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Mitochondria proliferate when cellular energy demand increases. However, the pathways leading to enhanced expression of mitochondrial genes are largely unknown. We tested the hypothesis that an altered flux through energy metabolism is the key regulatory event by decreasing mitochondrial energy supply to rat heart cells by creatine depletion. Electron microscopy showed that the density of mitochondria increased by 75% in such hearts (p < 0.01). Levels of representative mRNAs encoded on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) or on nuclear chromosomes were elevated 1.5 to 2-fold (p < 0.05), while the mtDNA content was unchanged. The mRNA for the nuclear encoded mitochondrial transcription factor A (mtTFA) was increased after GPA feeding (p < 0.05). Thus, we have shown that an impairment of mitochondrial energy supply causes stimulation of gene expression resulting in mitochondrial proliferation, probably as a compensatory mechanism. The observed activation of the mtTFA gene corroborates the important function of this protein in nuclear-mitochondrial communication.

Suggested citation NCF (2024). Presentations on ecological restoration, invasive alien species and ERA-India, Foundations of Land Ecosystem Restoration, 24-25 June 2024, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. Nature Conservation Foundation, dataset, Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12696810 Details This set of presentations were prepared and presented by the Nature Conservation Foundation for the online workshop: Foundations of Land Ecosystem Restoration, organised by the Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India (24 - 30 June 2024). The following presentations were made on Day 2 - 25 June 2024 in the session: Ecological Restoration Principles: Theories and debates 1) Filename: 2024 Foundations of land ecosystem restoration_NCF (with .pdf, .odp extensions for the portable document format and open document presentation format files, respectively). This file includes the following two presentations: Ecological Restoration I. Concepts and Principles by T R Shankar Raman, Divya Mudappa, and Anand M. Osuri Ecological Restoration II. Interventions and Strategies by T R Shankar Raman, Divya Mudappa, and Anand M. Osuri 2) Filename: 2024_monitoring_evaluation (with .pdf, and .pptx extensions for the portable document format and powerpoint presentation format files, respectively). This file includes the following presentation: Ecological Restoration Monitoring & Evaluation by Anand Osuri, T R Shankar Raman, and Divya Mudappa 3) Filename: IAS for APU restoration workshop (with .pdf, and .pptx extensions for the portable document format and powerpoint presentation format files, respectively). This file includes the following presentation: Invasive Alien Species: A restoration challenge by Geetha Ramaswami 4) Filename: Introducing the Ecological Restoration Alliance-APU (with .pdf, .odp extensions for the portable document format and open document presentation format files, respectively) This file includes the following presentation: Ecological Restoration Alliance by Arjun Singh Usage Notes The presentations are shared under a Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International license to encourage their use for educational and scientific purposes. All efforts have been made to credit sources of materials and images used in the presentation as far as possible. We request that any further uses are also properly attributed.

Purpose – This paper aims to present and analyse the experiences and challenges during the development of sustainable development literacy (SDL) implemented in the context of the EDUCABILITY project. Design/methodology/approach – It briefly discusses the methods and tools used to deliver a source mapping for SDL, a relevant Delphi Study, an SDL Curriculum and an e-Learning Module in the EDUCABILITY Virtual Learning Environment. Findings – The systematic review of international literature and the results of the Delphi Study enabled the proposal of an SDL curriculum, including definitions, key concepts and content, learning objectives and outcomes, teaching approaches and evaluation methods. Originality/value - The proposed educational materials enable the capacity of educators and librarians in SDL to apply it to different problems and various aspects of the same problem. Journal of Integrated Information Management, Vol 7, No 2 (2022)

The Paris Agreement, in force since 2016, stipulates the new multilateral foundations for climate actions under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. This Agreement incorporated Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and Markets for Environmental Services (MES) among its strategies to combat climate change. However, abundant literature has outlined economic, social and environmental equity concerns regarding the implementation of PES and MES under the Kyoto Protocol. How have these concerns been taken into account in the establishment of PES and MES in the Paris Agreement? How can equity considerations be comprehensively assessed in this regard? Through the triangulation of methodologies including literature review, participant observation and interviews with key informants, this thesis explains the consideration of equity in the newly established PES and MES in the Paris Agreement.

