Aparatrigona) Melissopalynological analyses of the present study

Aparatrigona). Melissopalynological analyses of the present study identified pollen grains of these same floral sources in the analysed honeys. However, even these data showed a diversity of pollen collected by Meliponini. Stingless bees may change their trophic niche throughout the year due to several factors. The availability of floral resources (pollen, nectar

and resin), climatic oscillations, distance between the colony and the flowering plant species, and competition exerted by exotic and other native bee species represent some factors that contribute to oscillations. The total phenolic buy Navitoclax content of the methanol extracts of the honey samples ranged from 17 to 66 mg GAE/g of extract (Table 2). These figures are related to the honey see more floral source, because the phenolic

compounds are related to the botanical origin of the nectar and pollen and to the species of the honey-producing bees (Gheldof & Engeseth, 2002). The samples with predominance of a single pollen type, CAD4, SAD3 and CAD2, presented the highest quantities of total phenolic contents, and the lowest total phenolic contents were observed for the honeys SAD2 and SAD1. In relation to the ABTS + cation radical-scavenging activity, the methanol extracts of the honeys showed activities in which the CE50 varied from 210 ± 0.25 to 337 ± 3.17 mg mL−1 ( Table 2). Among the honeys analysed, the samples collected at CAD4, SAD3 and CAD2 showed the highest antioxidant capacity, most likely as a consequence of their higher total phenolic content compared with the remaining samples, because antioxidant Protein kinase N1 activity can be increased by the synergetic interaction between compounds that have the capacity to scavenge free radicals, such as phenolic compounds. SAD1 and SAD2 showed the smallest total phenolic contents and displayed the smallest antioxidant activities. The results of the present paper agree with previous works that report the correlation between total phenolic contents and antioxidant activity (samples displaying smaller total phenolic contents also showed smaller antioxidant responses) (Aljadi and Kamaruddin, 2004, Alvarez-Suarez et al., 2012 and Bertoncelj et al., 2007). The similarity between the

honeys considering the results of total phenolic content and antioxidant activity showed a dendrogram with four clusters (A, B, C and D). The cluster A included the related samples CAD1, CAD3 and CAD2, which showed intermediary values for phenolic content and radical scavenging activity (Table 2). The cluster A had weakly correlation with cluster C, formed by SAD1 and SAD2; these two samples showed the lowest antioxidant activity, probably as a consequence of the lower phenolic compounds content when compared to the others samples (Table 2). The clusters A, C and B had no correlation with the cluster D. This cluster (D) included the samples SAD3 and CAD4, which possessed the highest antioxidant activity and the highest phenolic content (Table 2).

, 2001) Dietary fibres,

, 2001). Dietary fibres, Olaparib cell line such as pectin and alginate show evidence of inhibiting

lipase and could be incorporated into a wide variety of different vehicles for delivery. Alginates may be a more desirable candidate to take forward as an obesity treatment as they demonstrated a far superior lipase inhibiting capacity and can easily be modified enzymatically to produce the desired characteristics. Alginates have previously been shown to increase fatty acid excretion in ileostomy patients, believed to be a result of the entrapment with the alginate matrix (Sandberg et al., 1994). The increase in fatty acid excretion may now be explained by the alginates capacity to inhibit lipase and therefore reduce the amount absorbed by the body. Specific alginates are effective inhibitors of pancreatic lipase and have been used in the food and pharmaceutical industry for many years. The inclusion of an alginate into foods (without altering taste or acceptability) has the potential to reduce the intake http://www.selleckchem.com/products/abt-199.html of dietary triacylglycerol and could greatly help in weight management. None of the authors have declared a conflict of interest. The work was funded through a BBSRC CASE studentship with industrial sponsors

Technostics Ltd. The manuscript was written with contributions from all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript. Dr Matthew Wilcox conducted the research, analysed the data and wrote the paper. Dr Iain Brownlee 6-phosphogluconolactonase helped with the project conception and development of the overall research plan, as did Dr Craig Richardson, Prof Peter Dettmar and Prof Jeffrey Pearson. Prof Pearson also had primary responsibility for final content of the manuscript. “
“There is a growing consumer awareness of the need for traceable

authenticity of foods; this is partially in response to authenticity scares and lack of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) traceability, but also as a result of recent cases of food producers’ malpractice. Food authenticity issues may be classified into four main groups: adulteration; mislabeling associated with geographical provenance, botanical or species origin; implementation of non-authorised practices and non-compliance to legislative standards (Carcea et al., 2009). One response to these maybe through legislation, the European Union Council Regulation (EC) 510/2006 exists to identify and protect geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foods across Europe, this ensures easier traceability of issues associated with food authenticity allowing more efficient quality and safety control of the food market.

