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Fluctuating asymmetry, the non-directional deviation from bilateral symmetry resulting from developmental instability, can indicate early-life environmental stress. While fluctuating asymmetry can affect individual survival and reproductive success, its effect on fitness differs between species. Here, we analyzed up to 27 years of mark-recapture data from 894 RFID tagged individuals of three forest-living bat species in southern Germany to investigate the degree of fluctuating asymmetry in forearm length. In Bechstein's bats, Myotis bechsteinii, the species with the highest sample size, we furthermore investigated if fluctuating asymmetry has become more frequent over the study period, a time when juvenile bats have grown larger forearms in response to warmer summers. We also investigated whether fluctuating asymmetry affects individual lifespan and lifetime reproductive success in female Myotis bechsteinii. The degree of fluctuating asymmetry clearly exceeding the measurement error estimated on recaptured individuals was similar in all three species (1.8%). In female Myotis bechsteinii, the frequency of fluctuating asymmetry did not increase over the course of the study and even strong asymmetry had no effect on individual reproductive success and life expectancy. Our data suggest that fluctuating asymmetry is a poor predictor of fitness in the female Myotis bechsteinii studied, and is so far unaffected by the warming environment which is leading to larger individuals in our study population., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Coal mining is the world's primary means of coping with an increasing energy demand. However, with the mining of coal, the regional ecosystem has been damaged to varying degrees, resulting in a decrease in the "carbon sink" capacity. Vegetation restoration is the basis for the restoration of degraded ecosystems and carbon sequestration functions in mining areas. However, no systematic studies have been conducted on the effects of vegetation restoration on soil organic carbon in coal mining areas on a global scale. Therefore, it is not possible to accurately predict the response of the global SOC pool to vegetation restoration. In this study, soil physicochemical properties of vegetation restoration were collected from 112 peer-reviewed articles to assess the effects of vegetation restoration type, soil depth, restoration year, mean annual temperature, annual precipitation, and elevation on soil organic carbon in coal mining areas and to identify relevant key drivers. The results showed that the damaged coal mine area could significantly improve the physicochemical properties of the soil through vegetation restoration. The restored soils had 39.02% higher SOC reserves compared to that in unrestored or naturally restored soils. When environmental factors were not considered, the vegetation restoration types that were favorable for SOC stock accumulation were cropland > woodland > grassland > shrubland. All four types of vegetation restoration significantly increased the SOC storage in the surface layer (0-20 cm). Grassland and shrubs significantly increased SOC storage at depth (>40 cm), whereas SOC storage at depth under woodland and farmland types was not significantly different from SOC storage after unrestored or natural restoration. The increasing trend of SOC storage after vegetation restoration decreased with increasing soil depth. The specific vegetation restoration strategy should select the appropriate vegetation type according to the climatic conditions. The types of vegetation restoration with higher carbon sequestration effects in damaged coal mining areas with mean annual temperature <0℃ and mean annual precipitation <500 mm were grassland or shrubland. In contrast, woodland and cropland restoration types could better increase SOC storage in environments with mean annual temperature >15℃ and annual precipitation >800 mm. TN, BD, AN, and AK were the main factors influencing the ability to affect soil carbon sequestration. This study can provide a theoretical reference for quantifying the carbon sequestration effects of different vegetation restoration measures in damaged coal mining areas and the restoration and reconstruction of degraded ecosystems.

Amongst a spectrum of benefits, Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly being advocated as improving the quality of aquatic environments in urban areas. Of these, a widely adopted measure is tree planting. Yet, because of the local complexities and spatial variability of urban hydrological response, it is difficult to predict to what extent improvements in water quality will arise. To overcome this barrier, a standardised approach to process-based model simulation of urban river quality is described (QUESTOR-YARDSTICK (QUESTOR-YS)). The approach eliminates the influence of point sources of pollution and harmonises the way in which river hydrodynamics and contributory catchment size are represented. Thereby, it focuses on differences in water quality between cities due solely to climate, river discharge and urban diffuse nutrient pollution factors. The relative sensitivity to NBS establishment between urban water bodies in different cities anywhere across the world can also potentially be quantified. The method can be readily extended to include wastewater effluents. The validity of the approach is demonstrated for a small river in Birmingham, UK; and thence demonstrated for the case of 10 km of riparian tree planting in Birmingham, Oslo (Norway) and Aarhus (Denmark). Modelling suggests that riparian tree planting can substantially improve water quality in each example city for three key indicators of water quality in sensitive summer conditions (water temperature, chlorophyll-a and dissolved oxygen). Results show the level of benefit achievable in response to a fixed amount of planting will depend on the existing level of riparian tree occupancy., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Locating colonies of rare bats can be a time consuming process, as it is often difficult to know where to focus survey effort. However, identifying peaks of bat activity via acoustic monitoring may provide insights into whether a colony is locally present, and help screen out sites with low potential. Using a triage approach, we developed a survey methodology for locating colonies of the woodland-specialist barbastelle bat ( Barbastella barbastellus ). We investigated whether woodland occupancy by a colony could be predicted by acoustic data, and assessed the influence of survey effort (number of acoustic detectors deployed) on detectability. The methodology was then trialled in citizen science surveys of 77 woodlands, with follow-up radio-tracking surveys by specialists being used to confirm presence or absence. Using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, we found that a threshold of four barbastelle passes recorded by at least one detector within one hour of sunset optimised the balance between the true- and false-positive rates. Subsequently, we found that a minimum survey effort of one detector per 6.25 hectares of woodland was needed to ensure a colony would be detected using this threshold, based on a survey sensitivity of 90%. Radio-tracking surveys in a subset of the woodlands, identified as having a high probability of being occupied by a colony based on acoustic monitoring, confirmed the presence of five previously unknown barbastelle maternity colonies. These results demonstrate that a triage system, in which high probability woodland sites are identified based on acoustic survey data, can be used to prioritise sites for future specialist surveys and conservation action., Competing Interests: Kieran D. O’Malley is a PhD student joint funded by the University of Sussex and Vincent Wildlife Trust. Henry Schofield and Tom Kitching are former employees of Vincent Wildlife Trust. Patrick G.R. Wright, Daniel Hargreaves, and Marina Bollo Palacios are employed by Vincent Wildlife Trust. Fiona Mathews is employed by the University of Sussex., (©2023 O’Malley et al.)

