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This paper explores whether women can become the change agents for a sustainable transport sector and how such a change can be accomplished through transport policy. Based on the Swedish case, women still on average have transportation behaviour with lower environmental impact than men have; women also tend to have stronger preferences for improving sustainability in the sector. The results imply

Whole-tree harvesting, i.e. harvesting of stems, branches and tops, has become increasingly common during recent decades due to the increased demand for renewable energy. Whole-tree harvesting leads to an increase in base cation losses from the ecosystem, which can counteract recovery from acidification. An increase in weathering rates due to higher temperatures is sometimes suggested as a process

Wildfires are by far the largest contributor to global biomass burning and constitute a large global source of atmospheric traces gases and aerosols. Such emissions have a considerable impact on air quality and constitute a major health hazard. Biomass burning also influences the radiative balance of the atmosphere and is thus not only of societal, but also of significant scientific interest. Ther

Coprolites from the Early Cretaceous vertebrate bone-bed at Ariño in Teruel, Spain, were analyzed geochemically and palynologically. They contain various inclusions, such as small bone fragments, abundant plant remains, pollen, and spores. We attribute the coprolites to carnivorous dinosaurs based partly on their morphology together with the presence of bone fragments, and a high content of calciu

Boreal/arctic wetlands are dominated by diverse plant species, which vary in their contribution to CH4 production, oxidation and transport processes. Earlier studies have often lumped the processes all together, which may induce large uncertainties into the results. We present a novel model, which includes three vegetation classes and can be used to simulate CH4 emissions from boreal and arctic tr

We measured volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) at an urban background site near the city centre of Helsinki, Finland, northern Europe. The VOC and CO2 measurements were obtained between January 2013 and September 2014 whereas for CO a shorter measurement campaign in April–May 2014 was conducted. Both anthropogenic and biogenic sources were identified f

Recently, the number and amount of biogenically emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been discussed in great detail. Depending on the ecosystem, the published number varies between a dozen and several hundred compounds. We present ecosystem exchange fluxes from a mixed oak–hornbeam forest in the Po Valley, Italy. The fluxes were measured by a proton transfer reaction-time-of-flight (PTR-T

Semi-arid regions play an increasingly important role as a sink within the global carbon (C) cycle and is the main biome driving inter-annual variability in carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake by terrestrial ecosystems. This indicates the need for detailed studies of spatiotemporal variability in C cycling for semi-arid ecosystems. We have synthesized data on the land-atmosphere exchange of CO2 measured w

Peatland net ecosystem production is a key variable to assess changes in the functional role of peatlands in the global carbon cycle. Light use efficiency (LUE) models in combination with satellite data have been used to estimate production for most major ecosystems, but peatlands have been largely ignored. The objectives of this study were: 1) to examine how the LUE parameter epsilon, ε (the amou

The positive δ13C excursion associated with the Late Silurian Lau Event is recognized globally and is the most prominent carbon isotope excursion of the Phanerozoic. We present new δ13C data (195 samples) and the first continuous carbon isotope stratigraphy across the stratigraphic range of this bioevent based on two drill cores from Gotland, the informal type area for the Lau Event. The positive

Forest fires are an important disturbance factor of boreal forests, annually burning about 0.5% of the forested area in Canada. Wildfire regimes are influenced by climate and a number of studies project an increase in wildfire activity with climate change. Another factor influencing wildfires is human intervention (fire suppression), and one factor that has rarely been assessed is fuel fragmentati

Land-use changes have been shown to have large effects on climate and biogeochemical cycles, but so far most studies have focused on the effects of conversion of natural vegetation to croplands and pastures. By contrast, relatively little is known about the long-term influence of past agriculture on vegetation regrowth and carbon sequestration following land abandonment. We used the LPJ-GUESS dyna

English oak (Quercus robur) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica) are amongst the most common tree species growing in Europe, influencing the annual biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) budget in this region. Studies have shown great variability in the emissions from these tree species, originating from both genetic variability and differences in climatic conditions between study sites. In thi

Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) present an unparalleled insect model to integrate evolutionary genomics with ecology for the study of insect evolution. Key features of Odonata include their ancient phylogenetic position, extensive phenotypic and ecological diversity, several unique evolutionary innovations, ease of study in the wild and usefulness as bioindicators for freshwater ecosystems w

Whilst life cycle assessment (LCA) boundaries are expanded to account for negative indirect consequences of bioenergy such as indirect land use change (ILUC), ecosystem services such as water purification sometimes delivered by perennial bioenergy crops are typically neglected in LCA studies. Consequential LCA was applied to evaluate the significance of nutrient interception and retention on the e

A major focus in evolutionary biology is to understand how the evolution of organisms relates to changes in their physical environment. In the terrestrial realm, the interrelationships among climate, vegetation, and herbivores lie at the heart of this question. Here we introduce and test a scoring scheme for functional traits present on theworn surfaces of large mammalian herbivore teeth to captur

Earth observing systems are now routinely used to infer leaf area index (LAI) given its significance in spatial aggregation of land surface fluxes. Whether LAI is an appropriate scaling parameter for daytime growing season energy budget, surface conductance (Gs), water- and light-use efficiency and surface–atmosphere coupling of European boreal coniferous forests was explored using eddy-covariance

The Baltic Sea is the world's largest area suffering from eutrophication-driven hypoxia. Low oxygen levels are threatening its biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The main causes for eutrophication-driven hypoxia are high nutrient loadings and global warming. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) contribute to eutrophication as they are important sources of nitrogen to coastal areas. Here, we eva