2% to 99 8% for ozone concentrations ranging, respectively, from

2% to 99.8% for ozone concentrations ranging, respectively, from 0.80 to 2.54 μg mL−1. Although the

model used in this work doesn’t simulate real food matrices, once they constitute, in general, complex systems, it represents an attempt to identify the formed products which can also be possible products in foods. The β-carotene ozonolysis with the model system in solution made it possible to propose, through tentative identification, fourteen oxidation products: 15-apo-β-carotenal; pyruvic acid; 5,9,13,13-tetramethyl-12,17-dioxo-octadec-2,4,6,8,10-pentenoic acid; 14´-apo-β-carotenal; 3,7,11,11-tetramethyl-10,15-dioxo-hexadec-2,4,6,8-tetra-enal; 2-methyl-buten-2-dial; glyoxal; methylglyoxal; β-cyclocitral; 6,6-dimethyl-undec-3-en-2,5,10-trione; 4,9,13,17,17-pentamethyl-16,21-dioxo-docos-2,4,6,8,10,12,14-heptaenal; 12´-apo-β-carotenal; 5,6-epoxy-12´apo-β-carotenal;

PI3K inhibitor and 5,6 epoxy-10´-apo-β-carotenal. Of these products, eight (pyruvic acid; 5,9,13,13-tetramethyl-12,17-dioxo-octadec-2,4,6,8,10-pentenoic acid; 3,7,11,11-tetramethyl-10,15-dioxo-hexadec-2,4,6,8-tetraenal; 2-methyl-but-2-enodial; glyoxal; methylglyoxal; 6,6-dimethyl-undec-3-en-2,5,10-trione and 4,9,13,17,17-pentamethyl-16,21-dioxo-docos-2,4,6,8,10,12,14-heptaenal) had not previously been cited in the literature as oxidation products of β-carotene. Their occurrence was probably due to the high oxidant power of ozone. On the other hand, compounds that are normally present in β-carotene oxidation, such as β-ionone, have not been identified. This suggests that these compounds reacted completely during exposure PCI-32765 in vitro to ozone and were thus converted to secondary products observed during these experiments. The experiment conducted with β-ionone alone supports this hypothesis, since methylglyoxal, β-cyclocitral and 6,6-dimethyl-undec-3-en-2,5,10-trione were formed and all of these compounds were

also tentatively identified during the ozonolysis of β-carotene. The authors wish to thank the National Research Council (CNPq), the State of Bahia Foundation for Support to Research (FAPESB), PRONEX, FINEP, CAPES and UNEB (DCV 1). We would also like to thank M.Sc. Eliane Teixeira Sousa for her valuable help in the LC-MS analysis. “
“Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) is one of the most appreciated fresh fruit, particularly for its combined attractive appearance and flavour. While C-X-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CXCR-7) relatively rich in nutritional and functional compounds ( Salentijn, Aharoni, Schaart, Boone, & Krens, 2003), a range of genetic and environmental factors promote quantitative and qualitative variation of these traits ( Cordenunsi et al., 2005 and Folta and Davis, 2006). For most fruit, chemical composition changes during maturation ( Folta & Davis, 2006). In the case of strawberry, fruit development is characterised by an increase in fruit size, colour change from green to white to red, evolution of aroma volatiles and reduction in flesh firmness.

Lee et al [9] reported that the antioxidant activities of heated

Lee et al [9] reported that the antioxidant activities of heated onion juices showed high DPPH radical scavenging activities of 36% at 120°C, 45% at 130°C, and 58% at 140°C. Heated onion has been found to have higher DPPH radical scavenging activities than raw onion, and that activity increases with increasing temperature. Kim et al [23] also reported that the antioxidant activity of heated ginseng extract increased with increasing temperature.

