Wageningen University & Research

Behavioural analysis has been attracting significant attention as a broad indicator of sub‐lethal toxicity and has secured a place as an important subdiscipline in ecotoxicology. Among the most notable characteristics of behavioural research, compared to other established approaches in sub‐lethal ecotoxicology (e.g. reproductive and developmental bioassays), are the wide range of study designs being used and the diversity of endpoints considered. At the same time, environmental hazard and risk assessment, which underpins regulatory decisions to protect the environment from potentially harmful chemicals, often recommends that ecotoxicological data be produced following accepted and validated test guidelines. These guidelines typically do not address behavioural changes, meaning that these, often sensitive, effects are not represented in hazard and risk assessments. Here, we propose a new tool, the EthoCRED evaluation method, for assessing the relevance and reliability of behavioural ecotoxicity data, which considers the unique requirements and challenges encountered in this field. This method and accompanying reporting recommendations are designed to serve as an extension of the “Criteria for Reporting and Evaluating Ecotoxicity Data (CRED)” project. As such, EthoCRED can both accommodate the wide array of experimental design approaches seen in behavioural ecotoxicology, and could be readily implemented into regulatory frameworks as deemed appropriate by policy makers of different jurisdictions to allow better integration of knowledge gained from behavioural testing into environmental protection. Furthermore, through our reporting recommendations, we aim to improve the reporting of behavioural studies in the peer‐reviewed literature, and thereby increase their usefulness to inform chemical regulation.

ABSTRACT This paper develops the methodological concept of river co-learning arenas (RCAs) and explores their potential to strengthen innovative grassroots river initiatives, enliven river commons, regenerate river ecologies, and foster greater socio-ecological justice. The integrity of river systems has been threatened in profound ways over the last century. Pollution, damming, canalisation, and water grabbing are some examples of pressures threatening the entwined lifeworlds of human and non-human communities that depend on riverine systems. Finding ways to reverse the trends of environmental degradation demands complex spatial–temporal, political, and institutional articulations across different levels of governance (from local to global) and among a plurality of actors who operate from diverse spheres of knowledge and systems of practice, and who have distinct capacities to affect decision-making. In this context, grassroots river initiatives worldwide use new multi-actor and multi-level dialogue arenas to develop proposals for river regeneration and promote social-ecological justice in opposition to dominant technocratic-hydraulic development strategies. This paper conceptualises these spaces of dialogue and action as RCAs and critically reflects on ways of organising and supporting RCAs while facilitating their cross-fertilisation in transdisciplinary practice. By integrating studies, debates, and theories from diverse disciplines, we generate multi-faceted insights and present cornerstones for the engagement with and/or enaction of RCAs. This encompasses five main themes central to RCAs: (1) River knowledge encounters and truth regimes, (2) transgressive co-learning, (3) confrontation and collaboration dynamics, (4) ongoing reflexivity, (5) transcultural knowledge assemblages and translocal bridging of rooted knowledge.

Wild pig has one of the widest geographic distributions of terrestrial mammals. Dog‐assisted wild pig hunting may reduce crop raiding but also elevates the potential disease transmission from dogs to wildlife and vice versa. On Sumatra, game hunting tends to focus on wild pig, where hunters either actively use dogs or firearms, or passively use snares. Our objectives are to understand: (1) the extent of active and passive wild pig hunting in Sumatra; (2) dog‐assisted hunting practices; (3) potential disease transmission by hunting dogs to game. We conducted three types of data collection to cover the wide range of hunting techniques: (1) information from social media (i.e., Facebook) about dog‐assisted wild pig hunting events in West Sumatra; (2) a questionnaire‐guided survey among hunters around the Batanghari Protected Forest, West Sumatra; (3) expert interviews from provincial conservation offices about wild pig hunting practices in Sumatra. Active and passive wild pig hunting occurred in Sumatra. Firearm and snare hunting occurred in all eight provinces while dog‐assisted hunting occurred only in six provinces. We documented at least 1331 dog‐assisted wild pig hunting events which occurred in 2019 across the province of West Sumatra. The number of hunting parties and dog‐assisted hunting group members on Facebook showed a dramatic increase between 2020 and 2022. Many dogs used for hunting are reportedly not vaccinated (35%), risking transmission of diseases like Rabies and Canine Distemper Virus to game and wild predators. Hunting is inadequately regulated, rendering enforcement of these regulations impossible. The extent of wild pig hunting has yet been unquantified but likely will have strong effects on the remaining wildlife populations. We call for proper quantification of hunting bags, and regulation, including the use and health status of dogs, to prevent disease transmission from dogs to wild animals and to protect remaining wildlife populations.

