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Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve direct engagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as an extended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimental evolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications in nursery construction when they are experimentally prevented from supplying care directly

It is not clear how different rewetting intensities (rapid, slow or partial rewetting) influence soil respiration and nitrogen (N) availability. Moist soil left unamended or amended with low C/N faba bean residue and incubated for 21 days was dried to <5% WHC within 3 days. After 14 days of incubation, dry soils were rewetted to 50% water holding capacity (WHC), once within few seconds (rapid), by

A predictive understanding of adaptation to changing environments hinges on a mechanistic understanding of the extent and causes of variation in natural selection. Estimating variation in selection is difficult due to the complex relationships between phenotypic traits and fitness, and the uncertainty associated with individual selection estimates. Plant-pollinator interactions provide ideal syste

Through changes in climate and other environmental factors, alpine tundra ecosystems are subject to increased cover of erect shrubs, reduced predictability of rodent dynamics and changes in wild and domesticated herbivore densities. To predict the dynamics of these ecosystems, we need to understand how these simultaneous changes affect alpine vegetation. In the long term, vegetation dynamics may d

The way microbes behave in nature can vary widely depending on the spatial characteristics of the habitats they are located in. The spatial structure of the microbial environment can determine whether and to which extent processes such as organic matter degradation, and synergistic or antagonistic microbial processes occur. Investigating how the different spatial characteristics of microhabitats i

Climate change models predict an increase in the intensity and frequency of drought periods as well as precipitation events. Moisture and its fluctuations have a large impact on soil microorganisms, which are key drivers of the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle. When there is a drought period followed by a rainfall event there is a big CO2 release from soil to the atmosphere, which can dominate the C b

As an alternative to clear-cutting, variable-retention harvesting is now standard forest management practice on the coast of British Columbia and in temperate forests globally, due to the benefits associated with maintaining mature forest species and forest structural diversity. Although there is some evidence that variable-retention harvesting, particularly single-tree (dispersed) retention will

The extinction of 80% of megaherbivore (>1,000 kg) species towards the end of the Pleistocene altered vegetation structure, fire dynamics and nutrient cycling world-wide. Ecologists have proposed (re)introducing megaherbivores or their ecological analogues to restore lost ecosystem functions and reinforce extant but declining megaherbivore populations. However, the effects of megaherbivores on sma

Stem cell lines that faithfully maintain the regional identity and developmental potency of progenitors in the human brain would create new opportunities in developmental neurobiology and provide a resource for generating specialized human neurons. However, to date, neural progenitor cultures derived from the human brain have either been short-lived or exhibit restricted, predominantly glial, diff

Land use is at the core of today’s complex sustainability challenges. Agricultural and environmental economics share a focus land and resource use but evolved in their own domains. Their specialized competencies can be complementary and thus strengthen policy analysis. We use structural topic modelling on more than 24,000 articles in the top agricultural economics and environmental economics journ

Feather mosses utilize various sources of nitrogen (N): they absorb N deposited on leaf tissue, they host N-2 fixing cyanobacteria, and they are able to take up N directly from soil. In addition to their importance as primary producers in boreal ecosystems, feather mosses play a significant role in N cycling. However, estimates of their ability to take up N from soil in situ are scarce. Further, c

The effect of pH on the instantaneous growth of soil bacterial communities was studied in five soils with different pH (4.5-7.8) using leucine (Leu) and thymidine (TdR) incorporation. The pH dependency of bacterial growth was modelled using three different unimodal functions, and the pH(opt) for growth and the pH range in which growth was > 50% of the optimal growth were compared. Leu and TdR inco

Liming is used to counteract forest decline induced by soil acidification. It consists of Ca and Mg input to forest soil and not only restores tree mineral nutrition but also modifies the availability of nutrients in soil. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are involved in mineral nutrient uptake by trees and can recover them through dissolution of mineral surface. Oxalate and siderophore secretion are c

Changes in environmental temperature during development can affect growth, metabolism and temperature tolerance of the offspring. We know little about whether such changes remain to adulthood, which is important to understand the links between climate change, development and fitness. We investigated whether phenotypic consequences of the thermal environment in early life remained in adulthood in t

This study is about how the 'global' becomes localized and how the 'local' is articulated through the 'global'. It deals with the Van (forest) Gujjars, a people of nomadic forest pastoralists who inhabit the Central Himalayas of India. The study has two main foci: One is the everyday life-world of the Van Gujjars in the forest - a Van Gujjar ethnography - and the other is the conflict over 'conser

Evidence suggests that in addition to sequestering carbon (C), biochar amendment can increase crop yields, improve soil quality and nutrient cycling, reduce the leaching of nutrients from soil and stimulate soil microbial activity. However, biochar application primarily benefits soils of intrinsic poor quality, thus the advantages of adding biochar to temperate agricultural soils remains controver