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Global climate change governance has changed substantially in the last decade, with a shift in focus from negotiating globally agreed greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets to nationally determined contributions, as enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. This paper analyses trends in adoption of national climate legislation and strategies, GHG targets, and renewable and energy efficiency targets in almost all UNFCCC Parties, focusing on the period from 2007 to 2017. The uniqueness and added value of this paper reside in its broad sweep of countries, the more than decade-long coverage and the use of objective metrics rather than normative judgements. Key results show that national climate legislation and strategies witnessed a strong increase in the first half of the assessed decade, likely due to the political lead up to the Copenhagen Climate Conference in 2009, but have somewhat stagnated in recent years, currently covering 70% of global GHG emissions (almost 50% of countries). In comparison, the coverage of GHG targets increased considerably in the run up to adoption of the Paris Agreement and 89% of global GHG emissions are currently covered by such targets. Renewable energy targets saw a steady spread, with 79% of the global GHG emissions covered in 2017 compared to 45% in 2007, with a steep increase in developing countries. Key policy insightsThe number of countries that have national legislation and strategies in place increased strongly up to 2012, but the increase has levelled off in recent years, now covering 70% of global emissions by 2017 (48% of countries and 76% of global population).Economy-wide GHG reduction targets witnessed a strong increase in the build up to 2015 and are adopted by countries covering 89% of global GHG emissions (76% not counting USA) and 90% of global population (86% not counting USA) in 2017.Renewable energy targets saw a steady increase throughout the last decade with coverage of countries in 2017 comparable to that of GHG targets.Key shifts in national measures coincide with landmark international events – an increase in legislation and strategy in the build-up to the Copenhagen Climate Conference and an increase in targets around the Paris Agreement – emphasizing the importance of the international process to maintaining national momentum. The number of countries that have national legislation and strategies in place increased strongly up to 2012, but the increase has levelled off in recent years, now covering 70% of global emissions by 2017 (48% of countries and 76% of global population). Economy-wide GHG reduction targets witnessed a strong increase in the build up to 2015 and are adopted by countries covering 89% of global GHG emissions (76% not counting USA) and 90% of global population (86% not counting USA) in 2017. Renewable energy targets saw a steady increase throughout the last decade with coverage of countries in 2017 comparable to that of GHG targets. Key shifts in national measures coincide with landmark international events – an increase in legislation and strategy in the build-up to the Copenhagen Climate Conference and an increase in targets around the Paris Agreement – emphasizing the importance of the international process to maintaining national momentum.

Recent studies show widespread encroachment of forest into savannas with important consequences for the global carbon cycle and land-atmosphere interactions. However, little research has focused on in situ measurements of forest-savanna boundary change over time. Using long-term inventory plots we quantify changes in above-ground biomass (AGB), vegetation structure and biodiversity over 20 years for five vegetation types (savanna, colonising forest or F1, successional monodominant forest or F2, Marantaceae forest or F3 and mixed forest or F4) along a savanna-forest transition of central Gabon, all occurring on similar soils. Additionally, we use novel 3D terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) measurements to assess forest structure differences across the transition. Overall, F1 and F2 forests increased in AGB, mainly as a result of adding stems (recruitment in F1) or increased Basal Area (F2). Some plots of F3 and F4 increased in AGB while some decreased. Changes in biodiversity and species’ dominance were small. After 20 years no plot could be classified as having moved to the next stage in the succession. TLS vertical plant profiles showed very distinctive differences amongst the vegetation types. We highlight two relevant points: (i) as forest colonises, changes in biodiversity are much slower than changes in forest structure or AGB; and (ii) all forest types store important quantities of Carbon. Decades long-term monitoring is likely to be required to assess the speed of transition between vegetation types, ideally with TLS, as this provides more objective forest classifications than inventory monitoring.

This dataset includes the current version of the indicative distribution maps and profiles for Ecosystem Functional Groups - Level 3 of IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology (v2.1). Please refer to Keith et al. (2020) and Keith et al. (2022). The descriptive profiles provide brief summaries of key ecological traits and processes for each functional group of ecosystems to enable any ecosystem type to be assigned to a group. Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns and are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (value of 1, coloured red) or minor occurrences (value of 2, coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. Minor occurrences are areas where an ecosystem functional group is scattered in patches within matrices of other ecosystem functional groups or where they occur in substantial areas, but only within a segment of a larger region. Most maps were prepared using a coarse-scale template (e.g. ecoregions), but some were compiled from higher resolution spatial data where available (see details in profiles). Higher resolution mapping is planned in future publications. We emphasise that spatial representation of Ecosystem Functional Groups does not follow higher-order groupings described in respective ecoregion classifications. Consequently, when Ecosystem Functional Groups are aggregated into functional biomes (Level 2 of the Global Ecosystem Typology), spatial patterns may differ from those of biogeographic biomes. Differences reflect the distinctions between functional and biogeographic interpretations of the term, “biome”. The PLuS Alliance supported a workshop in London to initiate development. DAK, EN, RTK, JRFP, JAR & NJM were supported by ARC Linkage Grants LP170101143 and LP180100159 and the MAVA Foundation. The IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management supported travel for DAK to present aspects of the research to peers and stakeholders at International Congresses on Conservation Biology in 2017 and 2019, and at meetings in Africa, the middle east, and Europe. {"references": ["Keith, David et al. (Eds.) (2020) 'The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology v2.0: Descriptive profiles for Biomes and Ecosystem Functional Groups'. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Gland. DOI:10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.13.en.", "Keith, David et al. (2022) 'A function-based typology for Earth's ecosystems'. Nature DOI:10.1038/s41586-022-05318-4"]}

