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This chapter examines the design process for the Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring (GEAM) survey. Developed by research teams from the United Kingdom (Advance HE) and Spain (Notus and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), the GEAM provides a comprehensive, transferable and transnational survey for higher education and research organisations that wish to undertake an audit of gender equality among academic, technical and support staff. The GEAM was developed from the UK Athena Survey of Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET) and adapted for use with staff across all higher education and research contexts. The modular survey includes units on working conditions, beliefs and biases, organisational culture and climate and individual behaviours as well as the capture of data about the identity characteristics of respondents. The innovative design process of the GEAM required research teams to reconsider the applicability of gender equality measurement tools across multiple languages and national contexts. This chapter therefore provides an introduction for other researchers engaged in the design of equality, diversity and inclusion surveys; translation of surveys into multiple languages and used across multiple national contexts; and use of a standardised framework to gather evidence of gender inequality across a range of thematic areas.

More frequent and severe disturbances increasingly open the forest canopy and initiate tree regeneration. Simultaneously, increasing weather extremes, such as drought and heat, are threatening species adapted to cool and moist climate. The magnitude of the microclimatic buffering capacity of forest canopies to mitigate hot and dry weather conditions and its disturbance-induced reduction remains poorly quantified. Also, the influence of disturbance legacies (e.g., deadwood) on forest microclimate is unresolved. In a unique manipulation experiment we investigated (i) the microclimatic buffering capacity of forest canopies in years with different climatic conditions; (ii) the impacts of spatial disturbance patterns on surface light and microclimate; and (iii) the effect of deadwood presence and type on microclimate. Treatments included two disturbance patterns (i.e., aggregated and distributed), four deadwood types (i.e., standing, downed, standing and downed, removed), and one untreated control (i.e., nine treatments in total), replicated at five sites dominated by European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in southeastern Germany. We measured forest floor light conditions and derived diurnal extremes and variation in temperature (T) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) during four consecutive summer seasons (2016 – 2019). The buffering capacity of intact forest canopies was higher in warm and dry years. Surface light was significantly higher in spatially aggregated disturbance gaps compared to distributed disturbances of similar severity. An increase in surface light by 10 % relative to closed canopies elevated Tmax and VPDmax by 0.42°C and 0.04 kPa, respectively. Deadwood presence and type did not affect the forest microclimate significantly. Microclimatic buffering under forest canopies can dampen the effects of climate change. However, increasing canopy disturbances result in more light penetrating the canopy, reducing the microclimatic buffering capacity of forests. We conclude that forest management should foster microclimatic buffering in forests as one element of a multi-pronged strategy to counter climate change.

We present a system, predicting the point in time when users of a public display are about to leave. The ability to react to users' intention to leave is valuable for researchers and practitioners alike: users can be presented additional content with the goal to maximize interaction times; they can be offered a discount coupon for redemption in a nearby store hence enabling new business models; or feedback can be collected from users right after they have finished interaction without interrupting their task. Our research consists of multiple steps: (1) We identified features that hint at users' intention to leave from observations and video logs. (2) We implemented a system capable of detecting such features from Microsoft Kinect's skeleton data and subsequently make a prediction. (3) We trained and deployed a prediction system with a Quiz game which reacts when users are about to leave (N=249), achieving an accuracy of 78%. The majority of users indeed reacted to the presented intervention.

This article proposes a new composite measure of gender diversity for research teams that goes beyond simply ‘counting heads’. This measure adopts a more elaborated understanding of gender diversity than merely relying on the proportion of women and men, by taking into account the outcomes of gendered processes along seven grounds of diversity (age, care responsibilities, marital status, education, tenure, seniority, contractual position). Rather than focus on the individuals or the organisations, this measure is computed at the level of teams. This is because teams constitute a unit of analysis highly relevant to the context of higher education research but are often neglected. Illustrations of the results for STEM research teams are provided to show the potential uses of the Gender Diversity Index as a diagnostic tool (e.g. in certification schemes such as Athena SWAN in the UK and elsewhere), or to measure and report on the progress of gender change within higher education institutions.

Although macroecology is a well-established field, much remains to be learned about the large-scale variation of fungal traits. We conducted a global analysis of mean fruit body size of 59 geographical regions worldwide, comprising 5340 fungal species exploring the response of fruit body size to latitude, resource availability and temperature. The results showed a hump-shaped relationship between mean fruit body size and distance to the equator. Areas with large fruit bodies were characterised by a high seasonality and an intermediate mean temperature. The responses of mutualistic species and saprotrophs were similar. These findings support the resource availability hypothesis, predicting large fruit bodies due to a seasonal resource surplus, and the thermoregulation hypothesis, according to which small fruit bodies offer a strategy to avoid heat and cold stress and therefore occur at temperature extremes. Fruit body size may thus be an adaptive trait driving the large-scale distribution of fungal species.

