| 1. |
- Ahnesjö, Ingrid
(författare)
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Equal Opportunity for Sexual Evolution
- 2011
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 61:8, s. 641-642
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Recension (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 2. |
- Erlandsson, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Increasing Dissolved Organic Carbon Redefines the Extent of Surface Water Acidification and Helps Resolve a Classic Controversy
- 2011
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 61:8, s. 614-618
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Concentrations of organic acids in freshwaters have increased significantly during recent decades across large parts of Europe and North America. Different theories of the causes (e.g., recovery from acidification, climate change, land use) have different implications for defining the preindustrial levels for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which are crucial for assessing acidification and other aspects of water quality. We demonstrate this by classifying the acidification status of 66 lakes with long-term observations, representative of about 12,700 acid-sensitive lakes in nemoral and boreal Sweden. Of these lakes, 47% are classified as significantly acidified (Delta pH >= 0.4), assuming preindustrial DOC levels were equal to those observed in 1990. But if instead, the higher DOC levels observed in 2009 define preindustrial conditions, half as many lakes are acidified (24%). This emphasizes the need to establish reference levels for DOC and casts new light on the classic controversy about natural versus anthropogenic acidification.
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| 3. |
- Gavin, Michael C., et al.
(författare)
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Toward a Mechanistic Understanding of Linguistic Diversity
- 2013
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 63:7, s. 524-535
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Our species displays remarkable linguistic diversity. Although the uneven distribution of this diversity demands explanation, the drivers of these patterns have not been conclusively determined. We address this issue in two steps: First, we review previous empirical studies whose authors have suggested environmental, geographical, and sociocultural drivers of linguistic diversification. However, contradictory results and methodological variation make it difficult to draw general conclusions. Second, we outline a program for future research. We suggest that future analyses should account for interactions among causal factors, the lack of spatial and phylogenetic independence of the data, and transitory patterns. Recent analytical advances in biogeography and evolutionary biology, such as simulation modeling of diversity patterns, hold promise for testing four key mechanisms of language diversification proposed here: neutral change, population movement, contact, and selection. Future modeling approaches should also evaluate how the outcomes of these processes are influenced by demography, environmental heterogeneity, and time.
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| 4. |
- Gustafsson, Lena
(författare)
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Retention Forestry to Maintain Multifunctional Forests: A World Perspective
- 2012
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Ingår i: Bioscience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 62, s. 633-645
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The majority of the world's forests are used for multiple purposes, which often include the potentially conflicting goals of timber production and biodiversity conservation. A scientifically validated management approach that can reduce such conflicts is retention forestry, an approach modeled on natural processes, which emerged in the last 25 years as an alternative to clearcutting. A portion of the original stand is left unlogged to maintain the continuity of structural and compositional diversity. We detail retention forestry's ecological role, review its current practices, and summarize the large research base on the subject. Retention forestry is applicable to all forest biomes, complements conservation in reserves, and represents bottom-up conservation through forest manager involvement. A research challenge is to identify thresholds for retention amounts to achieve desired outcomes. We define key issues for future development and link retention forestry with land-zoning allocation at various scales, expanding its uses to forest restoration and the management of uneven-age forests.
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| 5. |
- Leadley, Paul, et al.
(författare)
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Interacting Regional-Scale Regime Shifts for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
- 2014
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 64:8, s. 665-679
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Current trajectories of global change may lead to regime shifts at regional scales, driving coupled human-environment systems to highly degraded states in terms of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. For business-as-usual socioeconomic development pathways, regime shifts are projected to occur within the next several decades, to be difficult to reverse, and to have regional- to global-scale impacts on human society. We provide an overview of ecosystem, socioeconomic, and biophysical mechanisms mediating regime shifts and illustrate how these interact at regional scales by aggregation, synergy, and spreading processes. We give detailed examples of interactions for terrestrial ecosystems of central South America and for marine and coastal ecosystems of Southeast Asia. This analysis suggests that degradation of biodiversity and, ecosystem services over the twenty-first century could be far greater than was previously predicted. We identify key policy and management opportunities at regional to global scales to avoid these shifts.
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| 6. |
- Marshall, John, et al.
