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Globalization as a mechanism to connect people at distance and share knowledge has been flourishing. Simultaneously, environmental degradation has been increasing, as reflected in global warming. Through three dimensions, the economic, the social and political, and two measures, de jure and de facto, this study provides a disaggregated analysis of the effect of globalization on the critical issue of global warming for 25 European Union countries from 1990 to 2016. To emphasize globalization, the countries analysed were evaluated by two measures of globalization, de jure and de facto, resulting in their classification as high or low globalized countries de jure and de facto. Furthermore, energy consumption, economic growth and efficiency were included in an Autoregressive Distributed Lag model performed with the Driscoll-Kraay estimator. Robustness was checked using a Feasible Generalized Least Squares estimator. The results revealed that, overall, globalization increases environmental degradation, with the de jure measure having greater influence on high-globalized countries and the de facto measure having greater influence on low-globalized countries. Bearing in mind the increase in worldwide emissions driven by globalization, practices such as the relocation of polluting industries from high globalized countries should be discouraged. Incentives to harmonize global environmental restrictions could contribute to decarbonization worldwide.

Widespread tree mortality associated with drought has been observed on all forested continents and global change is expected to exacerbate vegetation vulnerability. Forest mortality has implications for future biosphere-atmosphere interactions of carbon, water and energy balance, and is poorly represented in dynamic vegetation models. Reducing uncertainty requires improved mortality projections founded on robust physiological processes. However, the proposed mechanisms of drought-induced mortality, including hydraulic failure and carbon starvation, are unresolved. A growing number of empirical studies have investigated these mechanisms, but data have not been consistently analysed across species and biomes using a standardized physiological framework. Here, we show that xylem hydraulic failure was ubiquitous across multiple tree taxa at drought-induced mortality. All species assessed had 60% or higher loss of xylem hydraulic conductivity, consistent with proposed theoretical and modelled survival thresholds. We found diverse responses in non-structural carbohydrate reserves at mortality, indicating that evidence supporting carbon starvation was not universal. Reduced non-structural carbohydrates were more common for gymnosperms than angiosperms, associated with xylem hydraulic vulnerability, and may have a role in reducing hydraulic function. Our finding that hydraulic failure at drought-induced mortality was persistent across species indicates that substantial improvement in vegetation modelling can be achieved using thresholds in hydraulic function.

Can intraspecific diversity functionally supersede interspecific diversity? Recent studies have established the ecological effects of intraspecific variation on a number of ecosystem dynamics including resilience and productivity and we hypothesised that they may functionally exceed those of species diversity. We focused on a coastal ecosystem dominated by two coexisting bioengineering mussel species, one of which, Perna perna, displays two distinct phylogeographic lineages. A manipulative field experiment revealed greater habitat structural complexity and a more benign microscale environment within beds of the eastern lineage than those of the western lineage or the second species (Mytilus galloprovincialis); the latter two did not differ. Similarly, while infaunal species abundance and biomass differed significantly between the two lineages of Perna, there was no such difference between Mytilus and the western Perna lineage. The evenness and diversity of associated infaunal assemblages responded differently. Diversity differed relatively weakly between species, while evenness showed a very strong difference between conspecific lineages. Our results show that variation within a species can functionally supersede diversity between species. As the two P. perna lineages have different physiological tolerances, we expect them to react differently to environmental change. Our findings indicate that predicting the ecosystem-level consequences of climate change requires an understanding of the relative strengths of within- and between-species differences in functionality.

Seaweed assemblages represent the dominant autotrophic biomass in many coastal environments, playing a central structural and functional role in several ecosystems. In Europe, seaweed assemblages are highly diverse systems. The combined seaweed flora of different European regions hold around 1550 species (belonging to nearly 500 genera), with new species continuously uncovered, thanks to the emergence of molecular tools. In this manuscript we review the effects of global and local stressors on European seaweeds, their communities, and ecosystem functioning. Following a brief review on the present knowledge on European seaweed diversity and distribution, and the role of seaweed communities in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, we discuss the effects of biotic homogenization (invasive species) and global climate change (shifts in bioclimatic zones and ocean acidification) on the distribution of individual species and their effect on the structure and functioning of seaweed communities. The arrival of new introduced species (that already account for 5–10% of the European seaweeds) and the regional extirpation of native species resulting from oceans' climate change are creating new diversity scenarios with undetermined functional consequences. Anthropogenic local stressors create additional disruption often altering dramatically assemblage's structure. Hence, we discuss ecosystem level effects of such stressors like harvesting, trampling, habitat modification, overgrazing and eutrophication that impact coastal communities at local scales. Last, we conclude by highlighting significant knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to anticipate the combined effects of global and local stressors on seaweed communities. With physical and biological changes occurring at unexpected pace, marine phycologists should now integrate and join their research efforts to be able to contribute efficiently for the conservation and management of coastal systems.

Coastal shallow lagoons are considered to be highly important systems, which have specific biogeochemical cycles and characteristics. The assessment of sediment-water interfaces is essential to understand nutrient dynamics and to evaluate the vulnerability to eutrophication, especially in regions of restricted water exchange (RRE), such as the Ria Formosa, which have natural conditions for the accumulation of nutrients. Water samples were collected during the years of 2006 and 2007-08 for nutrients, chlorophyll a and dissolved oxygen. Sediment samples were also collected for pore water nutrients and microphytobenthic chlorophyll a. Measurements of temperature, salinity and photosynthetic active radiation were also taken. The lagoon salinity is affected by occasional strong rainfall events. From comparison with previous work, a decrease in the nitrogen concentration in the water column can be observed, which may indicate an improvement of the water quality. Pore water nutrient concentrations were significantly larger than in the water column. Sediment-water exchanges are considered to be the most important processes in nutrient dynamics of the lagoon. Benthic microalgal biomass was also large compared with that of the phytoplankton. It represents about 99% of the total microalgal chlorophyll biomass of the system. The lagoon also contains (discontinuous) meadows of intertidal seagrass, but we did not study these. Due to the importance of sediments, the standard monitoring plans required by the Water Framework Directive may fail to track changes in the nutrient conditions and the microalgal responses to them.

Noise pollution must be considered to achieve sustainable cities because current levels of exposure to environmental noise are a considerable risk to the health and quality of life of citizens. Urban features and sound levels were registered in 150 streets in the Chilean cities of Talca and Valdivia to analyze the relationship between both types of variables. Urban variables related to street location, urban land use, street geometry, road traffic control, and public and private transportation showed very significant correlations with the noise levels, and multiple regression models were developed from these variables for each city. Models using only urban variables in Valdivia and Talca explained 71% and 73%, respectively, of the variability of noise. The prediction error was similar in the different types of urban roads and did not exhibit significant differences between models developed in different cities. The urban models developed in one city could, therefore, be used in other similar cities. Considering the usefulness of these variables in urban planning, these models can be a useful tool for urban planners and decision-makers to implement action plans regarding noise pollution.

The current distributions of species are often assumed to correspond with the total set of environmental conditions under which species can persist. When this assumption is incorrect, extinction risk estimated from species distribution models can be misleading. The degree to which species can tolerate or even thrive under conditions found beyond their current distributions alters extinction risks, time lags in realizing those risks, and the usefulness of alternative management strategies. To inform these issues, we propose a conceptual framework within which empirical data could be used to generate hypotheses regarding the realized, fundamental, and 'tolerance' niche of species. Although these niche components have rarely been characterized over geographic scales, we suggest that this could be done for many plant species by comparing native, naturalized, and horticultural distributions.