Purpose of Review: Outbreaks of tree-killing bark beetles have reached unprecedented levels in conifer forests in the northern hemisphere and are expected to further intensify due to climate change. In parts of Europe, bark beetle outbreaks and efforts to manage them have even triggered social unrests and political instability. These events have increasingly challenged traditional responses to outbreaks, and highlight the need for a more comprehensive management framework. Recent Findings: Several synthesis papers on different aspects of bark beetle ecology and management exist. However, our understanding of outbreak drivers and impacts, principles of ecosystem management, governance, and the role of climate change in the dynamics of ecological and social systems has rapidly advanced in recent years. These advances are suggesting a reconsideration of previous management strategies. Summary: We synthesize the state of knowledge on drivers and impacts of bark beetle outbreaks in Europe and propose a comprehensive context-dependent framework for their management. We illustrate our ideas for two contrasting societal objectives that represent the end-members of a continuum of forest management goals: wood and biomass production and the conservation of biodiversity and natural processes. For production forests, we propose a management approach addressing economic, social, ecological, infrastructural, and legislative aspects of bark beetle disturbances. In conservation forests, where non-intervention is the default option, we elaborate under which circumstances an active intervention is necessary, and whether such an intervention is in conflict with the objective to conserve biodiversity. Our approach revises the current management response to bark beetles in Europe and promotes an interdisciplinary social-ecological approach to dealing with disturbances.

Mit der Verordnung (EU) 2016/1011 wurde die Ermittlung von Referenzwerten für Finanzprodukte mit unmittelbarer Wirkung für alle Mitgliedsstaaten der EU gesetzlich normiert. Obwohl die genannte Verordnung bereits seit dem 01.01.2018 Gültigkeit besitzt, sind Finanzdienstleister derzeit aufgrund bestehender Übergangsvorschriften noch nicht in vollem Umfang an die neuen Regelungen gebunden. Gleichwohl sollten sich Banken in den relevanten Geschäftsfeldern auf kurze Sicht den gesetzlichen Gegebenheiten anpassen.

Background Forests perform various important ecosystem functions that contribute to ecosystem services. In many parts of the world, forest management has shifted from a focus on timber production to multi-purpose forestry, combining timber production with the supply of other forest ecosystem services. However, it is unclear which forest types provide which ecosystem services and to what extent forests primarily managed for timber already supply multiple ecosystem services. Based on a comprehensive dataset collected across 150 forest plots in three regions differing in management intensity and species composition, we develop models to predict the potential supply of 13 ecosystem services. We use those models to assess the level of multifunctionality of managed forests at the national level using national forest inventory data. Results Looking at the potential supply of ecosystem services, we found trade-offs (e.g. between both bark beetle control or dung decomposition and both productivity or soil carbon stocks) as well as synergies (e.g. for temperature regulation, carbon storage and culturally interesting plants) across the 53 most dominant forest types in Germany. No single forest type provided all ecosystem services equally. Some ecosystem services showed comparable levels across forest types (e.g. decomposition or richness of saprotrophs), while others varied strongly, depending on forest structural attributes (e.g. phosphorous availability or cover of edible plants) or tree species composition (e.g. potential nitrification activity). Variability in potential supply of ecosystem services was only to a lesser extent driven by environmental conditions. However, the geographic variation in ecosystem function supply across Germany was closely linked with the distribution of main tree species. Conclusions Our results show that forest multifunctionality is limited to subsets of ecosystem services. The importance of tree species composition highlights that a lack of multifunctionality at the stand level can be compensated by managing forests at the landscape level, when stands of complementary forest types are combined. These results imply that multi-purpose forestry should be based on a variety of forest types requiring coordinated planning across larger spatial scales.

Boreal and mountainous forests are a primary focus of conservation efforts and are naturally prone to large-scale disturbances, such as outbreaks of bark beetles. Affected stands are characterised by biological legacies which persist through the disturbance and subsequent succession. The lack of long-term monitoring data on post-disturbance forest structure precludes understanding of the complex pathways by which natural disturbances affect forest structure and subsequently species presence. We analysed the response of capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) and hazel grouse (Tetrastes bonasia) to bark beetle infestations. We combined high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) with a 23-year time series of aerial photography to quantify present-day forest structure and stand disturbance history. Species presence was assessed by collecting droppings of hazel grouse and capercaillie in a citizen science project. Structural equation models showed that the probability of hazel grouse presence increased with increasing disturbance, and the probability of both hazel grouse and capercaillie presence increased with succession. Indirect effects of bark beetle infestations, such as a reduced abundance of deciduous trees and an enhanced herb layer cover, were positively associated with capercaillie presence. Decreasing canopy cover increased the probability of hazel grouse presence. The high temporal and spatial heterogeneity of bark beetle infestations created forest structures that meet the contrasting habitat requirements of both, capercaillie and hazel grouse. This heterogeneity resulted from biological legacies such as decomposing snags, and the simultaneous regrowth of natural regeneration. A benign-neglect strategy towards bark beetle infestations could hence foster capercaillie and hazel grouse in mountainous forests.

In Europe, forest management has controlled forest dynamics to sustain commodity production over multiple centuries. Yet over-regulation for growth and yield diminishes resilience to environmental stress as well as threatens biodiversity, leading to increasing forest susceptibility to an array of disturbances. These trends have stimulated interest in alternative management systems, including natural dynamics silviculture (NDS). NDS aims to emulate natural disturbance dynamics at stand and landscape scales through silvicultural manipulations of forest structure and landscape patterns. We adapted a "Comparability Index" (CI) to assess convergence/divergence between natural disturbances and forest management effects. We extended the original CI concept based on disturbance size and frequency by adding the residual structure of canopy trees after a disturbance as a third dimension. We populated the model by compiling data on natural disturbance dynamics and management from 13 countries in Europe, covering four major forest types (i.e., spruce, beech, oak, and pine-dominated forests). We found that natural disturbances are highly variable in size, frequency, and residual structure, but European forest management fails to encompass this complexity. Silviculture in Europe is skewed toward even-aged systems, used predominately (72.9% of management) across the countries assessed. The residual structure proved crucial in the comparison of natural disturbances and silvicultural systems. CI indicated the highest congruence between uneven-aged silvicultural systems and key natural disturbance attributes. Even so, uneven-aged practices emulated only a portion of the complexity associated with natural disturbance effects. The remaining silvicultural systems perform poorly in terms of retention compared to tree survivorship after natural disturbances. We suggest that NDS can enrich Europe's portfolio of management systems, for example where wood production is not the primary objective. NDS is especially relevant to forests managed for habitat quality, risk reduction, and a variety of ecosystem services. We suggest a holistic approach integrating NDS with more conventional practices.