(författare)
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Reconstructing Disturbances and Their Biogeochemical Consequences over Multiple Timescales
- 2014
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Ingår i: Bioscience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 64, s. 105-116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ongoing changes in disturbance regimes are predicted to cause acute changes in ecosystem structure and function in the coming decades, but many aspects of these predictions are uncertain. A key challenge is to improve the predictability of postdisturbance biogeochemical trajectories at the ecosystem level. Ecosystem ecologists and paleoecologists have generated complementary data sets about disturbance (type, severity, frequency) and ecosystem response (net primary productivity, nutrient cycling) spanning decadal to millennial timescales. Here, we take the first steps toward a full integration of these data sets by reviewing how disturbances are reconstructed using dendrochronological and sedimentary archives and by summarizing the conceptual frameworks for carbon, nitrogen, and hydrologic responses to disturbances. Key research priorities include further development of paleoecological techniques that reconstruct both disturbances and terrestrial ecosystem dynamics. In addition, mechanistic detail from disturbance experiments, long-term observations, and chronosequences can help increase the understanding of ecosystem resilience.
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| 7. |
- Polvi, Lina E, et al.
(författare)
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Biotic drivers of stream planform : implications for understanding the past and restoring the future
- 2013
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 63:6, s. 439-452
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Traditionally, stream channel planform has been viewed as a function of larger watershed and valley-scale physical variables, including valley slope, the amount of discharge, and sediment size and load. Biotic processes serve a crucial role in transforming channel planform among straight, braided, meandering, and anabranching styles by increasing stream-bank stability and the probability of avulsions, creating stable multithread (anabranching) channels, and affecting sedimentation dynamics. We review the role of riparian vegetation and channel-spanning obstructions-beaver dams and logjams-in altering channel-floodplain dynamics in the southern Rocky Mountains, and we present channel planform scenarios for combinations of vegetation and beaver populations or old-growth forest that control logjam formation. These conceptual models provide understanding of historical planform variability throughout the Holocene and outline the implications for stream restoration or management in broad, low-gradient headwater valleys, which are important for storing sediment, carbon, and nutrients and for supporting a diverse riparian community.
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| 8. |
- Raudsepp-Hearne, Ciara, et al.
(författare)
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The Paradox Persists : how to Resolve It?
- 2011
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 61:1, s. 11-12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The environmentalist's paradox refers to two apparently contra-dictory trends: declining supplies of ecosystem services and increasing human well-being. If humans are truly dependent on nature, then human well-being should deteriorate as ecosystem services are degraded. Our article (Raudsepp-Hearne et al. 2010) examined the evidence for and against four proposed explanations of this paradox. By evaluating multiple explanations, we aimed to contribute to a stronger science of sustainability by encouraging dialogue among the disciplines that address sustainability but emphasize different ways of explaining this paradox. In our article, we critically reviewed empirical evidence from a broad multidisciplinary literature about the relationship between human well-being and ecosystem services and identified areas for future research to address the important gaps in our understanding of this relationship. Consequently, we broadly agree with both Nelson and Duraiappah (see Viewpoints, this issue) that more research and data at multiple scales are needed to resolve the environmentalist's paradox. However, our perspectives differ from theirs in terms of trends in well-being, stocks and flows of ecosystem services, and the role of technology in mediating the relationship between ecosystems and human well-being.
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| 9. |
- Raudsepp-Hearne, Ciara, et al.
(författare)
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Untangling the Environmentalist's Paradox : Why Is Human Well-being Increasing as Ecosystem Services Degrade?
- 2010
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 60:8, s. 576-589
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmentalists have argued that ecological degradation will lead to declines in the well-being of people dependent on ecosystem services. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment paradoxically found that human well-being has increased despite large global declines in most ecosystem services. We assess four explanations of these divergent trends: (1) We have measured well-being incorrectly; (2) well-being is dependent on food services, which are increasing, and not on other services that are declining; (3) technology has decoupled well-being from nature; (4) time lags may lead to future declines in well-being. Our findings discount the first hypothesis, but elements of the remaining three appear plausible. Although ecologists have convincingly documented ecological decline, science does not adequately understand the implications of this decline for human well-being. Untangling how human well-being has increased as ecosystem conditions decline is critical to guiding future management of ecosystem services; we propose four research areas to help achieve this goal.
