Nature-based solutions (NbS) are considered a promising approach to addressing the climate-health nexus by mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts. They also serve as a bridging concept that delivers multiple benefits for climate, biodiversity and human well-being, including health. However, evidence on how NbS affect people’s health and well-being remains scattered and has not been systematically reviewed. In this study, we explore synergies and trade-offs associated with NbS in the context of climate change and public health, based on a literature review. To explore the specific mechanisms through which NbS influence different public health dimensions, we utilise the UN climate change vulnerability framework. Our results show strong evidence that NbS can effectively mitigate climate change impacts, promote ecosystem resilience and improve human well-being by providing multiple benefits, such as enhanced biodiversity, improved air and water quality, increased food security and reduced urban heat island effects. However, trade-offs also exist, such as disruptions to local biodiversity and increased resource demands, which can lead to unintended negative consequences, like water scarcity and competition for land. We emphasise the importance of integrating NbS into policy frameworks with careful planning and considering their benefits and trade-offs to maximise gains for all communities. In conclusion, research on NbS provides strong evidence that they can be essential for addressing climate and health challenges, but implementation must consider local context and potential trade-offs to ensure long-term sustainability. Future research should examine long-term impacts and strengthen monitoring to better manage these trade-offs.

Encroachment of a native invasive species – Empetrum nigrum (crowberry) – has impacted Arctic ecosystems and the indigenous Sámi people. To understand comprehensively the impacts of this native invader, we adopted three concepts, ecosystem services (ES), ecosystem disservices (EDS) and nature’s contributions to people (NCP), to identify and classify systematically crowberry’s beneficial and detrimental impacts on the Arctic ecosystem. Through a systematic literature review of 116 articles, we show that, amongst 12 positive and negative impacts of E. nigrum , the species only provide detriments to humans indirectly . Specifically, the detriments are the negative impacts on the local ecosystems and biodiversity, which indirectly affect locals’ way of life. We identify one additional beneficial impact of crowberry – carbon fixation – which was not included in previous review studies. The analysis reveals that the CICES framework, despite its detailed categorisation capabilities, lacks specific differentiation for certain services (e.g. food vs. medicinal) and neglects ecosystem disservices. We propose integrating EDS into the MAES/CICES and IPBES frameworks, classified in a manner parallel to its existing ES categories, for a more holistic assessment. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the NCP concept, contrary to IPBES claims, does not consistently offer a more inclusive lens for assessing multifaceted impacts, due to the lack of elements equivalent to disservices. Consequently, we suggest improving the neutrality of NCP subcategories and adopting an endogenous perspective in assessing nature's contributions. Ultimately, the choice of concept may depend on specific research objectives.

The interest in new natural products and herbal raw materials increases in a variety of scientific and industrial fields, but many plant taxa of restricted distribution tend to be overlooked as potential assets. Their large number precludes their study and valorisation. Therefore, there is a dire need to develop tools for assessing the plant taxa potential as ecosystem service providers, to prioritise the research efforts and to enhance conservation priorities. With the aim of identifying taxa of interest as potential medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP), amongst the taxa of a given flora, we developed a set of indicators. These indicators are based on the available scientific literature and are formulated even for taxa of restricted distribution, based on their closely-related species in terms of phylogeny, taxonomy (same species or same genus within the flora) or in use as approved herbal medicine or edible crops. The developed indicators are herein applied to the endemic flora of the Peloponnese, a floristic region of Greece with high total - and endemic - species diversity. Even though only 12.5% of the endemic taxa have previously been documented as MAP, the use of indicators suggests 58.3% of the flora as of non-null MAP potential (Indicator I 1 ), while 74.1% of the taxa obtained a non-null value of Study Interest Index (Indicator I 2 ). The results suggest 25 taxa as of high MAP potential, whereas 24 taxa are emphasised as of high-priority for further studies. This is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to establish a systematic literature-based method to assess potentially significant edible, medicinal and/or aromatic taxa.