Acoustic levitation has recently demonstrated the ability to create volumetric content by trapping and quickly moving particles along reference paths to reveal shapes in mid-air. However, the problem of specifying physically feasible trap trajectories to display desired shapes remains unsolved. Even if only the final shape is of interest to the content creator, the trap trajectories need to determine where and when the traps need to be, for the particle to reveal the intended shape. We propose OptiTrap, the first structured numerical approach to compute trap trajectories for acoustic levitation displays. Our approach generates trap trajectories that are physically feasible and nearly time-optimal, and reveal generic mid-air shapes, given only a reference path (i.e., a shape with no time information). We provide a multi-dimensional model of the acoustic forces around a trap to model the trap-particle system dynamics and compute optimal trap trajectories by formulating and solving a non-linear path following problem. We formulate our approach and evaluate it, demonstrating how OptiTrap consistently produces feasible and nearly optimal paths, with increases in size, frequency, and accuracy of the shapes rendered, allowing us to demonstrate larger and more complex shapes than ever shown to date., 14 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables. To appear in the ACM Transaction on Graphics journal

Land‐use intensification leads to loss and degradation of habitats and is thus a major driver of biodiversity loss. Restoration strategies typically focus on promoting biodiversity but often neglect that land‐use intensification could have changed the underlying mechanisms of community assembly. Since assembly mechanisms determine the diversity and composition of communities, we propose that evaluation of restoration strategies should consider effects of restoration on biodiversity and community assembly. Using a multi‐taxon approach, we tested whether a strategy that promotes forest biodiversity by restoring deadwood habitats also affects assembly patterns. We assessed saproxylic (i.e. deadwood‐dependent) beetles and fungi, as well as non‐saproxylic plants and birds in 68 beech forest plots in southern Germany, 8 years after the commencement of a restoration project. To assess changes in community assembly, we analysed the patterns of functional–phylogenetic diversity, community‐weighted mean (CWM) traits and their diversity. We hypothesized that restoration increases habitat amount and heterogeneity of deadwood and reduces canopy cover and thereby decreases the strength of environmental filters imposed by past silvicultural intensification, such as a low amount in deadwood. With the restoration of deadwood habitats, saproxylic beetle communities became less functionally–phylogenetically similar, whereas the assembly patterns of saproxylic fungi and non‐saproxylic taxa remained unaffected by deadwood restoration. Among the traits analysed, deadwood diameter niche position of species was most strongly affected indicating that the enrichment of large deadwood objects led to lower functional–phylogenetical similarity of saproxylic beetles. Community assembly and traits of plants were mainly influenced by microclimate associated with changes in canopy cover. Synthesis and applications. Our results indicate that the positive effects of deadwood restoration on saproxylic beetle richness are associated with an increase in deadwood amount. This might be linked to an increase in deadwood heterogeneity, and therefore decreasing management‐induced environmental filters. Deadwood enrichment can thus be considered an effective restoration strategy which reduces the negative effects of intense forest management on saproxylic taxa by not only promoting biodiversity but also by decreasing the environmental filters shaping saproxylic beetle communities, thus allowing the possibly for more interactions between species and a higher functional diversity.

Tree species diversity is important to maintain saproxylic beetle diversity in managed forests. Yet, knowledge about the conservational importance of single tree species and implications for forest management and conservation practices are lacking. We exposed freshly cut branch‐bundles of 42 tree species, representing tree species native and non‐native to Europe, under sun‐exposed and shaded conditions for 1 year. Afterwards, communities of saproxylic beetles were reared ex situ for 2 years. We tested for the impact of tree species and sun exposure on alpha‐, beta‐, and gamma‐diversity as well as composition of saproxylic beetle communities. Furthermore, the number of colonised tree species by each saproxylic beetle species was determined. Tree species had a lower impact on saproxylic beetle communities compared to sun exposure. The diversity of saproxylic beetles varied strongly among tree species, with highest alpha‐ and gamma‐diversity found in Quercus petraea. Red‐listed saproxylic beetle species occurred ubiquitously among tree species. We found distinct differences in the community composition of broadleaved and coniferous tree species, native and non‐native tree species as well as sun‐exposed and shaded deadwood. Our study enhances the understanding of the importance of previously understudied and non‐native tree species for the diversity of saproxylic beetles. To improve conservation practices for saproxylic beetles and especially red‐listed species, we suggest a stronger incorporation of tree species diversity and sun exposure of into forest management strategies, including the enrichment of deadwood from native and with a specific focus on locally rare or silviculturally less important tree species.

