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Unlocking the full potential of ponds (small water bodies) and pondscapes (network of ponds) as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is critical pursuit for enhancing ecosystems and societal resilience to climate change and other societal challenges. Despite scattered initiatives for pond/pondscape creation, restoration and management—each considered here a distinct NbS—there is a significant knowledge gap in utilising ponds/pondscapes as effective NbS. We aimed to assess these NbS in terms of their objectives, outcomes, effectiveness, multifunctionality, delivery of potentially conflicting effects, and the implementation process while considering their Nature's Contributions to People (NCPs, i.e., benefits to society). We compiled data on 183 NbS actions implemented across 93 ponds/pondscapes from 24 countries, predominantly from Europe, via a questionnaire distributed to experienced stakeholders implementing NbS in ponds/pondscapes. One single pond/pondscape may imply more than one NbS action. Two-thirds were in rural areas, and one-third in urban settings. Our analysis revealed that Creation of habitat for biodiversity was a primary delivery objective (targeted NCP) in the implementation of most NbS in ponds/pondscapes, often also combined with other NCPs such as Learning and inspiration , Regulation of water quantity , and Physical and psychological experiences , showcasing their intended multifunctionality. Implemented NbS primarily focused on climate change adaptation (especially Regulation of hazards and extreme events , and water quantity) rather than mitigation, with less emphasis on measures like direct greenhouse gas emissions reduction or enhancing carbon sinks. The costs associated with pond's NbS varied significantly depending on factors such as project scope, objectives, location, socio-economic-cultural system, and specific implementation requirements. The creation of ponds/pondscapes often entailed the highest financial investment, much more than their restoration or their management. In conclusion, our study underscores the multifunctionality of ponds/pondscapes and provides insights about their significant potential as cost-effective NbS for enhancing ecosystem and societal resilience to climate change and biodiversity. It underscores the importance of further research to fully understand and measure the diverse range of NbS they offer, particularly in the context of climate change mitigation. Standardised measurements of the NCP provided by these NbS in ponds/pondscapes are essential for validating managers' claims and exploring their role in addressing climate change. Cascading Benefits of Natural-Based Solutions (NbS) in Ponds and Pondscapes: Ponds and pondscapes serve as multifunctional NbS, delivering multiple Nature's Contributions to People (NCPs) to address climate-related challenges and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They regulate the water quantity, mitigating flood risks, and ensuring water availability during droughts. Furthermore, these NbS indirectly support climate change adaptation by preserving microclimates, buffering temperature fluctuations, and providing vital habitats for diverse species, enhancing ecosystem resilience. Simultaneously, these actions offer recreational, cultural, educational, and well-being benefits to local communities impacted by climate change. Despite their potential, the capacity of ponds and pondscapes for climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration and storage remains unknown, requiring further exploration. [Display omitted] • Global study of 183 Nature-based Solutions in ponds/pondscapes in 24 countries. • Pondscapes' Nature-based Solutions are multifunctional and prioritise biodiversity. • Emphasis on climate change adaptation rather than mitigation. • Ponds/pondscapes offer cost-effective Nature-based Solutions. • Need for standardised measures to validate claims and explore climate mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is a critical component of both nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and global food security. Agriculture has contributed substantially to a reduction in global SOC through cultivation, thus there has been renewed focus on management practices which minimize SOC losses and increase SOC gain as pathways towards maintaining healthy soils and reducing net greenhouse gas emissions. Mechanistic models are frequently used to aid in identifying these pathways due to their scalability and cost-effectiveness. Yet, they are often computationally costly and rely on input data that are often only available at coarse spatial resolutions. Herein, we build statistical meta-models of a multifactorial crop model in order to both (a) obtain a simplified model response and (b) explore the biophysical determinants of SOC responses to management and the geospatial heterogeneity of SOC dynamics across Europe. Using 5600 unique simulations of crop growth from the gridded Environmental Policy Integrated Climate-based Gridded Agricultural Model (EPIC-IIASA GAM) covering 86,000 simulation units across Europe, we build multiple polynomial regression ensemble meta-models for unique combinations of climate and soil across Europe in order to predict SOC responses to