There is limited attention to impacts of climate change on pigs in Uganda by stakeholders, despite the potential vulnerability of pigs to climate change. Pigs are sensitive to heat-stress, as they do not have functioning sweat glands as other livestock species do, and have small lungs which reduces their ability to disseminate heat by panting. The objectives of the study were to i) determine the heat-stress status in pigs, ii) analyze factors influencing heat-stress, and iii) explore the heat-stress adaptation options in Lira District, Uganda. Lira was selected because of presence of both rural & urban areas and expected heat stress throughout the year in the district. The data including household demographics, management systems, age, color, breeds, body/skin temperature, rectal temperature and others were collected from 104 households and 259 pigs during the hot months in Ojwina and Barr sub-counties- Lira district. We collected data on adaptation options during the four gender disaggregated focus group discussions. Weather data was collected during the time of administering the questionnaire, and it was complemented with data from Ngetta Meteorological Station, Lira. STATA, 14

This dataset contains data collected during experiment on foulant fractionation of seawater in reverse electrodialysis (RED). For explanation of the experimental setup we refer you to the published paper. It is being made public both to act as supplementary data for publication and in order for other researchers to use this data in their own work.

Environmental dataBioclimatic data and environmental data for all 56 European peatland site (geo referenced by longitude [long], latitude [lat] and altitude [ALT]. MAT = Mean annual temperature (°C), TS = Seasonality in temperature, MAP = Mean annual precipitation (mm), PS = Seasonality in precipitation, tot_sox = Total sulphur deposition SOx (mg m-2 yr-1), tot_noy = Total oxidized nitrogen deposition (mg m-2 yr-1), tot_nhx = Total reduced nitrogen deposition (mg m-2), PT warm = Lang’s moisture index. The four bioclimatic variables (MAT, TS, MAP, PS) were extracted from the WorldClim database (Hijmans, R. J., Cameron, S. E., Parra, J. L., Jones, P. G. & Jarvis, A. Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. Int. J. Climatol. 25, 1965–1978 (2005)), and averaged over the 2000-2009 period. Atmospheric deposition data were produced using the EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme)-based IDEM (Integrated Deposition Model) model (Pieterse, G., Bleeker, A., Vermeulen, A. T., Wu, Y. & Erisman, J. W. High resolution modelling of atmosphere‐canopy exchange of acidifying and eutrophying components and carbon dioxide for European forests. Tellus B 59, 412–424 (2007)) and consisted of grid cell averages of total reduced (NHx) and oxidised (NOy) nitrogen and sulphur (SOx) deposition. The moisture index (PTwarm) was calculated as the ratio between mean precipitation and mean temperature in the warmest quarter (Thornwaite, C. W. & Holzman, B. Measurement of evaporation from land and water surfaces. USDA Technical Bulletin 817, 1–143 (1942))Data 1_environmental data.txtplant community dataAbundance data (% cover) for all vascular plant and bryophyte species from five randomly chosen hummocks and lawns (0.25 m2 quadrats; ten in total) across 56 European Sphagnum-dominated peatlands were collected in two consecutive summers (2010 and 2011). Vascular plants and Sphagnum mosses were identified to the species level. Non-Sphagnum bryophytes were identified to the family level. Lichens were recorded as one group.Data 2_plant community data.txttraits vascular plantsPlant functional traits used to calculate functional indices for the vascular plant communities. Traits were extracted from LEDA (Kleyer, M. et al. The LEDA Traitbase: a database of life‐history traits of the Northwest European flora. J. Ecol. 96, 1266–1274 (2008)). Only trait data available for all species our data-set were extracted.ncomms_Data 3_traits vascular plants.txttraits SphagnumTrait values (means) for Sphagnum spp. C = tissue carbon content (mg g-1), N = tissue nitrogen content (mg g-1), P = tissue phosphorus content (mg g-1), Productivity ( St.w = stem width (mm), l.h.c. = length hyaline cells (µm), w.h.c. = width hyaline cells (µm), l.s.l. = length stem leaves (mm), w.s.l. = width stem leaves. These measured traits were complemented with traits extracted from the literature. These latter traits included plant length (Hill, M. O., Preston, C. D., Bosanquet, S. & Roy, D. B. BRYOATT: attributes of British and Irish mosses, liverworts and hornworts. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Huntingdon, UK (2007)), spore diameter and capsule diameter (Sundberg, S., Hansson, J. & Rydin, H. Colonization of Sphagnum on land uplift islands in the Baltic Sea: time, area, distance and life history. Journal of Biogeography 33, 1479–1491 (2006)), productivity (Gunnarsson, U. Global patterns of Sphagnum productivity. J. Bryol. 27, 269–279 (2005))ncomms_Data 4_traits Sphagnum.txt In peatland ecosystems, plant communities mediate a globally significant carbon store. The effects of global environmental change on plant assemblages are expected to be a factor in determining how ecosystem functions such as carbon uptake will respond. Using vegetation data from 56 Sphagnum-dominated peat bogs across Europe, we show that in these ecosystems plant species aggregate into two major clusters that are each defined by shared response to environmental conditions. Across environmental gradients, we find significant taxonomic turnover in both clusters. However, functional identity and functional redundancy of the community as a whole remain unchanged. This strongly suggests that in peat bogs, species turnover across environmental gradients is restricted to functionally similar species. Our results demonstrate that plant taxonomic and functional turnover are decoupled, which may allow these peat bogs to maintain ecosystem functioning when subject to future environmental change.