Wearable sensors are becoming increasingly popular in organizational research. Although validation studies that examine sensor data in conjunction with established social and psychological constructs are becoming more frequent, they are usually limited for two reasons: first, most validation studies are carried out under laboratory settings. Only a handful of studies have been carried out in real-world organizational environments. Second, for those studies carried out in field settings, reported findings are derived from a single case only, thus seriously limiting the possibility of studying the influence of contextual factors on sensor-based measurements. This article presents a validation study of expressive and instrumental ties across nine relatively small R&D teams. The convergent validity of Bluetooth (BT) detections is reported for friendship and advice-seeking ties under three organizational contexts: research labs, private companies, and university-based teams. Results show that, in general, BT detections correlated strongly with self-reported measurements. However, the organizational context affects both the strength of the observed correlation and its direction. Whereas advice-seeking ties generally occur in close spatial proximity and are best identified in university environments, friendship relationships occur at a greater spatial distance, especially in research labs. We conclude with recommendations for fine-tuning the validity of sensor measurements by carefully examining the opportunities for organizational embedding in relation to the research question and collecting complementary data through mixed-method research designs.

The habitat heterogeneity hypothesis predicts that biodiversity increases with increasing habitat heterogeneity due to greater niche dimensionality. However, recent studies have reported that richness can decrease with high heterogeneity due to stochastic extinctions, creating trade-offs between area and heterogeneity. This suggests that greater complexity in heterogeneity-diversity relationships (HDRs) may exist, with potential for group-specific responses to different facets of heterogeneity that may only be partitioned out by a simultaneous test of HDRs of several species groups and several facets of heterogeneity. Here, we systematically decompose habitat heterogeneity into six major facets on ~500 temperate forest plots across Germany and quantify biodiversity of 12 different species groups, including bats, birds, arthropods, fungi, lichens and plants, representing 2,600 species. Heterogeneity in horizontal and vertical forest structure underpinned most HDRs, followed by plant diversity, deadwood and topographic heterogeneity, but the relative importance varied even within the same trophic level. Among substantial HDRs, 53% increased monotonically, consistent with the classical habitat heterogeneity hypothesis but 21% were hump-shaped, 25% had a monotonically decreasing slope and 1% showed no clear pattern. Overall, we found no evidence of a single generalizable mechanism determining HDR patterns.

DNA metabarcoding was utilized for a large-scale, multiyear assessment of biodiversity in Malaise trap collections from the Bavarian Forest National Park (Germany, Bavaria). Principal component analysis of read count-based biodiversities revealed clustering in concordance with whether collection sites were located inside or outside of the National Park. Jaccard distance matrices of the presences of barcode index numbers (BINs) at collection sites in the two survey years (2016 and 2018) were significantly correlated. Overall similar patterns in the presence of total arthropod BINs, as well as BINs belonging to four major arthropod orders across the study area, were observed in both survey years, and are also comparable with results of a previous study based on DNA barcoding of Sanger-sequenced specimens. A custom reference sequence library was assembled from publicly available data to screen for pest or invasive arthropods among the specimens or from the preservative ethanol. A single 98.6% match to the invasive bark beetle Ips duplicatus was detected in an ethanol sample. This species has not previously been detected in the National Park.

Changes in climate and land use are major threats to pollinating insects, an essential functional group. Here, we unravel the largely unknown interactive effects of both threats on seven pollinator taxa using a multiscale space-for-time approach across large climate and land-use gradients in a temperate region. Pollinator community composition, regional gamma diversity, and community dissimilarity (beta diversity) of pollinator taxa were shaped by climate-land-use interactions, while local alpha diversity was solely explained by their additive effects. Pollinator diversity increased with reduced land-use intensity (forest < grassland < arable land < urban) and high flowering-plant diversity at different spatial scales, and higher temperatures homogenized pollinator communities across regions. Our study reveals declines in pollinator diversity with land-use intensity at multiple spatial scales and regional community homogenization in warmer and drier climates. Management options at several scales are highlighted to mitigate impacts of climate change on pollinators and their ecosystem services.

Recent progress in the taxonomy of flat bark beetles (Cucujidae), specifically, in the genus Cucujus, has revealed great diversity in subtropical Asia, but the seemingly well-known temperate and boreal taxa need further attention because of their conservation status. Here, we used an integrative approach using morphology, DNA, and species distribution modelling to disentangle phylogenetic relations, verify the number of species, and understand the historical biogeography of Palearctic and Nearctic Cucujus beetles, particularly the C. haematodes species group. Species distinctiveness was supported for C. cinnaberinus, but present-day C. haematodes turned out to be a species complex made up of separate lineages in the western, middle and eastern parts of its Palearctic range. Cucujus muelleri was a member of that complex, being sister to Asian C. haematodes. Moreover, C. haematodes caucasicus was found to be phylogenetically closely related to Italian C. tulliae, and both to be sister to European C. haematodes. North American C. clavipes clavipes and C. c. puniceus resulted to be enough divergent to be considered different species. Interestingly, western American C. puniceus turned out to be closely related to the C. haematodes complex, whereas eastern American C. clavipes constituted a separate lineage, being distantly related to both C. puniceus and C. cinnaberinus. These patterns suggest former trans-continental connections among the ancestors of extant flat bark beetle species. Moreover, a divergent lineage of C. cinnaberinus was found in Calabria, which should be regarded at the very least as a subspecies. The ancestor of C. hameatodes group originated in mid-Miocene, and next, ca. 6.2 Mya, a line leading to C. cinnaberinus had split. Speciation of the American lineages occurred during Pliocene (4.4 Mya for C. clavipes and 3.3 Mya for C. puniceus). Species classified as C. haematodes, C. tulliae and C. muelleri, as well as distinct lineages within C. cinnaberinus split during mid Pleistocene (ca. 1.5 Mya). A comparison of species climatic requirements and their present distribution allowed to identify glacial refugia in south-eastern areas of North America (C. clavipes), south-western areas of North America (C. puniceus), and the Mediterranean and Caspian Sea Basins (European Cucujus species), or south-eastern areas of Asia and the foothills of the central Asian mountains (eastern C. haematodes). Subsequent climatic changes in the Holocene forced these beetles to move their ranges northwards along the coasts of the Pacific (C. puniceus) or Atlantic (C. clavipes), north-eastwards to central, northern, and eastern Europe (C. cinnaberinus and European C. haematodes) or Siberia (Asian C. haematodes). The combined use of molecular, morphological and climatic data allows a comprehensive understanding of the phylogenetic relations and past distributions of Cucujus beetles, highlighting the complexity of C. haematodes species group evolution.

