Traits or species – space or environment

How communities are structured and the processes shaping species composition are among the basic questions in ecology. Knowledge about these processes is essential to predict changes in community composition in response to changes in for example climate or land use practices. Soil communities are considered to be both remarkably species-rich and to have many generalist species with seemingly similar niche requirements. Soil fauna composition shows a large variation even at small spatial scales and both local environment and spatial configuration of habitats are regarded as important forces shaping the community composition. In this thesis, I examine the factors influencing small-scale community composition of springtails (Collembola) in two habitats, a variable and dynamic salt marsh and a more stable mature pine forest. The functional traits of species determine both their responses to the environment and their effects on ecosystem processes. The current knowledge on environment - species - traits relationship is limited in spite of its potential importance for ecosystem function. I show that by combining perspectives from two closely linked theoretical frameworks – metacommunity ecology and community assembly theory – we get a better understanding of the important ecological factors operating in this system. I found that the factors influencing community composition was context dependent, but in a predictable way. In the environmentally variable habitat, salt marsh, with spatial and temporal heterogeneity, there was evidence of strong environmental filtering. Small-scale topography was the strongest predictor of community composition, likely due to disturbances restricting where habitat-generalists can persist. In contrast, in the more stable habitat, mature pine forest, environmental filtering appeared weaker and biotic interactions seemed to have a stronger impact. Coexisting species were more similar in traits related to resource utilisation and sensory ability than expected, and variation in species composition was explained mainly by spatial factors like the distance between samples, i.e. each local community seemed to depend on the composition of the surrounding communities

Operationalisation of ecological compensation - Obstacles and ways forward

Ecological compensation (EC) has been proposed as an important tool for stopping the loss of biodiversity and natural values. However, there are few studies on its actual operationalisation and there is high uncertainty about how it should be designed and implemented to be an effective way of performing nature conservation. In this study we focus on ecological compensation in Sweden, a country where it is in the process of being implemented more broadly. Using interviews and a workshop we investigate how the work with the implementation is carried out and what challenges exist. The results show that implementation of EC is at an early stage of development and there are many practical obstacles, linked to both legislation and routines in the planning processes. There is a lack of holistic perspective and large-scale thinking, a quite strong focus on a small number of individual species, and an overall attitude that anything is better than nothing, all of which can have negative consequences for biodiversity conservation overall. Based on the results we discuss the need for better integration of EC into the entire decision-making process and for a holistic approach to preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, by increasing the focus on landscape perspective and considering delays in compensation outcomes. There is also a need for a national level standard for EC, making good and worse examples of compensation measures available and systematic monitoring of EC projects. Finally, a spatially explicit database to document all EC areas should be introduced both to ensure consistency in protection from future development plans and to enable long-term monitoring of EC outcomes

Globally invariant metabolism but density-diversity mismatch in springtails.

Soil life supports the functioning and biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems. Springtails (Collembola) are among the most abundant soil arthropods regulating soil fertility and flow of energy through above- and belowground food webs. However, the global distribution of springtail diversity and density, and how these relate to energy fluxes remains unknown. Here, using a global dataset representing 2470 sites, we estimate the total soil springtail biomass at 27.5 megatons carbon, which is threefold higher than wild terrestrial vertebrates, and record peak densities up to 2 million individuals per square meter in the tundra. Despite a 20-fold biomass difference between the tundra and the tropics, springtail energy use (community metabolism) remains similar across the latitudinal gradient, owing to the changes in temperature with latitude. Neither springtail density nor community metabolism is predicted by local species richness, which is high in the tropics, but comparably high in some temperate forests and even tundra. Changes in springtail activity may emerge from latitudinal gradients in temperature, predation and resource limitation in soil communities. Contrasting relationships of biomass, diversity and activity of springtail communities with temperature suggest that climate warming will alter fundamental soil biodiversity metrics in different directions, potentially restructuring terrestrial food webs and affecting soil functioning

Global fine-resolution data on springtail abundance and community structure

Springtails (Collembola) inhabit soils from the Arctic to the Antarctic and comprise an estimated ~32% of all terrestrial arthropods on Earth. Here, we present a global, spatially-explicit database on springtail communities that includes 249,912 occurrences from 44,999 samples and 2,990 sites. These data are mainly raw sample-level records at the species level collected predominantly from private archives of the authors that were quality-controlled and taxonomically-standardised. Despite covering all continents, most of the sample-level data come from the European continent (82.5% of all samples) and represent four habitats: woodlands (57.4%), grasslands (14.0%), agrosystems (13.7%) and scrublands (9.0%). We included sampling by soil layers, and across seasons and years, representing temporal and spatial within-site variation in springtail communities. We also provided data use and sharing guidelines and R code to facilitate the use of the database by other researchers. This data paper describes a static version of the database at the publication date, but the database will be further expanded to include underrepresented regions and linked with trait data.</p

