Wider Ecosystem Research Articles

Can pasture‐fed livestock farming practices improve the ecological condition of grassland in Great Britain?

Abstract Livestock farming in Great Britain (GB) faces multiple pressures. Yet, grassland managed for livestock is the most extensive habitat in GB and is key to cultural landscapes and their biodiversity and soil health. This study analysed a nationally representative dataset of over 940 large (200 m2) Neutral (agriculturally semi‐improved) and (agriculturally) Improved Grassland plots from the GB Countryside Survey (CS) to assess relationships between key grassland sward and soil variables. Analysis also looked at how these variables changed over time as plots switched between these grassland types. Data from grassland plots managed by Pasture‐Fed Livestock Association (PFLA) farmers were compared to CS plot data to assess the impacts of their practices on these variables. Plant species richness in Neutral grassland types in CS plots was positively associated with total soil invertebrate abundance (total taxa) and soil N and C and negatively associated with soil P. There were negative relationships between the covers of Lolium sp. (Neutral only), legumes and forbs and soil C and moisture variables. Grassland swards on PFLA member farms were characteristic of Neutral grassland. PFLA plots were more species rich and contained more legume and forb species and lower proportions of Lolium perenne than those on Improved Grassland. Vegetation height was greater in PFLA plots than in CS plots of either Improved or Neutral Grassland. Unlike CS Neutral Grassland plots, soil properties in PFLA plots were not significantly different from those for Improved Grassland for any measured variable (soil carbon concentration [C], bulk density, pH, nitrogen [N], phosphorus [P]). Higher species richness in grasslands is associated with positive measures of soil health. PFLA plant communities contain relatively high species richness and tall vegetation, which is positive for biodiversity. Lack of positive measures of soil health associated with higher species richness recorded in PFLA grassland (as opposed to CS grassland) may reflect time lags in soil responses to management, as evidenced through an analysis of the impacts of land‐use change over time on CS plot characteristics. Our findings indicate that pasture‐fed livestock approaches may be beneficial for grassland and wider ecosystems.

Reconfiguring Processes of Field Emergence: From Imprinted Practices to Grand Challenges

The concept of organizational fields occupies a central position in organizational studies and strategy research. A rich array of scholars has studied the emergence of fields bottom-up, through the actions of grassroots activists. Others have called attention to the importance of top-down intervention to preclude framing contests and hasten field emergence, especially in the case of urgent and pressing grand challenges. Still others have focused on dynamics that operate in the wider ecosystem and on how these influence the emergence of fields. This symposium brings together scholarly contributions from all these different points of view to answer the question, How do such dynamics that occur at different levels (micro, macro, ecosystem) interact to influence the emergence and reconfiguration of fields from their origins to their maturation? In particular, what are the limits of bottom-up field emergence and when might top-down intervention be warranted? What are the advantages and disadvantages associated with top-down field emergence especially in the case of grand challenges, and when might such top-down initiatives be challenged or fall apart? Finally, how do dynamics in the wider ecosystem (e.g., norms, biases, developments in adjacent or distant fields) influence a focal field’s emergence and, at times, require its radical reconfiguration? Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Processes of Field (non)-Emergence: The Case of the Biofuels Field Presenter: Marco Clemente; IESEG School of Management (LEM-CNRS 9221) Presenter: Aleksios Gotsopoulos; SKK Graduate School of Business Presenter: Robin Gustafsson; Aalto U. Seeding Upheaval: Explaining Proximate Field Influence in the Ontario Wine Region, 1811-2013 Presenter: Felipe Gorenstein Massa; Loyola U. New Orleans Presenter: Maxim Voronov; Schulich School of Business Presenter: Dirk De Clercq; Brock U. Presenter: C. R. Hinings; U. of Calgary Junkies, Queers and Babies: Achieving Category Coherence During the Evolution of the Category AIDS Presenter: Miyoung Chang; Boston U. Questrom School of Business Presenter: Stine Grodal; Northeastern U. Me, Myself, & I:The Maintenance of Petty Institutionalized Corruption in an Era of Collective Crises Presenter: Patricia Helena Hein; EBS U. für Wirtschaft und Recht Presenter: Shahzad Ansari; Cambridge U.