Deadwood provides a variety of habitats for saproxylic beetles. Whereas the understanding of the drivers promoting saproxylic beetle diversity has improved, the process of deadwood colonisation and beetle's potential to trace resources is poorly understood. However, the mechanisms facilitating deadwood detection by saproxylic beetles appears to be essential for survival, as deadwood is usually scattered in time and space. To investigate whether saproxylic beetles distinguish before their arrival on potential hosts between alive trees and deadwood (lying, stumps, standing), deadwood arrangement (aggregated, distributed) and different heights on standing resources (bottom = 0.5 m, middle = 4–5 m, top = 7.30–11.60 m), we sampled saproxylic beetles with sticky traps in a deadwood experiment. We found on average 67% higher abundance, 100% higher species numbers and 50–130% higher species diversity of colonising saproxylic beetles consistently for all deadwood types compared to alive trees with a distinct community composition on lying deadwood compared to the other resource types. Aggregated deadwood arrangement, which is associated with higher sun‐exposure, had a positive effect on species richness. The abundance, species number and diversity, was significantly higher for standing deadwood and alive trees at the bottom section of tree trunks. In contrast to living trees, however, the vertical position had an additional effect on the community composition on standing deadwood. Our results indicate that saproxylic beetles are attracted to potential deadwood habitats and actively select specific trunk sections before arriving on potential hosts. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of sun‐exposed resources for species richness in saproxylic beetles.

With progressing climate change, increasing weather extremes will endanger tree regeneration. Canopy openings provide light for tree establishment, but also reduce the microclimatic buffering effect of forests. Thus, disturbances can have both positive and negative impacts on tree regeneration. In 2015, three years before an extreme drought episode hit Central Europe, we established a manipulation experiment with a factorial block design in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.)-dominated forests. At five sites located in southeastern Germany, we conducted three censuses of tree regeneration after implementing two different canopy disturbances (aggregated and distributed canopy openings), and four deadwood treatments (retaining downed, standing, downed + standing deadwood and removing all deadwood), as well as in one untreated control plot. In addition, we measured understory light levels and recorded local air temperature and humidity over five years. We (i) tested the effects of experimental disturbance and deadwood treatments on regeneration and (ii) identified the drivers of regeneration density as well as seedling species and structural diversity. Regeneration density increased over time. Aggregated canopy openings supported species and structural diversity, but reduced regeneration density. Tree regeneration was positively associated with understory light levels, while maximum vapor pressure deficit influenced tree regeneration negatively. Deadwood and browsing impacts on regeneration varied and were inconclusive. Our study indicates that despite the drought episode regeneration in beech-dominated forests persisted under moderately disturbed canopies. However, the positive effect of increased light availability on tree regeneration might have been offset by harsher microclimate after canopies have been disturbed.

In their paper Hallmann et al. (1) show that total biomass decline of flying insects (2) is mirrored by diversity loss of hover flies (Diptera: Syrphidae). Furthermore, the authors highlight differences in persistence of common and rare hover fly species. While understanding the mechanisms of insect species decline is of utmost importance to halt biodiversity loss, we would like to make a cautionary note regarding the authors’ generalizing conclusions that “large insect biomass declines are predictive of insect diversity declines” (ref. 1, p. 1) and that “under large biomass drops, species richness … [↵][1] 1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: Sarah.redlich{at}uni-wuerzburg.de. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

This paper explores interaction techniques for positioning objects in 3D-space during instantiation and movement interactions in mobile augmented reality. We designed the methods for 3D-objects positioning (no rotation or scaling) based on camera position and orientation, touch interaction, and combinations of these modalities. We consider four interaction techniques for creation: three new techniques and an existing one, and four techniques for moving: two new techniques and another two from previous work. We implemented all interaction methods within a smartphone application and used it as a basis for the experimental evaluation. We evaluated the interaction methods in a comparative user study (N=12): The touch-based methods outperform the camera-based techniques in perceived workload and accuracy. Both are comparable regarding the task completion time. The multimodal methods performed worse than the methods based on individual modalities both in terms of performance and workload. We discuss the implications of these findings to the HCI research and provide corresponding design recommendations. For example, we recommend avoiding the combination of camera and touch-based methods for a simultaneous interaction, as they interfere with each other and introduce jitter and inaccuracies in the user input.