While our understanding of human origins has been enriched by extensive efforts to reconstruct the ancient environmental context of early hominins using information from hominin-bearing localities, comparatively little effort has been focused on contemporaneous fossil localities with abundant vertebrate fossils, but lacking hominins. We report here on new paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the Mursi Formation, Ethiopia, from which strata dated to >4 Ma preserve an abundant vertebrate fossil record lacking any known hominins, despite being part of a contiguous sedimentary basin known for its rich hominin fossil record. We combine new stratigraphic and sedimentological observations with data from paleosols preserved in the sedimentary sequence, along with isotopic data from pedogenic carbonate, paleosol organic matter, and sulfur minerals preserved in the sediments (gypsum, native sulfur). Paleosol features and carbon isotopic composition of fossil organic matter and pedogenic carbonate complement data from the mammalian fauna, the sum of which provide evidence of closed woodland to forest vegetation. Sedimentological data indicate that these wooded terrestrial habitats occurred near aquatic settings characterized by stagnant shallow waters of a freshwater lake, providing a reconstruction of unique habitats in contrast with hominin localities >4 Ma., (Crown Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In the UK, tree, hedgerow, and woodland (THaW) habitats are key havens for biodiversity and support many related ecosystem services. The UK is entering a period of agricultural policy realignment with respect to natural capital and climate change, meaning that now is a critical time to evaluate the distribution, resilience, and dynamics of THaW habitats. The fine-grained nature of habitats like hedgerows necessitates mapping of these features at relatively fine spatial resolution-and freely available public archives of airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) data at <2 m spatial resolution offer a means of doing so within UK settings. The high cost of LiDAR prohibits use for regular monitoring of THaW change, but space-borne sensors such as Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR at ca. 10 m resolution) can potentially meet this need once baseline distributions are established. We address two aims in this manuscript-(1) to rapidly quantify THaW across UK landscapes using LiDAR data and (2) to monitor canopy change intra- and inter-annually using SAR data. We show that workflows applied to airborne LiDAR data can deliver THaW baselines at 2 m resolution, with positional accuracy of >90%. It was also possible to combine LiDAR mapping data and Sentinel-1 SAR data to rapidly track canopy change through time (i.e., every 3 months) using, cloud-based processing via Google Earth Engine. The resultant toolkit is also provided as an open-access web app. The results highlight that whilst nearly 90% of the tallest trees (above 15 m) are captured within the National Forest Inventory (NFI) database only 50% of THaW with a canopy height range of 3-15 m are recorded. Current estimates of tree distribution neglect these finer-grained features (i.e., smaller or less contiguous THaW canopies), which we argue will account for a significant proportion of landscape THaW cover., (© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Urbanization is a major contributor to biodiversity declines. However, studies assessing effects of urban landscapes per se (i.e., disentangled from focal habitat effects) on biodiversity across spatial scales are lacking. Understanding such scale-dependent effects is fundamental to preserve habitats along an urbanization gradient in a way that maximizes overall biodiversity. We investigated the impact of landscape urbanization on communities of woodland-breeding bird species in individual (local scale) and across multiple (regional scale) cities, while controlling for the quality of sampled habitats (woodlands). We conducted bird point counts and habitat quality mapping of trees, dead wood, and shrubs in 459 woodlands along an urban to rural urbanization gradient in 32 cities in Sweden. Responses to urbanization were measured as local and regional total diversity (γ), average site diversity (α), and diversity between sites (β). We also assessed effects on individual species and to what extent dissimilarities in species composition along the urbanization gradient were driven by species nestedness or turnover. We found that landscape urbanization had a negative impact on γ-, α-, and β-diversity irrespective of spatial scale, both regarding all woodland-breeding species and red-listed species. At the regional scale, dissimilarities in species composition between urbanization levels were due to nestedness, that is, species were lost with increased landscape urbanization without being replaced. In contrast, dissimilarities at the local scale were mostly due to species turnover. Because there was no difference in habitat quality among woodlands across the urbanization gradient, we conclude that landscape urbanization as such systematically causes poorer and more homogeneous bird communities in adjacent natural habitats. However, the high local turnover and the fact that several species benefited from urbanization demonstrates that natural habitats along the entire urbanization gradient are needed to maintain maximally diverse local bird communities., (© 2022 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Nest predation is the primary cause of nest failure in most ground-nesting bird species. Investigations of relationships between nest predation rate and habitat usually pool different predator species. However, such relationships likely depend on the specific predator involved, partly because habitat requirements vary among predator species. Pooling may therefore impair our ability to identify conservation-relevant relationships between nest predation rate and habitat. We investigated predator-specific nest predation rates in the forest-dependent, ground-nesting wood warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix in relation to forest area and forest edge complexity at two spatial scales and to the composition of the adjacent habitat matrix. We used camera traps at 559 nests to identify nest predators in five study regions across Europe. When analyzing predation data pooled across predator species, nest predation rate was positively related to forest area at the local scale (1000 m around nest), and higher where proportion of grassland in the adjacent habitat matrix was high but arable land low. Analyses by each predator species revealed variable relationships between nest predation rates and habitat. At the local scale, nest predation by most predators was higher where forest area was large. At the landscape scale (10,000 m around nest), nest predation by buzzards Buteo buteo was high where forest area was small. Predation by pine martens Martes martes was high where edge complexity at the landscape scale was high. Predation by badgers Meles meles was high where the matrix had much grassland but little arable land. Our results suggest that relationships between nest predation rates and habitat can depend on the predator species involved and may differ from analyses disregarding predator identity. Predator-specific nest predation rates, and their relationships to habitat at different spatial scales, should be considered when assessing the impact of habitat change on avian nesting success., (© 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a recognised disruptor of biological function and ecological communities. Despite increasing research effort, we know little regarding the effect of ALAN on woody plants, including trees, or its indirect effects on their colonising invertebrates. These effects have the potential to disrupt woodland food webs by decreasing the productivity of invertebrates and their secretions, including honeydew and lerps, with cascading effects on other fauna. Here, we cultivated juvenile river red gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) for 40 weeks under experimentally manipulated light (ALAN) or naturally dark (control) conditions. To assess direct impacts on tree growth, we took multiple measures of growth at four time periods, and also measured physiological function, biomass and investment in semi-mature trees. To assess experimentally the direct and indirect (tree-mediated) impacts of ALAN on invertebrates, from 19 weeks onwards, we matched and mismatched trees with their original ALAN environments. We colonised trees with a common herbivore of E. camaldulensis, the red gum lerp psyllid (Glycaspis nr. brimblecombei) and then measured the effects of current and historic tree lighting treatment on the psyllid life cycle. Our data revealed direct effects of ALAN on tree morphology: E. camaldulensis trees exposed to ALAN shifted biomass allocation away from roots and into leaves and increased specific leaf area. However, while the intensity of ALAN was sufficient to promote photosynthesis (net carbon gain) at night, this did not translate into variation in tree water status or photosystem adaptation to dim night-time light for ALAN-exposed trees. We found some evidence that ALAN had broad-scale community effects-psyllid nymphs colonising ALAN trees produced more lerps-but we found no other direct or indirect impacts of ALAN on the psyllid life cycle. Our results suggest that trees exposed to ALAN may share morphological responses with trees under dim daylight conditions. Further, ALAN may have significant 'bottom-up' effects on Eucalyptus woodland food webs through both trees and herbivores, which may impact higher trophic levels including woodland birds, mammals and invertebrates., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Mature temperate woodlands are commonly dominated by ectomycorrhizal trees, whereas understory plants predominantly form arbuscular mycorrhizal associations. Due to differences in plant-fungus compatibility between canopy and ground layer vegetation the 'mycorrhizal mediation hypothesis' predicts that herbaceous plant establishment may be limited by a lack of suitable mycorrhizal fungal inoculum. We examined plant species data for 103 woodlands across Great Britain recorded in 1971 and in 2000 to test whether herbaceous plant species richness was related to the proportion of arbuscular mycorrhizal woody plants. We compared the effect of mycorrhizal type with other important drivers of woodland plant species richness. We found a positive effect of the relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal woody plants on herbaceous plant species richness. The size of the observed effect was smaller than that of pH. Moreover, the effect persisted over time, despite many woodlands undergoing marked successional change and increased understorey shading. This work supports the mycorrhizal mediation hypothesis in British woodlands and suggests that increased abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal woody plants is associated with greater understory plant species richness., (© 2022 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.)

The density of Borrelia burgdorferi-infected Ixodes ricinus nymphs (DIN) was investigated during 2013-2017 across a Lyme disease-endemic landscape in southern England. The density of nymphs (DON), nymph infection prevalence (NIP), and DIN varied across five different natural habitats, with the highest DIN in woodland edge and high biodiversity woodlands. DIN was significantly lower in scrub grassland compared to the woodland edge, with low DON and no evidence of infection in ticks in non-scrub grassland. Over the 5 years, DON, NIP and DIN were comparable within habitats, except in 2014, with NIP varying three-fold and DIN significantly lower compared to 2015-2017. Borrelia garinii was most common, with bird-associated Borrelia (B. garinii/valaisiana) accounting for ~70% of all typed sequences. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto was more common than B. afzelii. Borrelia afzelii was more common in scrub grassland than woodland and absent in some years. The possible impact of scrub on grazed grassland, management of ecotonal woodland margins with public access, and the possible role of birds/gamebirds impacting NIP are discussed. Mean NIP was 7.6%, highlighting the potential risk posed by B. burgdorferi in this endemic area. There is a need for continued research to understand its complex ecology and identify strategies for minimizing risk to public health, through habitat/game management and public awareness., (© 2022 Crown copyright. Medical and Veterinary Entomology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Entomological Society. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.)

