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SIGNIFICANCE Reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to multiple aspects of peripheral nervous system (PNS) biology ranging from physiological processes (e.g. axonal outgrowth and regeneration), to pathophysiology (e.g. nerve degeneration). Although ROS are derived from multiple sources, NADPH oxidase (Nox) family members are dedicated to ROS generation. Noxs are expressed in the PNS and their overexpression is associated with detrimental effects on nerve function and contribute, at least in part, to peripheral neuropathies. Recent Advances: Of the 7 members, studies mostly focused on Nox1, Nox2, and Nox4, which are expressed in the PNS in a cell-specific manner. We have also recently identified human Nox5 in sural nerve biopsies. When maintained at homeostatic levels, Noxs regulate several aspects of peripheral nerve health, most notably neurite outgrowth and axonal regeneration following nerve lesion. While Nox2 and Nox4 dysregulation is a major source of oxidative stress in PNS disorders, including neuropathic pain and diabetic peripheral neuropathy, recent evidence also implicates Nox1 and Nox5. CRITICAL ISSUES Although there is compelling evidence for a direct role of Noxs on nerve function, little is known about their subcellular localization, intercellular regulation, and interaction. These, together with redox signaling, are considered crucial components of nerve redox status. Additionally, the lack of isoform-specific inhibitors limits conclusions about the physiological role of Noxs in the PNS and their therapeutic potential in peripheral neuropathies. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Future research using isoform-specific genetic and pharmacological approaches are therefore needed to better understand the significance of Nox enzymes in PNS (patho) physiology.

Novel recycling technologies aim at increasing material efficiency by turning former waste products into valuable reclaimed resources. A key question is whether such technologies really reduce primary resource consumption or instead stimulate aggregated market demand. In this study the consequences of a positive shock in ferrochrome supply to the global stainless steel value chain is assessed quantitatively. This new source might be unlocked by technology under development for the recovery of chromium from carbon and stainless steel slags. The aim of this study is to quantitatively assess the income and substitution effects of reclaimed ferrochrome along a part of the stainless steel value chain. The impact of the supply shock is analysed by means of a vector autoregression (VAR), a dynamic model where lagged values of all included variables estimate current state of the system. Additionally, the VAR model is extended to a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) to account for contemporary effects as well. Both the VAR and SVAR model indicate that additional ferrochrome supply leads to an increase in aggregated supply of stainless steel, in combination with a substitution effect between ferrochrome and nickel. The extended SVAR model additionally highlights that contemporaneous effects do play an important role as well to capture the direct rebound effect in the ferrochrome market when working with quarterly data. In other words, an additional supply of reclaimed ferrochrome triggers a complex combination of interactions and consequences, yet it does not necessarily lead to a lower overall material consumption. The main contributions of this paper are the assessment of direct rebound effects of supplying reclaimed metals along the value chain and the demonstration that quantifying the effects of circular strategies is feasible.

The symbolism of bird images occupies one of the central places in the system of Romantic worldview. It represents the Romantic attitude towards the outside world in Гайдук С. Образ орла як уособлення поета у поезії епохи романтизмуISSN 2411-4758109general and towards the closest human «partners» in nature, in particular. In literary works, it also shows Romantic orientations on certain artistic traditions: folk, biblical, antique. It is noted that the eagle image is one of the main bird images of the wild fauna which can be found in Romantic poetry. The purpose of the article is to highlight the peculiarities of the eagle symbolism as the personifi cation of poet in the poetry of T. Shevchenko, O. Pushkin, N. Yazykov, and J. Keats. It is stated that the eagle image is the personifi cation of such features of Romantic outlook as freedom, creative inspiration, high spiritual demands. Thus, in Romantic culture, the eagle is a symbol of poet. The poet’s personality is directly associated with such features of this bird as, high aspirations and sharp eyesight. This emphasizes the poet’s need to be over events and situations in order to depict them adequately, without conformism. To a certain extent, this is a manifestation of a Classical tradition. This eagle symbolism is very typical of Classicism. It is indicated that the aforementioned Romantic poets carry such features of eagle as pride, majesty, safety, independent glory, freedom, on the poet image as a creator. Therefore, the eagle image in their poetry becomes the personifi cation of poet, a distinctive symbol of the literary Olympus and literary fame. However, it should be remembered that symbol as one of the most signifi cant components of Romantic poetry is characterized by ambiguity. The ways of representing the eagle image in the works of Romantic poets form a multi-dimensional range of symbols. That is why the interpretation of other symbolic meanings of the eagle image in the poetry of the Romantic era is the prospect of our further research.

In this work, axillary shoot regenerations were investigated from nodal explants of Hygrophila polysperma (Roxb.) T. Anderson in MS medium (Murashige and Skoog) including different combinations of Gibberellic Acid (GA3) and Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA). Nodal explants of H. polysperma were used in propagation studies. The 100% regeneration frequency was determined in MS plus 0.25 and 0.50 mg/L GA3 + 0.15 mg/L NAA. When the shoot numbers were examined, the best nutrient medium was determined as 0.25 mg/L GA3 + 0.15 mg/L NAA (14.72 shoots/explant). The best result in shoot length was reached in MS plus 0.50 mg/L GA3 + 0.15 mg/L NAA (1.91 cm). Then the longest shoot was determined as 1.79 cm in nutrient media plus 0.25 mg/L GA3 + 0.15 mg/L NAA. Longer shoots were obtained in GA3+NAA nutrient media according to control. When the results were examined, it was determined that the number and length of shoots decreased as the amount of GA3+NAA used in the culture medium increased. Regenerated shoots were rooted in MS media including 0.25 mg/L Indole-3-Acetic Acid and successfully acclimatized to aquarium conditions. As a result, multiple and rapid productions of H. polysperma under tissue culture conditions were achieved.

In this study, the effects of enzyme and sonicator usage on the juice amount and antioxidant activity of raw and ripe Myrtus communis L. fruit were investigated. Raw and ripe myrtle fruits collected from the same tree were divided into 4 groups. After crushing by adding equal weight of water, the first group was affected with a sonicator and, the second group with hydrolytic enzyme mixture. The third group with a sonicator after the enzyme mixture and the fourth group is the control group in which no application was made. After the fruit juices were filtered, their amounts, turbidity and antioxidant activities were compared with the control group and each other. According to the results obtained, the amount of fruit juice was higher only in the enzyme-activated group than in the others. The use of sonicator caused a decrease in the amount of raw myrtle juice. Turbidity values of only enzyme-treated myrtle juices were lower than all other samples. In order to determine antioxidant activities, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), iron reducing power (FRAP) and radical scavenging activities (ABTS) were determined, and it was observed that raw myrtle had higher antioxidant activity than mature myrtle. In addition, the use of enzymes and sonicators in general led to an increase in TFC value as 70.7 % and 283.6% for raw and ripe juices, respectively whereas in the ABTS activity, 29 % and 28 % increament was observed.