We present Intermittent Control (IC) models as a candidate framework for modelling human input movements in Human--Computer Interaction (HCI). IC differs from continuous control in that users are not assumed to use feedback to adjust their movements continuously, but only when the difference between the observed pointer position and predicted pointer positions become large. We use a parameter optimisation approach to identify the parameters of an intermittent controller from experimental data, where users performed one-dimensional mouse movements in a reciprocal pointing task. Compared to previous published work with continuous control models, based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence from the experimental observations, IC is better able to generatively reproduce the distinctive dynamical features and variability of the pointing task across participants and over repeated tasks. IC is compatible with current physiological and psychological theory and provides insight into the source of variability in HCI tasks., 42 pages, 26 figures

International audience; The retention of trees bearing tree‐related microhabitats (TreMs) has become an important means of conserving biodiversity in production forests. However, we lack estimates of TreM formation rates and evidence on factors driving TreM formation. Based on the observation of 80,099 living trees from 19 species groups in Europe and Iran, we estimated the probability of TreM occurrence on trees and the associated rate of first TreM formation as a function of tree DBH, management, tree species group and random site effects. We built a separate model for each of 11 TreM groups. The hazard rate of first TreM formation (defined as the probability of formation of a first TreM forming on a tree that is known to have none, during an infinitesimal DBH increment) increased with DBH for some TreM groups like breeding‐woodpecker‐hole, rot‐hole or root‐concavity, indicating an acceleration in TreM formation during tree growth. However, it decreased with DBH for TreM groups like bark‐loss or dendrotelm, indicating slower formation on very large trees. Most TreM groups had reduced formation rates in managed forests (last logging less than 100 years ago) compared to unmanaged forests (no logging for at least 100 years), with the exception of dendrotelms. No general difference appeared between broadleaves and conifers but early‐successional species tended to have different TreMs than mid‐ and late‐successional species. Abies, Alnus, Betula, Fagus, Prunus, Quercus, Sorbus, Tilia and Ulmus displayed high formation rates for six TreM groups or more. Variability among sites was considerable. Synthesis and applications: The rate of formation of tree related microhabitats (TreMs) varies greatly among TreM groups, tree species, locations, tree diameters at breast height and forest management. The high rate of formation of some TeM groups on small trees implies that tree retention for biodiversity should concern trees of all sizes and start as soon as thinning operations have occurred. Biodiversity conservation should value not only forest stands and trees that already have many TreMs, but also those where the likelihood of future TreM formation is high due to species, maturity or local environmental conditions. The addition of quantitative models of TreM formation to forest stand dynamics simulators is necessary to better take into account biodiversity conservation in forest management.

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T19:44:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-09-02 The amount of carbon stored in deadwood is equivalent to about 8 per cent of the global forest carbon stocks1. The decomposition of deadwood is largely governed by climate2–5 with decomposer groups—such as microorganisms and insects—contributing to variations in the decomposition rates2,6,7. At the global scale, the contribution of insects to the decomposition of deadwood and carbon release remains poorly understood7. Here we present a field experiment of wood decomposition across 55 forest sites and 6 continents. We find that the deadwood decomposition rates increase with temperature, and the strongest temperature effect is found at high precipitation levels. Precipitation affects the decomposition rates negatively at low temperatures and positively at high temperatures. As a net effect—including the direct consumption by insects and indirect effects through interactions with microorganisms—insects accelerate the decomposition in tropical forests (3.9% median mass loss per year). In temperate and boreal forests, we find weak positive and negative effects with a median mass loss of 0.9 per cent and −0.1 per cent per year, respectively. Furthermore, we apply the experimentally derived decomposition function to a global map of deadwood carbon synthesized from empirical and remote-sensing data, obtaining an estimate of 10.9 ± 3.2 petagram of carbon per year released from deadwood globally, with 93 per cent originating from tropical forests. Globally, the net effect of insects may account for 29 per cent of the carbon flux from deadwood, which suggests a functional importance of insects in the decomposition of deadwood and the carbon cycle. Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management Group School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich Berchtesgaden National Park Epidemiology Biostatistics and Prevention Institute University of Zurich Southern Research Station USDA Forest Service Field Station Fabrikschleichach University of Würzburg Biological Sciences University of Toronto Scarborough Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Department of Biogeography University of Bayreuth Department of Disturbance Ecology University of Bayreuth Instituto de Ecología Regional CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Tucumán Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology University of Würzburg Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology Institute of Microbiology The Czech Academy of Sciences Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Centre of Mazandaran Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Universidade Federal de Lavras Department of Biodiversity Conservation Goethe-University Frankfurt Bavarian Forest National Park CIRAD UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane (EcoFoG) AgroParisTech CNRS INRA Universite des Antilles Universite de Guyane Environmental Change Institute University of Oxford Grassland Vegetation Lab Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management Norwegian University of Life Sciences Institute of Ecology and Botany Centre for Ecological Research Institute for Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences Animal Ecology University of Marburg École d’Ingénieurs de Purpan Université de Toulouse UMR 1201 Dynafor Ecosystem Science and Management Program University of Northern British Columbia Laboratory of Applied Ecology University of Abomey-Calavi Department of Ecology University of Granada Réserves Naturelles de France Royal Alberta Museum Conservation Ecology University of Marburg Science and Engineering Faculty Queensland University of Technology Centre for the Environment Institute for Future Environments Forest Research Institute Malaysia International Institute of Tropical Forestry USDA Forest Service Forest Entomology Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL Evolutionary Zoology University of Salzburg Natural Resources Canada Canadian Forest Service Eurofins Ahma Oy Department of Plant Systematics University of Bayreuth Department of Wildlife Fish and Environmental Studies Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Applied Landscape Ecology Chuo University School of Forest Sciences University of Eastern Finland School of Agricultural Forest and Food Sciences Bern University of Applied Sciences CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia Kunming Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences ECNU-Alberta Joint Lab for Biodiversity Study Tiantong National Station for Forest Ecosystem Research East China Normal University Institute of Biological Sciences University of the Philippines Los Banos Department of Thermodynamics Universidad Nacional del Nordeste Tropical Forests and People Research Centre University of the Sunshine Coast Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Laboratory National University of Mongolia School of Environment and Science Griffith University School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences University College Cork Edge Hill University Institute of Forestry Tribhuvan University Institute of Evolution University of Haifa Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute) School of Forestry University of Canterbury Institute of Zoology University of Hamburg Faculté des Sciences Université d’Antananarivo Tropical Biodiversity and Social Enterprise Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Estadual Paulista Ecology Group University Erlangen-Nuremberg H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest Environmental and Conservation Sciences Murdoch University Environmental Futures Research Institute Griffith University Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment ARC Centre for Forest Value University of Tasmania Terrestrial Ecology Research Group School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich EcoBank Team National Institute of Ecology College of Forestry Beijing Forestry University Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Estadual Paulista

