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One of the most efficient measures to prevent gamma radiation is shielding, which can take the form of protection barriers, storage containers, wall coating, bunkers, or many others aimed at minimizing the exposure of people to radiation. The materials used to this end have not changed much since the invention of X-rays, when materials with high attenuation capacity were employed, such as lead, tungsten, or concrete. These are all high-density materials and, therefore, also very heavy, and some of them are expensive and not environmentally friendly, as they do not have many possibilities with regards to their recycling. Circular economy provides an opportunity to reintroduce subproducts and waste in the same production processes that generated them or as raw matters in others. The use of sustainable materials is one of these options; however, there is little research in the field of radiation protection about the use of recycled material to this end, and there are few alternative sustainable options different from conventional materials that show similar behaviour. In our study, we have designed and built shielded panels called Mixlead® for gammagraphy, made of 100 % recyclable materials with sandwich structures combining polymeric fractions of electric cables and lead-alloy protection sheets used in the packaging of radiographic plates. With a methodology combining shielding calculations and a series of thermomechanical-radiological tests, it was possible to accurately determine the thickness of Mixlead® necessary to perform the tests with security guarantees and meeting sustainability requirements for radioactive sources of Iridium (192Ir) and Selenium (75Se), the use of the former being predominant, with an average activity of 1 GBq. In order to reduce this activity 2 and 10 times, the necessary thickness would be 24 and 79 mm respectively, which represents 3 or 4 layers of Mixlead® material.

En los últimos años se están observando fenómenos de decaimiento que afectan a diferentes tipos de bosque y matorral a una escala global, y que con frecuencia se asocian a anomalías climáticas de sequía. El fenómeno presenta patrones espaciales evidentes y no es homogéneo en todas las localidades con características climáticas similares. Esto indica la existencia de diferentes factores que contribuyen al decaimiento -como las características del suelo relacionadas con la disponibilidad de agua- y de una apreciable capacidad de resiliencia de estos ecosistemas. De hecho, para que se produzca un declive poblacional debe existir un desequilibrio entre mortalidad y reclutamiento: cualquier factor que disminuya la mortalidad o favorezca el reclutamiento tenderá a potenciar esta resiliencia. Por tanto, los cambios en la composición de la comunidad y la eventual sustitución de especies se producirían cuando el resultado de este balance sea diferente entre las especies. Además, los efectos de estos episodios extremos de sequía pueden verse acentuados por la confluencia con otras perturbaciones, particularmente con aquellas que tienden a aumentar en las condiciones asociadas a la anomalía climática. Este es el caso de los incendios, con una especial incidencia en los ecosistemas mediterráneos. Los episodios de decaimiento deberían ayudar a incorporar el contexto de cambio climático a la gestión forestal. En particular sería conveniente introducir una aproximación proactiva que favorezca los mecanismos que tienden a incrementar la resiliencia de los ecosistemas terrestres y su adaptación a las nuevas condiciones climáticas, como por ejemplo la selección de especies y genotipos, la adecuación de la estructura del bosque a nivel de rodal a las condiciones climáticas futuras y la distribución de estos elementos a escala de paisaje.

El pino albar (Pinus sylvestris) es uno de los árboles más ampliamente distribuidos del mundo. Pese a su gran plasticidad ecológica, numerosos estudios muestran que su capacidad de resistir la sequía se está viendo superada en diversas zonas, especialmente en la cuenca mediterránea, donde se halla el límite meridional de su distribución. El presente artículo repasa una serie de trabajos recientes sobre los efectos directos e indirectos de la sequía sobre las poblaciones ibéricas de pino albar en un contexto de cambio climático. Específicamente, se tratan los siguientes aspectos: (1) ¿qué características ecofisiológicas explican la vulnerabilidad del pino albar a la sequía?; (2) ¿qué factores ambientales determinan sus patrones de crecimiento y cómo han variado en las últimas décadas?; (3) ¿qué factores ambientales explican la variabilidad espacial en las tasas demográficas de la especie (crecimiento, mortalidad, reclutamiento) a distintas escalas?; y (4) ¿cuáles son los impactos previsibles de un aumento de las condiciones de sequía y de los incendios forestales? El conjunto de los resultados registrados sugiere que una parte importante de las poblaciones ibéricas de pino albar podrían dejar de ser viables a medio plazo si se cumplen las proyecciones de cambio climático. Concluimos explorando hasta qué punto podemos utilizar la información anterior para identificar los individuos o poblaciones más vulnerables y el papel que la gestión podría tener a la hora de modular los impactos esperados.

