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Land-use change and intensification threaten bee populations worldwide, imperilling pollination services. Global models are needed to better characterise, project, and mitigate bees' responses to these human impacts. The available data are, however, geographically and taxonomically unrepresentative; most data are from North America and Western Europe, overrepresenting bumblebees and raising concer
Africa is a sink of carbon, but there are large gaps in our knowledge regarding the CO2 exchange fluxes for many African ecosystems. Here, we analyse multi-annual eddy covariance data of CO2 exchange fluxes for a grazed Sahelian semi-arid savanna ecosystem in Senegal, West Africa. The aim of the study is to investigate the high CO2 exchange fluxes measured at the peak of the rainy season at the Da
Forest degradation, forest fires, and wildlife poaching have devastated biodiversity in Indonesia. To assess the impact of forest degradation and the potential for recovery, we used birds as a proxy for biodiversity and assessed density estimates (hereafter density) in the degraded lowland forest of Harapan Rainforest Ecosystem Restoration Concession (HRF) in Sumatra. In this study, a total of 149
A substantial portion of the carbon (C) fixed by the trees is allocated belowground to ectomycorrhizal (EM) symbionts, but this fraction usually declines after fertilization. The aim of the present study was to estimate the effect of optimal fertilization (including all the necessary nutrients) on the growth of EM fungi in young Norway spruce forests over a three year period. In addition, the amou
Making a detour can be advantageous to a migrating bird if fuel-deposition rates at stopover sites along the detour are considerably higher than at stopover sites along a more direct route. One example of an extensive migratory detour is that of the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata), of which large numbers of juveniles are found during fall migration in western Alaska. These birds take a
Climate change is expected to have profound ecological effects, yet shifts in competitive abilities among species are rarely studied in this context. Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and great tits (Parus major) compete for food and roosting sites, yet coexist across much of their range. Climate change might thus change the competitive relationships and coexistence between these two species. Analys
Many time-series smoothing methods can be used for reducing noise and extracting plant phenological parameters from remotely-sensed data, but there is still no conclusive evidence in favor of one method over others. Here we use moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to investigate five smoothing methods: Savitzky-Golay fitting (S
Human land use changes perturb biogeochemical silica (Si) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. This directly affects Si mobilisation and Si storage and influences Si export from the continents, although the magnitude of the impact is unknown. A major reason for our lack of understanding is that very little information exists on how land use affects amorphous silica (ASi) storage in soils. We have qu
Fire at the dry southern margin of the Amazon rainforest could have major consequences for regional soil carbon (C) storage and ecosystem carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, but relatively little information exists about impacts of fire on soil C cycling within this sensitive ecotone. We measured CO2 effluxes from different soil components (ground surface litter, roots, mycorrhizae, soil organic matte
Soil and water acidification was internationally recognised as a severe environmental problem in the late 1960s. The interest in establishing “critical loads” led to a peak in weathering research in the 1980s and 1990s, since base cation weathering is the long-term counterbalance to acidification pressure. Assessments of weathering rates and associated uncertainties have recently become an area of
Understanding variation in survival and reproduction is key for conservation and management of bird populations. By compiling and analysing data on hatching success (i.e. proportion of nests with at least one hatched egg) from Common Eider Somateria m. mollissima, Velvet Scoter Melanitta fusca and Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator, all breeding on a single island in the Baltic Sea, we demonst
The study investigated the effects of forest residue extraction on tree growth and base cations concentrations in soil waterunder different climatic conditions in Sweden. For this purpose, the dynamic model ForSAFE was used to compare theeffects of whole-tree harvesting and stem harvesting on tree biomass and the soil solution over time at 6 different forestsites. The study confirmed the results f
Peatland degradation due to human activities is contributing to rising atmospheric CO2 levels. Restoring the carbon (C) sink function in degraded peatlands and preventing further stored C losses is a key climate mitigation strategy, given the global scale of peatland disturbance. Active restoration involving a combination of rewetting and vegetation reestablishment at a post-extraction peatland in
Climate change is generally expected to have a positive effect on weathering rates, due to the strong temperature dependence of the weathering process. Important feedback mechanisms such as changes in soil moisture, tree growth and organic matter decomposition can affect the response of weathering rates to climate change. In this study, the dynamic forest ecosystem model ForSAFE, with mechanistic
Dramatic declines of some arthropod populations have recently received a lot of attention. Identified declines have mainly been attributed to changes in agriculture, climate, pathogen prevalence and light pollution, as well as cross-regional effects of, e.g., drifting pesticides. However, the overall picture is complex and debated, and there is a need for systematically collected long-term data, n
Although small rural settlements are only minor individual sources of greenhouse gases and air pollution, their high overall occurrence can significantly contribute to the total emissions of a region or country. Emissions from a rural lifestyle may be remarkably different than those of urban and industrialized regions, but nevertheless they have hardly been studied so far. Here, flux measurements
Climate change is expected to alter precipitation regimes, resulting in longer periods of drought and heavier precipitation events. Even though the direct effect of water availability on soil microbial processes is well documented, the influence of precipitation legacy on microbial resistance and resilience to drought remains unclear. Using soils from a natural mean annual precipitation (MAP) grad
The private garden is one of the most important sites for people’s everyday interactions with nature. Although sometimes just consisting of a lawn, a few shrubs and maybe a flower bed, it provides a number of situations where the owner has to reflect on and handle biodiversity and sustainability issues in relation to modern lifestyle. This paper will discuss different aspects of sustainability in
