• Energy Research
• EU close
• AT close
• PL close
• English close
• Aurora Universities Network close

The response of the single-celled ciliates to increased temperature during global warming is critical for the structure and functioning of freshwater food webs. I conducted a meta-analysis of the literature from field studies and experimental evidence to assess the parameters characterising the thermal response of freshwater ciliates. The shape of the thermal performance curve predicts the ciliates’ survival at supraoptimal temperatures (i.e., the width of the thermal safety margin, TSM). The ciliates’ typical TSM is ~5°C. One-third of the freshwater ciliates dwelling permanently or occasionally in the pelagial cannot survive at temperatures exceeding 30°C. Likewise, cold-stenothermic species, which represent a significant fraction of euplanktonic ciliates, cannot survive by evolutionary adaptation to rapidly warming environments. The statistical analysis revealed that the ciliates’ thermal performance is affected by their planktonic lifestyle (euplanktonic versus tychoplanktonic), ability to form cysts, and nutritional ecology. Bactivorous ciliates have the widest temperature niche, and algivorous ciliates have the narrowest temperature niche. Phenotypic plasticity and genetic variation, favouring the selection of pre-adapted species in a new environment, are widespread among freshwater ciliates. However, the lack of evidence for the temperature optima and imprecisely defined tolerance limits of most species hamper the present analysis. The extent of acclimation and adaptation requires further research with more ciliate species than the few chosen thus far. Recent eco-evolutionary experimental work and modelling approaches demonstrated that the ciliates’ thermal responses follow general trends predicted by the metabolic theory of ecology and mechanistic functions inherent in enzyme kinetics. The present analysis identified current knowledge gaps and avenues for future research that may serve as a model study for other biota. Thermal adaptation may conflict with adaptation to other stressors (predators, food availability, pH), making general predictions on the future role of freshwater ciliates in a warmer environment difficult, if not impossible, at the moment. # Data from: Thermal response of freshwater ciliates: can they survive at elevated lake temperatures? [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jdfn2z3jr](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jdfn2z3jr) The dataset results from a meta-analysis to assess the parameters characterising the thermal response of freshwater ciliates (i.e., minimum and maximum temperature tolerated, temperature niche breadth). Cyst formation, the nutritional type, and the planktonic lifestyle were considered as factors affecting the ciliates’ thermal performance. ## Description of the data and file structure The main dataset reporting ciliate species and synonyms, taxonomic affiliation, minimum and maximum temperature and the temperature range tolerated, cysts formation, mixotrophic nutrition, food type, and planktonic lifestyle are reported in the 'Dataset_v4.xlsx' file. This is the main document. Taxonomic affiliation (i.e., order) following Adl et al. (2019, reference [65]J, the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, and Lynn (2008; reference [66]). Details on the references - i.e., authors, publication year, title, journal/book, volume, and page/article numbers used to compile this dataset and some comments can be found in 'References.xlsx'. Empty cells mean that information is unavailable. References A-E are the main sources of the dataset, i.e., comprehensive review articles published by W. Foissner and colleagues in the 1990s. References 1-64 are case studies, published mainly after 1999. References 65 and 66 refer to the taxonomic affiliation of the ciliate species. More details about each column of the main document can be found in the 'Units_table.xlsx' file. ## Sharing/Access information Data was derived from the following sources: * ISI Web of Science (All Data Bases) * Google Scholar ## Code/Software R statistical software (v 4.0.5, R Core Team 2021) with the packages lme4, lmtest, multcomp, AICcmodavg. WebPlotDigitizer (Version 4.6) for data extraction from figures ## Version changes **06-aug-2024**: Taxonomic affiliation (order) corrected according to GBIF. Genus *Tintinnidium* is now in the order Oligotrichida. I scrutinised the detailed literature compilations by Foissner and colleagues published in the 1990s; these references are listed as primary sources A-E in the Dataset, see References.xlsx and README.txt) to obtain an overview of the thermal performance, resting cyst