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In dairy farming, mastitis treatment is the most common reason for antimicrobial use. The overuse or misuse of antibiotics in agriculture has been associated with the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Traditionally, blanket dry cow therapy (BDCT), in which all cows receive antibiotic treatment, was used prophylactically to prevent and manage disease spread. In recent years, there has been a move toward selective dry cow therapy (SDCT), in which only clinically infected cows are treated with antibiotics. This study aimed to explore farmer attitudes toward antibiotic use (ABU), using the COM-B (Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behavior) model as a framework, to identify predictors of changing behavior toward SDCT and suggest interventions to encourage its uptake. Participant farmers (n = 240) were surveyed online between March and July 2021. Five items were found to be significant predictors of farmers having stopped BDCT: (1) having lower knowledge of AMR, (2) greater awareness of AMR and ABU (Capability), (3) feeling social pressure to reduce ABU (Opportunity), and (4) having greater professional identity, and (5) having positive emotions associated with stopping BDCT (Motivation). Direct logistic regression found that these 5 factors explained between 22 and 34.1% of the variance in making changes to BDCT practices. Additionally, objective knowledge was not correlated with current positive antibiotic practices, and farmers often perceived their antibiotic practices as more responsible than they actually were. A multifaceted approach, encompassing each of the predictors highlighted, should be taken to encourage farmer behavior change in relation to stopping BDCT. Additionally, as farmers' perceptions of their own behaviors may not align with their actual practices, awareness raising of what constitutes “responsible” behavior should be targeted at dairy farmers to motivate them to take action and adopt more responsible antibiotic practices.

Microplastics have become a major environmental concern around the world due to their potential impact on ecosystem functioning and biota. Microplastics enter freshwater systems through a variety of sources, with wastewater treatment work discharges being the most important source. The study aimed to determine the seasonal (i.e., hot–wet, cool–dry) variation in water and sediment microplastic abundances up- and down-stream of wastewater treatment works across two subtropical river systems (i.e., Crocodile and Luvuvhu) in South Africa. Overall, we found that microplastic type and distribution often did not show clear seasonal and site differences in water, hence microplastics were widespread across the studied systems and microplastic concentrations did not relate clearly to wastewater treatment works. This was further indicated by microplastic risk assessments which showed high pollution loads upstream. However, there were significant differences in sediment microplastic loads across seasons, indicating a source-sink effect towards the hot-wet season. The non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination based on microplastic densities for water and sediment discriminated slightly among systems, with major overlaps across the different locations and seasons. As a result, the current research indicates that seasonal context influences differences in microplastic concentrations, with the hot–wet season being associated with the high pollution loads, particularly within the sediments where this was more pronounced indicating the sink-source effect which is linked to sediments and not water.

Increasing agricultural sustainability is a key challenge facing the globe today. Energy crops, planted as riparian buffers are one way to support this, simultaneously mitigating water quality degradation and climate change. However, the economics of implementing such riparian buffer systems is under researched. Hence this work conducted a bottom-up economic analysis of willow coppice riparian buffers on a Northern Irish dairy farm, which is indicative of agricultural intensification across Europe. This work includes an economic assessment of a willow coppice riparian buffer strip, using harvested yield data from an established willow buffer site for the first time. It also considered the impact of harvesting technology on the economic performance of a willow coppice riparian buffer strip for the first time. The analysis considered three willow production pathways: 1) direct chip harvesting, 2) full-stem harvesting, and 3) a scenario with a guaranteed purchasing contract for fresh chip. Economic performance was considered using net present value over a 25-year plantation lifetime. The full-stem scenario provided the highest economic return over its lifetime with an average yearly net present value of £497 ha−1 (in £ sterling). This system was then considered for integration into a typical dairy farm, assuming 5 % land usage and including government grants for establishing riparian zones. The result was a drop in value of £28 ha−1 yr−1 compared to a dairy-only scenario; however, per litre of milk the farm employing willow coppice riparian buffer strips outperformed a typical dairy farm both environmentally and economically. Further analysis considered a novel approach that included payments for ecosystem services in the economic analysis. This analysis found that the implementation of government payments for ecosystem services (nutrient removal) increased the economic return of the willow coppice riparian buffer system by £400 ha−1 yr−1, resulting in minimal impact on the return from dairy land.

Film ethnography is established within social development academia and praxis, but there is limited impact-evidence of its ability to positively transform participant communities through studies based on credible theoretical underpinnings. This article suggests that Paulo Freire’s ‘critical consciousness’ (Freire, 1978) theory, involving self-reflection and transformation, has relevance for film ethnography because ethnographic film can present life situations back to its subjects in ways that allow people to view themselves differently. Fieldwork is presented describing the use of film ethnography as an action research methodology based on Freirean principles where vulnerable Nepali communities (whose lives and livelihoods are heavily dependent on working equines) and their equines engaged in participatory film ethnography, facilitated by project partners seeking transformation in working equine welfare. The broader historical theoretical underpinnings of ethnographic film are discussed, followed by a description of how they were applied in the action research. Informed by Heider (2006: 2) the authors have resisted the temptation to define and apply ethnographic film as an absolute, but rather as ‘various attributes, or dimensions, that effect ethnographicness’ in films and filmmaking methodologies. Drawing on Wiek at al.’s (2014: 120) ‘effect-capturing approach’ an evaluation methodology is described aligned to Freire’s (1978) conscientisation praxis using high levels of participant self-reflection. Initial findings do evidence some effectiveness of community-based film ethnography as an action research methodology for positive change based on Freirean methodologies, showing transformation in participant knowledge of, and behaviour towards, their equines. The community actions that have emerged from the film ethnography process offer improvement in the health and wellbeing of equines, promoting greater resilience and stability of income generation capacity within communities. Some positive enhancement of the wider socio-political environment for equine welfare is emerging through stakeholder engagement and new equine outreach services. The bespoke evaluation methodology employed contributes to the originality of the research findings and outcomes. In conclusion, the authors suggest that, by going beyond observational cinema and demonstrating ethnographic film as an action research methodology that can catalyse transformation within communities, this article presents the type of participatory praxis that Henley (2020: 481) alludes to, offering ‘interesting possibilities for “ways of doing” ethnographic film in the twenty-first century’.

COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on our society, environment and public health, in both positive and negative ways. The main aim of this study is to monitor the effect of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns on urban cooling. To do so, satellite images of Landsat 8 for Milan and Rome in Italy, and Wuhan in China were used to look at pre-lockdown and during the lockdown. First, the surface biophysical characteristics for the pre-lockdown and within-lockdown dates of COVID-19 were calculated. Then, the land surface temperature (LST) retrieved from Landsat thermal data was normalized based on cold pixels LST and statistical parameters of normalized LST (NLST) were calculated. Thereafter, the correlation coefficient (r) between the NLST and index-based built-up index (IBI) was estimated. Finally, the surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) of different cities on the lockdown and pre-lockdown periods was compared with each other. The mean NLST of built-up lands in Milan (from 7.71 °C to 2.32 °C), Rome (from 5.05 °C to 3.54 °C) and Wuhan (from 3.57 °C to 1.77 °C) decreased during the lockdown dates compared to pre-lockdown dates. The r (absolute value) between NLST and IBI for Milan, Rome and Wuhan decreased from 0.43, 0.41 and 0.16 in the pre-lockdown dates to 0.25, 0.24, and 0.12 during lockdown dates respectively, which shows a large decrease for all cities. Analysis of SUHI for these cities showed that SUHII during the lockdown dates compared to pre-lockdown dates decreased by 0.89 °C, 1.78 °C, and 1.07 °C respectively. The results indicated a high and substantial impact of anthropogenic activities and anthropogenic heat flux (AHF) on the SUHI due to the substantial reduction of huge anthropogenic pressure in cities. Our conclusions draw attention to the contribution of COVID-19 lockdowns (reducing the anthropogenic activities) to creating cooler cities.

1. Variation in genome size spans multiple orders of magnitude among animals. Despite the longstanding debate regarding the adaptive value or costs of genomic complexity, genome size has been proposed to influence extinction risk under the rapidly changing environments of the Anthropocene.2. The main hypothesis suggests that genome enlargement increases the accumulation of deleterious mutations while reducing rates of organismal growth and development. These combined effects of larger genome size are predicted to trigger population declines that can lead to extinction, especially under rapidly changing environments that disrupt demographic resilience.3. Comparative evidence from terrestrial plants and across vertebrates has provided mixed support for this hypothesis. However, large-scale comparative studies based on explicit phylogenetic approaches remain lacking. Using a global-scale amphibian dataset and two recognised proxies of extinction risk (International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN conservation categories and population trends), we test the prediction that genomes are larger (as estimated by C-value) in species facing extinction risk. We combine these analyses with life-history traits widely known to be implicated with extinctions (body size, fecundity), along with a range of environmental factors.4. Our phylogenetic analyses consistently failed to identify an effect of genome size on either of the two proxies for extinction risk. The only consistent predictor of extinction risk observed across models performed for amphibians combined and for orders separately was decreasing geographical range size. We also identified a role for larger body size, decreasing range of environmental temperature (for anurans) and increasing levels of UV-B radiation (for salamanders) as drivers of increasing threat.5. Our study provides no support for the prediction that species with larger genomes suffer heightened risk of extinction. We discuss some fundamental limitations underlying the genome size-extinction hypothesis, and suggest that it is not a promising avenue to elucidate the causes of biodiversity declines in the Anthropocene.