The extinction of species is a non-random process, and understanding why some species are more likely to go extinct than others is critical for conservation efforts. Functional trait-based approaches offer a promising tool to achieve this goal. In forests, deadwood-dependent (saproxylic) beetles comprise a major part of threatened species, but analyses of their extinction risk have been hindered by the availability of suitable morphological traits. To better understand the mechanisms underlying extinction in insects, we investigated the relationships between morphological features and the extinction risk of saproxylic beetles. Specifically, we hypothesised that species darker in colour, with a larger and rounder body, a lower mobility, lower sensory perception and more robust mandibles are at higher risk. We first developed a protocol for morphological trait measurements and present a database of 37 traits for 1,157 European saproxylic beetle species. Based on 13 selected, independent traits characterising aspects of colour, body shape, locomotion, sensory perception and foraging, we used a proportional-odds multiple linear mixed-effects model to model the German Red List categories of 744 species as an ordinal index of extinction risk. Six out of 13 traits correlated significantly with extinction risk. Larger species as well as species with a broad and round body had a higher extinction risk than small, slim and flattened species. Species with short wings had a higher extinction risk than those with long wings. On the contrary, extinction risk increased with decreasing wing load and with higher mandibular aspect ratio (shorter and more robust mandibles). Our study provides new insights into how morphological traits, beyond the widely used body size, determine the extinction risk of saproxylic beetles. Moreover, our approach shows that the morphological characteristics of beetles can be comprehensively represented by a selection of 13 traits. We recommend them as a starting point for functional analyses in the rapidly growing field of ecological and conservation studies of deadwood.Das Aussterben von Arten ist kein zufälliger Prozess und ein Verständnis, warum bestimmte Arten eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit haben auszusterben als andere, ist von zentraler Bedeutung für den Naturschutz. Analysen funktionaler Eigenschaften von Arten stellen hierbei einen vielversprechenden Ansatz dar. Viele der an Totholz gebundenen Käferarten sind gefährdet, aber entsprechende Analysen zur Gefährdungssituation der Arten waren bisher durch die fehlende Verfügbarkeit geeigneter morphologischer Eigenschaften limitiert. Um die Mechanismen des Aussterbens von Insekten besser zu verstehen, haben wir den Zusammenhang zwischen morphologischen Eigenschaften und der Gefährdung von Totholzkäfern untersucht. Dabei testeten wir die Hypothesen, ob Arten mit einer dunklen Farbe, mit einem großen und runden Körper, mit geringer Mobilität, mit geringer sensorischer Wahrnehmung und mit robusten Mandibeln besonders stark gefährdet sind. In einem ersten Schritt entwickelten wir ein Messprotokoll für 37 morphologische Eigenschaften und erstellten eine Datenbank für 1,157 europäische Totholzkäfer. Für 13 ausgewählte und unabhängige morphologische Messwerte für Farbe, Körperform, Fortbewegung, Sinneswahrnehmung und Nahrungssuche von Totholzkäfern berechneten wir mit Hilfe eines gemischten ordinalen Modells den Einfluss auf die Gefährdungskategorie der Deutschen Roten Liste für 744 Totholzkäfer. Sechs der 13 morphologischen Eigenschaften hatten einen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Gefährdungssituation. Große Arten und Arten mit einem breiten und runden Körper waren stärker gefährdet als kleine, schmale und flache Arten. Arten mit kurzen Flügeln waren gefährdeter als die mit langen Flügeln. Im Gegensatz dazu waren Arten mit geringer Flügellast (Masse pro Flügelfläche) und großem Mandibel-Seitenverhältnis (kürzer und robustere Mandibeln) stärker gefährdet. Unsere Studie liefert neue Evidenz inwieweit morphologische Eigenschaften, über die bereits intensiv betrachtete Körpergröße hinaus, die Gefährdungssituation von Totholzkäfern beeinflussen. Des Weiteren zeigt unser Ansatz, dass die Morphologie von Käfern umfassend durch 13 selektierte Messgrößen beschrieben werden kann. Wir schlagen diese als Ausgangspunkt für weitere funktionelle Analysen in dem sich rasch entwickelnden Forschungsfeld ökologischer und naturschutzfachlicher Studien zum Thema Totholz vor.