Teacher professional learning communities (PLCs) have the potential to result in teacher professional development, provided that effective communication takes place during PLC meetings. Building on the perspective of collaborative knowledge building, this study examined teachers’ interaction patterns during these meetings. Connections were explored between teachers’ self-perceived learning gains from a PLC and the interaction patterns that occurred. From a larger set of PLCs in the Netherlands, four cases were selected that differed regarding teachers’ learning gains profiles. Orbital decomposition analysis, a technique used to study emerging patterns in complex dynamic systems, was used to examine the extent to which interaction patterns were characterized by conversational moves associated with knowledge building. Results from these analyses showed that in general, all PLCs showed relatively few knowledge-building patterns. However, the low-gains PLC was a bit more focused on exchanging information and opinions. High-gains PLCs’ interactions were characterized more by open and involved communication. Conversation in mixed-gains PLCs revealed a connection between teachers’ knowledge gains and question–answer patterns, and between teachers’ changes in beliefs and elaborating upon opinions. Together, these results point to qualitative differences in the interactions of teacher PLCs who experience higher versus lower learning gains. Implications for the role of the facilitator are discussed.

With the rising interest in fermentation techniques and the FAO’s advice to increase fruit and vegetable consumption to lower disease risk, this study investigates the fermentation of two beetroot beverages: a low-fiber juice and a high-fiber puree-based beverage. The lactic fermentation process enhanced the free phenolic content in both juice and puree-based drink (from 2.37 to 4.83 mg/g and from 2.44 to 6.56 mg/g, respectively) and the antioxidant activity in the beetroot juice (from 19.7 to 45.99%), as assessed by colorimetric assays. The findings reveal no correlation between free phenolic content and antioxidant activity, suggesting that other factors, such as the structure of phenolics or the presence of compounds, like organic acids, play a role in antioxidant activity of beetroot beverages. Notably, although fermentation increased free phenolics, the juice exhibited decreased in vitro bioaccessibility of phenolics after fermentation (from 90.07 to 61.35%), while the puree showed an increase (from 63.99 to 92.14%). These observations highlight the dualistic role of fiber-phenolic interactions during fermentation: acting both as a protector against phenolic degradation and a barrier to intestinal absorption.

The biodegradation of organic aromatic compounds in subsurface environments is often hindered by limited dissolved oxygen. While oxygen supplementation can enhance in situ biodegradation, it poses financial and technical challenges. This study explores introducing low-oxygen concentrations in anaerobic environments for efficient contaminant removal, particularly in scenarios where coexisting pollutants are present. An innovative strategy of alternating nitrate-reducing and microaerobic conditions to stimulate biodegradation is proposed, utilizing nitrate initially to degrade easily-degradable compounds, and potentially reducing the need for additional oxygen. Batch experiments were conducted to assess the biodegradation of a BTEX, indene, indane, and naphthalene mixture using groundwater and sediments from an anaerobic contaminated aquifer. Two set-ups were incubated for 98 days to assess the redox transitions between microaerobic (oxygen concentrations < 0.5 mg O2 L⁻¹) and nitrate-reducing conditions, aiming to minimize external electron acceptor usage while maximizing degradation. Comparative experiments under fully aerobic and fully anaerobic (nitrate-reducing) conditions were conducted, revealing that under microaerobic conditions, all compounds were completely degraded, achieving removal efficiencies comparable to fully aerobic conditions. A pre-treatment phase involving nitrate-reducing conditions followed by microaerobic conditions showed more effective utilization of oxygen specifically for contaminant degradation compared to fully aerobic conditions. Contrarily, under fully anaerobic conditions, without oxygen addition, partial degradation of ethylbenzene was observed after 400 days, while other compounds remained. The outcomes of this study can provide valuable insights for refining strategies involving oxygen and nitrate dosages, thereby enhancing the efficacy of in situ bioremediation approaches targeting complex hydrocarbon mixtures within anaerobic subsurface environments. Key points • BTEX, indene, indane, and naphthalene mix biodegraded under microaerobic conditions • Subsurface microorganisms swiftly adapt from nitrate to microaerobic conditions • More oxygen directed to hydrocarbon biodegradation via a pre-anaerobic treatment

Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning experiments have established generally positive species richness-productivity relationships in plots of single ecosystem types, typically grassland or forest. However, it remains unclear whether these findings apply in real-world landscapes that resemble a heterogeneous mosaic of different ecosystem and plant types that interact through biotic and abiotic processes. Here, we show that landscape-level diversity, measured as number of land-cover types (different ecosystems) per 250×250 m, is positively related to landscape-wide remotely-sensed primary production across all of North America, covering 16 of 18 ecoregions of Earth. At higher landscape diversity, productivity was temporally more stable, and 20-year greening trends were accelerated. These effects occurred independent of local species diversity, suggesting emergent mechanisms at hitherto neglected levels of biological organization. Specifically, mechanisms related to interactions among land-cover types unfold at the scale of entire landscapes, similar to, but not necessarily resulting from, interactions between species within single ecosystems.

