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From article abstract: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109491 ABSTRACT Biodiverse communities have been shown to sustain high levels of multifunctionality and thus a loss of species likely negatively impacts ecosystem functions. For most taxa, however, the roles of individual species are poorly known. Rare species, often the most likely to go extinct, may have unique traits leading to unique functional roles. Alternatively, rare species may be functionally redundant, such that their loss would not disrupt ecosystem functions. We quantified the functional role of rare species by using capture records of wood-living (saproxylic) beetle species, combined with recent databases of their morphological and ecological traits, from three regions in central and northern Europe. Using a rarity index based on species��� local abundance, geographic range, and habitat breadth, we used local and regional species removal simulations to examine the contributions of both the rarest and the most common beetle species to three measures of community functional structure: functional richness, functional specialization, and functional originality. In both regional species pools and local communities, all three of these measures declined more rapidly when rare species were removed than under common (or random) species removal scenarios. These consistent patterns across scales and among several forest types give evidence that rare species provide unique functional contributions, and that their loss may disproportionately impact ecosystem functions. This implies that conservation measures targeting rare and endangered species, such as preserving intact forests with dead wood and mature trees, can provide broader ecosystem-level benefits. Experimental research linking functional structure to ecosystem processes should be prioritized to increase our understanding of the functional consequences of species loss and to develop more effective conservation strategies. DATASET DESCRIPTION This dataset includes a) beetle capture information and b) beetle trait information from three countries: 1) Norway, 2) Finland, and 3) Germany. FILES readme.txt -- this has the information from this description section Norway_traits.csv, Finland_traits.csv, Germany_traits.csv -- these are the trait files, including all species Norway_sites.species.csv, Finland_sites.species.csv, Germany_sites.species.csv -- this has species (rows) by sites (columns); values are the number of beetles caught (for number of traps, dates, and other site covariates, see related dataset: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tmpg4f50b and manuscript: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14272). Species names follow GBIF taxonomic backbone. Traits_METADATA.csv -- this has information on all the fields in the trait data ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was funded through the 2017-2018 Belmont Forum and BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme, for "BioESSHealth: Scenarios for biodiversity and ecosystem services acknowledging health", and with the funding organizations NFR (grant no. 295621), Formas (grant no. 2018-2435), and DLR. The German data collection was partly funded by the German Science Foundation DFG Priority Program SPP1374 "Infrastructure-Biodiversity-Exploratories" (DFG-Az: AM 149/16-3; (Regions Swabian Alb, Hainich-D��n, and Schorfheide-Chorin in Germany), project Arthropods (WE3081/21), the Bayerisches Staatsministerium f��r Ern��hrung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten, grant L55 (Region Steigerwald in Germany), and the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (Bavarian Forest). Thanks also to Sindre Ligaard for identifying the beetle species in Norway, to Petri Martikainen and Matti Koivula for contributing to data collection and identifying beetles in Finland, and to numerous field assistants who set and maintained traps. {"references": ["https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12427", "https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13512"]}

We consider per-capita carbon dioxide emission trends in 16 early industrialized countries over the period 1870-2028. Using a multiple-break time series method we find more evidence for very early downturns in per-capita trends than for late downturns during the oil price shocks of the 1970s. Only for two countries do downturns in trends imply downward sloping stable trends. We also consider trends in emission composition and find little evidence for in-sample peaks for emissions from liquid and gaseous fuel uses. These results lead us to reject the oil price shocks as events causing permanent breaks in the structure and level of emissions, a conclusion often made in analyses using shorter postwar data.

