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1. Among the many concerns for biodiversity in the Anthropocene, recent reports of flying insect loss are particularly alarming, given their importance as pollinators, pest control agents, and as a food source. Few insect monitoring programmes cover the large spatial scales required to provide more generalizable estimates of insect responses to global change drivers.
2. We ask how climate and surrounding habitat affect flying insect biomass using data from the first year of a new monitoring network at 84 locations across Germany comprising a spatial gradient of land cover types from protected to urban and crop areas.
3. Flying insect biomass increased linearly with temperature across Germany. However, the effect of temperature on flying insect biomass flipped to negative in the hot months of June and July when local temperatures most exceeded long-term averages.
4. Land cover explained little variation in insect biomass, but biomass was lowest in forests. Grasslands, pastures, and orchards harboured the highest insect biomass. The date of peak biomass was primarily driven by surrounding land cover, with grasslands especially having earlier insect biomass phenologies.
5. Standardised, large-scale monitoring provides key insights into the underlying processes of insect decline and is pivotal for the development of climate-adapted strategies to promote insect diversity. In a temperate climate region, we find that the positive effects of temperature on flying insect biomass diminish in a German summer at locations where temperatures most exceeded long-term averages. Our results highlight the importance of local adaptation in climate change-driven impacts on insect communities.
1. Recent reports on insect decline have highlighted the need for long-term data on insect communities towards identifying their trends and drivers.
2. With the launch of many new insect monitoring schemes to investigate insect communities over large spatial and temporal scales, Malaise traps have become one of the most important tools due to the broad spectrum of species collected and reduced capture bias through passive sampling of insects day and night. However, Malaise traps can vary in size, shape, and colour, and it is unknown how these differences affect biomass, species richness, and composition of trap catch, making it difficult to compare results between studies.
3. We compared five Malaise trap types (three variations of the Townes and two variations of the Bartak Malaise trap) to determine their effects on biomass and species richness as identified by metabarcoding.
4. Insect biomass varied by 20%–55%, not strictly following trap size but varying with trap type. Total species richness was 20%–38% higher in the three Townes trap models compared to the Bartak traps. Bartak traps captured lower richness of highly mobile taxa but increased richness of ground-dwelling taxa. The white roofed Townes trap captured a higher richness of pollinators.
5. We find that biomass, total richness, and taxa group specific richness are all sensitive to Malaise trap type. Trap type should be carefully considered and aligned to match monitoring and research questions. Additionally, our estimates of trap type effects can be used to adjust results to facilitate comparisons across studies.
This study introduced an automated long-term fermentation process for fungals grown in pellet form. The goal was to reduce the overgrowth of bioreactor internals and sensors while better rheological properties in the fermentation broth, such as oxygen transfer and mixing time, can be achieved. Because this could not be accomplished with continuous culture and fed-batch fermentation, repeated-batch fermentation was implemented with the help of additional bioreactor internals (“sporulation supports”). This should capture some biomass during fermentation. After harvesting the suspended biomass, intermediate cleaning was performed using a cleaning device. The biomass retained on the sporulation support went through the sporulation phase. The spores were subsequently used as inocula for the next batch. The reason for this approach was that the retained pellets could otherwise cause problems (e.g., overgrowth on sensors) in subsequent batches because the fungus would then show undesirable hyphal growth. Various sporulation supports were tested for sufficient biomass fixation to start the next batch. A reproducible spore concentration within the range of the requirements could be achieved by adjusting the sporulation support (design and construction material), and an intermediate cleaning adapted to this.
Disconnection in a left-hemispheric temporo-parietal network impairs multiplication fact retrieval
(2023)
Arithmetic fact retrieval has been suggested to recruit a left-lateralized network comprising perisylvian language areas, parietal areas such as the angular gyrus (AG), and non-neocortical structures such as the hippocampus. However, the underlying white matter connectivity of these areas has not been evaluated systematically so far. Using simple multiplication problems, we evaluated how disconnections in parietal brain areas affected arithmetic fact retrieval following stroke. We derived disconnectivity measures by jointly considering data from n = 73 patients with acute unilateral lesions in either hemisphere and a white-matter tractography atlas (HCP-842) using the Lesion Quantification Toolbox (LQT). Whole-brain voxel-based analysis indicated a left-hemispheric cluster of white matter fibers connecting the AG and superior temporal areas to be associated with a fact retrieval deficit. Subsequent analyses of direct gray-to-gray matter disconnections revealed that disconnections of additional left-hemispheric areas (e.g., between the superior temporal gyrus and parietal areas) were significantly associated with the observed fact retrieval deficit. Results imply that disconnections of parietal areas (i.e., the AG) with language-related areas (i.e., superior and middle temporal gyri) seem specifically detrimental to arithmetic fact retrieval. This suggests that arithmetic fact retrieval recruits a widespread left-hemispheric network and emphasizes the relevance of white matter connectivity for number processing.