Over the past decades, global warming has led to a lengthening of the time window during which temperatures remain favorable for carbon assimilation and tree growth, resulting in a lengthening of the green season. The extent to which forest green seasons have tracked the lengthening of this favorable period under climate warming, however, has not been quantified to date. Here, we used remote sensing data and long-term ground observations of leaf-out and coloration for six dominant species of European trees at 1773 sites, for a total of 6060 species-site combinations, during 1980-2016 and found that actual green season extensions (GS: 3.1 +/- 0.1 day decade(-1)) lag four times behind extensions of the potential thermal season (TS: 12.6 +/- 0.1 day decade(-1)). Similar but less pronounced differences were obtained using satellite-derived vegetation phenology observations, that is, a lengthening of 4.4 +/- 0.13 and 7.5 +/- 0.13 day decade(-1) for GS and TS, respectively. This difference was mainly driven by the larger advance in the onset of the thermal season compared to the actual advance of leaf-out dates (spring mismatch: 7.2 +/- 0.1 day decade(-1)), but to a less extent caused by a phenological mismatch between GS and TS in autumn (2.4 +/- 0.1 day decade(-1)). Our results showed that forest trees do not linearly track the new thermal window extension, indicating more complex interactions between winter and spring temperatures and photoperiod and a justification of demonstrating that using more sophisticated models that include the influence of chilling and photoperiod is needed to accurately predict spring phenological changes under warmer climate. They urge caution if such mechanisms are omitted to predict, for example, how vegetative health and growth, species distribution and crop yields will change in the future.

Understanding how individual differences arise and how their effects propagate through groups are fundamental issues in biology. Individual differences can arise from indirect genetic effects (IGE): genetically based variation in the conspecifics with which an individual interacts. Using a clonal species, the Amazon molly ( Poecilia formosa ), we test the hypothesis that IGE can propagate to influence phenotypes of the individuals that do not experience them firsthand. We tested this by exposing genetically identical Amazon mollies to conspecific social partners of different clonal lineages, and then moving these focal individuals to new social groups in which they were the only member to have experienced the IGE. We found that genetically different social environments resulted in the focal animals experiencing different levels of aggression, and that these IGE carried over into new social groups to influence the behaviour of naive individuals. These data reveal that IGE can cascade beyond the individuals that experience them. Opportunity for cascading IGE is ubiquitous, especially in species with long-distance dispersal or fission–fusion group dynamics. Cascades could amplify (or mitigate) the effects of IGE on trait variation and on evolutionary trajectories. Expansion of the IGE framework to include cascading and other types of carry-over effects will therefore improve understanding of individual variation and social evolution and allow more accurate prediction of population response to changing environments.

A link between diet and avian intestinal anatomy is generally assumed. We collated the length of intestinal sections and body mass of 390 bird species and tested relationships with diet, climate and locomotion. There was a strong phylogenetic signal in all datasets. The total and small intestine scaled more-than-geometrically (95%CI of the scaling exponent > 0.33). The traditional dietary classification (faunivore, omnivore and herbivore) had no significant effect on total intestine (TI) length. Significant dietary proxies included %folivory, %frugi-nectarivory and categories (frugi-nectarivory, granivory, folivory, omnivory, insectivory and vertivory). Individual intestinal sections were affected by different dietary proxies. The best model indicates that higher consumption of fruit and nectar, drier habitats, and a high degree of flightedness are linked to shorter TI length. Notably, the length of the avian intestine depends on other biological factors as much as on diet. Given the weak dietary signal in our datasets, the diet intestinal length relationships lend themselves to narratives of flexibility (morphology is not destiny) rather than of distinct adaptations that facilitate using one character (intestine length) as proxy for another (diet). Birds have TIs of about 85% that of similar-sized mammals, corroborating systematic differences in intestinal macroanatomy between vertebrate clades.

Climatic warming has lengthened the photosynthetically active season in recent decades, thus affecting the functioning and biogeochemistry of ecosystems, the global carbon cycle and climate. Temperature response of carbon uptake phenology varies spatially and temporally, even within species, and daily total intensity of radiation may play a role. We empirically modelled the thresholds of temperature and radiation under which daily carbon uptake is constrained in the temperate and cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere, which include temperate forests, boreal forests, alpine and tundra biomes. The two-dimensionality of the temperature-radiation constraint was reduced to one single variable, theta, which represents the angle in a polar coordinate system for the temperature-radiation observations during the start and end of the growing season. We found that radiation will constrain the trend towards longer growing seasons with future warming but differently during the start and end of season and depending on the biome type and region. We revealed that radiation is a major factor limiting photosynthetic activity that constrains the phenology response to temperature during the end-of-season. In contrast, the start of the carbon uptake is overall highly sensitive to temperature but not constrained by radiation at the hemispheric scale. This study thus revealed that while at the end-of-season the phenology response to warming is constrained at the hemispheric scale, at the start-of-season the advance of spring onset may continue, even if it is at a slower pace.

Melatonin has not only to be seen as a regulator of circadian clocks. In addition to its chronobiotic functions, it displays other actions, especially in cell protection. This includes antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and mitochondria-protecting effects. Although protection is also modulated by the circadian system, the respective actions of melatonin can be distinguished and differ with regard to dose requirements in therapeutic settings. It is the aim of this article to outline these differences in terms of function, signaling, and dosage. Focus has been placed on both the nexus and the dissecting properties between circadian and noncircadian mechanisms. This has to consider details beyond the classic view of melatonin's role, such as widespread synthesis in extrapineal tissues, formation in mitochondria, effects on the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, and secondary signaling, for example

The phenology of Arctic plants is an important determinant of the pattern of carbon uptake and may be highly sensitive to continued rapid climate change. Eriophorum vaginatum L. (Cyperaceae) has a disproportionate influence over ecosystem processes in moist acidic tundra, but it is unclear whether its growth and phenology will remain competitive in the future. We investigated whether northern tundra ecotypes of E. vaginatum could extend their growing season in response to direct warming and transplanting into southern ecosystems. At the same time, we examined whether southern ecotypes could adjust their growth patterns in order to thrive further north, should they disperse quickly enough. Detailed phenology measurements across three reciprocal transplant gardens over a 2-year period showed that some northern ecotypes were capable of growing for longer when conditions were favourable, but their biomass and growing season length was still shorter than those of the southern ecotype. Southern ecotypes retained large leaf length when transplanted north and mirrored the growing season length better than the others, mainly owing to immediate green-up after snowmelt. All ecotypes retained the same senescence timing, regardless of environment, indicating a strong genetic control. Eriophorum vaginatum may remain competitive in a warming world if southern ecotypes can migrate north.

SIGNIFICANCE Currently 10-15% of couples in reproductive age face infertility issues. More importantly, male factor contributes to 50% of these cases (either alone or in combination with female causes). Amongst various reasons, impaired sperm function is the main cause for male infertility. Furthermore, mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress due to increased ROS production, particularly of mitochondrial origin, are believed to be main contributors. Recent Advances: Mitochondrial dysfunction, particularly due to increased ROS production, has often been linked to impaired sperm function/quality. For decades different methods and approaches have been developed to assess mitochondrial features that might correlate with sperm functionality. This connection is now completely accepted, with mitochondrial functionality assessment used more commonly as a readout of sperm functionality. More recently, mitochondria-targeted compounds are on the frontline for both assessment as well as therapeutic approaches. CRITICAL ISSUES In this review we summarize the current methods for assessing key mitochondrial parameters known to reflect sperm quality as well as therapeutic strategies using mitochondrial-targeted antioxidants aiming to improve sperm function in various situations, particularly after sperm cryopreservation. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Although more systematic research is needed, mitochondrial-targeted compounds definitely represent a promising tool to assess as well as to protect and improve sperm function.

