Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC)

Agricultural intensification is one of the main threats to steppe bird populations, leading to habitat degradation and the reduction of food resources. The Little Bustard ( Tetrax tetrax ), a highly endangered bird species in Europe, is particularly vulnerable to the loss of seminatural habitats containing such resources. Understanding its diet composition is crucial for the development of effective conservation strategies. Here, we describe Little Bustard diet composition and preferences during summer, which includes the chick rearing period, using DNA metabarcoding of faeces. Diet quality at this stage is critical for the adults to face reproduction costs (e.g. male display or parental investment by females) and for juveniles to ensure their survival and recruitment. Additionally, we identified arthropod taxa selected or avoided by Little Bustards by comparing the sequencing results with the estimated availability of these taxa in the study area (obtained from pitfall traps and sweep netting). Our findings suggest that arthropods are more relevant than plants in Little Bustard diet in this period and inform about the relevance of wild vs cultivated species in their diet. Among arthropods, the most commonly detected orders were Orthoptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera, while the most consumed plant families were Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Brassicaceae. The analyses of arthropod preferences showed that Little Bustards select Orthoptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, and Dermaptera among insects and avoid Hymenoptera and Aranea. Our results reinforce the importance of natural vegetation patches as feeding habitats, but also of cultivated habitats like rain-fed alfalfa, if managed to resemble natural grasslands, where Little Bustards can find the arthropods needed.

Ensuring gender equality is an important development challenge, especially in rural areas, where women are often marginalized by economic, socio-cultural and policy structures. Women-Led Social Innovation Initiatives (WLSIIs) are a promising way to address this challenge, but their contributions to gender equality depend on complex interactions between marginalizing structures and agency of women. The objective of this paper is to examine how the relevant elements of agency enable WLSIIs to contribute to progress towards gender equality in rural areas. We examine five WLSIIs located in Canada, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, and Serbia. The cases focus on employment, education, identity, gender roles, and rural development, and are analyzed by grounded theory. We identified 1) gendered identity, 2) (in)dependence of women, and 3) control of women over the “rules of the game” as structural features that can enable or constrain WLSIIs. These concepts are located between grand societal structures (policy, economy, culture, and social organization) and women’s concrete, everyday realities, and as such helped us to understand factors supporting or hindering women’s agency and well-being. We identified women’s self-confidence, women-to-women networks, and self-developed and externally supported capacity as the key elements enabling agency. All these together increased social acceptance of the examined WLSIIs, helping to overcome cultural prejudices and gendered stereotypes. For example, women-to-women networks and self-organization increased economic independence, which reduced skepticism towards “new” roles of women and even changed unequal political dynamics. We conclude that women’s collective agency can be enabled by WLSIIs in diverse geographical and cultural contexts and should be recognized by policymakers as a key mechanism that has great potential for enhancing gender equality and overcoming structures marginalizing rural women.

Purpose of review We are amid a historical momentum encouraging forest restoration, yet the translation of ambitious targets into reality is hindered by poor documentation and understanding of the success and failure of past restoration efforts. This review aims to evaluate the ecological, social, political and economic characteristics of forest restoration across Europe, their development over time and key lessons learned to guide future restoration initiatives. The analysis is based on the synthesis of expert assessments from 18 European countries. Recent findings Early restoration initiatives in central and southern Europe were largely reactive to natural disasters or timber shortages, and while effective in erosion control and timber production, their ecological benefits were often limited due to monoculture plantations and short-rotation systems. Geopolitical crises intensified timber production, with nationalized and centrally managed forests in several countries, but often at the cost of biodiversity. Since the 1990s, a shift toward multifunctionality has emerged driven by the convergence of environmental, social, political and economic events. Summary Forest restoration in Europe has transitioned from disaster reduction and production-driven efforts to a more multifunctional approach that promotes biodiversity. Changes have been driven by a combination of environmental (e.g., catastrophic consequences following natural disasters), political (e.g., wars, forest nationalization and management centralization), legal (e.g., strict and ambitious national and international policies), social (e.g., rural abandonment and changes in societal values) and economic (e.g., new funding mechanisms or market fluctuations) events. Despite the development, conflicting goals, insufficient funding, climate change and short-term thinking persist as key barriers.

