14 research outputs found
A critical analysis of the potential for EU Common Agricultural Policy measures to support wild pollinators on farmland
1. Agricultural intensification and associated loss of highâquality habitats are key drivers of insect pollinator declines. With the aim of decreasing the environmental impact of agriculture, the 2014 EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) defined a set of habitat and landscape features (Ecological Focus Areas: EFAs) farmers could select from as a requirement to receive basic farm payments. To inform the postâ2020 CAP, we performed a Europeanâscale evaluation to determine how different EFA options vary in their potential to support insect pollinators under standard and pollinatorâfriendly management, as well as the extent of farmer uptake.
2. A structured Delphi elicitation process engaged 22 experts from 18 European countries to evaluate EFAs options. By considering life cycle requirements of key pollinating taxa (i.e. bumble bees, solitary bees and hoverflies), each option was evaluated for its potential to provide forage, bee nesting sites and hoverfly larval resources.
3. EFA options varied substantially in the resources they were perceived to provide and their effectiveness varied geographically and temporally. For example, field margins provide relatively good forage throughout the season in Southern and Eastern Europe but lacked earlyâseason forage in Northern and Western Europe. Under standard management, no single EFA option achieved high scores across resource categories and a scarcity of late season forage was perceived.
4. Experts identified substantial opportunities to improve habitat quality by adopting pollinatorâfriendly management. Improving management alone was, however, unlikely to ensure that all pollinator resource requirements were met. Our analyses suggest that a combination of poor management, differences in the inherent pollinator habitat quality and uptake bias towards catch crops and nitrogenâfixing crops severely limit the potential of EFAs to support pollinators in European agricultural landscapes.
5. Policy Implications. To conserve pollinators and help protect pollination services, our expert elicitation highlights the need to create a variety of interconnected, wellâmanaged habitats that complement each other in the resources they offer. To achieve this the Common Agricultural Policy postâ2020 should take a holistic view to implementation that integrates the different delivery vehicles aimed at protecting biodiversity (e.g. enhanced conditionality, ecoâschemes and agriâenvironment and climate measures). To improve habitat quality we recommend an effective monitoring framework with targetâorientated indicators and to facilitate the spatial targeting of options collaboration between land managers should be incentivised
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Citizen Science, Education, and Learning: Challenges and Opportunities
Citizen science is a growing field of research and practice, generating new knowledge and understanding through the collaboration of citizens in scientific research. As the field expands, it is becoming increasingly important to consider its potential to foster education and learning opportunities. Although progress has been made to support learning in citizen science projects, as well as to facilitate citizen science in formal and informal learning environments, challenges still arise. This paper identifies a number of dilemmas facing the fieldâfrom competing scientific goals and learning outcomes, differing underlying ontologies and epistemologies, diverging communication strategies, to clashing values around advocacy and activism. Although such challenges can become barriers to the successful integration of citizen science into mainstream education systems, they also serve as signposts for possible synergies and opportunities. One of the key emerging recommendations is to align educational learning outcomes with citizen science project goals at the planning stage of the project using co-creation approaches to ensure issues of accessibility and inclusivity are paramount throughout the design and implementation of every project. Only then can citizen science realise its true potential to empower citizens to take ownership of their own science education and learning
Effects of Multi-Generational Stress Exposure and Offspring Environment on the Expression and Persistence of Transgenerational Effects in Arabidopsis thaliana
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Data from: Effects of multi-generational stress exposure and offspring environment on the expression and persistence of transgenerational effects in Arabidopsis thaliana
Phenotype data of A. thaliana plants grown in either a field environment or in a climate chamber environment. In the climate chamber environment plants were grown under control conditions or salt stress
DataFieldandClimatechamber
Phenotype data of A. thaliana plants grown in either a field environment or in a climate chamber environment. In the climate chamber environment plants were grown under control conditions or salt stress
Results of linear model analysis of seed weight and generalized linear mixed-effects models for diameter, flowering time, dry weight and number of fruits, in which the experimental design is recoded as a 2x2x2 factorial with P, GP and GGP treatments as fixed effects.
<p>Shown are unstandardized effect sizes and <i>p</i>-values, significant values are indicated in bold. Each model was carried out separately for each offspring environment.</p
Origin of the experimental groups.
<p>A single <i>A</i>. <i>thaliana</i> plant (ecotype Col-0) served as a founder for the pedigree. Plants were grown for three generations either in a salt or in a control environment. Performance of offspring of the third generation (i.e., G.4) was tested in three distinct environments: a field environment, a climate chamber control and climate chamber salt environment.</p