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Estimations of the total global biomass (organically bound carbon) regarding humans, wild terrestrial mammals and large domesticated animals (livestock) for the years 1900 and 2000 (upper charts). The lower chart indicates the ratio of species diversity (number of species) of extant terrestrial mammals as well as number of species of terrestrial mammalian ungulates that have been domesticated (livestock). Sources: 1: Smil (2011), 2: Rondinini et al. (2011), 3: Diamond (2002).
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Here, we introduce a concept that addresses the complex interrelations between land use and biodiversity by applying an organismic and comparative approach towards grassland ecosystems in southern Africa and temperate Europe. While the natural savannas of southern Africa evolved millions of years ago, cultural grasslands in Europe emerged as a resu...
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... level was clearly associated with the protection status in the respective countries. From a more abstract perspective, the experience from Africa, where pastoralists manage to coexist with large predators since more than 10,000 years, might contribute to a common understanding of carnivore-livestock conflicts and mitigation strategies (see Fig. ...
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The Mesopotamian marshlands are one of the most internationally important wetlands in the Middle East, as it constitutes a care ground for many species of birds migrating from Siberia and Europe as well as for its rich biodiversity. East Al-Hammar is a major marsh located in the southern part of Iraq. The relationship between diatom species and env...
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... LULC, when analyzed globally, significantly impacts ecosystem services, biodiversity, and biogeochemical cycles . They also contribute to local and global climate change and are the primary driver of soil degradation (Coomes et al. 2001;Hasan et al. 2020;Zeller et al. 2017;Andreevich et al. 2020;Pan et al. 2023;Anees et al. 2024d). ...
Land use and land cover (LULC) classification is essential for environmental monitoring and sustainable land management. The selection of satellite sensors and classification algorithms influences the accuracy of LULC classification. This study evaluates the performance of three satellite sensors, GF-6 (GF-6), S2 (S2), and L9(L9), and three machine learning classifiers, Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), in classifying LULC in Islamabad, Pakistan. The satellite data with high-to-course spatial resolution data was utilized, and a comprehensive pre-processing workflow ensured high-quality imagery. The results indicate that XGBoost, paired with GF-6, achieved the highest overall classification accuracy (94.24%) and kappa coefficient (0.9279), outperforming RF and SVM. S2 combined with XGBoost also showed superior performance (92.89%) compared to other sensor-algorithm combinations. The study reveals that high spatial resolution (GF-6) significantly improves LULC classification, particularly in detecting forest and urban areas. Feature importance analysis identified GF-6 Red and NIR bands as the most significant predictors, especially for vegetation-related classes. The findings underscore the importance of selecting the appropriate sensor and classifier for specific LULC tasks, with XGBoost and high-resolution sensors like GF-6 providing the most accurate results. This study contributes to the growing body of research on LULC classification and offers valuable insights for urban planning and environmental monitoring.
... Consequently, research on biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality (BEMF) gradually entered the spotlight. Gamfeldt et al. [14] and Zeller et al. [37] discussed the importance of biodiversity in maintaining higher functional levels of ecosystems. Since then, an increasing number of scholars have studied BEMF. ...
... Since then, an increasing number of scholars have studied BEMF. In recent years, BEMF research has grown, focusing primarily on aspects such as temporal and spatial scales, experimental design, and measurement methods [22,24,31,[36][37][38]. Maestre et al. [55] first studied the relationship between plant species richness and EMF in global dryland ecosystems and experimentally explored how changes in key attributes such as species richness, community composition, evenness, and spatial patterns simultaneously affect EMF. ...
Global change and the intensification of human activities have led to a sharp decline in global biodiversity and other ecological issues. Over the past 30 years, ecologists have increasingly focused on the question of whether and how the ongoing loss of biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning. However, historically, researchers have predominantly concentrated on individual ecosystem functions, neglecting the capacity of ecosystems to provide multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously, known as ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF). As a result, the connection between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality (BEMF) has become the central theme in BEF relationship research. In recent years, the research on the BEMF relationship has developed rapidly, and new progress has been made in different ecosystems, the driving mechanism of the BEMF relationship, and the proposal and application of new quantitative methods. However, there are still shortcomings, such as the lack of uniform standards for the selection of functional indicators in EMF research, insufficient attention to belowground microbial diversity, and less research on biological interactions in addition to biodiversity. In the future, we need to enhance standard research on the selection of functional indicators, thoroughly assess the combined effects of aboveground and belowground biodiversity along with abiotic factors on EMF, and bolster the research and application of ecosystem multiserviceability (EMS) methods.
