1. |
- Kehoe, Laura, et al.
(author)
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
- 2019
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6438, s. 341-
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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2. |
- De Smedt, Pallieter, et al.
(author)
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Linking macrodetritivore distribution to desiccation resistance in small forest fragments embedded in agricultural landscapes in Europe
- 2018
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In: Landscape Ecology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0921-2973 .- 1572-9761. ; 33:3, s. 407-421
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Most of the agricultural landscape in Europe, and elsewhere, consists of mosaics with scattered fragments of semi-natural habitat like small forest fragments. Mutual interactions between forest fragments and agricultural areas influence ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, a process strongly mediated by the macrodetritivore community, which is however, poorly studied. We investigated macrodetritivore distribution patterns at local and landscape-level and used a key functional trait (desiccation resistance) to gain mechanistic insights of the putative drivers.
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3. |
- De Smedt, Pallieter, et al.
(author)
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Strength of forest edge effects on litter-dwelling macro-arthropods across Europe is influenced by forest age and edge properties
- 2019
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In: Diversity & distributions. - : Wiley. - 1366-9516 .- 1472-4642. ; 25:6, s. 963-974
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- AimForests are highly fragmented across Western Europe, making forest edges important features in many agricultural landscapes. Forest edges are subject to strong abiotic gradients altering the forest environment and resulting in strong biotic gradients. This has the potential to change the forest's capacity to provide multiple ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and natural pest control. Soil organisms play a key role in this perspective; however, these taxa are rarely considered in forest edge research.LocationA latitudinal gradient of 2,000 km across Western Europe.MethodsWe sampled six dominant taxa of litter-dwelling macro-arthropods (carabid beetles, spiders, harvestmen, centipedes, millipedes and woodlice) in forest edges and interiors of 192 forest fragments in 12 agricultural landscapes. We related their abundance and community composition to distance from the edge and the interaction with forest age, edge orientation and edge contrast (contrast between land use types at either side of the edge).ResultsThree out of six macro-arthropod taxa have higher activity-density in forest edges compared to forest interiors. The abundance patterns along forest edge-to-interior gradients interacted with forest age. Forest age and edge orientation also influenced within-fragment compositional variation along the forest edge-to-interior gradient. Edge contrast influenced abundance gradients of generalist predators. In general, older forest fragments, south-oriented edges and edges along structurally more continuous land use (lower contrast between forest and adjacent land use) resulted in stronger edge-to-interior gradients while recent forests, north-oriented edges and sharp land use edges induced similarity between forest edge and interior along the forest edge-to-interior gradients in terms of species activity-density and composition.Main conclusionsEdge effects on litter-dwelling macro-arthropods are anticipated to feedback on important ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and natural pest control from small forest fragments.
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4. |
- Valdés, Alicia, 1982-, et al.
(author)
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High ecosystem service delivery potential of small woodlands in agricultural landscapes
- 2020
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In: Journal of Applied Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0021-8901 .- 1365-2664. ; 57:1, s. 4-16
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Global forest loss and fragmentation have strongly increased the frequency of forest patches smaller than a few hectares. Little is known about the biodiversity and ecosystem service supply potential of such small woodlands in comparison to larger forests. As it is widely recognized that high biodiversity levels increase ecosystem functionality and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services, small, isolated woodlands are expected to have a lower potential for ecosystem service delivery than large forests hosting more species. We collected data on the diversity of six taxonomic groups covering invertebrates, plants and fungi, and on the supply potential of five ecosystem services and one disservice within 224 woodlands distributed across temperate Europe. We related their ability to simultaneously provide multiple ecosystem services (multiservice delivery potential) at different performance levels to biodiversity of all studied taxonomic groups (multidiversity), forest patch size and age, as well as habitat availability and connectivity within the landscape, while accounting for macroclimate, soil properties and forest structure. Unexpectedly, despite their lower multidiversity, smaller woodlands had the potential to deliver multiple services at higher performance levels per area than larger woodlands of similar age, probably due to positive edge effects on the supply potential of several ecosystem services. Biodiversity only affected multiservice delivery potential at a low performance level as well as some individual ecosystem services. The importance of other drivers of ecosystem service supply potential by small woodlands in agricultural landscapes also depended on the level of performance and varied with the individual ecosystem service considered. Synthesis and applications. Large, ancient woodlands host high levels of biodiversity and can therefore deliver a number of ecosystem services. In contrast, smaller woodlands in agricultural landscapes, especially ancient woodlands, have a higher potential to deliver multiple ecosystem services on a per area basis. Despite their important contribution to agricultural landscape multifunctionality, small woodlands are not currently considered by public policies. There is thus an urgent need for targeted policy instruments to ensure their adequate management and future conservation in order to either achieve multiservice delivery at high levels or to maximize the delivery of specific ecosystem services.
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5. |
- Marrec, Ronan, et al.