Cooked food provides more calories to a consumer than raw food. When our human ancestors adopted cooking, the result was an increase in the caloric value of the diet. Generating the heat to cook, however, requires fuel, and accessing fuel was and remains a common problem for humanity. Cooking also frequently requires monitoring, special technology and other investments. These cooking costs should vary greatly across multiple contexts. Here I explain how to quantify this cooking trade-off as the ratio of the energetic benefits of cooking to the increased cost in handling time and examine the implications for foragers, including the first of our ancestors to cook. Ethnographic and experimental return rates and nutritional analysis about important prey items exploited by ethnohistoric Numic foragers in the North American Great Basin provide a demonstration of how the costs of cooking impact different types of prey. Foragers should make choices about which prey to capture based on expectations about the costs involved to cook them. The results indicate that the caloric benefit achieved by cooking meat is quickly lost as the cost of cooking increases, whereas many plant foods are beneficially cooked across a range of cooking costs. These findings affirm the importance of plant foods, especially geophytes, among foragers, and are highly suggestive of their importance at the onset of cooking in the human lineage., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A range of approaches have been developed to support natural resource management. One such approach, stakeholder analysis, involves the use of a range of tools to identify and assess stakeholder interests and influence. Comprehensive empirical stakeholder analysis, however, can be time consuming and resource intensive. Approaches therefore frequently rely on the researcher's personal interpretation rather than empirical analysis. To address this limitation, a web content-based method (WCM) is proposed. Innovative and user-friendly, this empirical method comprises stakeholder information and the use of keywords in a content analysis of preselected stakeholder webpages, demonstrated here, through UK forestry, as an illustrative example. In this study, the application of WCM provides a comprehensive overview of the multitude of stakeholders in UK forestry and in the various goods and services they provide: Stakeholders' primary interests were in the provisioning services of timber and fuel wood; the cultural services of education and recreation; and to a lesser extent, the regulating services of climate and water regulation. While not without limitations, this systematic method provides an effective tool to support researchers, industry, and non-governmental organisations in different fields and countries, to undertake stakeholder analysis, especially in the case of small-scale studies in complex contexts and where resources are limited., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Positive biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships (BEFRs) have been widely documented, but it is unclear if BEFRs should be expected in disturbance-driven systems. Disturbance may limit competition and niche differentiation, which are frequently posited to underlie BEFRs. We provide the first exploration of the relationship between tree species diversity and biomass, one measure of ecosystem function, across southern African woodlands and savannas, an ecological system rife with disturbance from fire, herbivores and humans. We used > 1000 vegetation plots distributed across 10 southern African countries and structural equation modelling to determine the relationship between tree species diversity and above-ground woody biomass, accounting for interacting effects of resource availability, disturbance by fire, tree stem density and vegetation type. We found positive effects of tree species diversity on above-ground biomass, operating via increased structural diversity. The observed BEFR was highly dependent on organismal density, with a minimum threshold of c. 180 mature stems ha -1 . We found that water availability mainly affects biomass indirectly, via increasing species diversity. The study underlines the close association between tree diversity, ecosystem structure, environment and function in highly disturbed savannas and woodlands. We suggest that tree diversity is an under-appreciated determinant of wooded ecosystem structure and function., (© 2021 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2021 New Phytologist Foundation.)

The release of gamebirds for recreational shooting exerts a series of effects on the ecosystems into which they are placed. Pheasants ( Phasianus colchicus ) are omnivorous and eat invertebrates, especially when young or, if females, when breeding. Consequently, the release of large numbers of pheasants into woodland release pens may affect local invertebrate populations. Previous studies have reported mixed evidence. We conducted pitfall trapping at 13 sites (49 pens) in central England over 2 years (totaling 65 pen measures), comprising three surveys annually, immediately prior to releases in mid-summer, 4 weeks later when most birds were still in the pens, and another 5 weeks later when most birds had dispersed. We compared traps inside and 25 m outside pens in the same wood. We considered release densities and whether the birds had prior experience of eating invertebrates. While accounting for overall seasonal declines in invertebrates trapped, we detected changes for total invertebrate biomass and total counts indicative of released pheasants causing local decreases inside pens, either directly by predation or indirectly by modifying vegetation. There were also relative decreases outside pens when the pheasants start to disperse, suggesting that the released pheasants may be affecting invertebrates in those nearby areas or that their earlier effects inside the pen, modifying vegetation or increasing invertebrate activity, increased the relative susceptibility of invertebrates there to trapping. However, these effects were not seen for specific invertebrate groups believed to be especially susceptible to pheasants. For slugs and detritivores, we detected small population increases inside pens. Across the study period, decreases for most measures were greater outside pens than inside them. We conclude that any effects pheasants have on invertebrate communities at release sites in woodlands are complex and that long-term and taxon-specific studies should be considered to understand the local net ecological effects of gamebird releases on invertebrates., Competing Interests: None declared., (© 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Soil organic matter (SOM) and pH are critical soil properties strongly linked to carbon storage, nutrient cycling and crop productivity. Land use is known to have a dominant impact on these key soil properties, but we often lack the ability to examine temporal trajectories across extensive spatial scales. Large-scale monitoring programmes provide the data to evaluate these longer-term changes, and under different climatic conditions. This study used data from Chinese soil surveys to examine changes in soil pH and SOM across different land uses (dry farmland, paddy fields, grassland, woodland, unused land), with surface soil (0-20 cm) collected in the periods 1985-90 (Survey 1; 890 samples) and 2006-10 (Survey 2; 5005 samples) from two contrasting areas. In the southern part of China the mean pH of paddy soils fell sharply over the two decades between surveys - from pH 5.81 to 5.19 (p < 0.001), while dry farmlands in the northern sampling area fell slightly (from pH 8.15 to 7.82; p < 0.001). The mean SOM content of dry farmland soil rose in both areas and the mean SOM of paddy fields in the southern area also rose (all p < 0.001). Woodland soil pH in the south showed an increase from 4.71 to 5.29 (p < 0.001) but no significant difference was measured in the woodlands of the northern area, although the trend increased. The SOM content of woodland top soils rose in the northern (p = 0.003) and southern (p < 0.001) study areas. The implications and potential causes of these changes over the two decade timespan between surveys are discussed and suggestions made as to how large scale soil sampling campaigns can be designed to monitor for changes and potential controlling factors., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

This paper serves as an introduction to a Special Issue (SI) of the Journal of Forest Policy and Economics dedicated to forest investment and finance. The Special Issue stemmed from an International Forest Business Conference (IFBC2018) held in Poland on 6-8 June 2018. It includes papers based on speeches at that conference, as well as others on similar topics not presented at the conference. Topics addressed in this Special Issue include timberland investments, forest finance, intensively managed plantations, risk, uncertainty and decision-making, business structures and investment strategy, timber prices and forecasts, forestry contractors, and taxes. Details papers on these subjects follow in this Special Issue. Our finance research overview here provides a historical background and summary of forest investments and finance, focusing on forest equity investments made by institutional investors and in forestry real estate investment trusts, not including public lands or individual small private forest landowners. Forest assets as an investment class have expanded due to analytical advances, ownership changes, globalized markets, and sustainable forestry factors. Key components affecting forestry investments are expected asset returns, portfolio diversification, inflation hedge, and liquidity and natural risks. Topics detailed in this Special Issue include timberland investments, forest finance, intensively managed plantations, risk, uncertainty and decision-making, business structures and investment strategy, timber prices and forecasts, forestry contractors, and taxes. Finally, we identify knowledge gaps regarding forest investments for future research., Competing Interests: We have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Species interactions have a spatiotemporal component driven by environmental cues, which if altered by climate change can drive shifts in community dynamics. There is insufficient understanding of the precise time windows during which inter-annual variation in weather drives phenological shifts and the consequences for mismatches between interacting species and resultant population dynamics-particularly for insects. We use a 20 year study on a tri-trophic system: sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus, two associated aphid species Drepanosiphum platanoidis and Periphyllus testudinaceus and their hymenopteran parasitoids. Using a sliding window approach, we assess climatic drivers of phenology in all three trophic levels. We quantify the magnitude of resultant trophic mismatches between aphids and their plant hosts and parasitoids, and then model the impacts of these mismatches, direct weather effects and density dependence on local-scale aphid population dynamics. Warmer temperatures in mid-March to late-April were associated with advanced sycamore budburst, parasitoid attack and (marginally) D. platanoidis emergence. The precise time window during which spring weather advances phenology varies considerably across each species. Crucially, warmer temperatures in late winter delayed the emergence of both aphid species. Seasonal variation in warming rates thus generates marked shifts in the relative timing of spring events across trophic levels and mismatches in the phenology of interacting species. Despite this, we found no evidence that aphid population growth rates were adversely impacted by the magnitude of mismatch with their host plants or parasitoids, or direct impacts of temperature and precipitation. Strong density dependence effects occurred in both aphid species and probably buffered populations, through density-dependent compensation, from adverse impacts of the marked inter-annual climatic variation that occurred during the study period. These findings explain the resilience of aphid populations to climate change and uncover a key mechanism, warmer winter temperatures delaying insect phenology, by which climate change drives asynchronous shifts between interacting species., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Land use type exerts important influences on soil organic carbon (SOC) and its fractions, and determines the stability of the carbon pool. Taking woodland as a reference, the content of SOC and its labile fractions[dissolved organic carbon (DOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and particulate organic carbon (POC)] and non-labile fractions[mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC)] in upland and paddy surface soils in hilly red soil regions were determined to explore the responses of SOC fractions to land use type. The results showed that the contents of SOC, MBC, POC, and MAOC ranked highest in paddy compared with upland and woodland. DOC content in woodland was significantly higher than in upland and paddy ( P <0.001). The proportion of each SOC fraction, i.e. DOC/SOC, MBC/SOC, POC/SOC, and MAOC/SOC, was in the range of 0.22%-0.93%, 1.62%-2.70%, 31.08%-40.00%, and 43.22%-56.82%, respectively. The contents of labile fractions (MBC and POC) and their proportions (MBC/SOC and POC/SOC) were in the order of paddy > woodland > upland. MAOC content ranked the highest in paddy but the lowest in upland, while MAOC/SOC exhibited the opposite trend. The correlation suggested that the labile fractions (MBC and POC) and inert fraction (MAOC) were significantly positively correlated with SOC ( P <0.001) in the three land use types, while no significant correlations were found between DOC and SOC and its fractions ( P >0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between POC and MBC in upland and woodland ( P <0.001). POC was significantly positively correlated with MAOC in the three land use types ( P <0.001). MAOC and MBC in paddy and upland were significantly positively correlated ( P <0.001). Therefore, compared with upland and woodland, SOC in paddy had a higher proportion of labile SOC fraction, but a lower proportion of inert fraction. Moreover, MBC content in paddy was not related to the accumulation of the labile fraction of POC, but positively related to the accumulation of the inert fraction of MAOC. In summary, agricultural land uses have great influence on SOC and its fractions in hilly red soil regions. Though paddy is beneficial for SOC sequestration, the proportions of labile fractions in its SOC are relatively higher, and thus it is vulnerable to loss due to improper agricultural management.

