Effects of the Invasive Tree Species Ailanthus altissima on the Floral Diversity and Soil Properties in the Pannonian Region

Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is one of the most dangerous and widespread invasive woody plant species in Europe. Despite the fact that A. altissima is in the focus of an increasing number of research projects, the impact of its mass spread on native vegetation, its diversity, and changes in soil quality are still incomplete. The current study addresses the effects of this invasive species on plant diversity and soil parameters simultaneously. The main objective of our research is to determine the impact of cover and mass of A. altissima on the diversity of each forest layer; the examined soil parameters and on other selected environmental variables. For botanical and pedological investigations we selected nine A. altissima-dominated sites in Central Europe, in the Pannonian Biogeographical Region. Based on our results, it can be stated that fully grown A. altissima-dominated stands can displace other taxa by their shading and allelopathy, thereby reducing canopy layer diversity. The increase in the species richness of the shrub layer had a positive correlation with the diversity of the floor layer and also with the humus and ammonia content of the soil. As the diversity of shrub layer and floor layer positively correlated with many soil parameters, the diverse vegetation of these layers can represent a potential opportunity for the regeneration of areas infected with A. altissima.

Contribution to the knowledge of the bee fauna (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Anthophila) in Serbia

The current work represents summarised data on the bee fauna in Serbia from previous publications, collections, and field data in the period from 1890 to 2020. A total of 706 species from all six of the globally widespread bee families is recorded; of the total number of recorded species, 314 have been confirmed by determination, while 392 species are from published data. Fourteen species, collected in the last three years, are the first published records of these taxa from Serbia: Andrena barbareae (Panzer, 1805), A. clarkella (Kirby, 1802), A. fulvicornis (Schenck, 1853), A. intermedia (Thomson, 1870), A. lapponica (Zetterstedt, 1838), A. pandellei (Pérez, 1895), A. paucisquama (Noskiewicz, 1924), A. simillima (Smith, 1851), Panurginus herzi (Morawitz, 1892), Epeoloides coecutiens (Fabricius, 1775), Nomada leucophthalma (Kirby, 1802), Chelostoma nasutum (Pérez, 1895), Hoplitis claviventris (Thomson, 1872), and Dasypoda pyrotrichia (Förster, 1855). Almost all the species recorded so far in Serbia belong to the West-Palaearctic biogeographical region, except Megachile sculpturalis (Smith, 1853), which is an alien invasive species native to East Asia. According to the European Red List of bees, 221 species listed in this paper were assessed as Data Deficient; threatened species mostly belong to the families Apidae with 13 species, Colletidae with eight species, and Halictidae with five species. This study contributes to the knowledge of the distribution of bee species in Europe. The present work provides a baseline for future research of wild bee diversity in Serbia and neighbouring regions at the local and regional levels, and a basis for their conservation.

The Spatial Distribution of Tree Populations and Its Policy Drivers in Medieval Areas of Cities. Case Studies From East-central Europe

Trees in the densely built-up historical cores of cities play an important role in increasing the aesthetic values of the cityscape as well as lowering the effect of the urban heat island. The research aimed to determine the spatial distribution of tree populations in the medieval parts of cities according to local policy. The investigation included three cities in Central and Eastern Europe: Poznań and Lublin in Poland and Lviv in Ukraine. The oldest parts of these cities share similar origins, the same continental biogeographical region, and comparable climatic conditions.This study considered indicators of occurrence, density, species composition, and spatial distribution; and the number of trees planted since the political transition to democracy has also been considered, taking into account the composition of their species. Local policy documents on greenery management, revitalisation, and adaptation to climate change were analysed.The study identified different types of management concerning trees. In Poznań, trees are actively introduced in public spaces, but private backyards are managed by their owners. In Lublin, although there are relatively few new plantings, there is the largest share of trees in the backyards and self-seeding is common. In Lviv, there are new plantings in private and public spaces. Lviv is distinguished by its large share of native trees, with naturally shaped crowns, and in Poznan and Lublin, new plantings include artificially shaped, small spherical crowns. The local policy documents don't contain operational directives regarding the cultural, environmental, social, and technical conditions for new planting.