A self-assembled tetrameric water cluster stabilized by [ReCl6]2− anions and [H4biim]2+ cations occurs in the new compound [H4biim][ReCl6]·4H2O, which exhibits a weak ferromagnetic coupling between the Re(IV) centers through an unusual ReIV–Cl⋯(H2O)⋯Cl–ReIV pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparation, crystal structures and magnetic properties of the copper(II) complexes of formula [Cu(pyim)(tcm)2]n (1), [Cu(bpy)(tcm)2]n (2), [Cu4(bpz)4(tcm)8] (3), {[Cu(terpy)(tcm)]·tcm}n (4) and {[Cu2(tppz)(tcm)4]·3/2H2O}n (5) [pyim = 2-(2-pyridyl)imidazole, tcm = tricyanomethanide, bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine, bpz = 2,2′-bipyrazine, terpy = 2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine and tppz = 2,3,5,6-tetrakis(2-pyridyl)pyrazine] are reported. Complexes 1, 2 and 4 are uniform copper(II) chains with single- (1 and 4) and double-(2) µ-1,5-tcm bridges with values of the intrachain copper–copper separation of 7.489(1) (1), 7.520(1) and 7.758(1) (2) and 7.469(1) Å (4). Each copper atom in 1, 2 and 4 is five-coordinate with bidentate pyim (1)/bpy (2) and tridentate terpy (4) ligands and nitrile-nitrogen atoms from bridging (1, 2 and 4) and terminal (1) tcm groups building a distorted square pyramidal surrounding. The structure of 3 is made up of neutral centrosymmetric rectangles of (2,2′-bipyrazine)copper(II) units at the corners, the edges being built by single- and double-µ-1,5-tcm bridges with copper–copper separations of 7.969(1) and 7.270(1) Å, respectively. Five- and six-coordinated copper atoms with distorted square pyramidal and elongated octahedral environments occur in 3. Compound 5 is a neutral copper(II) chain with regular alternating bis-tridentate tppz and double µ-1,5-tcm bridges, the intrachain copper–copper distances being 6.549(7) and 7.668(1) Å, respectively. The two crystallographically independent copper atoms in 5 have an elongated octahedral geometry with three tppz nitrogen atoms and a nitrile-nitrogen atom from a bridging tcm group in the equatorial positions, and two nitrile nitrogen atoms from a terminal and a bridging tcm ligand occupying the axial sites. The investigation of the magnetic properies of 1–5 in the temperature range 1.9–295 K has shown the occurrence of weak ferro- [J = +0.11(1) cm−1 (2)] and antiferromagnetic interactions [J = −0.093(1) (1), −0.083(1) (4), −0.04(1) and 1.21(1) cm−1 (3)] across the µ-1,5-tcm bridges and intermediate antiferromagnetic coupling [−J = 37.4(1) cm−1 (5)] through bis-tridentate tppz. The values of the magnetic interactions are analyzed through simple orbital symmetry considerations and compared with those previously reported for related systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Post-fire regeneration is a key process in Mediterranean shrubland dynamics, strongly determining the functional properties of the community. In this study, a test is carried out to deteremine whether there is co-variation between species regenerative types and functional attributes related to water use. Methods An analysis was made of the seasonal variations in leaf relative water content (RWC), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf moisture (LM) and live fine fuel moisture (LFFM) in 30 woody species of a coastal shrubland, with different post-fire regenerative strategies (seeding, resprouting or both). Key Results RWC results suggest that the studied resprouters have more efficient mechanisms to reduce water losses and maintain water supply between seasons. In contrast, seeders are more drought tolerant. LDMC is higher in resprouters over the course of the year, suggesting a more efficient conservation of nutrients. The weight of the phylogenetic constraint to understand differences between regenerative strategies tends to be important for LDMC, while it is not the case for variables such as RWC. Conclusions Groups of species with different post-fire regenerative strategies (seeders and resprouters) have different functional traits related to water use. In addition to the role of phylogenetical constraints, these differences are also likely to be related to the respective life history characteristics. Therefore, the presence and abundance of species with different post-fire regenerative responses influence the functional properties of the communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rewilding is one approach to restoration that aims at restoring natural self-sustaining ecosystems, allowing natural processes to resume by targeting an increase in trophic complexity, disturbance stochasticity, and dispersal, while minimizing human interventions. These components have also been argued to enhance ecosystem resilience, yet this claim has barely been specifically addressed. We conducted a meta-analysis to explore whether rewilding interventions aimed at increasing biodiversity (i.e., trophic complexity), disturbance stochasticity or connectivity increase ecosystem resilience to future abiotic and biotic disturbances. We integrated two recently developed operational