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The intensification of agriculture has resulted in more homogeneous landscapes and declines of many species associated with farmland or other semi-natural open habitats. In parallel, forestry has also intensified causing declines in many species associated with old-growth forests. While intensive forestry negatively affects forest species, it inadvertently creates new habitats such as clear-cuts,
Increasing landscape complexity can mitigate negative effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity by offering resources complementary to those provided in arable fields. In particular, grazed semi-natural grasslands and woody elements support farmland birds, but little is known about their relative effects on bird diversity and community composition. In addition, the relative importanc
This research investigated the liquid-phase removal of chloramphenicol (CAP), an emerging contaminant using molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). CAP adsorption profiles, equilibrium, and kinetics were analysed. The adsorption performance was compared between MIPs and non-imprinted polymers (NIPs), both with silica or without silica grafting. The imprinting factor (IF) values for the Si@MIPs-CAP
While urbanisation contributes to global biodiversity declines, flower-rich urban habitats may provide beneficial pollinator habitats. We investigated the potential of urban residential areas to contribute to pollinator diversity by analysing wild bee and hoverfly species richness and composition of species assemblages of summer-active species, sampled in 53 gardens across urban and rural landscap
Do the misty mountains, fast-flowing rivers, and sandy beaches leave you in awe and fill you with insatiable wonder? Does nature bring you a jubilant feeling? Nature contributes to our quality of life in multiple ways. Some of these gifts are easily visible, like the clothes you wear, the food you eat, and the water your drink. However, some contributions, such as flood protection and pollination
In Ethiopia, full vaccination coverage among children aged 12–23 months has improved in recent decades. This study aimed to investigate drivers of the improvement in the vaccination coverage. The Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition technique was applied to identify the drivers using data from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2000 and 2016. The vaccination coverage rose from 14.3% in 2
We report here a method for the determination of the pKa of histidine in complex or heterogeneous systems amenable to neither solid-state nor solution NMR spectroscopy. Careful synthesis of a fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl- and trityl-protected, C2-deuterated histidine produces a vibrational-probe-equipped amino acid that can readily be incorporated into any peptide accessible by standard solid-phase
Aim: To assess the prevalence of neurodevelopmental problems in adolescents with severe obesity and their associations with binge eating and depression. Methods: Data were collected at inclusion in a randomised study of bariatric surgery in 48 adolescents (73% girls; mean age 15.7 ± 1.0 years; mean body mass index 42.6 ± 5.2 kg/m2). Parents completed questionnaires assessing their adolescents’ sym
PURPOSE: To describe a specific cone-rod dystrophy phenotype in a family with the homozygous c.1429G>A; p.Gly477Arg mutation in CRB1. The detailed phenotype of subjects with this specific mutation has not been described previously. METHODS: Clinical examination included full-field electroretinography and high-resolution and widefield retinal imaging and uveitis workup. Molecular genetic analysis i
Increasing human impact on the environment is causing drastic changes in disturbance regimes and how they prevail over time. Of increasing relevance is to further our understanding on biological responses to pulse disturbances (short duration) and how they interact with other ongoing press disturbances (constantly present). Because the temporal and spatial contexts of single experiments often limi
Land-Use Change and Terrestrial Predator–Prey Networks Land-use change, here defined as the conversion of one land-use type into another (e.g., forest to arable land), affects biodiversity and biotic interactions worldwide (Sala et al., 2000). Although there has been large regional variation in the extent of agricultural expansion and abandonment in Europe in the past 50 years (Rabbinge and van Di
Action-based payments that compensate farmers for adopting land-management measures to preserve and en- hance the environment have been criticized for being ineffective. The root of the problem is that farmers are not paid for achieving a desired environmental benefit, but compensated for their costs of management. There is growing interest in formulating result-based economic incentives. By payin
Local adaptation to rare habitats is difficult due to gene flow, but can occur if the habitat has higher productivity. Differences in offspring phenotypes have attracted little attention in this context. We model a scenario where the rarer habitat improves offspring's later competitive ability – a carryover effect that operates on top of local adaptation to one or the other habitat type. Assuming
The spatiotemporal stability of wild organisms, such as flower-visiting insects, is critical to guarantee high levels of biodiversity in agroecosystems. Whereas the proportion of semi-natural habitats in the landscapes has been shown to stabilize the species richness of flower visitors, the effect of farming intensity has not yet been studied. In this study, we compared the temporal and spatial st
It is generally expected that, in environments with pronounced seasonal resource peaks, birds’ reproductive success will be maximised when nestlings’ peak food demand coincides with the timing of high food availability. However in certain birds that stay resident over winter, earlier breeding leads juveniles to join the winter flock earlier, which by the prior residence effect increases their succ
To understand the relationship between conservation measures and agricultural yields, we need to know the contributions of organisms to both ecosystem services and disservices. We studied the activity and contribution of birds and mammals to intermediate ecosystem services (predation of weed seeds or invertebrate pests) and disservices (predation of crop seeds or beneficial invertebrates) in south
Loss and fragmentation of semi-natural grasslands have had negative consequences for grassland biodiversity, such as butterflies. Urban parks and other urban green spaces have so far largely been overlooked as suitable butterfly habitats, although they could potentially sustain diverse butterfly populations over time. We analysed the temporal change in butterfly species assemblages in urban green
Making decisions between alternatives are challenging when there is weak or unreliable knowledge about the risks and benefits of the alternatives. This requires a trade-off between risks (and benefits). Here, we comment on a recent paper on risk–risk trade-offs and highlight the difficulties of making such trade-offs when the available evidence is of different strength. One current example of a ri
To investigate a possible time trend in serum concentrations of persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs), representative samples of the young (median age 18 years) Swedish male population were investigated in the years 2000 and 2004. Due to their low age, these men were assumed not to have reached steady state of body burdens of POPs, why their serum concentrations were considered to represent
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