Background: In the seasonal tropics, fire generally occurs in the dry season. Consequently, the effects of fire and dry season drought on seedling establishment of different tree functional types are correlated. Therefore, factors that are more important for tree recruitment in forest-savanna ecotones are still poorly understood. Methods: We studied seedling establishment success of seven tropical tree species (of forest and forest-savanna transition origins) in a common garden experiment using combinations of dry season (irrigation vs no-irrigation) and fire (burning vs no-burning). Results: We found that burning caused a significant decline in survival of forest species, but not of forest-savanna transition species. The combination of burning without dry season irrigation (which typifies dry season fire) had the largest overall effect on survival, mass and height of plants. The separate effect of burning was larger than that of dry season drought. Seedling size at the onset of the dry season significantly predicted root starch content and, hence, dry season survival probability of forest-savanna transition species, but not of forest species. Dry season irrigation increased post-fire survival of forest-savanna transition species, but not of forest species, possibly linked to differences in resprout capacity and root starch reserves. Conclusion: Our work shows that fire and dry season drought produce a stronger negative effect together, than their separate effects on seedling establishment particularly of forest species. This provides a mechanistic explanation for the existence of forest-savanna transition species in fire-prone humid savannas. Implications for Conservation: The mosaic of forest, transitional and savanna vegetation within the forest-savanna ecotone reflects the influences of fire and dry season drought. Any changes in these elements will influence vegetation dynamics within the forest-savanna ecotone.

The life sciences have evoked long-standing philosophical debates on a system view of life versus a reductionist view that reduces the complexity of life-forms to parts-based entities that can be described purely mechanistically. This paper examines how current scientific advances in the life sciences can contribute to an anti-reductionist concept of life. It does so by looking at synthetic biology, a discipline within the life sciences that has an ambiguous relationship to this debate. While the field’s engineering approach to life could be considered a manifestation of a reductionist view of life, it also builds on a more holistic, systems view of life. This paper analyses recent scientific practices taking place within synthetic biology that seem to challenge the reductionist view of life. After analyzing the main anti-reductionist philosophical accounts of life, I ask how synthetic biology practices can support these accounts of life by considering living systems as processual, collaborative, and cognitive, and life versus nonlife on a more gradual scale. This empirically informed paper contributes to the literature by drawing observations about the concept of life by connecting the following: the reductionist view in the life sciences, the different anti-reductionist metaphysical stances in the philosophy of biology, and the emerging practices in synthetic biology. The paper concludes that synthetic biology can support anti-reductionist views of life in the philosophy of biology.

Data augmentation can alleviate the limitations of small molecular datasets for generative deep learning, by ‘artificially inflating’ the number of instances available for training. SMILES enumeration – whereby multiple valid SMILES strings are used to represent the same molecules – has resulted particularly beneficial to improve the quality of de novo molecule design. Here, we investigate whether rethinking SMILES augmentation techniques could further enhance the quality of de novo design. To this end, we introduce four approaches for SMILES augmentation in de novo design, drawing inspiration from natural language processing and chemistry insights: (a) token deletion, (b) atom masking, (c) bioisosteric substitution, and (d) self-training. Via a systematic analysis, our results show the promise of considering additional strategies for SMILES augmentation. Every strategy showed distinct advantages, with atom masking resulting particularly promising to learn desirable physico-chemical properties in very low-data regimes. This new repertoire of SMILES augmentation strategies expands the available toolkit to design molecules with bespoke properties in low-data scenarios.

Main conclusion Two different strategies for the distribution of macro- and trace elements can be observed in the terrestrial orchid Gymnadenia conopsea. Most trace elements are not translocated to the above-ground parts, whereas for macro-elements the trend was reversed, with the highest accumulation in the distal parts of the plants. Abstract Edaphic stress is one of the main factors affecting plant fitness, but it is still poorly understood, even in rare plants such as orchids. Gymnadenia conopsea is a terrestrial orchid that grows on different geological substrates, making it a model species for the study of adaptive responses to edaphic factors, including metals in soil. The samples of plant tissues of G. conopsea growing on carbonate, ultramafic and siliceous substrates in Serbia and the associated rhizosphere soil were collected and analysed for elemental concentrations. Two different strategies for the distribution of macro- and trace elements were found, corresponding to the trend generally observed in orchids. Trace elements (As, B, Cr, Co, Fe, Mn, and Ni) remain mainly in the underground organs and only a small proportion is transferred to the shoots. It was the opposite for the macroelements (Ca, Mg, K and P) with the highest accumulation occurred in the leaves and inflorescences. The tolerance of G. conopsea to the different geological substrates results from the moderate metal concentrations in the soils analysed and the exclusion strategy of the species, which is the most common response to metal induced stress in orchids.