Biological decomposition and wildfire are two predominant and alternative processes that can mineralize organic C in forest litter. Currently, the relationships between decomposition and fire are still poorly understood. We provide an empirical test of the hypothesized decoupling of surface litter bed decomposability and flammability, and the underlying traits and trait spectra. We employed a 41-species set of gymnosperms of very broad evolutionary and geographic spread, because of the wide range of (absent to frequent) fire regimes they are associated with. We found that the interspecific pattern of mass loss proportions in a “common garden” decomposition experiment was not correlated with any of the flammability parameters and an RDA analysis also showed that the decomposability and flammability of leaf litter in litter layers were decoupled across species. This decoupling originates from the former depending mostly on size and shape spectrum traits and the latter on PES traits and those trait spectra being virtually uncorrelated. Synthesis: Our results show that, indeed, leaf litter decomposability and flammability parameters are decoupled across species, and this decoupling can be explained by their different drivers in terms of trait spectra: chemical traits for decomposability and size-shape traits for litter layer flammability.

The continuing transition to renewable energy will require more wind turbines to be installed and operated on land and offshore. On land, wind turbines will increasingly be deployed in hilly or mountainous regions, which are often described together as “complex terrain” in the wind energy industry. These areas can experience complex flows that are hard to model, as well as cold climate conditions that lead to instrument and blade icing and can further impact wind turbine operation. This paper – a collaboration between several International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind Tasks and research groups based in mountainous countries – sets out the research and development needed to improve the financial competitiveness and ease of integration of wind energy in hilly or mountainous regions. The focus of the paper is on the interaction between the atmosphere, terrain, land cover, and wind turbines, during all stages of a project life cycle. The key needs include collaborative research and development facilities, improved wind and weather models that can cope with mountainous terrain, frameworks for sharing data, and a common, quantitative definition of site complexity. Addressing these needs will be essential for the affordable and reliable large-scale deployment of wind energy in many countries across the globe. Because of the widespread nature of complex flow and icing conditions, addressing these challenges will have positive impacts on the risk and cost of energy from wind energy globally.

In the absence of surface indications of burial sites, law enforcement or humanitarian organizations are faced with the difficult task of focusing large-scale ground searches to a manageable excavation area. A geoforensic-based survey may exclude parts of the landscape for reasons such as diggability or viewshed analysis but leave areas still too large for invasive exploration. This work examines how drone-based remote sensing, geophysics, and search dogs may be combined to narrow such searches. Here, we ask the reader to consider two examples where forensic geomorphology and land use provided a range of possible burial locations. Following this is a multi-proxy approach to similar dilemma, with a search-to-scene case study using remote sensing (drone photography), geophysics, ground probes, and search dogs. This approach is not presented as a definitive guide, but serves as an example of the conjunctive use of well-studied methods to approach a common problem in geoforensics.

Short-rotation woody plantations (SRWPs) play a major role in climate change mitigation and adaptation plans, because of their high yields of woody biomass and fast carbon storage. However, their benefits, trade-offs and growing-success are heavily location-dependent. Therefore, spatial data on the distribution of SRWPs are indispensable for assessing current distribution, trade-offs with other uses and potential contributions to climate mitigation. As current global datasets lack reliable information on SRWPs and full global mapping is difficult, we provide a consistent and systematic approach to estimate the spatial distribution of SRWPs in (sub-)tropical biomes under current and future climate. We combined three advanced methods (maximum entropy, random forest and multinomial regression) to evaluate spatially explicit probabilities of SRWPs. As inputs served a large empirical dataset on SRWP observations and 17 predictor variables, covering biophysical and socio-economic conditions. SRWP probabilities varied strongly between regions, and might not be feasible in major parts of (sub-)tropical biomes, challenging the feasibility of global mitigation plans that over-rely on tree plantations. Due to future climatic changes, SRWP probabilities decreased in many areas, particularly pronounced in higher emission scenarios. This indicates a negative feedback with higher emissions resulting in less mitigation potential. Less suitable land for SRWPs in the future could also result in fewer wood resources from these plantations, enhancing pressure on natural forests and hampering sustainability initiatives that use wood-based alternatives. Our results can help adding a more nuanced treatment of mitigation options and forest management in research on biodiversity and land use change.

Within urban centres, underground spaces such as storage areas, transportation corridors, basement car parks, public facilities, retail & office as well as private spaces (e.g., residential basements), present priority risk areas during flood events with respect to timely evacuation. However, often the location, geometry and volume of these underground spaces is not well known. Furthermore, these underground spaces are commonly not considered in flood prediction models for urban centres. At the same time, communicating flood risks and enhancing emergency preparedness poses further challenges. Thus emergency planners need engaging communication tools to increase community resilience and preparedness to flooding events. Low-cost Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) and Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) technologies as well as other remote sensing applications and street view imagery data are becoming increasingly available and affordable, providing high-resolution data for the urban environment. The presented project focusses on gaining better knowledge of the location and internal geometry of underground spaces in urban centres by using low-cost MLS data. The presented project is developing efficient database approaches to handle the large data sets and to integrate the information into flood prediction models. These models provide refined information on urban flood levels and flooding rates into the underground spaces, which in turn may be used as part of risk communication tools using low-cost virtual reality applications which provide an immersive experience of flood risk with the aim to better engage communities in emergency preparedness. The comparison of rapid low-cost high-resolution terrestrial MLS with ALS data for an urban case study site in Belfast (Northern Ireland) highlights the advantages of the rapid low-cost MLS approaches and their use for the detection and surveying of urban underground spaces and the integration of these identified priority flood risks into urban flood models. Incorporating the identified underground spaces provides more realistic inundation scenarios and enhanced information with regard to accessible evacuation routes to inform flood risk mitigation plans.

Globally, livestock grazing is an important management factor influencing soil degradation, soil health and carbon (C) stocks of grassland ecosystems. However, the effects of grassland types, grazing intensity and grazing duration on C stocks are unclear across large geographic scales. To provide a more comprehensive assessment of how grazing drives ecosystem C stocks in grasslands, we compiled and analyzed data from 306 studies featuring four grassland types across China: desert steppes, typical steppes, meadow steppes and alpine steppes. Light grazing was the best management practice for desert steppes (−1) and typical steppes (3 to 4 sheep ha−1), whereas medium grazing pressure was optimal for meadow steppes (5 to 6 sheep ha−1) and alpine steppes (7 to 8 sheep ha−1) leading to the highest ecosystem C stocks under grazing. Plant biomass (desert steppes) and soil C stocks (meadow steppes) increased under light or medium grazing, confirming the ‘intermediate disturbance hypothesis’. Heavy grazing decreased all C stocks regardless of grassland ecosystem types, approximately 1.4 Mg ha−1 per year for the whole ecosystem. The regrowth and regeneration of grasslands in response to grazing intensity (i.e., grazing optimization) depended on grassland types and grazing duration. In conclusion, grassland grazing is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, proper management (light or medium grazing) can maintain and even increase C stocks above- and belowground, and increase the harvested livestock products from grasslands. On the other hand, human-induced overgrazing can lead to rapid degradation of vegetation and soils, resulting in significant carbon loss and requiring long-term recovery. Grazing regimes (i.e., intensity and duration applied) must consider specific grassland characteristics to ensure stable productivity rates and optimal impacts on ecosystem C stocks. Graphical Abstract