Ecosystem services (ES) fundamentally depend on ecosystem condition (EC), yet many ES assessments still rely on land-cover proxies, risking biased assessment results as well as weak uptake, meaning limited application of results in decision-making contexts. This review provides a comprehensive overview of how EC indicators are used in ES assessments published between 2018 and 2022. In total, 128 publications have been included in the review, from which 929 EC indicators with a direct or implicit link to one or more ES and 707 ES indicators have been documented. The recorded EC indicators were reclassified according to the Ecosystem Condition Typology (ECT) provided by the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) and supplementary classes (ECT+). Our analysis identified a focus on terrestrial ecosystems, with under-representation of marine and less intensively managed ecosystems. Within the reclassified ECT and ECT+ indicators, chemical state EC indicators were prevalent, while landscape state and functional state metrics remained under-operationalised. Besides, the share of spatially explicit indicators was limited. Moreover, we found that a significant share of indicators, labelled as EC, were not EC indicators in the strict sense, but instead related to ecosystem extent, ES or stable environmental characteristics, leading to a conceptual blurring between condition, pressure, extent and service indicators. Analysing the link between EC and ES revealed that EC indicators were: (1) primarily quantitatively compared to ES or integrated into ES assessments and (2) most frequently linked to regulating ES. The reviewed literature showed a predominance of positive EC–ES relationships, confirming that ecosystems in better condition tend to support a higher supply of ES. In summary, our review identified progress towards integrated ES assessments, highlighted persistent gaps and stressed the importance of continued efforts to achieve the widespread implementation of EC-enabled ES assessments.

Understanding the intricate link between global food trade and ongoing biodiversity loss is critical, yet comprehensive datasets visualising this relationship remain scarce. To address this, we developed a novel global staple food trade biodiversity loss network dataset spanning 1995-2022. This dataset uniquely integrates global trade data with agricultural production metrics to quantify the embodied biodiversity loss associated with the trade of four major crops: wheat, soybean, rice and maize, across 157 countries and encompassing up to 91414 trade relationships. By constructing this dynamic network framework, our work provides a comprehensive resource for analysing the complex interplay between food trade and biodiversity loss. This dataset offers crucial insights for identifying key countries, trade relations and risk transfer mechanisms, thereby serving as a foundational tool for providing information for the development of sustainable food trade policies and fostering interdisciplinary research in this vital area.

Under rapid urbanisation and climate change, cities urgently need strategies to enhance resilience and sustainability. Transforming brownfields into green spaces has been widely recognised as a nature-based solution (NbS), yet how to integrate this transformation into urban planning to maximise benefits remains unclear. To address the gap, our study proposes a cross-scale approach for brownfield greening (BG) that links urban-scale prioritisation with site-specific greening interventions. By integrating spatially explicit assessments of ecosystem service (ES) supply, demand and supply-demand balance, the approach identifies not only where BG should occur (where to green), but also how tailored interventions can be implemented within sites (how to green). The proposed approach was tested in Tangshan, a typical resource-exhausted city in China, demonstrating how ES assessments can guide both strategic planning and detailed planning of BG. The findings advance the integration of NbS into spatial planning at multiple levels, offering actionable guidance for policy-makers, urban planners and landscape architects. Beyond the case study, the approach also provides insights into managing land abandonment in shrinking cities worldwide, contributing to more effective and transferable urban greening strategies.

This study assesses the process of developing and testing a protocol that integrates a participatory approach for selecting, ranking and assessing ecosystem services (ES), to enhance their integration into the management of protected areas in Slovenia. Through five participatory workshops across ten pilot sites in both protected and non-protected areas, stakeholders have selected and ranked ES relevant to them. In parallel, we developed a typology of (sub)ecosystems and assessed the availability of their geospatial data with a panel of representatives from the participating protected areas and other nature conservation institutions. In assessing ES, we focused on three specific ES: forage provision, pollination and recreation and leisure, which we assessed using different methods. Our findings highlight the critical role of stakeholder involvement in the ES framework, particularly in accurate mapping and assessment processes facilitated by GIS technologies. A comparative analysis of three ES supply revealed generally higher capacities for pollination and recreation and leisure in protected areas, in contrast to provisioning services, such as forage provision, which did not show a similar pattern; however, exceptions were noted. A significant challenge identified was the scarcity of relevant geospatial data, which reduces the potential of generating precise and reliable assessments and maps necessary for uptake into concrete management of protected areas.