frameworks to address rewilding and resilience and scrutinized the outcomes of 42 case studies (305 observations). We found that, overall, the three abovementioned rewilding components increased resilience of variables related to demography, biodiversity, biophysical characteristics and the disturbance regime characteristics (70% of observations). Yet, this result was influenced by the nature of the disturbance and the resilience approach, with lower success reported for abiotic disturbances (drought and fire) and social-ecological resilience. While interventions targeting only disturbance stochasticity or biodiversity and disturbance stochasticity together showed positive effects, interventions targeting the trophic complexity alone contributed less to system variables related to biodiversity. The most common rewilding interventions, such as domestic and wild herbivore introductions and invasive plant removals, enhanced resilience towards biotic disturbances (i.e., invasions). We also found that some particular resilience contexts (social-ecological systems) lack sufficient observations to allow clear conclusions. Overall, our results empirically demonstrate the predominantly positive effects of rewilding on ecosystem resilience, underpinning the potential of this approach for preparing ecosystems for the uncertain effects of increasing climate change and associated disturbances yet acknowledging some limitations depending on the nature of the disturbance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Plant-plant interactions are major determinants of the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. There is a long tradition in the study of these interactions, their mechanisms and their consequences using experimental, observational and theoretical approaches. Empirical studies overwhelmingly focus at the level of species pairs or small sets of species. Although empirical data on these interactions at the community level are scarce, such studies have gained pace in the last decade. Studying plant-plant interactions at the community level requires knowledge of which species interact with which others, so an ecological networks approach must be incorporated into the basic toolbox of plant community ecology. The concept of recruitment networks (RNs) provides an integrative framework and new insights for many topics in the field of plant community ecology. RNs synthesise the set of canopy-recruit interactions in a local plant assemblage. Canopy-recruit interactions describe which ("canopy") species allow the recruitment of other species in their vicinity and how. Here we critically review basic concepts of ecological network theory as they apply to RNs. We use RecruitNet, a recently published worldwide data set of canopy-recruit interactions, to describe RN patterns emerging at the interaction, species, and community levels, and relate them to different abiotic gradients. Our results show that RNs can be sampled with high accuracy. The studies included in RecruitNet show a very high mean network completeness (95%), indicating that undetected canopy-recruit pairs must be few and occur very infrequently. Across 351,064 canopy-recruit pairs analysed, the effect of the interaction on recruitment was neutral in an average of 69% of the interactions per community, but the remaining interactions were positive (i.e. facilitative) five times more often than negative (i.e. competitive), and positive interactions had twice the strength of negative ones. Moreover, the frequency and strength of facilitation increases along a climatic aridity gradient worldwide, so the demography of plant communities is increasingly strongly dependent on facilitation as aridity increases. At network level, species can be ascribed to four functional types depending on their position in the network: core, satellite, strict transients and disturbance-dependent transients. This functional structure can allow a rough estimation of which species are more likely to persist. In RecruitNet communities, this functional structure most often departs from random null model expectation and could allow on average the persistence of 77% of the species in a local community. The functional structure of RNs also varies along the aridity gradient, but differently in shrubland than in forest communities. This variation suggests an increase in the probability of species persistence with aridity in forests, while such probability remains roughly constant along the gradient in shrublands. The different functional structure of RNs between forests and shrublands could contribute to explaining their co-occurrence as alternative stable states of the vegetation under the same climatic conditions. This review is not exhaustive of all the topics that can be addressed using the framework of RNs, but instead aims to present some of the interesting insights that it can bring to the field of plant community ecology., (© 2024 The Author(s). Biological Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cambridge Philosophical Society.)

