Building the foundations of sustainable environmental management:Understanding the influence of natural capital on ecosystem services

Global indicators of ecosystem extent and condition have declined by 47%, relative to their earliest estimated states. Natural capital is the worlds’ stocks of these natural assets, which supply a wide range of ecosystem services that directly or indirectly produce value for people. This decline in our natural capital is likely to have repercussions for the ecosystem services it supplies. To support and inform sustainable and effective environmental management decisions for the provision of our vital ecosystem services we must fully understand the linkages between them and natural capital. Yet many existing approaches only assess a limited number of ecosystem services and natural capital assets, and therefore miss important synergies and trade-offs. Furthermore, there has been very little exploration into the context dependency of these linkages and the evidence underlying them; natural capital to ecosystem service linkages may be of different relevance to decision makers depending on their desired application. This thesis follows the creation of the Linking Natural Capital Attribute Groups to Ecosystem Services (LiNCAGES) platform to support collation, exploration and synthesis of evidence on linkages between natural capital and ecosystem services and its communication in environmental decision making. The thesis shows how the LiNCAGES platform allows for the holistic investigation of natural capital and ecosystem service linkages while accounting for the context dependency of a user’s decisions. Furthermore, this thesis reveals how accounting for relationships between multiple natural capital attributes can reveal new indirect trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services and how these are affected by context dependency. Additionally, the thesis highlights the importance of understanding the strengths and limitations of evidence on natural capital that underpins maps of ecosystem service provision, which are frequently used to support environmental decisions. Maps of present and future ecosystem service provision created using evidence from the literature, expert scoring and an existing model were found to vary considerably by the region, ecosystem service, and future scenario mapped. The work presented in this thesis provides new insight into the complexities and context dependencies in natural capital to ecosystem service linkages and relationships between natural capital attributes, as well as in the evidence used to communicate such linkages via ecosystem service provision maps. This deeper understanding contributes to the support of sustainable and effective environmental management decisions necessary for the preservation of our vital ecosystem services

Improving regional applicability of the UK shared socioeconomic pathways through iterative participatory co-design

Regional analyses of risks from climate change require reproducible, consistent and robust approaches to downscaling global socioeconomic scenarios, with coherent processes that work across multiple projects and communities. We address this need by developing an iterative approach to stakeholder-based Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) downscaling and co-design, enabling us to extend SSPs while maintaining their consistency from global to sub-national scales. We apply this approach to extend a set of SSPs for the United Kingdom, developing a broad range of user-oriented scenario products including (a) a set of key categories of socioeconomic drivers and their dimensions, (b) extended scenario narratives, (c) system diagrams, and (d) semi-quantitative trends of key socioeconomic indicators. Importantly, the co-design process outlined in this study was implemented fully online, providing valuable lessons on the implications of the online approach for participatory involvement, stakeholder inclusiveness and representativeness. In addition to presenting the approach and its resulting scenario products, we highlight how it contributes to adding detail and nuance, as well as geographic, temporal and sectoral extension to the scenarios. Furthermore, we discuss the benefits of the approach as a reproducible and robust roadmap to SSP downscaling, with respect to deepening the co-design process and increasing scenario legitimacy and validation

Understanding the role of biodiversity in the climate, food, water, energy, transport and health nexus in Europe

Biodiversity underpins the functioning of ecosystems and the diverse benefits that nature provides to people, yet is being lost at an unprecedented rate. To halt or reverse biodiversity loss, it is critical to understand the complex interdependencies between biodiversity and key drivers and sectors to inform the development of holistic policies and actions. We conducted a literature review on the interlinkages between biodiversity and climate change, food, water, energy, transport and health (“the biodiversity nexus”). Evidence extracted from 194 peer-reviewed articles was analysed to assess how biodiversity is being influenced by and is influencing the other nexus elements. Out of the 354 interlinkages between biodiversity and the other nexus elements, 53 % were negative, 29 % were positive and 18 % contained both positive and negative influences. The majority of studies provide evidence of the negative influence of other nexus elements on biodiversity, highlighting the substantial damage being inflicted on nature from human activities. The main types of negative impacts were land or water use/change, land or water degradation, climate change, and direct species fatalities through collisions with infrastructure. Alternatively, evidence of biodiversity having a negative influence on the other nexus elements was limited to the effects of invasive alien species and vector-borne diseases. Furthermore, a range of studies provided evidence of how biodiversity and the other nexus elements can have positive influences on each other through practices that promote co-benefits. These included biodiversity-friendly management in relevant sectors, protection and restoration of ecosystems and species that provide essential ecosystem services, green and blue infrastructure including nature-based solutions, and sustainable and healthy diets that mitigate climate change. The review highlighted the complexity and context-dependency of interlinkages within the biodiversity nexus, but clearly demonstrates the importance of biodiversity in underpinning resilient ecosystems and human well-being in ensuring a sustainable future for people and the planet.</p

Diplazium indet

Pteridophyte

Analysis of ALDH1A2, CYP26A1, CYP26B1, CRABP1, and CRABP2 in human neural tube defects suggests a possible association with alleles in ALDH1A2

BACKGROUND Vitamin A (retinol), in the form of retinoic acid (RA), is essential for normal development of the human embryo. Studies in the mouse and zebrafish have shown that retinol is metabolized in the developing spinal cord and must be maintained in a precise balance along the anteroposterior axis. Both excess and deficiency of RA can affect morphogenesis, including failures of neural tube closure. METHODS We chose to investigate 5 genes involved in the metabolism or synthesis of RA, ALDH1A2, CYP26A1, CYP26B1, CRABP1, and CRABP2, for their role in the development of human neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. RESULTS An association analysis using both allelic and genotypic single‐locus tests revealed a significant association between the risk for spina bifida and 3 polymorphisms in the gene ALDH1A2; however, we found no evidence of a significant multilocus association. CONCLUSIONS These results may suggest that polymorphisms in ALDH1A2 may influence the risk for lumbosacral myelomeningocele in humans. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc

SNPs in the neural cell adhesion molecule 1 gene (NCAM1) may be associated with human neural tube defects

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are common birth defects, occurring in approximately 1/1,000 births; both genetic and environmental factors are implicated. To date, no major genetic risk factors have been identified. Throughout development, cell adhesion molecules are strongly implicated in cell–cell interactions, and may play a role in the formation and closure of the neural tube. To evaluate the role of neural cell adhesion molecule 1 (NCAM1) in risk of human NTDs, we screened for novel single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the gene. Eleven SNPs across NCAM1 were genotyped using TaqMan. We utilized a family-based approach to evaluate evidence for association and/or linkage disequilibrium. We evaluated American Caucasian simplex lumbosacral myelomeningocele families ( n =132 families) using the family based association test (FBAT) and the pedigree disequilibrium test (PDT). Association analysis revealed a significant association between risk for NTDs and intronic SNP rs2298526 using both the FBAT test ( P =0.0018) and the PDT ( P =0.0025). Using the HBAT version of the FBAT to look for haplotype association, all pairwise comparisons with SNP rs2298526 were also significant. A replication study set, consisting of 72 additional families showed no significant association; however, the overall trend for overtransmission of the less common allele of SNP rs2298526 remained significant in the combined sample set. In addition, we analyzed the expression pattern of the NCAM1 protein in human embryos, and while NCAM1 is not expressed within the neural tube at the time of closure, it is expressed in the surrounding and later in differentiated neurons of the CNS. These results suggest variations in NCAM1 may influence risk for human NTDs