Article
Environmental Studies
Uta Schirpke, Erich Tasser, Georg Leitinger, Ulrike Tappeiner
Summary: This study assessed the impacts of the transformation of agricultural land on ecosystem services (ES) in the European Alps. The results showed that regions with massive abandonment of mountain grassland experienced the most significant decrease in ES, while the 'traditional agricultural region' remained the most stable. Regions with intensification of agriculture and urban sprawl had the lowest values of ES. The findings provide valuable insights for policy development and sustainable management strategies in the European Alps.
Article
Plant Sciences
Ricardo Arraiano-Castilho, Martin Bidartondo, Tuula Niskanen, James J. Clarkson, Ivano Brunner, Stephan Zimmermann, Beatrice Senn-Irlet, Beat Frey, Ursula Peintner, Tanja Mrak, Laura M. Suz
Summary: Alpine habitats are highly vulnerable to environmental change, and plant-fungal interactions in these ecosystems, particularly in snowbed habitats, show higher specialisation and are more susceptible to environmental changes compared to other alpine habitats.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Dominik Thom, Werner Rammer, Patrick Laux, Gerhard Smiatek, Harald Kunstmann, Sebastian Seibold, Rupert Seidl
Summary: Observational evidence suggests that forests in the Northern Alps are changing at an increasing rate due to climate change. This study used a process-based forest landscape model to simulate future forest dynamics and found that the acceleration of forest dynamics will continue in the coming decades. However, forest structure changes are expected to level off in the second half of the 21st century, while tree species changes diverge under different climate scenarios.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Goncalo Duarte, Pedro Segurado, Gertrud Haidvogl, Didier Pont, Maria Teresa Ferreira, Paulo Branco
Summary: This study evaluated the impact of large dams on the structural longitudinal connectivity of European rivers from the early 20th century to the early 21st century, showing increasing impairment over time. The findings reveal that the river network connectivity has been significantly affected, with over two-thirds of Europe's large rivers facing problems, especially in the Mediterranean and West Atlantic regions.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Camille Pitteloud, Jean-Claude Walser, Patrice Descombes, Charles Novaes de Santana, Sergio Rasmann, Loic Pellissier
Summary: This study used molecular metabarcoding to investigate the structural variation in plant-herbivore interaction networks along elevational gradients. The results showed an increase in generality and nestedness levels with decreasing temperature, enhancing the robustness of the ecological system. In alpine habitats, specific keystone species decreased in importance, which contributes to the resilience of the system to species extinction along ecological gradients.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Alex Andersson, Chris Lintott, Rob Fender, Joe Bright, Francesco Carotenuto, Laura Driessen, Mathilde Espinasse, Kelebogile Gasealahwe, Ian Heywood, Alexander J. van der Horst, Sara Motta, Lauren Rhodes, Evangelia Tremou, David R. A. Williams, Patrick Woudt, Xian Zhang, Steven Bloemen, Paul Groot, Paul Vreeswijk, Stefano Giarratana, Payaswini Saikia, Jonas Andersson, Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo, Loic Baert, Matthew Baumann, Wilfried Domainko, Thorsten Eschweiler, Tim Forsythe, Sauro Gaudenzi, Rachel Ann Grenier, Davide Iannone, Karla Lahoz, Kyle J. Melville, Marianne De Sousa Nascimento, Leticia Navarro, Sai Parthasarathi, Piilonen Piilonen, Najma Rahman, Jeffrey Smith, B. Stewart, Newton Temoke, Chloe Tworek, Isabelle Whittle
Summary: The newest generation of radio telescopes can survey large areas with high sensitivity and cadence, producing data volumes that require new methods to understand the transient sky. The first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients, using data from the MeerKAT telescope, discovered 142 new variable sources and estimated that at least 2.1% of radio sources are varying at the sampled cadence and sensitivity. The success of volunteer engagement and scientific merit warrants the continued development of the project and the use of volunteer classifications to develop machine learning techniques for finding transients.
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Yohann Chauvier, Wilfried Thuiller, Philipp Brun, Sebastien Lavergne, Patrice Descombes, Dirk N. Karger, Julien Renaud, Niklaus E. Zimmermann
Summary: The study compared the relative importance of climate, soil, and land cover variables in predicting the distribution of vascular plant species in the European Alps and found that climate was the most influential driver, especially in low elevations. Soil and land cover increased in importance along the elevation gradient, with land cover showing strong local effects in lowlands and soil stabilizing at mid-elevations.
ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Marco Marcer, Alessandro Cicoira, Diego Cusicanqui, Xavier Bodin, Thomas Echelard, Renee Obregon, Philippe Schoeneich
Summary: Rock glaciers in the French Alps have shown significantly increased velocities since the 1990s, with about 5% of active rock glaciers exhibiting destabilisation. This pattern is correlated with rising air temperatures in the region, suggesting a role of warming climate in this process.
COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Han Li, Tian Zhang, Xiao-Shu Cao, Qian-Qian Zhang
Summary: This study established and optimized the ecological security pattern in Shaanxi Province, China by extracting landscape patches with high importance of ecosystem services and sensitivity to human interference. Ecological corridors were identified based on a minimum cumulative resistance model. The results showed that the high importance and sensitivity ecological sources covered 32.8% of the total land area of Shaanxi Province.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Clara M. Pennock, Jacco Th van Loon, Miroslav D. Filipovic, Heinz Andernach, Frank Haberl, Roland Kothes, Emil Lenc, Lawrence Rudnick, Sarah White, Claudia Agliozzo, Sonia Anton, Ivan Bojicic, Dominik J. Bomans, Jordan D. Collier, Evan J. Crawford, Andrew M. Hopkins, Kanapathippillai Jeganathan, Patrick J. Kavanagh, Barbel S. Koribalski, Denis Leahy, Pierre Maggi, Chandreyee Maitra, Josh Marvil, Michal J. Michalowski, Ray P. Norris, Joana M. Oliveira, Jeffrey L. Payne, Hidetoshi Sano, Manami Sasaki, Lister Staveley-Smith, Eleni Vardoulaki
Summary: The analysis of a new radio continuum image of the Large Magellanic Cloud presents a catalog of sources and discusses various detections of celestial objects and their characteristics.
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
B. Wilhelm, W. Rapuc, B. Amann, F. S. Anselmetti, F. Arnaud, J. Blanchet, A. Brauer, M. Czymzik, C. Giguet-Covex, A. Gilli, L. Glur, M. Grosjean, R. Irmler, M. Nicolle, P. Sabatier, T. Swierczynski, S. B. Wirth
Summary: Flooding is a pervasive natural hazard that can cause significant human and economic losses, and climate change is expected to worsen the risks worldwide. This study focuses on the European Alps, a densely populated mountainous region that is particularly vulnerable to floods due to its topography and atmospheric conditions. By examining palaeoflood records, the researchers find that a warming of 0.5-1.2 degrees C, whether naturally or anthropogenically induced, leads to a decrease in the frequency of large floods. However, extreme floods may increase in certain small alpine catchments impacted by intense rainfall. These findings highlight the importance of long-term palaeoflood records in understanding the complex relationship between climate and flooding, and improving risk assessment and management at a regional scale.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Wesley Dattilo, Carlos Pinilla Cruz, Pedro Luna, Brenda Ratoni, Ismael A. Hinojosa-Diaz, Frederico S. Neves, Maurice Leponce, Fabricio Villalobos, Roger Guevara
Summary: This study evaluated the interactive role of honeybees in global pollination networks and found that their removal led to decreased niche overlap, increased specialization, and increased robustness of the networks. The effects of honeybees on pollination networks vary geographically and can influence ecological and evolutionary factors at local scales.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Julia Seeber, Michael Steinwandter, Erich Tasser, Elia Guariento, Thomas Peham, Johannes Ruedisser, Birgit C. Schlick-Steiner, Florian M. Steiner, Ulrike Tappeiner, Erwin Meyer
Summary: This study analyzes the distribution of soil macro-invertebrates in the Eastern European Alps and provides comprehensive sampling data and parameters. It is important for studying global ecological trends and tracking long-term changes in soil fauna composition, filling the knowledge gap on alpine soil fauna.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Christian Carrizosa, Mario Murcia, Virginia Ballesteros, Olga Costa, Cyntia B. Manzano-Salgado, Jesus Ibarluzea, Carmen Iniguez, Maribel Casas, Ainara Andiarena, Sabrina Llop, Aitana Lertxundi, Thomas Schettgen, Jordi Sunyer, Ferran Ballester, Martine Vrijheid, Maria-Jose Lopez-Espinosa
Summary: Prenatal exposure to PFAS was associated with poorer motor development at 14 months and a slight positive association with general cognitive development at 4-5 years in children, but no clear associations were found for other neuropsychological outcomes.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
C. Spoetl, G. Koltai, A. H. Jarosch, H. Cheng
Summary: The study suggests that the glacier advance in the European Alps during the Last Glacial Maximum was related to subsurface warming and driven by heavy snowfall late in the year, likely sourced from the Mediterranean Sea. These results indicate that heavy snowfall during autumn and early winter was the main factor influencing glacier growth during this period of the Last Glacial Maximum in the European Alps.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
