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This paper presents an object-based, global climatology (1979-2014) of strong large-scale ocean evaporation (SLOE) and its associated climatic properties. SLOE is diagnosed using an ''atmospheric moisture uptake efficiency'' criterion related to the ratio of surface evaporation and integrated water vapor content in the near-surface atmosphere. The chosen Eulerian identification procedure focuses o
The EU's farmers are no longer required to produce commodities to receive direct payments as long as they keep their land in good condition. Some believe this is bad for development because it encourages passive farming. We evaluate, using a real options approach, the implications of decoupled payments for the desirability and optimal timing of agricultural land development when considering sunk i
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has provided periodic assessments of the state of knowledge on climate change for 30 years. While these assessments have been central to the making of international climate policy, their relevance has been questioned in the post-Paris era. Can the IPCC's global kinds of knowledge match the demands of an increasingly decentralized and polycentric
Background. Knowledge on the globally outstanding Amazonian biodiversity and its environmental determinants stems almost exclusively from aboveground organisms, notably plants. In contrast, the environmental factors and habitat preferences that drive diversity patterns for micro-organisms in the ground remain elusive, despite the fact that micro-organisms constitute the overwhelming majority of li
Bumblebees are important pollinators for a wide range of crops and wild plants. Performance of their colonies depends on pollen and nectar as food resources, but flowering plants are scarce in modern agricultural landscapes. It is well-known that semi-natural habitats can enhance floral resources and bumblebee abundance, but the impact of different crop types and their heterogeneity at the landsca
The 2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduced compulsory ‘greening’ measures with the goal to mitigate environmental degradation caused by intensive agriculture. This paper aims to investigate how the implementation of the Ecological Focus Areas (EFA) obligation will affect regional agricultural development, the economic performance of farms and land use (including choices of
The online-coupled 3-D chemistry transport model COSMO-MUSCAT was enhanced by a detailed description of aqueous phase chemical processes. The aqueous phase chemistry is represented by the detailed chemical mechanism CAPRAM 3.0i reduced (C3.0RED). In addition, the deposition schemes were improved in order to account for the deposition of matter incorporated in cloud droplets of ground layer clouds
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) affects about half of the land area of the EU and allocates close to 40% of the EU’s budget. Consequently, CAP has great potential to guide land management decisions towards multifunctional agricultural landscapes supporting both commodity production and biodiversity. The 2015 “greening” reform was an attempt to increase the multifunctionality of agricultural l
We examined farmers’ costs of providing public goods under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the expected impacts of the 2015 CAP “greening” reform on regional development and provisioning of public goods. Less than half of CAP spending Before the reform was justifiable in terms of the delivery of specific public goods; and predicted benefits from greening are low. We recommend re-allocatin
Context: The current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union includes three greening measures, which are partly intended to benefit farmland biodiversity. However, the relative biodiversity effects of the greening measures, including joint effects of landscape context, are not well understood. Objectives: We studied the effects of increasing crop diversity, proportions of production
Changes in vehicle emission reduction technologies significantly affect traffic-related emissions in urban areas. In many densely populated areas the amount of traffic is increasing, keeping the emission level high or even increasing. To understand the health effects of traffic-related emissions, both primary (direct) particulate emission and secondary particle formation (from gaseous precursors i
Plant size has been hypothesized to be a major driver of biotic interactions. However, it is little understood how plant size affects plant mutualists vs. antagonists and the plant's resulting reproductive success. We established a common garden experiment covering an interspecific plant size gradient (from 10 to 130 cm height) across 21 annual Brassicaceae species, thereby standardizing features
Oil palm expansion results in a loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. However, there are factors that influence the severity of these impacts and enhancing biodiversity within plantations is important. In the present study, we examined the role of epiphytes for supporting arthropod communities in oil palm plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia. We considered the effects of landscape c
Aim The impact of multiple stressors on biodiversity is one of the most pressing questions in ecology and biodiversity conservation. Here we critically assess how often and efficiently two main drivers of global change have been simultaneously integrated into research, with the aim of providing practical solutions for better integration in the future. We focus on the integration of climate change
Forest degradation, forest fires, and wildlife poaching have devastated biodiversity in Indonesia. To assess the impact of forest degradation and the potential for recovery, we used birds as a proxy for biodiversity and assessed density estimates (hereafter density) in the degraded lowland forest of Harapan Rainforest Ecosystem Restoration Concession (HRF) in Sumatra. In this study, a total of 149
Neurodegeneration and inflammation are fundamental aspects of many neurological diseases. A genome-wide scan of the response to ventral root avulsion (VRA) in a rat F2 cross discloses specific gene regions that regulate these processes. Two gene loci displayed linkage to neurodegeneration and T cell infiltration, respectively, and a single locus displayed extreme linkage to VRA-induced major histo
We argue that the current system of agri-environment management in the European Common Agricultural Policy is ineffective at conserving biodiversity in part because it promotes fragmentation instead of collaboration of actors, thus hindering coordinated biodiversity management. Actor fragmentation is reinforced by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in three ways: (1) through targeting individual
Agricultural landscapes are characterised by dynamic crop mosaics changing in composition and configuration over space and time. Although semi-natural habitat has been often shown to contribute to pest biological control, the effects of increasing landscape heterogeneity with cropland have been disregarded. Here, we examine how cereal aphids, their enemies and biological control are affected by th
Ants are abundant in natural and managed tropical ecosystems and can have an impact on herbivorous arthropods, as well as plant pathogens. Although it has been shown for plants that the diversity of communities can result in improved ecosystem functioning, it remains uncertain how the species richness of ants affects multiple ecosystem services and disservices. In the present study, we used experi
Several aspects describing the state of the atmosphere in the North Sea region are considered in this chapter. These include large-scale circulation, means and extremes in temperature and precipitation, cyclones and winds, and radiation and clouds. The climate projections reveal several pronounced future changes in the state of the atmosphere in the North Sea region, both in the free atmosphere an