Cephalanthera rubra (L.) Rich., Red Helleborine, is a widespread orchid in Europe but known only from three very small populations in England. These populations are in decline with no natural seed setting for more than a decade. The species may become extinct in the UK soon unless viable strategies are in place for ex situ conservation, especially the use of symbiotic propagation. Because of the fragile nature of the populations in England mycorrhizal fungal diversity study is not feasible. Therefore, to understand the factors needed for healthy Red Helleborine populations, soil characteristics and diversity of culturable root-derived fungi of the populations from a small area in the Loire Valley in France were studied. The main objectives of the study were: (1) Which culturable mycorrhizal fungi associated with C. rubra roots and (2) To what extent is variation in fungal communities related to variation in soil characteristics? Here, we report a significant difference in diversity of culturable mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal fungi depending on soil pH and phosphorus content. Mycorrhizal associations were favoured by plants in locations with low soil nutrient availability and comparatively higher pH. Our study shows that mycorrhizal fungi, both ecto and endo, can be cultured from roots of plants at different maturity stages., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2020 Bell et al.)

The two major causes of Parkinson's disease (PD) are genetic susceptibility and exposure to agricultural pesticides. Access to 23,224 individuals' hospital primary discharge diagnoses of PD allowed the mapping of cases against known crop distributions and pesticides. Our main objective was to map PD risks (cases per 10,000 people) against crops and their pesticides. The ZIP Code address locations, and the 2000 and 2010 census data, were used to map the risks of PD throughout Louisiana and in relation to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-recorded crops. The introduction of glyphosate-resistant crops appears to have initiated the PD disappearance from northeastern parishes on the west bank of the Mississippi river. Rice and sugar cane are seemingly unassociated with PD, as is the Mississippi itself, except for Jefferson and St. Charles Parishes, which are essentially urban or industrial. The present major PD-affected areas are associated with commercial forests, woodlands, and pastures, and thus with certain arbor-pastoral pesticides, 2,4-D, chlorpyrifos, and paraquat. Human populations at maximum risk are those living in areas of moderate and high aquifer-recharge potential. The levels of estimated pesticide exposure in these recharge areas we were able to access were of variable use, but significant amounts of 2,4-D were being used., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

In 2017, the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) began to conduct Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) within a mature broadleaf deciduous forest situated in the United Kingdom. BIFoR FACE employs large-scale infrastructure, in the form of lattice towers, forming 'arrays' which encircle a forest plot of ~30 m diameter. BIFoR FACE consists of three treatment arrays to elevate local CO 2 concentrations (e[CO 2 ]) by +150 µmol/mol. In practice, acceptable operational enrichment (ambient [CO 2 ] + e[CO 2 ]) is ±20% of the set point 1-min average target. There are a further three arrays that replicate the infrastructure and deliver ambient air as paired controls for the treatment arrays. For the first growing season with e[CO 2 ] (April to November 2017), [CO 2 ] measurements in treatment and control arrays show that the target concentration was successfully delivered, that is: +147 ± 21 µmol/mol (mean ± SD) or 98 ± 14% of set point enrichment target. e[CO 2 ] treatment was accomplished for 97.7% of the scheduled operation time, with the remaining time lost due to engineering faults (0.6% of the time), CO 2 supply issues (0.6%) or adverse weather conditions (1.1%). CO 2 demand in the facility was driven predominantly by wind speed and the formation of the deciduous canopy. Deviations greater than 10% from the ambient baseline CO 2 occurred <1% of the time in control arrays. Incidences of cross-contamination >80 µmol/mol (i.e. >53% of the treatment increment) into control arrays accounted for <0.1% of the enrichment period. The median [CO 2 ] values in reconstructed three-dimensional [CO 2 ] fields show enrichment somewhat lower than the target but still well above ambient. The data presented here provide confidence in the facility setup and can be used to guide future next-generation forest FACE facilities built into tall and complex forest stands., (© 2019 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