formation, and nutritional ecology of planktonic freshwater ciliates. I then searched the ISI Web of Science (All Data Bases) for updates and cross-references of Foissner’s works and further temperature records from (mainly) field studies. Search terms (in all fields) for the latter were ciliate* AND temperature NOT marine NOT ocean NOT soil NOT parasit* (1,339 hits). I followed the PRISMA guidelines in combination with EndNote 20 to filter out the records eligible for screening and analysis. Temperature data for assessing the minimum (Tmin) and maximum temperature (Tmax) of occurrence were eventually extracted from 68 publications. However, because Foissner’s works present extensive reviews, the actual number of publications used for the analysis is much higher. The final dataset obtained from field studies comprised 206 ciliate species. Next, I searched the ISI Web of Science for experimental results, using ciliate* AND temperature AND growth rate* NOT marine as search terms (218 records). Removing results from unsuitable research areas (mainly from medical research) reduced the records to 71 publications, which were screened. The combination of ciliate* AND numerical response NOT marine yielded 40 studies, ciliate* AND thermal performance 21 hits. I checked the selected articles for citations and cross-references using Google Scholar to identify any publications that might have slipped my attention. Eventually, I picked experimental results from 18 studies. If the literature data were only shown in figures, I extracted the data from the plots with WebPlotDigitizer (Version 4.6). I analysed the dataset with the R Statistical Software using the packages lme4, lmerTest, stats, multcomp, AICcmodavg and car.

Contrasting physiological mortality with predator-induced mortality is of tremendous importance for the population dynamics of many organisms but is difficult to assess. I performed a meta-analysis using planktonic ciliates as model organisms to estimate the maximum physiological mortality rates (δmax) across pelagic ecosystems in relation to environmental and biotic factors. Data were compiled from published numerical response (NR) experiments and experimentally determined rates of decline (ROD). Variables reported are ciliate species and order, ciliate specific growth rates (rmax), prey species, temperature, habitat (marine vs freshwater), the coefficients of the numerical response experiments, and reported or calculated ciliate mortality rates. The median δmax of planktonic ciliates was 0.62 d−1 and did not differ between marine and freshwater species. Maximum ciliate mortality rates were species-specific and affected by their rmax, cell volume, and ability to encyst. Cyst-forming species had, on average, higher δmax than species unable to encyst. Maximum mortality rates of ciliates were positively related to rmax but appeared unaffected by temperature. I conclude that (i) in the ocean, physiological mortality is more critical for controlling ciliate population size than ciliate losses imposed by microcrustacean predation, but (ii) in many lakes, the opposite holds; (iii) cyst-formation is an effective ciliate trait to cope with the high mortality of motile cells upon starvation. The lack of a temperature effect on δmax deserves further study; if correct, planktonic ciliates may take advantage of rising ocean and lake temperatures, with important implications for the pelagic food web. I used ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar to search for experiments that measured growth and mortality rates of ciliates as a function of prey concentration (i.e. numerical responses). The search terms were “growth (rate)” or “numerical response” in combination with “ciliate*” to search for numerical response experiments and “starvation” or “starved” in combination with “ciliate*” to search for mortality experiments. In addition, I searched the literature cited in these publications for further datasets. I considered only planktonic ciliates. When studies did not report all parameters of the NR curve, the data were extracted from figures with DataThief III or WebPlotDigitizer (Version 4.6) and fitted with a modified Michaelis-Menten equation that included the threshold prey concentration (P’) as an additional parameter. Mortality rates obtained by ROD experiments used the δmax reported in the respective study or calculated δmax from the maximum rate of decline after digitizing the data from the original curves, as described above. The literature search yielded δmax reported from 41 studies investigating 56 species or strains in 81 NR experiments and 19 ROD experiments. The final dataset (n = 77) included 37 studies and 48 species. I analyzed the dataset using the R