Washington, DC-- The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and Wiley today announced that GeoHealth, AGU's newest open access journal, has published its first set of articles. The journal was created to support and foster collaboration between geoscientists, ecologists, and environmental and health professionals. GeoHealth features original research, reviews, policy discussions, and commentaries that cover the growing intersection of Earth, atmospheric, oceans and environmental sciences, ecology, and the agricultural and health sciences. Researchers and contributors will discuss the impacts to, risks, and opportunities associated with human, agricultural, and ecological health and disease.
The journal's newly released articles include:
Editorial
Convergence in the Geosciences - Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, urges geoscientists to embrace 'convergence' - the integration of engineering, physical sciences, computation, and life sciences to benefit health, energy, and the environment. Research articles
Relating Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) Incidence to Soil Moisture Conditions - Coopersmith et al. connect periods of higher and lower soil moisture in Arizona and California to the reported incidence of valley fever in those states. The results indicate that a higher number of valley fever cases are likely to be reported in Arizona if the previous summer has been atypically dry and in California if the previous winter/spring has been atypically dry.
Impact of hypoxia on gene expression patterns by the human pathogen, Vibrio vulnificus, and bacterial community composition in a North Carolina estuary - Human infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus, a bacterial pathogen closely related to the organism that causes cholera, are on the rise. Here, Phippen and Oliver show that low oxygen conditions associated with dead zones in estuaries may make V. vulnificus more virulent and better able to persist in the environment.
Mitochondria-mediated oxidative stress induced by desert dust in rat alveolar macrophages - Inhaling airborne particulate matter from soil and dust increases the risk of respiratory disease. However, exactly how particulate matter damages the lungs is unclear. Here, Pardo et al. use rat lung cells to show dust may injure lung cells by damaging their mitochondria.
A Conceptual Model to Assess Stress-Associated Health Effects of Multiple Ecosystem Services Degraded by Disaster Events in the Gulf of Mexico and Elsewhere - Humans depend on ecosystems to cleanse water for drinking and decompose waste. Here, Sandifer et al. have developed a model to assess how degraded ecosystems can affect the health of individual humans and communities.
GeoHealth joins AGU's prestigious portfolio of 20 peer-reviewed research publications, including the highly ranked Geophysical Research Letters and Earth's Future. GeoHealth is currently led by Founding Editor Rita Colwell, Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and editors Daniela Ceccarelli, Dutch National Reference Laboratory for Antibiotic Resistance in Animals; Peter Daszak, EcoHealth Alliance; Antarpreet Jutla, West Virginia University; Thomas Lovejoy, George Mason University; and Paul A. Sandifer, College of Charleston and Hollings Marine Laboratory. To learn more about GeoHealth, visit: geohealth.agu.org.
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Journal
GeoHealth