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In the context of water scarcity, soil erosion, and biodiversity decline, the Mediterranean basin urges to manage its nearly hundred coastal watersheds in a coordinated manner. To this end, we propose an integrated approach to model socio-ecologic scenarios with Sustainable Land Management (SLM) options at the watershed scale to strengthen the functioning of multiple Ecosystem Services (ES). This is tested in the Mijares watershed in eastern Spain. As a first step, we propose using integrated modeling technology to quickly assess areas of ecosystem goods and services supply and demand within the case study. To this end, we applied ARIES, an AI-driven online modeling platform widely used in the ES community. Then, we use this information to identify suitable SLM options documented in the WOCAT global database for providing the identified ES. Lastly, to adjust the results to the social-ecological context, we carry out consulting and participatory processes with key stakeholders to incorporate local knowledge of ES and capabilities to adopt SLM measures into the final proposal. As a result of this work, we can model various SLM scenarios, easing decision-making toward more integrated and sustainable land management in the watershed. Given the reproducibility of the used methodologies, our approach can be adopted in other Mediterranean contexts. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Current ozone (O3) concentration levels entail significant damages in crop yields around the world. The reaction of the emitted precursors (mostly methane and nitrogen oxides) with solar radiation contribute to O3 levels that exceed established thresholds for crop damage. This paper shows current and projected (up to 2080) relative yield losses (RYLs) driven by O3 exposure for different crops and the associated economic damages applying dynamic crop production and prices that are calculated per region and period. We adjust future crop yields in the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) to reflect the RYLs and analyze the effects on agricultural markets. We find that the changes (generally reductions) in O3 precursor emissions in a reference scenario would reduce the agricultural damages, compared to present, for most of the regions, with a few exceptions including India, where higher future O3 concentrations have large negative impacts on crop yields. The annual economic impact of O3 driven losses from 2010 to 2080 are, in billion US dollars at 2015 prices ($B), 5.0 6.0, 9.8 18.8, 6.7 10.6 and 10.4 12.5 for corn, soybeans, rice and wheat, respectively, with the large losses for wheat and soybeans driven by their comparatively high responses to O3. When O3 effects are explicitly modelled as exogenous yield shocks in future periods, there is a direct impact in future agricultural markets. Therefore, the aggregated net present value (NPV) of crop production would be reduced around by $90.8 B at a global level. However, these changes are not distributed evenly across regions, and the net present market value of the crops would increase by up to $118.2 B (India) or decrease by up to $59.2 B (China). © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

n a tele-coupled and globalized World, understanding the links between demand for wood products and land use is becoming challenging. World's economies are increasingly open and interconnected, and international trade flows of wood products are continuously growing. The increasing resource consumption of humanity is increasingly dependent on international trade. In this context, the study of forest products demand from a global-multi-regional perspective emerges as a critical issue to achieve the goal of sustainable consumption and production. In this paper, we introduce a novel accounting framework for assessing the forest footprint of nations. The method combines Multi-regional Input-Output techniques and detailed data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on production, consumption and bilateral trade of primary, intermediate and final wood products, advancing with respect to existing approaches with these practical distinctions for more accurate computations. The approach tracks resource flows along the global supply chain and provides detailed information on the production, transformation, international trade, and final use of 20 forest products in 223 countries, having also much wider coverage than most previous studies. We test this framework to analyse forest footprint of nations in the year 2014, showing that 22 Million hectares (Mha) of forest were harvested for the extraction of roundwood for global demand, being 9.1 Mha to satisfy the foreign demand of wood products (42% of the total forestland harvested area). Harvested forestland is concentrated in America (32%), Asia (29%) and Europe (28%), representing Africa (7%) and Oceania (4%). More than 50% of the reported forest area harvested worldwide is located in USA (15%), China (14%); Russia (11%) and Canada (8%). In terms of forest footprint, Asia shows the highest share of the total forest footprint (44%), followed by America (25%), Europe (21%), Africa (7%) and Oceania (2%).