Funding: The work was funded by a NERC Large Grant to S.L.L. (‘CongoPeat’, NE/R016860/1), a NERC Doctoral Training Partnership award to B.C. (‘SPHERES DTP’, NE/L002574/1) and a Greenpeace Fund award to S.L.L. JAXA, NASA, METI, USGS, ESA, OSFAC and WWF are acknowledged for collecting and/or processing remote-sensing data. The world’s largest tropical peatland complex is found in the central Congo Basin. However, there is a lack of in situ measurements to understand the peatland’s distribution and the amount of carbon stored in it. So far, peat in this region has been sampled only in largely rain-fed interfluvial basins in the north of the Republic of the Congo. Here we present the first extensive field surveys of peat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which covers two-thirds of the estimated peatland area, including from previously undocumented river-influenced settings. We use field data from both countries to compute the first spatial models of peat thickness (mean 1.7 ± 0.9 m; maximum 5.6 m) and peat carbon density (mean 1,712 ± 634 MgC ha−1; maximum 3,970 MgC ha−1) for the central Congo Basin. We show that the peatland complex covers 167,600 km2, 36% of the world’s tropical peatland area, and that 29.0 PgC is stored below ground in peat across the region (95% confidence interval, 26.3–32.2 PgC). Our measurement-based constraints give high confidence of globally significant peat carbon stocks in the central Congo Basin, totalling approximately 28% of the world’s tropical peat carbon. Only 8% of this peat carbon lies within nationally protected areas, suggesting its vulnerability to future land-use change. Postprint Postprint

1. Biological invasions, especially invasive alien aquatic plants, are a major and growing ecological and socioeconomic problem worldwide. Freshwater systems are particularly vulnerable to invasion, where impacts of invasive alien species can damage ecological structure and function. Identifying abiotic and biotic factors that mediate successful invasions is a management priority. Our aim was to determine the environmental correlates of Elodea nuttallii; a globally significant invasive aquatic species.2. Elodea nuttallii presence/absence (occurrence), extent (patch area) and percentage cover (density) was visually assessed from a boat throughout Lough Erne (approximately 144 km2), County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland during the active summer growth season (July–September). In addition, substrate type and zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha occurrence was recorded. Fourteen water chemistry variables were collected monthly from 12 recording stations throughout the lake during the 9 years before the survey to spatially interpolate values and establish temporal trajectories in their change. Shoreline land use was derived from CORINE land cover maps. Environmental associations between E. nuttallii, substrate, D. polymorpha, water chemistry and land use were assessed.3. Elodea nuttallii occurrence was positively associated with water conductivity, alkalinity, suspended solids, phosphorus (both total and soluble) and chlorophyll-a concentrations, but negatively associated with pH and total oxidised nitrogen. E. nuttallii patch extent and proportional cover were positively associated, to varying degrees, with the presence of D. polymorpha, biological oxygen demand, water clarity and soft substrate, but negatively associated with urban development and ammonium.4. Elodea nuttallii displayed high levels of phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental variation, allowing it to adapt to a wide range of conditions and potentially gain competitive advantage over native or other invasive macrophytes.5. It is evident that multiple abiotic and biotic factors, including facilitation by co-occurring invasive dreissenid mussels, interact to influence the distribution and abundance of E. nuttallii. Thus, it is necessary to consider a more comprehensive environmental context when planning Elodea management strategies.

This paper discusses how marginal cities surrounded by rich hinterlands in geographies of conflict display city-building processes that transform them into emergent geographies of spatial accumulation. Embracing recent debates on geographies of accumulation in the global South, this paper reveals three interrelated strategies that shape capitalist urbanisation in marginal cities of conflict. The empirical findings of a case study in the Colombian Pacific region indicate that: 1) extractive economies supported by national neoliberal policies nurture weak governance, as reflected in city-building processes that increase sociospatial segregation; 2) the circulation of illegal capital within status quo spatial politics seems to result in rapid urban transformations via land use changes; and 3) spatial accumulation in marginal urban settlements conceals processes of systematic social injustice through euphemisms of economic development. This paper contributes to new conceptualisations derived from an analysis of spatial transformations in marginal(ised) cities under geopolitical economies of violence.

Zocca, C., Lourenço-de-Moraes, R., Campos, F. S., & Ferreira, R. B. (2022). The high diversity and phylogenetic signal of antipredator mechanisms of the horned frog species of Proceratophrys Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920 (Amphibia: Anura: Odontophrynidae). Acta Herpetologica, 17(1), 77-83. https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-11945 ------Funding Information: We thank Estação Biologia Marinha Augusto Ruschi (EBMAR) for logistical and sampling support during fieldwork. CZZ and RBF thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - Brasil (CNPq 300929/2022-6; 300825/2021-8) for fellowships. RLM thanks Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES for providing fellowships. FSC thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CTA-MB/28438/2017) and Management Research Center – MagIC/NOVA IMS (UIDB/04152/2020). Sampling permits were issued by Sistema de Autorização e Informação em Biodiversidade (SISBIO, 63575). We thank the financial support from Rufford Foundation for the Bromélias Project. Phylogenetic signals indicate the phenotypic similarity of antipredator mechanisms among related species. Herein, we assessed the antipredator mechanisms of the horned frog Proceratophrys laticeps, compiled a database including closely phylogenetically-related species, and evaluated their phylogenetic signals. Our dataset comprises 80 records for 13 species of Proceratophrys, totalizing 11 antipredator mechanisms and 15 variations of these mechanisms. Six antipredator mechanisms show high similarity in the trees’ roots within Proceratophrys (e.g., aggression, aposematism, camouflage, distress call, immobility, and interrupt calling). Our observations show the first records of antipredator mechanisms for P. laticeps, and the first report of interrupt calling for Proceratophrys genus, contributing to the knowledge on the behavioural ecology of Proceratophrys species, addressing new insights for ecological trait evolution by multiple ancestral states of amphibians. publishersversion published

The scarcity of urban land resources requires a well-organized spatial layout of land use to better accommodate human activities, however, as a widely accepted concept, the integration of land use and transport is not given due consideration in land use spatial optimization (LUSO). This paper aims to integrate land use and transport in LUSO to support urban land use planning. Maximizing accessibility fitness, which follows the underlying logic between land use types and transport characteristics, is introduced into multi-objective land use spatial optimization (MOLUSO) modelling to address transport considerations, together with widely-used objectives such as maximizing compactness, compatibility, and suitability. The transport characteristics, in this study, are identified by driving accessibility, cycling accessibility, and walking accessibility. Accessibility maps, which quantify and visualize the spatial variances in accessibility fitness for different land use types, are developed based on the empirical results of the relationship between land use types and transport characteristics for LUSO and addressing policy issues. The 4-objective LUSO model and a corresponding non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) based optimization method constitute a prototype decision support system (DSS) for urban land use planning. Decision-makers (e.g., planning departments) can choose an ideal solution to accommodate urban development needs from a set of Pareto-optimal alternatives generated by the DSS. The approaches to creating accessibility maps and MOLUSO modelling are demonstrated by the case study of Eindhoven, the Netherlands. This study advocates limited changes to the current land use pattern in urban planning, and the LUSO emphasizes urban renewal and upgrading rather than new town planning.

The rapid high-speed railway development in China has faced many institutional challenges for the integrated development of transport and land use in station areas. This paper aims to gain insight into the institutional rules that structure the actors’ interactions and how they influence the integrated development in station areas. The Institutional Analysis and Development framework has been applied to a specific action situation, named Lanzhou West HSR station area in China. The findings from interviews, document analysis, and field visits reveal that Chinese institutional rules obstruct interactions between actors, thereby hampering the integrated development of functions in HSR station areas.

AimTo assess spatio-temporal and taxonomic patterns of available information on the costs of invasive freshwater bivalves, as well as to identify knowledge gaps.LocationGlobal.Time period1980–2020.Taxon studiedBivalvia.MethodsWe synthesize published global economic costs of impacts from freshwater bivalves using the InvaCost database and associated R package, explicitly considering the reliability of estimation methodologies, cost types, economic sectors and impacted regions.ResultsCumulative total global costs of invasive macrofouling bivalves were $ 63.7 billion (2017 US$) across all regions and socio-economic sectors between 1980 and 2020. Costs were heavily biased taxonomically and spatially, dominated by two families, Dreissenidae and Cyrenidae (Corbiculidae), and largely reported in North America. The greatest share of reported costs ($ 31.5 billion) did not make the distinction between damage and management. However, of those that did, damages and resource losses were one order of magnitude higher ($ 30.5 billion) than control or preventative measures ($ 1.7 billion). Moreover, although many impacted socio-economic sectors lacked specification, the largest shares of costs were incurred by authorities and stakeholders ($ 27.7 billion, e.g., public and private sector interventions) and through impacts on public and social welfare ($ 10.1 billion, e.g., via power/drinking water plant and irrigation system damage) in North America. Average cost estimates over the entire period amounted to approximately $ 1.6 billion per year, most of which was incurred in North America.Main conclusionsOur results highlight the burgeoning economic threat caused by invasive freshwater bivalves, offering a strong economic incentive to invest in preventative management such as biosecurity and rapid response eradications. Even if the damages and resource losses are severely understated because economic impacts are lacking for most invaded countries and invasive bivalve species, these impacts are substantial and likely growing.