Real-Time Detection of Daytime and Night-Time Fire Hotspots from Geostationary Satellites

This paper introduces an enhanced version of the Biogeographical Region and Individual Geostationary HHMMSS Threshold (BRIGHT) algorithm. The algorithm runs in real-time and operates over 24 h to include both daytime and night-time detections. The algorithm was executed and tested on 12 months of Himawari-8 data from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, for every valid 10-min observation. The resulting hotspots were compared to those from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The modified BRIGHT hotspots matched with fire detections in VIIRS 96% and MODIS 95% of the time. The number of VIIRS and MODIS hotspots with matches in the coincident modified BRIGHT dataset was lower (at 33% and 46%, respectively). This paper demonstrates a clear link between the number of VIIRS and MODIS hotspots with matches and the minimum fire radiative power considered.

A new species of Sciodaphyllum (Araliaceae) from the Chocó Biogeographical region in Colombia

A new species of Sciodaphyllum (Araliaceae), S. pygmaeum, is described and illustrated from the basin of the Anchicayá River in the Chocó Biogeographical region of Colombia. This new species differs from other members of the genus by being a small monocaulous shrub, with hollow branches, tubular stipular ligules, and fewer secondary branches in the inflorescence. The conservation status of S. pygmaeum is accessed to be Least Concern (LC) according to IUCN categories and criteria.

Scenario-Based Approaches to Change Management in Fisheries Can Address Challenges With Scale and Support the Implementation of an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management

The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) management, recognising complexity, aims for the holistic, sustainable management of fisheries to promote healthy marine ecosystems and sustainable livelihoods. Effective implementation of the EAF has been problematic as we continue to grapple with issues of scale, knowledge integration and meaningful stakeholder engagement. Scenario-planning approaches in marine social ecological systems (SES) can address some of these challenges. Using systems-thinking, scenario-planning presents the opportunity to address challenges simultaneously at different scales of interaction by addressing the needs at smaller and larger decision-making scales. We here present a prototype scenario-based approach in which we used structured decision-making tools (SDMTs) in an iterative and interactive research process with marginalised stakeholders in a small-scale fishery in South Africa’s southern Cape. Using this approach presented an opportunity for fishers to consider pathways for future responses to change while enhancing personal and local adaptive capacity. At the same time, these marginalised fishers were provided with an important opportunity to freely air their views while engaging with tools new to them. The process did not only benefit fishers, but also provided valuable insights into how they view and experience their marine SES. The use of these tools has provided a means to integrate different knowledge streams, identifying ways in which challenges presented by scale in SES is better addressed. As a next step in the prototype development, expansion to more diverse stakeholders in the biogeographical region relevant for this fishery is recommended. We highlight how this approach can contribute to multi-level governance. When considering EAF implementation, we highlight how engaging marginalised stakeholders need not mean losing the reproducible, transparent processes required for modern management. Lastly, we discuss how multi-scalar flow of information could improve the implementation of an EAF in a developing society, such as that of South Africa.

Bioavailable Strontium, Human Paleogeography, and Migrations in the Southern Andes: A Machine Learning and GIS Approach