Persepsi Masyarakat Dalam Kegiatan Antropogenik Yang Berpengaruh Terhadap Kerentanan Das Hulu Percut

ABSTRACT Anthropogenic danger is a danger that arises as a result of human actions or mistakes. Anthropogenic hazards can affect humans as well as wider ecosystems and various landforms. The influence of human activities on river ecosystems has encouraged the development of the concept of bioindicators to determine the health status of aquatic ecosystems. Percut river water quality is influenced by human activities that utilize the land around the river. The activities carried out by the community are for irrigation sources, pond irrigation, sand excavation and daily needs. Assessment of watershed vulnerability to anthropogenic activities using community perception approach. It is used because people's perceptions can directly build awareness and alertness in the face of danger and vulnerability. This study aims to determine the perception of society in anthropogenic activities in the upstream Percut watershed area and determine the relationship between the perception of the upstream Percut watershed to the behavior of anthropogenic activities that affect the vulnerability of watershed. This study uses survey methods. Data collection was done by: (a) Observation (observation), (b) structured and free interviews (questionnaires), and (c) secondary Data that support the research and the data were analyzed using Spearman rank correlation test. The results showed that the level of public perception in anthropogenic activities that affect the vulnerability of watershed is included in the category of moderate. Upstream communities assume that if the river is damaged, it will cause damage to the downstream, which will then affect the needs of the community directly. The perception and behavior of upstream peoples towards anthropogenic activities falls into the category of moderate. That means that there is no relationship between perception and behavior in the upstream Percut watershed quality. Keywords : Upstream Percut Watershed, Perception, Behavior, Anthropogenic

Toward Holistic Experience-Oriented Service Innovation: Co-Creating Sustainable Value With Customers and Society

Hospitality exists from the grassroots level of society upward and plays a central role in the global economy. For the many organizations active in this sector and the societies they are based in, innovation in hospitality services is considered their lifeblood. Recent advancements in digitalization, artificial intelligence, robotics, communications technologies, and platform-based new business models are transforming the global business environment at a rapid pace. However, unlike many other service sectors, the hospitality and tourism sectors are unique in their focus on people, experiences, and the wider ecosystem (i.e., society and the environment). The unique makeup of the hospitality sector, therefore, demands a distinctive approach to innovation. This study aims to examine service innovation with a focus on the hospitality sector. It provides a holistic theoretical framework and proposes an agenda for future research. The framework suggests the hospitality experience to be at the core of innovation in this sector. Consequently, hospitality firms must focus on creating value through both technological and nontechnological innovation. This innovation must be facilitated in a symbiotic manner, with a strong focus on people at its center, showcasing the “soul” of the hospitality across the extended “footprints” of the experience.

Conservation translocations from the ‘Global Reintroduction Perspectives’ series: Disease and other biological problems

Abstract Conservation translocations, defined as population reinforcement, reintroduction, assisted colonization or ecological replacement, have become a popular tool in efforts to restore wildlife populations and their wider ecosystems. Given that conservation translocations remain challenging to undertake, and positive outcomes are not guaranteed, we should maximize opportunities to learn from the outcomes of previous projects. Case studies of animal and plant conservation translocation published in the first six volumes (2008–2018) of the IUCN/SSC's ‘Global Reintroduction Perspectives’ series were reviewed. Alongside project metadata, the following self‐reported information was extracted from the case studies: select project strategies and methods; information relating to any mortality, ill‐health or poor fecundity; and health management practices. Two hundred and ninety‐five of the 351 case studies clearly described a discrete conservation translocation initiative for which releases were underway or complete at their time of publication. Sixty per cent of these 295 case studies were reintroductions. Mammals were the most commonly translocated taxon (29% of case studies), and projects were most often conducted in Oceania, Western Europe or North America or the Caribbean. The data set presents information on disease and other biological problems self‐reported in these conservation translocation case studies. It can inform health and wider management planning for future conservation translocation projects.