Statistical Software using the packages lme4, lmerTest, AICcmodavg, and MuMIn. # Physiological mortality rates of planktonic ciliates ## Description of the Data and file structure I used ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar to search for experiments that measured growth and mortality rates of ciliates as a function of prey concentration (i.e. numerical responses). The main dataset containing available experimental studies reporting ciliate species, experimental temperature, prey species, ciliate maximum growth rates, ciliate cell volumes, habitat of ciliate isolation, method of study and reported or calculated ciliate mortality rates are reported in the 'Dataset_v2.xlsx' file. This is the main document. Missing data codes: N.A. = not available; n/a = not applicable. More details about each column of the main document can be found in the 'Units_table.xlsx' file. Details on the references - i.e. authors, publication year, title, journal/book, volume and page/article numbers - used to compile this dataset can be found in 'References.xlsx'. ## Sharing/access Information The individual data were derived mainly from the ISI Web of Science. The data compilation is novel. Excel, R

The INTENSSS PA project, funded by Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union, aims to support the local authorities involved and their stakeholders to develop an innovative integrated sustainable energy planning concept through a participatory, interdisciplinary and multilevel process. By building individual and institutional capacity of the actors involved, using the Regional Living Lab approach, the concept will be applied in order to develop seven sustainable integrated energy plans. In this first article the project activities and the results achieved so far are preliminary described, anticipating a more extensive and detailed publication on the project planned for the December edition of UPLand – Journal of Urban Planning Landscape & Environmental Design. UPLanD - Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & environmental Design, GREEN 2.0

In order to develop the technology of carbon dioxide at so-called supercritical state (sCO2) further, quick and reliable design tools for the different system components, e.g. centrifugal compressors, are required. In this study, a computer program is developed to predict the performance of centrifugal compressors with sCO2 as working fluid. This computer program is based on mean-line analysis, calculates the fluid parameters at selected sections of the meridional plane and plots the performance maps. So-called enthalpy loss coefficients are utilized to describe the difference between the isentropic and the polytropic process. In addition to previous studies, the presented model intends to predict the performance of sCO2 centrifugal compressor with a shrouded impeller and a vaneless diffuser. For this purpose, corresponding loss coefficients are incorporated. Subsequently, the predicted results of this work are compared and validated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental results from the EU-project sCO2-HeRo. The prediction of the computer program fits within 5% deviation to the CFD results, and about 4% to the experimental results regarding to pressure ratio. Conference Proceedings of the European sCO2 Conference4th European sCO2 Conference for Energy Systems: March 23-24, 2021, Online Conference, p. 68

There has been much discussion about whether earlier vegetation greenup associated with global warming will allow for an earlier starts of the net carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake period (CUP) by vegetation and thus possibly increase the terrestrial carbon sink. One aspect of this discussion that has received little attention so far is that earlier vegetation greenup will occur at shorter day lengths which reduces the time of the day during which the presence of sunlight allows for photosynthesis and thus carbon uptake. We hypothesise that shorter day lengths associated with earlier vegetation greenup will partly compensate for any temperature-mediated earlier starts of the vegetation period. To test this hypothesis we use eddy covariance CO2 flux data from three mountain grasslands in the Alps: Neustift (970m), Monte Bondone (1500m), Torgnon (2160m). The three grassland sites are at the same latitude, but differ in elevation and thus temperature and thus the length of the snow cover period. We hypothesise that the warming-induced lengthening of the vegetation period will be compensated most by day length at the lowest elevation site, where snow melt occurs close to the spring equinox when day length changes fastest. In contrast, snow melt at the site with the highest