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Abstract. An improved understanding of present-day climate variability and change relies on high-quality data sets from the past 2 millennia. Global efforts to model regional climate modes are in the process of being validated against, and integrated with, records of past vegetation change. For South America, however, the full potential of vegetation records for evaluating and improving climate models has hitherto not been sufficiently acknowledged due to an absence of information on the spatial and temporal coverage of study sites. This paper therefore serves as a guide to high-quality pollen records that capture environmental variability during the last 2 millennia. We identify 60 vegetation (pollen) records from across South America which satisfy geochronological requirements set out for climate modelling, and we discuss their sensitivity to the spatial signature of climate modes throughout the continent. Diverse patterns of vegetation response to climate change are observed, with more similar patterns of change in the lowlands and varying intensity and direction of responses in the highlands. Pollen records display local-scale responses to climate modes; thus, it is necessary to understand how vegetation–climate interactions might diverge under variable settings. We provide a qualitative translation from pollen metrics to climate variables. Additionally, pollen is an excellent indicator of human impact through time. We discuss evidence for human land use in pollen records and provide an overview considered useful for archaeological hypothesis testing and important in distinguishing natural from anthropogenically driven vegetation change. We stress the need for the palynological community to be more familiar with climate variability patterns to correctly attribute the potential causes of observed vegetation dynamics. This manuscript forms part of the wider LOng-Term multi-proxy climate REconstructions and Dynamics in South America – 2k initiative that provides the ideal framework for the integration of the various palaeoclimatic subdisciplines and palaeo-science, thereby jump-starting and fostering multidisciplinary research into environmental change on centennial and millennial timescales.

