Global Distribution of Alien Mammals Under Climate Change.

The recent thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services reaffirmed biological invasions as a major threat to biodiversity. Anticipating biological invasions is crucial for avoiding their ecological and socio-economic impacts, particularly as climate change may provide new opportunities for the establishment and spread of alien species. However, no studies have combined assessments of suitability and dispersal to evaluate the invasion by key taxonomic groups, such as mammals.

Deep Learning for Opportunistic Rain Estimation via Satellite Microwave Links.

Accurate precipitation measurement is critical for managing flood and drought risks. Traditional meteorological tools, such as rain gauges and remote sensors, have limitations in resolution, coverage, and cost-effectiveness. Recently, the opportunistic use of microwave communication signals has been explored to improve precipitation estimation.

Regional invasion history and land use shape the prevalence of non-native species in local assemblages.

The ecological impact of non-native species arises from their establishment in local assemblages. However, the rates of non-native spread in new regions and their determinants have not been comprehensively studied. Here, we combined global databases documenting the occurrence of non-native species and residence of non-native birds, mammals, and vascular plants at regional and local scales to describe how the likelihood of non-native occurrence and their proportion in local assemblages relate with their residence time and levels of human usage in different ecosystems.

The cumulative niche approach: A framework to assess the performance of ecological niche model projections.

Ecological Niche Models (ENMs) are often used to project species distributions within alien ranges and in future climatic scenarios. However, ENMs depend on species-environment equilibrium, which may be absent for actively expanding species. We present a novel framework to estimate whether species have reached environmental equilibrium in their native and alien ranges.

Pasta Enriched with Carrot and Olive Leaf Flour Retains High Levels of Accessible Bioactives after In Vitro Digestion.

The aim of this research was to evaluate the levels of antioxidants and polyphenols in pasta enriched with either carrot or olive leaf flours after simulating gastrointestinal digestion. Pasta samples were prepared with fixed amounts of carrot and olive leaf flours (15% and 6% of the total mixture, respectively). We measured the antioxidant capacity and polyphenol content at different stages of the pasta production process, starting from the initial flour to the cooked pasta, and tested samples of the liquid component and solid waste resulting from the digestion process.

Two decades of fumigation data from the Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment facility.

The Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment (SoyFACE) facility is the longest running open-air carbon dioxide and ozone enrichment facility in the world. For over two decades, soybean, maize, and other crops have been exposed to the elevated carbon dioxide and ozone concentrations anticipated for late this century. The facility, located in East Central Illinois, USA, exposes crops to different atmospheric concentrations in replicated octagonal ~280 m Free Air Concentration Enrichment (FACE) treatment plots.

Distinct Tomato Cultivars Are Characterized by a Differential Pattern of Biochemical Responses to Drought Stress.

Future climate scenarios suggest that crop plants will experience environmental changes capable of affecting their productivity. Among the most harmful environmental stresses is drought, defined as a total or partial lack of water availability. It is essential to study and understand both the damage caused by drought on crop plants and the mechanisms implemented to tolerate the stress.

Italian Tomato Cultivars under Drought Stress Show Different Content of Bioactives in Pulp and Peel of Fruits.

Background: This study aims to evaluate the performance, in terms of accumulation of antioxidant compounds in fruits, of nine local and three commercial Italian tomato cultivars subjected to drought stress. The same local cultivars had been previously studied at morpho-physiological level.

Methods: The present manuscript analyzes drought stress as a tool to increase the amount of secondary metabolites that can enhance fruit quality.

Morpho-Physiological Classification of Italian Tomato Cultivars ( L.) According to Drought Tolerance during Vegetative and Reproductive Growth.

Irrigation is fundamental for agriculture but, as climate change becomes more persistent, there is a need to conserve water and use it more efficiently. It is therefore crucial to identify cultivars that can tolerate drought. For economically relevant crops, such as tomatoes, this purpose takes on an even more incisive role and local agrobiodiversity is a large genetic reservoir of promising cultivars.

Ecosystem services indicators dataset for the utilized agricultural area of the Märkisch-Oderland District-Brandenburg, Germany.

The dataset of the ecosystem services provided by the agricultural areas of the Märkisch-Oderland District-Brandenburg, Germany, contains six standardised indicators of ecosystem service provision, and includes one provisioning service - i) biomass production (PRO), four regulating services - ii) water storage (WAS), iii) carbon stock total (CST), iv) carbon stock potential (CSP), v) habitat for species (HAB), and one cultural service - vi) landscape attractiveness (LAT). The indicators were built from mostly public data, including for example the CORINE Land Cover map, the GSP-FAO soil carbon stock map, and MODIS NDVI and ASTER DEM satellite images.

Quantifying road traffic impact on air quality in urban areas: A Covid19-induced lockdown analysis in Italy.

Covid19-induced lockdown measures caused modifications in atmospheric pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions. Urban road traffic was the most impacted, with 48-60% average reduction in Italy. This offered an unprecedented opportunity to assess how a prolonged (∼2 months) and remarkable abatement of traffic emissions impacted on urban air quality.

Frost and drought: Effects of extreme weather events on stem carbon dynamics in a Mediterranean beech forest.

The effects of short-term extreme events on tree functioning and physiology are still rather elusive. European beech is one of the most sensitive species to late frost and water shortage. We investigated the intra-annual C dynamics in stems under such conditions.