Leaf toughness is an important functional trait that confers resistance to herbivory and mechanical damage. We sought to determine how species composition, climate, seasonality, and nutrient availability influence leaf toughness in two types of tundra in northern Alaska. We measured leaf toughness as force to punch for 11 species of Arctic plants in tussock tundra and dry heath tundra at 17 sites distributed along a latitudinal gradient. Rubus chamaemorus L. and the graminoids occupied opposite ends of the leaf toughness spectrum, with Rubus chamaemorus requiring the least force to punch, whereas one of the graminoids, Eriophorum vaginatum L., required the most. Leaf toughness increased with mean summer temperature for Eriophorum vaginatum and Betula nana L., whereas it declined with warmer temperatures for the other species. Toughness of mature leaves of Eriophorum vaginatum did not vary through the growing season but declined significantly after senescence. Application of N and P fertilizer in an experimental site decreased leaf toughness in three species but had no effect on four others. Leaf toughness of four out of five species in dry heath was greater than for the same species in tussock tundra, but there was no difference in community-weighted mean toughness between tussock tundra and dry heath.

We measured community-level traits of vascular plants, lichens, and bryophytes in an alpine Dryas octopetala L. heath in Finse, Norway, after nearly two decades of experimental warming by open-top chambers. We hypothesized that under warming (1) vascular plant traits would shift from resource conservative towards more resource acquisitive, and (2) lichen and bryophyte traits would shift to those associated with drier conditions, due to increased evapotranspiration. Both hypotheses were not supported, as vascular plant nitrogen concentration decreased, whereas carbon to nitrogen ratio increased with warming, indicative of a less resource acquisitive strategy, and lichen specific thallus area and water holding capacity were unresponsive. Bryophyte specific shoot length increased, and carbon concentration and water holding capacity tended to decrease under warming, concurrent with increased vegetation height and litter cover indicating stronger competition from vascular plants. Intraspecific variation was most important for vascular plant and lichen traits, whereas species turnover was the main driver of bryophyte trait variation. This indicates that bryophytes may be affected more strongly by future warming than vascular plants and lichens in our study system. We highlight the importance of studying traits of different primary producer groups simultaneously, as they may respond differently to the same environmental changes.

Increasing temperatures and more frequent and severe heat waves in Switzerland are leading to a larger heat-related health burden. Additionally, high nighttime temperatures or tropical nights (TNs) also affect the well-being of the population. We aimed to assess the spatiotemporal patterns in the frequency and the exposed population to TNs, and its mortality effect in Switzerland. We identified the TNs (minimum nighttime temperature ≥ 20°C) in each district in Switzerland using population-weighted hourly temperature series (ERA5-Land reanalysis data set) between 1970–2019. We assessed the change in the frequency of TNs and the exposed population per district and decade through a spatiotemporal analysis. We then performed a case time series analysis to estimate the TN-mortality association (controlled for the daily mean temperature) by canton and for the main 8 cities using data on all-cause mortality at the district level between 1980–2018. We found an overall increase in the annual frequency of TN (from 90 to 2113 TNs per decade) and the population exposed (from 3.7 million to over 157 million population-TN per decade) in Switzerland between 1970–2019, mainly in the cities of Lausanne, Geneva, Basel, Lugano, and Zurich, and during the last two decades. The TN-mortality association was highly heterogeneous across cantons and cities. In particular, TNs were associated with an increase of 22–37% in the risk of mortality in the cantons of Vaud (Relative risk: 1.37 (95%CI:1.19–1.59)), Zurich (1.33 (0.99–1.79)), Lucerne (1.33 (0.95–1.87)) and Solothurn (1.22 (0.88–1.69)), while a negative association was observed in Ticino (0.51 (0.37–0.7)), Basel-Land (0.4 (0.24–0.65)) and Thurgau (0.65 (0.5–0.85)), and a null association in the remaining cantons. Our findings indicate that TNs are a relevant health hazard for a large part of the Swiss population leading to potentially larger impacts in the future due to climate change and increasing urbanization.

Global change encompasses many co-occurring anthropogenic drivers, which can act synergistically or antagonistically on ecological systems. Predicting how different global change drivers simultaneously contribute to observed biodiversity change is a key challenge for ecology and conservation. However, we lack the mechanistic understanding of how multiple global change drivers influence the vital rates of multiple interacting species. We propose that reaction norms, the relationships between a driver and vital rates like growth, mortality, and consumption, provide insights to the underlying mechanisms of community responses to multiple drivers. Understanding how multiple drivers interact to affect demographic rates using a reaction-norm perspective can improve our ability to make predictions of interactions at higher levels of organization-that is, community and food web. Building on the framework of consumer-resource interactions and widely studied thermal performance curves, we illustrate how joint driver impacts can be scaled up from the population to the community level. A simple proof-of-concept model demonstrates how reaction norms of vital rates predict the prevalence of driver interactions at the community level. A literature search suggests that our proposed approach is not yet used in multiple driver research. We outline how realistic response surfaces (i.e., multidimensional reaction norms) can be inferred by parametric and nonparametric approaches. Response surfaces have the potential to strengthen our understanding of how multiple drivers affect communities as well as improve our ability to predict when interactive effects emerge, two of the major challenges of ecology today.

Intensification of land use by humans has led to a homogenization of landscapes and decreasing resilience of ecosystems globally due to a loss of biodiversity, including the majority of forests. Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) research has provided compelling evidence for a positive effect of biodiversity on ecosystem functions and services at the local (α-diversity) scale, but we largely lack empirical evidence on how the loss of between-patch β-diversity affects biodiversity and multifunctionality at the landscape scale (γ-diversity). Here, we present a novel concept and experimental framework for elucidating BEF patterns at α-, β-, and γ-scales in real landscapes at a forest management-relevant scale. We examine this framework using 22 temperate broadleaf production forests, dominated by Fagus sylvatica. In 11 of these forests, we manipulated the structure between forest patches by increasing variation in canopy cover and deadwood. We hypothesized that an increase in landscape heterogeneity would enhance the β-diversity of different trophic levels, as well as the β-functionality of various ecosystem functions. We will develop a new statistical framework for BEF studies extending across scales and incorporating biodiversity measures from taxonomic to functional to phylogenetic diversity using Hill numbers. We will further expand the Hill number concept to multifunctionality allowing the decomposition of γ-multifunctionality into α- and β-components. Combining this analytic framework with our experimental data will allow us to test how an increase in between patch heterogeneity affects biodiversity and multifunctionality across spatial scales and trophic levels to help inform and improve forest resilience under climate change. Such an integrative concept for biodiversity and functionality, including spatial scales and multiple aspects of diversity and multifunctionality as well as physical and environmental structure in forests, will go far beyond the current widely applied approach in forestry to increase resilience of future forests through the manipulation of tree species composition.

