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Digital Annex for the following thesis: Vila-Viçosa, C. (2023). Natural History, Biogeography and Evolution of the Iberian white oak syngameon (Quercus L. Sect. Quercus). Ph.D. Thesis, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Portugal Abstract: The genus Quercus L. is one of the most diverse and important group of woody plants, particularly when considering that they are the trees that rule the Northern Hemisphere forests. Oaks have an intricate Biogeography that criss-crosses diverse climatic and edaphic gradients, encompassing a huge ambiguity in terms of species delimitation. Frequently, the taxonomic proposals brought by traditional Linnaean Botany are either insufficient or rather inflate the number of species and nomenclatural assignments, which are further diluted into inconsistent taxonomic ranks, varying from species to subspecies and varieties. The supremacy given to morphological characters that are inherently fragile and plastic, spread across the distribution areas of distinct lineages, may carry ambiguity on the identification and proper species delimitation. From the oaks that are distributed across the Western Palearctic region, the ones that are deciduous or brevi-deciduous present higher levels of ambiguity in terms of species number and their delimitation. This ambiguity is particularly strong in the circummediterranean region and in the transitional areas between the two major biogeographic Regions of the western Palearctic region, the Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean. This degree of uncertainty, which increases towards the Southern European Peninsulas, is amplified by the ease that the different species of oaks tend to hybridize among them. The present work provides a holistic framework that covers multiple areas, from the taxonomic and evolutive study of this genus, to biogeography and molecular characterization. Its major objective was to resolve the species delimitation of the Iberian deciduous and marcescent oaks and putative introgression among them, enhancing the available knowledge about species diversity, which can foster suitable species and forest conservation. A specific objective was to cross-reference the natural history revision and the different taxonomic treatments brought by distinct authors, with personal observations. These data were then incorporated into ecological modelling and molecular characterization, which in the end fed a newly updated taxonomic proposal. In Section A we obtained results from extensive field, herbaria, and literature review, updating the nomenclature of the Portuguese and western Mediterranean oaks. Section B was supported by Section A’s in-depth review and enabled finer species distribution models, nurturing both hindcast (since ca. 20 Kyr) and forecast (2070-2100) exercises of the range dynamics of Mediterranean oaks species. The study of past and future range shifts solved important pending biogeographic questions, especially related to past range-shifts. Such past-range shifts improved our knowledge on species responses to climate dynamics and allowed a better anticipation of future responses of range shifts driven by climate change. Section C encompassed the molecular characterization of Iberian white oak species and their hybrids, whose delimitation is often faltering when one intends to infer about species rank, or hypothesize about the participation of parent taxon in natural hybrid swarms. This work allowed us to solve the phylogenetic backbone of western Palearctic white oaks, suggesting a significant segregation of the Iberian pedunculate oaks and unveiling two subsections inside Section Quercus. These subsections are biogeographically well-segregated and present diverse levels of introgression among species. Results demonstrated the efficiency of RADSeq for rebuilding the reticulate phylogeny of the Eurasian white oaks, showcasing the significance of the Iberian Peninsula as a major hotspot for oak diversity. We implemented a circular approach to these methods, which retro-fed themselves in terms of insight generation, enabling a powerful strategy to solve the evolutionary history of this difficult groups of plants. We estimate that the reticulate historical biogeography of the western Palearctic white oaks deserves further scrutiny by adding vicariant oak populations from northern Africa, the Near East and southern European Peninsulas. Methods should again follow this similar additive and sequential process of adjoining deep Natural History examination, with extensive fieldwork in type populations and genome-wide molecular surveys, in order to solve this group of plants. With the present work, we were able to significantly improve on the depiction of the basic unit of Biodiversity (the Species), in the complex Quercus genus. We provided tools to enable further efforts for the conservation of the Mediterranean oak forests, which overwhelm one of the most important (and one of the most threatened) Biomes for plant conservation at the global scale.

The ECOREST_AUV campaign will focus on monitoring restored populations in closed areas and adjacent fishing grounds to assess the evolution of restored populations and monitor the evolution of ecosystem services provided, as well as the provision of habitat, breeding areas or a possible spillover effect of closed areas in adjacent areas. Oceanographic data acquired during the ECOREST_AUV Cruise (29GD20230602) on board the Research Vessel García del Cid in 2023.