The world is currently facing uncertainty caused by environmental, social, and economic changes and by political shocks. Fostering social-ecological resilience by enhancing forests' ability to provide a range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, habitat provision, and sustainable livelihoods, is key to addressing such uncertainty. However, policy makers and managers currently lack a clear understanding of how to operationalise the shaping of resilience through the combined challenges of climate change, the biodiversity crisis, and changes in societal demand. Based on a scientific literature review, we identified a set of actions related to ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, and disturbance and pressure impacts that forest managers and policy makers should attend to enhance the resilience of European forest systems. We conclude that the resilience shaping of forests should (1) adopt an operational approach, which is currently lacking, (2) identify and address existing and future trade-offs while reinforcing win-wins and (3) attend to local particularities through an adaptive management approach., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Resilience and vulnerability are important concepts to understand, anticipate, and manage global change impacts on forest ecosystems. However, they are often used confusingly and inconsistently, hampering a synthetic understanding of global change, and impeding communication with managers and policy-makers. Both concepts are powerful and have complementary strengths, reflecting their different history, methodological approach, components, and spatiotemporal focus. Resilience assessments address the temporal response to disturbance and the mechanisms driving it. Vulnerability assessments focus on spatial patterns of exposure and susceptibility, and explicitly address adaptive capacity and stakeholder preferences. We suggest applying the distinct concepts of resilience and vulnerability where they provide particular leverage, and deduce a number of lessons learned to facilitate the next generation of global change assessments., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests No interests are declared., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Due to its capacity to achieve nanometre-scale machining and lithography, a focused ion beam (FIB) is an extended tool for semiconductor device fabrication and development, in particular, for diamond-based devices. However, some technological steps are still not fully optimized for its use. Indeed, ion implantation seems to affect the crystalline structure and electrical properties of diamond. For this study, a boron-doped ([B] ∼ 10 17 atoms·cm -3 ) diamond layer grown by chemical vapour deposition was irradiated using Ga + by FIB, with 1 nA current and 5, 20, and 30 keV of acceleration voltage. The Ga + implanted diamond layer has been analysed through cathodoluminescence (CL) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)-related techniques. The beam penetration depth has been simulated by Monte Carlo calculations of both Ga + (FIB) and e - (CL) beams at different energies. The comparative CL analysis of the layer as-grown and after implantation revealed peaks related to defects, such as A band, H3 centre, and defects present in the green band region. The STEM studies for the 30 keV implanted sample showed that the diamond lattice is affected by the damage, evidencing amorphisation in the layer with a sp 2 /sp 3 ratio of 1.37, estimated by electron energy loss spectroscopy. Therefore, this study highlights the effects of the Ga + implantation on the optical and structural characteristics of diamond, using different methods., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)

Aerobic reaction between the pyridine-2-carboxamide-2-aminophenol N 3 O ligand (H 3 L 1 ) and Zn(ClO 4 ) 2 ·6H 2 O in CH 3 CN affords an N 3 phenoxazinylate coordinated Zn(II) complex; its diradical electronic structure [Zn II {(L 1 *)˙ - } 2 ] has been elucidated from redox, spectroscopic (UV-VIS and EPR), and magnetic measurements and DFT calculations. Isolation and characterization of the metal-assisted redox-driven modified N 3 ligand as a radical cation (H 2 L 1 *)˙ + and its Ni(II)-diradical complex [Ni II {(L 1 *)˙ - } 2 ] have also been achieved.