The urgent need for sustainable, low-emission energy solutions has positioned proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) as a promising technology in clean energy conversion. Polysulfone (PSF) membranes with incorporated ionic liquid (IL) and hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane-functionalized silica (SiO2-PDMS) were developed and characterized for their potential application in PEMFCs. Using a phase inversion method, membranes with various combinations of PSFs, SiO2-PDMS, and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium triflate (BMI.TfO) (1–10 wt%) were prepared and characterized to assess their morphology, porosity, wettability, ionic conductivity, and thermal stability. Incorporating IL significantly altered the membrane structure, increasing porosity and surface roughness, while SiO2-PDMS enhanced IL retention, reducing leakage by up to 32%. Proton conductivity increased by up to 30 times compared to pure PSF, and membranes exhibited high hydrophilicity at optimal IL concentrations. This work highlights the potential of IL and silica-based membranes for practical applications in PEMFCs.

Climate and land‐use changes are contributing to impacts on global ecosystem functioning. These effects are particularly severe in areas undergoing land abandonment and extreme wildfire events, such as the Mediterranean regions of the Iberian Peninsula. Previous studies have evaluated the impacts of land management on fire mitigation and biodiversity (species distribution and species richness), but how such strategies influence functional diversity remains unexplored. This study investigates how alternative land‐fire management strategies may affect functional diversity. We modeled for 2050 for the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Gerês‐Xurés (Portugal‐Spain). Land‐use scenarios simulated processes of land abandonment (“business‐as‐usual”—BAU) and the implementation of EU rural policies (“high nature value farmlands”—HNVf), and were combined with three fire suppression levels. Species distribution models (102 vertebrates) were projected to each scenario, and functional diversity indices were consequently calculated. The highest functional richness was predicted for BAU scenarios, probably representing the benefits to unique species that deliver singular functions. The HNVf scenarios provided the highest functional divergence, probably indicating a high niche differentiation and low resource competition amongst agricultural communities. HNVf was the most beneficial scenario for ecosystem functioning, while fire suppression did not affect functional diversity. Despite the proneness to burn of our study area and the effects of firefighting on its fire regime, land‐use policies are expected to have greater influence than fire suppression effects on functional diversity. These findings suggest that different facets of functional diversity will be unevenly influenced by fire–landscape dynamics driven by the land‐use policies to be implemented in the upcoming decades.

Shrubland ecosystems cover a large part of the five Mediterranean regions of the world, and monitoring their biomass is crucial for assessing fire risk and carbon sequestration. However, biomass models for multi-stemmed shrubs remain scarce, making the quantitative assessment of shrubland biomass imprecise and often unreliable. Here, we measured, harvested, and weighed 411 specimens at two representative sites to quantify aboveground biomass (AGB) in 14 shrub species. To develop species-specific and general models of AGB, we used observations on total height (HT), diameter at collar height (DCH), number of stems (NS), and crown size as well as different geometric shapes representing crown area (CA) and bulk volume (BV). General models including all species were fit, including species identity as a random effect to take variation across species into account. A k-fold cross-validation was used to assess and compare the ability of the models to predict independent data. Individual AGB varied markedly both within and among the 14 species, with on average higher values at the site characterized by lower shrub density and species richness. Two biomass components, woody and leaf + twig, were distinguished, and species-specific means of the woody and leaf + twig proportion varied between 30 and 60%. We found that crown BV assessed on different geometric shapes was suitable to predict the biomass for different shrub species and that additional variables were rarely beneficial. The best general model included BV represented as an inverted truncated cone, derived from crown diameter (CD), HT and the DCH of the longest stem. This study provides novel allometric equations essential for assessing AGB shrublands in central Chile. Our general multi-species models based on BV geometry could prove very useful for future studies in Mediterranean shrublands, allowing us to estimate biomass through indirect, non-destructive methods.