Furthermore, Woo et al [24] reported that the antioxidant activity of heated Rehmannia radix Libosch increased significantly with increasing heating temperature (from 110°C to 150°C) and heating time (from 1 hour to 5 hours). Moreover, Hwang et al [7], Kown et al C646 purchase [10], and Kim et al [11] reported that DPPH radical scavenging activity increased significantly with thermal processes. The ABTS cation radical scavenging activities of heated HGR and HGL under various heating conditions, expressed in terms of the AEAC (mg AA eq/g), are shown in Fig. 4. The ABTS radical scavenging activity was affected by the heating temperature in a manner similar to the DPPH radical scavenging activity. The antioxidant activities of both HGR and HGL at 150°C were higher than those of raw material. The ABTS radical scavenging activities of HGR and HGL raw materials were 0.037 mg AA eq/g and 0.162 mg AA eq/g, respectively. After heating, the AEAC values at 90°C, 110°C, 130°C, and 150°C were expressed

as 0.36 mg AA eq/g, 0.53 mg AA eq/g, 1.88 mg AA eq/g, and 4.25 mg AA eq/g for HGR, and 0.57 mg AA eq/g, 0.79 mg AA eq/g, 1.37 mg AA eq/g, and 2.86 mg AA eq/g for HGL, respectively. Our results show that by Selleck SP600125 Amisulpride increasing processing temperature the overall antioxidant activities of both HGR and HGL enhanced significantly. Kim et al [23] reported that the ABTS radical content (% of control) of heated ginseng extract increased with increasing heating temperature. Woo et al [25] reported that the ABTS radical scavenging activities of heated garlics and its aroma extracts increased with increasing heating temperature and time. Kim

et al [11] reported that the antioxidant activities of tomato, melon, and watermelon were 0.61 mg AA eq/100 g, 0.51 mg AA eq/100 g, and 0.64 mg AA eq/100 g in raw materials, which increased, respectively, to 4.59 mg AA eq/100 g, 13.13 mg AA eq/100 g, and 8.81 mg AA eq/100 g after heating at 140°C. As shown in Fig. 5, the reducing powers of heated HGR and HGL illustrate similar patterns of change in total polyphenol contents and ABTS radical scavenging activity. In the methods used, the ferric–ferricyanide complex was reduced to the ferrous form, depending on the presence of antioxidants [15]. The reducing powers of HGR and HGL were highest at 150°C, with values of 0.49 and 0.52, whereas the reducing powers were only 0.25 and 0.33 in raw materials, respectively. The reducing power increased significantly with increasing temperature. In addition, HGL had a relatively higher reducing power than HGR.

The crown ratio model is an important submodel that influences th

The crown ratio model is an important submodel that influences the predictions of diameter increment. It is therefore interesting to know how well the predictions of this submodel agree with observed values. The highest crown ratios would be expected for

open-grown trees. Typically, crown ratios of open-grown SCH772984 cost spruce range from 0.91 to 0.94 (Lässig, 1988 and Stampfer, 1995), and crown ratio of open-grown pine is 0.86 (Stampfer, 1995). The light demanding pine trees can have a number of dying branches even on open-grown trees (Stampfer, 1995), due to self-shading. For stand grown trees, crown ratios would be high in sparse stands and low in dense stands. For open-grown tree, the Palbociclib molecular weight simulated crown ratios of Moses (always 1.0) and Prognaus (>0.96 for spruce, >0.67 for pine) agree well with observations on open-grown trees. Crown ratios

predicted by BWIN and Moses were more variable but they could be as low as 0.5 for spruce and 0.3 for pine. This is clearly too low for open-grown trees and rather corresponds to crown ratios of dominant stand grown trees. Abetz and Künstle (1982) reported crown ratios of 0.3–0.7 for dominant spruce. The high crown ratios of open-grown trees might be underestimated because sparse stands are often lacking in the data sets. BWIN and Silva were both fit from permanent research plots, which are usually fully stocked. On the other hand, Prognaus was fit from Forest Inventory data, which covers a larger variety of stocking degrees. Moses uses a function that forces a crown ratio of 1, if the competition index is 0. For stand-grown

trees, the average crown ratios were predicted well by all four simulators, with deviations being mostly less than 0.06, and Meloxicam only in some cases as high as 0.22. This agrees well with differences of 0.018, 0.02, and 0.246 in crown ratio after a 20-year simulation ( Sterba et al., 2001). The variability in crown ratio is best predicted by a dynamic model, as implemented in Moses. We expected that individual-tree growth models would correctly predict height:diameter ratios. The findings of our investigation generally support these expectations. Height:diameter ratios predicted by all four growth models are within the bounds defined by open-grown trees and very dense stands. Furthermore, all models show an increase of height:diameter ratios with increasing density, a decrease with age, and lower height:diameter ratios for dominant trees than for mean trees. A word about misclassification costs: the cost of under-estimating height:diameter ratios can greatly exceed costs of overestimation. Consider a collection of stands near the 80:1 threshold of stability.