elevation occurs closer to the summer solstice, when daily changes in day length are minimal, and we thus hypothesise that compensating effects due to day length will be smallest there. The hypothesis was tested using a phenomenological model of the net CO2 exchange of mountain grassland ecosystems that has been trained with measured eddy covariance CO2 fluxes. On average, the model was well able to simulate both daytime and nighttime NEE and thus predicted the start of the CUP reasonably well. The model was then used to simulate the start of the carbon uptake period using climatological time series of air temperature by uniformly increasing air temperature between 0 and 3 K. A 10 day earlier start of the CUP went along with a 32, 27 and 20 min reduction in day length at Neustift, Monte Bondone and Torgnon, respectively. Simulated warming (up to +3K) caused both snow melt and the start of the CUP to occur earlier. The earlier start of the CUP, however, did not match the earlier snow melt due to concurrent reductions in day length and so the time period in between increased with warming. As hypothesised this increase scaled with elevation and the timing of snow melt. A 10 day earlier snow melt caused the time period until the start of the CUP to increase by 1.8, 1.3 and 0.6 days at Neustift, Monte Bondone and Torgnon, respectively. As hypothesised, warming-induced earlier snow melts did not translate one-to-one to earlier starts of the CUP due to concurrent reductions in day length. The magnitude of this effect depended on the time of year when snow melt occurs. For the investigated grasslands along the elevational gradient, snow melt occurred the latest at highest elevation (Torgnon) and the start of the CUP at this site was thus most responsive to warming

La gestion des risques a réduit la vulnérabilité aux inondations et aux sécheresses dans le monde1,2, mais leurs impacts continuent d'augmenter3. Une meilleure compréhension des causes de l'évolution des impacts est donc nécessaire, mais a été entravée par un manque de données empiriques4,5. Sur la base d'un ensemble de données mondiales de 45 paires d'événements qui se sont produits dans la même zone, nous montrons que la gestion des risques réduit généralement les impacts des inondations et des sécheresses, mais fait face à des difficultés pour réduire les impacts d'événements sans précédent d'une ampleur jamais connue auparavant. Si le deuxième événement était beaucoup plus dangereux que le premier, son impact était presque toujours plus élevé. En effet, la gestion n'a pas été conçue pour faire face à de tels événements extrêmes : par exemple, ils ont dépassé les niveaux de conception des digues et des réservoirs. Dans deux cas de réussite, l'impact du deuxième événement, plus dangereux, a été plus faible, en raison de l'amélioration de la gouvernance de la gestion des risques et des investissements élevés dans la gestion intégrée. La difficulté observée à gérer des événements sans précédent est alarmante, étant donné que des événements hydrologiques plus extrêmes sont projetés en raison du changement climatique3. La gestión de riesgos ha reducido la vulnerabilidad a las inundaciones y sequías a nivel mundial1,2, pero sus impactos siguen aumentando3. Por lo tanto, se necesita una mejor comprensión de las causas de los impactos cambiantes, pero se ha visto obstaculizada por la falta de datos empíricos4,5. Sobre la base de un conjunto de datos global de 45 pares de eventos que ocurrieron dentro de la misma área, mostramos que la gestión de riesgos generalmente reduce los impactos de inundaciones y sequías, pero enfrenta dificultades para reducir los impactos de eventos sin precedentes de una magnitud no experimentada anteriormente. Si el segundo evento era mucho más peligroso que el primero, su impacto era casi siempre mayor. Esto se debe a que la gestión no fue diseñada para hacer frente a tales eventos extremos: por ejemplo, superaron los niveles de diseño de diques y embalses. En dos casos de éxito, el impacto del segundo evento, más peligroso, fue menor, como resultado de una mejor gobernanza de la gestión de riesgos y una alta inversión en la gestión integrada. La dificultad observada para gestionar eventos sin precedentes es alarmante, dado que se proyectan eventos hidrológicos más extremos debido al cambio climático3. Risk management has reduced vulnerability to floods and droughts globally1,2, yet their impacts are still increasing3. An improved understanding of the causes of changing impacts is therefore needed, but has been hampered by a lack of empirical data4,5. On the basis of a global dataset of 45 pairs of events that occurred within the same area, we show that risk management generally reduces the