Organic soils develop under waterlogged conditions, leading to a reduced decomposition of biomass. Over the last millennia this led to the development of a large carbon (C) pool in the global C cycle. Drainage, necessary for agriculture and forestry, triggers rapid decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM). While undisturbed organic soils are C-sinks, drainage transforms them into C-sources. Climate, drainage depth and land-use are considered the main factors controlling SOM decomposition. However, there is still a large variation in decomposition rates among organic soils, even when climate, drainage and land-use conditions are similar. This thesis investigates the role of SOM composition on peat decomposability in a variety of differently managed drained organic soils. Peat samples from 21 organic soils managed as cropland, grassland and forest soils situated in Switzerland were incubated at 10 and 20 °C for more than 6 months. During incubation, we monitored CO2 emissions and related them to soil characteristics, including bulk density, soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC) content, and elemental ratios (C/N, H/C and O/C). The incubated samples lost between 0.6 to 1.9% of their SOC at 10 °C and between 1.2 to 42% at 20 °C over the course of 10,000 h (>1 yr). This huge variation occurring under controlled conditions suggests that, besides drainage depth, climate and management, SOM composition is an underestimated factor that determines CO2 fluxes measured in field experiments. In contrast, correlations between the investigated soil characteristics and CO2 emissions were weak. Furthermore, there were no land-use effects. Such effects were expected based on the measured SOM characteristics and IPCC data. Temperature sensitivity of decomposition decreased with depth, indicating an enrichment of recalcitrant SOM in topsoils. This finding stands in contrast to findings in studies of undisturbed organic soils and Further it suggests that future C loss from agriculturally managed organic soils will be similar considering warmer climate conditions. Cultivation of organic soils is accompanied by inputs of young organic carbon (YOC) from plant residues. The amount of YOC inputs, their potential to compensate for oxidative peat loss as well as their lability are unknown. Studying the δ13C signatures in the topsoil of a managed organic soil revealed that at least 19 ± 2.4% of the SOC originate from YOC being accumulated recently. Yet, the accumulation rates are substantially smaller than average peat loss rates on the studied soils. Remarkably, the percentage of YOC in decomposing SOC was 53 ± 0.1%, indicating that YOC is more labile than bulk SOC. These findings are supported by the 14C age of emitted CO2 being younger than that of SOC. Inputs of fresh organic matter (FOM) to soil are known to induce priming effects, i.e. an altered decomposition of resident SOM. The effect of FOM addition on peat decomposition of agriculturally used organic soils has seldom been quantified experimentally. Therefore, we incubated soil samples from managed organic soils over three weeks with and without adding corn straw as FOM. The 13C and 14C signatures of SOC and emitted CO2 enabled us to apportion the amount of decomposed corn, as well as to estimate relative effects of corn addition on the decomposition of SOC from old peat and from YOC. FOM addition induced negative, positive and neutral priming of SOC decomposition. Further, the relative contribution of peat SOC to the overall CO2 release consistently decreased after FOM addition, suggesting that young and old C pools in managed organic soils respond differently to the addition of fresh plant residues. A combination of those two findings indicates that FOM addition can effectively reduce the decomposition of old peat. The results of this thesis suggest that agricultural use of organic soils has a tremendous effect on the composition and decomposability of SOC in organic soils. Furthermore, they show that also crop species known for their carbon sequestration potential are not likely to counteract peat losses caused by drainage. Therefore, agricultural management of organic soils without the risk of losing vast amounts of SOC seems unrealistic and thus, CO2 emissions from organic soils are not likely to decrease in the future. This means that they remain a big issue of concern for future generations in order to counteract climate change.

An attempt has been made in this special report, to give a brief overview, in Hindi, of the important aspects of wind energy and wind turbines. The history of wind turbines has been described. The wind potential of India and other countries has been addressed and the different types of wind turbines, which could harness this valuable renewable energy resource, described. In particular, the general constructional details of a typical horizontal-axis wind turbine have been given. The aerodynamic theories related to the capture of wind energy by such wind turbines have been briefly explained. The key intention of publishing this special report in Hindi is to create keen awareness among the common Indian citizens, of the importance of wind energy and the key technologies needed in India to harness it. The NAL wind turbine development program has also been described.