Hydraulic fracturing drilling technology can cause a high risk of surface spill accidents and thus water contamination. Climate change together with the high water demand and rapid increase in industrial and agricultural activities are valued reasons why we should all care about the availability of water resources and protect them from contamination. Hence, the purpose of this study is to estimate the risk associated with a site contaminated with benzene from oil spillage and its potential impact on groundwater. This study focused on investigating the impact of soil variability and water table depth on groundwater contamination. Temperature-dependent parameters, such as soil water content and the diffusion of pollutants, were considered as key input factors for the HYDRUS 1D numerical model to simulate benzene migration through three types of soil (loamy, sandy clay loam, and silt loam) and evaluate its concentration in the water aquifer. The results indicated that an anticipated increase in earth’s average surface temperature by 4 °C due to climate change could lead to a rise in the level of groundwater pollution in the study area by 0.017 mg/L in loamy soil, 0.00046 mg/L in sandy clay loam soil, and 0.00023 mg/L in silt loam soil. It was found that climate change can reduce the amount of benzene absorbed from 10 to 0.07% in loamy soil, 14 to 0.07% in sandy clay loam soil, and 60 to 53% in silt loam soil. The results showed that the soil properties and solute characteristics that depend on the temperature have a major and important role in determining the level of groundwater pollutants.

Global warming and direct anthropogenic impacts, such as water extraction, are largely affecting water budgets in Mediterranean wetlands, thereby increasing wetland salinities and isolation, and decreasing water depths and hydroperiods (duration of the inundation period). These wetland features are key elements structuring waterbird communities. However, the ultimate and net consequences of these dynamic conditions on waterbird assemblages are largely unknown. We combined a regular sampling on waterbird presence through the 2008 annual cycle with in-situ data on these relevant environmental predictors of waterbird distribution to model habitat selection for 69 individual species in a typical Mediterranean wetland network in south-western Spain. Species association with environmental features were subsequently used to predict changes in habitat suitability for each species under three climate change scenarios (encompassing changes in environment that ranged from 10% to 50% change as predicted by climatic models). Waterbirds distributed themselves unevenly throughout environmental gradients and water salinity was the most important gradient structuring the distribution of the community. Environmental suitability for the guilds of diving birds and vegetation gleaners will be reduced according to future climate scenarios, while most small wading birds will benefit from changing conditions. Resident species and those that breed in this wetland network will be also more impacted than those using this area for wintering or stopover. We provide here a tool that can be used in a horizon-scanning framework to identify emerging issues on waterbird conservation and to anticipate suitable management actions : Datasets as supporting information to article “How will climate change affect endangered Mediterranean waterbirds?” to be published in PLOS ONE. Address questions to Francisco Ramírez: ramirez@ub.edu

The aim of this paper is to investigate the threshold effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental degradation. In empirical analysis, FDI and environmental degradation are jointly determined under the given threshold variable and other exogenous variables. Using carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita as a proxy for environmental degradation, the results show that increasing FDI worsens CO2 emissions after a threshold level of corruption has been reached. Our results demonstrate that increasing FDI will increase CO2 emissions when the degree of corruptibility is relatively high. The study suggests that further FDI and improved environmental quality are competing rather than compatible objectives in high-corruption countries and are compatible rather than competing objectives in low-corruption countries. Higher trade liberalization in low-corruption countries could contribute to negative environmental consequences because of the increased output or economic activity which results from increased trade. The robustness estimation confirms the evidence that pollution and economic development increase together up to a certain income level, after which the trend reverses.