In the present study, twenty atopic dogs were investigated for secondary skin infections using different diagnostic techniques. The majority of dogs were suffering from bacterial infections, especially Staphylococcal infection (90 %). Different commensals on skin like Staphylococcus spp., Aspergillus spp. (50 %), Malassezia spp. (45 %), Demodex spp. (25 %) etc. caused secondary or concurrent infections in many atopic dogs indicating the importance of atopy in recurrent or non-responding dermatitis with those commensal organisms.

The Cape Bathurst polynya and flaw lead (CBP) are major, predictable habitat features with ≤15% ice cover in an otherwise ice-covered Beaufort Sea, and thought to provide hunting opportunities for polar bears (Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774). We assessed 78 adult (female; with and without cubs) and subadult (male and female) polar bears’ use of the CBP from October to June 2007–2014. The CBP was up to 725 km wide in autumn, ice-covered in winter, and

Significance Millions of people are infected with trypanosomatids and new therapeutic approaches are needed. Trypanosomatids possess one mitochondrion per cell, and its study has led to discoveries of general biological interest. These mitochondria, as their animal counterparts, generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) and have enzymatic and non-enzymatic defenses against them. Mitochondrial calcium ion (Ca2+) overload leads to the generation of ROS and its study could lead to relevant information on the biology of trypanosomatids and to novel drug targets. Recent Advances: Mitochondrial Ca2+ is normally involved in maintaining the bioenergetics of trypanosomes but when Ca2+ overload occurs it is associated to cell death. Trypanosomes lack key players of the mechanism of cell death described in mammalian cells although mitochondrial Ca2+ overload results in collapse of their membrane potential, production of ROS, and cytochrome c release. They are also very resistant to mitochondrial permeability transition, and cell death after mitochondrial Ca2+ overload depends on the generation of ROS. Critical issues In this review, we consider the mechanisms of mitochondrial oxidant generation and removal, and the involvement of Ca2+ in trypanosome cell death. Future directions More studies are required to determine the reactions involved in the generation of ROS by the mitochondria of trypanosomatids, their enzymatic and non-enzymatic defenses against ROS, and the occurrence and composition of a mitochondrial permeability transition pore.

SIGNIFICANCE The presence of a large number of thioredoxin superfamily members suggests a complex mechanism of redox-based regulation in mammalian cells. However, whether these members are functionally redundant or play separate and distinct roles in each cellular compartment remains to be elucidated. Recent advances: In the mammalian endoplasmic reticulum (ER), approximately 20 thioredoxin-like proteins have been identified. Most ER oxidoreductases are soluble proteins located in the luminal compartment, while a small family of five thioredoxin-related transmembrane proteins (TMX) also reside in the ER membrane and play crucial roles with specialized functions. CRITICAL ISSUES In addition to the predicted function of ER protein quality control, several independent studies have suggested the diverse roles of TMX family proteins in the regulation of cellular processes, including calcium homeostasis, bioenergetics, and thiol-disulfide exchange in the extracellular space. Moreover, recent studies have provided evidence of their involvement in the pathogenesis of various diseases. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Extensive research is required to unravel the physiological roles of TMX family proteins. Given that membrane-associated proteins are prime targets for drug discovery in a variety of human diseases, expanding our knowledge on the mechanistic details of TMX action on the cell membrane will provide molecular basis for developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches as a potent molecular target in a clinical setting.

The effects of different chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations on the anammox granular sludge with Bamboo Charcoal (BC) addition were evaluated in UASB reactor. The results showed that the average total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency was reduced from 85.9% to 81.4% when COD concentration was increased from 50 to 150 mg/L. However, the TN removal efficiency of BC addition reactors was dramatically 3.1%–6.4% higher than that without BC under different COD concentrations. The average diameter of granular sludge was 0.13 mm higher than that without BC. The settling velocity was increased by elevated COD concentration, while the EPS and VSS/SS were increased with BC addition. The high-throughput Miseq sequencing analyses revealed that the bacterial diversity and richness were decreased under COD addition, and the Planctomycetes related to anammox bacteria were Candidatus Brocadia and Candidatus Kuenenia. The Metagenomic sequencing indicated that the abundance of denitrification related functional genes all increased with elevated COD, while the abundance of anammox related functional genes of decreased. The functional genes related to anammox was hydrazine synthase encoding genes (hzsA, hzsB and hzsB). The average relative abundance of hzs genes in the reactor with BC addition was higher than the control at COD concentrations of 50 mg/L and 150 mg/L. The functional genes of denitrification mediated by BC were higher than those without BC throughout the operation phase. It is interesting to note that BC addition greatly enriched the related functional genes of denitrification and anammox.

The combination of intercropping and phytoremediation in the remediation of cadmium contaminated soil is an emerging model in recent years, but the results of previous studies are inconsistent. In the field experiment, eggplant was intercropped with hyperaccumulator Sedum alfredii Hance (inoculated or not inoculated with endophytic bacteria) to study the effects of intercropping on vegetable safety production, phytoremediation efficiency of hyperaccumulator and variation of soil available nutrients. The results showed that the intercropping treatment had a negative effect on the growth of eggplant and Sedum, but endophyte SaMR12 alleviated the inhibition of intercropping on plant growth. Intercropping treatment increases the Cd concentration in edible part of eggplant to 1.34 mg/kg compared with eggplant monoculture (1.19 mg/kg). While the application of SaMR12 reduces the Cd concentration of eggplant fruit to 0.95 mg/kg and significantly promotes the Cd uptake by Sedum. What's more surprising is that compared with eggplant monocropping, the content of soil available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the treatment of intercropping with inoculated Sedum increased significantly. And according to the correlation analysis of various indexes of plants and soil, the Cd content of eggplant is negatively correlated with the available phosphorus and potassium in the soil, while the Cd content of Sedum is positively correlated with it, which suggested that the application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers in this experimental site was beneficial to reduce Cd content in eggplant and improve Cd phytoextraction of Sedum. Therefore, in the daily production of moderately Cd-contaminated soil, intercropping eggplant with Sedum inoculated with endophytic bacteria is an excellent Phytoextraction Coupled with Agro-safe-production (PCA) pattern.

As one of the most well-documented biogeographic patterns, the distance-decay relationship provides insights into the underlying mechanisms driving biodiversity distribution. Although wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are well-controlled engineered ecosystems, this pattern has been seen among microbial communities in activated sludge (AS). However, little is known about the relative importance of environmental heterogeneity and dispersal limitation in shaping AS microbial community across China; especially they are related to spatial scale and organism types. Here, we assessed the distance-decay relationship based on different spatial scales and microbial phylogenetic groups by analyzing 132 activated sludge (AS) samples across China comprising 3,379,200 16S rRNA sequences. Our results indicated that the drivers of distance-decay pattern in China were scale-dependent. Microbial biogeographic patterns in WWTPs were mainly driven by dispersal limitation at both local and national scales. In contrast, conductivity, SRT, and pH played dominant roles in shaping AS microbial community compositions at the regional scale. Turnover rates and the drivers of beta-diversity also varied with microorganism populations. Moreover, a quantitative relationship between dispersal limitation ratio and AS microbial turnover rate was generated. Collectively, these results highlighted the importance of considering multiple spatial scales and micro-organism types for understanding microbial biogeography in WWTPs and provided new insights into predicting variations in AS community structure in response to environmental disturbance.

