Filetype
Agricultural landscapes are characterised by dynamic crop mosaics changing in composition and configuration over space and time. Although semi-natural habitat has been often shown to contribute to pest biological control, the effects of increasing landscape heterogeneity with cropland have been disregarded. Here, we examine how cereal aphids, their enemies and biological control are affected by th
Ants are abundant in natural and managed tropical ecosystems and can have an impact on herbivorous arthropods, as well as plant pathogens. Although it has been shown for plants that the diversity of communities can result in improved ecosystem functioning, it remains uncertain how the species richness of ants affects multiple ecosystem services and disservices. In the present study, we used experi
Atmospheric pollution has implications for the health and diversity of temperate forests covering large parts of central Europe. Long-term elevated anthropogenic deposition of nitrogen (N) is driving forest ecosystems from the limitation by N to other nutrients and is found to affect tree health and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF), which most trees depend on for nutrient uptake. However, the consequen
Background: Globally, high amounts of food are wasted due to insufficient quality and decay. Although pollination has been shown to increase crop quality, a possible impact on shelf life has not been quantitatively studied. Results: We tested how shelf life, represented by fruit decay, firmness and weight, changes as a function of pollination limitation in two European, commercially important stra
In order to understand the ecological effects of climate change it is essential to forecast suitable areas for species in the future. However, species' ability to reach potentially suitable areas is also critical for species survival. These 'range-shift' abilities can be studied using life-history traits related to four range-shift stages: emigration, movement, establishment, and proliferation. He
Stakeholder participation is considered a key principle for sustainable development in the context of natural resource and disaster risk management. Participatory modelling (PM) is an interactive and iterative process in which stakeholder involvement is supported by modelling and communication tools. Planning and decision-making for sustainable development (SD)integrate three substantive dimension
The article aims to illustrate the multifaceted interlink between climate change, heat, and human rights and discuss in what ways international human rights law may be used to support the development and implementation of policy at various levels to limit adverse effects of climate change on humans in general and right to health in particular. This is done by overviewing the possibilities and limi
Local biodiversity can be expected to be similar worldwide if environmental conditions are similar. Here, we hypothesize that tropical ant communities with different types of regional species pools but at similar habitat types in Brazil and Indonesia show similar diversity patterns at multiple spatial scales, when comparing (1) the relative contribution of alpha and beta diversity to gamma diversi
When deploying networked computing-based applications, proper resource management of the server-side resources is essential for maintaining quality of service and cost efficiency. The work presented in this thesis is based on six papers, all investigating problems that relate to resource management of server-based systems. Using a queueing system approach we model the performance of a database sys
Most animals, including aquatic crustacean zooplankton, perform strong avoidance movements when exposed to a threat, such as ultraviolet radiation (UVR). We here show that the genera Daphnia and Bosmina instantly adjust their vertical position in the water in accordance with the present UVR threat, i.e., seek refuge in deeper waters, whereas other taxa show less response to the threat. Moreover, D
Tropical agroforests are diverse systems where several predator groups shape animal communities and plant-arthropod interactions. Ants, birds and bats in particular can reduce herbivore numbers and thereby increase crop yield. However, the relative importance of these groups, whether they interact, and how this interaction is affected by management and landscape context, is poorly understood. We j
Tropical lowland rainforests are increasingly threatened by the expansion of agriculture and the extraction of natural resources. In Jambi Province, Indonesia, the interdisciplinary EFForTS project focuses on the ecological and socio-economic dimensions of rainforest conversion to jungle rubber agroforests and monoculture plantations of rubber and oil palm. Our data confirm that rainforest transfo
Tropical forest loss and transformation to agroecosystems have serious impacts on biodiversity, associated ecosystem services and the livelihood of local people. The high crop plant biodiversity and low intensity management in many homegardens could play an important role in the preservation of biodiversity in modified landscapes, as well as sustain food security of low income households. In this
Smallholder-dominated agricultural mosaic landscapes are highlighted as model production systems that deliver both economic and ecological goods in tropical agricultural landscapes, but trade-offs underlying current land-use dynamics are poorly known. Here, using the most comprehensive quantification of land-use change and associated bundles of ecosystem functions, services and economic benefits t
Tropical biodiversity is threatened by the expansion of oil-palm plantations. Reduced-impact farming systems such as agroforests, have been proposed to increase biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In regions where oil-palm plantations already dominate the landscape, this increase can only be achieved through systematic ecological restoration. However, our knowledge about the underlying ecologi
In addition to a rise in mean air and water temperatures, more frequent and intense extreme climate events (such as heat waves) have been recorded around the globe during the past decades. These environmental changes are projected to intensify further in the future, and we still know little about how they will affect ecological processes driving harmful cyanobacterial bloom formation. Therefore, w
The ecological impact of artificial light at night (ALAN) on phenological events such as reproductive timing is increasingly recognized. In birds, previous experiments under controlled conditions showed that ALAN strongly advances gonadal growth, but effects on egg-laying date are less clear. In particular, effects of ALAN on timing of egg laying are found to be year-dependent, suggesting an inter
Deoxygenation affects many continental shelf seas across the world today and results in increasing areas of hypoxia (dissolved oxygen concentration ([O2]) <1.4 ml/L). The Baltic Sea is increasingly affected by deoxygenation. Deoxygenation correlates with other environmental variables such as changing water temperature and salinity and is directly linked to ongoing global climate change. To place t
