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AbstractLand‐use change is considered the greatest threat to nature, having caused worldwide declines in the abundance, diversity, and health of species and ecosystems. Despite increasing research on this global change driver, there are still challenges to forming an effective synthesis. The estimated impact of land‐use change on biodiversity can depend on location, research methods, and taxonomic focus, with recent global meta‐analyses reaching disparate conclusions. Here, we critically appraise this research body and our ability to reach a reliable consensus. We employ named entity recognition to analyze more than 4000 abstracts, alongside full reading of 100 randomly selected papers. We highlight the broad range of study designs and methodologies used; the most common being local space‐for‐time comparisons that classify land use in situ. Species metrics including abundance, distribution, and diversity were measured more frequently than complex responses such as demography, vital rates, and behavior. We identified taxonomic biases, with vertebrates well represented while detritivores were largely missing. Omitting this group may hinder our understanding of how land‐use change affects ecosystem feedback. Research was heavily biased toward temperate forested biomes in North America and Europe, with warmer regions being acutely underrepresented despite offering potential insights into the future effects of land‐use change under novel climates. Various land‐use histories were covered, although more research in understudied regions including Africa and the Middle East is required to capture regional differences in the form of current and historical land‐use practices. Failure to address these challenges will impede our global understanding of land‐use change impacts on biodiversity, limit the reliability of future projections and have repercussions for the conservation of threatened species. Beyond identifying literature biases, we highlight the research priorities and data gaps that need urgent attention and offer perspectives on how to move forward.

The Scandinavian winter-swimming culture combines brief dips in cold water with hot sauna sessions, with conceivable effects on body temperature. We study thermogenic brown adipose tissue (BAT) in experienced winter-swimming men performing this activity 2-3 times per week. Our data suggest a lower thermal comfort state in the winter swimmers compared with controls, with a lower core temperature and absence of BAT activity. In response to cold, we observe greater increases in cold-induced thermogenesis and supraclavicular skin temperature in the winter swimmers, whereas BAT glucose uptake and muscle activity increase similarly to those of the controls. All subjects demonstrate nocturnal reduction in supraclavicular skin temperature, whereas a distinct peak occurs at 4:30-5:30 a.m. in the winter swimmers. Our data leverage understanding of BAT in adult human thermoregulation, suggest both heat and cold acclimation in winter swimmers, and propose winter swimming as a potential strategy for increasing energy expenditure.

Quantification of forest biomass stocks and their dynamics is important for implementing effective climate change mitigation measures. The knowledge is needed, e.g., for local forest management, studying the processes driving af-, re-, and deforestation, and can improve the accuracy of carbon-accounting. Remote sensing using airborne LiDAR can be used to perform these measurements of vegetation structure at large scale. We present deep learning systems for predicting wood volume, above-ground biomass (AGB), and subsequently above-ground carbon stocks directly from airborne LiDAR point clouds. We devise different neural network architectures for point cloud regression and evaluate them on remote sensing data of areas for which AGB estimates have been obtained from field measurements in the Danish national forest inventory. Our adaptation of Minkowski convolutional neural networks for regression gave the best results. The deep neural networks produced significantly more accurate wood volume, AGB, and carbon stock estimates compared to state-of-the-art approaches operating on basic statistics of the point clouds. In contrast to other methods, the proposed deep learning approach does not require a digital terrain model. We expect this finding to have a strong impact on LiDAR-based analyses of biomass dynamics. 31 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables

In this paper, I examine design documents from three different ICT design and development projects. I argue that they present intersecting visions of sustainability entailing the wide-spread use of ICT, describe the properties of users compatible with such ICT, and provide ways of judging the users. In the design documents, the inhabitants are made individually responsible for living sustainably, and surveillance is positioned as integral to this future with the help of ICT. Underlying the visions, I identify a translation process that captures the traces of the inhabitants' lives, classifies them according to different criteria of sustainable living, and returns them to the tapestry of everyday life to convince the users to behave differently. In the discourses of these documents, surveillance translates the traces, and the translations exert new pressures on existing power relations.