Water treatment technologies are seen as the best alternative to be considered for adoption in developing countries where access to portable water supply that is free of pathogens is yet a challenge. This study intended to assess impact brought forth by a project, which employed a water treatment technology in rural settings of Morogoro Region in Tanzania. The project used solar photovoltaic panels to trap solar energy, converted to mechanical power to treat water with the help of sterilization ultraviolet membrane. A comparative analysis was used as an assessment framework to study impacts of the project with respect to the quality of approach used during the project life cycle. Determinants of impacts took into account social, economic and environment aspects whereas determinants of the quality of approaches taken considered six elements which are: character of participation; success, nature of institution and capacity building efforts; diversity, multiplicity and adaptability of ideas promoted by the project; accounting for heterogeneity and dynamism; understanding and use of local knowledge, skills, initiative and constraints; and recognizing the influence of external conditions, markets and policies. Results indicate that the project has intervened positively in the provision of safe portable water to the selected project sites. The quality of approaches taken had profound effect to the delivered impacts. These impacts are seen in the reduced recurring outburst of water-borne diseases such as typhoid and diarrhea. Another impact observed is in the downturn to a certain extent in the use of wood fuel for boiling. Reduced recurring of waterborne diseases has boosted pupils’ attendance at school. Furthermore, the study argues that adoption of water treatment technologies in rural settings has a potential to conserve the environment, improve health of people through the provision of safe portable water, which ultimately contribute to rural development. However, sustainability of the installed purification systems is in question if it will continue to function over the long run. Observed barriers are lack of solid economic means for sustaining operations and maintenances.

This thesis is focusing on how environmental taxes can be used in the sustainable transition that economies are currently facing. The thesis includes a theory part which is focusing on the theory of optimal tax level, and a literature review where earlier results are being shown and discussed. The empirical part of the thesis considers data from 25 European countries between the years 2000 and 2021. The empirical part of the thesis and the research questions set a base for two models that have been established and estimated in this paper. The first research question and the first model focus on how total environmental taxes affect greenhouse gas emissions. In the second research question and in the second model environmental taxes have been separated into energy, transport, and pollution and resource tax and their effect on greenhouse gas emissions has been modelled. The long-run estimation is done with FMOLS and DOLS methods since these methods are also broadly used in the previous literature. Also, necessary preliminary tests and two different causality tests are executed, and the results are provided in this paper. The first results show a positive connection between the taxes and greenhouse gas emissions. These results differ greatly from the previous literature. Further, the connection turns negative when the total environmental tax and the smaller tax groups are connected with primary energy consumption. Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test results reveal a negative causal relationship between environmental taxes and primary energy consumption. This supports the argument that environmental taxes affect greenhouse gas emissions especially through energy consumption. The results are quite similar when environmental taxes are divided into smaller categories. From the smaller environmental tax groups energy tax is found to have the largest effect on greenhouse gas emissions and this tax is also greater revenue-wise than the transport tax and pollution and resource tax in all of the study countries. Tämä tutkielma tarkastelee ympäristöverojen roolia ja mahdollisuuksia kansantalouksien kestävässä siirtymässä. Tutkielman teoriaosio keskittyy optimaaliseen veroasteeseen ja kirjallisuuskatsauksessa esitetään ja keskustellaan aikaisemman tutkimuskirjallisuuden tuloksista. Tutkielman empiirisessä osassa käytetään tietoa 25 Euroopan valtiosta vuosilta 2000-2021. Ympäristöveroja tarkastellaan ensimmäisessä mallissa kokonaisuutena, mutta toisessa mallissa vero jaetaan energiaveroon, liikenneveroon ja saaste- ja luonnonvaraveroon. Keskeisimpänä tutkimuskysymyksenä on tarkastella miten nämä eri veroryhmät, joita usein tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan vain kokonaisuutena, vaikuttavat kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin. Pitkän aikavälin tarkastelussa hyödynnetään FMOLS ja DOLS metodeja, joita on käytetty laajasti myös aikaisemmassa tutkimuskirjallisuudessa samankaltaisissa tutkimuksissa. Tutkielma sisältää myös tarvittavien testien tulokset sekä tulokset kahdesta eri kausaalisuustestistä. Keskeisimmät tulokset ovat, että ilman interaktiotermin lisäystä ympäristöverojen ja kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen välillä näyttää olevan positiivinen yhteys. Tämä tulos on vastoin aikaisemman tutkimuskirjallisuuden tuloksia. Toisaalta tarkasteltaessa ympäristöverojen ja energiakulutuksen yhteisvaikutusta kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin huomataan, että yhteys kääntyy negatiiviseksi. Dumitrescu-Hurlin paneelikausaalisuustestin tulosten perusteella ympäristöverojen ja energiankulutuksen välillä on negatiivinen kausaalisuhde, mikä tukee päätelmää siitä, että ympäristöverot näyttävät vaikuttavat kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin etenkin energiankulutuksen kautta. Tulokset ovat samansuuntaiset myös silloin, kun ympäristöverot on jaettu pienempiin luokkiin. Näistä luokista energiaverolla ja sen muutoksilla näyttää olevan suurin vaikutus kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin. Toisaalta energiaverot on myös suurin erillinen ympäristöveroluokka kaikissa tutkittavissa valtioissa.