Based on the planning of activities proposed by the regional project with a territorial approach (PRET)") “Contributions for the sustainable development of the geographic zone Central and Eastern Valley of the province of Catamarca” from INTA; and as part of the line "Strategic Communication", workshops were held with the aim of reflecting on communication actions in the territory covered by the project. For the construction of the communication strategy, workshops were held to reflect on the scope of communication. The first was held in November 2013, the second during 2014 and the last in 2016. The systematization of the workshops was planned in two stages. The initial one referred to the work as an instance of interaction of knowledge and, the second stage, to the socialization of what had been worked on up to that moment. Unforeseen actions were generated from the workshops, but they arose from the recognition of the staff towards the communication team. This factor involved organizing other meetings with topics that the same people considered necessary to address, such as conflict resolution, work stress, teamwork, which required specialists in the subject. In the territory, the work demanded different times. The interaction was promoting and strengthening intersubjective and interinstitutional links working towards a common goal or project. Communication was a key factor. Finally, it should be noted that beyond recognizing the need to address communication from a multidimensional approach, doubt and uncertainty, as well as the deepening of the subject, were aspects that were strongly present in the workshops, for those of us who went on this complex journey. It also presents us with a great challenge to continue rethinking and reflecting on our daily work from strategic communication. Fil: Mansilla, Rodolfo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Catamarca. Agencia de Extensión Rural Paclin; Argentina Fil: Iriarte, Daniela Beatriz. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Catamarca; Argentina Fil: Cassin, Walter Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Catamarca; Argentina Fil: Caeiro, Rafael Enrique. Instituto Nacional Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Catamarca; Argentina EEA Catamarca

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of country liquor Toddy and its equivalent quantity of ethanol on lipid metabolism during gestation in rats. Female rats weighing an average of 125 g were exposed to Toddy (24.5 ml/body weight/day) and ethanol (0.52 ml/kg body weight/day) for 15 days before conception and throughout gestation. On the 19th day of gestation, altered liver function and hyperlipidemia was seen in both the treated groups. Altered liver function was evidenced by the increased activity of alcohol dehydrogenase, aldehyde dehydrogenase, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase or aspartate amino transferase (GOT), glutamic pyruvic transaminase or alanine amino transferase (GPT) and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT). Hyperlipidemia was caused by increased biosynthesis and decreased degradation of lipids. The incorporation of 14C acetate in lipids and activities of HMG CoA reductase and lipogenic enzymes were elevated and activity of LPL and bile acids contents were decreased. Toddy treated rats were more severely affected than those receiving an equivalent quantity of ethanol. Toddy seemed to potentiate the toxicity induced by alcohol indicating the role of the nonethanolic portion. Hepatic functions were also affected.