A novel family of cobalt(II) compounds with tridentate pyridine-2,6-diiminephenyl type ligands featuring electron-withdrawing substituents of general formula [Co( n -XPhPDI) 2 ](ClO 4 ) 2 ·S [ n -XPhPDI = 2,6-bis( N-n -halophenylformimidoyl)pyridine with n = 4 (1-3) and 3 (4); X = I (1), Br (2 and 4) and Cl (3); S = MeCN (1 and 2) and EtOAc (3)] has been synthesised and characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, electron paramagnetic resonance, and static (dc) and dynamic (ac) magnetic measurements combined with theoretical calculations. The structures of 1-4 consist of mononuclear bis(chelating) cobalt(II) complex cations, [Co II ( n -XPhPDI) 2 ] 2+ , perchlorate anions, and acetonitrile (1 and 2) or ethyl acetate (3) molecules of crystallisation. This unique series of mononuclear six-coordinate octahedral cobalt(II) complexes displays both thermally-induced low-spin (LS)/high-spin (HS) transition and field-induced slow magnetic relaxation in both LS and HS states. A complete LS ↔ HS transition occurs for 1 and 2, while it is incomplete for 4, one-third of the complexes being HS at low temperatures. In contrast, 3 remains HS in all the temperature range. 1 and 2 show dual spin relaxation dynamics under the presence of an applied dc magnetic field ( H dc ), with the occurrence of faster- (FR) and slower-relaxing (SR) processes at lower ( H dc = 1.0 kOe) and higher fields ( H dc = 2.5 kOe), respectively. On the contrary, 3 and 4 exhibit only SR and FR relaxations, regardless of H dc . Overall, the distinct field-dependence of the single-molecule magnet (SMM) behaviour along with this family of spin-crossover (SCO) cobalt(II)- n -XPhPDI complexes is dominated by Raman mechanisms and, occasionally, with additional temperature-independent Intra-Kramer [LS or HS ( D > 0)] or Quantum Tunneling of Magnetisation mechanisms [HS ( D < 0)] also contributing.

A three-dimensional terbium(III) coordination polymer of formula [Tb(bttb) 0.5 (2,5-pzdc) 0.5 ] n (1) [H 4 bttb = 1,2,4,5-tetrakis(4'-carboxyphenyl)benzene and H 2 -2,5-pzdc = 2,5-pyrazinedicarboxylic acid] was obtained under hydrothermal conditions. The bttb 4- tetraanion in 1 adopts the bridging and chelating-bridging pseudo-oxo coordination modes while the 2,5-pzdc 2- dianion exhibits a rather unusual bis-bidentate bridging pseudo-oxo coordination mode, both ligands being responsible for the stiffness of the resulting 3D structure. Solid-state photoluminescent measurements illustrate that 1 exhibits remarkable green luminescence emission, the most intense band occurring in the region of 550 nm ( 5 D 4 → 7 F 5 ) with lifetimes at the millisecond scale. Thermometric performances of 1 reveal a maximum relative sensitivity ( S m ) of 0.76% K -1 at 295 K (δ T = 0.05 K), constituting a Tb III ratiometric solid luminescent thermometer over the physiological temperature range. Variable-temperature static (dc) magnetic susceptibility measurements for 1 in the temperature range 2.0-300 K show the expected behavior for the depopulation of the splitted m F J levels of the 7 F 7 ground state of the magnetically anisotropic terbium(III) ion plus a weak antiferromagnetic interaction through the carboxylate bridges. No significant out-of-phase magnetic susceptibility signals were observed for 1 in the temperature range 2.0-10.0 K, either in the absence or presence of a static dc magnetic field.

Current rates of climate change are exceeding the capacity of many plant species to track climate, thus leading communities to be in disequilibrium with climatic conditions. Plant canopies can contribute to this disequilibrium by buffering macro-climatic conditions and sheltering poorly adapted species to the oncoming climate, particularly in their recruitment stages. Here we analyse differences in climatic disequilibrium between understorey and open ground woody plant recruits in 28 localities, covering more than 100,000 m 2 , across an elevation range embedding temperature and aridity gradients in the southern Iberian Peninsula. This study demonstrates higher climatic disequilibrium under canopies compared with open ground, supporting that plant canopies would affect future community climatic lags by allowing the recruitment of less arid-adapted species in warm and dry conditions, but also it endorse that canopies could favour warm-adapted species in extremely cold environments as mountain tops, thus pre-adapting communities living in these habitats to climate change., (© 2024 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Diamond, as the densest allotrope of carbon, displays a range of exemplary material properties that are attractive from a device perspective. Despite diamond displaying high carbon-carbon bond strength, ultrashort (femtosecond) pulse laser radiation can provide sufficient energy for highly localized internal breakdown of the diamond lattice. The less-dense carbon structures generated on lattice breakdown are subject to significant pressure from the surrounding diamond matrix, leading to highly unusual formation conditions. By tailoring the laser dose delivered to the diamond, it is shown that it is possible to create continuously modified internal tracks with varying electrical conduction properties. In addition to the widely reported conducting tracks, conditions leading to semiconducting and insulating written tracks have been identified. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) is used to visualize the structural transformations taking place and provide insight into the different conduction regimes. The HRTEM reveals a highly diverse range of nanocarbon structures are generated by the laser irradiation, including many signatures for different so-called diaphite complexes, which have been seen in meteorite samples and seem to mediate the laser-induced breakdown of the diamond. This work offers insight into possible formation methods for the diamond and related nanocarbon phases found in meteorites.

