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Rationale: The analysis of natural abundance isotopes in biogenic N 2 O molecules provides valuable insights into the nature of their precursors and their role in biogeochemical cycles. However, current methodologies (for example, the isotopocule map approach) face limitations, as they only enable the estimation of combined contributions from multiple processes at once rather than discriminating individual sources. This study aimed to overcome this challenge by developing a novel methodology for the partitioning of N 2 O sources in soil, combining natural abundance isotopes and the use of a 15 N tracer ( 15 N Gas Flux method) in parallel incubations., Methods: Laboratory incubations of an agricultural soil were conducted to optimize denitrification conditions through increased moisture and nitrate amendments, using nitrate that was either 15 N-labeled or unlabeled. A new linear system combined with Monte Carlo simulation was developed to determine N 2 O source contributions, and the subsequent results were compared with FRAME, a Bayesian statistical model for stable isotope analysis., Results: Our new methodology identified bacterial denitrification as the dominant process (87.6%), followed by fungal denitrification (9.4%), nitrification (1.5%), and nitrifier denitrification (1.6%). Comparisons with FRAME showed good agreement, although FRAME estimated slightly lower bacterial denitrification (80%) and higher nitrifier-denitrification (9%) contributions., Conclusions: This approach provides an improved framework for accurately partitioning N 2 O sources, enhancing understanding of nitrogen cycling in agroecosystems, and supporting broader environmental applications., (© 2024 The Author(s). Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Fiscal policies can provide important incentives for encouraging the dietary changes needed to achieve global policy targets. Across Europe, the foods relevant to health and the environment often incur reduced but non-zero value-added tax (VAT) rates at about half the maximum rates, which allows for providing both incentives and disincentives. Integrating economic, health and environmental modelling, we show that reforming VAT rates on foods, including increasing rates on meat and dairy, and reducing VAT rates on fruits and vegetables can improve diets and result in health, environmental and economic benefits in most European countries. The health improvements were primarily driven by reductions in VAT rates on fruits and vegetables, whereas most of the environmental and revenue benefits were driven by increased rates on meat and dairy. Our findings suggest that differentiating VAT rates based on health and environmental considerations can support changes towards healthier and more sustainable diets in Europe., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Weaning and separation remain among some of the biggest challenges for cow-calf contact systems, making the development of practical and low-stress separation methods mandatory for future success of these systems. This study aimed to compare behavioral and physiological responses of dairy cows to separation from their calves after 3 mo of full-time contact, with either the 2-step method (NF, 2 wks full-time contact while calves wore a nose flap, 1 wk fence-line contact before total separation, n = 18) or by gradual reduction of contact time between cow and calf (GR, 1 wk half day contact, 1 wk morning contact, 1 wk fence-line contact before total separation, n = 18). Vocalizations and searching behavior were observed on 4 d/wk from 1 wk before separation until 1 wk after total separation. During the same period, lying behavior and rumination time was automatically assessed via accelerometers and pressure sensors. Fecal and blood samples were collected twice per week from day -1 until +23 relative to separation start for analysis of fecal cortisol metabolites and the immune response. Milk yield in the parlor was continuously recorded. Statistical analysis was conducted using linear mixed effects models. We found no difference between the 2 separation methods in any of the examined behavioral and physiological response variables. However, a significant increase in vocalizations and searching behavior compared with baseline was present with both methods. Furthermore, there was a transient increase in physiological distress markers and a short-lived retention of milk yield at initiation of treatments, indicating that both methods induced distress for the cows. Descriptively, there were large interindividual differences between cows as well as a different temporal distribution in occurrence of behavioral responses, as GR cows vocalized most frequently during the week with fence-line contact and after total separation from the calf, while NF cows reacted strongest during the 2 wk while calves wore the nose flap. Milk yield was higher in NF than GR cows during the 2 wk while GR calves had time-restricted access to their dams and NF calves were prevented from suckling, but showed no difference afterward. However, similar evening milk yields of GR cows in the weeks with half-day and morning contact, indicated that the weekly reductions in contact time worked in a rather stepwise than gradual manner, which warrants further improvement of the GR method. Taken together, results showed that cows experienced distress during separation with the GR method, when implemented over 3 wk in 3 steps, as well as with the NF method, but differences between individuals were considerable., (The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