# Reproductive data Fagus sylvatica: Widespread masting breakdown in beech [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qz612jmps](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qz612jmps) This dataset, used in the Global Change Biology article "Widespread breakdown in masting in European beech due to rising summer temperatures", contains 50 time series of population-level annual reproductive data by European beech (*Fagus sylvatica*, L) across Europe. The dataset builds on the open-access dataset [MASTREE+](https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16130), and expands it for European beech. ## Description of the data The dataset column names follow that of MASTREE+. A description of MASTREE+ column names (Modified from Table 1 in the [MASTREE+ article)](https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16130): | *Columns* | *Description* | *Contains NA?* | | :-------------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------- | | Alpha\_Number | Unique code associated with each original source of data, that is, the publication, report or thesis containing extracted data, or the previously unpublished data set included in MASTREE+. | No | | Segment | Temporal segment of a time-series containing gaps (note that years with no observations are not recorded). Individual timeseries can consist of multiple segments. | No | | Site\_number | Code to differentiate multiple sites from the same original source (Alpha\_Number/Study\_ID). | No | | Variable\_number | Code to differentiate multiple measures of reproductive output from the same species-site combination (e.g. where seeds and cones were recorded separately). | No | | Year | Year of observation. | No | | Species | Species identifier, standardised to The Plant List nomenclature. ‘spp.’ is used to indicate a record identified to the genus level only. ‘MIXED’ indicates a non-species-specific community-level estimate of annual reproductive effort. | No | | Species\_code | Six-character species identifier. | No | | Mono\_Poly | Monocarpic (semelparous) or Polycarpic (iteroparous) species. | No | | Value | The measured value of annual reproductive output. | No | | VarType | Continuous or ordinal data. Continuous time-series are recorded on a continuous scale. Ordinal series are recorded on an ordered categorical scale. All ordinal series are rescaled to start at 1 (lowest reproductive effort) and to contain only integer values. | No | | Max\_value | The unit of measurement, where VarType is continuous (otherwise: NA). | No | | Unit | The maximum value in a time-series. | No | | Variable | Categorical classification of the measured variable. Options limited to: cone, flower, fruit, seed, pollen, total reproduction organs. | No | | Collection\_method | Classification of the method used to measure reproductive effort. Options are limited to: cone count, cone scar count, flower count, fruit count, fruit scar sound, seed count, seed trap, pollen count, lake sediment pollen count, harvest record, visual crop assessment, other quantification, dendrochronological reconstruction. | No | | Latitude | Latitude of the record, in decimal degrees. | No | | Longitude | Longitude of the record, in decimal degrees. | No | | Coordinate\_flag | A flag to indicate the precision of the latitude and longitude. A = coordinates provided in the original source B = coordinates estimated by the compiler based on a map or other location information provided in the original source C = coordinates estimated by the compiler as the approximate centre point of the smallest clearly defined geographical unit provided in the original source (e.g. county, state, island), and potentially of low precision. | No | | Site | A site name or description, based on information in the original source. | No | | Country | The country where the observation was recorded. | No | | Elevation | The elevation of the sample site in metres above sea level, where provided in the original source (otherwise: NA). | Yes | | Spatial\_unit | Categorical classification of spatial scale represented by the record, estimated by the compiler based on information provided in the original source. stand = <100 ha, patch = 100–10,000 ha, region = 10,000–1,000,000 ha, super-region = >1,000,000 ha. | No | | No\_indivs | Either the number of monitored individual plants, or the number of litter traps. NA indicates no information in the original source, and 9999 indicates that while the number of monitored individuals was not specified, the source indicated to the compiler that the sample size was likely ≥10 individuals or litter traps. | No | | Start | The first year of observations for the complete time-series, including all segments. | No | | End | The final year of observations for the complete time-series, including all segments. | No | | Length | The number of years of observations. Note that may not be equal to the number of years between the Start and End of the time-series, due to gaps in the time-series. | No | | Reference | Identification for the original source of the data. | No | | Record\_type | Categorisation of the original source. Peer-reviewed = extracted from peer reviewed literature Grey = extracted from grey literature Unpublished = unpublished data. | No | | ID\_enterer | Identification of the original compiler of the data. AHP, Andrew Hacket-Pain; ES, Eliane Schermer; JVM, Jose Moris; XTT, Tingting Xue; TC, Thomas Caignard; DV, Davide Vecchio; DA, Davide Ascoli; IP, Ian Pearse; JL, Jalene LaMontagne; JVD, Joep van Dormolen. | No | | Date\_entry | Date of data entry into MASTREE+ in the format yyyy-mm-dd. | No | | Note on data location | Notes on the location of the data within the original source, such as page or figure number. If not provided, NA. | Yes | | Comments | Additional comments. If not provided, NA. | Yes | | Study\_ID | Unique code associated with each source of data. M\_ = series extracted from published literature; A\_ = series incorporated from Ascoli et al. (2020), Ascoli, Maringer, et al. (2017) and Ascoli, Vacchiano, et al. (2017); PLK\_ = series incorporated from Pearse et al. (2017); D\_ = unpublished data sets. NA is attributed if no study ID has been previously associated with this time-series in MASTREE+ v.1. | Yes | Note that the new beech reproductive data has been assigned an arbitrary Alpha_Number for the purpose of this study. Future MASTREE+ updates which incorporate this new data may alter the time series ID columns (e.g. Alpha_Number, Site_number, Variable_number). MASTREE+ updates can be found on [GITHUB](https://github.com/JJFoest/MASTREEplus). Climate change effects on tree reproduction are poorly understood even though the resilience of populations relies on sufficient regeneration to balance increasing rates of mortality. Forest-forming tree species often mast, i.e. reproduce through synchronised year-to-year variation in seed production, which improves pollination and reduces seed predation. Recent observations in European beech show, however, that current climate change can dampen interannual variation and synchrony of seed production, and that this masting breakdown drastically reduces the viability of seed crops. Importantly, it is unclear under which conditions masting breakdown occurs, and how widespread breakdown is in this pan-European species. Here, we analysed 50 long-term datasets of population-level seed production, sampled across the distribution of European beech, and identified increasing summer temperatures as the general driver of masting breakdown. Specifically, increases in site-specific mean maximum temperatures during June and July were observed across most of the species range, while the interannual variability of population-level seed production (CVp) decreased. The declines in CVp were greatest where temperatures increased most rapidly. Additionally, the occurrence of crop failures and low-seed years has decreased during the last four decades, signalling altered starvation effects of masting on seed predators. Notably, CVp did not vary among sites according to site mean summer temperature. Instead, masting breakdown occurs in response to warming local temperatures (i.e. increasing relative temperatures), such that the risk is not restricted to populations growing in warm average conditions. As lowered CVp can reduce viable seed production despite the overall increase in seed count, our results warn that a covert mechanism is underway that may hinder the regeneration potential of European beech under climate change, with great potential to alter forest functioning and community dynamics.

High-resolution information on climatic conditions is essential to many applications in environmental and ecological sciences. Here we present the CHELSA (Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas) data of downscaled temperature and precipitation to a high resolution of 30 arc sec. The temperature algorithm is based on statistical downscaling of atmospheric temperatures. The precipitation algorithm incorporates orographic predictors including wind fields, valley exposition, and boundary layer height, with a subsequent bias correction. CHELSA data published in EnviDat includes the deprecated version 1.2 (originally published under 10.5061/dryad.kd1d4). Please use the current 2.1 version. Paper Citation: - _Karger DN. et al. Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas, Scientific Data, 4, 170122 (2017) [doi: 10.1038/sdata.2017.122](https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.122)._