A reaction between CoCl 2 and L 3 -(CO 2 - ) 2 (2 : 1 stoichiometry) in CH 3 OH affords a discrete complex [CoII4-{L 3 -(CO 2 - ) 2 } 2 (μ 3 -OCH 3 ) 2 (CH 3 OH) 2 (H 2 O) 2 Cl 2 ] (1) [L 3 -(CO 2 - ) 2 = 3-[ N -{2-(pyridin-2-yl)methyl}amino]-bis(propionate)]. The structure of 1 reveals two terminal mononuclear Co II {L 3 -(CO 2 - ) 2 }Cl units connected by a dimeric CoII2(μ 3 -OCH 3 ) 2 (CH 3 OH) 2 (H 2 O) unit present in the centre through two methoxo (μ 3 -OCH 3 )- and two carboxylate (μ-1,1-OCO-) bridges affording a tetranuclear coordination cluster of Co(II) with a defective dicubane topology. In 1, Co1 (terminal) has distorted octahedral Co II N 2 O 3 Cl and the central Co2 has Co II O 6 coordination. Such coordination arrangements afford the observed topology. Variable-temperature magnetic studies reveal anti-ferromagnetic coupling in 1. Three magnetic exchange interactions (one anti-ferromagnetic and two ferromagnetic: J 1 = +3.3 cm -1 (Co⋯Co 3.176 Å; μ-1,1-OCO- and μ 3 -OCH 3 bridges), J 2 = -2.5 cm -1 (Co⋯Co 3.228 Å; μ-1-OCO- and μ 3 -OCH 3 bridges) and J 3 = +10.6 cm -1 (Co⋯Co 3.084 Å; two μ 3 -OCH 3 bridges)) have been identified, with the inclusion of the orbital reduction parameter ( α = Aκ = 1.38), spin-orbit coupling ( λ = -158 cm -1 ) and axial distortion (energy gap Δ = -975 cm -1 between singlet and doublet levels), rationalized by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

The ability of mononuclear first-row transition metal complexes as dynamic molecular systems to perform selective functions under the control of an external stimulus that appropriately tunes their properties may greatly impact several domains of molecular nanoscience and nanotechnology. This study focuses on two mononuclear octahedral cobalt(ii) complexes of formula {[Co II (HL) 2 ][Co II (HL)L]}(ClO 4 ) 3 ·9H 2 O (1) and [Co II L 2 ]·5H 2 O (2) [HL = 4'-(4-carboxyphenyl)-2,2':6',2''-terpyridine], isolated as a mixed protonated/hemiprotonated cationic salt or a deprotonated neutral species. This pair of pH isomers constitutes a remarkable example of a dynamic molecular system exhibiting reversible changes in luminescence, redox, and magnetic (spin crossover and spin dynamics) properties as a result of ligand deprotonation, either in solution or solid state. In this last case, the thermal-assisted spin transition coexists with the field-induced magnetisation blockage of "faster" or "slower" relaxing low-spin Co II ions in 1 or 2, respectively. In addition, pH-reversible control of the acid-base equilibrium among dicationic protonated, cationic hemiprotonated, and neutral deprotonated forms in solution enhances luminescence in the UV region. Besides, the reversibility of the one-electron oxidation of the paramagnetic low-spin Co II into the diamagnetic low-spin Co III ion is partially lost and completely restored by pH decreasing and increasing. The fine-tuning of the optical, redox, and magnetic properties in this novel class of pH-responsive, spin crossover molecular nanomagnets offers fascinating possibilities for advanced multifunctional and multiresponsive magnetic devices for molecular spintronics and quantum computing such as pH-effect spin quantum transformers., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In structured populations, persistence under environmental change may be particularly threatened when abiotic factors simultaneously negatively affect survival and reproduction of several life cycle stages, as opposed to a single stage. Such effects can then be exacerbated when species interactions generate reciprocal feedbacks between the demographic rates of the different species. Despite the importance of such demographic feedbacks, forecasts that account for them are limited as individual-based data on interacting species are perceived to be essential for such mechanistic forecasting-but are rarely available. Here, we first review the current shortcomings in assessing demographic feedbacks in population and community dynamics. We then present an overview of advances in statistical tools that provide an opportunity to leverage population-level data on abundances of multiple species to infer stage-specific demography. Lastly, we showcase a state-of-the-art Bayesian method to infer and project stage-specific survival and reproduction for several interacting species in a Mediterranean shrub community. This case study shows that climate change threatens populations most strongly by changing the interaction effects of conspecific and heterospecific neighbours on both juvenile and adult survival. Thus, the repurposing of multi-species abundance data for mechanistic forecasting can substantially improve our understanding of emerging threats on biodiversity.