Abstract Saponified, palm, olive, rapeseed and castor oils were pyrolysed (at 750 °C for 20 s) by pyrolysis gas chromatography with mass selective and flame ionisation detection (Py-GC/MSD and FID) to clarify their thermochemical behaviours. The liquefiable compounds recovered from palm, olive and rapeseed oils mainly contained linear alkenes (up to C 19 ) and alkanes (up to C 17 ), both similar to those found in gasoline (C 4 –C 10 ) and diesel fuel (C 11 –C 22 ) boiling range fractions of petroleum, whereas in the case of castor oil a significant amount of undesired oxygen-containing products (e.g., ketones and phenols) were formed. The obtained data on reaction mechanisms can also be utilised in applications where various biofuels are produced, for example, from the extractive-derived by-product (tall oil) of kraft pulping.

Obtaining and maintaining a social license to operate (SLO) has become essential for resource-extractive industries as key stakeholders are increasingly expecting the industry to contribute positively to the surrounding society and environment, communicate openly and engage the local communities in their decision-making (Moffat & Zhang, 2014). Not obtaining acceptance from relevant stakeholders is related with financial (Franks et al., 2014) and reputational backlashes (Prno & Slocombe, 2014) setting the company under unnecessary risks. This quantitative case study is the first attempt to comprehensively portray Yara’s image as perceived by the residents of Siilinjärvi, where the site of Yara Suomi Oy produces fertilizers for agriculture, feed and forest industry and soil improvements. Operating in the immediate vicinity of the municipality of Siilinjärvi, maintaining acceptance of local community is essential while exploring the prospects for future. Hence, this research aims to evaluate the level of the current SLO and examine the potential differentiation in attitudes between socio-demographic factors along with the residents’ relation to Yara. To address these tasks, the perceptions of 146 members of the local community were empirically examined. A simple random sampling was applied to generate a sample with respect to the socio-demographic structure of the municipality. The results indicate that Yara is broadly accepted by the local community. Furthermore the data suggest that socio-demographic attributes and the current relationship with Yara poorly predict the attitudes towards Yara Siilinjärvi. The outcomes of the study clearly demonstrate the development areas to be tackled while striving to build a trustworthy connection with the local community to further explore the mutual path towards a sustainable future. This research then also calls for a follow-up study to explore the evolution of the site's SLO. Sosiaalisen toimiluvan saavuttaminen ja ylläpitäminen on tullut välttämättömäksi kaivannaisteollisuudelle, sillä keskeiset sidosryhmät odottavat teollisuudelta yhä enemmän myötävaikutusta ympäröivään yhteiskuntaan ja ympäristöön, avointa kommunikaatiota sekä paikallisten päätöksentekoon osallistuminen mahdollistamista (Moffat & Zhang, 2014). Hyväksynnän puuttuminen on yhteydessä taloudellisiin (Franks et al., 2014) ja imagollisiin (Prno & Slocombe, 2014) haasteisiin asettaen yritykselle tarpeettomia riskejä. Tämä kvantitatiivinen tapaustutkimus on ensimmäinen yritys kuvata kokonaisvaltaisesti Yaran imagoa Siilinjärven asukkaiden näkökulmasta. Yara Suomi Oy:n tuotantolaitos tuottaa lannoitteita maataloudelle, rehu- ja metsäteollisuudelle sekä maaperän parantamiseen. Siilinjärven kunnan välittömässä läheisyydessä toimivalle toimipaikalle paikallisyhteisön hyväksyntä on tärkeää samalla kun tarkastellaan toiminnan tulevaisuudennäkymiä. Näin ollen tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on arvioida nykyisen sosiaalisen toimiluvan tasoa sekä tutkia sosio-demografisten tekijöiden sekä asukkaiden ja Yaran suhteiden mahdollista vaikutusta asenteisiin. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin yhteensä 146 paikallisyhteisön jäsenen käsitystä Yarasta. Otos muodostettiin yksinkertaisella satunnaisotannalla huomioiden kunnan sosio-demografinen rakenne. Tulokset osoittavat, että paikallinen yhteisö on laajalti hyväksynyt Yaran. Lisäksi tulokset viittaavat siihen, että sosio-demografiset ominaisuudet ja asukkaiden suhde Yaraan ennustavat huonosti paikallisyhteisön asenteita. Tutkimus osoittaa myös selvästi kehitysalueet, joihin on puututtava, samalla kun pyritään rakentamaan luotettava yhteys paikalliseen yhteisöön ja pyritään edelleen löytämään yhteinen polku kohti kestävää tulevaisuutta. Mahdollinen jatkotutkimus tukisi toimipaikan sosiaalisen toimiluvan kehittymisen seuraamista.

