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The relationships between species abundance or occurrence versus spatial variation in climate are commonly used in species distribution models to forecast future distributions. Under “space-for-time substitution”, the effects of climate variation on species are assumed to be equivalent in both space and time. Two unresolved issues of space-for-time substitution are the time period for species' res
Perturbation of soil microbial communities by rising temperatures could have important consequences for biodiversity and future climate, particularly in tropical forests where high biological diversity coincides with a vast store of soil carbon. We carried out a 2-year in situ soil warming experiment in a tropical forest in Panama and found large changes in the soil microbial community and its gro
To provide a complete portrayal of the multiple factors negatively impacting insects in agricultural landscapes it is necessary to assess the concurrent incidence, magnitude, and interactions among multiple stressors over substantial biogeographical scales. Trans-national ecological field investigations with wide-ranging stakeholders typically encounter numerous challenges during the design planni
The strive to create sustainable societies is often addressed through the lens of social, economic-, or environmental sustainability. However, this division fails to acknowledge existential dimensions of sustainability, i.e., the fundamental concern to sustain a good and meaningful life. This paper expands the notion of Existential Sustainability in relation to socio-material dimensions and built
Climate change is pushing species ranges and abundances towards the poles and mountain tops. Although many studies have documented local altitudinal shifts, knowledge of general patterns at a large spatial scale, such as a whole mountain range, is scarce. From a conservation perspective, studying altitudinal shifts in wildlife is relevant because mountain regions often represent biodiversity hotsp
Trophic cascades in the aquatic environment constitute important mechanisms for improving water quality. However, how the presence or non-presence of these trophic cascades may affect interactions across the aquatic–terrestrial interface remains poorly investigated. Pollinators such as bees may be especially vulnerable to changes in water resource quality induced by trophic cascades. Understanding
Piscivorous fish are important predators in aquatic systems and as such they can have far-reaching effects on ecosystem composition and function. These effects depend on piscivore predation rates and behaviour, and recruitment of young-of-the-year fish into piscivory can hereby govern ecosystem properties. Growth and recruitment can differ between water bodies due to e.g. general productivity, but
Over the last decades, there has been a rapid increase of the number of climate change initiatives outside the UNFCCC. In research this is referred to as ‘institutional fragmentation’, and it encompasses a wide range of public, private and hybrid initiatives, at various levels of governance. This development is extensively discussed in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report AR5. Chapters 13-16 of the Wo
Permanent ponds are valuable freshwater systems and biodiversity hotspots. They provide diverse ecosystem services (ESs), including water quality improvement and supply, food provisioning, and biodiversity support, despite significant pressure from multiple anthropogenic stressors and the impacts of ongoing global change. However, ponds are largely overlooked in management plans and legislation, a
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Climate change, biodiversity loss and chemical pollution are planetary-scale emergencies requiring urgent mitigation actions. As these "triple crises" are deeply interlinked, they need to be tackled in an integrative manner. However, while climate change and biodiversity are often studied together, chemical pollution as a global change factor contributing to worldwide biodiversity loss has receive
Aim: Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used to make predictions on how species distributions may change as a response to climatic change. To assess the reliability of those predictions, they need to be critically validated with respect to what they are used for. While ecologists are typically interested in how and where distributions will change, we argue that SDMs have seldom been eva
Anthropogenic biodiversity decline threatens the functioning of ecosystems and the many benefits they provide to humanity 1. As well as causing species losses in directly affected locations, human influence might also reduce biodiversity in relatively unmodified vegetation if far-reaching anthropogenic effects trigger local extinctions and hinder recolonization. Here we show that local plant dive
