A Network Approach to Green Infrastructure: How to Enhance Ecosystem Services Provision?

Landscape fragmentation is increasingly undermining the capacity of ecosystems to provide services and benefits to humans. The development of a green infrastructure network can enhance the provision of ecosystem services connecting ecosystem features. We review and explore the concepts, methodologies, and applications that allow to analyse connectivity of green infrastructure networks and the role of spatial connectivity for supporting and maintaining ecosystem services. Together with connectivity, the quality, quantity, diversity, redundancy, and distances of ecosystem elements result to be important characteristics to support the provision of services. We report how spatial and connectivity-based methodologies (for example, network indices and spatial pattern analysis) can support characterisation and prioritization of green infrastructure networks for crucial interventions, both for preserving and restoring connection elements

Harmonising regulatory information on wine protected designation of origin in Europe

Wine Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) products are strictly regulated and therefore highly susceptible to changes in climatic, environmental and socioeconomic conditions. Analysing the impacts of such changes has so far been challenging, because the legal specifications of wine PDOs in Europe have never been summarised in a harmonised dataset. Here, we present how we created the first inventory of regulatory information for the 1177 wine PDO in Europe, based on the geographical indication register of the European Union

A geospatial inventory of regulatory information for wine protected designations of origin in Europe

The Wine Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) label is a European quality scheme that protects high quality wines by linking them to legally defined geographic areas and a set of specific production practices. Because of the tight relation between PDO wines and the specifications defined in the official regulatory documents, these products are highly susceptible to changes in climatic, environmental, or socioeconomic conditions. However, the content of these regulatory documents has never been systematically analysed and summarized in a single dataset. Here, we present the first geospatial inventory that organizes regulatory information about the 1177 wine PDO in Europe based on the documents from the official EU geographical indication register. It includes essential legal information that defines the wine PDO such as the geographic boundaries, authorized cultivars and maximum yields. This inventory opens new possibilities for researchers to accurately assess, compare and map the regulatory information in each wine region at an unprecedented level of detail, supporting decision makers in developing adaptation strategies for the preservation of PDO wine regions

An ecosystem service approach to the study of vineyard landscapes in the context of climate change: a review

Vineyard landscapes significantly contribute to the economy, identity, culture, and biodiversity of many regions worldwide. Climate change, however, is increasingly threatening the resilience of vineyard landscapes and of their ecological conditions, undermining the provision of multiple ecosystem services. Previous research has often focused on climate change impacts, ecosystem conditions and ecosystem services without systematically reviewing how they have been studied in the literature on viticulture. Here, we systematically review the literature on vineyard landscapes to identify how ecosystem conditions and services have been investigated, and whether an integrative approach to investigate the effects of climate change was adopted. Our results indicate that there are still very few studies that explicitly address multiple ecosystem conditions and services together. Only 28 and 18% of the reviewed studies considered more than two ecosystem conditions or services, respectively. Moreover, while more than 97% of the relationships between ecosystem conditions and services studied were addressing provisioning and regulating services, only 3% examined cultural services. Finally, this review found that there is a lack of integrative studies that address simultaneously the relationships between ecosystem condition, ecosystem services and climate change (only 15 out of 112 studies). To overcome these gaps and to better understand the functioning of vineyard socio-ecological systems under climate change, multidisciplinary, integrative, and comprehensive approaches should be adopted by future studies. A holistic understanding of vineyard landscapes will indeed be crucial to support researchers and decision makers in developing sustainable adaptation strategies that enhance the ecological condition of vineyards and ensure the provision of multiple ecosystem services under future climate scenarios

Head in the clouds, feet on the ground: how transdisciplinary learning can foster transformative change—insights from a summer school

There is a pressing need for transformative change, with a vision of long-term human well-being within planetary boundaries. The lack of progress—despite increasing awareness and action—illustrates how challenging it is to foster change in our complex global society. Education and learning are needed to enable change. Transdisciplinary learning, which meaningfully integrates diverse knowledge and perspectives, contributes to developing an integrative understanding—a necessity for tackling complex challenges. We explore how transdisciplinary learning for early-career researchers can foster transformative change and lead to increased biodiversity conservation. This paper focuses on a case study of the authors’ shared experiences during the 2021 Alternet Summer School, which focused on transformative change for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. In this introspective research, we gained insights through an online survey for participants and organizers of the summer school (n = 27). Using qualitative content analysis, we identify seven crucial elements of transdisciplinary learning which can lead to transformative change on (a) a personal level, as the learning process shifts values and helps researchers identify their roles; (b) a research level, by rethinking science and providing tools for transdisciplinary approaches, and (c) a societal level, by moving from the individual to the collective and constructing a shared vision for a sustainable future. Participants highlighted how changes on all these levels could benefit biodiversity conservation. These insights point to the benefit of transdisciplinary learning opportunities that empower young researchers to take up their part in fostering transformative change