varying management intensities. We find that our biophysically-explicit meta models are highly accurate (R2 = 0.97) representations of the full mechanistic model and can be used in lieu of the full EPIC-IIASA GAM model for the estimation of SOC responses to cropland management. Model stratification by means of climate and soil clustering improved the performance of the meta-models compared to the full EU-scale model. In regional and local validations of the meta-model predictions, we find that the meta-models largely capture broad SOC dynamics such as the linear nature of SOC responses to residue application, yet they often underestimate the magnitude of SOC responses to management. Furthermore, we find notable differences between the results from the biophysically-specific models throughout Europe, which point to spatially-distinct SOC responses to management choices such as nitrogen fertilizer application rates and residue retention that illustrate the potential for these models to be used for future management applications. While more accurate input data, calibration, and validation will be needed to accurately predict SOC change, we demonstrate the use of our meta-models for biophysical cluster and field study scale analyses of broad SOC dynamics with basically zero fine-tuning of the models needed. This work provides a framework for simplifying large-scale agricultural models and identifies the opportunities for using these meta-models for assessing SOC responses to management at a variety of scales. • Meta-model approach used to simplify process based crop model. • Exploration of the determinants of soil organic carbon responses to management. • Meta-model predictions validated with regional and local data. • Meta-models largely capture broad dynamics, underestimate magnitude of responses. • More accurate input data, calibration, and validation needed to improve accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are currently competing demands on Europe's forests and the finite resources and services that they can offer. Forestry intensification that aims at mitigating climate change and biodiversity conservation is one example. Whether or not these two objectives compete can be evaluated by comparative studies of forest landscapes with different histories. We test the hypothesis that indicators of wood production and biodiversity conservation are inversely related in a gradient of long to short forestry intensification histories. Forest management data containing stand age, volume and tree species were used to model the opportunity for wood production and biodiversity conservation in five north European forest regions representing a gradient in landscape history from very long in the West and short in the East. Wood production indicators captured the supply of coniferous wood and total biomass, as well as current accessibility by transport infrastructure. Biodiversity conservation indicators were based on modelling habitat network functionality for focal bird species dependent on different combinations of stand age and tree species composition representing naturally dynamic forests. In each region we randomly sampled 25 individual 100-km 2 areas with contiguous forest cover. Regarding wood production, Sweden's Bergslagen region had the largest areas of coniferous wood, followed by Vitebsk in Belarus and Zemgale in Latvia. NW Russia's case study regions in Pskov and Komi had the lowest values, except for the biomass indicator. The addition of forest accessibility for transportation made the Belarusian and Swedish study region most suitable for wood and biomass production, followed by Latvia and two study regions in NW Russian. Regarding biodiversity conservation, the overall rank among regions was opposite. Mixed and deciduous habitats were functional in Russia, Belarus and Latvia. Old Scots pine and Norway spruce habitats were only functional in Komi. Thus, different regional forest histories provide different challenges in terms of satisfying both wood production and biodiversity conservation objectives in a forest management unit. These regional differences in northern Europe create opportunities for exchanging experiences among different regional contexts about how to achieve both objectives. We discuss this in the context of land-sharing versus land-sparing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing global climate change is challenging all sectors, forestry notwithstanding. On the one hand, forest ecosystems are exposed to and threatened by climate change, but on the other hand, forests can influence the course of climate change by regulating the water regime, air quality, carbon sequestration, and even reduce climate extremes. Therefore, it is crucial to see climate change not only as a risk causing forest disturbances and economic consequences but also as an opportunity for innovative approaches to forest management, conservation, and silviculture based on the results of long-term research. We reviewed 365 studies evaluating the impact of climate change on European forest ecosystems, all published during the last 30 years (1993–2022). The most significant consequences of climate change include more frequent and destructive large-scale forest disturbances (wildfire, windstorm, drought, flood, bark beetle, root rot), and tree