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The species richness of flower-visiting insects has declined in past decades, raising concerns that the ecosystem service they provide by pollinating crops and wild plants is threatened. The relative commonness of different species with shared ecological traits can play a pervasive role in determining ecosystem functioning, but information on changes in abundances of pollinators over time is lacki
Agricultural intensification is recognised as a major driver of biodiversity loss in human-modified landscapes. Several agro-environmental measures at different spatial scales have been suggested to mitigate the negative impact of intensification on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The effect of these measures on the functional structure of service-providing communities remains, however, large
Resilience of ecological communities to perturbation is important in the face of increased global change from anthropogenic stressors. Monitoring is required to detect the impact of, and recovery from, perturbations, and before-after-control-impact (BACI) analysis provides a powerful framework in this regard. However, species in a community are not observed with perfect detection, and occupancy an
Pollination by bees is important for food production. Recent concerns about the declines of both domestic and wild bees, calls for measures to promote wild pollinator populations in farmland. However, to be able to efficiently promote and prioritize between measures that benefit pollinators, such as modified land use, agri-environment schemes, or specific conservation measures, it is important to
Organic farming has the potential to enhance ecosystem services such as crop pollination. However, it is not known if a similar effect can be generated on conventional farms, without reducing external inputs such as inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, by using more complex crop rotations including ley for animal fodder production. In two separate designs, both located in southern Sweden, we test
To address the challenges of biodiversity conservation and commodity production, a framework has been proposed that distinguishes between the integration (land sharing) and separation (land sparing) of conservation and production. Controversy has arisen around this framework partly because many scholars have focused specifically on food production rather than more encompassing notions such as land
Pollination of insect pollinated crops has been found to be correlated to pollinator abundance and diversity. Since organic farming has the potential to mitigate negative effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity, it may also benefit crop pollination, but direct evidence of this is scant. We evaluated the effect of organic farming on pollination of strawberry plants focusing on (1) i
In order to improve biological control of agricultural pests, it is fundamental to understand which factors influence the composition of natural enemies in agricultural landscapes. In this study, we aimed to understand how agricultural land use affects a number of different traits in ground beetle communities to better predict potential consequences of land-use change for ecosystem functioning. We
Land-use change is a major driver of the global loss of biodiversity, but it is unclear to what extent this also results in a loss of ecological traits. Therefore, a better understanding of how land-use change affects ecological traits is crucial for efforts to sustain functional diversity. To this end we tested whether higher species richness or taxonomic distinctness generally leads to increased
We tested how dispersal capacity, host plant specificity and reproductive rate influenced the effects of farming system and landscape composition on butterfly species richness and abundance. In no case did variation in these traits explain species responses to organic farming, indicating that all species benefit equally. In contrast, butterflies with high mobility and reproductive rate were dispro
By combining a large-scale experimental assessment on timing of insect emergence with long-term monitoring of waterfowl hatching date, we here show that insect emergence is mainly driven by temperature, whereas there is only a weak effect of increasing spring temperatures on inter-annual variability in observations of waterfowl chicks. Hence, a change in timing of the mass-emergence of insects fro
CapsuleHouse Sparrow (Passer domesticus) populations in south Swedish farmland are not affected by supplemental winter feeding, irrespective of agricultural landscape type or presence of animal husbandry, although winter populations declined more in mixed farmland and when farms contained animal husbandry. AimsTo investigate whether food limitation of House Sparrow population size during the winte
Corporal punishment of children is a widespread practice across the world. The implications of such violence consist of both physical and mental injuries and children are very vulnerable to such treatment. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was put into place, by States from all across the world, for the purpose of granting children a better protection in society. Today, all but two States
Increasing landscape complexity can enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services in agroecosystems. However, policies based on conversion of arable land into semi-natural habitats to increase landscape complexity and ecosystem services can be difficult to implement. Although it appears to be a promising management option, nothing is known about the effect of increasing landscape diversity through c
Many bird species typical to farmland have declined in numbers in recent decades. Some farmland bird species occur outside farmland in other open man-made habitats, such as forest clear-cuts. Given that in Sweden the total area of clear-cuts (5–6 %) almost equals that of farmland (8 %), clear-cuts have the potential to be an important habitat for some farmland birds. We investigated how bird commu
I jakten på förnyelsebara energikällor är solceller en av de mest lovande teknikerna. Idag dominerar kisel-solcellen marknaden men även den har begränsningar och därför är det motiverat att utveckla andra sorters solceller. En solcellsteknik på utvecklingsstadiet som försöker efterlikna fotosyntesen är Grätzelsolcellen. Precis som i fotosyntesen är det en färgämnesmolekyl i solcellen som ska absorIn the hunt for fossile-free energy-harvesting techniques, solar cells constitute one of the most promising techniques. Today, silicon-based solar cells are the dominant technique on the market but even the Silicon solar cell has limitations which means that there is a motivation for developing new solutions. One of those techniques is the dye-sensitized solar cell. Just as in photosynthesis, the
This paper systematically reviews the literature on how to reduce nutrient emissions to the Baltic Sea cost-effectively and considerations for allocating these costs fairly among countries. The literature shows conclusively that the reduction targets of the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) could be achieved at considerably lower cost, if countries would cooperate to implement the least costly abateme
