Future climate scenarios in the Baltic Sea project an increase of cyanobacterial bloom frequency and duration, attributed to eutrophication and climate change. Some cyanobacteria can be toxic and their impact on ecosystem services is relevant for a sustainable sea. Yet, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms regulating cyanobacterial diversity and biogeography. Here we unravel success...

Ongoing climate change may undermine the effectiveness of protected area networks in preserving the set of biotic components and ecological processes they harbor, thereby jeopardizing their conservation capacity into the future. Metrics of climate change, particularly rates and spatial patterns of climatic alteration, can help assess potential threats. Here, we perform a continent-wide climate ...

A narrative approach within criminology, sociology and psychology has been taken to understand various trauma experiences. In accordance with Bruner (1990) and Giddens (1991) narrative is seen as the prime agent in identity formation. The ‘fractured’ narratives of dependent drug and alcohol users are seen to constitute a ‘spoiled identity’. The present paper focuses on how life stories may be u...

. Ihe "sub-Antarctic" is a region of the planet characterised by small and extremely isolated island landmasses set in the vastness and harsh conditions of the Southern Ocean. Although there is no universally applicable definition of the sub-Antarctic, based on eeo-climatic criteria (temperature and the presence/absence of trees or woody shrubs) a useful terrestrial biogeographic region can be ...

Hydrology is a primary control on the ecological quality of river systems, through its influence on flow, channel geomorphology, water quality and habitat availability. Scottish rivers are widely perceived to be of high ecological quality, with abundant flow volumes and high water quality. However, historical and current river flow regulations, and land use change have altered the physical and ...

Annual temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, have risen by up to 0.56°C per decade since the 1950s. Terrestrial and marine organisms have shown changes in populations and distributions over this time, suggesting that the ecology of the Antarctic Peninsula is changing rapidly. However, these biological records are shorter in length than the me...

Meteorological observations, in situ data and satellite images of dust episodes were used already in the 1970s to estimate that 100 tg of dust are transported from Africa over the Atlantic Ocean every year between June and August and deposited in the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas. Desert dust is a main source of nutrients to oceanic biota and the Amazon forest, but deteriorates air quality as...

The spread of exotic species and climate change are among the most serious global environmental threats. Each independently causes considerable ecological damage, yet few data are available to assess whether changing climate might facilitate invasions by favoring introduced over native species. Here, we compare our long-term record of weekly sessile marine invertebrate recruitment with interann...

We introduce a simple analytic expression for calculating the lead time required for a linear trend to emerge in a Gaussian first order autoregressive process. The expression is derived from the standard error of the regression and is tested using the NCAR Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble of climate change simulations. It is shown to provide a robust estimate of the point in time whe...

The rate of biological invasions is expected to increase as the effects of climate change on biological communities become widespread. Climate change enhances habitat disturbance which facilitates the establishment of invasive species, which in turn provides opportunities for hybridization and introgression. These effects influence local biodiversity that can be tracked through genetic and geno...