Direct and indirect ecological drivers of bird communities in intensively cultivated landscapes.

Agriculture has played a pivotal role in shaping European mountain biodiversity. Traditional practices, characterized by low intensity and crop mosaics, have historically created complex, heterogeneous landscapes that supported a high biodiversity level. Agricultural intensification has turned these traditional crop systems into artificial habitats, leading to increased field sizes, habitat fragmentation, and decrease of habitat heterogeneity, contributing to the current farmland biodiversity crisis.

Contrasting diversification patterns across wood rushes from Luzula sect. Luzula (Juncaceae) revealed by 3RAD genome-wide sequencing.

Among the different mechanisms triggering diversification processes, chromosomal rearrangements that generate karyotypic changes are common in plants. Luzula (Juncaceae) is among the few angiosperm genera with holocentric chromosomes, which can undergo chromosome fission (agmatoploidy) or fusion (symploidy), resulting in karyotypes with different chromosome numbers and sizes. In this study, 3RAD genome-wide sequencing data and plastid sequences were used to explore evolutionary trends and patterns of genetic diversification among diploid taxa of Luzula sect.

Biogeographical and Ecological Patterns of the Bryophytic Flora Inhabiting the Small Islands Surrounding the Italian Peninsula, Sicily and Sardinia.

Bryophytes' adaptability and stress resistance make them excellent colonizers. Moreover, bryophytes are key components of almost all terrestrial ecosystems from aquatic to arid to freezing cold. Bryophytes are also unique models to study adaptation and stress resistance in plants.

Biodiversity in mountain soils above the treeline.

Biological diversity in mountain ecosystems has been increasingly studied over the last decade. This is also the case for mountain soils, but no study to date has provided an overall synthesis of the current state of knowledge. Here we fill this gap with a first global analysis of published research on cryptogams, microorganisms, and fauna in mountain soils above the treeline, and a structured synthesis of current knowledge.

Behavioral, Ecological, and Morphological Data Suggest a Close Relationship Between the Ant Colobopsis truncata and the Gall Wasp Aphelonyx cerricola.

Wasps of the family Cynipidae are known to induce galls of a species-specific morphology, which during senescence provide a refuge for secondary insect fauna, especially ants. Here, we studied for the first time the colonization of galls of Aphelonyx cerricola by two ant species, Colobopsis truncata and Crematogaster scutellaris. Field sampling across one urban and one natural site in Italy showed that 61% of A.

StoichLife: A Global Dataset of Plant and Animal Elemental Content.

The elemental content of life is a key trait shaping ecology and evolution, yet organismal stoichiometry has largely been studied on a case-by-case basis. This limitation has hindered our ability to identify broad patterns and mechanisms across taxa and ecosystems. To address this, we present StoichLife, a global dataset of 28,049 records from 5,876 species spanning terrestrial, freshwater, and marine realms.

Profiling microplastics in a forgotten river system in Southern Africa.

Microplastics have been studied in rivers worldwide with far-reaching implications for aquatic ecosystems. What is less understood is how microplastics distribute through rivers, as microplastics do not distribute ubiquitously through a river system. This study described the microplastic profile of the Nyl, Mogalakwena and Limpopo Rivers in South Africa.

Mapping the probability of forest fire hazard across the European Alps under climate change scenarios.

Forest fires are increasing in frequency and intensity worldwide due to the anthropogenic climate change, threatening people's lives and causing huge economic and environmental damages. Recent forest fire events suggest that forest fires are also an urgent issue in the European Alps, but studies assessing the forest fire hazard under future climate scenarios are still rare. Thus, this study aims to analyse the impacts of climate change on the probability of forest fire hazard across the European Alps and surrounding areas.

Short-term impact of low air pressure on plants' functional traits.

Lower atmospheric pressure affects biologically relevant physical parameters such as gas partial pressure and concentration, leading to increased water vapor diffusivity and greater soil water content loss through evapotranspiration. This might impact plant photosynthetic activity, resource allocation, water relations, and growth. However, the direct impact of low air pressure on plant physiology is largely unknown.

Spatiotemporal patterns and drivers of orchard meadow loss in South Tyrol, Italy.

Orchard meadows, a specific agroforestry system characterised by scattered high-stem fruit trees, are a traditional element of several cultural landscapes in Central Europe and provide important ecosystem services. Since the middle of the 20th century, orchard meadows have drastically declined across Europe. Spatial information on the drivers and patterns of such a decline in several regions in Central Europe is lacking.

Mapping and Analyzing Ecosystem Services Hotspots and Coldspots for Sustainable Spatial Planning in the Greater Asmara Area, Eritrea.