AbstractEnvironments are changing rapidly, and to cope with these changes, organisms have to adapt. Adaptation can take many shapes and occur at different speeds, depending on the type of response, the trait, the population, and the environmental conditions. The biodiversity crisis that we are currently facing illustrates that numerous species and populations are not capable of adapting with sufficient speed to ongoing environmental changes. Here, we discuss current knowledge on the ability of animals and plants to adapt to environmental stress on different timescales, mainly focusing on thermal stress and ectotherms. We discuss within‐generation responses that can be fast and induced within minutes or hours, evolutionary adaptations that are often slow and take several generations, and mechanisms that lay somewhere in between and that include epigenetic transgenerational effects. To understand and predict the impacts of environmental change and stress on biodiversity, we suggest that future studies should (1) have an increased focus on understanding the type and speed of responses to fast environmental changes; (2) focus on the importance of environmental fluctuations and the predictability of environmental conditions on adaptive capabilities, preferably in field studies encompassing several fitness components; and (3) look at ecosystem responses to environmental stress and their resilience when disturbed.

Arctic peatlands store large stocks of organic carbon which are vulnerable to the climate change but their fate is uncertain. There is increasing evidence that a part of it will be lost as a result of faster microbial mineralization. We studied the vulnerability of 3500-5900 years old bare peat uplifted from permafrost layers by cryogenic processes to the surface of an arctic peat plateau. We aimed to find biotic and abiotic drivers of CLOSS from old peat and compare them with those of adjacent, young vegetated soils of the peat plateau and mineral tundra. The soils were incubated in laboratory at three temperatures (4°C, 12°C and 20°C) and two oxygen levels (aerobic, anaerobic). CLOSS was monitored and soil parameters (organic carbon quality, nutrient availability, microbial activity, biomass and stoichiometry, and extracellular oxidative and hydrolytic enzyme pools) were determined. We found that CLOSS from the old peat was constrained by low microbial biomass representing only 0.22% of organic carbon. CLOSS was only slightly reduced by the absence of oxygen and exponentially increased with temperature, showing the same temperature sensitivity under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. We conclude that carbon in the old bare peat is stabilized by a combination of physical, chemical and biological controls including soil compaction, organic carbon quality, low microbial biomass and the absence of plants.

The rapidly-increasing high data rate wireless networks and the fast-growing smartphone techniques are continually changing our daily behaviors and coloring our life. However, in order to fully experience the high rate broadband multimedia services, prolonging the battery life of user equipment is critical for the mobile users, especially for the smartphone users. In this work, the problem of offloading the cellular data via a collaborative mobile cloud in an energy efficient manner is investigated. The CMC is formed by a group of users interested in downloading the same content from the operator. Through Device-to-Device communications, the users inside CMC are able to cooperate during downloading procedure and offload data from Base Station for other CMC members. When considering wireless power transfer and MIMO wireless channel, an efficient algorithm is presented to address how to optimally schedule the data offloading and radio resources to obtain the energy efficiency as well as fairness among mobile users. Specifically, the proposed framework takes energy saving maximization, Quality of Service (QoS) requirement as well as user fairness into consideration. Performance evaluations demonstrate that significant energy saving gain can be achieved by the proposed data offloading scheme.