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Detailed measurements on soil, plant and atmosphere are required for the development and validation of crop growth and agroecosystem models. These measurements should be available with a high temporal resolution. With the aim of creating a growth model for winter wheat, an experiment with winter wheat under integrated cultivation conditions was carried out at the intensive experimental field of the Müncheberg Research Centre for Soil Fertility, Germany, between 1979 and 1981, both with and without irrigation. Field chambers were used for daily measurements of the CO2 balance of the crop stand. The daily evaporation was measured with two different evaporation pans. The different biomass components of the winter wheat crop stand were measured in weekly intervals from April to harvest in July/August. The different biomass components were analysed in the laboratory concerning their carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content. Based on this coherent data set, the growth model TRITSIM for winter wheat was developed at the Müncheberg Research Centre for Soil Fertility in the 1980s. TRITSIM was incorporated into the complex agroecosystem model AGROSIM-WHEAT of the Research Institute of Plant Protection Eberswalde, Germany, for the identification of optimal plant protection measures under practical field conditions. The data set presented here can also be the basis for the verification and validation of further winter wheat growth and/or agroecosystem models.

The aim of this study was to quantify direct and indirect relationships between soil microbial community properties (potential basal respiration, microbial biomass) and abiotic factors (soil, climate) in three major land-cover types. Location: Europe Time period: 2018 Major taxa studied: Microbial community (fungi and bacteria) We collected 881 soil samples from across Europe in the framework of the Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey (LUCAS). We measured potential soil basal respiration at 20ºC and microbial biomass (substrate-induced respiration) using an O2-microcompensation apparatus. Climate and soil data were obtained from previous LUCAS surveys and online databases. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to quantify relationships between variables, and equations extracted from SEMs were used to create predictive maps. Fatty acid methyl esters were measured in a subset of samples to distinguish fungal from bacterial biomass. Soil microbial properties in croplands were more heavily affected by climate variables than those in forests. Potential soil basal respiration and microbial biomass were correlated in forests but decoupled in grasslands and croplands, where microbial biomass depended on soil carbon. Forests had a higher ratio of fungi to bacteria than grasslands or croplands. Soil microbial communities in grasslands and croplands are likely carbon-limited in comparison with those in forests, and forests have a higher dominance of fungi indicating differences in microbial community composition. Notably, the often already-degraded soils of croplands could be more vulnerable to climate change than more natural soils. The provided maps show potentially vulnerable areas that should be explicitly accounted for in coming management plans to protect soil carbon and slow the increasing vulnerability of European soils to climate change. [Methods] Soil samples were collected during the 2018 LUCAS soil sampling campaign. Soil chemical and physical properties were measured at the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy (Orgiazzi et al., 2018). Soil microbial respiration and biomass, as well as water content and water holding capacity, were measured in the Eisenhauer lab of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research. Fungi/Bacteria was measured by fatty acid analysis by Felipe Bastida at CEBAS CSIC. Climate and geographical data were harvested from various databases, which are listed in Appendix 1 (data sources) of the associated paper. For more details on the soil sampling and physical and chemical properties, see: Orgiazzi, A., Ballabio, C., Panagos, P., Jones, A., & Fernández-Ugalde, O. (2018). LUCAS Soil, the largest expandable soil dataset for Europe: a review. European Journal of Soil Science, 69(1), 140-153. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.12499 For more details on the measurements of soil microbial respiration and biomass, fatty acids, and water holding capacity, see the supplementary methods of the associated paper (Appendix 2). [Usage Notes] Fatty acid analysis was performed for a subset of 267 samples. Water holding capacity and associated measurements of basal respiration was analyzed in a subset of 100 samples. The samples that were not in these subsets have NA values for the columns associated with these measurements. In order to protect the precise locations of the LUCAS sampling sites, latitude and longitude values could not be given. The approximate location of each sampling site is instead described by the NUTS3 region. If you wish to replicate the structural equation modeling described in the paper, for which latitude is required, please get in touch. A description of each column is available in the associated metadata file. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Award: FZT 118-202548816. European Research Council, Award: 694368. European Commission. Directorate-General for the Environment. Direction Générale Opérationnelle Agriculture, Ressources Naturelles et Environnement du Service Public de Wallonie. Eurostat. Peer reviewed

We provide a dataset from a household survey in Mpanda region in Western Tanzania (N = 137) that was conducted in 2011. Household heads (or replacements) were interviewed. The topics addressed covered a broad range of socio-economic data and including, among others, household information (number of household members, age, sex, religion etc.), agricultural production (e.g. crops produced and livestock owned) including number and size of plots, income generation, energy access and owned assets.

A collection of field data from four agricultural sites in the Rur catchment in Western Germany collected in the frame of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 32 “Patterns in Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Systems: Monitoring, Modelling and Data Assimilation” (TR32). The dataset includes data on vegetation (states and fluxes), weather, soil, and agricultural management. Vegetation-related data comprises fresh and dry biomass (green and brown, predominantly per organ), plant height, green and brown leaf area index, phenological development state, nitrogen and carbon content, and carbon-, energy- and water-fluxes for a variety of agricultural plants. In addition, masses of harvest residues and regrowth of vegetation after harvest or before planting of the main crop are included. Data on agricultural management includes sowing and harvest dates, and information on cultivation, fertilization and agrochemicals. The dataset also includes gap-filled weather data and soil parameters (particle size distributions, carbon and nitrogen contents). This data can be useful for development and validation of remote sensing products. A detailed description of the dataset can be found in Reichenau et al. (2020).

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].

ABSTRACTA novel design for a high temperature SOFC, based on lamellar electrode-electrolyte segments obtained by solidification of an oxidic eutectic melt on an electrolyte substrate is presented. Such “composite” electrodes contain NiO or MnO - 8Y-ZrO2 lamellae, which after reduction / oxidation yield electrode-electrolyte lamellae with 1–2 μm width and a vertical dimension of> 100 μm, depending upon the amount of eutectic melt solidified on a polycrystalline substrate. The nucleation of the eutectic on a polycrystalline substrate followed by a semi-directional crystallization of the two phases yields a gradient of 3-phase boundaries over the height of such an electrode, with the number of 3-phase boundaries increasing towards the substrate.

Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N(2)O) have increased significantly since pre-industrial times owing to anthropogenic perturbation of the global nitrogen cycle, with animal production being one of the main contributors. Grasslands cover about 20 per cent of the temperate land surface of the Earth and are widely used as pasture. It has been suggested that high animal stocking rates and the resulting elevated nitrogen input increase N(2)O emissions. Internationally agreed methods to upscale the effect of increased livestock numbers on N(2)O emissions are based directly on per capita nitrogen inputs. However, measurements of grassland N(2)O fluxes are often performed over short time periods, with low time resolution and mostly during the growing season. In consequence, our understanding of the daily and seasonal dynamics of grassland N(2)O fluxes remains limited. Here we report year-round N(2)O flux measurements with high and low temporal resolution at ten steppe grassland sites in Inner Mongolia, China. We show that short-lived pulses of N(2)O emission during spring thaw dominate the annual N(2)O budget at our study sites. The N(2)O emission pulses are highest in ungrazed steppe and decrease with increasing stocking rate, suggesting that grazing decreases rather than increases N(2)O emissions. Our results show that the stimulatory effect of higher stocking rates on nitrogen cycling and, hence, on N(2)O emission is more than offset by the effects of a parallel reduction in microbial biomass, inorganic nitrogen production and wintertime water retention. By neglecting these freeze-thaw interactions, existing approaches may have systematically overestimated N(2)O emissions over the last century for semi-arid, cool temperate grasslands by up to 72 per cent.