Management changes such as drainage, fertilisation, afforestation and harvesting (clearfelling) of forested peatlands influence watertable (WT) position and groundwater concentrations of nutrients. This study investigated the impact of clearfelling of a peatland forest on WT and nutrient concentrations. Three areas were examined: (1) a regenerated riparian peatland buffer (RB) clearfelled four ...

As efforts intensify to address the issues of declining water quality and biodiversity losses in freshwater ecosystems, there have been great demands for effective methods of evaluating aquatic ecosystem health. In this study, benthic algae assemblages and water quality variables were analyzed to develop a benthic diatom-based index of biotic integrity (BD-IBI) for assessment of the aquatic env...

Bioactive peptides and carbohydrates are sourced from a myriad of plant, animal and insects and have huge potential for use as food ingredients and pharmaceuticals. However, downstream processing bottlenecks hinder the potential use of these natural bioactive compounds and add cost to production processes. This review discusses the health benefits and bioactivities associated with peptides and ...

The Mediterranean Sea (MS) is a semienclosed basin that is considered one of the most oligotrophic seas in the world. In such an environment, inputs of allochthonous nutrients and micronutrients play an important role in sustaining primary productivity. Atmospheric deposition and riverine runoff have been traditionally considered the main external sources of nutrients to the MS, whereas the rol...

To date, only a limited number of studies have reported finding an influence of ordinary nutrients on hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA replication. However, the effects of other nutrients on HCV RNA replication remain largely unknown. We recently developed a reporter assay system for genome-length HCV RNA replication in hepatoma-derived HuH-7 cells (OR6). Here, using this OR6 assay system, we compre...

Plant growth responses to resources may be an important mechanism that influences species' distributions, coexistence, and community structure. Irradiance is considered the most important resource for seedling growth in the understory of wet tropical forests, but multiple soil nutrients and species have yet to be examined simultaneously with irradiance under field conditions. To identify potent...

This experiment explored consequences of two common lay theories about the diet-disease link: nutrient-centrism, the belief that nutrients (e.g. potassium) are crucial to staving off disease, and whole-food centrism, the belief that whole foods (e.g. bananas), containing these nutrients in their natural context, are most beneficial. Depicting an individual's diet in terms of nutrients rather th...

Epidemiological studies of diet and blood pressure support the concept that some dietary nutrients are strongly related to blood pressure and are amenable to modifications, with a likely impact on the incidence of hypertension and of related vascular events. For other potential nutrients, the evidence is more difficult to obtain. Further studies are required to establish 1) the practical value ...