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| 10. |
- Reidy Liermann, Catherine, et al.
(författare)
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Implications of dam obstruction for global freshwater fish diversity
- 2012
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 62:6, s. 539-548
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dams are obstructing rivers worldwide, impairing habitat and migration opportunities for many freshwater fish species; however, global data linking dam and fish distributions have been limited. Here, we quantify dam obstruction at the biogeographic scale of freshwater ecoregion, which provides the spatial framework necessary to assess the risk of fish species loss due to dams and allows us to identify both ecoregions and genera at risk. Nearly 50% of the 397 assessed freshwater ecoregions are obstructed by large- and medium-size dams, and approximately 27% face additional downstream obstruction. A synthesis of obstruction data and fish traits indicates that taxa such as lampreys (Lampetra spp.), eels (Anguilla spp.), and shads (Alosa spp.) are at particular risk of species loss. Threatened ecoregions with heavy dam obstruction and above-average counts of total, diadromous, or endemic species are found on all continents and include the Murray-Darling Province, Southern Italy, the Lower and Middle Indus Basin, West Korea, the South Atlantic region of the United States, the Upper Parana, and Mobile Bay ecoregions.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Viketoft, Maria
(författare)
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Soil and Freshwater and Marine Sediment Food Webs: Their Structure and Function
- 2013
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Ingår i: Bioscience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 63, s. 35-42
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The food webs of terrestrial soils and of freshwater and marine sediments depend on adjacent aboveground or pelagic ecosystems for organic matter input that provides nutrients and energy. There are important similarities in the flow of organic matter through these food webs and how this flow feeds back to primary production. In both soils and sediments, trophic interactions occur in a cycle in which consumers stimulate nutrient cycling such that mineralized resources are made available to the primary producers. However, aquatic sediments and terrestrial soils differ greatly in the connectivity between the production and the consumption of organic matter. Terrestrial soils and shallow aquatic sediments can receive organic matter within hours of photosynthesis when roots leak carbon, whereas deep oceanic sediments receive organic matter possibly months after carbon assimilation by phytoplankton. This comparison has implications for the capacity of soils and sediments to affect the global carbon balance.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Weber, Christine, et al.
(författare)
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Winter disturbances and riverine fish in temperate and cold regions
- 2013
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press. - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 63:3, s. 199-210
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Winter is a critical period for aquatic organisms; however, little is known about the ecological significance of its extreme events. Here, we link winter ecology and disturbance research by synthesizing the impacts of extreme winter conditions on riverine habitats and fish assemblages in temperate and cold regions. We characterize winter disturbances by their temporal pattern and abiotic effects, explore how various drivers influence fish, and discuss human alterations of winter disturbances and future research needs. We conclude that (a) more data on winter dynamics are needed to identify extreme events, (b) winter ecology and disturbance research should test assumptions of practical relevance for both disciplines, (c) hydraulic and population models should incorporate winter- and disturbance-specific aspects, and (d) management for sustainability requires that river managers work proactively by including anticipated future alterations in the design of restoration and conservation activities.
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| 15. |
- Österblom, Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling Social—Ecological Scenarios in Marine Systems
- 2013
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 63:9, s. 735-744
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Human activities have substantial impacts on marine ecosystems, including rapid regime shifts with large consequences for human well-being. We highlight the use of model-based scenarios as a scientific tool for adaptive stewardship in the face of such consequences. The natural sciences have a long history of developing scenarios but rarely with an in-depth understanding of factors influencing human actions. Social scientists have traditionally investigated human behavior, but scholars often argue that behavior is too complex to be repre-ented by broad generalizations useful for models and scenarios. We address this scientific divide with a framework for integrated marine social ecological scenarios, combining quantitative process-based models from the biogeochemical and ecological disciplines with qualitative studies on governance and social change. The aim is to develop policy-relevant scenarios based on an in-depth empirical understanding from both the natural and the social sciences, thereby contributing to adaptive stewardship of marine social-ecological systems.
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