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Globally accelerating trends in societal development and human environmental impacts since the mid-twentieth century 1–7 are known as the Great Acceleration and have been discussed as a key indicator of the onset of the Anthropocene epoch 6 . While reports on ecological responses (for example, changes in species range or local extinctions) to the Great Acceleration are multiplying 8, 9 , it is unknown whether such biotic responses are undergoing a similar acceleration over time. This knowledge gap stems from the limited availability of time series data on biodiversity changes across large temporal and geographical extents. Here we use a dataset of repeated plant surveys from 302 mountain summits across Europe, spanning 145 years of observation, to assess the temporal trajectory of mountain biodiversity changes as a globally coherent imprint of the Anthropocene. We find a continent-wide acceleration in the rate of increase in plant species richness, with five times as much species enrichment between 2007 and 2016 as fifty years ago, between 1957 and 1966. This acceleration is strikingly synchronized with accelerated global warming and is not linked to alternative global change drivers. The accelerating increases in species richness on mountain summits across this broad spatial extent demonstrate that acceleration in climate-induced biotic change is occurring even in remote places on Earth, with potentially far-ranging consequences not only for biodiversity, but also for ecosystem functioning and services.

As biodiesel production increases worldwide, so does the generation of its glycerol waste byproduct. Purifying the waste glycerol is difficult and energy intensive; it would be preferable to find a productive use for waste glycerol requiring little to no refining. Herein, we examine the use of waste glycerol from biodiesel production as a component in deep eutectic solvents (DESs). Specifically, we examine mixtures of waste glycerol and choline chloride (ChCl) as prototype simple and inexpensive DESs. The densities and viscosities of the waste glycerol derived DESs are consistent with those measured in DESs prepared with clean glycerol. DESs from waste glycerol are competent solvents for a classical Fisher esterification reaction and show utility in extracting methanol from crude biodiesel mixtures. These DESs therefore show promise as solvent systems, leading to a decrease in waste from the ever-increasing production of biodiesel and also serving as a value-added product for biodiesel manufacturers.

Aim In recent decades species ranges have shifted upwards in elevation and northwards in latitude. These shifts are commonly interpreted as a response to recent climate warming. However, several alternative hypotheses have been proposed to explain the elevational shifts, including increased deposition of atmospheric nitrogen, changes in precipitation and dispersal limitation. We evaluate these hypotheses and attempt to identify the dominant drivers for the observed shifts in the upper range limits of alpine plant species. Location European mountains from Svalbard to the southern Alps. Methods We assembled data on observed shifts in the upper range limit of alpine plants over 40 to 100 years on 114 mountains. We related the observed shifts to recent changes in temperature and precipitation and to recent deposition of atmospheric nitrogen. Changes in traits and habitat preferences of species in the summit assemblages were used to evaluate the potential role of different drivers. Results Seventy per cent of the species that showed a detectable change in their upper range limits between surveys shifted their range limits upwards. The same species tend to move up on different mountains. There are, however, large differences between mountains in the proportion of species shifting upwards. This proportion is not found to be statistically related to local changes in temperature. Correspondingly, warmth-demanding species did not move upward more frequently than expected by chance. Snow-bed species have become more common on summits. Main conclusions Our data do not support the idea that climate warming is the dominant factor causing the observed range shifts of alpine plant species on European mountains: first, the amount of change in species assemblages on the summits studied is not related statistically to the amount of climate warming; second, those species that have moved upwards are not particularly warmth demanding. publishedVersion