There were numerous challenges to treatment Most notably, the fa

There were numerous challenges to treatment. Most notably, the family missed, see more was late to, or cancelled at the last minute numerous individual, group, and WBC sessions.

This was most often due to Lance’s refusal to come to therapy but also due to parental tardiness or family/personal crises not related to SR. Further, Lance often became unresponsive when the therapist tried to address school topics directly discussed. The family’s inconsistency and Lance’s avoidance of emotional topics led to a large proportion of session time dedicated to treatment engagement exercises and motivational interviewing. The parents’ own avoidance of the topic (as discussed above) only reinforced the youth’s avoidance and gave little incentive to participate actively in session. In the sixth week of the program, Lance began psychopharmacological treatment with an SSRI, and he reentered school in the 12th week. After school reentry, the family’s treatment

attendance decreased and commitment became unstable. Decreased attendance may have resulted from continued selleck treatment disengagement, recovery from distress via DBT-SR or the medication, or logistical challenges with balancing travel to school, homework, and travel to the treatment facility. It should be noted that Lance’s mother and father both acknowledged gaining personal benefit from participating in the skills group. Lance and his mother’s emotion dysregulation were intertwined in a number of ways. For example, the mother had difficulty tolerating Lance’s distress and would become upset when Lance was distressed. When upset, the mother resorted to coercive tactics to elicit Lance’s compliance with desired behaviors (e.g., screaming and threatening when it was time to go to therapy). Practicing skills with the mother helped her

keep her emotions regulated and adhere to family interventions calmly (e.g., contingency management; avoid switching between “Too loose” and “Too strict”). The father presented with greater emotion regulation, but he self-acknowledged having an avoidant coping style. This often meant the father avoided Sitaxentan communicating with the therapist or telling the therapist at the last-minute when he had done something against recommendations (e.g., cancelling WBC at midnight by text because he had made a deal with Lance that he did not have to get up for coaching). As a result, the father would agree with therapist recommendations in session, but then fail to consistently implement strategies at home. Lance’s treatment relied heavily on WBC and phone coaching. WBC was scheduled nearly daily until Lance reentered school. Having coaching take place via videoconferencing was particularly helpful because the therapist could see and speak to multiple family members in order to assess interactions between family members. Videoconferencing was also helpful because the therapist could see Lance’s body language when he was not verbally responsive.

We sequenced the two lower bands, Band-A and Band-B, derived from

We sequenced the two lower bands, Band-A and Band-B, derived from different cultivars showing different genotypes for each of the five markers. Two representative cultivars, Chunpoong and Yunpoong, were sequenced for all five markers and other cultivars were also sequenced, including Sunpoong for the gm47n marker, Sunun for the gm129 marker, Sunone for the gm175 marker, and Sunpoong, Sunone, and Gopoong for the gm184 marker. A total of 34 high-quality sequences derived from individual bands was obtained. Multiple sequence comparison allowed us to classify the multiple bands as representing different loci in the same cultivar (paralogs) or allelic forms of the same locus in different

cultivars (alleles; Fig. 2). The bands close to the expected size (Band-B of gm45n, gm47n, and gm175 and Band-A of gm129 and gm184) were derived learn more from same locus as the reported EST. The other bands (Band-B of gm45n, gm47n, and gm175 and Band-A of gm129 and gm184) c-Met inhibitor amplified from a paralogous locus showed relatively different sizes from those expected. The paralogous sequences