Abstract. An improved understanding of present-day climate variability and change relies on high-quality data sets from the past 2 millennia. Global efforts to model regional climate modes are in the process of being validated against, and integrated with, records of past vegetation change. For South America, however, the full potential of vegetation records for evaluating and improving climate models has hitherto not been sufficiently acknowledged due to an absence of information on the spatial and temporal coverage of study sites. This paper therefore serves as a guide to high-quality pollen records that capture environmental variability during the last 2 millennia. We identify 60 vegetation (pollen) records from across South America which satisfy geochronological requirements set out for climate modelling, and we discuss their sensitivity to the spatial signature of climate modes throughout the continent. Diverse patterns of vegetation response to climate change are observed, with more similar patterns of change in the lowlands and varying intensity and direction of responses in the highlands. Pollen records display local-scale responses to climate modes; thus, it is necessary to understand how vegetation–climate interactions might diverge under variable settings. We provide a qualitative translation from pollen metrics to climate variables. Additionally, pollen is an excellent indicator of human impact through time. We discuss evidence for human land use in pollen records and provide an overview considered useful for archaeological hypothesis testing and important in distinguishing natural from anthropogenically driven vegetation change. We stress the need for the palynological community to be more familiar with climate variability patterns to correctly attribute the potential causes of observed vegetation dynamics. This manuscript forms part of the wider LOng-Term multi-proxy climate REconstructions and Dynamics in South America – 2k initiative that provides the ideal framework for the integration of the various palaeoclimatic subdisciplines and palaeo-science, thereby jump-starting and fostering multidisciplinary research into environmental change on centennial and millennial timescales.

Format: raw binary. The raw binary archive is composed of 576 zipped files, corresponding to the SPEI index at time scales between 1 and 48 months for the whole World and divided by decades (except the last file, containing only data for the period 2001-2006). Each zipped file contains three files, one with the data itselt (.img), and two headers (.doc and .hdr). The information contained in the header files is equivalent, and allows direct access to the data using some widely used commercial programs. Naming convention: spei[tempscale]_[decade].zip, where [tempscale] is a number between 1 and 48 indicating the temporal scale of the index (months), and [decade] indicates the years of data contained in the file. Example: spei12_1910-1919.zip. All currently available gridded drought datasets at continental and global scales are based on either the PDSI or the sc-PDSI. A new global drought dataset based on the Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) has been developed, which covers time scales from 1-48 months at a spatial resolution of 0.5°, and provides temporal coverage for the period 1901-2006. This dataset represents an improvement in spatial resolution and operative capability of previous gridded drought datasets based on the PDSI, and enables identification of various drought types. A monthly global dataset of a multiscalar drought index is presented and compared in terms of spatial and temporal variability with the existing continental and global drought datasets based on the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI, scPDSI). The new dataset is based on the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). The index was obtained from the CRU TS3.0 data, covering time scales from 1 to 48 months for the period 1901-2006, and has a spatial resolution of 0.5°. The advantages of the new dataset are that: i) it improves the spatial resolution of the unique global drought dataset at a global scale; ii) it is spatially and temporally comparable to other datasets, given the probabilistic nature of the SPEI, and, in particular; iii) it enables identification of various drought types, given the multiscalar character of the SPEI. More details at: http://www.eead.csic.es/spei/spei.html A monthly global dataset of a multiscalar drought index is presented and compared in terms of spatial and temporal variability with the existing continental and global drought datasets based on the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI, scPDSI). The new dataset is based on the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). The index was obtained from the CRU TS3.0 data, covering time scales from 1 to 48 months for the period 1901-2006, and has a spatial resolution of 0.5°. The advantages of the new dataset are that: i) it improves the spatial resolution of the unique global drought dataset at a global scale; ii) it is spatially and temporally comparable to other datasets, given the probabilistic nature of the SPEI, and, in particular; iii) it enables identification of various drought types, given the multiscalar character of the SPEI. More details at: http://www.eead.csic.es/spei/spei.html All currently available gridded drought datasets at continental and global scales are based on either the PDSI or the sc-PDSI. A new global drought dataset based on the Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) has been developed, which covers time scales from 1-48 months at a spatial resolution of 0.5°, and provides temporal coverage for the period 1901-2006. This dataset represents an improvement in spatial resolution and operative capability of previous gridded drought datasets based on the PDSI, and enables identification of various drought types. The Global 0.5° gridded SPEI dataset is made available under the Open Database License. Any rights in individual contents of the database are licensed under the Database Contents License. Users of the dataset are free to share, create and adapt under the conditions of attribution and share-alike. Use of the newest version is recommended. Older versions are still available to allow replicability. The dataset is freely available on the web repository of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in three different formats (NetCDF, binary raster, and plain text).