The Andes are a unique geological and biogeographic feature of South America. From the perspective of human geography, this mountain range provides ready access to highly diverse altitudinally arranged ecosystems. The combination of a geologically and ecologically diverse landscape provides an exceptional context to explore the potential of strontium isotopes to track the movements of people and the conveyance of material culture. Here we develop an isotopic landscape of bioavailable strontium (87Sr/86Sr) that is applied to reconstruct human paleogeography across time in the southern Andes of Argentina and Chile (31°–34°S). These results come from a macro-regional sampling of rodents (N = 65) and plants (N = 26) from modern and archeological contexts. This “Southern Andean Strontium Transect” extends over 350 km across the Andes, encompassing the main geological provinces between the Pacific coast (Chile) and the eastern lowlands (Argentina). We follow a recently developed approach to isoscape construction based on Random Forest regression and GIS analysis. Our results suggest that bioavailable strontium is tightly linked with bedrock geology and offers a highly resolved proxy to track human paleogeography involving the levels of territories or daily mobility and anomalous events that disrupt home ranges, such as migration. The southern Andes provide an ideal geological setting to develop this approach, since the geological variation in rock age and composition produces distinctive isotopic signatures for each main biogeographical region. Finally, we apply this framework to a set of results from human remains from the Uspallata Valley in Mendoza (Argentina), to assess the incidence of migration in the key period of the consolidation of agropastoral economies between AD 800 and 1400. The application of the isoscape to the values from human remains confirms the persistence of human groups with relatively restricted territories encompassing Uspallata and the adjacent Precordillera between AD 800 and 1500. We also identify a pulse of human migration between AD 1280 and 1420, shortly preceding the Inka conquest. Looking forward, we expect to converge with ongoing efforts in South America to build a continental research framework to track the movement of people, animals, and artifacts across space and time.

Inocybe brijunica sp. nov., a New Ectomycorrhizal Fungus from Mediterranean Croatia Revealed by Morphology and Multilocus Phylogenetic Analysis

A new ectomycorrhizal species was discovered during the first survey of fungal diversity at Brijuni National Park (Croatia), which consists of 14 islands and islets. The National Park is located in the Mediterranean Biogeographical Region, a prominent climate change hot-spot. Inocybe brijunica sp. nov., from sect. Hysterices (Agaricales, Inocybaceae), is described based on morphology and multilocus phylogenetic data. The holotype collection was found at the edge between grassland and Quercus ilex forest with a few planted Pinus pinea trees, on Veli Brijun Island, the largest island of the archipelago. It is easily recognized by a conspicuous orange to orange–red–brown membranaceous surface layer located at or just above the basal part of the stipe. Other distinctive features of I. brijunica are the medium brown, radially fibrillose to rimose pileus; pale to medium brown stipe with fugacious cortina; relatively small, amygdaliform to phaseoliform, and smooth basidiospores, measuring ca. 6.5–9 × 4–5.5 µm; thick-walled, utriform, lageniform or fusiform pleurocystidia (lamprocystidia) with crystals and mostly not yellowing in alkaline solutions; cheilocystidia of two types (lamprocystidia and leptocystidia); and the presence of abundant caulocystidia only in the upper 2–3 mm of the stipe. Phylogenetic reconstruction of a concatenated dataset of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), the nuclear 28S rRNA gene (nrLSU), and the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (rpb2) resolved I. brijunica and I. glabripes as sister species.

Pan-European Mapping of Underutilized Land for Bioenergy Production

This study aims at identifying underutilized land potentially suitable for bioenergy production in Europe by means of remote sensing time series analysis. The background is the Revised Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) requesting that 32% of Europe’s energy production shall come from renewable energy sources until 2030. In order to avoid the food versus fuel debate, we only considered land that has not been used in the previous five years. Satellite remote sensing is the only technique that allows for the assessment of the usage of land for such a long time span at the pan-European scale with reasonable efforts. We used Landsat 8 (L8) data for the full five year time period 2015–2019 and included additional Sentinel-2 (S2) data for 2018 and 2019. The analysis was based on a stratified approach for biogeographical regions and countries using Google Earth Engine. To our knowledge, this is the first work that employs high resolution time series data for pan-European mapping of underutilized land. The average patch size of underutilized land was found to be between 23.2 ha and 49.6 ha, depending on the biogeographical region. The results show an overall accuracy of more than 85% with a confidence interval (CI) of 1.55% at the 95% confidence level (CL). The classification suggests that at total of 5.3 million ha of underutilized land in Europe is potentially available for agricultural bioenergy production.