Head in the clouds, feet on the ground: how transdisciplinary learning can foster transformative change—insights from a summer school

There is a pressing need for transformative change, with a vision of long-term human well-being within planetary boundaries. The lack of progress—despite increasing awareness and action—illustrates how challenging it is to foster change in our complex global society. Education and learning are needed to enable change. Transdisciplinary learning, which meaningfully integrates diverse knowledge and perspectives, contributes to developing an integrative understanding—a necessity for tackling complex challenges. We explore how transdisciplinary learning for early-career researchers can foster transformative change and lead to increased biodiversity conservation. This paper focuses on a case study of the authors’ shared experiences during the 2021 Alternet Summer School, which focused on transformative change for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. In this introspective research, we gained insights through an online survey for participants and organizers of the summer school (n = 27). Using qualitative content analysis, we identify seven crucial elements of transdisciplinary learning which can lead to transformative change on (a) a personal level, as the learning process shifts values and helps researchers identify their roles; (b) a research level, by rethinking science and providing tools for transdisciplinary approaches, and (c) a societal level, by moving from the individual to the collective and constructing a shared vision for a sustainable future. Participants highlighted how changes on all these levels could benefit biodiversity conservation. These insights point to the benefit of transdisciplinary learning opportunities that empower young researchers to take up their part in fostering transformative change

Head in the clouds, feet on the ground:how transdisciplinary learning can foster transformative change—insights from a summer school

There is a pressing need for transformative change, with a vision of long-term human well-being within planetary boundaries. The lack of progress—despite increasing awareness and action—illustrates how challenging it is to foster change in our complex global society. Education and learning are needed to enable change. Transdisciplinary learning, which meaningfully integrates diverse knowledge and perspectives, contributes to developing an integrative understanding—a necessity for tackling complex challenges. We explore how transdisciplinary learning for early-career researchers can foster transformative change and lead to increased biodiversity conservation. This paper focuses on a case study of the authors’ shared experiences during the 2021 Alternet Summer School, which focused on transformative change for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. In this introspective research, we gained insights through an online survey for participants and organizers of the summer school (n = 27). Using qualitative content analysis, we identify seven crucial elements of transdisciplinary learning which can lead to transformative change on (a) a personal level, as the learning process shifts values and helps researchers identify their roles; (b) a research level, by rethinking science and providing tools for transdisciplinary approaches, and (c) a societal level, by moving from the individual to the collective and constructing a shared vision for a sustainable future. Participants highlighted how changes on all these levels could benefit biodiversity conservation. These insights point to the benefit of transdisciplinary learning opportunities that empower young researchers to take up their part in fostering transformative change.</p

Head in the clouds, feet on the ground: how transdisciplinary learning can foster transformative change—insights from a summer school

There is a pressing need for transformative change, with a vision of long-term human well-being within planetary boundaries. The lack of progress—despite increasing awareness and action—illustrates how challenging it is to foster change in our complex global society. Education and learning are needed to enable change. Transdisciplinary learning, which meaningfully integrates diverse knowledge and perspectives, contributes to developing an integrative understanding—a necessity for tackling complex challenges. We explore how transdisciplinary learning for early-career researchers can foster transformative change and lead to increased biodiversity conservation. This paper focuses on a case study of the authors’ shared experiences during the 2021 Alternet Summer School, which focused on transformative change for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. In this introspective research, we gained insights through an online survey for participants and organizers of the summer school (n = 27). Using qualitative content analysis, we identify seven crucial elements of transdisciplinary learning which can lead to transformative change on (a) a personal level, as the learning process shifts values and helps researchers identify their roles; (b) a research level, by rethinking science and providing tools for transdisciplinary approaches, and (c) a societal level, by moving from the individual to the collective and constructing a shared vision for a sustainable future. Participants highlighted how changes on all these levels could benefit biodiversity conservation. These insights point to the benefit of transdisciplinary learning opportunities that empower young researchers to take up their part in fostering transformative change.publishedVersio