Search

Grazing of both domestic and wild large herbivores can contribute to multiple ecosystem services. However, grazing systems strongly differ in the intensity of management and outcomes, and we define sustainable grazing as grazing which benefits multiple environmental ecosystem services. Previous studies have found that, in general, grazing systems with relatively low densities of animals, and with minimal and only targeted applications of deworming and other medicinal treatments, are most sustainable. However, for people engaged in such grazing management, a key question is what are their challenges and motivation. We conducted interviews with 74 land-users, who are engaged in sustainable grazing management, in eight case-study areas in Europe. Employing the capability, opportunity and motivation-behaviour model (COM-B), we identified key motivation factors driving sustainable grazing management and the challenges which these land-users face. We found that capability and opportunity linked to land abandonment and rural exodus impact upon land-users' management, especially in parts of South and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, challenges linked to the environment were particularly important in remote areas. In addition, we found economic aspects to be important in driving land-users' behaviour, especially fiscal measures of the Common Agricultural Policy. Moreover, our results indicate that engagement in sustainable grazing management is often intrinsically motivated by the interest in nature conservation, intergenerational continuity and cohesion in the rural community. Based on these results, using the Behaviour Change Wheel, we identify key interventions that could facilitate and encourage the capabilities and opportunities to conduct sustainable grazing management. These include incentivising extensification using subsidies, developing direct market possibilities and removing administrative hurdles for practises related to very extensive and semi-wild grazing. • Land users performing sustainable grazing management in Europe face multiple challenges. • Social and physical opportunity are important driver of land users' management. • Rural depopulation and land abandonment represent challenges for land users performing extensive management. • Rewilding with large herbivores faces different challenges, such as rules and regulations on large herbivores management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sequencing ancient DNA can offer direct probing of population history. Yet, such data are commonly analyzed with standard tools that assume DNA samples are all contemporary. We present DyStruct, a model and inference algorithm for inferring shared ancestry from temporally sampled genotype data. DyStruct explicitly incorporates temporal dynamics by modeling individuals as mixtures of unobserved populations whose allele frequencies drift over time. We develop an efficient inference algorithm for our model using stochastic variational inference. On simulated data, we show that DyStruct outperforms the current state of the art when individuals are sampled over time. Using a dataset of 296 modern and 80 ancient samples, we demonstrate DyStruct is able to capture a well-supported admixture event of steppe ancestry into modern Europe. We further apply DyStruct to a genome-wide dataset of 2,067 modern and 262 ancient samples used to study the origin of farming in the Near East. We show that DyStruct provides new insight into population history when compared with alternate approaches, within feasible run time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim We test the prediction that beta diversity (species turnover) and the decay of community similarity with distance depend on spatial resolution (grain). We also study whether patterns of beta diversity are related to variability in climate, land cover or geographic distance and how the independent effects of these variables depend on the spatial grain of the data. Location Europe, Great Britain, Finland and Catalonia. Methods We used data on European birds, plants, butterflies, amphibians and reptiles, and data on British plants, Catalonian birds and Finnish butterflies. We fitted two or three nested grids of varying resolutions to each of these datasets. For each grid we calculated differences in climate, differences in land-cover composition (CORINE) and beta diversity (βsim, βJaccard) between all pairs of grid cells. In a separate analysis we looked specifically at pairs of adjacent grid cells (the first distance class). We then used variation partitioning to identify the magnitude of independent statistical associations (i.e. independent effects in the statistical sense) of climate, land cover and geographic distance with spatial patterns of beta diversity. Results Beta diversity between grid cells at any given distance decreased with increasing grain. Geographic distance was always the most important predictor of beta diversity for all pairwise comparisons at the extent of Europe. Climate and land cover had weaker but distinct and grain-dependent effects. Climate was more important at relatively coarse grains, whereas land-cover effects were stronger at finer grains. In the country-wide analyses, climate and land cover were more important than geographic distance. Climatic and land-cover models performed poorly and showed no systematic grain dependence for beta diversity between adjacent grid cells. Main conclusions We found that relationships between geographic distance and beta diversity, as well as the environmental correlates of beta diversity, are systematically grain dependent. The strong independent effect of distance indicates that, contrary to the current belief, a substantial fraction of species are missing from areas with a suitable environment. Moreover, the effects of geographic distance (at continental extents) and land cover (at fine grains) indicate that any species distribution modelling should take both environment and dispersal limitation into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the occurrence of wildfires or forest fires in the European union countries, along with the economic and human loss caused by it. Topics discussed include how agriculture can help in the reduction of wildfires, along with the role that the European Union Common Agricultural Policy can play in the same.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to an article by S. Fares in volume 519 of the periodical which discussed the sustainable development of Europe's forests.

Highlights: [•] We provide a review of monitoring requirements and priorities in supranational biodiversity policies. [•] We quantify overlaps and gaps among policies. [•] In terms of spatial priorities, guidelines are lacking in most policies. [•] We suggest an overarching system for priority setting in biodiversity monitoring. [•] Our suggested system could serve as a first step towards more systematic prioritization of monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]