Science on ecosystems and people to support the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
(2023)
In December 2022, members of the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to guide international biodiversity conservation efforts until 2030 in order to be able to live ‘in harmony with nature’ by 2050. This framework addresses the implementation gap left after the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which were the previous global instrument for mainstreaming biodiversity conservation between 2010 and 2020.
The aim of this editorial is to draw attention to the GBF targets that are most relevant to our readership, with two objectives: First, to suggest how Ecosystems and People may be a venue for emerging research insights in support of the GBF. Second, to highlight examples of recent research in Ecosystems and People that can contribute to enrich, or even challenge, the evidence and development of the GBF Targets.
Productive biofilms are gaining growing interest in research due to their potential of producing valuable compounds and bioactive substances such as antibiotics. This is supported by recent developments in biofilm photobioreactors that established the controlled phototrophic cultivation of algae and cyanobacteria. Cultivation of biofilms can be challenging due to the need of surfaces for biofilm adhesion. The total production of biomass, and thus production of e.g. bioactive substances, within the bioreactor volume highly depends on the available cultivation surface. To achieve an enlargement of surface area for biofilm photobioreactors, biocarriers can be implemented in the cultivation. Thereby, material properties and design of the biocarriers are important for initial biofilm formation and growth of cyanobacteria. In this study, special biocarriers were designed and additively manufactured to investigate different polymeric materials and surface designs regarding biofilm adhesion of the terrestrial cyanobacterium Nostoc flagelliforme (CCAP 1453/33). Properties of 3D-printed materials were characterized by determination of wettability, surface roughness, and density. To evaluate the influence of wettability on biofilm formation, material properties were specifically modified by gas-phase fluorination and biofilm formation was analyzed on biocarriers with basic and optimized geometry in shaking flask cultivation. We found that different polymeric materials revealed no significant differences in wettability and with identical surface design no significant effect on biomass adhesion was observed. However, materials treated with fluorination as well as optimized biocarrier design showed improved wettability and an increase in biomass adhesion per biocarrier surface.
Local biodiversity trends over time are likely to be decoupled from global trends, as local processes may compensate or counteract global change. We analyze 161 long-term biological time series (15–91 years) collected across Europe, using a comprehensive dataset comprising ~6,200 marine, freshwater and terrestrial taxa. We test whether (i) local long-term biodiversity trends are consistent among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, and (ii) changes in biodiversity correlate with regional climate and local conditions. Our results reveal that local trends of abundance, richness and diversity differ among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, demonstrating that biodiversity changes at local scale are often complex and cannot be easily generalized. However, we find increases in richness and abundance with increasing temperature and naturalness as well as a clear spatial pattern in changes in community composition (i.e. temporal taxonomic turnover) in most biogeoregions of Northern and Eastern Europe.
Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera are three orders of freshwater macroinvertebrates with a short terrestrial adult life-stage that they use to disperse by flying upstream. This aerial dispersal can be assisted by native riparian forest, but regional variation has not yet been empirically tested. In this study we compared the EPT community of 153 sampling sites located in freshwater streams in four European regions (Central Plains, Central Highlands, Alps, Iberia). In each site, we assessed the EPT community dispersal ability using the Species Flying Propensity index. We also calculated the native deciduous forest cover in the riparian buffer and several environmental stressors such as saprobic pollution or catchment anthropization. Finally, we tested which of these parameters have a significant effect on the EPT community. In the Central Highlands and in Iberia, the share of weak dispersers increased with native deciduous forest cover, indicating a positive effect on dispersal of EPTs. In the Central Plains and the Alps, no such effect was found. We conclude that the effect of native deciduous forest depends on regional landscape characteristics and the regional species pool, but considering the dispersal of the regional EPT communities is needed to create effective river management policies.
1. Woody riparian vegetation (WRV) benefits benthic macroinvertebrates in running waters. However, while some functions are provided by WRV irrespective of surrounding and catchment land use, others are context-specific. In recent large-scale studies, effects of WRV on macroinvertebrates were therefore small compared to catchment land use, raising the question about the relevance of WRV for restoration.
2. Model-based recursive partitioning was used to identify context-dependent effects of WRV on the macroinvertebrates' ecological status in small (catchment area 10–100 km2) lowland (n = 361) and mountain (n = 748) streams. WRV cover was quantified from orthophotos along the near (500 m) and far (5000 m) upstream river network and used to predict the site's ecological status. Agricultural, urban and woodland cover at the local and catchment scales along with hydromorphology were considered as partitioning variables.
