The net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide was measured by eddy covariance methods for 3 years in two old-growth forest sites near Santarém, Brazil. Carbon was lost in the wet season and gained in the dry season, which was opposite to the seasonal cycles of both tree growth and model predictions. The 3-year average carbon loss was 1.3 (confidence interval: 0.0 to 2.0) megagrams of carbon per hectare per year. Biometric observations confirmed the net loss but imply that it is a transient effect of recent disturbance superimposed on long-term balance. Given that episodic disturbances are characteristic of old-growth forests, it is likely that carbon sequestration is lower than has been inferred from recent eddy covariance studies at undisturbed sites.

Fine root dynamics have the potential to contribute significantly to ecosystem-scale biogeochemical cycling, including the production and emission of greenhouse gases. This is particularly true in tropical forests which are often characterized as having large fine root biomass and rapid rates of root production and decomposition. We examined patterns in fine root dynamics on two soil types in a lowland moist Amazonian forest, and determined the effect of root decay on rates of C and N trace gas fluxes. Root production averaged 229 ( AE 35) and 153 ( AE 27) g m À2 yr À1 for years 1 and 2 of the study, respectively, and did not vary significantly with soil texture. Root decay was sensitive to soil texture with faster rates in the clay soil (k 5À0.96 year À1 ) than in the sandy loam soil (k 5À0.61 year À1 ), leading to greater standing stocks of dead roots in the sandy loam. Rates of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions were significantly greater in the clay soil (13 AE 1 ng N cm À2 h À1 ) than in the sandy loam (1.4 AE 0.2 ng N cm À2 h À1 ). Root mortality and decay following trenching doubled rates of N 2 O emissions in the clay and tripled them in sandy loam over a 1-year period. Trenching also increased nitric oxide fluxes, which were greater in the sandy loam than in the clay. We used trenching (clay only) and a mass balance approach to estimate the root contribution to soil respiration. In clay soil root respiration was 264-380 g C m À2 yr À1 , accounting for 24% to 35% of the total soil CO 2 efflux. Estimates were similar using both approaches. In sandy loam, root respiration rates were slightly higher and more variable (521 AE 206 g C m 2 yr À1 ) and contributed 35% of the total soil respiration. Our results show that soil heterotrophs strongly dominate soil respiration in this forest, regardless of soil texture. Our results also suggest that fine root mortality and decomposition associated with disturbance and land-use change can contribute significantly to increased rates of nitrogen trace gas emissions.

Selective logging is an extensive land use in the Brazilian Amazon region. The soil-atmosphere fluxes of nitrous oxide (N 2 O), nitric oxide (NO), methane (CH 4 ), and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) are studied on two soil types (clay Oxisol and sandy loam Ultisol) over two years in both undisturbed forest and forest recently logged using reduced impact forest management in the Tapajos National Forest, near Santarem, Para, Brazil. In undisturbed forest, annual soil-atmosphere fluxes of N 2 O (mean ± standard error) were 7.9 ± 0.7 and 7.0 ± 0.6 ng N cm −2 h −1 for the Oxisol and 1.7 ± 0.1 and 1.6 ± 0.3 ng N cm −2 h −1 for the Ultisol for 2000 and 2001, respectively. The annual fluxes of NO from undisturbed forest soil in 2001 were 9.0 ± 2.8 ng N cm −2 h −1 for the Oxisol and 8.8 ± 5.0 ng N cm −2 h −1 for the Ultisol. Consumption of CH 4 from the atmosphere dominated over production on undisturbed forest soils. Fluxes averaged −0.3 ± 0.2 and −0.1 ± 0.9 mg CH 4 m −2 day −1 on the Oxisol and −1.0 ± 0.2 and −0.9 ± 0.3 mg CH 4 m −2 day −1 on the Ultisol for years 2000 and 2001. For CO 2 in 2001, the annual fluxes averaged 3.6 ± 0.4 mol m −2 s −1 on the Oxisol and 4.9 ± 1.1 mol m −2 s −1 on the Ultisol. We measured fluxes over one year each from two recently logged forests on the Oxisol in 2000 and on the Ultisol in 2001. Sampling in logged areas was stratified from greatest to least ground disturbance covering log decks, skid trails, tree-fall gaps, and forest matrix. Areas of strong soil compaction, especially the skid trails and logging decks, were prone to significantly greater emissions of N 2 O, NO, and especially CH 4 . In the case of CH 4 , estimated annual emissions from decks reached extremely high rates of 531 ± 419 and 98 ± 41 mg CH 4 m −2 day −1 , for Oxisol and Ultisol sites, respectively, comparable to wetland emissions in the region. We calculated excess fluxes from logged areas by subtraction of a background forest matrix or undisturbed forest flux and adjusted these fluxes for the proportional area of ground disturbance. Our calculations suggest that selective logging increases emissions of N 2 O and NO from 30% to 350% depending upon conditions. While undisturbed forest was a CH 4 sink, logged forest tended to emit methane at moderate rates. Soil-atmosphere CO 2 fluxes were only slightly affected by logging. The regional effects of logging cannot be simply extrapolated based upon one site. We studied sites where reduced impact harvest management was used while in Earth Interactions • Volume 9 (2005) • Paper No. 23 • Page 2 typical conventional logging ground damage is twice as great. Even so, our results indicate that for N 2 O, NO, and CH 4 , logging disturbance may be as important for regional budgets of these gases as other extensive land-use changes in the Amazon such as the conversion of forest to cattle pasture.