For much of their history, fossil apes retained many monkey-like features in posture and body structure. They also occupied a range of habitats, of which tropical forest was only a part, and there is evidence of increasing terrestriality in the fossil record as it is known at present (2019). In the early Miocene (18-20 million years ago, Ma), fossil apes were pronograde arboreal slow climbers, associated mainly with forest environments and deciduous woodland and with some indications of terrestrial behaviour, particularly the larger species. Their hands had long and opposable thumbs, and the phalanges were curved. In the early middle Miocene (15-16 Ma), apes were still monkey-like in body plan and posture and were associated almost entirely with non-forest, deciduous woodland habitats, with increasing evidence of terrestrial adaptations. Hand proportions remained the same. Towards the end of the middle Miocene (12 Ma), some fossil ape species had broadened chests, long clavicles, medial torsion of the humerus and re-positioning of the scapula to the back. These adaptations may have been linked with more upright posture, as in the living apes, but unlike them, the hand phalanges were short, robust and less curved, and the thumb remained long. Associated environments were deciduous woodland rather than forest. This body plan was retained in part in some later Miocene apes (10 Ma), some of which also had more elongated limbs and hands (thumb length not known), and hind limbs modified for greater flexibility, analogous with the orang utan. Associated environments were subtropical deciduous woodlands and subtropical evergreen laurophyllous woodland in southern Europe. Other late Miocene European apes had adaptations for living on the ground, and some of these also shared characters of the skull with orang utans. They are associated with more open deciduous woodland habitats. This body plan and environment were retained in the early hominin, Ardipithecus ramidus, but with a more robust postcranial skeleton and incipient bipedalism. Based on shared character states in fossil apes, living apes and early hominins, 27 characters are identified as probable attributes of the last common ancestor (LCA) of apes and humans. The likely environment of the LCA was tropical deciduous woodland with some evidence of more open habitats, and this remained unchanged in the transition from apes to early hominins., (© 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Livestock farming in large-scale pasture landscapes can fulfil the economic and ecological requirements for sustainable, biodiversity-friendly agriculture of the European Union (EU). However, little is known about the grazing systems that have maintained these pastures for centuries. The traditional grazing methods and their effects on the cattle behaviour were therefore studied at 23 mountain summer farms in the Asiago upland (northeastern Italy). Traditional methods of free-ranging and herding were the only techniques adopted by farmers. Only environmental factors (size and perimeter length of the pastoral unit) were significantly associated with the grazing method used. Free-ranging was more often performed in small and homogeneous farms, while herding was done in large and heterogeneous farms. Herding led to a more homogeneous grazer distribution and better regulated the lengths of the cattle daily routes than free-ranging. The grazing direction and resting sites were almost exclusively affected by environmental factors. Cattle grazed predominantly in the direction from which the wind was blowing, and preferred resting at windy sites in the daytime (escaping from flies) and at open areas close to woods during the night (being protected against cold winds). Other traits shared between free-ranging and herding were: the seasonal organisation of grazing into periods and camps; re-grazing of the same surface within a few days; everyday use of different pasture types; and rhythms in the cattle daily activities. Even if they may have lower productivity compared to rotational stocking, the studied traditional grazing methods, especially herding, have the advantages of respecting spontaneous cattle behaviour, producing more savoury cheeses, and better maintaining heterogeneous and biodiversity-rich landscapes. More attention should be paid to traditional grazing methods within measures aiming to conserve cultural heritage and agricultural biodiversity., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Impacts of wildfire on humans are increasing as urban populations continue to expand into fire prone landscapes. Effective fire risk management can only be achieved if we understand and quantify how ecosystems change in response to fire and how these changes affect flammability. However, there have been limited studies to this effect with the dominant paradigm being the assumption that recently burnt vegetation is less flammable than older vegetation. To better quantify changes in flammability, we first need to quantify trajectories of changes in response to fire within individual vegetation communities. Second, we need to examine the extent to which these changes alter flammability. Here, we quantify the flammability pathways with increasing time since fire for five vegetation communities in south-eastern Australia. A total of 116 sites were measured across a range of heathland, woodland and forest ecosystems. Flammability was measured using an ecological point based mechanistic fire behaviour model that estimates three measures of flammability relevant to both fire management and research. Predicted changes in flammability varied between vegetation types with heathland and wet forests generally increasing in flammability with time since fire and tall mixed, foothills and forby forests decreasing or showing limited changes with time since fire. Variations in flammability pathways suggest fire management activities that alter fuel structure, such as prescribed burning, may only reduce flammability in a limited set of ecosystems. Incorporating these results into a landscape analysis will improve the quantification of fire risk., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Hedgerows provide valuable habitats and corridors for many species in farmland, yet a lack of appropriate management may threaten their benefits to biodiversity. Although agri-environment scheme (AES) prescriptions on hedgerow management have the potential to reverse the detrimental effect of over-trimming on wildlife, their effectiveness has rarely been addressed. The aims of the study were to (i) assess moth responses to trimming regimes; and (ii) investigate the influence of the surrounding landscape on moth assemblages. We specifically tested the effectiveness of the trimming regime recommended by the targeted AES that was implemented on farms near greater horseshoe bat ( Rhinolophus ferrumequinum ) colonies since it represented the most sympathetic hedgerow management option among English AES options. We sampled adult micro- and macro-moths along 64 hedgerows located within 20 English farms using light traps, and classified moths into two guilds reflecting their larval food preferences, namely grass/herb- and shrub/tree-feeders. Our results suggest that reducing trimming has a positive impact on macro-moth species richness as well as on shrub/tree-feeder abundance and species richness. It also benefited four moth species that are significantly declining in Britain. Furthermore, while the proportion of woodland at a large spatial scale (3.0 km radius around the sampling sites) was positively associated with the abundance of macro-moths and grass/herb-feeders, woodland connectivity had a positive effect on the species richness of grass/herb- and shrub/tree-feeders at large and medium (1.5 km radius) scales, respectively. Both the abundance and species richness of macro-moths and the abundance of shrub/tree-feeders were negatively affected by the presence of arable fields adjacent to hedgerows. Overall, these findings reveal the wider biodiversity benefits of targeted AESs focusing on habitat improvement for R. ferrumequinum , and the importance of woodland in the wider landscape. We therefore strongly recommend implementing a multi-scale management approach (i.e. from field to landscape) through the use of adequate AES prescriptions to conserve moths in agricultural landscapes.

Cities are increasingly focused on expanding tree canopy cover as a means to improve the urban environment by, for example, reducing heat island effects, promoting better air quality, and protecting local habitat. The majority of efforts to expand canopy cover focus on planting street trees or on planting native tree species and removing nonnatives in natural areas through reforestation. Yet many urban canopy assessments conducted at the city-scale reveal co-dominance by nonnative trees, fueling debates about the value of urban forests and native-specific management targets. In contrast, assessments within cities at site or park scales find that some urban forest stands harbor predominantly native biodiversity. To resolve this apparent dichotomy in findings, about the extent to which urban forests are native dominated, between the city-scale canopy and site-level assessments, we measure forest structure and composition in 1,124 plots across 53 parks in New York City's 2,497 ha of natural area forest. That is, we assess urban forests at the city-scale and deliberately omit sampling trees existing outside of forest stands but which are enumerated in citywide canopy assessments. We find that on average forest stand canopy is comprised of 82% native species in New York City forests, suggesting that conclusions that the urban canopy is co-dominated by nonnatives likely results from predominantly sampling street trees in prior city-scale assessments. However, native tree species' proportion declines to 75% and 53% in the midstory and understory, respectively, suggesting potential threats to the future native dominance of urban forest canopies. Furthermore, we find that out of 57 unique forest types in New York City, the majority of stands (81%) are a native type. We find that stand structure in urban forest stands is more similar to rural forests in New York State than to stand structure reported for prior assessments of the urban canopy at the city scale. Our results suggest the need to measure urban forest stands apart from the entire urban canopy. Doing so will ensure that city-scale assessments return data that align with conservation policy and management strategies that focus on maintaining and growing native urban forests rather than individual trees., (© 2018 by the Ecological Society of America.)

Biodiversity loss is a global concern, and maintaining habitat complexity in naturally patchy landscapes can help retain regional diversity. A mosaic of prairie, savanna, and forest historically occurred across central North America but currently is highly fragmented due to human land conversion. It is unclear how each habitat type now contributes to regional diversity. Using legacy data, we resurveyed savanna plant communities originally surveyed in the 1950s to compare change in savannas to that in remnant forests and prairies. Savanna community structure and composition changed substantially over the past 60 years. Tree canopy density nearly doubled and many prairie and savanna specialist species were replaced by forest and non-native species. All three habitats gained and lost many species since the 1950s, resulting in large changes in community composition from local colonizations and extinctions. Across all three habitats, regional species extinctions matched that of regional colonization resulting in no net change in regional species richness. Synthesis-Despite considerable species turnover within savannas, many species remain within the broader prairie-savanna-forest mosaic. Both regional extinctions and colonizations were high over the past 60 years, and maintaining the presence of all three community types-prairie, savanna and forest-on the landscape is critical to maintaining regional biodiversity.

Interspecific aggression by the noisy miner ( Manorina melanocephala ), a highly despotic species, is homogenizing woodland avifaunas across eastern Australia. Although a native species, the noisy miner's aggressive exclusion of small birds is a Key Threatening Process under national law. Large-scale removal of noisy miners has been proposed as a management response to this threat following increases in miner presence due to anthropogenic land use practices. We tested this proposal by experimentally removing noisy miners from eucalypt woodland remnants (16-49 ha), assigned randomly as control ( n  = 12) or treatment (miner removal) sites ( n  = 12). Standardized bird surveys were conducted before and after removal, and generalized linear mixed models were used to investigate the effect of miner removal on bird assemblage metrics. Despite removing 3552 noisy miners in three sessions of systematic shooting, densities of noisy miners remained similarly high in treatment and control sites, even just 14 days after their removal. However, there was evidence of an increase in richness and abundance of small birds in treatment sites compared to controls-an effect we only expected to see if noisy miner densities were drastically reduced. We suggest that miner removal may have reduced the ability of the recolonizing miners to aggressively exclude small birds, even without substantially reducing miner densities, due to the breakdown of social structures that are central to the species' despotic behaviour. However, this effect on small birds is unlikely to persist in the long term. Synthesis and applications : Despite evidence from other studies that direct removal of noisy miners can result in rapid and sustained conservation benefit for bird communities at small scales, our findings cast doubt on the potential to scale-up this management approach. The circumstances under which direct control of noisy miners can be achieved remain unresolved.