Several studies addressed the water footprint (WF) of countries and virtual water (VW) trade in agricultural and industrial products, but freshwater use associated with wood products has received little attention. Yet, international trade in wood products has been growing, and forestry competes with other forest ecosystem services over limited freshwater resources. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assess nations’ WFs of consumption of wood products, the sustainability of these WFs, and the VW flows associated with international trade in wood products. We account nations’ WFs of and VW trade in wood products with a Multi-regional Input-Output model (MRIO-forest) that tracks wood flows along global supply chains (production, processing, trade, and final uses) for the period 1997-2017 and assess the sustainability of the green and blue WF of wood products in 2017. The WF of wood production increased from 8.37 × 1011 m3/y in 1997 to 9.87 × 1011 m3/y in 2017. About 38% (3.76 × 1011 m3/y) of this WF relates to wood products for export (in 2017), which means that VW trade associated with wood products ranks in between agricultural and industrial products in absolute volumes. About 10% (9.9 × 1010 m³/y) of the green WF and 11% (3.4 × 109 m³/y) of the blue WF of wood products in 2017 are unsustainable, meaning that they are located in areas where the total green/blue WF exceeds the maximum sustainable green/blue WF. The unsustainable green WF occurs mainly in Germany, Indonesia, the Czech Republic and the UK, and mainly relates to coniferous sawnwood, paper and paperboard other than newsprint, fibreboard and non-coniferous sawnwood. The unsustainable blue WF, which is much smaller, occurs in the USA, Russia. Nigeria, Canada and India, and mainly relates to fuelwood, paper and paperboard other than newsprint, sawnwood and fibreboard. This study increases our understanding of how forest evaporation flows link to the final consumption of wood products and contribute

Progress in key social-ecological challenges of the global environmental agenda (e.g., climate change, biodiversity conservation, Sustainable Development Goals) is hampered by a lack of integration and synthesis of existing scientific evidence. Facing a fast-increasing volume of data, information remains compartmentalized to pre-defined scales and fields, rarely building its way up to collective knowledge. Today's distributed corpus of human intelligence, including the scientific publication system, cannot be exploited with the efficiency needed to meet current evidence synthesis challenges; computer-based intelligence could assist this task. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based approaches underlain by semantics and machine reasoning offer a constructive way forward, but depend on greater understanding of these technologies by the science and policy communities and coordination of their use. By labelling web-based scientific information to become readable by both humans and computers, machines can search, organize, reuse, combine and synthesize information quickly and in novel ways. Modern open science infrastructure—i.e., public data and model repositories—is a useful starting point, but without shared semantics and common standards for machine actionable data and models, our collective ability to build, grow, and share a collective knowledge base will remain limited. The application of semantic and machine reasoning technologies by a broad community of scientists and decision makers will favour open synthesis to contribute and reuse knowledge and apply it toward decision making. © 2022, The Author(s).

Current ozone (O3) concentration levels entail significant damages in crop yields around the world. The reaction of the emitted precursors (mostly methane and nitrogen oxides) with solar radiation contribute to O3 levels that exceed established thresholds for crop damage. This paper shows current and projected (up to 2080) relative yield losses (RYLs) driven by O3 exposure for different crops and the associated economic damages applying dynamic crop production and prices that are calculated per region and period. We adjust future crop yields in the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) to reflect the RYLs and analyze the effects on agricultural markets. We find that the changes (generally reductions) in O3 precursor emissions in a reference scenario would reduce the agricultural damages, compared to present, for most of the regions, with a few exceptions including India, where higher future O3 concentrations have large negative impacts on crop yields. The annual economic impact of O3 driven losses from 2010 to 2080 are, in billion US dollars at 2015 prices ($B), 5.0 6.0, 9.8 18.8, 6.7 10.6 and 10.4 12.5 for corn, soybeans, rice and wheat, respectively, with the large losses for wheat and soybeans driven by their comparatively high responses to O3. When O3 effects are explicitly modelled as exogenous yield shocks in future periods, there is a direct impact in future agricultural markets. Therefore, the aggregated net present value (NPV) of crop production would be reduced around by $90.8 B at a global level. However, these changes are not distributed evenly across regions, and the net present market value of the crops would increase by up to $118.2 B (India) or decrease by up to $59.2 B (China). © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

