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Recent assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have highlighted the risks to humanity arising from the unsustainable use of natural resources. Thus far, land, freshwater, and ocean exploitation have been the chief causes of biodiversity loss. Climate change is projected to be a rapidly increasing additional driver for biodiversity loss. Since climate change and biodiversity loss impact human societies everywhere, bold solutions are required that integrate environmental and societal objectives. As yet, most existing international biodiversity targets have overlooked climate change impacts. At the same time, climate change mitigation measures themselves may harm biodiversity directly. The Convention on Biological Diversity’s post-2020 framework offers the important opportunity to address the interactions between climate change and biodiversity and revise biodiversity targets accordingly by better aligning these with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. We identify the considerable number of existing and proposed post-2020 biodiversity targets that risk being severely compromised due to climate change, even if other barriers to their achievement were removed. Our analysis suggests that the next set of biodiversity targets explicitly addresses climate change-related risks since many aspirational goals will not be feasible under even lower-end projections of future warming. Adopting more flexible and dynamic approaches to conservation, rather than static goals, would allow us to respond flexibly to changes in habitats, genetic resources, species composition, and ecosystem functioning and leverage biodiversity’s capacity to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Maize is one of the world’s most important cereals, cultivated in a wide range of environments. Besides the importance of maize and the gains in yield from selection schemes, commercial breeding drastically reduced the number of cultivars of this crop. Current common sense states that hybrids, when compared to open-pollinated cultivars, are a better adaptation strategy to cope with the impacts of climate change. However, the performance and resilience of cultivars with different levels of improvement are still not explored in this context. Four cultivars—a commercial hybrid, one commercially improved open-pollinated, one improved open-pollinated derived from participatory breeding, and one from a farmer’s selection—were tested using the CERES-Maize crop model. Field experiments conducted in Brazil were used for calibration and evaluation. Synthetic scenarios of climate change resulted from the application of the incremental method on historical series of observations (30 years), with temperature increments ranging from +0.5 up to +3.0 °C and precipitation changes from −30 up to +30%. Planting dates consisted in nine dates (August 1–December 1, each 15 days). Results demonstrate that the model could mimic the phenology and yield of two improved open-pollinated cultivars (MPA01 and Fortuna) and the hybrid (AS1548). One open-pollinated cultivar could not be validated due to its high phenotypic variability. Yield response surfaces showed distinct impacts among cultivars, with improved open-pollinated cultivar MPA01 having a higher yield stability when compared to the hybrid. Early planting dates produced lower yields with higher risk of crop failure for all cultivars. Late planting dates produced higher yields with higher failure risk. Considering risk and yield, the best planting window for all cultivars and scenarios is between September and October. Our results demonstrate, for the first time, that improved open-pollinated cultivars are equivalent or more resilient than hybrids to yield changes under different scenarios of abiotic stresses.

The selected chemical composition (dry matter, ash, total protein, and crude fat) of the integumentary muscles of Dendrobaena veneta were determined, plus the dry matter (DM) percentage content of 17 amino acids and the profile (%) of fatty acids. Results were compared with a more fully studied earthworm, Eisenia fetida. In addition, the composition of exogenous amino acids was compared to the WHO standard for pork, beef, and chicken eggs. Both earthworm species were grown on the same kitchen waste, and protein composition was analyzed using the same methods. Studies indicated that the muscle of D. veneta was characterized by a high level of protein (76.82% DM). A similar content of exogenous amino acids was observed in the protein of both earthworms, but for phenylalanine and isoleucine, slightly higher levels were recorded for E. fetida. More histidine, lysine, threonine, isoleucine, and arginine were found in earthworms compared with chicken egg white. Fatty acids play an essential role in balancing human or animal feed and their content determines the dietary and nutritional value of the food. Both earthworm species contained the appropriate content of saturated and unsaturated acids. In D. veneta, a higher content of arachidonic acid was found, and in E. fetida, lauric, tridecanoic, and palmitic acids were present. Future issues of food security may force us to seriously consider earthworm protein for indirect or even direct human consumption.