Global fine-resolution data on springtail abundance and community structure

CODE AVAILABILITY : Programming R code is openly available together with the database from Figshare.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 1 : Template for data collectionSUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 2 : Data Descriptor WorksheetSpringtails (Collembola) inhabit soils from the Arctic to the Antarctic and comprise an estimated ~32% of all terrestrial arthropods on Earth. Here, we present a global, spatially-explicit database on springtail communities that includes 249,912 occurrences from 44,999 samples and 2,990 sites. These data are mainly raw sample-level records at the species level collected predominantly from private archives of the authors that were quality-controlled and taxonomically-standardised. Despite covering all continents, most of the sample-level data come from the European continent (82.5% of all samples) and represent four habitats: woodlands (57.4%), grasslands (14.0%), agrosystems (13.7%) and scrublands (9.0%). We included sampling by soil layers, and across seasons and years, representing temporal and spatial within-site variation in springtail communities. We also provided data use and sharing guidelines and R code to facilitate the use of the database by other researchers. This data paper describes a static version of the database at the publication date, but the database will be further expanded to include underrepresented regions and linked with trait data.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.http://www.nature.com/sdatahj2024Plant Production and Soil ScienceSDG-15:Life on lan

Operationalisation of ecological compensation : Obstacles and ways forward

Ecological compensation (EC) has been proposed as an important tool for stopping the loss of biodiversity and natural values. However, there are few studies on its actual operationalisation and there is high uncertainty about how it should be designed and implemented to be an effective way of performing nature conservation. In this study we focus on ecological compensation in Sweden, a country where it is in the process of being implemented more broadly. Using interviews and a workshop we investigate how the work with the implementation is carried out and what challenges exist. The results show that implementation of EC is at an early stage of development and there are many practical obstacles, linked to both legislation and routines in the planning processes. There is a lack of holistic perspective and large-scale thinking, a quite strong focus on a small number of individual species, and an overall attitude that anything is better than nothing, all of which can have negative consequences for biodiversity conservation overall. Based on the results we discuss the need for better integration of EC into the entire decision-making process and for a holistic approach to preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, by increasing the focus on landscape perspective and considering delays in compensation outcomes. There is also a need for a national level standard for EC, making good and worse examples of compensation measures available and systematic monitoring of EC projects. Finally, a spatially explicit database to document all EC areas should be introduced both to ensure consistency in protection from future development plans and to enable long-term monitoring of EC outcomes.These authors contributed equally to this work: Malgorzata Blicharska and Lina A. Widenfalk</p

Expert assessment of landscape-level conservation strategies in boreal forests for biodiversity, recreation and water quality

Determining effects of landscape-level conservation strategies is needed, yet a challenging and costly endeavour. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of landscape-level conservation strategies in forests on biodiversity and provision of two ecosystem services (recreation and water quality). Specifically, we focused on the spatial allocation of unmanaged areas in production forests and different levels of “land sharing” or “land sparing”. They were represented through seven scenarios constructed for a boreal managed forest landscape in central Sweden. All scenarios had the same total level of conservation effort, but they differed in the combinations of sizes of unmanaged areas and how these areas were spread in the landscape. In one scenario, this was complemented with extended rotation of production areas. Experts (researchers in relevant fields) assessed these scenarios for overall biodiversity, recreation, and water quality. We used the Delphi technique: experts filled out an online survey individually in two rounds. In the second round they were familiarized with anonymized responses of others from the previous round. There was little agreement between experts whether concentration of unmanaged areas in one part of the landscape or dispersion of them around the entire area is more beneficial, for biodiversity as well as for the two ecosystem services. The explanation of the opinions given by biodiversity experts were based on different ecological theories resulting in different conclusions (mainly habitat complementation vs. metapopulation ecology). A few large unmanaged areas were considered more beneficial for biodiversity than many small areas. The main argument was that long-term species persistence becomes higher with larger areas. For recreation and water quality, there were almost no differences in estimates between these two strategies. One “land sharing” approach, retention trees, received the lowest score. The second “land sharing” approach, extended rotation, was scored higher, especially regarding recreation. This may be because extended rotations generate features of high recreational value, such as mature, thinned forests with not so much dead wood. Conclusively, we suggest a strategy of mixed conservation measures, with considerable efforts directed towards establishing and maintaining large unmanaged areas

Ekologisk kompensationsom verktygi miljömålsarbetet : Syntes från en forskningssatsning