Tree mortality is a key factor for understanding forest dynamics. So far, however, only few studies have focused on the mortality of tree regeneration. Thus, more research is needed in this context to better understand the underlying ecological processes and predict more reliably how forest ecosystems will respond to ongoing climate change. As the current and future changes are expected to either favor or impair the growth and survival of large trees, it is pivotal to investigate the effects on the next generation, i.e. young and small trees. A better understanding of tree regeneration allows to extend or adapt the findings from the already well-studied adult, large trees to small-sized trees, for which sparse empirical data are available. Particularly relevant questions relate to the drivers of survival probabilities and of horizontal spatial patterns (i.e. the distribution in space) of tree regeneration. The aims of this PhD thesis therefore were (i) to improve the understanding of natural mortality processes of tree regeneration at different developmental stages and spatio-temporal scales, (ii) to investigate the effect of various abiotic and biotic factors on the mortality of tree regeneration, and (iii) to study the relationship between mortality, growth and site conditions. For this purpose, I assessed 1) the effect of emergence time, height and number of leaves of seedlings, light availability, temperature, precipitation, seedbed and microsite conditions on the survival time of seedlings; 2) the effect of light availability on the growth of saplings and its relationship with mortality; and 3) the effect of topography and of large neighboring trees on the spatial pattern of living and dead small trees. These effects were investigated for small-sized trees (diameter at breast height < 10 cm) of both conifer and deciduous species at several study sites in Switzerland across elevational gradients that represent distinct climate regimes and growth conditions. In Chapter 1, I studied the effects of emergence time on the mortality of seedlings. The underlying rationale was that global warming is expected to advance the timing of germination, leading the seedlings to potentially experience more severe damage and mortality due to late frost events in spring. Thus, I monitored the emergence, characteristics, and survival of seedlings across ten tree species in temperate mixed deciduous forests around Zurich (Switzerland) over one and a half years. For each seedling, I recorded characteristics such as height, number of cotyledons and euphylls, cause and severity of possible damages, and extent of missing foliar tissue due to herbivory. Moreover, I documented the seedbed type of each seedling and that of the microsite at the plot level. For each plot, I also determined light availability using hemispherical canopy photographs, logged the temperature curve, and measured soil moisture. Based on the empirical data, I conducted a survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate survival curves and Cox’s proportional hazards model to assess the effects of the explanatory variables on survival time. I tested whether the timing of emergence represents a trade‐off for seedling survival between minimizing frost risk and maximizing the length of the growing period. Seedlings that emerged early faced a severe late frost event. Nevertheless, they benefited from the overall longer growing period, resulting in increased overall survival. Larger seedling height and higher number of leaves positively influenced survival. Seedlings growing on moss had higher survival compared to those growing on mineral soil, litter, or in herbaceous vegetation. Since almost two‐thirds of the monitored seedlings died during the first growing season and early-emerging seedlings were more likely to survive, this chapter highlights how the first months of life together with an early emergence time of seedlings are decisive for successful tree regeneration, which will ultimately have an impact on the future development of forest stands. In Chapter 2, I investigated whether radial and vertical growth rates are suitable indicators of impending mortality in young trees, as previous research on adult, large trees had suggested, and whether light availability and tree size have an influence on mortality probability. Thus, I sampled an equal number of living and dead saplings of four conifer species (Swiss stone pine, European larch, Norway spruce and silver fir) in nine mountain forests along an elevational gradient of the Swiss Alps. I performed a tree-ring analysis, calculated both radial and vertical growth rates and compared them between living and dead saplings based on tree-ring widths reconstructed from stem disks at multiple tree heights. I observed a divergent pattern in radial growth of living and dead saplings, with reduced growth of dead saplings starting several years prior to death, which emphasizes the importance of long-term predisposing factors for tree mortality. Then, I quantified the combined effects of light availability, growth and tree size on mortality, using species- and site-specific conditional logistic regression models, by previously matching living and dead saplings of similar ages. Light availability influenced positively the survival probabilities of conifer saplings in mountain forests, although the positive effect decreased with increasing elevation. Recent radial growth rate and diameter had only minor effects on sapling mortality. By highlighting the importance of long-term predisposing factors for the mortality of conifer saplings in mountain forests, this chapter extends well-established findings of the adult stage to the so far little investigated sapling stage. In Chapter 3, I analyzed the horizontal spatial patterns of small living and dead Norway spruce trees in two subalpine forest reserves of Switzerland, Scatlè and Bödmerenwald, by nearest neighbor-based and distance-based analyses. I accounted for spatial inhomogeneity by investigating how the local densities of living and dead small trees depend on environmental covariates. I found that the local density of living and dead small trees is influenced by latitude, elevation and aspect. Yet, the influence of these covariates varied between the two forest reserves due to their different topography and peculiar site conditions. Then, I considered neighborhood interactions between trees based on the vicinity and size of trees, by analyzing how small trees are influenced by large neighboring trees over a range of spatial scales. Both tree vicinity and size were important for the spatial patterns of small trees in both reserves. Small living trees showed a random pattern around large dead trees over a range of distances and, at certain distances in one reserve, even dispersion. Small living trees further showed clustering around large living trees at short distances and dispersion at large distances. Small dead trees featured mainly a random pattern, even though with a tendency to cluster at short distances around large neighbors, irrespective of whether these were living or dead. Yet, the fading of clustering with increasing distance indicates that the influence of large trees on small trees varies with the distance and thus that the neighborhood interactions between trees are scale-dependent. I further found that the influence of large neighboring trees on small trees varied with topography, revealing a relationship between spatial inhomogeneity and neighborhood interactions, as I expected due to the strongly different tree sizes and environmental gradients in mountain forests. Overall, this chapter emphasizes the importance of considering both spatial inhomogeneity and neighborhood interactions when investigating the spatial ecology of mortality of small-sized trees in uneven-aged and unmanaged mountain forests. Throughout this PhD thesis, I extended well-established ecological findings from the adult, large trees to the regeneration stage of trees, which is an important bottleneck of forest dynamics. The empirical findings of my PhD thesis represent a considerable contribution towards a better understanding of the temporal and spatial patterns of mortality in tree regeneration as well as of the relationship between mortality, growth and site conditions.