International audience; A Tree-related Microhabitat (TreM) is a distinct, well-delineated morphological singularity occurring on living or standing dead trees, which constitutes a crucial substrate or life site for various species. TreMs are widelyrecognized as key features for biodiversity. Current TreM typology identifies 47 TreM types according to their morphology and their associated taxa. In order to provide a range of resolutions and make the typology moreuser-friendly, these 47 TreM types have been pooled into 15 groups and seven forms. Depending on the accuracy required and the time available, a user can now choose to describe TreMs at resolution levels corresponding totype, group or form. Another way to more easily record TreMs during routine management work would be to use co-occurrence patterns to reduce the number of observed TreMs required. Based on a large international TreMdatabase (2052 plots; 70,958 individual trees; 78 tree species), we evaluated both the significance and the magnitude of TreM co-occurrence on living trees for 11 TreM groups. We highlighted 33 significant cooccurrencesfor broadleaves and nine for conifers. Bark loss, rot hole, crack and polypore had the highest number of positive co-occurrences (N = 8) with other TreMs on broadleaves; bark loss (N = 4) had the highest numberfor conifers. We found mutually exclusive occurrences only for conifers: Exposed Heartwood excluded both dendrotelm and sap run. Among the four variables we tested for their positive contribution to significant cooccurrences,tree diameter at breast height was the most consistent. Based on our results and practical considerations, we selected three TreM groups for broadleaves, and nine for conifers, and formed useful short lists toreduce the number of TreM groups to assess during routine forest management work in the field. In addition, detecting potential similarities or associations between TreMs has potential theoretical value, e.g. it may helpresearchers identify common factors favouring TreM formation or help managers select trees with multiple TreMs as candidates for retention.

International audience; Resource use by consumers across patches is often proportional to the quantity or quality of the resource within these patches. In folivores, such proportional use of resources is likely to be more efficient when plants are spatially proximate, such as trees forming a forest canopy. However, resources provided by forest-trees are often not used proportionally. We hypothesised that proportional use of resources is reduced when host trees are isolated among phylogenetically distant neighbours that mask olfactory and visual search cues, and reduce folivore movement between trees. Such phylogenetically distant neighbourhoods might sort out species that are specialists, poor dispersers, or have poor access to information about leaf quality. We studied individual oaks, their leaf size and quality, their folivory and abundance of folivores (mostly Lepidopteran ectophages, gallers and miners), and parasitism of folivores. We found that leaf consumption by ectophages hardly increased with increasing leaf size when host trees were phylogenetically isolated. We found a similar effect on host use by parasitoids in 1 year. In contrast, we found no consistent effects in other folivore guilds. Relative abundances of specialists and species with wingless females declined with phylogenetic isolation. However, resource use within each of these groups was inconsistently affected by phylogenetic isolation. We suggest that phylogenetic isolation prevents ectophages from effectively choosing trees with abundant resources, and also sorts out species likely to recruit in situ on their host tree. Trees in phylogenetically distant neighbourhoods may be selected for larger leaves and greater reliance on induced defences.

The Hyrcanian Forest, located south of the Caspian Sea, represents a remarkably intact temperate forest ecosystem containing large numbers of endemic plants and animals, including beetles. Here we describe a new species of Tarphius Erichson, 1845 (Coleoptera: Zopheridae Solier, 1834) as the currently most eastern Tarphius species known. Tarphius hyrcanicus n. sp. is the first Tarphius species recorded from the Middle East. Its habitat and geographic positions are also reported. The discovery of this presumably endemic species in the Hyrcanian Forest underlines the importance of this Tertiary forest relict in the conservation of the biodiversity of temperate forests.

The geographical distributions of species associated with European temperate broadleaf forests have been significantly influenced by glacial–interglacial cycles. During glacial periods, these species persisted in Mediterranean and extra-Mediterranean refugia and later, during interglacial periods, expanded northwards. The widespread saproxylic beetle Bolitophagus reticulatus depends closely on European temperate broadleaf forests. It usually develops in the tinder fungus Fomes fomentarius, a major decomposer of broadleaf-wood. We sampled B. reticulatus in sporocarps from European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis) across Europe and the Caucasus region. We analysed mitochondrial gene sequences (cox1, cox2, cob) and 17 microsatellites to reconstruct the geographical distribution of glacial refugia and postglacial recolonization pathways. We found only marginal genetic differentiation of B. reticulatus, except for a significant split between populations of the Caucasus region and Europe. This indicates the existence of past refugia south of the Great Caucasus, and a contact zone with European populations in the Crimean region. Further potential refugia might have been located at the foothills of the Pyrenees and in the Balkan region. Our genetic data suggest a phalanx-wise recolonization of Europe, a reflection of the high mobility of B. reticulatus.

Gey, S., Muller, J. & Reimann, M. 2021. Bruchia vogesiaca – Wiederfund fur Deutschland nach uber 100 Jahren. – Herzogia 34: 154 –161.Bruchia vogesiaca konnte fur Deutschland nach uber 100 Jahren wiederentdeckt und fur die deutschen Alpen und das Allgau erstmals nachgewiesen werden. Es wird uber die Fundumstande und den Fundort berichtet und in einer Diskussion uber den Wiederfund eingegangen.