... Consequently, research on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Multifunctionality (BEMF) gradually entered the spotlight. Gamfeldt et al. [12] and Zavaleta et al. [31] discussed the importance of biodiversity in maintaining higher functional levels of ecosystems. Since then, an increasing number of scholars have studied BEMF. ...
... Xu et al. [6] reviewed the research progress of BEMF and its future directions. In recent years, researchers have also explored whether biodiversity can promote EMF at landscape scales [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. ...
Keywords: Forest ecosystem; Biodiversity; Ecosystem multifunctionality
... Faunal extinctions and increasing human presence doubtlessly had an ecological impact, but it would be reasonable to expect they would also have increasingly modified the evolutionary landscape that remaining taxa faced. If so, it might be fruitful to search for evidence of such differences, perhaps especially in comparison with Africa, where such extinctions do not appear in the historical record [164][165][166] and where urbanization in its current form is relatively new [167]. ...
Cities are ubiquitous and, though a novel phenomenon by evolutionary standards, provide a home for many species and exert particularly strong and novel selection pressures on them. They thus offer a unique opportunity to study rapid evolutionary processes. We conducted a scoping review of published studies documenting evolutionary processes in urban environments, focusing primarily on more recent work. Unfortunately, cities have not been attractive environments for biological research and thus remain poorly studied, despite slowly growing interest in recent years. Nonetheless, we found studies documenting the effects of mutation, genetic drift, and selection in cities. However, studies show some geographic bias and were not always as conclusive as might be desired. There is even support for incipient urban speciation. Evidence across the board is less abundant and less conclusive than desirable, suggesting the need for more data collection. The urban setting, with its stronger selection, more common intermixing, and abundance of both human and widespread potential non-human zoonosis hosts and human-associated species offers great opportunities to further document evolution in action and explore its conservation implications.
... Globally a massive amount of fecal matter (excreta) is generated by humans and animals. Estimates indicate 96-98% of the global terrestrial mammalian biomass is constituted by humans and their domesticated animals (Zeller et al., 2017) and faecal matter produced by such huge populations is estimated to be increasing by over 52 billion kilograms per year since 2003; and the total faecal matter produced is expected to reach at least 4.6 trillion kilograms per year by 2030. Interestingly, food animals, including cattle, chickens, pigs and sheep, produce about four times more faecal matter than humans (Berendes et al., 2018;Graham et al., 2019). ...
Now the most imminent global problem is to diffuse the Population bomb, the Population outbreaks started in the early 20th century with the invention of antimicrobials to kill the microbes keeping bar through plagues, cholera, anthrax and wound infections (mostly bacterial infections) over the human population and reduced resource availability, progress of the human race through reducing opportunities and many more problems. But why it happened? Because of the invention of antibiotics!
... As the human population density increases, livestock keeping, farming, and harvesting of wildlife and floral resources increase concomitantly in these areas (Leblond et al., 2013;Muposhi, Gandiwa, Chemura, et al., 2016), leading to habitat loss and fragmentation (Bhola et al., 2012;Sawyer et al., 2018). These seminatural habitats progressively become restricted to small patches (Zeller et al., 2017), which are less suitable for occupation by LH due to limited resources and security compared with larger patches. Therefore, LH species avoid these areas (Hibert et al., 2010;Leblond et al., 2013;. ...