One of the main threats to wild primates is habitat alteration, fragmentation and destruction. Therefore it is crucial to understand the ability of those species to adapt to human-induced habitat changes to prevent extirpation. Key to this is a species diet plasticity. In Paraguay over 91% of the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest has been destroyed to expand agricultural land. We determined the diet composition of three Sapajus cay groups in degraded and near-pristine Atlantic Forest in eastern Paraguay to assess whether the diet composition of this species changes with habitat degradation. We accounted for diet variability associated with demographic traits and forest characteristics using multinomial linear models. Once the effect of age, sex, and season were accounted for, we found that the diet of capuchins was plastic and shifted to adapt to studied degraded forest conditions. The results showed that (as expected) the capuchins have a generalist and flexible diet, including opportunistically taking advantage of crop plants, particularly Slash Pine plantations, when the risks were lower. The capuchins ability to adjust their diet in different habitat fragments demonstrates that small islands of Paraguayan Atlantic Forest are valuable for their persistence. This insight can be used to create applied conservation strategies, such as using the existing Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) legislation to provide an opportunity to begin reconnecting fragments using native trees bordered by Slash Pine plantations. Using the capuchins as an umbrella species would increase public support of the program, while compensation through the PES scheme and profiting from the timber would encourage landowner participation.

The Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction around 66 million years ago was triggered by the Chicxulub asteroid impact on the present-day Yucatán Peninsula1,2. This event caused the highly selective extinction that eliminated about 76% of species3,4, including all non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ammonites, rudists and most marine reptiles. The timing of the impact and its aftermath have been studied mainly on millennial timescales, leaving the season of the impact unconstrained. Here, by studying fishes that died on the day the Mesozoic era ended, we demonstrate that the impact that caused the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction took place during boreal spring. Osteohistology together with stable isotope records of exceptionally preserved perichondral and dermal bones in acipenseriform fishes from the Tanis impact-induced seiche deposits5 reveal annual cyclicity across the final years of the Cretaceous period. Annual life cycles, including seasonal timing and duration of reproduction, feeding, hibernation and aestivation, vary strongly across latest Cretaceous biotic clades. We postulate that the timing of the Chicxulub impact in boreal spring and austral autumn was a major influence on selective biotic survival across the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary.

Aim: The interactions between plants and soil microbes play crucial roles in modulating the function and stability of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the relationships between plant and soil microbial diversity for different taxa have remained been elusive. Location: Northern China. Major taxa: Plant and soil microbes of grassland ecosystems. Time period: 2018 and 2019. Methods: We conducted a transect survey across grasslands to measure plant diversity, plant traits, and soil microbial diversity. High throughput sequencing was used to assess soil microbial diversity for bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (16S) and fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions on an Illumina MiSeq. The random forest algorithm was used to determine the important spatial and environmental variables in predicting plant and microbial diversity, and structural equation modelling was used to examine the direct and indirect effects of climatic and edaphic variables on plant and microbial diversity. Results: Plant diversity was positively correlated with the diversity of soil fungi, particularly for predicted arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and saprotrophic fungi, and they were positively related to soil nutrients and texture. However, the correlation between plant and bacterial diversity varied by phyla and functional guilds, resulting in decoupling between plant and soil bacterial diversity. Community weighted mean leaf C:N ratio indirectly decreased soil fungal diversity through a negative relationship with soil total nitrogen. Soil bacterial and fungal diversity increased with increasing functional richness of specific leaf area and stem density, respectively. Main conclusions: These findings have contributed to unravelling the direct and indirect linkages between plant and soil fungal diversity, highlighting particularly strong linkages between plant diversity and predicted AMF and saprotrophic fungi diversity. However, we failed to detect an overall linkage between plant and soil bacterial diversity. Still, our findings suggest that integrating soil fungi into the framework of plant diversity conservation is conducive to biodiversity restoration in degraded grassland ecosystems.

Background: We previously identified associations between trimester-specific NO2 exposures and reduced fetal growth in the Spanish INfancia y Medio Ambiente (INMA) project. Here, we use temporally refined exposure estimates to explore the impact of narrow (weekly) windows of exposure on fetal growth. Methods: We included 1,685 women from INMA with serial ultrasounds at 12, 20, and 34 gestational weeks. We measured biparietal diameter (BPD), femur length, and abdominal circumference (AC) and from them calculated estimated fetal weight (EFW). We calculated z-scores describing trajectories of each parameter during early (0-12 weeks), mid (12-20 weeks), and late (20-34 weeks) pregnancy, based on longitudinal growth curves from mixed-effects models. We estimated weekly NO2 exposures at each woman's residence using land-use regression models. We applied distributed lag nonlinear models to identify sensitive windows of exposure. We present effect estimates as the percentage change in fetal growth per 10 μg/m3 increase in NO2 exposure, and we calculated cumulative effect estimates by aggregating estimates across adjacent lags. Results: We identified weeks 5-12 as a sensitive window for NO2 exposure on late EFW (cumulative β = -3.0%; 95% CI = -4.1%, -1.9%). We identified weeks 6-19 as a sensitive window for late growth in BPD (cumulative β = -2.0%; 95% CI = -2.7%, -1.4%) and weeks 8-13 for AC (cumulative β = -0.68%; 95% CI = -0.97%, -0.40%). We found suggestive evidence that third trimester NO2 exposure is associated with increased AC, BPD, and EFW growth in late pregnancy. Conclusions: Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that NO2 exposure is associated with alterations in growth of EFW, BPD, and AC dependent on the specific timing of exposure during gestation. This work was supported by grant R01ES028842 from NIH/NIEHS; grants Red INMA G03/176, CB06/02/004; FIS-FEDER: PI03/1615, PI04/1509, PI04/1112, PI04/1931, PI05/1079, PI05/1052, PI06/0867, PI06/1213, PI07/0314, PI09/02647, PI11/01007, PI11/02591, PI11/02038, PI13/1944, PI13/2032, PI14/00891, PI14/01687, PI16/1288, PI17/00663, FIS-PI18/01142 incl. FEDER funds; Miguel Servet-FEDER CP11/00178, CP15/00025, CPII16/00051, CPII18/00018, and CP16/00128 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, grant 1999SGR 00241from Generalitat de Catalunya-CIRIT, grant FP7-ENV-2011 cod 282957 and HEALTH.2010.2.4.5-1 from the EU Commission, grant UGP-15-230, UGP-15-244, and UGP-15-249 from Generalitat Valenciana: FISABIO, grant 2005111093 from Alicia Koplowitz Foundation 2017, Department of Health of the Basque Government, grant DFG06/002 from the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa, and annual agreements with the municipalities of the study area (Zumarraga, Urretxu, Legazpi, Azkoitia y Azpeitia y Beasain). We also acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the State Research Agency through the “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023” Program (CEX2018-000806-S), and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program.

Freshwater habitats are experiencing two to three times the rate of biodiversity loss of terrestrial and marine habitats. As status quo actions within the conservation community are not reversing the downward trajectory for freshwater biodiversity, we propose four actions to shift the narrative such that freshwater biodiversity is no longer invisible and overlooked, but rather explicitly recognized, valued, and protected: (1) Reshape our relationship with freshwater habitats and biodiversity, (2) Appreciate indigenous knowledge systems relating to freshwater habitats, (3) Connect science more directly to action, and (4) Elevate freshwater habitats as a unique “domain” that requires explicit recognition in conservation planning (RACE). We highlight roles that both freshwater scientists and the wider conservation community can play in implementing the four actions such that the “RACE” can be won.

The diverse ecology of parasitoids is shaped by extrinsic competition, i.e., exploitative or interference competition among adult females and males for hosts and mates. Adult females use an array of morphological, chemical, and behavioral mechanisms to engage in competition that may be either intra- or interspecific. Weaker competitors are often excluded or, if they persist, use alternate host habitats, host developmental stages, or host species. Competition among adult males for mates is almost exclusively intraspecific and involves visual displays, chemical signals, and even physical combat. Extrinsic competition influences community structure through its role in competitive displacement and apparent competition. Finally, anthropogenic changes such as habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, pollutants, and climate change result in phenological mismatches and range expansions within host–parasitoid communities with consequent changes to the strength of competitive interactions. Such changes have important ramifications not only for the success of managed agroecosystems, but also for natural ecosystem functioning.

