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Browning of surface waters, as a result of increasing dissolved organic carbon and iron concentrations, is a widespread phenomenon with implications to the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. In this article, we provide an overview of the consequences of browning in relation to ecosystem services, outline what the underlying drivers and mechanisms of browning are, and specifically focus

Agricultural landscape homogenization has detrimental effects on biodiversity and key ecosystem services. Increasing agricultural landscape heterogeneity by increasing seminatural cover can help to mitigate biodiversity loss. However, the amount of seminatural cover is generally low and difficult to increase in many intensively managed agricultural landscapes. We hypothesized that increasing the h

The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol display a broad international consensus for biodiversity conservation and equitable benefit sharing. Yet, the Aichi biodiversity targets show a lack of progress and thus indicate a need for additional action such as enhanced and better targeted financial resource mobilization. To date, no global financial burden-sharing instrument has

Climate change and an increasing urbanisation create pressure on cities in terms of extreme weather events, deteriorated public health and wellbeing and a loss of biodiversity. Strengthening the provision of urban green and blue space (UGS) and ecosystem services (ES) is one way to reduce vulnerability and improve living conditions, and ’greening’ is often highlighted as an important path to creat

The aim of this paper is to find appropriate approximate expressions of the coherent electromagnetic field scattered by a particulate slab.The exact solution of the coherent electric field to the multiple scattering problem in the slab is determined by the solution of a set of integral equations. By iterating the integral equations, an approximate solution is obtained, which approximates the solutThe aim of this paper is to find appropriate approximate expressions of thecoherent electromagnetic field scattered by a particulate slab. The exact solution of the coherent electric field to the multiple scattering problem in the slabis determined by the solution of a set of integral equations. By iterating theintegral equations, an approximate solution is obtained, which approximatesthe solution

The arrangement of plant species within a landscape influences pollination via changes in pollinator movement trajectories and plant–pollinator encounter rates. Yet the combined effects of landscape composition and pollinator traits (especially specialisation) on pollination success remain hard to quantify empirically. We used an individual-based model to explore how landscape and pollinator speci

Globally, plants display enormous variation in life-history strategies and trait combinations. However, evidence suggests that evolutionary and physiological constraints limit the number of plant ecological strategies. Although there have been recent advances in understanding correlations among plant traits, reproductive traits are rarely considered, despite their key role in shaping plant life-hi

Bees play a key role in maintaining healthy terrestrial ecosystems by pollinating plants. Stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini) are a diverse clade of social bees (>500 species) with a pantropical distribution spanning South and Central America, Africa, India, Australia and Asia. They are garnering increasing attention as commercially-beneficial pollinators of some crops, yet their contribution to t

The use of pesticides and the lack of resources caused by the simplification of landscapes are often cited as the main drivers of the loss of wild bees. Landscape complexity has been shown to interact with local pesticide use in studies of the effect of these factors on the abundance and diversity of insects. But, to date, few studies have simultaneously investigated local and landscape effects on

This chapter presents the mapping of ecosystem service hotspots in the city of Trento, in the Italian Alps, and discusses the possible uses of the results to support the drawing of the new Urban Plan. Hotspots are defined as areas characterized by high levels of provision of multiple services. Particularly, the following ecosystem services were selected: biodiversity support, risk mitigation, miti

In Padova, the municipal department of green infrastructure monitors the urban forest through a continuously updated database that stores information about locations, species, dimensions, health conditions, and management of more than 47,000 trees. The aim of the research presented in this chapter was to support urban forest planning and management by integrating the existing database with informa

The global cobalt cycle in society was modelled using an integrated systems dynamics model, WORLD6, integrating several earlier system dynamics models developed by the authors. The COBALT sub-model was used to assess the long-term sufficiency of the available extractable cobalt and address the effect of different degrees of recycling on cobalt supply. The extraction of cobalt is mostly dependent o

A model for global supply of sand, gravel and cut stone for construction based on a system dynamics model was developed for inclusion in the WORLD6 model. The Sand-Gravel-Stone model simulates production and market supply, demand and price for natural sand and gravel, sand and gravel from crushed rock and cut stone. The model uses market mechanisms where the demand is depending on population size,

We have built a system dynamics model, WORLD6, that takes into account population, energy extraction, production and need, aspects social behaviour, material and metals recycling and important links to the economy. The model is ground-truthed by comparing with actual supply per person from 1900 till 2015 and run until 2400. Primary scarcity metrics are supply per person and year and stock-in-use p

A new model; WORLD6 was developed. WORLD6 differs from the earlier system dynamics world models in several aspects. Several modules link the economy, materials, metals, energy, population and politics in a dynamic system. The present version is a result of a dismantling of the World3 model (Meadows et al., 1972, 1992, 2004) with an extension and substitution of its resource module and economy modu

Agricultural intensification is one of the main causes for the current biodiversity crisis. While reversing habitat loss on agricultural land is challenging, increasing the farmland configurational heterogeneity (higher field border density) and farmland compositional heterogeneity (higher crop diversity) has been proposed to counteract some habitat loss. Here, we tested whether increased farmland

Landscape heterogeneity is an important driver of biodiversity in agroecosystems. However, the functional heterogeneity of agricultural landscapes, taking into account the different resources that habitat patches can provide to species, has rarely been studied. In this study, we explored the effect of landscape-scale nest availability provided by permanent grasslands on wild bee communities. Wild

Purpose: Today’s chemical society use and emit an enormous number of different, potentially ecotoxic, chemicals to the environment. The vast majority of substances do not have characterisation factors describing their ecotoxicity potential. A first stage, high throughput, screening tool is needed for prioritisation of which substances need further measures. Methods: USEtox characterisation factors