Systematic conservation planning (SCP) involves the cost-effective placement and application of management actions to achieve biodiversity conservation objectives. Given the political momentum for greater global nature protection, restoration, and improved management of natural resources articulated in the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, assessing the state-of-the-art of SCP is timely. Recent advances in SCP include faster and more exact algorithms and software, inclusion of ecosystem services and multiple facets of biodiversity (e.g., genetic diversity, functional diversity), climate-smart approaches, prioritizing multiple actions, and increased SCP accessibility through online tools. To promote the adoption of SCP by decision-makers, we provide recommendations for bridging the gap between SCP science and practice, such as standardizing the communication of planning uncertainty and capacity-building training courses., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors have no interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Economically motivated adulteration threatens both consumer rights and market integrity, particularly with high-value cold-pressed oils like cactus seed oil (CO). This study proposes a machine learning model that integrates analytical measurements, data simulations, and classification techniques to detect adulteration of CO with refined sunflower oil (SO) and determine the detectable limit of adulteration without measuring a huge number of different mixtures. First, pure CO and SO samples were analyzed for their fatty acid, triacylglycerol, and tocochromanol content using HPLC or GC. The resulting oil composition data served as the foundation for further simulations. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations outperformed Conditional Tabular Generative Adversarial Networks (CTGAN) in simulating realistic oil compositions, with MC yielding lower Kullback-Leibler Divergence values compared to CTGAN. The MC-simulated data were then used to simulate larger datasets, a critical step for training and testing two classification models: Random Forest (RF) and Neural Networks (NN), as robust training cannot be achieved with small sample sizes. Both models achieved good classification accuracies, with RF achieving higher accuracy than NN, reaching 94% on simulated datasets and 90% on real-world samples with detectable adulteration levels as low as 1%. RF also offers better interpretability and is computational less demanding as compared to NN which makes it advantageous for authenticity verification in this study. Therefore, combining MC simulation with RF as a robust method for detecting CO adulteration is proposed. The proposed method, coded in Python and available as open-source, offers a flexible framework for continuous adaptation with new data., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2025 The Authors.)

Numbers of European glass eels (Anguilla anguilla) monitored along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe currently serve as the main stock indicator in assessment of this critically endangered species. Spawning, however, takes place exclusively in the Sargasso Sea, several thousand kilometers away. The beginning of its complex lifecycle is characterized by a distant and lengthy larval drift, before the young-of-the-year reach the monitoring stations at the European coasts. The oceanic mechanisms regulating dispersal and distribution of European eel leptocephalus larvae, before they metamorphose into glass eels and colonize future growth habitats, are still poorly understood and data are scarce. Here, we present oceanographic and leptocephalus catch data from a 24-h station on board of the German Research Vessel Meteor, covering one event cycle of the tide-derived change of hydrographic conditions in the central part of the Strait of Gibraltar. Results of this study provide detailed insights on how the exchange of water masses between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea may favor or prevent transport and migration of eel larvae through the Strait, which potentially plays a decisive role in timing and magnitude of larval recruitment events into the entire Mediterranean region., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical statement: Animal ethical approval was not applicable for sampling in this study., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The roundscale spearfish (Tetrapturus georgii) is a poorly studied species with limited information available on its biology, ecology, and population status. Although the adult life stage of the species is morphologically distinguishable from closely related species such as the overexploited white marlin (Kajikia albida), misidentification is common, adding to the uncertainties connected with population assessments of these pelagic highly migratory species. Although genetic studies have recently confirmed its distinction from congeneric species, much of the reproductive biology and population dynamics of T. georgii remain unknown, underscoring the need for further research to guide conservation and management strategies. This study reports the first documented records of an egg and a juvenile T. georgii. Here, we provide photographs, morphological descriptions, and collection site data for genetically confirmed egg and juvenile specimens obtained during two multipurpose research surveys in the Sargasso Sea Subtropical Convergence Zone. These findings contribute new insights into the reproductive biology, early life stages, and ecology of this elusive species., (© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Fish Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