There is a growing body of evidence that urbanization can affect body condition and immune function in wild birds, although these effects may be complex and taxa-specific. Here, we assessed the effects of urbanization on body condition (size-corrected body mass and haemoglobin concentration) and innate immune defences (haemolysis–haemagglutination assay, haptoglobin concentration and bacterial killing assay) in 136 Eurasian coots (Fulica atra) from three urban and three non-urban populations across Poland. We also quantified the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio to control for the potential effect of physiological stress on immune defences. We found that urban coots showed significantly better condition than non-urban ones. At the same time, we found no relationship between any immune defence and urbanization or condition. Thus, our study offers no support for condition-dependent immune function. Our analyses also revealed significant differences between male and female coots in both condition and immune defences; however, we found no evidence for sex-specific responses to urbanization. In conclusion, our study provides correlative evidence that urban habitat enhances condition, but not immune defences in the Eurasian coot.

This study investigates the stability and UV-blocking properties of cellulose nanofibril (CNF) and TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibril (TOCNF) films, with and without lignin, under 1000 h of artificial sunlight. The literature to date provides no quantitative analysis of such films’ stability, however such insight is critical for optoelectronic applications for instance solar cells. This contribution examines the films from practical perspectives, considering aging with respect to their optical performance and retention of UV protective qualities. Films containing residual lignin (LignoCNF and LignoTOCNF), and lignin nanoparticles (CNF-LNP and TOCNF-LNP) demonstrated remarkable UV-blocking stability; even after the aging transmittance of LignoCNF and CNF-LNP films remained lower than 1% below 390 nm. Most lignin-containing films exhibited increased transmittance between 400 and 600 nm after aging, except for LignoTOCNF, which showed a decrease in transmittance that was comparable to that displayed by non-lignin films. Nevertheless, long-term light exposure induced a decrease in their mechanical properties. Tensile tests revealed increased brittleness in CNF and LignoCNF, while LNP-containing films showed reduced strain at the break. The observed changes were linked to the potential oxidation of COO- groups and structural modifications in both cellulose and lignin. Overall, the incorporation of lignin into nanocellulose films enhances their durability, UV protection, and mechanical stability, making them promising candidates for sustainable optoelectronic applications.

Safety villages are interventions that aim to boost children's knowledge and behaviour regarding risk-taking behaviours and their consequences via an experiential learning approach. In safety villages, children experience scenarios involving risks that resemble real-life situations. We investigated the extent to which desirable learning outcomes from a single-session safety village visit are visible outside the safety village context. In a well-powered quasi-experimental preregistered field study, we compared students (aged 11–13) who received experiential safety education to a control group of students who had not yet received the education on three important learning outcomes: Knowledge-application, risk-taking behaviour and general risk-taking tendencies. Data were collected outside of the safety village environment, before or after the visit, and without explicit reminders of the visit. Results show students who received experiential safety education outperformed those who did not yet receive experiential education on knowledge-application and reduced risk-taking behaviours. We found no differences on general risk-taking tendencies. These results show a single visit to a safety village visit can reduce risk-taking of risks that were experienced in the village, but not general risk-taking tendencies. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

Due to complex interactions, changes in any one area of food systems are likely to impact—and possibly depend on—changes in other areas. Here we present the first annual monitoring update of the indicator framework proposed by the Food Systems Countdown Initiative, with new qualitative analysis elucidating interactions across indicators. Since 2000, we find that 20 of 42 indicators with time series have been trending in a desirable direction, indicating modest positive change. Qualitative expert elicitation assessed governance and resilience indicators to be most connected to other indicators across themes, highlighting entry points for action—particularly governance action. Literature review and country case studies add context to the assessed interactions across diets, environment, livelihoods, governance and resilience indicators, helping different actors understand and navigate food systems towards desirable change.

Grain legumes such as pea, faba bean, lupin and soybean are an important protein source for the production of plant-based foods and thus facilitate the protein transition. For many food applications, the proteins are first isolated using conventional wet methods that are resource intensive. Dry fractionation processes are therefore developed to facilitate a more sustainable protein transition. This review discusses the status of dry fractionation of grain legumes to produce protein-rich ingredients for food production and how the use of these dry-enriched ingredients could be further enhanced. Dry fractionation includes dry milling and dry separation technologies which are first briefly described. There are different strategies to further improve the separation, which include pre-treatments and improving powder bulk behaviour. Pre- and post-treatments not only improve the functional properties of dry-enriched protein ingredients but also enhance the nutritional value of the ingredients and minimize off-flavours. Opportunities still exist to further optimise dry fractionation techniques and pre-treatments to increase the purity and yield. Finally, the use of dry-enriched fractions should be accelerated by development of 1) functionality-driven ingredient formulation strategies and 2) new physical post-modifications and food fermentation strategies to enhance functionality, nutritional value and taste of the ingredients to prepare attractive food products.