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Shifting flowering seasons is a global effect of climate change that can have important long-term evolutionary and demographic effects on plant communities. Life history optimization theory can be a valuable tool to assert the adaptive value and fitness effects of observed phenological shifts, but takes plant-plant competition rarely into account. Here we combine energy allocation models with evol
Conservation biological control in agricultural landscapes aims to promote natural enemy populations to mitigate short and long-term pest damage on crops. However, natural enemy populations in agricultural landscapes typically rely on crop pests and non-pest prey populations resulting in complex trait- dependent ecological interactions. Such communities, of pests, non-pest prey, and natural enemie
One of the most important challenges for modern society is how to feed the world in a sustainable manner. Agriculture is an essential part of food production, but at the same time it has many negative impacts on the environment, through for example pollution, nutrient leaching, and greenhouse gas emissions, and it is a big driver of biodiversity loss. Organic farming is a farming system that in ma
The daily transition between day and night, known as the diel cycle, is characterised by significant shifts in environmental conditions and biological activity, both of which can affect crucial ecosystem functions like pollination. Despite over six decades of research into whether pollination varies between day and night, consensus remains elusive. We compiled the evidence of diel pollination from
When Sweden adopted its carbon tax in 1990, it was as one of the first of its kind worldwide. While the adoption of the tax has been attributed to its inclusion in the Swedish tax reform, undoubtedly playing a crucial role, the reform does not in itself explain how the Swedish carbon tax came about or why it became part of the reform package in the first place. In this article, we present a case s
Cutting edge preparation is crucial in metal cutting as the edge geometry significantly influences both the material removal process and tool life. However, an analytical model that can physically describe the cutting edge preparation process has not yet been established. Taking the wet abrasive jet machining (WAJM) method as an example, the following questions always remain: Why does WAJM always
The majority of soil carbon (C) is stored in organic matter associated with reactive minerals. These mineral-organic associations (MOAs) inhibit microbial and enzymatic access to organic matter, suggesting that organic C within MOAs is resistant to decomposition. However, plant roots and rhizosphere microbes are known to transform minerals through dissolution and exchange reactions, implying that
The Swedish carbon tax of 1991, one of the first of its kind, has positioned Sweden as a forerunner in climate governance. It is often depicted an international success and today constitutes the backbone of Swedish climate policy. At first, however, the tax received widespread criticism and had limited political support. The policy design process was short, with limited time for deliberation. Whil
Most landscapes are comprised of multiple habitat types differing in the biodiversity they contain. This is certainly true for human modified landscapes, which are often a mix of habitats managed with different intensity, semi-natural habitats and even pristine habitats. To understand fundamental questions of how the composition of such landscapes affects biodiversity conservation, and to evaluate
Scientists have deemed existing protected areas in European forests insufficient to halt and reverse biodiversity loss resulting from ongoing intensification of management. In Sweden, protected areas are therefore complemented with the so-called areas of high conservation value (AHCVs), that is, landscapes encompassing both protected and assumed biodiversity-valuable areas as well as surrounding l
Soil functions can be classified as supporting (nutrient cycling) and provisioning (crop production) ecosystem services (ES). These services consist of multiple and dynamic functions and are typically assessed using indicators, e.g. microbial biomass as an indicator of supporting services. Agricultural intensification negatively affects indicators of soil functions and is therefore considered to d
Bumble bee abundance in agricultural landscapes is known to decrease with increasing distance from seminatural grasslands, but whether the pollination of bumble-bee-pollinated wild plants shows a similar pattern is less well known. In addition, the relative effects of landscape composition (landscape heterogeneity) and landscape configuration (distance from seminatural grassland) on wild plant pol
Spatiotemporal resource continuity promotes persistence of mobile animal populations. Current agricultural landscapes are poor in flowers resources for bumble bees. Available forage crops are predominantly early-season mass-flowering crops (MFC). It has been suggested, but not tested, that scarcity of late-season flower resources are limiting bumble bee populations. We examined whether addition of
Effects of landscape heterogeneity and farming practice on species composition are less well known than those on species richness, in spite of the fact that community composition can be at least as important for ecosystem services, such as pollination. Here, we assessed the effect of organic farming and landscape heterogeneity on pollinator communities, focusing on multivariate patterns in species
Soil biodiversity through its delivery of ecosystem functions and attendant supporting ecosystem services-benefits soil organisms generate for farmers-underpins agricultural production. Yet lack of practical methods to value the long-term effects of current farming practices results, inevitably, in short-sighted management decisions. We present a method for valuing changes in supporting soil ecosy
Growing evidence for declines in wild bees calls for the development and implementation of effective mitigation measures. Enhancing floral resources is a widely accepted measure for promoting bees in agricultural landscapes, but effectiveness varies considerably between landscapes and regions. We hypothesize that this variation is mainly driven by a combination of the direct effects of measures on
To assess ecological consequences of bushmeat hunting in African lowland rainforests, we compared paired sites, with high and low hunting pressure, in three areas of southeastern Nigeria. In hunted sites, populations of important seed dispersers-both small and large primates (including the Cross River gorilla, Gorilla gorilla diehli)-were drastically reduced. Large rodents were more abundant in hu
Agri-environment schemes (AES) have been introduced to mitigate negative environmental effects caused by increased agricultural intensification in Europe. However, there is still debate on whether currently available incentives are efficiently enhancing farmland biodiversity. Moreover, agri-environment schemes often lead to a yield reduction, which has been argued to potentially increase pressure