SIGNIFICANCE: Adaptor proteins control the spatiotemporal dynamics of cellular signaling. Dysregulation of adaptor protein function can cause aberrant cell signaling and promote cancer. The arrestin family of adaptor proteins are known to regulate signaling by the superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The GPCRs are highly druggable and implicated in cancer progression. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for arrestin dysregulation and the impact on GPCR function in cancer have yet to be fully elucidated. RECENT ADVANCES: A new family of mammalian arrestins, termed the α-arrestins, was recently discovered. The α-arrestin, arrestin domain-containing protein 3 (ARRDC3), in particular, has been identified as a tumor suppressor and is reported to control cellular signaling of GPCRs in cancer. CRITICAL ISSUES: Compared with the extensively studied mammalian β-arrestins, there is limited information regarding the regulatory mechanisms that control α-arrestin activation and function. Here, we discuss the molecular mechanisms that regulate ARRDC3, which include post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation and ubiquitination. We also provide evidence that ARRDC3 can interact with a wide array of proteins that control diverse biological functions. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: ARRDC3 interacts with numerous proteins and is likely to display diverse functions in cancer, metabolic disease, and other syndromes. Thus, understanding the regulatory mechanisms of ARRDC3 activity in various cellular contexts is critically important. Recent studies suggest that α-arrestins may be regulated through post-translational modification, which is known to impact adaptor protein function. However, additional studies are needed to determine how these regulatory mechanisms affect ARRDC3 tumor suppressor function. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 36, 1066–1079.

Lake mixing influences aquatic chemical properties and microbial community composition, and thus, we hypothesized that it would alter microbial community assembly and interaction. To clarify this issue, we explored the community assembly processes and cooccurrence networks in four seasons at two depths (epilimnion and hypolimnion) in a mesotrophic and stratified lake (Chenghai Lake), which formed stratification in the summer and turnover in the winter. During the stratification period, the epilimnion and hypolimnion went through contrary assembly processes but converged to similar assembly patterns in the mixing period. In a highly homogeneous selection environment, species with low niche breadth were filtered, resulting in decreased species richness. Water mixing in the winter homogenized the environment, resulting in a simpler microbial cooccurrence network. Interestingly, we observed a high abundance of the cyanobacterial genus Planktothrix in the winter, probably due to nutrient redistribution and Planktothrix adaptivity to the winter environment in which mixing played important roles. Our study provides deeper fundamental insights into how environmental factors influence microbial community structure through community assembly processes.

The timing of flowering (FL) and leaf unfolding (LU) determine plants' reproduction and vegetative growth. Global warming has substantially advanced FL and LU of temperate and boreal plants, but their responses to warming differ, which may influence the time interval between FL and LU ( increment LU-FL), thereby impacting plant fitness and intraspecific physiological processes. Based on twigs collected from two flowering-first tree species, Populus tomentosa and Amygdalus triloba, we conducted a manipulative experiment to investigate the effects of winter chilling, spring warming and photoperiod on the increment LU-FL. We found that photoperiod did not affect the increment LU-FL of Amygdalus triloba, but shortened increment LU-FL by 5.1 d of Populus tomentosa. Interestingly, spring warming and winter chilling oppositely affected the increment LU-FL of both species. Specifically, low chilling accumulation extended the increment LU-FL by 3.8 and 9.4 d for Populus tomentosa and Amygdalus triloba, but spring warming shortened the increment LU-FL by 4.1 and 0.2 d degrees C-1. Our results indicate that climate warming will decrease or increase the increment LU-FL depending on the warming periods, i.e., spring or winter. The shifted time interval between flowering and leaf unfolding may have ecological effects including affecting pollen transfer efficiency and alter the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystem.

Ginger breadfruit leaves wedang is a functional beverage made from breadfruit leaves that contains high antioxidant value, ginger and palm sugar. Moreover the adding healthy value function in ginger breadfruit leaves wedang product, also to utilizing the breadfruit leaves into functional beverage of ginger breadfruit leaves wedang in order to be accepted by the people. This research aims to know 4%, 5% and 6% breadfruit leaves addition influence to antioxidant content (gallic acid, quercetin and kaempferol) and organoleptic properties. This experiment research using Completely Random Design (CRD) with three kinds of treatment. The analyzed data using One Way ANOVA, if the treatments shows difference significant, then the analyzed data should be proceed by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test with 5% confidence interval. The highest value of gallic acid antioxidant contect leads in 6% ginger breadfruit leaves wedang about 92,326 μg/ml. The highest value of quercetin antioxidant contect leads in 6% ginger breadfruit leaves wedang about 36,767 μg/ml. The highest value of kaempferol antioxidant contect leads in 6% ginger breadfruit leaves wedang about 25,921 μg/ml. The highest score of color hedonic is 3,97, and the highest score of taste hedonic is 3,67. The highest score of color hedonic quality is 3,11 with dark brown color criteria. The highest score of taste hedonic quality is 4,17 with a bit bittersweet taste criteria

En Colombia, aún es poco el conocimiento de la distribución en áreas rurales de Aedes albopictus, vector de diferentes arbovirus. Su introducción en el país fue registrada por primera vez en Leticia (Amazonas) en 1998 y de allí se ha ampliado su distribución. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la presencia de Ae. albopictus en áreas rurales de Antioquia. En una búsqueda activa para la vigilancia entomológica de Ae. aegypti en veredas de algunos municipios de Antioquia que hacen parte del área de influencia de la Proyecto Hidroeléctrica Ituango, se recolectaron ejemplares de Ae. albopictus, en el intradomicilio, peridomicilio y extradomicilio de viviendas utilizando aspiradores manuales con cebo humano protegido para los mosquitos adultos; también se buscaron estados inmaduros en criaderos naturales y artificiales. Los especímenes se identificaron con claves dicotómicas en el Laboratorio de Entomología de la Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública de la Universidad de Antioquia. Se recolectó un total de 110 individuos de Ae. albopictus, de estos 55 fueron larvas y 55 adultos. Los principales criaderos fueron los inservibles. Este hallazgo es el primer reporte en áreas rurales en ocho municipios del departamento de Antioquia, con lo cual se amplía el conocimiento sobre la distribución del vector Ae. albopictus el cual constituye un riesgo potencial en la emergencia y transmisión de enfermedades como dengue, chikungunya y Zika.

Each year, over 200 million people are infected with the malaria parasite, nearly half a million of whom succumb to the disease. Emerging genetic technologies could, in theory, eliminate the burden of malaria throughout the world by intentionally eradicating the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. In this paper, we offer an ethical examination of the intentional eradication of Anopheles gambiae, the main malaria vector of sub-Saharan Africa. In our evaluation, we focus on two main considerations: the benefit of alleviating the malaria burden, and the loss of value that would accompany the eradication of the species. We outline a typology of the different ways in which species are valued or could be valuable, then use that typology to appraise the value of the species in question. We argue that Anopheles gambiae has minor (and redundant) instrumental value, little final subjective value and no objective final value.

