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Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and temperatures are expected to stimulate plant productivity and ecosystem C sequestration, but these effects require a concurrent increase in N availability for plants. Plants might indirectly promote N availability as they release organic C into the soil (e.g., by root exudation) that can increase microbial soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition (“pri
The first checklist of the odonates from Guyana is presented, including 46 new species records. Literature sources are provided for all species and for the new records full locality data, color scans or field photographs, taxonomic and biological notes, and maps for those species whose distribution range is increased considerably.
Natural organic matter (NOM) is found in all surface, ground, and soil waters. During recent decades, reports worldwide show a continuing increase in the color and NOM of the surface water, which has an adverse effect on drinking water purification. For several practical and hygienic reasons, the presence of NOM is undesirable in drinking water. Various technologies have been proposed for NOM remo
Reproducible climate reconstructions of the Common Era (1 CE to present) are key to placing industrial-era warming into the context of natural climatic variability. Here we present a community-sourced database of temperature-sensitive proxy records from the PAGES2k initiative. The database gathers 692 records from 648 locations, including all continental regions and major ocean basins. The records
Background: The loss of carbon (C) from agricultural soils has been, in part, attributed to tillage, a common practice providing a number of benefits to farmers. The promotion of less intensive tillage practices and no tillage (NT) (the absence of mechanical soil disturbance) aims to mitigate negative impacts on soil quality and to preserve soil organic carbon (SOC). Several reviews and meta-analy
The majority of herbivorous insects are specialized in host use. Even among insects that use many hosts, local specialization is common with a single host plant often being used in any given locality. Here, we establish such a pattern for the European swallowtail butterfly, Papilio machaon. We sampled larvae on five different natural hosts at eight sites in Sweden, each locality showing local mono
During the Early and Mid-Holocene significant changes in the ecology and socio-cultural spheres occurred around the Baltic Sea. Because of the underlying climatic changes and thus environmental alterations, the area was the scene for various cultural developments during the period under investigation. In the course of the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, isostatic and eustat
To determine the spectrum of secreted proteins that are present in the extracellular space of early Xenopus embryos, a direct secretion screen was performed. Surprisingly, 24% of previously identified bona fide secretory proteins corresponded to four secreted Wnt antagonists of the same family: frzb-1, sizzled, sfrp-2 and crescent. sfrp-2 and crescent are novel components of the growing cocktail o
In temperate latitudes, many insects enter diapause (dormancy) during the cold season, a period during which developmental processes come to a standstill. The wood white (Leptidea sinapis) is a butterfly species distributed across western Eurasia that shows photoperiod-induced diapause with variation in critical day-length across populations at different latitudes. We assembled transcriptomes and
'Adaptive Landscape' was first formulated as a heuristic model or metaphor for the evolutionary process by late population geneticist Sewall Wright in a famous paper published in 1932. The metaphor of an adaptive landscape with adaptive peaks of high fitness, separated by adaptive valleys of low fitness attracted a lot of interest from contemporary and later evolutionary biologists and inspired re
To understand host–parasite interactions, it is necessary to quantify variation and covariation in defence traits. We quantified parasite resistance and fitness tolerance of a polymorphic damselfly (Ischnura elegans), an insectwith three discrete female colour morphs but with monomorphic males. We quantified sex and morph differences in parasite resistance (prevalence and intensity of water mite i
Humans have dramatic, diverse and far-reaching influences on the evolution of other organisms. Numerous examples of this human-induced contemporary evolution have been reported in a number of ‘contexts’, including hunting, harvesting, fishing, agriculture, medicine, climate change, pollution, eutrophication, urbanization, habitat fragmentation, biological invasions and emerging/disappearing diseas
Wind tunnels, in which birds fly against an artificially generated air flow, have since long been used to evaluate aerodynamic properties of steady bird flight. A new generation of wind tunnels has also allowed the many processes associated with migratory flights to be studied in captivity. We review how wind tunnel studies of aerodynamics and migratory performance together have helped advancing o
This article describes how natural geothermal soil temperature gradients in Iceland have been used to study terrestrial ecosystem responses to soil warming. The experimental approach was evaluated at three study sites in southern Iceland one grassland site that has been warm for at least 50 years (GO), and another comparable grassland site (GN) and a Sitka spruce plantation (FN) site that have bot
The main challenge for future electricity systems is to match the available electricity from variable renewable resources with the electricity demand in place, time and quantity. One option for increasing electricity system flexibility is to integrate the electricity system with the district heating systems via the use of power-to-heat technologies such as electric boilers. The overarching objecti
Hydrophobins are small secreted proteins that are present as several gene copies in most fungal genomes. Their properties are now well understood: they are amphiphilic and assemble at hydrophilic/hydrophobic interfaces. However, their physiological functions remain largely unexplored, especially within mycorrhizal fungi. In this study, we identified hydrophobin genes and analysed their distributio
We reconstructed the past coastal environment of the Baltic Sea from c. 7300 to 3500 cal. a BP, with a focus on sea surface salinity (SSS). To quantitatively determine the SSS, two methods were employed: measurements of 87Sr/86Sr ratios in mollusc shells (SSSS r) and process length variations of dinoflagellate cysts Operculodinium centrocarpum (SSSpl). The SSSS r was ~6–7 between 6
Effects of the fungicide propiconazole on soil microorganisms were tested using [3H] leucine incorporation and [14C] acetate in ergosterol incorporation to measure bacterial and fungal growth inhibition, respectively. Growth was compared to basal respiration (BR) and substrate-induced respiration (SIR) in soil microcosms established according to the OECD 217 guideline. Fungal growth was most sensi
Climate change has the potential to affect the ecology and evolution of every species on Earth. Although the ecological consequences of climate change are increasingly well documented, the effects of climate on the key evolutionary process driving adaptation - natural selection - are largely unknown. We report that aspects of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, along with the North Atl
We documented the annual cycle of the carbon isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (δ13CDIC) in the water columns of the Skagerrak and Baltic Sea to obtain an increased understanding of the processes involved controlling the carbon isotopic distribution in shelf seas. The lowest δ13CDIC values (-4.9‰) were found in the low-oxygen, brackish Baltic bottom water whereas the highest value