The present study was undertaken to explore the earthworm diversity in the Bani Valley, situated at an elevation range of 1200-2000 m above sea level, in the western Himalayan Region. Over the course of two years (March 2021 to January 2023), eight earthworm species were documented in three distinct habitat-types (forest, orchard and crop field), characterised by varying levels of anthropogenic interference. Notably, the crop field habitat exhibited highest earthworm density as well as biomass, while the forest habitat was observed to exhibit least earthworm abundance despite negligible human interference. Year-wise comparison showed that Octolasion tyrtaeum exhibited the highest mean density during both the years [34.31± 2.54 m-² (2021-22) and 27.91 ± 1.88 m-² (2022-23)], while the least density was recorded for Amynthas corticis (2.84 ± 1.06 m-²) during 2021-22, but for Drawida nepalensis (1.60 ± 0.63 m-²) during 2022-23 period. Moreover, an aggressive dominance of exotic earthworm species was observed in the study area with the occurrence of only one native species i.e. Drawida nepalensis. Maximum Likelihood Phylogram analysis of different earthworm species revealed three major clades, largely consistent with classical taxonomy. However, intergeneric clustering between Drawida nepalensis and Octolasion tyrtaeum suggests a potential case of cryptic similarity warranting further investigation. Analysis of Variance followed by multivariate ordination through canonical correspondence analysis suggested that the earthworm community structure was governed by the interactive effects of different soil physico-chemical properties. Despite the valuable insights with regard to earthworm diversity of the Bani Valley, further investigations are required in other unexplored patches to develop a comprehensive inventory of the earthworm fauna of the Himalayan Region.

This study presents an overview of the integration of national, European and global ecosystem typologies used in European countries to support ecosystem condition assessments and policy reporting obligations. The aim is to understand the development and integration of ecosystem typologies for assessing ecosystems at national level, both under obligatory EU reporting requirements and beyond, in support of the European Union (EU) implementation of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA). Based on the review of literature and a comprehensive survey, the progress in ecosystem typologies development, condition assessment and data sources were identified for thirty-one countries (EU27 countries, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Israel). Additionally, the study provides an overview of European/global ecosystem typologies, habitat classifications and land-cover classification systems, tracing their evolution and highlighting their role in addressing global environmental challenges. National level typologies, constituting around 52% of the typologies identified, were found to be compatible with at least one international typology, such as the European Nature Information System (EUNIS) or the land-cover typology of Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) and the ecosystem typology applied by the EU Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) initiative. The study discusses principles for designing condition-enabled ecosystem typologies, emphasising the use of ecologically homogeneous classes supported by functional definitions, that are also practical operationalisable at appropriate spatial and temporal scales. It also highlights the crucial role of crosswalks in linking different typologies for international comparability. The integration of national, European/global ecosystem typologies is essential for advancing ecosystem assessment and management efforts, considering their growing relevance in policy- and decision-making within countries and international bodies, such as the United Nations and the EU.

Bacillus velezensis (B. velezensis) is widely recognised for its remarkable ability to tolerate environmental stresses, partly through the production of exopolysaccharides (EPS), which enhance survival via biofilm formation. In this study, we characterised a salt-tolerant, EPS-producing strain, B. velezensis DTA1, isolated from a coral island in Vietnam. This strain exhibited significant tolerance to salinity and various heavy metals, including cadmium, mercury, chromium, arsenic, lead, zinc and cobalt. EPS production increased significantly under salt stress. Whole genome sequencing analysis revealed several genes encoding phosphotransferase system transport proteins and enzymes that facilitate the conversion of various carbon sources into corresponding nucleotide sugars in the DTA1. The eps and levan biosynthetic gene clusters related to EPS biosynthetic pathways were detected in the DTA1 genome explaining its ability to produce EPS. Furthermore, the EPS yield and structural composition of this strain are strongly governed by the sugar source used. The study strain also harbours multiple genes related to osmotic stress, heavy metal stress and oxidative stress. Unlike previous studies focusing solely on EPS yield or biological activity, this work provides an integrated view of the genetic, biochemical and environmental factors governing EPS biosynthesis and stress tolerance in B. velezensis DTA1. This study provides the first insight into the genetic potential and biochemical traits of a B. velezensis strain adapted to the extreme conditions of an offshore coral island. Our findings not only deepen the understanding of this strain’s stress adaptation mechanisms, but also reveal its unique EPS biosynthetic potential via two distinct pathways, the epsA–O operon and levan synthesis, which have not previously been reported together in B. velezensis. Furthermore, this study expands the potential application of indigenous halophilic bacteria to improve arid, saline coral sand and coastal soils, especially in the context of Vietnam, which is experiencing the escalating impacts of climate change that are expanding the area of saline soils and threatening the sustainability of agriculture.