Resistance against antibiotics mainly due to their misuse and overuse is an emerging health issue, worldwide. Antibiotics release active antibiotic residues in the environment during their production. Bacteria encounter these active antibiotic residues and the genes present in them; resultantly, they acquire resistance against antibiotics. The current study was conducted to determine the prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial strains, isolated from hospital wastewater. Using standard procedures, bacterial resistance patterns against different classes of antibiotics were analysed and their species level identification was made. The disc diffusion method was used to determine the bacterial activity against antimicrobial agents. Clear zones were measured separately in millimeters around each disc. Five wastewater samples were collected from different drainage regions of hospitals situated in Multan. A total of 45 bacterial strains were isolated. Out of these 45 bacterial strains, 13 (29%) were found resistant against two or more than two classes of antibiotics. All the bacterial strains (100%) isolated from samples 2 and 3 were MDR. Twenty-five bacterial strains (55.5%) belonged to the Bacillus species and others belonged to Enterococcus species, Micrococcus species, Staphylococcus species, and Streptococcus species, respectively. The presence of resistant bacterial strains in hospital waste demands the availability of effectual treatment plants to treat the waste before it is disposed of into hospital waste lines.

Bio-ecological studies and life-history traits of small-bodied fishes are critical for the understanding of their ecolog-ical role as well as the assessment of their position and continuity in the ecosystems. The current study goals to present initial data on growth and feeding habit of small-bodied Petroleuciscus borysthenicus inhabited in an island ecosystem (Gökçeada, Turkey). During the seasonally sampling surveys from May 2020 to January 2021, a total of 163 specimens were collected from Şahinkaya Reservoir using electrofishing. SL and W values of samples ranged from 2.6–10.0 cm and 0.32–25.68 g, respectively. LWR and K values were estimated for all specimens as W=0.017×SL3.114 (r=0.988) and 2.04 (±0.28), respectively. F:M sex ratio was calculated as 1:1.33 with no signifi-cant difference from the ratio of 1:1 (2=0.02; p>0.05). Diet of the species comprised of ten different food items. Plant (63.6%) was the most preferred food item from the point of frequency of occurrence (F%), pursued by Dip-tera (31.8%) and Odonata (12.7%). According to IRI (%) values of food items, Diptera was the dominant food item in all seasons. B and BA values were estimated as 3.18 and 0.24, respectively. The results showed that P. borysthenicus was more selective on conveniently accessible food materials in the environment and its food pref-erence was affected by seasonal food supply.

Drought is currently one of the most severe natural disasters affecting the world. Therefore, characterizing the temporal and spatial characteristics of droughts is critical to managing drought disasters and coping with global climate change. In this study, we apply the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decomposition, and the drought event division method of run theory to analyze the temporal and spatial characteristics of meteorological droughts across the globe from 1901 to 2020 using the self-calibrated Palmer drought severity index (scPDSI). We found that the world was gradually becoming wetter from 1901 to 2020, but the severity and duration of severe and extreme drought events also increased. In contrast to the PDSI, which showed no obvious short-period changes, the annual drought severity (ADS) had short cycle changes of 8 and 17 yr. Based on the EOF decomposition results of drought characteristics, dry and wet trends of local PDSI are inconsistent with increasing or decreasing trends of severe and extreme drought events. This research on the temporal and spatial decomposition of severe and extreme drought events provides a new perspective on drought research and analysis, which is critical for the further characterization of drought and the prevention and management of drought disasters.

As the biggest inter-basin water transfer scheme in the world, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWD) was designed to alleviate the water crisis in North China. The main channel of the middle route of the SNWD is of great concern in terms of the drinking water quality. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the dissolved organic matter (DOM) derived from the planktonic algae causes the rising levels of CODMn along the middle route by monitoring data on water quality (2015-2019, monthly resolution). The results showed that algal density in the main channel increased along the channel and was significantly correlated with CODMn (p

The decay and distribution of bacterial pathogens in water is an important information for the health risk assessment to guide water safety management, and suspended algae might affect bacterial pathogens in water. This study established microcosms to investigate the effects of algae-related factors on the representative indicators and opportunistic pathogen species in water. We found that suspended algae increased the persistence of targeted species by 1-2 orders of magnitude of concentrations compared to microcosms without algae; and the effect of algae on microbial survival was affected by water nutrient levels (i.e., carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus), as the increased microbial persistence were correlated to the increased algae concentrations with more nutrient supplies. Moreover, decay and distribution profiles of representative species were determined. The three opportunistic pathogen species (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aeromonas hydrophila and Staphylococcus aureus) showed lower decay rates (0.82–0.98/day, 0.76–0.98/day, 0.63–0.87/day) largely affected by algae-related factors, while the enteric species (Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis) had higher decay rates (0.94–1.31/day, 0.89–1.21/day) with little association with algae, indicating the propensity for attachment to algae is an important parameter in microbial fate. Together results suggest suspended algae played an evident role in the decay and distribution of bacterial pathogens, providing important implications regarding microbial safety in recreational water.

Ethanol-type sludge fermentation has recently attracted much attention because it can enhance direct interspecies electron transfer and thus improve the anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge (WAS). In this paper, the enhancement of short-term ethanol-type fermentation of WAS via adding Saccharomyces was investigated. The experimental results show that the maximum ethanol production of 1030.8 ± 20.6 mg/L was achieved, with the optimum fermentation conditions of a pH of 5.1, temperature of 26.0 ℃ and time of 8.0 hr. Although the content of volatile fatty acid (VFA) increased within 10 hr, it is one order of magnitude lower than the content of ethanol, indicating that the VFA generation did not affect the efficient production of ethanol. The analyses of changes in the microbial community during the fermentation process demonstrate that the greatest Saccharomyces activity occurred in the first 8 hr and it can play an important role in ethanol production even at a very low relative abundance. Meanwhile, most typical acid-producing bacteria were inhibited, but the hydrogenotrophic methanogens (i.e., Methanobacterium) were enriched to a certain extent. Further statistical analyses reveal that the Rhodobacter, Thermomonas, Terrimonas and Saccharomyces are responsible for ethanol production during the fermentation. However, these findings not only provide a reference for the development of enhancing ethanol-type fermentation of sludge, but also are expected to provide a new way of thinking for the efficient bioenergy and resource recovery from sludge.

To meet the rapidly growing global demand for aquaculture products, large amounts of antibiotics were used in aquaculture, which might accelerate the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and the propagation of antibiotic genes (ARGs). In our research, we revealed the ARGs profiles, their co-occurrence with mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and potential hosts in sediments of a crab pond wastewater purification system based on metagenomic analysis. The residual antibiotic seems to increase the propagation of ARGs in the crab pond, but there was no clear relationship between a given antibiotic type and the corresponding resistance genes. The effect of aquaculture on sediment was not as profound as that of other anthropogentic activities, but increased the relative abundance of sulfonamide resistance gene. A higher abundance of MGEs, especially plasmid, increased the potential ARGs dissemination risk in crab and purification ponds. Multidrug and sulfonamide resistance genes had greater potential to transfer because they were more frequently carried by MGEs. The horizontal gene transfer was likely to occur among a variety of microorganisms, and various ARGs hosts including Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Escherichia, and Klebsiella were identified. Bacterial community influenced the composition of ARG hosts, and Proteobacteria was the predominant hosts. Overall, our study provides novel insights into the environmental risk of ARGs in sediments of aquaculture wastewater treatment system.