The modern vegetation of East Africa is a complex mosaic of rainforest patches; small islands of tropic-alpine vegetation; extensive savannas, ranging from almost pure grassland to wooded savannas; thickets; and montane grassland and forest. Here I trace the evolution of these vegetation types through the Cenozoic. Paleogene East Africa was most likely geomorphologically subdued and, as the few Eocene fossil sites suggest, a woodland in a seasonal climate. Woodland rather than rainforest may well have been the regional vegetation. Mountain building started with the Oligocene trap lava flows in Ethiopia, on which rainforest developed, with little evidence of grass and none of montane forests. The uplift of the East African Plateau took place during the middle Miocene. Fossil sites indicate the presence of rainforest, montane forest and thicket, and wooded grassland, often in close juxtaposition, from 17 to 10 Ma. By 10 Ma, marine deposits indicate extensive grassland in the region and isotope analysis indicates that this was a C 3 grassland. In the later Miocene rifting, first of the western Albertine Rift and then of the eastern Gregory Rift, added to the complexity of the environment. The building of the high strato-volcanos during the later Mio-Pliocene added environments suitable for tropic-alpine vegetation. During this time, the C 3 grassland was replaced by C 4 savannas, although overall the extent of grassland was reduced from the mid-Miocene high to the current low level. Lake-level fluctuations during the Quaternary indicate substantial variation in rainfall, presumably as a result of movements in the intertropical convergence zone and the Congo air boundary, but the impact of these fluctuations on the vegetation is still speculative. I argue that, overall, there was an increase in the complexity of East African vegetation complexity during the Neogene, largely as a result of orogeny. The impact of Quaternary climatic fluctuation is still poorly understood., (© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Scientists have largely neglected the effects of grazing on soil microbial communities despite their importance as drivers of ecosystem functions and services. We hypothesized that changes in soil properties resulting from grazing regulate the diversity of soil microbes by releasing/suppressing subordinate microbial taxa via competition. To test this, we examined how intensity of vertebrate herbivores influences the diversity and composition of soil bacteria and fungi at 216 soil samples from 54 sites across four microsites. Increasing grazing intensity reduced soil carbon, suppressing the dominant bacterial phylum Actinobacteria (indirectly promoting bacterial diversity) and increasing the dominant fungal phylum Ascomycetes (indirectly reducing fungal diversity). Our data provide novel evidence that grazing modulates the diversity and composition of soil microbes via increases or reductions in competition by dominant taxa. Our results suggest that grazing can potentially alter soil function by altering microbial community composition, providing a clear link between grazing management, carbon availability and ecosystem functions., (© 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.)

This study aimed to understand the soil actinobacterial community diversity in the urban and rural hydro-fluctuation zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir region. The hydro-fluctuation zone of Chongqing Great Theatre in Jiangbei District and the Ruxi river basin in Zhong County, Chongqing, was chosen as the study area. Soil samples were collected in June 2015, to measure actinobacterial biodiversity using the terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) molecular method. Results showed that:1 The actinobacterial biodiversity was different in the urban and rural hydro-fluctuation zone after artificial vegetation restoration. The actinobacterial biodiversity of the urban hydro-fluctuation zone was significantly higher than that of the rural hydro-fluctuation zone ( P <0.05), which was most obvious in the surface soil. 2 The actinobacterial biodiversity of woodland was higher than that of grassland, but there was no significant difference in the actinobacterial biodiversity among the three soil layers in both the urban and rural hydro-fluctuation zone. 3 The dominant species of actinomycetes was different in different samples. 4 Redundancy analysis and the Monte-Carlo test revealed that water content and available nitrogen (AN) played a critical role in influencing actinobacterial biodiversity in the urban hydro-fluctuation zone ( P <0.05). In contrast, the water content, organic matter (OM), available nitrogen (AN) and available phosphorus (AP) played a critical role in influencing actinobacterial biodiversity in the rural hydro-fluctuation zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir region ( P <0.05). Thus, we concluded that the actinobacterial biodiversity of the urban hydro-fluctuation zone was significantly higher than that of the rural hydro-fluctuation zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir region, and such a result was attributed to the increased human disturbance and soil nutrients.

The contents of 8 heavy metal elements (Sr, Ni, Fe, Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb, Zn) and the lead & strontium isotope composition of soil profile of woodland in Quanzhou city were analyzed by AAS and ICP-MS, respectively. A modified BCR four-step sequential extraction procedure was carried out to obtain the speciation fractionation of heavy metals in the soil profile from 4 stations. The results of the heavy metal elements and the speciation fractionation of heavy metals in the soil profile showed that the heavy metal pollution in the woodland in Quanzhou was relatively light, and the main pollution factor was Sr. The non-residue state of Pb was the highest, leading to the highest activity. The result of Nemero comprehensive pollution index showed that Sr in the depth of 0-60 cm was at heavy pollution level. The results of the RSP showed that the activity of Pb was the highest. The results of EF showed that Pb, Sr, Mn and Zn had exogenous sources. Factor analysis showed that the main sources of heavy metals were the compound pollution of agricultural activities, natural resources, and the vehicle exhaust. Composition of Pb isotopic ratios showed that, Pb in soil profile of woodland in Quanzhou was from vehicle exhaust and parent material. The contribution rates of the two sources in the soil profile were calculated by using the two-mixed model. The contribution rates of parent material and vehicle exhaust were 85.14%(62.53%-98.36%) and 14.86%(1.640%-37.47%) on average, respectively. Strontium isotope tracing results showed that the main sources of strontium were also vehicle exhaust and parent material. Coupling both Pb and Sr isotope ratios agreed with the above mentioned results.

Biodiversity offset schemes are globally popular policy tools for balancing the competing demands of conservation and development. Trading currencies for losses and gains in biodiversity value at development and credit sites are usually based on several vegetation attributes combined to yield a simple score (multimetric), but the score is rarely validated prior to implementation. Inaccurate biodiversity trading currencies are likely to accelerate global biodiversity loss through unrepresentative trades of losses and gains. We tested a model vegetation multimetric (i.e., vegetation structural and compositional attributes) typical of offset trading currencies to determine whether it represented measurable components of compositional and functional biodiversity. Study sites were located in remnant patches of a critically endangered ecological community in western Sydney, Australia, an area representative of global conflicts between conservation and expanding urban development. We sampled ant fauna composition with pitfall traps and enumerated removal by ants of native plant seeds from artificial seed containers (seed depots). Ants are an excellent model taxon because they are strongly associated with habitat complexity, respond rapidly to environmental change, and are functionally important at many trophic levels. The vegetation multimetric did not predict differences in ant community composition or seed removal, despite underlying assumptions that biodiversity trading currencies used in offset schemes represent all components of a site's biodiversity value. This suggests that vegetation multimetrics are inadequate surrogates for total biodiversity value. These findings highlight the urgent need to refine existing offsetting multimetrics to ensure they meet underlying assumptions of surrogacy. Despite the best intentions, offset schemes will never achieve their goal of no net loss of biodiversity values if trades are based on metrics unrepresentative of total biodiversity., (© 2016 Society for Conservation Biology.)

Ancient tropical grassy biomes are often misrecognized as severely degraded forests. I trace this confusion to several factors, with roots in the nineteenth century, including misinterpretations of the nature of fire in savannahs, attempts to reconcile savannah ecology with Clementsian succession, use of physiognomic (structural) definitions of savannah and development of tropical degradation frameworks focused solely on forests. Towards clarity, I present two models that conceptualize the drivers of ecosystem degradation as operating in both savannahs and forests. These models highlight how human-induced environmental changes create ecosystems with superficially similar physiognomies but radically different conservation values. Given the limitation of physiognomy to differentiate savannahs from severely degraded forests, I present an alternative approach based on floristic composition. Data from eastern lowland Bolivia show that old-growth savannahs can be reliably distinguished by eight grass species and that species identity influences ecosystem flammability. I recommend that scientists incorporate savannahs in tropical degradation frameworks alongside forests, and that savannah be qualified as old-growth savannah in reference to ancient grassy biomes or derived savannah in reference to deforestation. These conceptual advances will require attention not only to tree cover, but also to savannah herbaceous plant species and their ecologies.This article is part of the themed issue 'Tropical grassy biomes: linking ecology, human use and conservation'., (© 2016 The Author(s).)

