Publications

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

Europe and China Refined Land Cover 2030 (ECRLC2030) was derived from historical landcover observations, natural geographical, location, and socio-economic factors and the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small Regional Extent model (CLUE-S). With a spatial resolution of 60m, landcover under three different scenarios were simulated: the business-as-usual scenario (BAU), the market-liberal scenario (MLS), and the ecological protection scenario (EPS).

Ecosystem service (ES) models can only inform policy design adequately if they incorporate ecological processes. We used the Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land (LPJmL) model, to address following questions for Mexico, Bolivia and Brazilian Amazon: (i) How different are C stocks and C sequestration quantifications under standard (when soil and litter C and heterotrophic respiration are not considered) and comprehensive (including all C stock and heterotrophic respiration) approach? and (ii) How does the valuation of C stock and C sequestration differ in national payments for ES and global C funds or markets when comparing both approach? We found that up to 65% of C stocks have not been taken into account by neglecting to include C stored in soil and litter, resulting in gross underpayments (up to 500 times lower). Since emissions from heterotrophic respiration of organic material offset a large proportion of C gained through growth of living matter, we found that markets and decision-makers are inadvertently overestimating up to 100 times C sequestrated. New approaches for modelling C services relevant ecological process-based can help accounting for C in soil, litter and heterotrophic respiration and become important for the operationalization of agreements on climate change mitigation following the COP21 in 2015.

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

Vegetation phenology changes caused by urbanization could lead to shifts in ecosystem services in urban areas and impact on human health. The characteristics of urbanization affect vegetation phenology need to be emphasized, especially in China with a complex natural environment and rapid urbanization background. In this study, we used remote sensing-based phenological data (MODIS MCD12Q2) to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation phenology caused by urbanization between urban and non-urban areas in 320 cities across China. We found a significant difference between vegetation phenology in urban and its corresponding non-urban area at national and the regional scale. For national scale, the start of the growing season (SOS) was significantly advanced by 2.53 days (P < 0.001), and the end of the growing season (EOS) was significantly delayed by 6.72 days (P < 0.001), resulting in the growing season length (GSL) was significantly extended by 9.25 days (P < 0.001). For regional scale, the changes of SOS, EOS, and GSL caused by urbanization varied from seven vegetation zones in China. As expected for the Tropical monsoon rain forest and rain forest zone (TR) and Tibetan plateau alpine vegetation zone (TP), and Warm-temperate broadleaf deciduous forest zone (WTB), vegetation phenology in other four vegetation zones shows significant differences between urban and non-urban areas. Furthermore, the potential factors driving phenological changes through urbanization were discussed, which will be of great help in understanding the urban ecological process in future studies.

Abstract Atmospheric nitrogen ( N ) deposition is a global and increasing threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function. Much of our current understanding of N deposition impacts comes from field manipulation studies, although interpretation may need caution where simulations of N deposition (in terms of dose, application rate and N form) have limited realism. Here, we review responses to simulated N deposition from the UKREATE network, a group of nine experimental sites across the UK in a diversity of heathland, grassland, bog and dune ecosystems which include studies with a high level of realism and where many are also the longest running globally on their ecosystem type. Clear responses were seen across the sites with the greatest sensitivity shown in cover and species richness of bryophytes and lichens. Productivity was also increased at sites where N was the limiting nutrient, while flowering also showed high sensitivity, with increases and declines seen in dominant shrub and forb species, respectively. Critically, these parameters were responsive to some of the lowest additional loadings of N (7.7–10 kg ha −1 yr −1 ) showing potential for impacts by deposition rates seen in even remote and ‘unpolluted’ regions of E urope. Other parameters were less sensitive, but nevertheless showed response to higher doses. These included increases in soil % N and ‘plant available’ KCl extractable N , N cycling rates and acid–base status. Furthermore, an analysis of accumulated dose that quantified response against the total N input over time suggested that N impacts can ‘build up’ within an ecosystem such that even relatively low N deposition rates can result in ecological responses if continued for long enough. Given the responses have important implications for ecosystem structure, function, and recovery from N loading, the clear evidence for impacts at relatively low N deposition rates across a wide range of habitats is of considerable concern.

Improved understanding and prediction of the fundamental environmental controls on ecosystem service supply across the landscape will help to inform decisions made by policy makers and land-water managers. To evaluate this issue for a local catchment case study, we explored metrics and spatial patterns of service supply for water quality regulation, agriculture production, carbon storage, and biodiversity for the Macronutrient Conwy catchment. Methods included using ecosystem models such as LUCI and JULES, integration of national scale field survey datasets, earth observation products and plant trait databases, to produce finely resolved maps of species richness and primary production. Analyses were done with both 1×1km gridded and subcatchment data. A common single gradient characterised catchment scale ecosystem services supply with agricultural production and carbon storage at opposing ends of the gradient as reported for a national-scale assessment. Species diversity was positively related to production due to the below national average productivity levels in the Conwy combined with the unimodal relationship between biodiversity and productivity at the national scale. In contrast to the national scale assessment, a strong reduction in water quality as production increased was observed in these low productive systems. Various soil variables were tested for their predictive power of ecosystem service supply. Soil carbon, nitrogen, their ratio and soil pH all had double the power of rainfall and altitude, each explaining around 45% of variation but soil pH is proposed as a potential metric for ecosystem service supply potential as it is a simple and practical metric which can be carried out in the field with crowd-sourcing technologies now available. The study emphasises the importance of considering multiple ecosystem services together due to the complexity of covariation at local and national scales, and the benefits of exploiting a wide range of metrics for each service to enhance data robustness.