Practices and Attitudes of Bavarian Stakeholders Regarding the Secondary Use of Health Data for Research Purposes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Qualitative Interview Study.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is a threat to global health and requires collaborative health research efforts across organizations and countries to address it. Although routinely collected digital health data are a valuable source of information for researchers, benefiting from these data requires accessing and sharing the data. Health care organizations focusing on individual risk minimization threaten to undermine COVID-19 research efforts, and it has been argued that there is an ethical obligation to use the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) scientific research exemption during the COVID-19 pandemic to support collaborative health research.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the practices and attitudes of stakeholders in the German federal state of Bavaria regarding the secondary use of health data for research purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on the GDPR scientific research exemption.MethodsIndividual semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted between December 2020 and January 2021 with a purposive sample of 17 stakeholders from 3 different groups in Bavaria: researchers involved in COVID-19 research (n=5, 29%), data protection officers (n=6, 35%), and research ethics committee representatives (n=6, 35%). The transcripts were analyzed using conventional content analysis.ResultsParticipants identified systemic challenges in conducting collaborative secondary-use health data research in Bavaria; secondary health data research generally only happens when patient consent has been obtained, or the data have been fully anonymized. The GDPR research exemption has not played a significant role during the pandemic and is currently seldom and restrictively used. Participants identified 3 key groups of barriers that led to difficulties: the wider ecosystem at many Bavarian health care organizations, legal uncertainty that leads to risk-adverse approaches, and ethical positions that patient consent ought to be obtained whenever possible to respect patient autonomy. To improve health data research in Bavaria and across Germany, participants wanted greater legal certainty regarding the use of pseudonymized data for research purposes without the patient’s consent.ConclusionsThe current balance between enabling the positive goals of health data research and avoiding associated data protection risks is heavily skewed toward avoiding risks; so much so that it makes reaching the goals of health data research extremely difficult. This is important, as it is widely recognized that there is an ethical imperative to use health data to improve care. The current approach also creates a problematic conflict with the ambitions of Germany, and the federal state of Bavaria, to be a leader in artificial intelligence. A recent development in the field of German public administration known as norm screening (Normenscreening) could potentially provide a systematic approach to minimize legal barriers. This approach would likely be beneficial to other countries.

Architectures of contemporary digital platforms in education: analysis of exclusion processes.

The Internet is a wide, open and dynamic ecosystem of digital platforms where people and technologies contribute to the creation and consumption of digital information. The convergence of the Internet and the accelerated change of technological innovation have been the engines of society and its development, and all this has caused transformations in the social, economic and educational context. In this context, this work analyzes contemporary digital platform architectures and their influence on the processes of educational exclusion. To meet the objectives, the crucial changes brought about by digitally mediated life are studied; the conceptual and technological aspects that characterize contemporary digital platform architectures; and its influence on exclusion processes. This research is supported by qualitative research methodologies; the analysis and synthesis methods, the PRISMA model, and a meta-analysis of data extracted from the Scopus databases and the Web of Science-WOS is also carried out. The work shows changes in the social and educational context given the consolidation of the Internet through contemporary digital platform architectures and its influence on the processes of social, digital and educational exclusion. The need to promote equal opportunities, active participation and the capacity for professional insertion between women and men is visualized.

Microbial community origin and fate through a rural wastewater treatment plant.

Conventional wastewater treatment relies on a complex microbiota; however, much of this community is still to be characterized. To better understand the origin, dynamics and fate of bacteria within a wastewater treatment plant: untreated primary wastewater, activated sludge and post-treatment effluent were characterized. From 3163 exact sequence variants (ESVs), 860 were annotated to species-level. In primary wastewater, 28% of ESVs were putative bacterial species previously associated with humans, 14% with animals and 5% as common to the environment. Differential abundance analysis revealed significant relative reductions in ESVs from potentially human-associated species from primary wastewater to activated sludge, and significant increases in ESVs from species associated with nutrient cycling. Between primary wastewater and effluent, 51% of ESVs from human-associated species did not significantly differ, and species such as Bacteroides massiliensis and Bacteroides dorei increased. These findings illustrate that activated sludge increased extracellular protease and urease-producing species, ammonia and nitrite oxidizers, denitrifiers and specific phosphorus accumulators. Although many human-associated species declined, some persisted in effluent, including strains of potential health or environmental concern. Species-level microbial assessment may be useful for understanding variation in wastewater treatment efficiency as well as for monitoring the release of microbes into surface water and the wider ecosystem.

Could species-focused suppression of Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, and Aedes albopictus, the tiger mosquito, affect interacting predators? An evidence synthesis from the literature.

The risks of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus nuisance and vector‐borne diseases are rising and the adverse effects of broad‐spectrum insecticide application have promoted species‐specific techniques, such as sterile insect technique (SIT) and other genetic strategies, as contenders in their control operations. When specific vector suppression is proposed, potential effects on predators and wider ecosystem are some of the first stakeholder questions. These are not the only Aedes vectors of human diseases, but are those for which SIT and genetic strategies are of most interest. They vary ecologically and in habitat origin, but both have behaviorally human‐adapted forms with expanding ranges. The aquatic life stages are where predation is strongest due to greater resource predictability and limited escape opportunity. These vectors' anthropic forms usually use ephemeral water bodies and man‐made containers as larval habitats; predators that occur in these are mobile, opportunistic and generalist. No literature indicates that any predator depends on larvae of either species. As adults, foraging theory predicts these mosquitoes are of low profitability to predators. Energy expended hunting and consuming will mostly outweigh their energetic benefit. Moreover, as adult biomass is mobile and largely disaggregated, any predator is likely to be a generalist and opportunist. This work, which summarizes much of the literature currently available on the predators of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, indicates it is highly unlikely that any predator species depends on them. Species‐specific vector control to reduce nuisance and disease is thus likely to be of negligible or limited impact on nontarget predators. © 2022 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Holistic environmental monitoring in ports as an opportunity to advance sustainable development, marine science, and social inclusiveness