The extent to which the increasingly frequent episodes of drought-induced tree decline and mortality could alter key soil biogeochemical cycles is unclear. Understanding this connection between tree decline and mortality and soils is important because forested ecosystems serve as important long-term sinks for carbon (C) and essential nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus). In order to fill in this knowledge gap, we conducted a study on 13 sites distributed across the Spanish Iberian Peninsula where the dominant tree species was the Mediterranean evergreen Holm oak (Quercus ilex L. subsp. ballota [Desf.] Samp), a species that has shown important drought-induced crown defoliation and mortality rates in recent decades. Our study covered different climatic, soil, land-use type (forests, dehesas, and open woodlands), and crown defoliation (healthy, affected, and dead Holm oaks) gradients that characterize this species distribution within the Spanish Iberian Peninsula. Specifically, the soil C and nutrient content (nitrogen, N; phosphorus, P; magnesium, Mg), several functional parameters (heterotrophic respiration (RH); N mineralization (i.e., N ammonification, Ramm; and N nitrification, Rnit)), and relative abundances of key microbial soil functional groups (nitrifiers and ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM)) were studied. Our results showed that aside from the potential effects associated with the climatic gradient, Holm oak decline and mortality resulted in soil stoichiometric imbalances triggered by net losses of essential oligonutrients (e.g., Mg) and the accumulation of very mobile forms of nitrogen (NO3- - N) and available phosphorus (Av P). Changes in the abundance of key microbial soil functional groups (nitrifiers and ECM) co-occurred with observed nitrate and available P accumulation. Therefore, we conclude that the potential vulnerability of soil C and nutrient stocks to ongoing changes in climate may strongly depend on tree vulnerability to climate change, its eff

The extent to which the increasingly frequent episodes of drought-induced tree decline and mortality could alter key soil biogeochemical cycles is unclear. Understanding this connection between tree decline and mortality and soils is important because forested ecosystems serve as important long-term sinks for carbon (C) and essential nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus). In order to fill in this knowledge gap, we conducted a study on 13 sites distributed across the Spanish Iberian Peninsula where the dominant tree species was the Mediterranean evergreen Holm oak (Quercus ilex L. subsp. ballota [Desf.] Samp), a species that has shown important drought-induced crown defoliation and mortality rates in recent decades. Our study covered different climatic, soil, land-use type (forests, dehesas, and open woodlands), and crown defoliation (healthy, affected, and dead Holm oaks) gradients that characterize this species distribution within the Spanish Iberian Peninsula. Specifically, the soil C and nutrient content (nitrogen, N; phosphorus, P; magnesium, Mg), several functional parameters (heterotrophic respiration (R); N mineralization (i.e., N ammonification, R; and N nitrification, R)), and relative abundances of key microbial soil functional groups (nitrifiers and ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM)) were studied. Our results showed that aside from the potential effects associated with the climatic gradient, Holm oak decline and mortality resulted in soil stoichiometric imbalances triggered by net losses of essential oligonutrients (e.g., Mg) and the accumulation of very mobile forms of nitrogen (NO - N) and available phosphorus (Av P). Changes in the abundance of key microbial soil functional groups (nitrifiers and ECM) co-occurred with observed nitrate and available P accumulation. Therefore, we conclude that the potential vulnerability of soil C and nutrient stocks to ongoing changes in climate may strongly depend on tree vulnerability to climate change, its effect on so

The program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is one of the major attempts to tackle climate change mitigation in developing countries. REDD+ seeks to provide result-based incentives to promote emission reductions and increase carbon sinks in forest land while promoting other cobenefits, such as the conservation of biodiversity. We model different scenarios of international REDD+ funds distribution toward potential recipient countries using 2 carbon emission reduction targets (20% and 50% compared to the baseline scenario, i.e., deforestation and forest degradation without REDD+) by 2030. The model combines the prioritization of environmental outcomes in terms of carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation and social equity, accounting for the equitable distribution of international REDD+ funds. Results highlight the synergy between carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation under alternative fund allocation criteria, especially for scenarios of low carbon emission reduction. Trade-offs increase when distributional equity is considered as an additional criterion, especially under higher equity requirements. The analysis helps to better understand the inherent trade-offs between enhancing distributional equity and meeting environmental targets under alternative REDD+ fund allocation options. (c) 2019 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

