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In Padova, the municipal department of green infrastructure monitors the urban forest through a continuously updated database that stores information about locations, species, dimensions, health conditions, and management of more than 47,000 trees. The aim of the research presented in this chapter was to support urban forest planning and management by integrating the existing database with informa
Nanoplastics (NPs) originated from plastic residues can interact with soil microorganisms with potential negative effects to their functions. Therefore, I aimed to investigate soil microbial population dynamics when exposed to different NP polymers and concentrations. I used microfluidics technology to produce a soil micromodel – a soil chip - comprising basic pore geometries where microorganisms
Generating scientific advice to environmental management involves assessments with complex models, sparse data, and challenging empirical experiments, necessitating the integration of expert judgment with data into scientific models. To integrate expert judgement, assessors might elicit judgement by experts as quantiles, find a probability distribution that matches the quantiles, and add this info
Delivering a revolution in evidence use requires a cultural change across society. For a wide range of groups (practitioners, knowledge brokers, organisations, organisational leaders, policy makers, funders, researchers, journal publishers, the wider conservation community, educators, writers, and journalists), options are described to facilitate a change in practice, and a series of downloadable
Understanding the coupling of nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) cycles of land ecosystems requires understanding microbial element use efficiencies of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition. Whereas important controls of those efficiencies by microbial community adaptations have been shown at the scale of a soil pore, a simplified representation of those controls is needed at the ecosystem scale. Howev
Microplastics provide a new ecological niche for microorganisms, and the accumulation levels of microplastics (MPs) in terrestrial ecosystems are higher than those in marine ecosystems. Here, we applied the zymography to investigate how MPs — polyethylene [PE], and polyvinyl chloride [PVC]) at two levels (0.01% and 1% soil weight) impacted the spatial distribution of soil hydrolases, nutrient avai
Wild insect pollinators are essential to cultivated and natural ecosystems globally. Today, many pollinator species are declining. One reason is a general lack of flowering habitats at landscape scales. However, urban areas, including private gardens, may provide flowers, and constitute beneficial habitats for pollinators. Here, we evaluate the ecological outcomes of a citizen science campaign run
Phosphorus (P) availability affects the response of terrestrial ecosystems to environmental and climate change (e.g., elevated CO2), yet the magnitude of this effect remains uncertain. This uncertainty arises mainly from a lack of quantitative understanding of the soil biological and geochemical P cycling processes, particularly the P exchange with soil mineral surfaces, which is often described b
Motivation: Here, we make available a second version of the BioTIME database, which compiles records of abundance estimates for species in sample events of ecological assemblages through time. The updated version expands version 1.0 of the database by doubling the number of studies and includes substantial additional curation to the taxonomic accuracy of the records, as well as the metadata. Moreo
Aims: We introduce ReSurveyEurope — a new data source of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe, compiled by a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. We de-scribe the scope of this initiative, provide an overview of currently available data, governance, data contribution rules, and accessibility. In addition, we outline further steps, including potential research questions. Results: ReSurv
Human society relies on, and interacts with, a diverse assortment of organisms and ecological systems, from the local to the global level. Research and management of these coupled social-ecological systems requires data that speaks to the variety of processes, statuses, and situations defined by them. Effective stewardship is enhanced by interdisciplinary thinking and, critically, access to intero
Atmospheric methane (CH4) growth rates reached unprecedented values in the years 2020-2022. To identify the main drivers of this increase, an inverse modeling study estimated regional and sectoral emission changes for 2016-2022. Three inverse estimates based on different sets of atmospheric CH4 observations (surface observations only, surface and aircraft observations, and GOSAT observations) cons
Integrated pest management (IPM) is an important tool for sustainable crop production. IPM includes a diversity of methods, e.g., the use of biological control agents (BCAs) for disease control or growth promotion. While there is an increasing interest in the use of BCAs, less is known about their environmental costs and benefits on wild species, such as wild crop relatives. For example, a BCA may
The interdisciplinary nature of microbiome research, coupled with the generation of complex multi-omics data, makes knowledge sharing challenging. The Strengthening the Organization and Reporting of Microbiome Studies (STORMS) guidelines provide a checklist for the reporting of study information, experimental design and analytical methods within a scientific manuscript on human microbiome research
Standard ZYMO DNA/RNA miniprep extraction protocol written in a user friendly way to reduce in-process-decisions and process time
Conservation grazing is widely used to manage open ecosystems, but inconsistent definitions and inadequate reporting of grazing patterns hinder effective communication among researchers, practitioners and policymakers, limiting the understanding and success of conservation grazing regimes. We demonstrate detailed measurement of the grazing pattern (comprising timing, intensity, duration and freque