Necromass stocks account for up to 20% of carbon stored in tropical forests and have been estimated to be 14-19% of the annual aboveground carbon flux. Both stocks and fluxes of necromass are infrequently measured. In this study, we directly measured the production of fallen coarse necromass (> or = 2 cm diameter) during 4.5 years using repeated surveys in undisturbed forest areas and in forests subjected to reduced-impact logging at the Tapajos National Forest, Belterra, Brazil (3.08 degrees S, 54.94 degrees W). We also measured fallen coarse necromass and standing dead stocks at two times during our study. The mean (SE) annual flux into the fallen coarse necromass pool in undisturbed forest of 6.7 (0.8) Mg x ha(-1) x yr(-1) was not significantly different from the flux under a reduced-impact logging of 8.5 (1.3) Mg x ha(-1) x yr(-1) With the assumption of steady state, the instantaneous decomposition constants for fallen necromass in undisturbed forests were 0.12 yr(-1) for large, 0.33 yr(-1) for medium, and 0.47 yr(-1) for small size classes. The mass weighted decomposition constant was 0.15 yr(-1) for all fallen coarse necromass. Standing dead wood had a residence time of 4.2 years, and approximately 0.9 Mg x ha(-1) x yr(-1) of this pool was respired annually to the atmosphere through decomposition. Coarse necromass decomposition at our study site accounted for 12% of total carbon remineralization, and total aboveground coarse necromass was 14% of the aboveground biomass. Use of mortality rates to calculate production of coarse necromass leads to an underestimation of coarse necromass production by 45%, suggesting that nonlethal disturbance such as branch fall contributes significantly to this flux. Coarse necromass production is an important component of the tropical forest carbon cycle that has been neglected in most previous studies or erroneously estimated.

The scholarship on responsible research and innovation (RRI) aims to align the processes and outcomes of innovation with societal values by involving a broad range of stakeholders from a very early stage. Though this scholarship offers a new lens to consider the challenges new health technologies raise for health systems around the world, there is a need to define the dimensions that specifically characterise responsible innovation in health (RIH). The present article aims to introduce an integrative RIH framework drawing on the RRI literature, the international literature on health systems as well as specific bodies of knowledge that shed light on key dimensions of health innovations. Combining inductive and deductive theory-building strategies and concomitant with the development of a formal tool to assess the responsibility of innovations, we developed a framework that is comprised of nine dimensions organised within five value domains, namely population health, health system, economic, organisational and environmental. RIH provides health and innovation policy-makers with a common framework that supports the development of innovations that can tackle significant system-level challenges, including sustainability and equity.

