Area-based analyses of airborne laser scanning (ALS) data are an established approach to obtain wall-to-wall predictions of forest characteristics for vast areas. The analyses of sparse data in particular are based on the height value distributions, which do not produce optimal information on the horizontal forest structure. We evaluated the complementary potential of features quantifying the textural variation of ALS-based canopy height models (CHMs) for both supervised (linear regression) and unsupervised (k-Means clustering) analyses. Based on a comprehensive literature review, we identified a total of four texture analysis methods that produced rotation-invariant features of different order and scale. The CHMs and the textural features were derived from practical sparse-density, leaf-off ALS data originally acquired for ground elevation modeling. The features were extracted from a circular window of 254 m(2) and related with boreal forest characteristics observed from altogether 155 field sample plots. Features based on gray-level histograms, distribution of forest patches, and gray-level co-occurrence matrices were related with plot volume, basal area, and mean diameter with coefficients of determination (R-2) of up to 0.63-0.70, whereas features that measured the uniformity of local binary patterns of the CHMs performed poorer. Overall, the textural features compared favorably with benchmark features based on the point data, indicating that the textural features contain additional information useful for the prediction of forest characteristics. Due to the developed processing routines for raster data, the CHM features may potentially be extracted with a lower computational burden, which promotes their use for applications such as pre-stratification or guiding the field plot sampling based solely on ALS data.

Best use of scientific knowledge is required to maintain the fundamental role of seafood in human nutrition. While it is acknowledged that genomic-based methods allow the collection of powerful data, their value to inform fisheries management, aquaculture, and biosecurity applications remains underestimated. We review genomic applications of relevance to the sustainable management of seafood resources, illustrate the benefits of, and identify barriers to their integration. We conclude that the value of genomic information towards securing the future of seafood does not need to be further demonstrated. Instead, we need immediate efforts to remove structural roadblocks and focus on ways that support integration of genomic-informed methods into management and production practices. We propose solutions to pave the way forward.

The redoxclines that form between the oxic and anoxic water layers in the central Baltic Sea are sites of intensive nitrogen cycling. To gain better understanding of nitrification, we measured the biogeochemical properties along with potential nitrification rates and analyzed the assemblages of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and archaea using functional gene microarrays. To estimate nitrification in the entire water column, we constructed a regression model for the nitrification rates and applied it to the conditions prevailing in the area in 2008-2012. The highest ammonia oxidation rates were found in a thin layer at the top of the redoxcline and the rates quickly decreased below detection limit when oxygen was exhausted. This is probably because extensive suboxic layers, which are known to harbor pelagic nitrification, are formed only for short periods after inflows in the Baltic Sea. The nitrification rates were some of the highest measured in the water columns, but the thickness of the layer where conditions were favorable for nitrification, was very small and it remained fairly stable between years. However, the depth of the nitrification layer varied substantially between years, particularly in the eastern Gotland Basin (EGB) due to turbulence in the water column. The ammonia oxidizer communities clustered differently between the eastern and western Gotland Basin (WGB) and the composition of ammonia oxidizing assemblages correlated with the environmental variables. The ammonia oxidizer community composition was more even in the EGB, which may be related to physical instability of the redoxcline that does not allow predominance of a single archetype, whereas in the WGB, where the position of the redoxcline is more constant, the ammonia-oxidizing community was less even. Overall the ammonia oxidizing communities in the Baltic Sea redoxclines were very evenly distributed compared to other marine environments where microarrays have been applied previously. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Finnish Hygiene Passport System, a national legislative requirement, has been used to test the food safety knowledge of food handlers for almost 20 years, resulting in over one million approved hygiene passports. However, information on the relevance of the Hygiene Passport System is virtually nonexistent. In order to evaluate the relevance of the official hygiene passport test, we collected a sample of original official hygiene passport tests from test examiners. We also arranged a simulated hygiene passport test for volunteers without any professional background in the food sector to investigate whether the basic level of hygiene knowledge of Finns is sufficient to pass the test. Our study revealed that more than 80% of the participants in the official hygiene passport test passed. However, participants completing the test in a foreign language or with assistance had significantly more difficulties in passing the test. The results for the simulated test suggested that the food safety knowledge of most Finns would have enabled them to pass the official test without prior training, especially those older than 20 and with a higher educational level. The simulated test also revealed that preparation prior to the test, i.e. study or training, was effective in increasing the food safety knowledge of participants, especially when their knowledge level was initially low, as among young participants. Moreover, significant variation in the difficulty of the test itself was observed, which may affect the pass rate. The current study supports the relevance of the hygiene passport test, showing that without the national requirement for the hygiene passport test, the level of food hygiene knowledge of new employees in the food sector, especially young people aged under 20, would be lower. However, our results suggest that the relevance of the hygiene passport test should be improved by validation of the test and by using official translations when conducting the test in a foreign language. Digitalization of the test would enable the regular evaluation of the test based on accurate data collection.