Department of Science and Technology (DST). Grant Number: /SPLICE/CCP/NMSHE/TF-2/WII/2014[G] Human modification and habitat fragmentation significantly impact large carnivores requiring large, connected habitats to persist in a landscape. Understanding species responses to such change and the protection of critical areas and connectivity they provide is essential when planning effective conservation strategies. Our study examines the spatial distribution of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) across a gradient of protection status, anthropogenic pressures and habitat types in the Gangotri landscape (~4600 km2), Western Himalaya. Using spatial capture-recapture modeling, we analyzed a 4-year camera trapping dataset (2015-2019) to assess the relationship between snow leopard movement and topography and identified the conducible areas for facilitating movement across the landscape. Snow leopard density was positively associated with elevation and slope, and was higher in protected areas (summer: 1.42 SE 0.02/100km2; winter 2.15 SE 0.03 vs. summer: 0.4 SE 0.01; winter: 0.6 SE 0.01 for unprotected areas). Precipitous terrain and several prominent mountain peaks were found to be resistant to snow leopard movement. Even with a range of human activities inside protected areas, the higher density suggests a positive impact of protection. Density-weighted connectivity showed that conducible areas are available between the Gangotri landscape and the adjacent protected areas. However, compared to protected area, these areas are relatively less used and require attention for management. We recommend regulating human activities and co-managing pastures with local communities to revive prey base outside protected areas, especially in corridors, to ensure such areas are functionally conducive. Our study provides a framework to collectively quantitate the spatial pattern of abundance, distribution and connectivity. Our approach has broad applicability for policymakers to develop strategic plans for balancing the conservation of species, and other land uses in a multiuse landscape. Postprint

Native to the Ponto-Caspian region, the benthic round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) has invaded several European inland waterbodies as well as the North American Great Lakes and the Baltic Sea. The species is capable of reaching very high densities in the invaded ecosystems, with not only evidence for significant food-web effects on the native biota and habitats, but also negative implications to coastal fishers. Although generally considered a coastal species, it has been shown that round goby migrate to deeper areas of the Great Lakes and other inland lakes during the cold season. Such seasonal movements may create new spatio-temporal ecosystem consequences in invaded systems. To seek evidence for seasonal depth distribution in coastal marine habitats, we compiled all available catch data for round goby in the Baltic Sea since its invasion and until 2017. We furthermore related the depths at capture for each season with the ambient thermal environment. The round goby spend autumn and winter at significantly deeper and offshore areas compared to spring and summer months; few fish were captured at depths 25 m. The thermal conditions at which round goby were caught varied significantly between seasons, being on average 18.3 °C during summer, and dropping to a low 3.8 °C during winter months. Overall, the fish sought the depths within each season with the highest possible temperatures. The spatial distribution of the round goby substantially overlaps with that of its main and preferred prey (mussels) and with that of its competitor for food (flatfish), but only moderately with the coastal predatory fish (perch), indicating thereby very complex trophic interactions associated with this invasion. Further investigations should aim at quantifying the food web consequences and coupling effects between different habitats related to seasonal migrations of the round goby, both in terms of the species as a competitor, predator and prey.

When large-scale common land is taken from villagers by investors with little compensation, their labour unneeded, villagers’ livelihoods tend to be largely destroyed. This implies a tendency to focus on what has been taken from villagers during the land-based change, which has valid and has far-reaching social relevance. But as the rise of the industrial tree plantation (ITP) sector in Guangxi shows, some villagers are capable of having their livelihoods maintained and even expanded when big investors come and acquire massive amounts of land. This seems to be an anomaly at a first glance, considering what has been taken from villagers, but these unexpected and positive livelihood changes can be explained when one closely examines the dynamic of what is taken and what has been left to villagers. During this ITP boom, although large-scale collectively owned forestland is taken by investors and few work opportunities are created to incorporate those affected, villagers’ control over farmland plots and their access to off-farm work opportunities remain (including the land system and labour dynamics). This paper highlights the importance of analysing “taken-left” dynamics to more fully capture diverse livelihood changes.

Alves, A.; Moraes, D.; Barbosa, B.; Costa, H.; Moreira, F.; Benevides, P.; Caetano, M. and Campagnolo, M. (2023). Exploring Spectral Data, Change Detection Information and Trajectories for Land Cover Monitoring over a Fire-Prone Area of Portugal. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management - GISTAM; ISBN 978-989-758-649-1; ISSN 2184-500X, SciTePress, pages 87-97. DOI: 10.5220/0011993100003473---This research was conducted under the collaboration contract DGT-ISA 261/2021 with funding from Compete2020 (POCI-05-5762-FSE-000368), supported by the European Social Fund, and Centro Exploring Spectral Data, Change Detection Information and Trajectories for Land Cover Monitoring over a Fire-Prone Area of Portugal 95 de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC), Project UIDB/00239/2020 (Forest Research Centre), both supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Land use/land cover (LULC) change detection and classification in maps based on automated data processing are becoming increasingly sophisticated in Earth Observation (EO). There is a growing number of annual maps available, with diverse but related production structures consisting primarily of classification and post-classification phases, the latter of which deals with inaccuracies of the first. The methodology production of the “Carta de Ocupação do Solo conjuntural” (COSc), a thematic land cover map of continental Portugal produced by the Directorate-General for Territory (DGT) mostly based on Sentinel-2 images classification, includes a semi-automatic phase of correction that combines expert knowledge and ancillary data in if-then-else rules validated by photointerpretation. Although this approach reduces misclassifications from an initial Random Forest (RF) prediction map, improving consistency between years and compliance with ecological succession, requires a lot of time-consuming semi-automatic procedures. This work evaluates the relevance of exploring an additional set of variables for automatic classification over disturbance-prone areas. A multitemporal dataset with 124 variables was analysed using data dimensionality reduction techniques, resulting in the identification of 35 major explanatory indicators, which were then used as inputs for RF classification with cross-validation. The estimated importance of the explanatory variables shows that composites of spectral bands, which are already included in the current COSc workflow, in conjunction with the inclusion of additional data namely, historical land cover information and change detection coefficients, from the Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) algorithm, are relevant for predicting land cover classes after disturbance. Since map updating is a more challenging task for disturbed pixels, we focused our analysis on locations where COSc indicated potential land cover change. Nonetheless, the overall classification accuracy for our experiments was 72.34 % which is similar to the accuracy of COSc for this region of Portugal. The findings suggest new variables that could improve future COSc maps. publishersversion published

Evolution has traditionally been a historical and descriptive science and predicting future evolutionary processes has long been considered impossible. However, evolutionary predictions are increasingly being developed and used in medicine, agriculture, biotechnology and conservation biology. Evolutionary predictions may be used for different purposes, such as to prepare for the future, to try and change the course of evolution or to determine how well we understand evolutionary processes. Similarly, the exact aspect of the evolved population that we want to predict may also differ, for example we could try to predict which genotype will dominate, the fitness of the population, or the extinction probability of a population. In addition, there are many uses of evolutionary predictions that may not always be recognized as such. The main goal of this review is to increase awareness of methods and data that are used to make these predictions in different research fields by showing the breadth of situations in which evolutionary predictions are made. We describe how diverse evolutionary predictions share a common structure described by the predictive scope, time scale and precision. Then, by using examples ranging from SARS-CoV2 and influenza to CRISPR-based gene drives and sustainable product formation in biotechnology, we discuss the methods for predicting evolution, the factors that affect predictability, and how predictions can be used to prevent evolution in undesirable directions or to promote beneficial evolution (i.e. evolutionary control). We hope that this review will stimulate collaboration between fields by creating a common language for evolutionary predictions.

Canals provide wide-ranging economic benefits, while also serving as corridors for the introduction and spread of aquatic alien species, potentially leading to negative ecological and economic impacts. However, to date, no comprehensive quantifications of the reported economic costs of these species have been done. Here, we used the InvaCost database on the monetary impact of invasive alien species to identify the costs of those facilitated by three major canal systems: the European Inland Canals, Suez Canal, and Panama Canal. While we identified a staggering number of species having spread via these systems, monetary costs have been reported only for a few. A total of $33.6 million in costs have been reported from species linked to European Inland Canals (the fishhook waterflea Cercopagis pengoi and the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha) and $8.6 million linked to the Suez Canal (the silver-cheeked toadfish Lagocephalus sceleratus, the lionfish Pterois miles, and the nomad jellyfish Rhopilema nomadica), but no recorded costs were found for species facilitated by the Panama Canal. We thus identified a pervasive lack of information on the monetary costs of invasions facilitated by canals and highlighted the uneven distribution of costs.