3. In rural agricultural landscapes, the effect of WRV on the ecological status was large, indicating that establishing near-upstream WRV can improve the ecological status by as much as two of the five classes according to the EU Water Framework Directive.
4. Even in urban landscapes, effects of far-upstream WRV were large if catchments had a moderate share of agricultural land use in addition. The beneficial effects of WRV were only limited in purely urban catchments or in a multiple stressor context.
5. Synthesis and applications. While woody riparian vegetation (WRV) can even improve the ecological status in urban settings, it is especially relevant for river management in rural agricultural catchments, where developing WRV potentially are effective measures to achieve good ecological status.
Hydrological variability is a key factor in structuring biotic and abiotic processes in river ecosystems and is of particular importance to fish populations. We used 171 hydrological indices (HI) and young-of-the-year (YOY) fish abundances as indicators of reproductive success to compare species' response patterns to high and low flows on short-, intermediate-, and long-term scales. Our study included 13 common fish species in headwater streams of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Generalized linear models using YOY abundances and HI on high- and low-flow patterns explained on average 64 % of the variability. HI calculated from long time series worked better than HI describing short- and intermediate-term high- and low flows. Species' reproductive success response to low flow HI depended on specific ecological traits whereas high flow HI differentially affected species according to their life history strategies. Equilibrium strategists responded negatively to high frequency and magnitude along with late timing of high flow, while periodic and opportunistic species mostly thrived under these conditions. We identified four species traits that mediated these differences between life history strategies. The reproductive success of species with low relative fecundity, large eggs and larvae, and long incubation periods was negatively impacted by the high frequency, high magnitude, and late timing of high flows. Conversely, the reproductive success of species with high relative fecundity, short incubation periods and small eggs and larvae was fostered by strong, frequent, and late high flows. The consideration of the relationship between reproductive success, life history, and fish species traits over several years under a range of flows is a novel step towards the implementation of measures to mitigate negative impacts and enhance conditions for successful fish reproduction.
Species distribution models (SDMs) are key tools in biodiversity and conservation, but assessing their reliability in unsampled locations is difficult, especially where there are sampling biases. We present a spatially-explicit sensitivity analysis for SDMs – SDM profiling – which assesses the leverage that unsampled locations have on the overall model by exploring the interaction between the effect on the variable response curves and the prevalence of the affected environmental conditions. The method adds a ‘pseudo-presence’ and ‘pseudo-absence’ to unsampled locations, re-running the SDM for each, and measuring the difference between the probability surfaces of the original and new SDMs. When the standardised difference values are plotted against each other (a ‘profile plot’), each point's location can be summarized by four leverage measures, calculated as the distances to each corner. We explore several applications: visualization of model certainty; identification of optimal new sampling locations and redundant existing locations; and flagging potentially erroneous occurrence records.
Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a widespread alteration of the natural environment that can affect the functioning of ecosystems. ALAN can change the movement patterns of freshwater animals that move into the adjacent riparian and terrestrial ecosystems, but the implications for local riparian consumers that rely on these subsidies are still unexplored. We conducted a 2-year field experiment to quantify changes of freshwater-terrestrial linkages by installing streetlights in a previously light-naïve riparian area adjacent to an agricultural drainage ditch. We compared the abundance and community composition of emerging aquatic insects, flying insects, and ground-dwelling arthropods with an unlit control site. Comparisons were made within and between years using two-way generalized least squares (GLS) model and a BACI design (Before-After Control-Impact). Aquatic insect emergence, the proportion of flying insects that were aquatic in origin, and the total abundance of flying insects all increased in the ALAN-illuminated area. The abundance of several night-active ground-dwelling predators (Pachygnatha clercki, Trochosa sp., Opiliones) increased under ALAN and their activity was extended into the day. Conversely, the abundance of nocturnal ground beetles (Carabidae) decreased under ALAN. The changes in composition of riparian predator and scavenger communities suggest that the increase in aquatic-to-terrestrial subsidy flux may cascade through the riparian food web. The work is among the first studies to experimentally manipulate ALAN using a large-scale field experiment, and provides evidence that ALAN can affect processes that link adjacent ecosystems. Given the large number of streetlights that are installed along shorelines of freshwater bodies throughout the globe, the effects could be widespread and represent an underestimated source of impairment for both aquatic and riparian systems.
Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km2 resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (−0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications.