were characterized by SNP or InDel variations as well as much larger variations in SSR unit number. For example, the gm175 marker showed polymorphism for both loci among cultivars. Each of the two bands showed one or two copy differences of the AGG SSR motif among cultivars. There was a maximum copy number difference of four for the AGG SSR motif as well as a 21 bp InDel variation between Band-A and Band-B (Table 1). The Band-B sequence of Chunpoong corresponded to the EST, indicating that the EST is derived from the locus of Band-B (Fig. 2A). The gm45n marker showed a maximum copy number difference of five for the TGG SSR motif, (TGG)5 and (TGG)10, as well as two SNPs between Band-A and Band-B. The allelic form of Band-B showed only a two-copy difference for the TGG SSR motif, (TGG)8 and (TGG)10, in Chunpoong and Yunpoong

cultivars, respectively (Table 1). By contrast, Band-A showed no variation ADP ribosylation factor among the different cultivars. Similarly, only one of the two bands, Band-B, was polymorphic among cultivars, except for the gm175 marker. Among the five markers, four had SNPs and the other had an InDel between Band-A and Band-B that served as a signature to distinguish paralogous sequences (Fig. 2, Table 1). We next tried to develop locus-unique markers to amplify selectively single bands derived from one of two paralogous regions. We focused on the SNP regions between paralogous sequences. The gm47n marker showed a more than four SSR unit difference as well as one SNP between Band-A and Band-B (Fig. 2B). The SNP was identified at the position 51 bp as “C” and “T” for Band-A and Band-B, respectively (Table 1). For the polymorphic Band-B-specific primer, we designed an additional left primer, 5′-CTCTGTTTTCTTCCCTTTTCTCTGT-3′, which has the Band-B specific nucleotide “T” at the end and an additional modified nucleotide “G” ( Fig. 2B).

, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) The duration of lung mechanics data

, Montreal, Quebec, Canada). The duration of lung mechanics data collection was 20 min per animal. A laparotomy was performed immediately after determination of lung mechanics, and heparin (1000 IU) injected directly into the vena cava. The trachea was clamped at end-expiration (PEEP = 2 cm H2O) and the abdominal aorta and vena cava were severed, producing massive hemorrhage and rapid death by exsanguination. The right lung was then removed, fixed in 3% buffered formalin and embedded in paraffin. Slices (4 μm thick)

were cut and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Lung morphometry analysis was performed with an integrating eyepiece with a coherent system consisting of a grid with 100 points and 50 lines of known Ceritinib ic50 length coupled to a conventional light microscope (Olympus BX51, Olympus Latin America Inc.,

Brazil). The volume fractions of the lung occupied by collapsed alveoli or normal tissue were determined by the point-counting technique (Weibel, 1990) across Akt inhibitor 10 random, non-coincident fields of view (Santos et al., 2012). The number of neutrophils and macrophages in lung tissue was evaluated at 1000× magnification. Points falling on neutrophils and macrophages were counted and divided by the total number of points falling on tissue in each field of view. Apoptotic cells in lung, kidney, liver, and small intestine specimens were quantified using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase biotin-dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL). Staining was performed in a blinded fashion by two pathologists to assay cellular apoptosis (Oliveira et al., Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase 2009). Ten fields per section from regions with cell apoptosis were examined under 1000× magnification. A 5-point, semi-quantitative, severity-based scoring system was used to assess the degree of apoptosis, graded as: 0 = normal parenchyma; 1 = 1–25%; 2 = 26–50%; 3 = 51–75%; and 4 = 76–100% of examined tissue. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase

chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to measure the relative expression of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) genes (Santos et al., 2012). Central slices of right lung were cut, collected in cryotubes, flash-frozen by immersion in liquid nitrogen, and stored at −80 °C. Total RNA was extracted from frozen tissues using the SV total RNA Isolation System (Promega Corporation, Fitchburg, WI, USA) in accordance with manufacturer recommendations. RNA levels were measured by spectrophotometry in a Nanodrop ND-1000 system. First-strand cDNA was synthesized from total RNA using the GoTaq® 2-STEP RT qPCR System (Promega Corporation, Fitchburg, WI, USA).