impacts of floods and droughts but faces difficulties in reducing the impacts of unprecedented events of a magnitude not previously experienced. If the second event was much more hazardous than the first, its impact was almost always higher. This is because management was not designed to deal with such extreme events: for example, they exceeded the design levels of levees and reservoirs. In two success stories, the impact of the second, more hazardous, event was lower, as a result of improved risk management governance and high investment in integrated management. The observed difficulty of managing unprecedented events is alarming, given that more extreme hydrological events are projected owing to climate change3. أدت إدارة المخاطر إلى تقليل التعرض للفيضانات والجفاف على مستوى العالم1,2، ومع ذلك لا تزال آثارها تتزايد3. لذلك هناك حاجة إلى فهم أفضل لأسباب تغير التأثيرات، ولكن أعيق ذلك بسبب نقص البيانات التجريبية4، 5. على أساس مجموعة بيانات عالمية مكونة من 45 زوجًا من الأحداث التي وقعت داخل نفس المنطقة، نظهر أن إدارة المخاطر تقلل عمومًا من آثار الفيضانات والجفاف ولكنها تواجه صعوبات في الحد من آثار الأحداث غير المسبوقة ذات الحجم الذي لم تشهده من قبل. إذا كان الحدث الثاني أكثر خطورة من الأول، فإن تأثيره كان دائمًا أعلى. وذلك لأن الإدارة لم تكن مصممة للتعامل مع مثل هذه الأحداث المتطرفة: على سبيل المثال، تجاوزت مستويات تصميم السدود والخزانات. في قصتي نجاح، كان تأثير الحدث الثاني، الأكثر خطورة، أقل، نتيجة لتحسين حوكمة إدارة المخاطر والاستثمار العالي في الإدارة المتكاملة. إن الصعوبة الملحوظة في إدارة الأحداث غير المسبوقة تنذر بالخطر، بالنظر إلى أنه من المتوقع حدوث المزيد من الأحداث الهيدرولوجية المتطرفة بسبب تغير المناخ3.

The functioning of food value chains entails a complex organisation from farm to fork which is characterised by various governance forms and externalities which have shaped the overall food system. VALUMICS food value chain case studies: wheat to bread, dairy cows to milk, beef cattle to steak, farmed salmon to fillets and tomato to processed tomato were selected to enable explorative and empirical analysis to better understand the functioning of the food system and, to identify the main challenges that need to be addressed to improve sustainability, integrity, resilience, and fairness of European food chains. The VALUMICS system analysis was executed through four operational phases starting with Groundwork & analysis including mapping specific attributes and impacts of food value chains and their externalities. This was followed by Case study baseline analysis, which provided input to the third phase on Modelling and exploration of future scenarios and finally Policy and synthesis of the overall work. This report is an overall synthesis of the VALUMICS results as follows: • Key findings from the VALUMICS project on the functioning of European food value chains and their impacts on more sustainable, resilient, fairer, and transparent food system are summarised through a compilation of 25 Research Findings and Policy Briefs. • By highlighting the major contributions from the research activities throughout the four phases of the VALUMICS project, this report delivers an assessment of various factors influencing sustainability, resilience, efficiency and fairness and effective chain relationships of different food value chains, and their determinants. • The synthesis of the outcome allows the identification of opportunities and challenges characterising the functioning of food supply chains, and thus, the prospects and potentials for strengthening the EU food sector. Citation: Olafsdottir, G., Bogason, S., Aubert, P.M., Barling, D., Thakur, M., Duric, I., Nicolau, M., McGarraghy, S., Sigurdardottir; H., Samoggia, A., Holden N.M., Čechura, L., Jaghdani, T.J., Svanidze, M., Esposito., G., Monticone, F., Fedato, C., Xhelili, A., Huber, E., Hargaden, V., Saviolidis, N M., Gorton, M., Hubbard, C., Kahiluoto, H., Hoang, V.(2021). Scenario analysis report with policy recommendations: An assessment of sustainability, resilience, efficiency and fairness and effective chain relationships in VALUMICS case studies. The VALUMICS project funded by EU Horizon 2020 G.A. No 727243. Deliverable: D8.4, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, 130 pages DOI:10.5281/zenodo.6534011

The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 $fb^{−1}$. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti-$k_t$ algorithm with radius parameter $R = 0.4$ and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon–jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon–jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements. Physics letters / B 780, 578 - 602 (2018). doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2018.03.035 Published by North-Holland Publ., Amsterdam