SIGNIFICANCE: Systemic autoimmunity affects 3%–5% of the population worldwide. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototypical form of such condition, which affects 20–150 of 100,000 people globally. Liver dysfunction, defined by increased immune cell infiltration into the hepatic parenchyma, is an understudied manifestation that affects up to 20% of SLE patients. Autoimmunity in SLE involves proinflammatory lineage specification in the immune system that occurs with oxidative stress and profound changes in cellular metabolism. As the primary metabolic organ of the body, the liver is uniquely capable to encounter oxidative stress through first-pass derivatization and filtering of waste products. RECENT ADVANCES: The traffic of immune cells from their development through recirculation in the liver is guided by cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) and integrins, cell surface proteins that tightly anchor cells together. The surface expression of CAMs and integrins is regulated via endocytic traffic that is sensitive to oxidative stress. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) that elicit oxidative stress in the liver may originate from the mitochondria, the cytosol, or the cell membrane. CRITICAL ISSUES: While hepatic ROS production is a source of vulnerability, it also modulates the development and function of the immune system. In turn, the liver employs antioxidant defense mechanisms to protect itself from damage that can be harnessed to serve as therapeutic mechanisms against autoimmunity, inflammation, and development of hepatocellular carcinoma. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: This review is aimed at delineating redox control of integrin signaling in the liver and checkpoints of regulatory impact that can be targeted for treatment of inflammation in systemic autoimmunity. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 36, 367–388.

One of the core challenges to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is to spatially identify, and strategically prioritise, the areas to implement actions to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation. To achieve this, a tool for a participatory and data-driven assessment considering both the biophysical, and socio-economic dimensions of land degradation across scales was developed for Ecuador. In this paper, we present the methodology and results obtained, including the spatially explicit interactive tool developed to integrate indicators that support the scaling-up of sustainable land management (SLM). The process involved specialists from various national and international institutions, as well as decision makers from the public sector and other relevant stakeholders. Cloud computing allowed the integration of five main sources of data: (1) the results of a participatory land degradation assessment based on an expert knowledge questionnaire following the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) and World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) methodology; (2) the Hand-in-Hand Initiative Ecuador typology maps based on poverty maps and estimated agricultural potential and efficiency scores using household surveys on agricultural production; (3) National data sets on land cover and land use, soil properties, and hydro climatic indicators; (4) global satellite-derived LDN indicators, such as Land Productivity Dynamics; and (5) Documented SLM practices from WOCAT Global SLM Database. The tool is based on a Google Earth Engine application and allows decision makers to easily compare results and obtain statistics at different spatial scales and landscapes, including 647 Land Use Systems delimited by experts. It also includes a multi-criteria module to identify areas with specific characteristics to prioritise different types of interventions to achieve the country´s LDN targets. Convergence of local and global evidence allowed the identification of hotspots of degradation as well as areas of false positives/negatives - if only global or remote sensing indicators were considered. The participatory process contributed to strengthening multi-sector cooperation mechanisms and to guaranteeing ownership of the tool and the results. The system will support Ecuador’s efforts to monitor and report progress towards LDN to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The system´s code is shared as a repository at Earth Engine and can be adapted to and used by other countries and regions.

The use of standard single-extraction procedures to evaluate the mobility and availability of trace elements is a common practice in most laboratories dealing with soil or sediment analysis. Most standard single-extraction procedures describe incubations last for 2 h. However, these were tested and validated for soil analysis. Applying them for sediment analysis without further investigation might be misleading and should be reviewed with care. This paper investigates the effect of incubation time on the extraction efficiency of three standard single-extracting reagents (0.01 M CaCl2, 1 M NH4NO3, and 0.05 M EDTA). Incubation experiments with sediment and soil samples lasting for 2 h, 10 h, and 10 d were performed. The results indicated that 2 h appears sufficient to reach equilibrium using CaCl2 or NH4NO3 for soil analysis; but when analyzing sediments, incubation for 10 d resulted in higher concentrations. Incubation experiments with 0.05 M EDTA showed that incubation for 2 h was enough to extract Cd from the soil sample, Mn and to a lesser extent Cd from the sediment samples; while for the other elements, incubation for 10 d yielded higher concentrations for both sample types compared to that obtained after 2 h and 10 h separately. Relative to the pseudo-total metal contents, more than 55% of all studied elements were extracted by using 0.05 M EDTA, indicating high bioavailable metal fraction.

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is a secondary pollutant and a greenhouse gas with a positive radiative forcing. Many studies have documented its negative impacts on plant growth and human health. Historically, studies have focused on determining levels of exposure in mid-and high-latitude regions. In the tropics, high O3 concen-trations are expected due to large concurrent and future precursor emissions. In Africa, seasonal biomass burning (from both natural and anthropogenic fires) during the dry season plays a crucial role in O3 precursor production. However, O3 observational studies in tropical Africa are currently missing. To fill this major knowledge gap, we established in November 2019 a continuous monitoring of near-surface O3 in the Congo Basin at the Yangambi research centre in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Using this unique dataset in the heart of the second-largest tropical forest in the world, we assessed the ability of current remote sensing products to capture the magnitude and temporal dynamics of in situ tropospheric O3 concentrations, especially O3 concentration vari-ation between dry and wet seasons until March of 2022. We compared near-surface atmospheric O3 measure-ments collected in Yangambi and four different reanalysis products: European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis (ECMWF) v5 (ERA5), Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service reanalysis (CAMSRA), Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) and Japanese Reanalysis (JRA-55). The results show that reanalysis products overestimated the magnitude of near-surface O3 across the region with a mean bias of 27.3 ppbv, 19.9 ppbv, 10.8 ppbv and 1.0 ppbv for ERA5, CAMSRA, MERRA-2 and JRA-55, respectively. ERA5 and CAMSRA reanalysis were the only products able to capture, to some extent, the observed annual variation, showing higher O3 concentrations during dry season months, despite the inability to reproduce the daily cycle of near-surface O3.

Climate change strongly impact vegetation phenology, with considerable potential to alter land-atmosphere carbon dioxide exchange and terrestrial carbon cycle. In contrast to well-studied spring leaf-out, the timing and magnitude of autumn senescence remains poorly understood. Here, we use monthly decreases in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index satellite retrievals and their trends to surrogate the speed of autumn senescence during 1982-2018 in the Northern Hemisphere (>30 degrees N). We find that climate warming accelerated senescence in July, but this influence usually reversed in later summer and early autumn. Interestingly, summer greening causes canopy senescence to appear later compared to an advancing trend after eliminating the greening effect. This finding suggests that summer canopy greening may counteract the intrinsic changes in autumnal leaf senescence. Our analysis of autumn vegetation behavior provides reliable guidance for developing and parameterizing land surface models that contain an interactive dynamic vegetation module for placement in coupled Earth System Models. Global warming accelerated canopy senescence in July, but slowed it in late summer and early fall in the Northern Hemisphere, according to an analysis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index satellite retrievals over 1982-2018

MDFRC item.May 2011.Knowledge of the duration of the spawning period for individual fish species is central to management interventions, including timing of environmental water allocations. A quantitative approach to the classification of fish species into spawning categories is provided based on a dataset resulting from five years of intensive sampling for larvae in the lower River Murray. The six most abundant native fish species were first classified empirically into brief and protracted spawners based on three different 'thresholds' of two, three and four months. A statistical classification was then implemented using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. A threshold of four months was able to minimise the proportion of incorrect classifications, thereby classifying correctly the spawning categories for the six species. Unspecked hardyhead, carp gudgeons, flathead gudgeon and Australian smelt were classified as flexible spawners, whereas Murray cod and Murray River rainbowfish were classified as brief spawners. Attention is drawn to the fact that a species classified as flexible spawner would actually result from a combination of brief and protracted spawner cases, leading to a 'Sorites paradox'. This would be ultimately reconcilable by group consensus aided by quantitative approaches, such as the one provided in the present study.