Funding: OA acknowledges support by ISF Grant 1022/21. Regions along the edges of the tropics host vast populations and ecosystems which are sensitive to climate change. Here we examine the extent of tropical land areas in the ERA5 and MERRA‐2 reanalyses and in high‐emission scenarios of 45 models participating in phases 5 and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5/6). Based on the definition of tropical climate land areas as regions where the diurnal temperature range exceeds the seasonal temperature range, we find a net reduction of tropical land area with global warming. This change is primarily due to an increased seasonal temperature range driven by enhanced summer warming, which in turn is largely driven by reduced evaporative cooling. The reduction of tropical climate area is consistent with a narrowing of the tropical rain belt and with an equatorward and poleward expansion of the subtropical dry zones. Understanding the links between these trends requires further study. Publisher PDF

Most spatial epidemiological studies of nature-health relationships use generalized greenspace measures. For instance, coarse-resolution spatial data containing normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) values are prominent despite criticisms, such as the inability to restrain exposure estimates to public and private land. Non-threatening natural landscapes can improve health by building capacities for health-promoting behaviors. Recreational and accessible parks may best activate such behaviors. We curated the Parks and Protected Areas Database of the U.S. (PAD-US) to identify parks that are accessible for outdoor recreation. Our title adds “AR” to “PAD-US” where A = Accessible and R = Recreational. We validated the PAD-US-AR by comparisons with greenspace datasets and sociodemographics, which demonstrated its uniqueness from other commonly employed metrics of nature exposure. The PAD-US-AR presents reliable estimates of parks in the contiguous U.S. that are accessible for outdoor recreation. It has strong associations with home prices, shares of female residents, and shares of older residents. This dataset can accompany other nature exposure metrics in environmental epidemiology and allied research fields.

Funding: In addition to the funding I have received from the European Research Council (grant agreement No. 715146), I also gratefully acknowledge funding for this research from the Leverhulme Trust (ECF-2013-177) and the British Academy (EN150010). At a time of a "private equity oil rush," this essay explores how oil industry entrepreneurs with ambitions of setting up their own oil-production companies are encouraged to "dream big"- yet are ultimately disciplined and let down- by private equity finance in the state of Colorado in the United States. Motivated by a desire to "do oil differently," these start-ups articulate utopian visions that draw on inequalities in extractive economies to promote an ethos of care and inclusion. I argue that while economic imaginations are commonly seen to offer alternatives to and critiques of capitalism, it is important also to attend to articulations of capitalist utopia. As private equity has come to form a secreted infrastructure that underlies much of the world's financial system and encourages entrepreneurial optimism and euphoria, I explore how the contemporary life of capitalism stimulates attitudes to wealth creation that remain markedly conventional and unadventurous. Publisher PDF

The System of Environmental Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) provides a framework for quantifying and valuing ecosystem services that is consistent with the System of National Accounts (SNA). As such, monetary estimates for ecosystem services are required to be measured as exchange values. The environmental economics literature on the value of ecosystem services has expanded consideralby over the past two decades and the Ecosystem Services Valuation Database (ESVD) currently provides the most comprehensive collection and synthesis of this information. The primary valuation studies included in the ESVD, however, measure a variety of value concepts including welfare values, exchange values and others. This raises a challenge for using existing value data as input to SEEA EA applications. This paper explores potential approaches to using the ESVD for value transfers that are consistent with SEEA EA, specifically for the estimation of meta-analytic value functions that can be used to reflect spatial variation in supply and demand of ecosystem services and proxy exchange values. It identifies avenues for future research and development of the ESVD to operationalise and test this approach.

This work was supported by the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum. Additional, sample collection was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the manuscript submitted to Global Biogeochemical Cycles Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (BB/M026620/01). NERC also supported the analysis within this project through the NERC Life Science Mass Spectrometry Facility (CEH_L_098_11_2015 and CEH_L-155-05-2018). The sediments within fjords are critical components of the mid- to high-latitude coastal carbon (C) cycle, trapping and storing more organic carbon (OC) per unit area than other marine sedimentary environments. Located at the land-ocean transition, fjord sediments receive OC from both marine and terrestrial environments; globally, it has been estimated that 55% to 62% of the OC held within modern fjord sediments originates from terrestrial environments. However, the mid-latitude fjords of the Northern Hemisphere have largely been omitted from these global compilations. Here we investigate the mechanism driving the distribution of OC originating from different sources within the sediments of 38 Scottish fjords. From an array of fjord characteristics, the tidal range and outer sill depth were identified as the main drivers governing the proportions of marine and terrestrial OC in the sediments. Utilizing this relationship, we estimate that on average 52 ± 10% of the OC held within the sediments of all Scotland’s fjords is terrestrial in origin. These findings show that the Scottish fjords hold equivalent quantities of terrestrial OC as other global fjord systems. However, the analysis also highlights that the sediments within 29 % of Scottish fjords are dominated by marine derived OC, which is driven by local fjord geomorphology and oceanography. Publisher PDF

Funding was provided by the Australian Research Council (DE130100688) and Isobel Bennett Marine Biology Fellowship from the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation to ASH. CFYC was supported by funding granted to MD by the Leverhulme Centre. MD is supported by a National Science Foundation–Natural Environment Research Council Biological Oceanography grant (1948946), the Leverhulme Trust Research Centre–the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity and a Leverhulme Research Grant (RPG-2019-402). Herbivory is a core ecosystem function that is delivered heterogeneously across space. Disentangling the drivers of foraging patterns is key to understanding the functional impact of herbivores. Because intrinsic drivers of foraging like metabolism, nutritional requirements, and movement costs scale allometrically, foraging movement patterns in terrestrial herbivores have been shown to also scale positively with body size. However, spatial patterns of herbivory can also be explained by orthogonal factors such as trophic position, competition, and functional groupings. Here, we investigate body size and species traits as drivers of the spatial scaling of foraging patterns in herbivorous coral reef fishes. We quantified foraging patterns of 119 individuals from nine common herbivorous species using focal individual surveys. Body size, species identity, feeding substrata, social grouping, and functional group were tested as predictors of three foraging metrics: foraging area, inter-foray distance, and tortuosity. Our resulting model revealed that species identity overshadowed body size as a predictor in models for all foraging metrics. While foraging area was explained best by species only, the resulting tortuosity and mean inter-foray distance models included a small effect of body size that explained within-species variation. We do not find strong support for size-scaling of foraging patterns in our study species. These findings indicate that foraging allometry based on Optimal Foraging Theory cannot be generally applied to reef fish assemblages due to a diversity of foraging strategies, such as spatial partitioning and territoriality. Our work reveals the importance of behavioural ecology and taxonomic diversity in understanding herbivory, especially given the functional differences across species. With coral reefs under threat across the world, this is an important step to disentangling the spatial delivery of a core ecosystem function. Publisher PDF

High-speed railway (HSR) station areas are expected to benefit urban environments, not simply as transportation or economic hubs but also as urban places contributing to living quality. However, the relationship between HSR and place quality has not received systematic attention, despite the evolution of urban planning paradigms toward a clearer focus on quality of life. We have reviewed 44 academic articles written between 1996 and 2019 and analyzed concepts of place quality spanning the disciplines of urban design, urban planning, and urban economics. We identified three dimensions commonly associated with quality of place: a spatial dimension associated with aesthetic qualities of urban spaces; a socio-cultural dimension associated with experienced “sense of place”; and an economic dimension associated with the agglomeration of economic activities. Then we worked out these three dimensions in the context of HSR station areas and attributed features accordingly. We concluded that the economic dimension far outweighs the others in academic debates, with dominant theories being primarily concerned with land use, accessibility, and economic performance. Studies from the urban design field have tackled the spatial elements of place quality and showed a strong correlation with economic dimension. However, the literature remains insufficiently developed when it comes to addressing user experience and “sense of place.”

The Anthropocene is characterized by unparalleled human impact on other species, potentially ushering in the sixth mass extinction. Yet mitigation efforts remain hampered by limited information on the spatial patterns and intensity of the threats driving global biodiversity loss. Here we use expert-derived information from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List on threats to 23,271 species, representing all terrestrial amphibians, birds and mammals, to generate global maps of the six major threats to these groups: agriculture, hunting and trapping, logging, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. Our results show that agriculture and logging are pervasive in the tropics and that hunting and trapping is the most geographically widespread threat to mammals and birds. Additionally, current representations of human pressure underestimate the overall pressure on biodiversity, due to the exclusion of threats such as hunting and climate change. Alarmingly, this is particularly the case in areas of the highest biodiversity importance., Red List information is used to generate global maps of the likelihood of impacts on terrestrial vertebrates exerted by agriculture, hunting and trapping, logging, pollution, invasive species and climate change.