Global change effects on biodiversity and human wellbeing call for improved long-term environmental data as a basis for science, policy and decision making, including increased interoperability, multifunctionality, and harmonization. Based on the example of two global initiatives, the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network and the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), we propose merging the frameworks behind these initiatives, namely ecosystem integrity and essential biodiversity variables, to serve as an improved guideline for future site-based long-term research and monitoring in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems. We derive a list of specific recommendations of what and how to measure at a monitoring site and call for an integration of sites into co-located site networks across individual monitoring initiatives, and centered on ecosystems. This facilitates the generation of linked comprehensive ecosystem monitoring data, supports synergies in the use of costly infrastructures, fosters cross-initiative research and provides a template for collaboration beyond the ILTER and GEO BON communities.
Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss1. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity2. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity.
Following a quantitative analysis of adequate feedstock, comprising 11 woody biomass species, four biochars were generated using a Kon-Tiki flame curtain kiln in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico. Despite the high quality (certified by European Biochar Certificate), the biochars contain substantial quantities of hazardous substances, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, polychlorinated biphenyls, and heavy metals, which can induce adverse effects if wrongly applied to the environment. To assess the toxicity of biochars to non-target organisms, toxicity tests with four benthic and zooplanktonic invertebrate species, the ciliate Paramecium caudatum, the rotifer Lecane quadridentata, and the cladocerans Daphnia magna and Moina macrocopa were performed using biochar elutriates. In acute and chronic toxicity tests, no acute toxic effect to ciliates, but significant lethality to rotifers and cladocerans was detected. This lethal toxicity might be due to ingestion/digestion by enzymatic/mechanic processes of biochar by cladocerans and rotifers of toxic substances present in the biochar. No chronic toxicity was found where biochar elutriates were mixed with soil. These data indicate that it is instrumental to use toxicity tests to assess biochars’ toxicity to the environment, especially when applied close to sensitive habitats, and to stick closely to the quantitative set-point values.
Diadromous fish have exhibited a dramatic decline since the end of the 20th century. The allis shad (Alosa alosa) population in the Gironde-Garonne-Dordogne (GGD) system, once considered as a reference in Europe, remains low despite a fishing ban in 2008. One hypothesis to explain this decline is that the downstream migration and growth dynamics of young stages have changed due to environmental modifications in the rivers and estuary. We retrospectively analysed juvenile growth and migration patterns using otoliths from adults caught in the GGD system 30 years apart during their spawning migration, in 1987 and 2016. We coupled otolith daily growth increments and laser ablation inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry measurements of Sr:Ca, Ba:Ca, and Mn:Ca ratios along the longest growth axis from hatching to an age of 100 days (i.e., during the juvenile stage). A back-calculation allowed us to estimate the size of juveniles at the entrance into the brackish estuary. Based on the geochemistry data, we distinguished four different zones that juveniles encountered during their downstream migration: freshwater, fluvial estuary, brackish estuary, and lower estuary. We identified three migration patterns during the first 100 days of their life: (a) Individuals that reached the lower estuary zone, (b) individuals that reached the brackish estuary zone, and (c) individuals that reached the fluvial estuary zone. On average, juveniles from the 1987 subsample stayed slightly longer in freshwater than juveniles from the 2016 subsample. In addition, juveniles from the 2016 subsample entered the brackish estuary at a smaller size. This result suggests that juveniles from the 2016 subsample might have encountered more difficult conditions during their downstream migration, which we attribute to a longer exposure to the turbid maximum zone. This assumption is supported by the microchemical analyses of the otoliths, which suggests based on wider Mn:Ca peaks that juveniles in 2010s experienced a longer period of physiological stress during their downstream migration than juveniles in 1980s. Finally, juveniles from the 2016 subsample took longer than 100 days to exit the lower estuary than we would have expected from previous studies. Adding a new marker (i.e., Ba:Ca) helped us refine the interpretation of the downstream migration for each individual.
Concerning human and environmental health, safe alternatives to synthetic pesticides are urgently needed. Many of the currently used synthetic pesticides are not authorized for application in organic agriculture. In addition, the developed resistances of various pests against classical pesticides necessitate the urgent demand for efficient and safe products with novel modes of action. Botanical pesticides are assumed to be effective against various crop pests, and they are easily biodegradable and available in high quantities and at a reasonable cost. Many of them may act by diverse yet unexplored mechanisms of action. It is therefore surprising that only few plant species have been developed for commercial usage as biopesticides. This article reviews the status of botanical pesticides, especially in Europe and Mediterranean countries, deepening their active principles and mechanisms of action. Moreover, some constraints and challenges in the development of novel biopesticides are highlighted.