Adults and subadults recovered from the Late Woodland period (∼A.D. 800-1100) Schroeder Mounds site (11HE177) from west-central Illinois who preserve permanent incisors and/or canines (N=46) were examined for the presence of macroscopically visible linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) by case, by tooth type, number of hypoplastic defects by tooth type, and estimated developmental age of occurrence. The raw case frequency of LEH (16/46) is 34.8 percent. The Schroeder Mounds subadults (N=15) have a higher case frequency (i.e., 60 percent versus 22.6 percent), number of stress episodes per tooth, and a longer developmental age range of hypoplastic defects than the adults. With no subsistence or settlement context, the Schroeder Mounds sample was compared to published (solely) adult LEH data from eight western Illinois sites segregable as either Middle (∼50 B.C.-A.D. 400) and Late Woodland period semi-sedentary forager-horticulturalists or Mississippian period (∼A.D. 1150-1250) sedentary (i.e., large aggregated village) maize-intensive agriculturalists. The adult Schroeder Mounds LEH patterns align with the Woodland samples with minor differences inclining the Schroeder sample toward a forager-farmer subsistence/settlement strategy. The Schroeder Mounds subadult patterns and prevalence may reflect factors that contributed toward their early death. Whether these factors can be framed by the subsistence/settlement system will require comparative data., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We present two comprehensive data sets that describe xylem vessel diameters and related sapwood traits for species of Eucalyptus from arid and semi-arid woodlands and forests in Australia. Between 2009 and 2014, sapwood of mature trees was sampled in south-western, south-eastern and eastern Australia. One additional species was sampled from tropical north-western Australia. The first data set describes samples collected from the basal stem section (130 cm above ground) of three individuals of 31 species of which eight species were replicated at sites that differed in climatic conditions. The second data set describes vessel characteristics of three trees from each of 10 species that were sampled at 8 m below the tree apex. The sampled trees of these 10 species are also part of the first data set. In total, we report diameters (D) for over 25 100 vessels, from 494 digital images taken from 117 trees. We also report vessel frequencies, void-to-wood ratios, sapwood densities and hydraulically weighted vessel diameters (Dh). Supporting data of the first data set include tree diameter at breast height (130 cm above ground), tree height, sample locations, and summary climate data. In this data set, diameter of individual vessels ranges from 10 to over 300 μm, and vessel frequency from 360 to 9070 vessels cm -2 . Wood density ranges from 0.47 to 0.96 g cm -3 . Void-to-wood ratio ranges from 6% to 27% and Dh ranges from 46 to 236 μm. Mean annual rainfall (P) at sample sites ranges from 246 to 2274 mm and FAO56 reference evaporation (E) from 777 to 2110 mm. The aridity index (E/P) ranges from 0.15 to 2.93 (dimensionless). Tree diameters range from 9 to 90 cm and tree heights range from 6 to 70 m. D and Dh in the second data set range from 11 to 271 and 68 to 205 μm, respectively. These datasets will make a valuable contribution to future continental-scale and global-scale studies of the relationship between xylem hydraulic architecture and climate. The data sets are unique in the sense that they are phylogenetically constrained, allowing in-depth assessment of plasticity of hydraulic attributes within a single tree genus., (© 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.)

Alek Rachwald, Tim Bradford, Zbigniew Borowski, and Paul A. Racey (2016) The habitat preferences of the soprano pipistrelle Pipistrellus pygmaeus and the common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus living in sympatry, were investigated in north east Scotland, using bat detector transects. Bat flight, foraging and social activity in natural birch woodland was compared with that in managed non-native coniferous woodland. Each area consists of riparian habitat, meadow-forest ecotone and dense forest. The activity of bats was highest in riparian habitat, then meadow, and lowest in dense woodland. P. pygmaeus was more abundant than P. pipistrellus in both areas, although in managed coniferous woodland only narrowly so (43.7% of all recorded bat flights, compared to 40.0% for common pipistrelle). In natural birch woodland, meadow habitat was most preferred by P. pipistrellus , and there was no significant difference between the use of riparian and woodland habitats, whereas in coniferous woodland, riparian habitat was most preferred. P. pygmaeus in both sites preferred riparian habitat, then meadow and forest least of all. The foraging activity of soprano pipistrelles was higher in birch than in coniferous woodland, whereas for the common pipistrelle, it was more evenly distributed. In both sites the lowest number of feeding buzzes was recorded in dense forest. In both study areas social calls were recorded, but many more for P. pygmaeus than for P. pipistrellus , especially in birch woodland. Soprano pipistrelle is a specialist species, focused mostly on riparian habitat, whereas common pipistrelle shows more generalistic behaviour. High number of social calls recorded near the waterbodies could suggest, that such habitat partitioning could be caused also by competitive behaviour.

Nitrogen deposition is known to have major impacts on contemporary ecosystems but few studies have addressed how these impacts will develop over coming decades. We consider likely changes to British semi-natural vegetation up to the year 2030 both qualitatively, based on knowledge of species responses from experimental and gradient studies, and quantitatively, based on modelling of species relationships in national monitoring data. We used historical N deposition trends and national predictions of changing deposition to calculate cumulative deposition from 1900 to 2030. Data from the Countryside Survey (1978, 1990 and 1998) was used to parameterise models relating cumulative N deposition to Ellenberg N which were then applied to expected future deposition trends. Changes to habitat suitability for key species of grassland, heathland and bog, and broadleaved woodland to 2030 were predicted using the MultiMOVE model. In UK woodlands by 2030 there is likely to be reduced occurrence of lichens, increased grass cover and a shift towards more nitrophilic vascular plant species. In grasslands we expect changing species composition with reduced occurrence of terricolous lichens and, at least in acid grasslands, reduced species richness. In heaths and bogs we project overall reductions in species richness with decreased occurrence of terricolous lichens and some bryophytes, reduced cover of dwarf shrubs and small increases in grasses. Our study clearly suggests that changes in vegetation due to nitrogen deposition are likely to continue through coming decades., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Projections of future climate are highly sensitive to uncertainties regarding carbon (C) uptake and storage by terrestrial ecosystems. The Eucalyptus Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (EucFACE) experiment was established to study the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations (eCO2 ) on a native mature eucalypt woodland with low fertility soils in southeast Australia. In contrast to other FACE experiments, the concentration of CO2 at EucFACE was increased gradually in steps above ambient (+0, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 ppm CO2 above ambient of ~400 ppm), with each step lasting approximately 5 weeks. This provided a unique opportunity to study the short-term (weeks to months) response of C cycle flux components to eCO2 across a range of CO2 concentrations in an intact ecosystem. Soil CO2 efflux (i.e., soil respiration or Rsoil ) increased in response to initial enrichment (e.g., +30 and +60 ppm CO2 ) but did not continue to increase as the CO2 enrichment was stepped up to higher concentrations. Light-saturated photosynthesis of canopy leaves (Asat ) also showed similar stimulation by elevated CO2 at +60 ppm as at +150 ppm CO2 . The lack of significant effects of eCO2 on soil moisture, microbial biomass, or activity suggests that the increase in Rsoil likely reflected increased root and rhizosphere respiration rather than increased microbial decomposition of soil organic matter. This rapid increase in Rsoil suggests that under eCO2, additional photosynthate was produced, transported belowground, and respired. The consequences of this increased belowground activity and whether it is sustained through time in mature ecosystems under eCO2 are a priority for future research., (© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: In West Africa, natural ecosystems such as woodlands are the main source for energy, building poles and livestock fodder. They probably behave like net carbon sinks, but there are only few studies focusing on their carbon exchange with the atmosphere. Here, we have analyzed CO 2 fluxes measured for 17 months by an eddy-covariance system over a degraded woodland in northern Benin. Specially, temporal evolution of the fluxes and their relationships with the main environmental factors were investigated between the seasons., Results: This study shows a clear response of CO 2 absorption to photosynthetic photon flux density (Q p ), but it varies according to the seasons. After a significant and long dry period, the ecosystem respiration (R) has increased immediately to the first significant rains. No clear dependency of ecosystem respiration on temperature has been observed. The degraded woodlands are probably the "carbon neutral" at the annual scale. The net ecosystem exchange (NEE) was negative during wet season and positive during dry season, and its annual accumulation was equal to +29 ± 16 g C m -2 . The ecosystem appears to be more efficient in the morning and during the wet season than in the afternoon and during the dry season., Conclusions: This study shows diurnal and seasonal contrasted variations in the CO 2 fluxes in relation to the alternation between dry and wet seasons. The Nangatchori site is close to the equilibrium state according to its carbon exchanges with the atmosphere. The length of the observation period was too short to justify the hypothesis about the "carbon neutrality" of the degraded woodlands at the annual scale in West Africa. Besides, the annual net ecosystem exchange depends on the intensity of disturbances due to the site management system. Further research works are needed to define a woodland management policy that might keep these ecosystems as carbon sinks.