Rapid urbanization in African metropolises like the Greater Asmara Area, Eritrea, poses numerous environmental challenges, including soil sealing, loss of vegetation cover, threats to protected natural areas, and climate change, among others. Mapping and assessing ecosystem services, particularly analyzing their spatial and temporal distribution is crucial for sustainable spatial planning. This study aims at mapping and analyzing ecosystem services hotspots and coldspots dynamics in the Greater Asmara Area to identify recent trends and opportunities for enhancing ecosystem services supply.

A Comparative Bryo-Ecological Study of Habitat 3170*: Sites of Particular Phytogeographic Interest in the Mediterranean Area.

In accordance with the 92/43/EEC "Habitats" Directive, Mediterranean temporary ponds are identified as a priority natural habitat within the European context. They are a very interesting and unique habitat type, as ecological conditions can vary greatly in a short period of time. Due to their small size, many Mediterranean hydrophytic bryophytes typical of this habitat are often overlooked or misinterpreted.

Climate resilience of European wine regions.

Over centuries, European vintners have developed a profound knowledge about grapes, environment, and techniques that yield the most distinguishable wines. In many regions, this knowledge is reflected in the system of wine geographical indications (GI), but climate change is challenging this historical union. Here, we present a climate change vulnerability assessment of 1085 wine GIs across Europe and propose climate-resilient development pathways using an ensemble of biophysical and socioeconomic indicators.

Phenological responses of alpine snowbed communities to advancing snowmelt.

Climate change is leading to advanced snowmelt date in alpine regions. Consequently, alpine plant species and ecosystems experience substantial changes due to prolonged phenological seasons, while the responses, mechanisms and implications remain widely unclear. In this 3-year study, we investigated the effects of advancing snowmelt on the phenology of alpine snowbed species.

Mapping the natural disturbance risk to protective forests across the European Alps.

Mountain forests play an essential role in protecting people and infrastructure from natural hazards. However, forests are currently experiencing an increasing rate of natural disturbances (including windthrows, bark beetle outbreaks and forest fires) that may jeopardize their capacity to provide this ecosystem service in the future. Here, we mapped the risk to forests' protective service across the European Alps by integrating the risk components of hazard (in this case, the probability of a disturbance occurring), exposure (the proportion of forests that protect people or infrastructure), and vulnerability (the probability that the forests lose their protective structure after a disturbance).

Six years of high-resolution climatic data collected along an elevation gradient in the Italian Alps.

The complex meso- and microclimatic heterogeneity inherent to mountainous regions, driven by both topographic and biotic factors, and the lack of observations, poses significant challenges to using climate models to predict and understand impacts at various scales. We present here a six-year dataset (2017-2022) of continuous climatic measurements collected at five elevations from 983 m to 2705 m above sea level in the Val Mazia - Matschertal valley in the Italian Alps. The measurements include the air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, soil properties, precipitation, and snow height.

Quality wines in Italy and France: A dataset of protected designation of origin specifications.

Italy and France are historically among the countries that produce the most prestigious wines worldwide. In Europe, these two countries together produce more than half of the wines classified under the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) label, the strictest quality mark of food and wines in the European Union. Due to their long tradition in wine protection, Italy and France include highly detailed specifications in their wine PDO regulatory documents that are usually not available for other countries, such as specific information about the main cultivars that must be used to make each wine or the required planting density in the vineyards.

Regional food self-sufficiency potential in the European Alpine space.

The sustainability of the food system needs to be improved, including shortening supply chains and promoting the consumption of regional food. Here, we explore the current potential for regional food self-sufficiency in the European Alpine space by calculating the current regional food/feed energy balance, deriving the regional per capita land footprint based on current food/feed consumption rates, and modelling the current potential for regional food/feed self-sufficiency. We show that 59% of the 560 Pcal of energy currently available in the study area comes from domestic production, and almost 60% of the energy is used for livestock consumption, with high regional variability.

A harmonized database of European forest simulations under climate change.

Process-based forest models combine biological, physical, and chemical process understanding to simulate forest dynamics as an emergent property of the system. As such, they are valuable tools to investigate the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems. Specifically, they allow testing of hypotheses regarding long-term ecosystem dynamics and provide means to assess the impacts of climate scenarios on future forest development.

Comparison of DNA extraction methods on different sample matrices within the same terrestrial ecosystem.

Metataxonomic studies of ecosystem microbiotas require the simultaneous processing of samples with contrasting physical and biochemical traits. However, there are no published studies of comparisons of different DNA extraction kits to characterize the microbiotas of the main components of terrestrial ecosystems. Here, and to our knowledge for the first time, five DNA extraction kits were used to investigate the composition and diversity of the microbiota of a subset of samples typically studied in terrestrial ecosystems such as bulk soil, rhizosphere soil, invertebrate taxa and mammalian feces.