species migration. Species distribution shifts and changes in tree growth rate have substantial effects on ecosystem carbon storage. Diameter/volume increment changed from −1 to +99% in Central and Northern Europe, while it decreased from −12 to −49% in Southern Europe across tree species over the last ca. 50 years. However, it is important to sharply focus on the causes of climate change and subsequently, on adaptive strategies, which can successfully include the creation of species-diverse, spatially and age-wise structured stands (decrease drought stress and increase production), prolongation of the regenerative period, or the use of suitable introduced tree species (e.g., Douglas fir, black pine, and Mediterranean oaks). But the desired changes are based on increasing diversity and the mitigation of climate change, and will require significantly higher initial costs for silviculture practices. In conclusion, the scope and complexity of the topic require further comprehensive and long-term studies focusing on international cooperation. We see a critical gap in the transfer of research results into actual forest practice, which will be the key factor influencing afforestation of forest stands and forest growth in the following decades. What our forests will look like for future generations and what the resulting impact of climate change will be on forestry is in the hands of forest managers, depending on supportive forestry research and climate change policy, including adaptive and mitigation strategies. • We review main factors influencing forest growth processes under climate change (CC). • We concentrate on potential direct and indirect impacts of CC on forest ecosystems. • Consequences of CC include large-scale forest disturbances and tree species migration. • Review is focused on management adaptive strategies and mitigation of CC. • Opportunity and risk of introduced tree species are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soil is critical to improve soil health, enhance food and water security, contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity preservation, and improve human health and wellbeing. The European Joint Programme for Soil (EJP SOIL) started in 2020 with the aim to significantly improve soil management knowledge and create a sustainable and integrated European soil research system. EJP SOIL involves more than 350 scientists across 24 Countries and has been addressing multiple aspects associated with soil management across different European agroecosystems. This study summarizes the key findings of stakeholder consultations conducted at the national level across 20 countries with the aim to identify important barriers and challenges currently affecting soil knowledge but also assess opportunities to overcome these obstacles. Our findings demonstrate that there is significant room for improvement in terms of knowledge production, dissemination and adoption. Among the most important barriers identified by consulted stakeholders are technical, political, social and economic obstacles, which strongly limit the development and full exploitation of the outcomes of soil research. The main soil challenge across consulted member states remains to improve soil organic matter and peat soil conservation while soil water storage capacity is a key challenge in Southern Europe. Findings from this study clearly suggest that going forward climate-smart sustainable soil management will benefit from (1) increases in research funding, (2) the maintenance and valorisation of long-term (field) experiments, (3) the creation of knowledge sharing networks and interlinked national and European infrastructures, and (4) the development of regionally-tailored soil management strategies. All the above-mentioned interventions can contribute to the creation of healthy, resilient and sustainable soil ecosystems across Europe. • Survey in 20 countries: 314 stakeholders, 10 soil challenges, 4 soil knowledge. • Increasing organic matter and conserve peat soils is the priority soil challenge. • The 2nd most important soil challenge is soil water storage capacity. • The priority barriers are the lack of research funding and communication. • The most important opportunity is to fully exploit the outcomes of soil research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agri-environmental policies in Europe are failing to sufficiently address ongoing environmental degradation, biodiversity decline, climate impacts, and societal demands for sustainability. To reverse this, policymakers, practitioners, and farmers need better guidance on which specific agricultural practice/s should be promoted and how to adapt current practices to reach the desired objectives. Here we use social valuation tools to elucidate the relationship between agricultural practices and the provision of key ecosystem services in mountains, including maintenance of scenery from agricultural landscapes, conservation of biodiversity, regulation of climate change through carbon sequestration, production of local quality products, maintenance of soil fertility, and prevention of forest wildfires. We use as case studies two contrasting but representative mountain agroecosystems in the Mediterranean and Nordic regions of Europe. We analyze the best agricultural practices in both agroecosystems