Anthropogenic climate change is resulting in spatial redistributions of many species. We assessed the potential effects of climate change on an abundant and widely distributed group of diving birds, Eudyptes penguins, which are the main avian consumers in the Southern Ocean in terms of biomass consumption. Despite their abundance, several of these species have undergone population declines over the past century, potentially due to changing oceanography and prey availability over the important winter months. We used light-based geolocation tracking data for 485 individuals deployed between 2006 and 2020 across 10 of the major breeding locations for five taxa of Eudyptes penguins. We used boosted regression tree modelling to quantify post-moult habitat preference for southern rockhopper (E. chrysocome), eastern rockhopper (E. filholi), northern rockhopper (E. moseleyi) and macaroni/royal (E. chrysolophus and E. schlegeli) penguins. We then modelled their redistribution under two climate change scenarios, representative concentration pathways RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 (for the end of the century, 2071-2100). As climate forcings differ regionally, we quantified redistribution in the Atlantic, Central Indian, East Indian, West Pacific and East Pacific regions. We found sea surface temperature and sea surface height to be the most important predictors of current habitat for these penguins; physical features that are changing rapidly in the Southern Ocean. Our results indicated that the less severe RCP4.5 would lead to less habitat loss than the more severe RCP8.5. The five taxa of penguin may experience a general poleward redistribution of their preferred habitat, but with contrasting effects in the (i) change in total area of preferred habitat under climate change (ii) according to geographic region and (iii) the species (macaroni/royal vs. rockhopper populations). Our results provide further understanding on the regional impacts and vulnerability of species to climate change.

Die 15. Vertragsstaatenkonferenz (COP-15) des Übereinkommens über die biologische Vielfalt (CBD) in Montreal hat ein neues globales Rahmenwerk mit Naturschutzzielen bis zum Jahr 2030 verabschiedet. Der Weg dorthin war zu Fragen der Finanzierung und der globalen Gerechtigkeit äußerst konfliktträchtig. Das Ergebnis ist ein Minimalkonsens mit vielen offenen Fragen., Achieving Minimal Consensus for Nature Conservation The United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal (COP-15) adopted a new global framework with 23 nature conservation targets for the year 2030. The milestone goal to protect 30 percent of land and ocean is particularly noteworthy and has been received by the public as a great success. However, the path to this framework was hard, and it has produced conflicts related to financing and global equity. These conflicts are still unresolved. Additionally, many of the targets lack precision and key indicators that are needed to track progress. The current framework is hence a minimal consensus with many open questions. In the future, we will need to learn from the failures of the past conservation targets and implement holistic solutions to fully address the biodiversity crisis.

Microbes are responsible for cycling carbon (C) through soils, and the predictions of how soil C stocks change with warming are highly sensitive to the assumptions made about the mechanisms controlling the microbial physiology response to climate warming. Two mechanisms, microbial thermal-acclimation and changes in the quantity and quality of substrates available for microbial metabolism have been suggested to explain the long-term warming impact on microbial physiology. Yet studies disentangling these two mechanisms are lacking. To resolve the drivers of changes in microbial physiology in response to long-term warming, we sampled soils from 13- and 28-year old soil warming experiments in different seasons. We performed short-term laboratory incubations across a range of temperatures to measure the relationship between temperature sensitivity of physiology (growth, respiration, carbon use efficiency and extracellular enzyme activity) and the chemical composition of soil organic matter. We observed apparent thermal acclimation in microbial processes important for C cycling, but only when warming had exacerbated the seasonally-induced, already small soil organic matter pools. Irrespective of warming, greater quantity and quality of soil carbon enhanced the extracellular enzymatic pool and its temperature sensitivity. We suggest that fresh litter input into the system seasonally cancels apparent thermal acclimation of C-cycling processes. Our findings reveal that long-term warming has indirectly affected microbial physiology via reduced C availability in this system, implying that earth system models including these negative feedbacks may be best suited to describe long-term warming impact in soils.

In 2021, global cement production was responsible for around 7% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Alternative cementitious binders from secondary raw materials that replace traditional cement can reduce the need for the use of virgin raw materials and can thereby reduce GHGs associated with cement. Some of these secondary materials include industrial by-products categorised as NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material). While prior research has investigated the technical aspects of using NORM-contained byproducts in cementitious binders, to date, no attention has been given to non-technical aspects such as perceived risks and concerns of the main stakeholders. This study brings novel insights into these overlooked aspects through a series of semi-structured interviews with concrete industry representatives in Belgium. Through a thematic analysis of the data, we found six themes that represent industry's concerns regarding the usage of NORM-contained cementitious binders: (1) availability of the by-products, (2) financial factors, (3) quality and performance, (4) common sustainability parameters, (5) customer demand, and (6) acceptance of NORM contained by-products. Regulatory certainty was found to be a key driver in all six themes. With regard to the expected role of governments, we can synthesise three core expectations highlighted by interviewees: a) Policymakers need to revisit the current regulations regarding the performance and quality to facilitate innovation in the concrete industry such as the use of alternative cementitious binders. b) They should implement EU-level regulations that can provide a level playing field for the industry during their transition to net-zero targets, including import regulations and certification for the usage of NORM-contained by-products. c) As an important public buyer, the government should expedite the transition to alternative binders through their procurement policies for governmental buildings and infrastructure projects. This work was supported by the Horizon 2020 Euratom research and training programme under grant [agreement No 900009].

Circular economy practices contribute to achieving sustainability and alleviating the consequences of value chain disruptions and surging prices of energy and raw materials. While startups are increasingly recognized as a powerful engine for innovation processes needed to support this transition, empirical studies on the selection and implementation of circular strategies among startups remains scarce. In this paper, we report findings from the first academic survey on circular startups (N = 165) that allows for multivariate statistical analyses, considering both personal and company characteristics, and perspectives of the entrepreneurs involved. This survey includes startups with varying degrees of implementation levels of a set of 10 circular strategies at different startup lifecycle stages. Our results suggest that younger startup entrepreneurs tend to focus on inner circle strategies, while older startup entrepreneurs rather engage in outer circle strategies or no circular strategies at all. Female startup entrepreneurs are found to be less inclined to combine multiple circular strategies, and business-to-business and business-to-government market segments tend to be frontrunners for circular business models. Circular startups mostly acknowledge sustainability and circularity as a comparative advantage, and startup entrepreneurs with a migrant background seem to be more optimistic to start a profitable circular business. Our results suggest that there is no such thing as ‘the’ circular economy startup, so we recommend policy makers to develop tailor-made solutions to support startups implementing different circular strategies.