Background/Objectives: Populations in Mediterranean countries are abandoning the traditional Mediterranean diet (MD) and lifestyle, shifting towards unhealthier habits due to profound cultural and socioeconomic changes. The SWITCHtoHEALTHY project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of a multi-component nutritional intervention to improve the adherence of families to the MD in three Mediterranean countries, thus prompting a dietary behavior change. Methods: A parallel, randomized, single-blinded, and controlled multicentric nutritional intervention study will be conducted over 3 months in 480 families with children and adolescents aged 3–17 years from Spain, Morocco, and Turkey. The multi-component intervention will combine digital interactive tools, hands-on educational materials, and easy-to-eat healthy snacks developed for this study. Through the developed SWITCHtoHEALTHY app, families will receive personalized weekly meal plans, which also consider what children eat at school. The engagement of all family members will be prompted by using a life simulation game. In addition, a set of activities and educational materials for adolescents based on a learning-through-playing approach will be codesigned. Innovative and sustainable plant-based snacks will be developed and introduced into the children’s dietary plan as healthy alternatives for between meals. By using a full-factorial design, families will be randomized into eight groups (one control and seven interventions) to test the independent and combined effects of each component (application and/or educational materials and/or snacks). The impact of the intervention on diet quality, economy, and the environment, as well as on classical anthropometric parameters and vital signs, will be assessed in three different visits. The COM-B behavioral model will be used to assess essential factors driving the behavior change. The main outcome will be adherence to the MD assessed through MEDAS in adults and KIDMED in children and adolescents. Conclusions: SWITCHtoHEALTHY will provide new insights into the use of sustained models for inducing dietary and lifestyle behavior changes in the family setting. It will facilitate generating, boosting, and maintaining the switch to a healthier MD dietary pattern across the Mediterranean area. Registered Trial, National Institutes of Health, ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06057324).

Chestnut Red Stain (CRS) is a heartwood discoloration that widely affects Castanea sativa Mill. productive coppice stands in the northeast of Spain. At the early stages of infection, the structural properties of the wood are not affected, but still its economic value drops up to 70% due to the rejection of this wood. This disease is caused by the fungus Fistulina hepatica (Schaeff.) With. and causes uncertainty to forest managers since the fungal infection is virtually impossible to detect before felling. The objective of this work was to develop an efficient detection method to evaluate the presence of F. hepatica in early stages of productive periods. A total of 72 chestnuts were analyzed through molecular methods to determine the presence of F. hepatica and with an IML resistance drill to characterize their wood. Thirteen wood quality indices were calculated and their correlation with the presence of the pathogen was evaluated using linear mixed models. We found clear differences between healthy and infected trees in four indices. A new specific index (Chestnut Red Stain Danger index) was designed to estimate the probability of infection by F. hepatica. The results support the hypothesis that the early presence of F. hepatica is detectable through inexpensive and fast mechanical methods early in a rotation. The results of this work will help forest managers evaluate the incidence of CRS, as well as it establishes a novel methodology for further development of resistance drilling techniques for heartwood rot detection.

Context The degradation of the environment due to anthropogenic action underscores the need to demonstrate the benefits that natural areas provide to society. Continuously growing urbanisation trends and high demand on urban green infrastructure requires the inclusion of cultural ecosystem services (CESs) in strategic urban planning. To achieve this, understanding the population's preferences regarding the various CESs provided by urban green spaces is extremely useful for their management and long-term planning strategies. Nevertheless, the complexity of urban environment and urban CESs and inclusion of participatory-oriented and demand-based planning poses challenges in conducting solution-oriented assessments. Objectives To address this issue, we aim to define and validate spatial indicators that are applicable in any urban area. We employ them to quantify the provision of CESs considering that such approach can contribute to better urban planning strategies. Methods A survey, aiming to validate five proposed CESs indicators and evaluate the population’s perception regarding the importance of CESs in urban green areas in the city of Murcia (Spain) was conducted. In total, 733 answers were collected. The survey results underwent through statistical and geospatial analysis at the neighbourhood level, which facilitated the creation of CESs maps, considering socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. Results All five proposed CESs indicators were highly accepted by the respondents across all demographic groups. Conversely, differences in the perception of importance of CESs are noted based on the age of the respondents. Disparities in CESs provision are observed between different city neighbourhoods and socio-demographic groups. Conclusions We identified significant differences in CESs perception by age group. We also detected the areas where action is needed to improve the CESs provision. Through this study, we emphasize the significance of participatory-based, demand-oriented, and territorially tailored planning approaches to ensure the high provision of CESs and enhance urban well-being.

