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The INTERSPEC project, funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant, is focused on introducing a novel analytical methodology for studying single-cell scale fungal metabolism to clarify how fungal decomposition rates are affected by changing environmental (biotic and abiotic) conditions.
Most pollinator policy initiatives are focused on habitat restoration and increasing the availability of floral resources, yet the choice of plant species is not always compatible with farming system cultivation and management needs. In this paper, we developed a framework for selecting plants to specifically meet stakeholder needs. We trialled 19 plant species and collected observational data on
The European Green Deal recognises the importance of addressing the environmental challenges posed by agriculture to meet the global biodiversity and climate agendas. Environmental policymaking is needed to drive and speed up sustainability transitions in agriculture because the environmental consequences of agricultural activities are not generally reflected in production costs and lead to market
Permanent ponds represent key landscape components that support biodiversity and supply various ecosystem services. Notably, the export of aquatic subsidies to land via emerging insects, may significantly influence terrestrial food webs. Various factors, including eutrophication, can influence these exports. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), which greatly enhance consumer fitness, are among the
Tree roots and their fungal symbionts mediate the response of rhizosphere soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition to climate warming, specifically the temperature sensitivity of soil microbial respiration (Q10), which is a critical parameter for projecting the magnitude of terrestrial soil C-climate feedbacks. However, the intensity of the rhizosphere effects (RE; rhizosphere soils vs. bulk soils)
Dune slacks are biodiverse seasonal wetlands within sand dune systems, strongly influenced by the dynamics of the local groundwater regime. Future climate predictions indicate strong adverse impact on the hydrology and therefore ecology of these wetland ecosystems. In this study we aimed to find the most appropriate hydrological and ecological indicators to summarise dune slack plant community res
Plant-insect interactions are crucial for sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in grassland ecosystems. Mutualistic pollination and antagonistic herbivory drive ecological processes such as nutrient cycling, community assembly, and food web stability. However, anthropogenic pressures, including land-use change, agricultural intensification, and environmental stressors like drought and
Climate warming is driving changes in species distribution, but habitat characteristics can interact with warming temperatures to affect populations in unexpected ways. We investigated wintering waterbird responses to climate warming depending on habitat characteristics, with a focus on the northern boundary of their non-breeding distributions where winter climatic conditions are more extreme. At
Butterflies and moths have often been suggested as suitable indicators for monitoring environmental effects on biodiversity, land use changes and management practices, and many butterfly monitoring schemes are established and run in Europe. In these monitoring programmes, the field counts are only carried out when certain, standard weather conditions considered favourable for butterflies are met.
Urban environments are exposed to a substantial range of anthropic pressures, including chemical exposure. While trace metals and legacy pollutants have been well documented, the extent of wildlife exposure to emerging contaminants has received little attention, in terrestrial mammals. Concentrations of trace elements (Ag, Al, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn) and 48 organic pollutants (Polyc
Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolutio
The great hopes in Brussels that a circular bioeconomy will help bridge the growing divide between urban and rural areas and allow the hinterlands to prosper from ‘green growth’ are addressed in this article, which reflects on insights from three Nordic case studies of brown, green and blue biomass use at different levels of technology readiness. A closer examination of the forward, backward, fisc
Savannas cover a wide climatic gradient across large portions of the Earth’s land surface and are an important component of the terrestrial biosphere. Savannas have been undergoing changes that alter the composition and structure of their vegetation such as the encroachment of woody vegetation and increasing land-use intensity. Monitoring the spatial and temporal dynamics of savanna ecosystem stru
Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is of great importance to control the land-atmosphere exchange of water and CO2. Here we use in situ observations to assess the performance of monthly VPD calculated from state-of-the-art data sets including CRU, ERA5, and Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA2). We investigate trends in VPD at global scale and for different
Understanding how environmental variation influences even cryptic traits is important to clarify the roles of selection and developmental constraints in past evolutionary divergence and to predict future adaptation under environmental change. Female yellow dung flies (Scathophaga stercoraria) typically have three sperm storage compartments (3S), but occasionally four (4S). More spermathecae are th
Generating scientific advice to environmental management involves assessments with complex models, sparse data, and challenging empirical experiments, necessitating the integration of expert judgment with data into scientific models. To integrate expert judgement, assessors might elicit judgement by experts as quantiles, find a probability distribution that matches the quantiles, and add this info
