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We quantify the impact of land-use change, determined by our growing demand for food and biofuel production, on isoprene emissions and subsequent atmospheric oxidant chemistry in 2015 and 2030, relative to 1990, ignoring compound climate change effects over that period. We estimate isoprene emissions from an ensemble (n = 1000) of land-use change realizations from 1990-2050, broadly guided by the

Ecosystems are multifunctional and provide humanity with a broad array of vital services. Effective management of services requires an improved evidence base, identifying the role of ecosystems in delivering multiple services, which can assist policy-makers in maintaining them. Here, information from the literature and scientific experts was used to systematically document the importance of servic

The DO3SE (Deposition of O-3 for Stomatal Exchange) model is an established tool for estimating ozone (O-3) deposition, stomatal flux and impacts to a variety of vegetation types across Europe. It has been embedded within the EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme) photochemical model to provide a policy tool capable of relating the flux-based risk of vegetation damage to O-3 precursor

Soil moisture induced droughts are expected to become more frequent under future global climate change. Precipitation has been previously assumed to be mainly responsible for variability in summer soil moisture. However, little is known about the impacts of precipitation frequency on summer soil moisture, either interannually or spatially. To better understand the temporal and spatial drivers of s

To estimate the production of external ectomycorrhizal mycelia (EMM) in Norway spruce forests with varying nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) levels, and to relate this to the N retention capacity of ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) and N leaching. Seasonal changes in EMF production (in ingrowth mesh bags) and soil water N (in suction lysimeters) were analyzed after fertilization with N or N combined with

It has been suggested that organic farming may benefit farmland biodiversity more in landscapes that have lost a significant part of its former landscape heterogeneity. We tested this hypothesis by comparing bird species richness and abundance during the breeding season in organic and conventional farms, matched to eliminate all differences not directly linked to the farming practice, situated in

Theory predicts that variability in size and the shape of a morphological trait should often be stable both at the intra- and interspecific level. We studied variation in beak integration among several populations of two species of the genus Passer, a hybrid species, the Italian sparrow (Passer italiae) and one of its parents, the Spanish sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis). We show that the general s

Microbial activity in soil is usually limited by the availability of carbon (C). Adding an easily available C source, like glucose, has therefore been a common approach to study alleviation of resource limitations. Most such studies have relied on respiration to study microbial dynamics, with few following the explicit growth response. We determined the response in bacterial and fungal growth, as

Global monitoring of vegetation using optical remote sensing has undergone rapid technological and methodological development during the past decade. Physically based methods generally apply reflectance models for interpreting remotely sensed data sets. These methods have become increasingly important in the assessment of terrestrial variables from satellite-borne and airborne images. Products bas

Feather mosses utilize various sources of nitrogen (N): they absorb N deposited on leaf tissue, they host N-2 fixing cyanobacteria, and they are able to take up N directly from soil. In addition to their importance as primary producers in boreal ecosystems, feather mosses play a significant role in N cycling. However, estimates of their ability to take up N from soil in situ are scarce. Further, c

The aim of this research is evaluation of land suitability for urban land-use planning. Four factors and fourteen criteria were selected for suitability analysis and land-use planning. Factors and criteria were defined based on literature survey, experts' opinions, local contexts and availability of data. GIS-based Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used as a Multi-criteria Decision Making mod

Cyanobacteria-plant symbioses play an important role in many ecosystems due to the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen (N) by the cyanobacterial symbiont. The ubiquitous feather moss Pleurozium schreberi (Brid.) Mitt. is colonized by cyanobacteria in boreal systems with low N deposition. Here, cyanobacteria fix substantial amounts of N-2 and represent a potential N source. The feather moss appears to

Background: Laboratory evolution is an important tool for developing robust yeast strains for bioethanol production since the biological basis behind combined tolerance requires complex alterations whose proper regulation is difficult to achieve by rational metabolic engineering. Previously, we reported on the evolved industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain ISO12 that had acquired improved tole

Co-selection for antibiotic tolerance in Cu polluted soils was studied in a laboratory experiment. Pollution Induced Community Tolerance (PICT) of the bacterial community was estimated using leucine incorporation. PICT was found in Cu polluted soils to tetracycline (>= 8 mmol Cu kg(-1)), tylosin (>= 16 mmol Cu kg(-1)) and vancomycin (>= 16 mmol Cu kg(-1)). PICT to the antibiotics was found at high

Increasing nitrogen(N) deposition due to anthropogenic activities has become a significant global change threat to N-poor terrestrial ecosystems. We compared bacterial growth and nutrients limiting bacterial growth in one of the longest running experiments on increasing N-deposition to a temperate forest, the Chronic Nitrogen Amendment Study at Harvard Forest, USA. Soil samples were collected in f

Net primary production (NPP) is the difference in gross photosynthetic assimilation of carbon and carbon loss due to autotrophic respiration, and is an important ecosystem variable that facilitates understanding of climate change impacts on terrestrial ecosystem productivity and ecosystem services. The aim of this study is to rapidly estimate the NPP of European potential natural vegetation for cu

Under chronically elevated N deposition, N retention mainly occur at high soil C-to-N ratio. This may be mediated through soil microbes, such as ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi, saprotrophic fungi and bacteria, and the aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between soil microbes and forest floor C-to-N ratios. Soil samples from 33 Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst) forests in Denmark

Ecosystem productivity is influenced by the start and end of the growing season, and ecosystem models that simulate productivity need reliable representations of the phenology. For the seasonal development, autumn events are less understood than spring events, with comparatively fewer modelling attempts have been made for leaf senescence than for budburst. The few existing models for autumn phenol