Wolves (Canis lupus) exhibit contrasted activity patterns along their distribution range. The shift from diurnal to nocturnal habits within and among populations appears to be primarily driven by localized levels of human activity, with ambivalent responses toward such disturbance reported among populations. Yet, the drivers and the underlying individual variability of temporal avoidance patterns toward human remains unexplored. We equipped 26 wolves with GPS–GSM collars, obtaining 54,721 locations. We used step lengths, turning angles, and accelerometer data from recorded locations to infer activity through hidden Markov models (Conners, M. G., T. Michelot, E. I. Heywood, et al. 2021. “Hidden Markov Models Identify Major Movement Modes in Accelerometer and Magnetometer Data From Four Albatross Species.” Movement Ecology 9, no. 1: 1–16.). We further explored the probability of activity as a function of a set of proxies of anthropogenic disturbance at different spatial scales and its interaction with different periods of the day by fitting population‐level and individual‐based hidden Markov models. Wolves were predominantly active during dusk and night, yet variations in activity emerged among individuals across day periods. We did not find clear population‐level effects of anthropogenic disturbance predictors, as these were masked by a wide range of individual‐specific responses, which varied from positive to negative, with inter‐individual variability in responses changing according to different predictors and periods of the day. Our results suggest a non‐uniform strategy of wolves in adapting their behavior to human‐dominated environments, further underscoring the role of vegetation patches acting as functional refuge cover for buffering the effects of anthropogenic disturbance and boosting the persistence of the species in human‐dominated landscapes. This study, for the first time, reveals the individual variability in wolf responses to human disturbance. By fitting hidden Markov models to data from GPS–GSM collars deployed on 26 wolves, we found significant variation between individuals in their responses to different levels of anthropogenic pressure and across different times of day, highlighting a non‐uniform strategy for coping with perturbations in human‐dominated landscapes. Our findings underscore the diverse behavioral adjustments employed by wolves to persist in these environments and highlight the critical importance of vegetation patches serving as refuge cover.

Large-scale forest restoration is vital for delivering a broad array of ecosystem services benefits to society. However, it is often perceived as an economically noncompetitive land use choice. Integrating economic opportunities into restoration aligns socioeconomic and environmental goals, reducing conflicts between forest production and conservation-oriented management decisions. Supply chains focusing on high-value goods can enhance the reach of forest restoration efforts and unite ecological and economic benefits in a multifunctional manner. The bioeconomy has emerged as a potential but critical driver for attracting investments in restoration. We outline the challenges and solutions to reconcile forest restoration and bioeconomy, specifically about (i) native timber production, (ii) non-timber forest products, (iii) biotechnological products, and (iv) intangible ecosystem services. This requires collaborative and multidisciplinary efforts to improve investment in large-scale projects. The intricacies of these issues intersect with research development, market dynamics, legal frameworks, and regulatory paradigms, underscoring the necessity for nuanced and tailored public policy interventions. These integrated approaches should enable tropical countries to lead the global forest-based economy and usher in a new era of forest restoration. Graphical abstract

The density of wood is a key indicator of the carbon investment strategies of trees, impacting productivity and carbon storage. Despite its importance, the global variation in wood density and its environmental controls remain poorly understood, preventing accurate predictions of global forest carbon stocks. Here we analyse information from 1.1 million forest inventory plots alongside wood density data from 10,703 tree species to create a spatially explicit understanding of the global wood density distribution and its drivers. Our findings reveal a pronounced latitudinal gradient, with wood in tropical forests being up to 30% denser than that in boreal forests. In both angiosperms and gymnosperms, hydrothermal conditions represented by annual mean temperature and soil moisture emerged as the primary factors influencing the variation in wood density globally. This indicates similar environmental filters and evolutionary adaptations among distinct plant groups, underscoring the essential role of abiotic factors in determining wood density in forest ecosystems. Additionally, our study highlights the prominent role of disturbance, such as human modification and fire risk, in influencing wood density at more local scales. Factoring in the spatial variation of wood density notably changes the estimates of forest carbon stocks, leading to differences of up to 21% within biomes. Therefore, our research contributes to a deeper understanding of terrestrial biomass distribution and how environmental changes and disturbances impact forest ecosystems.