Denna rapport utgör en syntes av de sju projekt som finansierades inomNaturvårdsverketsoch Havs- och vattenmyndighetens forskningssatsning inomområdet ekologisk kompensation som pågick 2018–2021. Syntesprojektet har utgåttdels från slutrapporterna från de enskilda projekten, dels från myndigheternasuttryckta önskemål om belysning av vissa specifika aspekter inom tillämpningen avekologisk kompensation. Rapporten täcker därför inte in alla resultat och slutsatserfrån forskningsprojekten utan har inriktat sig på följande teman: (i) etiska argumentkring ekologisk kompensation, (ii) förutsättningarna för lagstyrd och frivilligkompensation,(iii) modeller för beräkning av miljöskador och kompensationseffekter,och (iv) uppföljning och utvärdering av kompensationsåtgärder. Tillämpningen av ekologisk kompensation har idag en relativt begränsad omfattning,men skulle kunna utvecklas till ett mer använt styrmedel. I rapporten pekas dockpå en rad aspekter som behöver åtgärdas och utvecklas för att ekologisk kompensationska bidra till att förlusterna av biologisk mångfald och ekosystemtjänster stoppas ellervänds till en nettouppbyggnad av miljövärden. Syntesprojektet resulterade i en radolika förslag riktade till berörda myndigheter som förväntas vara avgörande förekologisk kompensation som styrmedel. Dessa summeras kortfattat nedan: Lagstiftning och nationell policy Skadelindringshierarkin bör få ett starkt lagstöd och kopplingen mellan hierarkinoch principen om tvådelad prövningen bör klargöras Målet med ekologisk kompensation bör formuleras och uttryckas i lagstiftningoch nationella policydokument Lagstiftning bör tas fram gällande regler för när ekologisk kompensation inteska tillämpas utan exploatering i stället helt ska undvikas Utredning behövs kring om ett mål om nettovinst vid ekologisk kompensationbör formuleras i miljöbalken, respektive om det ska uttryckas tydligare som endel av de svenska miljökvalitetsmålen Krav på systematisk uppföljning bör ingå som standard för alla kompensationsåtgärderbaserade på beslut utifrån miljöbalken Nationella riktlinjer bör utvecklas för uppföljning och utvärdering av ekologiskkompensation, och dessa bör även förtydliga vem som bär ansvaret för att utföraoch bekosta dessa Utveckling av kompensationspooler Ytterligare utredning bör göras kring förutsättningarna för att införa kompensationspooleri privat och offentlig regi, bland annat gällande ansvar samt socialaoch samhällsekonomiska effekter Frivillig kompensation: kommunal och näringsliv Nationellt gemensamma riktlinjer och utökad vägledning för frivillig kompensationbör utvecklas för att klargörai. hur berörda aktörer kan och bör organisera arbetet med frivillig kompensationii. hur målet med kompensationen bör definieras och i samband med det hureffekterna av införda kompensationsåtgärder bör följas upp Tydligare stöd och riktlinjer bör utvecklas för vad som bör ingå i översiktsplaner,detaljplaner, grönplaner och naturvårdsplaner för att kunna skapa ett konsistent,transparent och mer strategiskt kommunalt arbete med kompensation, somockså går att följa upp och utvärdera Beräkning och bedömning Policydokument och riktlinjer bör upprättas för att styra handlingsutrymmet vadgäller naturtypisk, rumslig och tidsmässig flexibilitet inom ekologisk kompensation Nationella riktlinjer bör av försiktighetsskäl förorda och rekommendera konkretamultiplikatorer för hantering av osäkerhet, även kopplat till samhällsekonomiskaaspekter Förslag bör tas fram på hur det går att förbättra möjligheterna att tillämpa ettlandskapsperspektiv vid genomförande av ekologisk kompensation Beräkningsmodeller som inkluderar samhällsekonomiska, sociala och ekologiskaperspektiv bör utvecklas vidare, och dessa bör även beakta juridiska aspekter Nationella riktlinjer bör utvecklas för vilka typer av mått på miljöegenskaper somföreträdesvis kan tillämpas i beräkningen av omfattningen av ekologisk kompensation,samt i vilka fall som enklare specifika schablonvärden kan användas Delaktighet Deltagandeprocesser bör utvecklas som främjar inkludering av berörda samhällsgrupperi beslutsfattande kring ekologisk kompensation Kunskap, uppföljning och utvärdering Riktlinjer bör utvecklas för hur data från initierade och genomförda kompensationsprojektska sammanställas och tillgängliggöras, samt en nationell databas tas framför att stödja detta En nationell geografisk databas bör tas fram för dokumentation av implementeradekompensationsområden för långsiktig uppföljnin