUBMITTER: Aguilar FX

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7596571 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Expansion of US wood pellet industry points to positive trends but the need for continued monitoring.

Aguilar Francisco X FX Mirzaee Ashkan A McGarvey Ronald G RG Shifley Stephen R SR Burtraw Dallas D

Scientific reports 20201029 1

Implementation of the European Union Renewable Energy Directive has triggered exponential growth in trading of pelletized wood fibers. Over 18 million tons of wood pellets were traded by EU member countries in 2018 of which a third were imported from the US. Concerns exist about negative impacts on US forests but systematic assessments are currently lacking. We assessed variability in fundamental attributes for timberland structure and carbon stocks within 123 procurement landscapes of wood pell ...[more]

PMID: 33122749

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Project description:Highly pathogenic (HP) H5N1 influenza viruses are evolving pathogens with the potential to cause sustained human-to-human transmission and pandemic virus spread. Specific antiviral drugs can play an important role in the early stages of a pandemic, but the emergence of drug-resistant variants can limit control options. The available data on the susceptibility of HP H5N1 influenza viruses to neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors and adamantanes is scarce, and there is no extensive analysis. Here, we systematically examined the prevalence of NA inhibitor and adamantane resistance among HP H5N1 influenza viruses that circulated worldwide during 2002-2012. The phenotypic fluorescence-based assay showed that both human and avian HP H5N1 viruses are susceptible to NA inhibitors oseltamivir and zanamivir with little variability over time and ∼5.5-fold less susceptibility to oseltamivir of viruses of hemagglutinin (HA) clade 2 than of clade 1. Analysis of available sequence data revealed a low incidence of NA inhibitor-resistant variants. The established markers of NA inhibitor resistance (E119A, H274Y, and N294S, N2 numbering) were found in 2.4% of human and 0.8% of avian isolates, and the markers of reduced susceptibility (I117V, K150N, I222V/T/K, and S246N) were found in 0.8% of human and 2.9% of avian isolates. The frequency of amantadine-resistant variants was higher among human (62.2%) than avian (31.6%) viruses with disproportionate distribution among different HA clades. As in human isolates, avian H5N1 viruses carry double L26I and S31N M2 mutations more often than a single S31N mutation. Overall, both human and avian HP H5N1 influenza viruses are susceptible to NA inhibitors; some proportion is still susceptible to amantadine in contrast to ∼100% amantadine resistance among currently circulating seasonal human H1N1 and H3N2 viruses. Continued antiviral susceptibility monitoring of H5N1 viruses is needed to maintain therapeutic approaches for control of disease.

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Expansion of US wood pellet industry points to positive trends but the need for continued monitoring.

Publications

Expansion of US wood pellet industry points to positive trends but the need for continued monitoring.

Similar Datasets

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