Germany experienced extreme drought periods in 2018 and 2022, which significantly affected forests. These drought periods were natural experiments, providing valuable insights into how different tree species respond to drought. The quantification of species-specific drought responses may help to identify the most climate-change-resilient tree species, thereby informing effective forest regeneration strategies. In this study, we used remotely sensed peak-season canopy greenness as a proxy for tree vitality to estimate the drought response of four widely abundant tree species in Germany (oak, beech, spruce, and pine). We focused on two questions: (1) How were the four tree species affected by these two droughts? (2) Which environmental parameters primarily determined canopy greenness? To address these questions, we combined a recently published tree species classification map with remotely sensed canopy greenness and environmental variables related to plant available water capacity (PAWC) and atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD). Our results indicate that the more isohydric species featured a greater decline in canopy greenness under these droughts compared to the more anisohydric species despite similar soil moisture conditions. Based on spatial lag models, we found that the influence of PAWC on canopy greenness increases with increasing isohydricity while the influence of VPD decreases. Our statistical analysis indicates that oak was the only species with significantly higher canopy greenness in 2022 compared to 2018. Yet, all species are likely to be susceptible to accumulated drought effects, such as insufficient recovery time and increased vulnerability to biotic pathogens, in the coming years. Our study provides critical insights into the diverse responses of different tree species to changing environments over a large environmental gradient in Central Europe and sheds light on the complex interactions between soil moisture, climate variables, and canopy greenness. These findings contribute to understanding forests' climate-change resilience and may guide forest management and conservation strategies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Earthworms are a key faunal group in agricultural soils, but little is known on how farming systems affect their communities across wide climatic gradients and how farming system choice might mediate earthworms' exposure to climate conditions. Here, we studied arable soil earthworm communities on wheat fields across a European climatic gradient, covering nine pedo-climatic zones, from Mediterranean to Boreal (S to N) and from Lusitanian to Pannonian (W to E). In each zone, 20-25 wheat fields under conventional or organic farming were sampled. Community metrics (total abundance, fresh mass, and species richness and composition) were combined with data on climate conditions, soil properties, and field management and analyzed with mixed models. There were no statistically discernible differences between organic and conventional farming for any of the community metrics. The effects of refined arable management factors were also not detected, except for an elevated proportion of subsurface-feeding earthworms when crop residues were incorporated. Soil properties were not significantly associated with earthworm community variations, which in the case of soil texture was likely due to low variation in the data. Pedo-climatic zone was an overridingly important factor in explaining the variation in community metrics. The Boreal zone had the highest mean total abundance (179 individuals m -2 ) and fresh mass (86 g m -2 ) of earthworms while the southernmost Mediterranean zones had the lowest metrics (<1 individual m -2 and <1 g m -2 ). Within each field, species richness was low across the zones, with the highest values being recorded at the Nemoral and North Atlantic zones (mean of 2-3 species per field) and declining from there toward north and south. No litter-dwelling species were found in the southernmost, Mediterranean zones. These regional trends were discernibly related to climate, with the community metrics declining with the increasing mean annual temperature. The current continent-wide warming of Europe and related increase of severe and rapid onsetting droughts will likely deteriorate the living conditions of earthworms, particularly in southern Europe. The lack of interaction between the pedo-climatic zone and the farming system in our data for any of the earthworm community metrics may indicate limited opportunities for alleviating the negative effects of a warming climate in cereal field soils of Europe., (© 2024 The Author(s). Ecological Applications published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.)