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While addition of managed honeybees (Apis mellifera) improves pollination of many entomophilous crops, it is unknown if it simultaneously suppresses the densities of wild insects through competition. To investigate this, we added 624 honeybee hives to 23 fields of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) over 2 years and made sure that the areas around 21 other fields were free from honeybee hives. We dem
Background: Changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks significantly influence the atmospheric C concentration. Agricultural management practices that increase SOC stocks thus may have profound effects on climate mitigation. Additional benefits include higher soil fertility since increased SOC stocks improve the physical and biological properties of the soil. Intensification of agriculture and la
In this paper, a novel method for analysing a bird’s song is presented. The song of male great reed warblers is used for developing and testing the methods. A robust method for detecting syllables is proposed and a classification of those syllables as compared to reference syllables is done. The extraction of classification features are based on the use of singular vectors in different time-freque
Bacteria and fungi, representing two major soil microorganism groups, play an important role in global nutrient biogeochemistry. Biogeographic patterns of bacterial and fungal biomass are of fundamental importance for mechanistically understanding nutrient cycling. We synthesized 1323 data points of phospholipid fatty acid-derived fungal biomass C (FBC), bacterial biomass C (BBC), and fungi:bacter
Aims: Ingrowth bags are widely used to estimate mycorrhizal growth and dynamics. However, it remains unclear to what extent they reflect the surrounding soil, and how this varies with environmental conditions. Methods: We used a fertilization experiment to investigate if carbon-free mesh bags were representative of their surrounding soil. We determined AMF hyphal length density (HLD), phospholipid
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the guiding policy for agriculture and the largest single budget item in the European Union (EU). Agriculture is essential to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the CAP's contribution to do so is uncertain. We analyzed the distribution of €59.4 billion of 2015 CAP payments and show that current CAP spending exacerbates income inequality withi
Bumblebees are a key taxon contributing to the provision of crop pollination and ecosystem functioning. However, land use and climate change are two of the main factors causing bee decline across the world. In this study, we investigated how the flight period of bumblebee spring queens has shifted over the last century in Sweden, and to what extent such shifts depended on climate change, landscape
The world is currently facing a biodiversity and climate crisis which are globally interlinked. Nature-based solutions (NBS), defined as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously benefiting people and nature” is part of the solution to these challenges. Here we give a status overv
Neonicotinoid insecticides applied to flowering crops can have negative impacts on bees, with implications for crop pollination. To assess if exposure to the neonicotinoid clothianidin via a treated crop (rapeseed) affected bee behaviour, pollination performance (to strawberry), and bee reproduction, we provided each of 12 outdoor cages with rapeseed (autumn-sown plants complemented with a few spr
Globally, biodiversity offsetting is used to balance negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services caused by exploitation. In Sweden, there is an increasing interest in biodiversity offsetting in urban planning. However, there is limited understanding about the use of the concept in a municipal context. This study aims to examine and critically reflect on the uptake and use of biodiversi
Introduction Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and a leading cause of disability worldwide. Metabolic comorbidities such as type II diabetes occur with a higher rate in people with OA than in the general population. Several factors including obesity, hyperglycaemia toxicity and physical inactivity have been suggested as potential links between diabetes and OA, and have been
Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organi
A common migratory pattern in birds is that northerly breeding populations migrate to more southerly non-breeding sites compared to southerly breeding populations (leap-frog migration). Not only do populations experience differences in migration distances, but also different environmental conditions, which may vary spatiotemporally within their annual cycles, creating distinctive selective pressur
Agenda 2030 Graduate School blogLund University Agenda 2030 Graduate School is a global, cutting-edge research school and collaboration platform for issues related to societal challenges, sustainability and the 2030 Agenda. The 17 PhD students from all faculties at Lund University enrolled with the Agenda 2030 Graduate School relate their specific research topics to the Sustainable Development Goa
Are there indications for the neoliberal hegemony in economy and society to come to an end? Are people already imagining a future within environmental limits and beyond the growth imperative? Theoretically, building upon Marx and Bourdieu, we reconstruct the ideological impact that capitalism, in general, and neoliberalism, in particular, has on the ways we think, feel and make sense of our enviro
Shifting flowering seasons is a global effect of climate change that can have important long-term evolutionary and demographic effects on plant communities. Life history optimization theory can be a valuable tool to assert the adaptive value and fitness effects of observed phenological shifts, but takes plant-plant competition rarely into account. Here we combine energy allocation models with evol