The regrowth of woody vegetation in cleared landscapes (i.e. revegetation) has the potential to dramatically alter the spatial characteristics of vegetation and fuels, which will potentially alter fire characteristics. Understanding how revegetation alters fire size and intensity will be critical in determining the social and environmental value of revegetation. We used simulation modelling to examine (i) whether increasing native woody vegetation extent across landscapes cleared for pasture (i.e. revegetation) affects fire size and median fireline intensity and (ii) whether fuel load in the pasture matrix, the initial extent of land clearing and weather conditions during a fire alter the direction and/or magnitude of the relationships between revegetation and fire size or intensity. Simulations revealed that fire size and intensity were altered by increasing woody vegetation extent, though the direction of change was dependent upon landscape context. Increased woody vegetation extent led to (i) increased fire size in landscapes with low pasture fuel load (2 t ha(-1)) regardless of the extent of land clearing, (ii) decreased fire size in highly cleared landscapes with moderate (4.5 t ha(-1)) and high (7 t ha(-1)) pasture fuel load, and (iii) little change to fire size in landscapes subjected to low levels of clearing when pasture fuel load was moderate or high. Similar patterns were observed for fireline intensity. The magnitude of change in fire size and intensity was greatest under extreme fire weather conditions. Revegetation rarely increased median fireline intensity beyond suppressible levels (i.e. 4000 kW m(-1)), with fire weather and pasture fuel load being the main determinants of suppression potential. Our findings show that the response of fire size and intensity to revegetation will depend on landscape scale pasture management., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Forests around the world are increasingly fragmented, and edge effects on forest microclimates have the potential to affect ecosystem functions such as carbon and nutrient cycling. Edges tend to be drier and warmer due to the effects of insolation, wind, and evapotranspiration and these gradients can penetrate hundreds of metres into the forest. Litter decomposition is a key component of the carbon cycle, which is largely controlled by saprotrophic fungi that respond to variation in temperature and moisture. However, the impact of forest fragmentation on litter decay is poorly understood. Here, we investigate edge effects on the decay of wood in a temperate forest using an experimental approach, whereby mass loss in wood blocks placed along 100 m transects from the forest edge to core was monitored over 2 years. Decomposition rate increased with distance from the edge, and was correlated with increasing humidity and moisture content of the decaying wood, such that the decay constant at 100 m was nearly twice that at the edge. Mean air temperature decreased slightly with distance from the edge. The variation in decay constant due to edge effects was larger than that expected from any reasonable estimates of climatic variation, based on a published regional model. We modelled the influence of edge effects on the decay constant at the landscape scale using functions for forest area within different distances from edge across the UK. We found that taking edge effects into account would decrease the decay rate by nearly one quarter, compared with estimates that assumed no edge effect., (© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

As people encroach increasingly on natural areas, one question is how this affects avian biodiversity. The answer to this is partly scale-dependent. At broad scales, human populations and biodiversity concentrate in the same areas and are positively associated, but at local scales people and biodiversity are negatively associated with biodiversity. We investigated whether there is also a systematic temporal trend in the relationship between bird biodiversity and housing development. We used linear regression to examine associations between forest bird species richness and housing growth in the conterminous United States over 30 years. Our data sources were the North American Breeding Bird Survey and the 2000 decennial U.S. Census. In the 9 largest forested ecoregions, housing density increased continually over time. Across the conterminous United States, the association between bird species richness and housing density was positive for virtually all guilds except ground nesting birds. We found a systematic trajectory of declining bird species richness as housing increased through time. In more recently developed ecoregions, where housing density was still low, the association with bird species richness was neutral or positive. In ecoregions that were developed earlier and where housing density was highest, the association of housing density with bird species richness for most guilds was negative and grew stronger with advancing decades. We propose that in general the relationship between human settlement and biodiversity over time unfolds as a 2-phase process. The first phase is apparently innocuous; associations are positive due to coincidence of low-density housing with high biodiversity. The second phase is highly detrimental to biodiversity, and increases in housing density are associated with biodiversity losses. The long-term effect on biodiversity depends on the final housing density. This general pattern can help unify our understanding of the relationship of human encroachment and biodiversity response., (© 2014 Society for Conservation Biology.)

Regionally-distinctive open oak forest ecosystems have been replaced either by intensive agriculture and grazing fields or by denser forests throughout eastern North America and Europe. To quantify changes in tree communities and density in the Missouri Plains, a grassland-forest landscape, we used historical surveys from 1815 to 1864 and current surveys from 2004 to 2008. To estimate density for historical communities, we used the Morisita plotless density estimator and applied corrections for surveyor bias. To estimate density for current forests, we used Random Forests, an ensemble regression tree method, to predict densities from known values at plots using terrain and soil predictors. Oak species decreased from 62% of historical composition to 30% of current composition and black and white oaks historically were dominant species across 93% of the landscape and currently were dominant species across 42% of the landscape. Current forest density was approximately two times greater than historical densities, demonstrating loss of savanna and woodlands and transition to dense forest structure. Average tree diameters were smaller than in the past, but mean basal area and stocking remained similar over time because of the increase in density in current forests. Nevertheless, there were spatial differences; basal area and stocking decreased along rivers and increased away from rivers. Oak species are being replaced by other species in the Missouri Plains, similar to replacement throughout the range of Quercus. Long-term commitment to combinations of prescribed burning and silvicultural prescriptions in more xeric sites may be necessary for oak recruitment. Restoration of open oak ecosystems is a time-sensitive issue because restoration will become increasingly costly as oaks are lost from the overstory and the surrounding matrix becomes dominated by non-oak species., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The nymph of the western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) is an important bridging vector of the Lyme disease spirochete (Borrelia burgdorferi) to humans in the far-western United States. The previously unknown dispersal capabilities of this life stage were studied in relation to logs, tree trunks, and adjacent leaf-litter areas in a mixed hardwood forest using mark-release-recapture methods. In two spatially and temporally well-spaced trials involving logs, the estimated mean distances that nymphs dispersed ranged from approximately 0.04 to 0.20 m/day on logs vs 0.11 to 0.72 m/day in litter. Prior to recapture in either trial and within the confines of the sampling grids, the greatest estimated dispersal distances by individual nymphs released on logs, and in litter 0.5 m or 1.5 m from logs, were 2.4, 3.0, and 3.0 m, respectively. Nymphs released on logs or litter tended to remain within the same biotopes in which they were freed while host-seeking. In two simultaneous trials involving trunks spaced close-at-hand, nymphs released at the trunk/litter interface on all four aspects collectively dispersed a mean of 0.353 m/day on trunks vs 0.175 m/day in litter. In either trial, the greatest distances that recaptured nymphs climbed trunks, or dispersed in litter in an encircling 3-m grid, were 1.55 m and 2.97 m, respectively. Nymphs ascending trunks did not exhibit a preference for any one aspect, and the B. burgdorferi-infection prevalences in nymphs that climbed trunks (3.2-4.0%) did not differ significantly from those that moved horizontally into litter (10.5-17.6%). We conclude that I. pacificus nymphs use an ambush host-seeking strategy; that they disperse slowly in all biotopes studied; that they usually continue to host-seek in or on whatever substratum they access initially; and that B. burgdorferi-infected nymphs are as likely to move horizontally as vertically when offered a choice.

Palacoecoiocical investigations of two lake sediment sequences are used to reconstruct the vegetation history of the Western Isles. Pollen records begin in the late glacial and show a clear progression From herb-rich grassland with abundant Salix, Rumex and Poly-podium to widespread Empetrum nigrum heath. Woodland developed widely in the early Holocene, and regional vegetation patterns emerged. Western Lewis supported extensive areas of birch woodland with Corylus avellana, Salix, Populus and Sorbus aucuparia. Open birch-hazel woodland dominated other lowland regions. Regional variation was accentuated when woodland underwent a sudden decline in western Lewis at about 7900 BP. Trees were replaced by blanket peat and woodland failed to recover on a regional scale after the decline- Woodland continued to diversify in central and eastern regions and, by 6000 BP, Quercus, Ulmus, Pinus sylvestris, Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior had become established. Open mixed woodland persisted until the second major decline began between 5200 and 4000 UP. Woodland contracted gradually as blanket peat expanded. The Western Isles were predominantly treeless at 2500 BP. Blanket peat started to form in localized areas on the Western Isles between 9000 and 8000 BP; two main expansion phases are associated with periods of woodland decline. Sublossil wood or macrofossils are reported from a total of 40 sites. Radiocarbon ages are presented for 13 samples of these.