African savanna ecosystems are home to the world's richest large herbivore (LH) assemblages. However, its landscapes are changing faster than any other region on Earth due to human activities and natural events. Therefore, understanding the factors influencing the distribution of LH in these human-dominated environments is crucial for decision-making on wildlife and habitat management. We combined ecological aerial surveys, camera trap, and dung count data to investigate how ecological (habitat types, perennial rivers, and rainfall) and anthropogenic (human settlements and cattle grazing areas) factors influence the distribution of LH species in Limpopo National Park (LNP). We used generalized linear models fitting binary logistic regression models to distinguish 25-km 2 cells occupied (where the species were detected) by elephants (Loxodonta africana), buffalos (Syncerus caffer), zebras (Equus quagga), kudus (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), nyalas (Tragelaphus angasii), and impalas (Aepyceros melampus) from unoccupied regions (where the species were not detected) in the LNP landscape. We found that habitat type and rainfall were the most influential factors shaping the pattern of LH distribution in the LNP, except for elephants, whose prevalence was not associated with rainfall. The prevalence of zebras was positively associated with the proximity to perennial rivers, while kudus avoided these areas. While some species (zebras, kudus, and impalas) tended to avoid settlements, others (elephants, buffalos, and nyala) seemed attracted to settlements. Cattle grazing areas were the worst predictors of the distribution of all study species. Our results disclosed the role of ecological factors for the distribution of LH and showed that anthropogenic disturbances seemed to either (partially) prevent the occurrence of LH or show the potential for human-wildlife conflict risk in the study area. Therefore, the results highlight the need to investigate/quantify the potential human-wildlife conflict risk at finer spatial scales to improve future management.
... Of particular importance are regional differences in functional diversity, i.e. the components of biodiversity that influence ecosystem functioning, which are typically measured by the variation in the traits that are related to these functions 13 . Regional variations in the ecological characteristics and functional traits of the species pools can impact the relationship between land-use intensification and biodiversity 14 . In consequence, regional differences in biotas, farming intensity and management practices may result in different outcomes for the same ecosystem service in different parts of the world. ...
Dung removal by macrofauna such as dung beetles is an important process for nutrient cycling in pasturelands. Intensification of farming practices generally reduces species and functional diversity of terrestrial invertebrates, which may negatively affect ecosystem services. Here, we investigate the effects of cattle-grazing intensification on dung removal by dung beetles in field experiments replicated in 38 pastures around the world. Within each study site, we measured dung removal in pastures managed with low- and high-intensity regimes to assess between-regime differences in dung beetle diversity and dung removal, whilst also considering climate and regional variations. The impacts of intensification were heterogeneous, either diminishing or increasing dung beetle species richness, functional diversity, and dung removal rates. The effects of beetle diversity on dung removal were more variable across sites than within sites. Dung removal increased with species richness across sites, while functional diversity consistently enhanced dung removal within sites, independently of cattle grazing intensity or climate. Our findings indicate that, despite intensified cattle stocking rates, ecosystem services related to decomposition and nutrient cycling can be maintained when a functionally diverse dung beetle community inhabits the human-modified landscape.
... The change of woodland use is the main drivers of global biodiversity loss. Losses from global change affect humans by simultaneously affecting soil microbial communities and plant diversity, thereby affecting multiple ecosystem functions and services (Zeller et al., 2017;Klaus et al., 2018). The change of woodland use can cause disturbance by changing vegetation coverage and promote soil erosion and disturbance, all of which can affect the microbial communities' composition (Goss-Souza et al., 2019). ...
Microbial communities, which are affected by soil types and climate factors, contribute to maintain the function of terrestrial ecosystems. Recent studies have shown that interdomain relationships in below–aboveground communities may contribute greatly to ecosystem functioning. However, the responses of interactions among plant, soil fungal, and bacterial communities to the change of woodland use and their effects on ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) remain poorly understood. In this study, the plant–microbe and fungi–bacteria interdomain ecology network (IDEN) based on SparCC pairwise associations were constructed by simultaneous aboveground plant surveys and belowground microbial analyses among four different woodland use intensities (WUI) along different seasons. The effects of different seasons on these relationships were surveyed to probe into the links to EMF. With the increase of woodland use intensity, the plant–microbe network complexity decreased, while the fungus–bacteria network complexity increased. In both dry and wet seasons, ecosystem multifunctionality decreased with the increase of woodland use intensity. Some tree species are the network hubs and may play a pivotal role in the community structure stability of the forest ecosystem. During the dry season, WUI could indirectly affect EMF through plant–microbial network complexity. During the wet season, WUI had a direct effect on EMF. WUI also indirectly affected EMF through plant–microbial network complexity and fungus–bacterial network complexity. Air temperature is the main climatic factor for EMF in the dry season, while soil moisture content is the climatic factor for EMF in the wet season. Our study revealed the important role of the relationship between plants and their associated soil microbial communities (IDENs) in maintaining ecosystem processes and function. Investigating the recovery dynamics of inter-domain ecological networks after extreme disturbances is important for understanding the overall development of ecosystems.