The determination of critical shear stresses is fundamental to bedload sediment transport prediction in gravel‐bed rivers. Due to the heterogeneous shape and arrangement of the individual clasts in a riverbed, critical shear stresses typically show a large spatial variability, which is not adequately captured by the reach‐averaged description followed in common studies. In this regard, there is a general paucity of field data on this spatial variability of the critical shear stress, largely due to the lack of a standardized measurement method. In an attempt to fill this gap, we propose a field‐based workflow to estimate the frequency distribution of dimensionless critical shear stress (also named critical Shields number), which is based on the measurement of a series of variables related to the position, orientation and resistance to motion of individual clasts in a gravel‐bed river, combined with a probabilistic approximation to drag and lift coefficients. Following this workflow, the patch‐scale variability of particle incipient‐motion conditions was determined in a gravel bar of the Upper Cinca River, Spain. The results are consistent with what is known about sediment entrainment in gravel‐bed rivers. We consider this method to have great potential to advance our understanding of particle initiation of motion in gravel‐bed rivers as it provides valuable systematic field information.

Managing migratory game species is challenging and often leads to conflicts across areas or stakeholders. The European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur (TD), a declining migratory game bird, is currently subject to an adaptive harvest management plan in the European Union (EU), which has led to a temporary hunting moratorium in western Europe. We used Q-methodology to identify the discourses of hunters, hunting lobbyists and members of governmental agencies in Spain, the country with the largest TD hunting bags within EU, regarding the role of hunting and its regulation, including the moratorium, on species recovery prospects. Three discourses were identified: one that denies any involvement of hunting in the species population decline and thus considers the moratorium unnecessary; one that advocates for a moratorium but highlights the need for global strategies for it to be effective; and one that disputes the population decline, attributing the moratorium purely to environmentalists’ pressures and false data. Larger differences were observed among hunters from areas with varying levels of TD hunting than among hunters that hunt or not TD, suggesting that discourses may be socially constructed and maintained. Hunting lobbyists’ discourse was more uniformly against the moratorium than that of hunters as a whole, while governmental agencies had more nuanced perspectives. A point of consensus among discourses was the agreement on the need for transboundary coordination and a global conservation strategy incorporating habitat and hunting management approaches. These results emphasize the importance of increased transborder collaboration and effective communication strategies to mitigate conflicts about migratory game management.

Context Biotic resource exploitation is a critical determinant of species’ distributions. However, quantifying resource exploitation patterns through space and time can be difficult, complicating their incorporation in spatial ecology studies. Therefore, understanding the local drivers of spatial patterns of resource exploitation may contribute to better large-scale species distribution models. Objectives We investigated (1) how the resource exploitation patterns of two trophic interactions (plant–insect) are explained by insect behaviour, resource aggregation, and potential insect-insect interactions. We also analyzed how (2) resource patch size and (3) resource accessibility in a heterogeneous landscape affected host exploitation patterns. Methods We quantified nectar robbing by insects in the genus Bombus (bumblebees) and seed predation by Brachypterolus vestitus larvae (Antirrhinum beetle) on Antirrhinum majus L. (wild snapdragons) in the Pyrenees Mountains, Catalonia, Spain. We tested hypotheses about resource exploitation by integrating spatial analyses at multiple scales. Results Both trophic interactions were aggregated, explained by the aggregation of their resource. At some scales, nectar robbing is more aggregated than the resource. Trophic interaction abundance is proportional to resource patch size, following the ideal free distribution model. Landscape features do not explain the locations exploited. Nectar robbing and seed predation occur together more often than expected. Conclusions Our findings suggest that multiple biotic and ecological spatial factors may simultaneously affect resource exploitation at a local scale. These findings should be considered when developing agricultural projects, management plans and conservation policies.

Rice is a basic component in the diet of more than half of the world's population, with 95% of its production destined for human consumption. Spain is the second rice producer in the European Union (EU), geographically located in four autonomous communities contributing to the local economy. This study aims at assessing the productive efficiency of rice farms in this country. To our knowledge, no previous work has dealt with the performance of rice framers in the EU in general and in Spain in particular. We used the Generalized True Ramdom-effects model to estimate the persistent and transient efficiency levels of farms and identifying the production risk factors using a sample of 158 rice farms over the period 2014-2017. Empirical findings reveal an overall efficiency level of 0.81 on average , mainly explained by the long-term efficiency component. Moreover, results show an important room for efficiency improvement at the short-term to enhance productive management skills of farmers. Finally, labor, fertilizer, water and insurance spending are likely to be risk-decreasing factors.