AbstractThe capacity to forecast the effects of climate change on biodiversity largely relies on identifying traits capturing mechanistic relationships with the environment through standardized field experiments distributed across relevant spatial scales. The effects of short‐term experimental manipulations on local communities may overlap with regional climate gradients that have been operating during longer time periods. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies simultaneously assessing such long‐term macroecological drivers with local climate manipulations.We analysed this issue with springtails (Class Collembola), one of the dominant soil fauna groups, in a standardized climate manipulation experiment conducted across six European countries encompassing broad climate gradients. We combined community data (near 20K specimens classified into 102 species) with 22 eco‐morphological traits and reconstructed their phylogenetic relationships to track the evolution of adaptations to live at different soil depths, which is key to cope with desiccation. We then applied joint species distribution models to investigate the combined effect of the regional aridity gradient with the local experimental treatment (drought and warming) over the assembly of springtail communities and tested for significant trait–environment relationships mediating their community‐level responses.Our results show (1) a convergent evolution in all three major collembolan lineages of species adapted to inhabit at different soil strata; (2) a clear signature of aridity selecting traits of more epigeic species at a biogeographical scale and (3) the association of short‐term experimental drought with traits related to more euedaphic life‐forms.The hemiedaphic condition would be the plesiomorphic state for Collembola while the adaptations for an epigeic life would have been secondarily gained. Epigeic springtails are not only more resistant to drought, but also have a higher dispersal capacity that allows them to seek more favourable micro‐habitats after experiencing drier conditions. The observed relative edaphization of the springtail communities after short‐term experimental drought may thus be a transient community response.The disparity between macroecological trends and fast community‐level responses after climate manipulations highlights the need of simultaneously assessing long‐term and short‐term drivers at broad spatial scales to adequately interpret trait–environment relationships and better forecast biodiversity responses to climate change.Read the freePlain Language Summaryfor this article on the Journal blog.

Silphium perfoliatum is a perennial crop native to North America that has been the subject of increased scientific interest in recent years, especially in Europe. It is drought- and frost-resistant, which makes it suitable for cultivation in Europe on marginal lands that are not used for growing other crops. This review analyzed the distribution and purposes of the cultivation of Silphium perfoliatum worldwide, as well as its biomass yields and characteristics as a feedstock for biogas production and other purposes. A total of 121 scientific publications on Silphium perfoliatum were identified, with the highest number (20 papers) published in 2019. It was found that higher biomass yields can be obtained at higher precipitation levels, with the use of fertilizers and an adequate type of plantation. The mean dry matter yield of Silphium perfoliatum was 13.3 Mg ha−1 DM (dry matter), and it ranged from 2 to over 32 Mg ha−1 DM. In some countries, Silphium is used as a forage crop mainly due to its high crude protein content (from 4.9% to 15% DM), depending on the vegetation phase. Silphium perfoliatum is a promising perennial crop in terms of energy and other benefits for biodiversity, soil quality and applications in medicine and pharmacology.

AbstractConversion of semi-natural habitats, such as field margins, fallows, hedgerows, grassland, woodlots and forests, to agricultural land could increase agricultural production and help meet rising global food demand. Yet, the extent to which such habitat loss would impact biodiversity and wild species is unknown. Here we survey species richness for four taxa (vascular plants, earthworms, spiders, wild bees) and agricultural yield across a range of arable, grassland, mixed, horticulture, permanent crop, for organic and non-organic agricultural land on 169 farms across 10 European regions. We find that semi-natural habitats currently constitute 23% of land area with 49% of species unique to these habitats. We estimate that conversion of semi-natural land that achieves a 10% increase in agricultural production will have the greatest impact on biodiversity in arable systems and the least impact in grassland systems, with organic practices having better species retention than non-organic practices. Our findings will help inform sustainable agricultural development.

This study examined the effects of soil heavy metals, macronutrients, texture and pH as well as plant species richness and composition on soil respiration, enzymatic activity, microbial biomass, metabolic quotient (qCO2) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) at sites of historical Zn-Pb mining. The study was conducted both on a large scale (65 heaps scattered over the area of 750 km2) and on a small scale (25 plots along two 48 m transects extending from heaps to adjacent fallow fields). Total concentrations of metals exceeded 400 (Cd), 20,000 (Pb) and 80,000 (Zn) mg kg-1 at the most polluted sites. Although they decreased along the heap-fallow direction, they still remained above environmental standards in fallow soils. In contrast, some soluble metal forms increased with the increasing distance from heaps. Soil organic matter had the strongest positive effect on most microbial parameters. Total and/or available heavy metals exhibited significant negative effects on microbial biomass, enzymatic activity and AMF, and a positive effect on qCO2. Organic matter alleviated negative effects of heavy metals on microorganisms; they were not observed where the increase in the contamination was accompanied by the increase in organic matter content. Plant species richness affected positively enzymatic activity and mycorrhization level. Plant species composition possibly contributed to the formation of soil microbial communities, but its effect was entangled in that of heavy metals as plant communities changed along pollution gradients (from metal-tolerant grasslands dominated by Festuca ovina to calcareous grasslands and ruderal communities at less polluted sites).