The CC chemokine 1 (CCL1, also called I-309 or TCA3) is a potent chemoattractant for leukocytes that plays an important role in inflammatory processes and diseases through binding to its receptor CCR8. Here, we investigated the role of the CCL1-CCR8 axis in atherosclerosis. We found increased expression of CCL1 in the aortas of atherosclerosis-prone fat-fed apolipoprotein E (Apoe)-null mice; moreover, in vitro flow chamber assays and in vivo intravital microscopy demonstrated an essential role for CCL1 in leukocyte recruitment. Mice doubly deficient for CCL1 and Apoe exhibited enhanced atherosclerosis in aorta, which was associated with reduced plasma levels of the anti-inflammatory interleukin 10, an increased splenocyte Th1/Th2 ratio, and a reduced regulatory T cell (Treg) content in aorta and spleen. Reduced Treg recruitment and aggravated atherosclerosis were also detected in the aortas of fat-fed low-density lipoprotein receptor-null mice treated with CCR8 blocking antibodies. These findings demonstrate that disruption of the CCL1-CCR8 axis promotes atherosclerosis by inhibiting interleukin 10 production and Treg recruitment and function.

Achieving the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement requires forest-based mitigation. Collective progress towards this goal will be assessed by the Paris Agreement s Global stocktake. At present, there is a discrepancy of about 4 GtCO 2 yr -1 in global anthropogenic net land-use emissions between global models (reflected in IPCC assessment reports) and aggregated national GHG inventories (under the UNFCCC). We show that a substantial part of this discrepancy (about 3.2 GtCO 2 yr -1 ) can be explained by conceptual differences in anthropogenic forest sink estimation, related to the representation of environmental change impacts and the areas considered as managed. For a more credible tracking of collective progress under the Global stocktake, these conceptual differences between models and inventories need to be reconciled. We implement a new method of disaggregation of global land model results that allows greater comparability with GHG inventories. This provides a deeper understanding of model inventory differences, allowing more transparent analysis of forest-based mitigation and facilitating a more accurate Global stocktake. (c) 2018, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

[EN] An integrated assessment of the potential of different management practices for mitigating specific components of the total GHG budget (N2O and CH4 emissions and C sequestration) of Mediterranean agrosystems was performed in this study. Their suitability regarding both yield and environmental (e.g. nitrate leaching and ammonia volatilization) sustainability, and regional barriers and opportunities for their implementation were also considered. Based on its results best strategies to abate GHG emissions in Mediterranean agro-systems were proposed. Adjusting N fertilization to crop needs in both irrigated and rain-fed systems could reduce N2O emissions up to 50% compared with a non-adjusted practice. Substitution of N synthetic fertilizers by solid manure can be also implemented in those systems, and may abate N2O emissions by about 20% under Mediterranean conditions, with additional indirect benefits associated to energy savings and positive effects in crop yields. The use of urease and nitrification inhibitors enhances N use efficiency of the cropping systems and may mitigate N2O emissions up to 80% and 50%, respectively. The type of irrigation may also have a great mitigation potential in the Mediterranean region. Drip-irrigated systems have on average 80% lower N2O emissions than sprinkler systems and drip-irrigation combined with optimized fertilization showed a reduction in direct N2O emissions up to 50%. Methane fluxes have a relatively small contribution to the total GHG budget of Mediterranean crops, which can mostly be controlled by careful management of the water table and organic inputs in paddies. Reduced soil tillage, improved management of crop residues and agro-industry by-products, and cover cropping in orchards, are the most suitable interventions to enhance organic C stocks in Mediterranean agricultural soils. The adoption of the proposed agricultural practices will require farmers training. The global analysis of life cycle emissions associate