Humans share an extraordinary degree of sociality with other primates, calling for comparative work into the evolutionary drivers of the variation in social engagement observed between species. Of particular interest is the contrast between the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and bonobo (Pan paniscus), the latter exhibiting increased female gregariousness, more tolerant relationships, and elaborate behavioral adaptations for conflict resolution. Here we test predictions from three socio-ecological hypotheses regarding the evolution of these traits using data on wild bonobos at LuiKotale, Democratic Republic of Congo. Focusing on the behavior of co-feeding females and controlling for variation in characteristics of the feeding patch, food intake rate moderately increased while feeding effort decreased with female dominance rank, indicating that females engaged in competitive exclusion from high quality food resources. However, these rank effects did not translate into variation in energy balance, as measured from urinary C-peptide levels. Instead, energy balance varied independent of female rank with the proportion of fruit in the diet. Together with the observation that females join forces in conflicts with males, our results support the hypothesis that predicts that females trade off feeding opportunities for safety against male aggression. The key to a full understanding of variation in social structure may be an integrated view of cooperation and competition over access to the key resources food and mates, both within and between the sexes. main_pan_analysis_II_intake_poisson_script_07022017R script for analysing food intake using a GLMMMASTER_analyses_II_R_file_intake_fFile containing the variables for the GLMM on food intake, analysed in RMAIN_pan_analysis_III_movement_script_26092016R script for analysing movement probability in focal trees using GLMMMASTER_analyses_III_R_file_movement_fFile containing the variables to analyse movement probability with a GLMM in Rmain_ucp_model_script_21022018_seasonality_update_with_feedscansR script to analyse variation in urinary C-peptide in a LMMmain_ucp_model_data_r_2018_seasonality_update_with_feed_scansFile containing the variables to analyse variation in urinary C-peptide using an LMM in R

The expansion of irrigated agriculture has increased global crop production but resulted in widespread stress to freshwater resources. Ensuring that increases in irrigated production only occur in places where water is relatively abundant is a key objective of sustainable agriculture, and knowledge of how irrigated land has evolved is important for measuring progress towards water sustainability. Yet a spatially detailed understanding of the evolution of global area equipped for irrigation (AEI) is missing. Here we utilize the latest sub-national irrigation statistics (covering 17298 administrative units) from various official sources to develop a gridded (5 arc-min resolution) global product of AEI for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. We find that AEI increased by 11% from 2000 (297 Mha) to 2015 (330 Mha) with locations of both substantial expansion (e.g., northwest India, northeast China) and decline (e.g., Russia). Combining these outputs with information on green (i.e., rainfall) and blue (i.e., surface and ground) water stress, we also examine to what extent irrigation has expanded unsustainably (i.e., in places already experiencing water stress). We find that more than half (52%) of irrigation expansion has taken place in regions that were already water stressed, with India alone accounting for 36% of global unsustainable expansion. These findings provide new insights into the evolving patterns of global irrigation with important implications for global water sustainability and food security. Recommended citation: Mehta, P., Siebert, S., Kummu, M. et al. Half of twenty-first century global irrigation expansion has been in water-stressed regions. Nat Water (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-024-00206-9 Open-access peer reviewed publication available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-024-00206-9 Files G_AEI_*.ASC were produced using the GMIA dataset[https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/iso/f79213a0-88fd-11da-a88f-000d939bc5d8]. Files MEIER_G_AEI_*.ASC were produced using Meier et al. (2018) dataset [https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.884744].

Acetic acid bacteria such as Gluconobacter oxydans are used in several biotechnological processes due to their ability to perform rapid incomplete regio- and stereo-selective oxidations of a great variety of carbohydrates, alcohols, and related compounds by their membrane-bound dehydrogenases. In order to understand the growth physiology of industrial strains such as G. oxydans ATCC 621H that has high substrate oxidation rates but poor growth yields, we compared its genome sequence to the genome sequence of strain DSM 3504 that reaches an almost three times higher optical density. Although the genome sequences are very similar, DSM 3504 has additional copies of genes that are absent from ATCC 621H. Most importantly, strain DSM 3504 contains an additional type II NADH dehydrogenase (ndh) gene and an additional triosephosphate isomerase (tpi) gene. We deleted these additional paralogs from DSM 3504, overexpressed NADH dehydrogenase in ATCC 621H, and monitored biomass and the concentration of the representative cell components as well as O2 and CO2 transfer rates in growth experiments on mannitol. The data revealed a clear competition of membrane-bound dehydrogenases and NADH dehydrogenase for channeling electrons in the electron transport chain of Gluconobacter and an important role of the additional NADH dehydrogenase for increased growth yields. The less active the NADH dehydrogenase is, the more active is the membrane-bound polyol dehydrogenase. These results were confirmed by introducing additional ndh genes via plasmid pAJ78 in strain ATCC 621H, which leads to a marked increase of the growth rate.