Sobre la base de una evaluación sistemática de los trabajos de investigación, este estudio explora las prioridades de investigación sobre el uso de la tierra y el cambio de la cubierta terrestre de los académicos de Níger desde la independencia. Investiga cómo han evolucionado los intereses clave a lo largo del tiempo con respecto a qué cuestiones se consideran importantes, así como las evaluaciones de los investigadores sobre los cambios en el Sahel y sus fuerzas impulsoras. Al hacerlo, a) identifica la caracterización dominante de los cambios en la tierra y sus implicaciones, y b) explora el posible cambio a lo largo del tiempo con respecto al foco de interés en la comunidad científica nacional. El conjunto disponible de publicaciones científicas se analiza mediante el uso de un enfoque de metaestudio, seguido de un análisis de grupos jerárquicos de variables clave identificadas, para sintetizar el conocimiento existente. El metaestudio revela que no se comunicó ninguna investigación sobre la tierra a través de artículos académicos antes de principios de la década de 1990. Desde 1994, la investigación académica nigeriana sobre el cambio de la tierra ha documentado una amplia gama de cambios (por ejemplo, expansión, intensificación, conservación, tenencia); sin embargo, el material no puede respaldar conclusiones generales sobre las trayectorias dominantes del cambio. Los diferentes discursos humano-ambientales han influido en el preguntas de investigación en diferentes regiones y períodos de tiempo, con implicaciones para los problemas abordados en estudios de casos específicos. Se concluye que la visión colectiva de los procesos de cambio de tierras revela complejidades del sistema de tierras en lugar de tendencias genéricas. Sur la base d'un examen systématique des documents de recherche, cette étude explore les priorités de recherche sur l'utilisation des terres et le changement de la couverture terrestre des chercheurs nigériens depuis l'indépendance. Elle examine comment les intérêts clés ont évolué au fil du temps en ce qui concerne les questions considérées comme importantes ainsi que les évaluations des chercheurs sur les changements dans le Sahel et leurs forces motrices. Ce faisant, a) elle identifie la caractérisation dominante des changements de terres et leurs implications, et b) il explore le changement possible au fil du temps en ce qui concerne le centre d'intérêt de la communauté scientifique nationale. Le pool disponible de publications scientifiques est examiné à l'aide d'une approche de méta-étude, suivie d'une analyse hiérarchique en grappes des variables clés identifiées, afin de synthétiser les connaissances existantes. La méta-étude révèle qu'aucune recherche foncière n'a été communiquée par le biais d'articles scientifiques avant le début des années 1990. Depuis 1994, la recherche universitaire nigérienne sur le changement foncier a documenté un large éventail de changements (par exemple, expansion, intensification, conservation, régime foncier) ; pourtant, le matériel ne peut pas étayer les conclusions générales sur les trajectoires dominantes du changement. Différents discours humains-environnementaux ont influencé le questions de recherche dans différentes régions et périodes, avec des implications pour les problèmes abordés dans des études de cas spécifiques. Il est conclu que l'aperçu collectif des processus de changement de terre révèle des complexités du système foncier plutôt que des tendances génériques. On the basis of a systematic screening of research papers, this study explores the land use and land cover change research priorities of scholars from Niger since independence.It investigates how key interests have evolved over time with regard to what issues are considered important as well as the researchers' assessments of changes in the Sahel and their driving forces.In doing so a) it identifies the dominant characterization of land changes and their implication, and b) it explores the possible change over time with regard to focus of interest in the national science community.The available pool of scientific publications is screened by use of a meta-study approach, followed by a hierarchical cluster analysis of identified key variables, to synthesize existing knowledge.The meta-study reveals that no land research was communicated through scholarly papers before the early 1990s.Since 1994, the Nigerien academic research on land change has documented a diverse range of changes (e.g.expansion, intensification, conservation, tenure); yet the material cannot support general conclusions about dominant trajectories of change.Different human-environmental discourses have influenced the research questions in different regions and time periods, with implications for the problems addressed in specific case studies.It is concluded that the collective insight into land change processes reveals land system complexities rather than generic trends. على أساس الفحص المنهجي للأوراق البحثية، تستكشف هذه الدراسة الأولويات البحثية لاستخدام الأراضي وتغير الغطاء الأرضي للباحثين من النيجر منذ الاستقلال. وهي تبحث في كيفية تطور المصالح الرئيسية بمرور الوقت فيما يتعلق بالقضايا التي تعتبر مهمة وكذلك تقييمات الباحثين للتغيرات في منطقة الساحل وقواها الدافعة. عند القيام بذلك أ) تحدد التوصيف السائد لتغيرات الأراضي وآثارها، و ب) يستكشف التغيير المحتمل بمرور الوقت فيما يتعلق بتركيز الاهتمام في مجتمع العلوم الوطني. يتم فحص مجموعة المنشورات العلمية المتاحة من خلال استخدام نهج الدراسة الوصفية، يليه تحليل هرمي عنقودي للمتغيرات الرئيسية المحددة، لتوليف المعرفة الحالية. تكشف الدراسة الوصفية أنه لم يتم إبلاغ أي بحث عن الأراضي من خلال الأوراق العلمية قبل أوائل التسعينيات. منذ عام 1994، وثق البحث الأكاديمي النيجيري حول تغير الأراضي مجموعة متنوعة من التغييرات (مثل التوسع والتكثيف والحفظ والحيازة) ؛ ومع ذلك، لا يمكن للمادة أن تدعم الاستنتاجات العامة حول مسارات التغيير السائدة. وقد أثرت الخطابات البشرية والبيئية المختلفة على أسئلة البحث في مناطق وفترات زمنية مختلفة، مع الآثار المترتبة على المشاكل التي تم تناولها في دراسات حالة محددة. وخلص إلى أن الرؤية الجماعية لعمليات تغيير الأراضي تكشف عن تعقيدات نظام الأراضي بدلاً من الاتجاهات العامة.