... Notably, woodland use change is part of global change. Losses from global change affect humans by simultaneously affecting soil microbial communities and plant diversity, thereby affecting multiple ecosystem functions and services (Klaus et al., 2018;Zeller et al., 2017). From 2000 to 2020, the global forested area was estimated to have declined by 9.93 × 10 6 km 2 (FAO, 2020). ...
A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Soil Ecosystem multifunctionality Woodland use intensity Dry and wet season Microbial diversity Microbial network complexity Soil water content A B S T R A C T Global change (e.g., woodland use change) affects ecosystem functioning directly by modifying various physi-cochemical processes and indirectly by altering biological metabolism and interactions. To determine whether woodland use intensity (WUI) affects soil ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) via microbial diversity and network complexity and whether the dry and wet season drivers are the same. We analyzed the relationships of soil EMF to soil microbial (bacteria and fungi) diversity and network complexity, considering the WUI in the monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest in dry and wet seasons in subtropical China. The findings showed that with increasing of WUI, soil microbial (bacteria and fungi) diversity increased, whereas soil EMF decreased. The microbial network complexity decreased in the dry season but increased in the wet season. Soil EMF was jointly regulated by indirect effects from WUI in addition to microbial diversity and network complexity. WUI and abiotic factors can indirectly affect soil EMF through microbial diversity and network complexity, among which soil water content is the main environmental factor affecting soil EMF in dry season, and fungal diversity is the main factor affecting soil EMF in wet season. In addition to demonstrating how multiple anthropogenic drivers differ in their impact via different pathways on soil EMF components, our results will facilitate the prediction of ecosystem responses to multiple simultaneous environmental changes.
... Grasslands are a key element of our agricultural systems as they provide nearly half of the feed requirements for global livestock production [1,2]. They also play an essential role in regulating, e.g., soil erosion, carbon, water, and nitrogen fluxes [3][4][5] and are habitats for a broad range of plant and animal species [6,7]. ...
Grassland management practices and intensities are key factors influencing the quality and balance of their provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. Most European temperate grasslands are exploited through mowing, grazing, or a combination of both in relatively small management units. Grazing and mowing can however not be considered equivalent because the first is gradual and selective and the second is not. In this study, the aim is to differentiate grasslands in terms of management practices and to retrieve homogeneous management units. Grasslands are classified hierarchically, first through a pixel-based supervised classification to differentiate grazed pastures from mown hay meadows and then through an object-based mowing detection method to retrieve the timing and frequency of mowing events. A large field dataset was used to calibrate and validate the method. For the classification, 18 different input feature combinations derived from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 were tested for a random forest classifier through a cross-validation scheme. The best results were obtained based on the Leaf Area Index (LAI) times series with cubic spline interpolation. The classification differentiated pastures (grazed) from hay meadows (mown) with an overall accuracy of 88%. The classification is then combined with the existing parcel delineation and high-resolution ancillary data to retrieve the homogeneous management units, which are used for the object-based mowing detection based on the Sentinel-1 coherence and Sentinel-2 NDVI. The mowing detection performances were increased thanks to the grassland mask, the management unit delineation, and the exclusion of pastures, reaching a precision of 93% and a detection rate of 82%. This hierarchical grassland classification approach allowed to differentiate three types of grasslands, namely pastures, and meadows (including mixed practices) with an early first mowing event and with a late first mowing event, with an overall accuracy of 79%. The grasslands could be further differentiated by mowing frequency, resulting in five final classes.