(author)
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Multiscale drivers of carabid beetle (Coleoptera : Carabidae) assemblages in small European woodlands
- 2021
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In: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 30:1, s. 165-182
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aim: The spatio-temporal connectivity of forest patches in lowland agricultural landscapes and their age matter to explain current biodiversity patterns across regional as well as biogeographical extents, to the point that their effect exceeds the one of macroclimate for plant diversity in the understorey of temperate forests. Whether this remains true for other taxonomic groups is still largely unknown. Yet, this relative influence has important consequences for ecosystem functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services. Focusing on carabid beetle assemblages, we assessed the relative importance of macroclimatic, landscape and patch attributes in driving local species richness (alpha-diversity) and species dissimilarity between patches (beta-diversity).Location: Deciduous forest patches in seven regions along a 2,100-km-long latitudinal gradient across the European temperate forest biome, from southern France to central Sweden.Methods: We sampled 221 forest patches in two 5-km x 5-km landscape windows with contrasting management intensities. Carabid beetles were classified into four habitat-preference guilds: forest-specialist, forest-generalist, eurytopic and open-habitat species. We quantified the multi-level environmental influence using mixed-effects models and variation partitioning analysis.Results: We found that both alpha- and beta-diversity were primarily determined by macroclimate, acting as a large-scale ecological filter on carabid assemblages among regions. Forest-patch conditions, including biotic and abiotic heterogeneity as well as patch age (but not patch size), increased alpha-diversity of forest species. Landscape management intensity weakly influenced alpha-diversity of forest species, but increased the number of non-forest species in forest patches. Beta diversity of non-forest species increased with patch heterogeneity and decreased with landscape management intensity. Main conclusions: Our results highlight the leading role of broad macroclimatic gradients over local and landscape factors in determining the composition of local carabid communities, thereby shedding light on macroecological patterns of arthropod assemblages. This study emphasizes the urgent need for preserving ancient forest patches embedded in agricultural landscapes, even the small and weakly connected ones.
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6. |
- Jakubec, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Cholesterol-containing lipid nanodiscs promote an α-synuclein binding mode that accelerates oligomerization
- 2021
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In: The FEBS Journal. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1742-464X .- 1742-4658. ; 288:6, s. 1887-1905
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dysregulation of the biosynthesis of cholesterol and other lipids has been implicated in many neurological diseases, including Parkinson's disease. Misfolding of α‐synuclein (α‐Syn), the main actor in Parkinson's disease, is associated with changes in a lipid environment. However, the exact molecular mechanisms underlying cholesterol effect on α‐Syn binding to lipids as well as α‐Syn oligomerization and fibrillation remain elusive, as does the relative importance of cholesterol compared to other factors. We probed the interactions and fibrillation behaviour of α‐Syn using styrene–maleic acid nanodiscs, containing zwitterionic and anionic lipid model systems with and without cholesterol. Surface plasmon resonance and thioflavin T fluorescence assays were employed to monitor α‐Syn binding, as well as fibrillation in the absence and presence of membrane models. 1H‐15N‐correlated NMR was used to monitor the fold of α‐Syn in response to nanodisc binding, determining individual residue apparent affinities for the nanodisc‐contained bilayers. The addition of cholesterol inhibited α‐Syn interaction with lipid bilayers and, however, significantly promoted α‐Syn fibrillation, with a more than a 20‐fold reduction of lag times before fibrillation onset. When α‐Syn bilayer interactions were analysed at an individual residue level by solution‐state NMR, we observed two different effects of cholesterol. In nanodiscs made of DOPC, the addition of cholesterol modulated the NAC part of α‐Syn, leading to stronger interaction of this region with the lipid bilayer. In contrast, in the nanodiscs comprising DOPC, DOPE and DOPG, the NAC part was mostly unaffected by the presence of cholesterol, while the binding of the N and the C termini was both inhibited.
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7. |
- Li, Jian-Yang, et al.
(author)
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Ejecta from the DART-produced active asteroid Dimorphos
- 2023
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In: Nature. - : Springer Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 616, s. 452-456
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Some active asteroids have been proposed to be formed as a result of impact events1. Because active asteroids are generally discovered by chance only after their tails have fully formed, the process of how impact ejecta evolve into a tail has, to our knowledge, not been directly observed. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission of NASA2, in addition to having successfully changed the orbital period of Dimorphos3, demonstrated the activation process of an asteroid resulting from an impact under precisely known conditions. Here we report the observations of the DART impact ejecta with the Hubble Space Telescope from impact time T + 15 min to T + 18.5 days at spatial resolutions of around 2.1 km per pixel. Our observations reveal the complex evolution of the ejecta, which are first dominated by the gravitational interaction between the Didymos binary system and the ejected dust and subsequently by solar radiation pressure. The lowest-speed ejecta dispersed through a sustained tail that had a consistent morphology with previously observed asteroid tails thought to be produced by an impact4,5. The evolution of the ejecta after the controlled impact experiment of DART thus provides a framework for understanding the fundamental mechanisms that act on asteroids disrupted by a natural impact1,6.
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