Background: While responsible innovation in health (RIH) suggests that health innovations could be purposefully designed to better support health systems, little is known about the system-level challenges that it should address. The goal of this paper is thus to document what is known about health systems’ demand for innovations. Methods: We searched 8 databases to perform a scoping review of the scientific literature on health system challenges published between January 2000 and April 2016. The challenges reported in the articles were classified using the dynamic health system framework. The countries where the studies had been conducted were grouped using the human development index (HDI). Frequency distributions and qualitative content analysis were performed. Results: Up to 1391 challenges were extracted from 254 articles examining health systems in 99 countries. Across countries, the most frequently reported challenges pertained to: service delivery (25%), human resources (23%), and leadership and governance (21%). Our analyses indicate that innovations tend to increase challenges associated to human resources by affecting the nature and scope of their tasks, skills and responsibilities, to exacerbate service delivery issues when they are meant to be used by highly skilled providers and call for accountable governance of their dissemination, use and reimbursement. In countries with a low and medium HDI, problems arising with infrastructure, logistics and equipment were described in connection with challenges affecting procurement, supply and distribution systems. In countries with a medium and high HDI, challenges included a growing demand for drugs and new technology and the management of rising costs. Across all HDI groups, the need for flexible information technologies (IT) solutions to reach rural areas was underscored. Conclusion: Highlighting challenges that are common across countries, this study suggests that RIH should aim to reduce the cost of innovation production processes and attend not only to the requirements of the immediate clinical context of use, but also to the vulnerabilities of the broader system wherein innovations are deployed. Policy-makers should translate system-level demand signals into innovation development opportunities since it is imperative to foster innovations that contribute to the success and sustainability of health systems.

[1] We conducted an experiment on sand and clay tropical forest soils to test the short-term effect of root mortality on the soil-atmosphere flux of nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide. We induced root mortality by isolating blocks of land to 1 m using trenching and root exclusion screening. Gas fluxes were measured weekly for ten weeks following the trenching treatment. For nitrous oxide there was a highly significant increase in soil-atmosphere flux over the ten weeks following treatment for trenched plots compared to control plots. N 2 O flux averaged 37.5 and 18.5 ng N cm À2 h À1 from clay trenched and control plots and 4.7 and 1.5 ng N cm À2 h À1 from sand trenched and control plots. In contrast, there was no effect for soil-atmosphere flux of nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, or methane.

Responsible Innovation in Health (RIH) represents an emerging Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) approach that could support not only the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) “Good health and well-being” but also other SDGs. Since few studies have conceptualized the relationships between RIH and the SDGs, our goal was to inductively develop a framework to identify knowledge gaps and areas for further reflections. Our exploratory study involved: (1) performing a web-based horizon scanning to identify health innovations with responsibility features; and (2) illustrating through empirical examples how RIH addresses the SDGs. A total of 105 innovations were identified: up to 43% were developed by non-profit organizations, universities or volunteers; 46.7% originated from the United States; and 64.5% targeted countries in Africa, Central and South America and South Asia. These innovations addressed health problems such as newborn care (15.5%), reduced mobility and limb amputation (14.5%), infectious diseases (10.9%), pregnancy and delivery care (9.1%) and proper access to care and drugs (7.3%). Several of these innovations were aligned with SDG10-Reduced inequalities (87%), SDG17-Partnerships for the goals (54%), SDG1-No poverty (15%) and SDG4-Quality education (11%). A smaller number of them addressed sustainable economic development goals such as SDG11-Sustainable cities and communities (9%) and SDG9-Industry and innovation (6%), and environmental sustainability goals such as SDG7-Affordable and clean energy (7%) and SDG6-Clean water and sanitation (5%). Three examples show how RIH combines entrepreneurship and innovation in novel ways to address the determinants of health, thereby contributing to SDG5 (Gender), SDG10 (Inequalities), SDG4 (Education) and SDG8 (Decent work), and indirectly supporting SDG7 (Clean energy) and SDG13 (Climate action). Further research should examine how alternative business models, social enterprises and social finance may support the STI approach behind RIH.