Agri-environmental management (AEM) is heralded as being key to biodiversity conservation on farmland, yet results of these schemes have been mixed, making their general utility questionable. We test ...with meta-analysis whether the benefits of AEM for species richness and abundance of plants and animals are determined by the surrounding landscape context. Across all studies (109 observations for species richness and 114 observations for abundance), AEM significantly increased species richness and their abundance. More specifically, we test the hypothesis that AEM benefits species richness and abundance (i.e. increases the difference between fields with and without AEM) more in simple than in complex landscapes. In croplands, species richness but not abundance was significantly enhanced in simple but not in complex landscapes. In grasslands, AEM effectively enhanced species richness and abundance regardless of landscape context. Pollinators were significantly enhanced by AEM in simple but not in complex landscapes in both croplands and grasslands. Our results highlight that the one-size-fits-all approach of many agri-environmental programmes is not an efficient way of spending the limited funds available for biodiversity conservation on farmland. Therefore, we conclude that AEM should be adapted to landscape structure and the species groups at which they are targeted.
Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened in the world, while providing numerous essential ecosystem services (ES) to humans. Despite their importance, research on freshwater ecosystem ...services is limited. Here, we examine how freshwater studies could help to advance ES research and vice versa. We summarize major knowledge gaps and suggest solutions focusing on science and policy in Europe. We found several features that are unique to freshwater ecosystems, but often disregarded in ES assessments. Insufficient transfer of knowledge towards stakeholders is also problematic. Knowledge transfer and implementation seems to be less effective towards South-east Europe. Focusing on the strengths of freshwater research regarding connectivity, across borders, involving multiple actors can help to improve ES research towards a more dynamic, landscape-level approach, which we believe can boost the implementation of the ES concept in freshwater policies. Bridging these gaps can contribute to achieve the ambitious targets of the EU’s Green Deal.
The degradation of ecosystems threatens the provision of ecosystem services and limits human well-being. This systematic literature review evaluates the threats surrounding cultural ecosystem ...services (CES), namely recreation and landscape aesthetics in European permanent grasslands. We identified underlying causes, direct threats, consequences and suggested solutions for threat mitigation. The most common threats were land-use and management change processes, followed by social attitude, industrial developments and natural threats. However, recreational activities also created negative feedback, affecting the ecosystem, biodiversity and CES, most frequently in the form of various touristic activities. Suggested solutions were most commonly socio-economic and institutional measures to enhance rural communities, as well as improving communication with relevant stakeholders. CES play a crucial role in reconnecting people with nature, and their consequent acknowledgement and incorporation into future ecosystem service frameworks and agri-environmental policy developments are key elements in supporting future sustainable grassland management.
The most obvious, although not exclusive, explanation for the increase of species richness with increasing sample area (the species-area relationship) is that species richness is ultimately linked to ...area-based increases in habitat heterogeneity. The aim of this paper is to examine the relative importance of area and habitat heterogeneity in determining species richness in nature reserves. Specifically, the work tests the hypothesis that species-area relationships are not positive if habitat heterogeneity does not increase with area. Sixteen nature reserves (area range 89-11,030 ha) in central Hungary. Four-year faunistic inventories were conducted in the reserves involving c. 70 fieldworkers and 65 taxonomists. CORINE 50,000 land-cover maps were used for calculating the heterogeneity of the reserve landscape (number of habitat types, number of habitat patches and total length of edges). Large reserves were less heterogeneous than small reserves, probably because large reserves were established in large blocks of unproductive land whereas small reserves tended to be in more fertile land. In total, 3975 arthropod species were included in the analysis. The slope of the species-area relationship was positive only for Neuroptera and Trichoptera. There was no significant relationship in the other nine taxa examined (Collembola, Acari, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera, Coleoptera, Araneae, Diplopoda, Chilopoda, Diptera). The density (number of species ha⁻¹) of all species, however, showed a positive correlation with heterogeneity. The general lack of fit of species-area relationships in this study is inconsistent with most previous published studies. Importantly, and unlike many other studies, habitat heterogeneity was not correlated with reserve area in the studied system. In the absence of this source of covariation, stronger relationships were identified that suggested a fundamental link between species richness and habitat heterogeneity. The results indicate that habitat heterogeneity rather than area per se is the most important predictor of species richness in the studied system.
In recent years, the production of pellets derived from forestry biomass to replace coal for electricity generation has been increasing, with over 10 million tonnes traded internationally—primarily ...between United States and Europe but with an increasing trend to Asia. Critical to this trade is the classification of woody biomass as ‘renewable energy’ and thus eligible for public subsidies. However, much scientific study on the net effect of this trend suggests that it is having the opposite effect to that expected of renewable energy, by increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide for substantial periods of time. This review, based on recent work by Europe's Academies of Science, finds that current policies are failing to recognize that removing forest carbon stocks for bioenergy leads to an initial increase in emissions. Moreover, the periods during which atmospheric CO2 levels are raised before forest regrowth can reabsorb the excess emissions are incompatible with the urgency of reducing emissions to comply with the objectives enshrined in the Paris Agreement. We consider how current policy might be reformed to reduce negative impacts on climate and argue for a more realistic science‐based assessment of the potential of forest bioenergy in substituting for fossil fuels. The length of time atmospheric concentrations of CO2 increase is highly dependent on the feedstocks and we argue for regulations to explicitly require these to be sources with short payback periods. Furthermore, we describe the current United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change accounting rules which allow imported biomass to be treated as zero emissions at the point of combustion and urge their revision to remove the risk of these providing incentives to import biomass with negative climate impacts. Reforms such as these would allow the industry to evolve to methods and scales which are more compatible with the basic purpose for which it was designed.