A wide variety of metrics – loss of soil fertility, proportion of

A wide variety of metrics – loss of soil fertility, proportion of ecosystem production appropriated by humans, availability of ecosystem services, changing climate – indicates that we are in a period of overshoot (Hooke et al., 2012). Overshoot occurs when a population exceeds the local carrying capacity. An environment’s carrying capacity for a given

species is the number of individuals “living in a given manner, which the environment can support indefinitely” (Catton, 1980, p. 4). One reason we are in overshoot is that we have consistently ignored critical zone integrity and resilience, and particularly ignored how the cumulative history of human manipulation of the critical zone has reduced integrity and resilience. Geomorphologists are uniquely trained this website to explicitly consider past changes that have occurred over varying time find more scales, and we can bring this training to management of landscapes and ecosystems. We can use our knowledge of historical context in a forward-looking approach that emphasizes both quantifying and predicting responses to changing climate and resource use, and management actions to protect and restore desired landscape and ecosystem conditions. Management can be viewed as the ultimate test of scientific understanding: does the landscape or ecosystem respond to

a particular human manipulation in the way that we predict it will? Management of the critical zone during the Anthropocene therefore provides an exciting opportunity for geomorphologists to use

their knowledge of critical zone processes to enhance the sustainability of diverse landscapes and ecosystems. I thank Anne Chin, Anne Jefferson, and Karl Wegmann for the invitation to speak at a Geological Society of America topical session on geomorphology in the Anthropocene, which led to this paper. Comments by L. Allan James and two anonymous reviewers helped to improve an earlier draft. “
“Anthropogenic sediment is an extremely important element of change during the Anthropocene. It drives lateral, Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase longitudinal, vertical, and temporal connectivity in fluvial systems. It provides evidence of the history and geographic locations of past anthropogenic environmental alterations, the magnitude and character of those changes, and how those changes may influence present and future trajectories of geomorphic response. It may contain cultural artifacts, biological evidence of former ecosystems (pollen, macrofossils, etc.), or geochemical and mineralogical signals that record the sources of sediment and the character of land use before and after contact. Rivers are often dominated by cultural constructs with extensive legacies of anthropogeomorphic and ecologic change. A growing awareness of these changes is guiding modern river scientists to question if there is such a thing as a natural river (Wohl, 2001 and Wohl and Merritts, 2007).

, 2007 and Staland

et al , 2011) Hence, it is important

, 2007 and Staland

et al., 2011). Hence, it is important to acknowledge past human impact even in areas that are considered as undisturbed; old cultural landscapes include much more than the well mTOR inhibitor known examples from central Europe ( Behre, 1988) as well as from other parts of the world (e.g. Briggs et al., 2006), although the processes behind each ecosystem change may differ significantly. Only by adopting a long-term perspective it is possible to evaluate and understand land-use legacies even in remote ecosystems considered as “natural” today ( Willis and Birks, 2006). An inability to reconstruct historical land use may skew perspectives on what is considered to be a natural or semi-natural landscape. The lack of recent or recorded disturbance is often used as a metric Tofacitinib nmr for ascribing naturalness. The notion that open spruce-Cladina forests of northern Sweden are a natural forest type is challenged by the findings provided herein. Charcoal and pollen in mire stratigraphy samples and the evidence of semi-permanent dwellings demonstrate vegetative shifts that correspond with dating of hearth use point to a human fingerprint on

the establishment of this open forest type. Recurrent use of fire to manage stand structure and understory composition led to a decline in nutrient capital on all three sites which in turn provided insufficient resources for the regeneration of Norway spruce, feathermoss forest types. Nitrogen resources in the O horizon of the degraded spruce-Cladina forests represent less than 10% of that in the reference forests and represent inadequate N resources required to sustain the biomass associated with the reference forests. Further, the loss of juniper from the understory may have eliminated an important ecosystem component which normally protects young seedlings from

browse and trampling and provides resources 4-Aminobutyrate aminotransferase and protection for N2 fixing feathermosses regeneration. The dominance of Cladina in the understory further eliminated the potential for recapture of N resource for seedling growth and regeneration combined with the relatively low resource demand of slow growing Norway spruce led to the perpetuation of an open stand structure and minimal organic soil nutrient resources. Landscape analyses that integrate historical human activities with paleoecological and ecosystem evidence proved necessary to accurately characterize the naturalness of the spruce-Cladina forests of northern Sweden and serves as an example of how ancient land use can greatly influence what we see on the landscape today and what is viewed as natural. The authors wish to thank the European Regional Development Fund and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation for their financial support of this project. We also thank Ms. Sarah Chesworth for her assistance with laboratory analyses.