From extraction to end-uses and waste management: Modeling economy-wide material cycles and stock dynamics around the world.

Material stocks of infrastructure, buildings, and machinery are the biophysical basis of production and consumption. They are a crucial lever for resource efficiency and a sustainable circular economy. While material stock research has proliferated over the last years, most studies investigated specific materials or end-uses, usually not embedded into an economy-wide perspective.

Scenario analysis of supply- and demand-side solutions for circular economy and climate change mitigation in the global building sector.

Residential and non-residential buildings are a major contributor to human well-being. At the same time, buildings cause 30% of final energy use, 18% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), and about 65% of material accumulation globally. With electrification and higher energy efficiency of buildings, material-related emissions gain relevance.

Shining a light on elusive lynx: Density estimation of three Eurasian lynx populations in Ukraine and Belarus.

The Eurasian lynx is a large carnivore widely distributed across Eurasia. However, our understanding of population status is heterogeneous across their range, with some populations isolated that are at risk of reduced genetic variation and a complete lack of information about others. In many European countries, Eurasian lynx are monitored through demographic studies crucial for their conservation and management.

Mason bees and honey bees synergistically enhance fruit set in sweet cherry orchards.

Mason bees ( spp.) are efficient fruit tree pollinators that can be encouraged to occupy and breed in artificial nesting material. In sweet cherry orchards, they are occasionally used as an alternative managed pollinator as a replacement for or in addition to honey bees ().

Pioneer tree species accelerate restoration of tree-related microhabitats in 50-year-old reserves of Białowieża Forest, Poland.

Retention of structural elements such as deadwood and habitat trees at the level of forest stands has been promoted to integrate biodiversity conservation into multiple-use forest management. The conservation value of habitat trees is largely determined by the presence, richness, and abundance of tree-related microhabitats (TreMs). Since TreMs are often lacking in intensively managed forests, an important question of forest conservation is how the abundance and richness of TreMs may be effectively restored.

Urbanization increases fluctuating asymmetry and affects behavioral traits of a common grasshopper.

Urbanization has a major impact on biodiversity. For many organisms, the urbanization process means environmental stress caused by fragmentation and increased temperatures in cities and atmospheric, soil, light, and noise pollution. Such environmental stress can influence both the morphology and behavior of animals.

Timing and synchrony of birth in Eurasian lynx across Europe.

The ecology and evolution of reproductive timing and synchrony have been a topic of great interest in evolutionary ecology for decades. Originally motivated by questions related to behavioral and reproductive adaptation to environmental conditions, the topic has acquired new relevance in the face of climate change. However, there has been relatively little research on reproductive phenology in mammalian carnivores.

Urban Water Storage Capacity Inferred From Observed Evapotranspiration Recession.

Water storage plays an important role in mitigating heat and flooding in urban areas. Assessment of the water storage capacity of cities remains challenging due to the inherent heterogeneity of the urban surface. Traditionally, effective storage has been estimated from runoff.

Light heterogeneity affects understory plant species richness in temperate forests supporting the heterogeneity-diversity hypothesis.

One of the most important drivers for the coexistence of plant species is the resource heterogeneity of a certain environment, and several studies in different ecosystems have supported this resource heterogeneity-diversity hypothesis. However, to date, only a few studies have measured heterogeneity of light and soil resources below forest canopies to investigate their influence on understory plant species richness. Here, we aim to determine (1) the influence of forest stand structural complexity on the heterogeneity of light and soil resources below the forest canopy and (2) whether heterogeneity of resources increases understory plant species richness.

No leading-edge effect in North Atlantic harbor porpoises: Evolutionary and conservation implications.

Understanding species responses to past environmental changes can help forecast how they will cope with ongoing climate changes. Harbor porpoises are widely distributed in the North Atlantic and were deeply impacted by the Pleistocene changes with the split of three subspecies. Despite major impacts of fisheries on natural populations, little is known about population connectivity and dispersal, how they reacted to the Pleistocene changes, and how they will evolve in the future.

In the shadows of snow leopards and the Himalayas: density and habitat selection of blue sheep in Manang, Nepal.

There is a growing agreement that conservation needs to be proactive and pay increased attention to common species and to the threats they face. The blue sheep () plays a key ecological role in sensitive high-altitude ecosystems of Central Asia and is among the main prey species for the globally vulnerable snow leopard (). As the blue sheep has been increasingly exposed to human pressures, it is vital to estimate its population dynamics, protect the key populations, identify important habitats, and secure a balance between conservation and local livelihoods.

Tree litter functional diversity and nitrogen concentration enhance litter decomposition via changes in earthworm communities.

Biodiversity is a major driver of numerous ecosystem functions. However, consequences of changes in forest biodiversity remain difficult to predict because of limited knowledge about how tree diversity influences ecosystem functions. Litter decomposition is a key process affecting nutrient cycling, productivity, and carbon storage and can be influenced by plant biodiversity.

Evaluating the effectiveness of retention forestry to enhance biodiversity in production forests of Central Europe using an interdisciplinary, multi-scale approach.

Retention forestry, which retains a portion of the original stand at the time of harvesting to maintain continuity of structural and compositional diversity, has been originally developed to mitigate the impacts of clear-cutting. Retention of habitat trees and deadwood has since become common practice also in continuous-cover forests of Central Europe. While the use of retention in these forests is plausible, the evidence base for its application is lacking, trade-offs have not been quantified, it is not clear what support it receives from forest owners and other stakeholders and how it is best integrated into forest management practices.

Toward a methodical framework for comprehensively assessing forest multifunctionality.

Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research has extended its scope from communities that are short-lived or reshape their structure annually to structurally complex forest ecosystems. The establishment of tree diversity experiments poses specific methodological challenges for assessing the multiple functions provided by forest ecosystems. In particular, methodological inconsistencies and nonstandardized protocols impede the analysis of multifunctionality within, and comparability across the increasing number of tree diversity experiments.

Habitat selection by Eurasian lynx () is primarily driven by avoidance of human activity during day and prey availability during night.

The greatest threat to the protected Eurasian lynx () in Central Europe is human-induced mortality. As the availability of lynx prey often peaks in human-modified areas, lynx have to balance successful prey hunting with the risk of encounters with humans. We hypothesized that lynx minimize this risk by adjusting habitat choices to the phases of the day and over seasons.