Trade in wood pellets from forestry biomass to replace coal for electricity generation is increasing dramatically. Critical to this trade is the classification of woody biomass as ‘renewable energy’ and thus eligible for public subsidies. However, scientific studies show that it is having the opposite effect and is increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide for substantial periods of time. We argue that EU regulations and the current United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change accounting, which both allow imported biomass to be treated as zero emissions at the point of combustion, should be revised to remove incentives to import biomass with negative climate impacts.
The IPBES Global Assessment: Pathways to Action Ruckelshaus, Mary H.; Jackson, Stephen T.; Mooney, Harold A. ...
Trends in ecology & evolution,
20/May , Letnik:
35, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The first Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found widespread, accelerating declines in Earth’s biodiversity and ...associated benefits to people from nature. Addressing these trends will require science-based policy responses to reduce impacts, especially at national to local scales. Effective scaling of science-policy efforts, driven by global and national assessments, is a major challenge for turning assessment into action and will require unprecedented commitment by scientists to engage with communities of policy and practice. Fulfillment of science’s social contract with society, and with nature, will require strong institutional support for scientists’ participation in activities that transcend conventional research and publication.
The IPBES Global Assessment released in the spring of 2019 is a significant milestone for the international scientific community; the critical challenge now is to disseminate and apply its findings at national and local scales where most policy and management decisions affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services are made.Effective, enduring action from assessments requires collaborative, multidisciplinary science-policy processes that frame and cogenerate knowledge with decision makers and stakeholders from many sectors.Examples of assessments driving policy responses to recover biodiversity and ecosystem services highlight the need for significant, long-term commitments by governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, civil society, and the scientific community.
...Teuta Skorin presented on the potential role for the Society for Conservation Biology in the IPBES process. The following priority areas were identified (in no particular order): Communication: ...◦Spread the results of the ECA assessment to the public and those groups who work on the conservation of biological diversity. ◦The communication of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) may provide an example for effective public relations for ECA results. ◦ Next steps: Science: ◦Mainstream the IPBES results in the regional science agenda. ◦Work to fill identified knowledge gaps, including geographical gaps in knowledge. ◦Identify measures to address drivers of change in biodiversity decline. ◦Foster multidisciplinarity, including better integration of the social sciences. ◦Promote IPBES at research institutions. ◦Use current momentum to provide a financial basis for IPBES‐related activities. ◦Link ECA assessment results to evidence‐based conservation and to national initiatives. ◦Use the ECA results to build collaboration between researchers and policy‐makers.
To tackle the current global environmental crisis, operational science‐policy interfaces are needed. The Intergovernmental Science‐policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) ...provides governments with policy advice via its assessment reports. To expand the evidence‐base and to support the uptake of IPBES products, participation needs to be balanced across the globe. We found imbalance in authors’ distribution at both the UN regional and country level. It is more pronounced for IPBES‐related scientific papers than for the IPBES global assessment. The more detached from politics the decision of getting involved is, the more imbalanced the representation of the regions becomes. To improve the IPBES’ geographical balance, a strategy to increase the number of active member states is called for. We argued that without explicit efforts to reach the balance—for example, providing an attractive research environment for excellent researchers in their home country, improving cooperation among countries across the UN regions, and granting publication opportunity for all authors—the idea of geographic equality diminishes.
abstract
Having a central scientific language remains crucial for advancing and globally sharing science. Nevertheless, maintaining one dominant language also creates barriers to accessing scientific ...careers and knowledge. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we describe how, when, and why to make scientific literature more readily available in multiple languages through the practice of translation. We broadly review the advantages and limitations of neural machine translation systems and propose that translation can serve as both a short- and a long-term solution for making science more resilient, accessible, globally representative, and impactful beyond the academy. We outline actions that individuals and institutions can take to support multilingual science and scientists, including structural changes that encourage and value translating scientific literature. In the long term, improvements to machine translation technologies and collective efforts to change academic norms can transform a monolingual scientific hub into a multilingual scientific network. Translations are available in the supplemental material.
European nature conservation has a strong focus on farmland harbouring threatened species that mainly co-occur with traditional agriculture shaped way before the green revolution. Increased land-use ...intensity in agriculture has caused an alarming decline in farmland biodiversity during the last century. How can a landscape perspective contribute to fostering our understanding on causes and consequences of farmland biodiversity decline and improving the effectiveness of conservation measures? To answer these questions, we discuss the importance of landscape compositional and configurational heterogeneity, understanding ecological mechanisms determining how landscape structure affects farmland biodiversity and considering the interplay of farmland biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation.
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