Urban living lab (ULL) experiments are expected to create grounds for circular city transitions but their temporal dynamics remain understudied. This study investigates the linkages of a particular sanitation experiment to a long-term urban development trajectories in the Hiedanranta ULL in the City of Tampere, Finland. The ethnographical study focuses on the temporal matches and mismatches of three interrelated timescales affecting the transformative potential of the experiment: (1) the experiment’s life cycle, (2) the brownfield ULL and (3) the formal land-use planning of the future city district. Temporal analysis showed that the creation of transformative capacity requires a long development trajectory beyond a single experiment. In this case, the long-term development of R&D networks and the persistence and maturation of the ULL with its variety of co-developing experiments enabled experiment implementation; changed the city’s sustainability discourse; and nurtured prominent cross-sectoral initiative of a super block. However, further implementation of ULL innovations in urban planning has proven to be difficult without a clear orchestrator. Practical recommendations highlight the need to clarify the strategic role of the ULL in experimental governance, transparent ULL processes that support learning, and overcoming transition barriers in the rigid infrastructure sector. acceptedVersion

This article seeks to provide a new analytical framework based on factor endowments to understand growth in rural economies without structural transformation. More concretely, it explores the variation in farmers’ ability to respond to new commercial opportunities. To complement the extensive literature on the economic and institutional effects of factor endowments, this paper revisits two influential yet controversial theories: Mark Elvin’s high-level equilibrium trap for areas with high population densities in a closed arable frontier, and Hla Myint’s vent for surplus for areas with surpluses of land and labour. We argue that these become more operational if reinterpreted by Boserupian land intensification processes. By lifting the neo-classical constraints on factor relationships, this paper contributes by exploring the mechanisms by which factor endowments might preclude the transformation. Understanding the different dynamics of cultivation in relation to land and labour use, technological choices, saving capacity, and potential linkages to industrialization becomes of even greater significance as these areas may be found within the same countries at a given time. Publisher PDF

Costa, H., Benevides, P., Moreira, F. D., & Caetano, M. (2022). Detection and classification of changes in agriculture, forest, and shrublands for land cover map updating in Portugal. In C. M. U. Neale, & A. Maltese (Eds.), Proceedings of SPIE.Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology XXIV (Vol. 12262, pp. 19). SPIE. Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2636127 - ----Funding Information: The work has been supported by projects foRESTER (PCIF/SSI/0102/2017), and SCAPE FIRE (PCIF/MOS/0046/2017), and by Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC), all funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Value-added data processed by CNES for the Theia data centre www.theia-land.fr using Copernicus products. The processing uses algorithms developed by Theia's Scientific Expertise Centres. Portugal produced a land cover map for 2018 based on Sentinel-2 data and represents 13 classes, including agriculture, six tree forest species, and shrubland. The map was updated for 2020. The strategy focused on three strata where annual changes occur: S1 (agriculture) due to crop rotation, S2 (forest and shrubland) due to wildfires and clear-cuts, and S3 (fire scars and clear-cuts of previous years) where vegetation regeneration occurs. The methodology included i) change detection, ii) classification, and iii) knowledge-based rules. Stratum S1 was classified with images of the entire 2020 crop year and a training dataset extracted from the national Land Parcel Identification Systems (LPIS) of 2020. The land cover nomenclature was expanded and class agriculture was split in three distinct classes, hence resulting a map with 15 classes in total. Change detection, implemented in stratum S2, analyzed the profile of NDVI since 2018 to find potential loss of vegetation. S2 and S3 were classified through two stages. First, images of the entire 2020 crop year were used and then data of October 2020 (end of crop year) to capture late changes. The training points of the 2018 land cover map were used, but only if not associated with NDVI change. For all the three strata, knowledge-based rules corrected misclassifications and ensured consistency between the maps. A comparison between 2018 and 2020 reveal important land cover dynamics related to vegetation loss and regeneration on ~5% of the country. authorsversion published

Greenland's fjords and coastal waters are highly productive and sustain important fisheries. However, retreating glaciers and increasing meltwater are changing fjord circulation and biogeochemistry , which may threaten future productivity. The freshening of Greenland fjords caused by unprecedented melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet may alter carbonate chemistry in coastal waters, influencing CO2 uptake and causing biological consequences from acidification . However, few studies to date explore the current acidification state in Greenland coastal waters. Here we present the first-ever large-scale measurements of carbonate system parameters in 16 Greenlandic fjords and seek to identify the drivers of acidification state in these freshening ecosystems. Aragonite saturation state (Ω), a proxy for ocean acidification , was calculated from dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity from fjords along the east and west coast of Greenland spanning 68–75°N. Aragonite saturation was primarily >1 in the surface mixed layer. However, undersaturated—or corrosive––conditions (Ω < 1) were observed on both coasts (west: Ω = 0.28–3.11, east: Ω = 0.70–3.07), albeit at different depths. West Greenland fjords were largely corrosive at depth while undersaturation in East Greenland fjords was only observed in surface waters. This reflects a difference in the coastal boundary conditions and mechanisms driving acidification state. We suggest that advection of Sub Polar Mode Water and accumulation of DIC from organic matter decomposition drive corrosive conditions in the West, while freshwater alkalinity dilution drives acidification in the East. The presence of marine terminating glaciers also impacted local acidification states by influencing fjord circulation: upwelling driven by subglacial discharge brought corrosive bottom waters to shallower depths. Meanwhile, discharge from land terminating glaciers strengthened stratification and diluted alkalinity. Regardless of the drivers in each system, increasing freshwater discharge will likely lower carbonate saturation states and impact biotic and abiotic carbon uptake in the future.

INTRODUCTION: Epidemiological studies are highlighting the negative effects of the exposure to air pollution on children's neurodevelopment. However, most studies assessed children's neurodevelopment using neuropsychological tests or questionnaires. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to precisely measure global and region-specific brain development would provide details of brain morphology and connectivity. This would help us understand the observed cognitive and behavioral changes related to air pollution exposure. Moreover, most studies assessed only a few air pollutants. This project investigates whether air pollution exposure to many pollutants during pregnancy and childhood is associated with the morphology and connectivity of the brain in school-age children and pre-adolescents. METHODS: We used data from the Generation R Study, a population-based birth cohort set up in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2002-2006 (n = 9,610). We used land-use regression (LUR) models to estimate the levels of 14 air pollutants at participant's homes during pregnancy and childhood: nitrogen oxides (NOx), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm (PM10) or ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5), PM between 10 μm and 2.5 μm (PMCOARSE), absorbance of the PM2.5 fraction - a measure of soot (PM2.5absorbance), the composition of PM2.5 such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organic carbon (OC), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), silicon (Si), zinc (Zn), and the oxidative potential of PM2.5 evaluated using two acellular methods: dithiothreitol (OPDTT) and electron spin resonance (OPESR). We performed MRI measurements of structural morphology (i.e., brain volumes, cortical thickness, and cortical surface area) using T1-weighted images in 6- to 10-year-old school-age children and 9- to 12-year-old pre-adolescents, structural connectivity (i.e., white matter microstructure) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in pre-adolescents, and functional connectivity (i.e., connectivity score between brain areas) using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) in pre-adolescents. We assessed cognitive function using the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment test (NEPSY-II) in school-age children. For each outcome, we ran regression analysis adjusted for several socioeconomic and lifestyle characteristics. We performed single-pollutant analyses followed by multipollutant analyses using the deletion/substitution/addition (DSA) approach. RESULTS: The project has air pollution and brain MRI data for 783 school-age children and 3,857 pre-adolescents. First, exposure to air pollution during pregnancy or childhood was not associated with global brain volumes (e.g., total brain, cortical gray matter, and cortical white matter) in school-age children or pre-adolescents. However, higher pregnancy or childhood exposure to several air pollutants was associated with a smaller corpus callosum and hippocampus, and a larger amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and cerebellum in pre-adolescents, but not in school-age children. Second, higher exposure to several air pollutants during pregnancy was associated with a thinner cortex in various regions of the brain in both school-age children and pre-adolescents. Higher exposure to air pollution during childhood was also associated with a thinner cortex in a single region in pre-adolescents. A thinner cortex in two regions mediated the association between higher exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and an impaired inhibitory control in school-age children. Third, higher exposure to air pollution during childhood was associated with smaller cortical surface areas in various regions of the brain except in a region where we observed a larger cortical surface area in pre-adolescents. In relation to brain structural connectivity, higher exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and childhood was associated with an alteration in white matter microstructure in pre-adolescents. In relation to brain functional connectivity, a higher exposure to air pollution, mainly during pregnancy and early childhood, was associated with a higher brain functional connectivity among several brain regions in pre-adolescents. Overall, we identified several air pollutants associated with brain structural morphology, structural connectivity, and functional connectivity, such as NOx, NO2, PM of various size fractions (i.e., PM10, PMCOARSE, and PM2.5), PM2.5absorbance, PAHs, OC, three elemental components of PM2.5 (i.e., Cu, Si, Zn), and the oxidative potential of PM2.5. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this project suggest that exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and childhood play an adverse role in brain development. We observed this relationship even at levels of exposure that were below the European Union legislations. We acknowledge that identifying the independent effects of specific pollutants was particularly challenging. Most of our conclusions generally refer to traffic-related air pollutants. However, we did identify pollutants specifically originating from brake linings, tire wear, and tailpipe emissions from diesel combustion. The current direction toward innovative solutions for cleaner energy vehicles is a step in the right direction. However, our findings indicate that these measures might not be completely adequate to mitigate health problems attributable to traffic-related air pollution, as we also observed associations with markers of brake linings and tire wear.

