Multiple common garden experiments suggest lack of local adaptation in an invasive ornamental plant

Aims: Adaptive evolution along geographic gradients of climatic conditions is suggested to facilitate the spread of invasive plant species, leading to clinal variation among populations in the introduced range. We investigated whether adaptation to climate is also involved in the invasive spread of an ornamental shrub, Buddleja davidii, across western and central Europe. Material and Methods: We combined a common garden experiment, replicated in three climatically different central European regions, with reciprocal transplantation to quantify genetic differentiation in growth and reproductive traits of 20 invasive B. davidii populations. Additionally, we compared compensatory regrowth among populations after clipping of stems to simulate mechanical damage. Important findings: Our results do not provide evidence for clinal variation among invasive B. davidii populations: populations responded similarly to the different environments, and trait values were not correlated to climatic conditions or geographic coordinates of their home sites. Moreover, we did not detect differences in the compensatory ability of populations. We suppose that the invasive spread of B. davidii has been facilitated by phenotypic plasticity rather than by adaptation to climate, and that continent-wide shuffling of cultivars due to horticultural trade may have limited local adaptation so far

Audio vs. Video: Does Viewing Support Learning? A Comparision of an Audio-Visual with an Auditory Virtual Lecture

Häufig wird behauptet, dass audiovisuelle Informationen gegenüber auditiven lernwirksamer sind. Dies wird meist mit der kognitiv-anregenden Funktion begründet, die der audiovisuellen Darstellung zugeschrieben wird. Bisherige empirische Arbeiten konnten das auch tendenziell bestätigen; allerdings beziehen sich diese Befunde überwiegend auf das video- oder fernsehgestützte Lernen, bei dem den Lernenden keine zusätzlichen textbasierten Informationen zur Verfügung stehen. Für den Bereich der virtuellen Vorlesung wurde noch nicht untersucht, ob sich eine audiovisuelle Präsentation des Vortragenden gegenüber einer rein auditiven Präsentation positiv auf den Lernerfolg auswirkt. In einer empirischen Studie mit 61 Versuchspersonen wurde daher Lernenden ein Ausschnitt aus einer Online-Vorlesung in zwei Variationen präsentiert. Während die eine Gruppe eine Lerneinheit bearbeitete, in der sie neben textbasierten Informationen eine Videosequenz (Aufnahme des Dozenten) präsentiert bekam, bearbeitete die zweite Gruppe die gleiche Lerneinheit; hier war jedoch nur die Stimme des Dozenten hörbar. In einem direkt anschließenden Wissens- und späteren Behaltenstest zeigten sich keine signifikanten Leistungsunterschiede zwischen den beiden Gruppen. Jedoch berichtete die Mehrheit der Versuchspersonen, dass sie die Videovariante für affektiv-unterstützender hält als die Tonvariante. (ZPID

Exploring synergies between climate and air quality policies using long-term global and regional emission scenarios

In this paper, we present ten scenarios developed using the IMAGE framework (Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment) to explore how different assumptions on future climate and air pollution policies influence emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. These scenarios describe emission developments in 26 world regions for the 21st century, using a matrix of climate and air pollution policies. For climate policy, the study uses a baseline resulting in forcing levels slightly above RCP6.0 and an ambitious climate policy scenario similar to RCP2.6. For air pollution, the study explores increasingly tight emission standards, ranging from no improvement, current legislation and three variants assuming further improvements. For all pollutants, the results show that more stringent control policies are needed after 2030 to prevent a rise in emissions due to increased activities and further reduce emissions. The results also show that climate mitigation policies have the highest impact on SO2 and NOX emissions, while their impact on BC and OC emissions is relatively low, determined by the overlap between greenhouse gas and air pollutant emission sources. Climate policy can have important co-benefits; a 10% decrease in global CO2 emissions by 2100 leads to a decrease of SO2 and NOX emissions by about 10% and 5%, respectively compared to 2005 levels. In most regions, low levels of air pollutant emissions can also be achieved by solely implementing stringent air pollution policies. The largest differences across the scenarios are found in Asia and other developing regions, where a combination of climate and air pollution policy is needed to bring air pollution levels below those of today

Uncertainties in emissions estimates of greenhouse gases and air pollutants in India and their impacts on regional air quality

Greenhouse gas and air pollutant precursor emissions have been increasing rapidly in India. Large uncertainties exist in emissions inventories and quantification of their uncertainties is essential for better understanding of the linkages among emissions and air quality, climate, and health. We use Monte Carlo methods to assess the uncertainties of the existing carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM) emission estimates from four source sectors for India. We also assess differences in the existing emissions estimates within the nine subnational regions. We find large uncertainties, higher than the current estimates for all species other than CO, when all the existing emissions estimates are combined. We further assess the impact of these differences in emissions on air quality using a chemical transport model. More efforts are needed to constrain emissions, especially in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where not only the emissions differences are high but also the simulated concentrations using different inventories. Our study highlights the importance of constraining SO2, NOx, and NH3 emissions for secondary PM concentrations