to reach the targeted environmental outcomes under three plausible policy scenarios. We find significant differences in the average contribution of agricultural practices to ecosystem services provision, which suggest the need for regionalizing the research efforts and, consequently, the design of agri-environmental policies. However, we also identify practices for ecosystem service delivery across policy scenarios and agroecosystems. Among these, grazing and silviculture practices such as extending the grazing period, grazing in semi-natural habitats, grazing in remote and abandoned areas, adapting stocking rate to the carrying capacity, and moving flocks seasonally, stand out for their relevance in all policy scenarios. These results highlight the potential of adequate grazing and silviculture practices to deliver bundles of ecosystem services. Our study provides guidance to design agri-environmental policies in Europe that focus on rewarding farmers for their sustainable management of natural resources, climate change mitigation and adaption and biodiversity conservation. • We elucidate the effects of agricultural practices on the provision of key ecosystem services. • We test three policy scenarios in two contrasting mountain agroecosystems in Europe. • Contribution of practices to ecosystem services differ significantly between agroecosystems. • Several practices are relevant across policy scenarios and agroecosystems. • We provide guidance for management-based payments in European agrienvironmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, efforts are underway to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change impacts at the local level. However, there is a poor understanding of the relationship between city strategies on climate change mitigation and adaptation and the relevant policies at national and European level. This paper describes a comparative study and evaluation of cross-national policy. It reports the findings of studying the climate change strategies or plans from 200 European cities from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. The study highlights the shared responsibility of global, European, national, regional and city policies. An interpretation and illustration of the influences from international and national networks and policy makers in stimulating the development of local strategies and actions is proposed. It was found that there is no archetypical way of planning for climate change, and multiple interests and motivations are inevitable. Our research warrants the need for a multi-scale approach to climate policy in the future, mainly ensuring sufficient capacity and resource to enable local authorities to plan and respond to their specific climate change agenda for maximising the management potentials for translating environmental challenges into opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, regions in the Mediterranean area share common characteristics in terms of high sensitivity to climate change impacts. Does this translate into specificities regarding climate action that could arise from these Mediterranean characteristics? This paper sheds light on regional and local climate mitigation actions of the Mediterranean Europe, focusing on the plans to reduce greenhouse gases emissions in a representative sample of 51 regions and 73 cities across 9 Mediterranean countries (Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain). The study investigates: (i) the availability of local and regional mitigation plans, (ii) their goals in term of greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets on the short and medium-long term, and (iii) the impact of transnational climate networks on such local and regional climate mitigation planning. Results of this study indicate an uneven and fragmented planning, that shows a Mediterranean West-East divide, and a link with population size. However, overall, both regional and city action seem insufficiently ambitious with regards to meeting the Paris Agreement, at least at city level. While national frameworks are currently weak in influencing regional and local actions, transnational networks seem to be engaging factors for commitment (at city level) and ambitiousness (at regional level). The uneven and fragmented progress revealed by this study, does not align with the characteristics shared by investigated regions and cities in terms of environmental, socio-political, climatic and economic conditions. The results support the call of a common green deal at the Mediterranean level to further address specific Mediterranean challenges and related needs. This will allow to capitalise on available resources, generate local-specific knowledge, build capacities, and support Mediterranean regions and cities in preparing the next generation of more ambitious mitigation plans. [Display omitted] • Analysis of mitigation plans of 51 regions and 73 cities in Mediterranean Europe. • Uneven progress, with West-East divide and a generally modest short-term ambition. • Bigger size Mediterranean regions and cities show higher climate action. • Mitigation planning is affected by national regulation and transnational networks. • There is a case for cross-border cooperation among Mediterranean regions and cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]