Funding: Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. Determining what factors influence the distribution and abundance of wildlife populations is crucial for implementing effective conservation and management actions. Yet, for species with dynamic seasonal, sex-, and age-specific spatial ecology, like the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin; DBT), doing so can be challenging. Moreover, environmental factors that influence the distribution and abundance of DBT in their northernmost range have not been quantitatively characterized. We investigated proximity to nesting habitat as one potential driver of spatiotemporal variation in abundance in a three-step analytical approach. First, we used a scale selection resource selection function (RSF) approach based on landcover data from the National Landcover Database (NLCD) to identify the scale at which DBT are selecting for (or avoiding) landcover types to nest. Next, we used RSF to predict areas of suitable nesting habitat and created an index of nest suitability (NSI). Finally, analyzing visual count data using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM), we investigate spatiotemporal drivers of relative abundance, with a specific focus on whether similar factors affect offshore abundance and onshore nest site selection. We found the scale of selection for developed and saltmarsh land use classes to be 550 and 600 m and open water land use classes to be 100. Selection was positive for nesting areas proximal to saltmarsh habitat and negative for developed and open water. Expected relative abundance was best explained by the interaction between NSI and day of season, where expected relative abundance was greater within high NSI areas during the nesting season (2.20 individuals, CI: 1.19–3.93) compared to areas of low NSI (1.84 individuals, CI: 1.10–3.10). Our results provide evidence that inferred spatial patterns of suitable nesting habitats explain spatiotemporal patterns of terrapin movement and abundance. Publisher PDF

Terrestrial ecosystems, owing to the presence of key socio-economic sectors such as agriculture and forestry, may be particularly economically affected by biological invasions. The present study uses a subset of the recently developed database of global economic costs of biological invasions (InvaCost) to quantify the monetary costs of biological invasions in Russia, the largest country in the world that spans two continents. From 2007 up to 2019, invasions costed the Russian economy at least US$ 51.52 billion (RUB 1.38 trillion, n = 94 cost entries), with the vast majority of these costs based on predictions or extrapolations (US$ 50.86 billion; n = 87) and, therefore, not empirically observed. Most cost entries exhibited low geographic resolution, being split between European and Asian parts of Russia (US$ 44.17 billion; n = 72). Just US$ 7.35 billion (n = 22) was attributed to the European part solely and none to the Asian part. Invasion costs were documented for 72 species and particularly insects (37 species). The empirically-observed costs, summing up to US$ 660 million (n = 7), were reported only for four species: two insects Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire and Cydalima perspectalis (Walker) and two plants Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. and Heracleum sosnowskyi Manden. The vast majority of economic costs were related to resource damages and economic losses, with very little reported expenditures on managing invasions in terrestrial ecosystems. In turn, agriculture (US$ 37.42 billion; n = 68) and forestry (US$ 14.0 billion; n = 20) were the most impacted sectors. Overall, we report burgeoning economic costs of invasions in Russia and identify major knowledge gaps, for example, concerning specific habitat types (i.e. aquatic) and management expenditures, as well as for numerous known invasive taxa with no reported economic costs (i.e. vertebrates). Given this massive, largely underestimated economic burden of invasions in Russia, our work is a call for improved reporting of costs nationally and internationally.

Urban sprawl in Latin America is described as one of the major problems of ‘the growth machine’. As a reaction, most planning policies are based on anti-sprawl narratives, while in practice, urban sprawl has been thoroughly consolidated by all tiers of government. In this paper – and using the capital city of Chile, Santiago, as a case study – we challenge these anti-sprawl politics in light of the emerging environmental values and associated meanings of the interstitial spaces resulting from land fragmentation in contexts of urban sprawl. Looking at the interstitial spaces that lie between developments becomes relevant in understanding urban sprawl, considering that significant attention has been paid to the impact of the built-up space that defines the urban character of cities and their governance arrangements. We propose that looking at Santiago’s urban sprawl from the interstitial spaces may contribute to the creation of more sustainable sprawling landscapes and inspire modernisations beyond anti-sprawl policies. Finally, it is suggested that a more sustainable urban development of city regions might include the environmental values of suburban interstices and consider them as assets for the creation of more comprehensive planning and policy responses to urban sprawl.

Purpose The environmental and economic impacts of livestock production systems are typically assessed using global characterisation factors and data, even though several impact categories call for site-specific assessments. Here, we account for spatial variability by addressing potential interactions between geographic locality and the cost-effectiveness of farm investments that aim to reduce system environmental impact, using Danish pig production as a case-in-point. Methods An LCA-based, spatially explicit environmental abatement cost framework was developed to assess the cost-effectiveness of potential environmental abatement strategies. The framework was tested for Danish pig production in a “4 manure management × 4 geographic location” scenario analysis design. In addition to the baseline, the alternative manure management strategies were on-farm anaerobic digestion, slurry acidification and screw press slurry separation, implemented in an integrated pig farming system. The geographic locations differed in their proximity to Natura 2000 areas and in pig farming density. Eight different impact categories were assessed through an LCA using spatially explicit characterisation factors whenever possible, and annualised abatement potential was estimated for each manure management scenario and in each geographic location. We also estimated the financial performance for each scenario, through a discounted cash flow analysis at a whole-farm level. Results and discussion We observed significant interactions between geographic location and system environmental and economic performance under baseline conditions. Significant location effects were also observed for the cost-effectiveness of all manure management strategies tested. Anaerobic digestion was the only “win–win” strategy that increased farm profits while reducing system environmental impact in two of the geographic cases: when implemented in a region of high pig farming density located near Natura 2000 and when implemented in a region of high pig farming density located far from Natura 2000 areas. Slurry acidification and slurry separation achieved sizeable abatement potential for impacts on ecosystem quality but incurred large additional costs in all geographic case studies considered, particularly when arable land was limited near the pig farm. Conclusions Accounting for basic spatial characteristics within an environmental abatement cost framework had significant impact on the cost-effectiveness of on-farm investments for mitigation of system environmental impact. To the best of our knowledge, no studies to date have utilised such spatial characteristics within environmental abatement cost modelling of livestock farming systems. The presented framework has the potential to be further expanded using more detailed spatial, economic and geophysical data, which could ultimately improve decision-making regarding cost-effective investments that aim to improve the sustainability of livestock farming operations.

Quantifying the net carbon flux from land use and land cover changes (fLULCC) is critical for understanding the global carbon cycle and, hence, to support climate change mitigation. However, large-scale fLULCC is not directly measurable and has to be inferred from models instead, such as semi-empirical bookkeeping models and process-based dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs). By definition, fLULCC estimates are not directly comparable between these two different model types. As an important example, DGVM-based fLULCC in the annual global carbon budgets is estimated under transient environmental forcing and includes the so-called loss of additional sink capacity (LASC). The LASC results from the impact of environmental changes on land carbon storage potential of managed land compared to potential vegetation and accumulates over time, which is not captured in bookkeeping models. The fLULCC from transient DGVM simulations, thus, strongly depends on the timing of land use and land cover changes mainly because LASC accumulation is cut off at the end of the simulated period. To estimate the LASC, the fLULCC from pre-industrial DGVM simulations, which is independent of changing environmental conditions, can be used. Additionally, DGVMs using constant present-day environmental forcing enable an approximation of bookkeeping estimates. Here, we analyse these three DGVM-derived fLULCC estimations (under transient, pre-industrial, and present-day forcing) for 12 models within 18 regions and quantify their differences as well as climate- and CO2-induced components and compare them to bookkeeping estimates. Averaged across the models, we find a global fLULCC (under transient conditions) of 2.0±0.6 PgC yr−1 for 2009–2018, of which ∼40 % are attributable to the LASC (0.8±0.3 PgC yr−1). From 1850 onward, the fLULCC accumulated to 189±56 PgC with 40±15 PgC from the LASC. Around 1960, the accumulating nature of the LASC causes global transient fLULCC estimates to exceed estimates under present-day conditions, despite generally increased carbon stocks in the latter. Regional hotspots of high cumulative and annual LASC values are found in the USA, China, Brazil, equatorial Africa, and Southeast Asia, mainly due to deforestation for cropland. Distinct negative LASC estimates in Europe (early reforestation) and from 2000 onward in the Ukraine (recultivation of post-Soviet abandoned agricultural land), indicate that fLULCC estimates in these regions are lower in transient DGVM compared to bookkeeping approaches. Our study unravels the strong dependence of fLULCC estimates on the time a certain land use and land cover change event happened to occur and on the chosen time period for the forcing of environmental conditions in the underlying simulations. We argue for an approach that provides an accounting of the fLULCC that is more robust against these choices, for example by estimating a mean DGVM ensemble fLULCC and LASC for a defined reference period and homogeneous environmental changes (CO2 only).