Plant recruitment interactions (i.e., what recruits under what) shape the composition, diversity, and structure of plant communities. Despite the huge body of knowledge on the mechanisms underlying recruitment interactions among species, we still know little about the structure of the recruitment networks emerging in ecological communities. Modeling and analyzing the community-level structure of plant recruitment interactions as a complex network can provide relevant information on ecological and evolutionary processes acting both at the species and ecosystem levels. We report a data set containing 143 plant recruitment networks in 23 countries across five continents, including temperate and tropical ecosystems. Each network identifies the species under which another species recruits. All networks report the number of recruits (i.e., individuals) per species. The data set includes >850,000 recruiting individuals involved in 118,411 paired interactions among 3318 vascular plant species across the globe. The cover of canopy species and open ground is also provided. Three sampling protocols were used: (1) The Recruitment Network (RN) protocol (106 networks) focuses on interactions among established plants ("canopy species") and plants in their early stages of recruitment ("recruit species"). A series of plots was delimited within a locality, and all the individuals recruiting and their canopy species were identified; (2) The paired Canopy-Open (pCO) protocol (26 networks) consists in locating a potential canopy plant and identifying recruiting individuals under the canopy and in a nearby open space of the same area; (3) The Georeferenced plot (GP) protocol (11 networks) consists in using information from georeferenced individual plants in large plots to infer canopy-recruit interactions. Some networks incorporate data for both herbs and woody species, whereas others focus exclusively on woody species. The location of each study site, geographical coordinates, country, locality, responsible author, sampling dates, sampling method, and life habits of both canopy and recruit species are provided. This database will allow researchers to test ecological, biogeographical, and evolutionary hypotheses related to plant recruitment interactions. There are no copyright restrictions on the data set; please cite this data paper when using these data in publications., (© 2022 The Authors. Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.)

In recent decades, die-off events in Pinus sylvestris populations have increased. The causes of these phenomena, which are usually related to local and regional extreme hot droughts, have been extensively investigated from a physiological viewpoint. However, the consequences of die-off process in terms of demography and vegetation dynamics have been less thoroughly addressed. Here, we projected P. sylvestris plot dynamics after a die-off event, under climate change scenarios, considering also their early demographic stages (i.e., seedlings, saplings and ingrowth from the sapling to adult class), to assess the resilience of P. sylvestris populations after such events. We used Integral Projection Models (IPMs) to project future plot structure under current climate, and under RCP4.5 and RCP8.0 climate scenarios, using climatic suitability - extracted from Species Distribution Models - as a covariable in the estimations of vital rates over time. Field data feeding IPMs were obtained from two successive surveys, at the end of the die-off event (2013) and four years later (2017), undertaken on populations situated across the P. sylvestris range of distribution in Catalonia (NE Spain). Plots affected by die-off experienced a loss of large trees, which causes that basal area, tree diameter and tree density will remain lower for decades relative to unaffected plots. After the event, this situation is partially counterbalanced in affected plots by a greater increase in basal area and seedling recruitment into tree stage, thus promoting resilience. However, resilience is delayed under the climate-change scenarios with warmer and drier conditions involving additional physiological stress, due to a reduced abundance of seedlings and a smaller plot basal area. The study shows lagged effect of drought-induced die-off events on forest structure, also revealing stabilizing mechanisms, such as recruitment and tree growth release, which enhance resilience. However, these mechanisms would be jeopardized by oncoming regional warming., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)