Ports play a central role in our society, but they entail potential environmental risks and stressors that may cause detrimental impacts to both neighboring natural ecosystems and human health. Port managers face multiple challenges to mitigate risks and avoid ecosystem impacts and should recognize that ports are embedded in the wider regional coastal ecosystem. Cumulative impacts of anthropogenic stressors have the potential to further burden the existing suite of natural stressors, particularly where ports are located in embayments and estuaries. Environmental monitoring in ports should thus develop a comprehensive, holistic, multilayered approach integrated in the wider ecosystem that will help managers better achieve sustainable development, a major goal of the United Nations’ 2030 agenda and Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030). This practice bridge showcases the experience of the second Canadian Healthy Ocean Network (CHONe2) in Baie des Sept Îles (BSI, Quebec; the fourth largest industrial port in Canada) laying the foundations of holistic environmental monitoring in ports. We describe the partnership model (i.e., engaging scientists, local authorities, an independent organization, and local industries), synthesize the multidisciplinary studies that turned environmental monitoring into a systemic investigation of the biological and physical components of BSI, integrate the developed scientific knowledge into a social–ecological–environmental system, present an innovative near real-time monitoring approach, and discuss implications for management and policy. The CHONe2 experience in BSI aligns with the decade’s road map for sustainable development and provides elements that could be adapted to other commercial ports. By suggesting a set of best practices (e.g., multidisciplinarity, transparency, inclusivity, participatory modeling), we hope to spark new interest in environmental monitoring as a path to conciliate development and sustainability of ports and other high-use marine areas.

The Coffee Compromise: Is Agricultural Expansion into Tree Plantations a Sustainable Option?

In tropical regions, land-use pressures between natural forest, commercial tree plantations, and agricultural land for rural communities are widespread. One option is to increase the functionality of commercial plantations by allowing agroforestry within them by rural communities. Such land-sharing options could address wider societal and environmental issues and reduce pressure on natural forest. To investigate the trade-offs involved, we used InVEST to model the ecosystem services provided by growing coffee under commercial pine plantations in Indonesia against other land-use options. Pine–coffee agroforestry provided worse supporting and regulating services (carbon, sediment and nitrogen retention, catchment runoff) than natural forest; however, it provided greater provisioning services (product yield) directly to smallholders. Converting pine monoculture into pine-coffee agroforestry led to increases in all ecosystem services, although there was an increased risk to water quality. Compared with coffee and root crop monocultures, pine–coffee agroforestry provided higher levels of supporting and regulating services; however, product yields were lower. Thus, opening up pine plantations for agroforestry realises additional income-generating opportunities for rural communities, provides wider ecosystem service benefits, and reduces pressure for land-use change. Lower smallholder yields could be addressed through the management of shade levels or through Payments for Ecosystem Services schemes.

Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation. (2020). Pathways to transformation: A compendium of 2019 TAAT success stories. 94 pp TAAT programme IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria

For the past two years, the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation ( TAAT ) program has been an important engine focused on boosting farmer productivity and livelihoods through the deployment of proven agricultural technologies. What makes the program even more unique is the framework by which it operates, bringing together a consortium of Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) and non-CGIAR partners to move proven technologies forward across a wide ecosystem of strategic partners intended to provide sustainable and cost-effective solutions to farmers. As TAAT efforts intensified in 2019, the program’s partners working within compacts, have been contributing more agricultural solutions and best practices across the continent to farmers and other stakeholders, through the delivery and scaling of improved cultivars of crops and breeds of livestock, and increased use of best farm management practices. This report highlights the Program's 2019 achievements and looks forward to moving this effort in 2020.

The Virtual Enterprise: enterprise transformation enabled by strategic digital acceleration

Purpose The Virtual Enterprise model expands potential for extreme digitalization, extended value chains and intelligent workflows, along with new partnership and ecosystem approaches. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of a new survey of more than 7000 C-suite executives conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) provides new and striking insights into what operational, organizational and cultural environments are most conducive to effective and enduring digital transformation. Findings The Virtual Enterprise re-imagines how and where work is done, re-evaluating the necessity for physical assets, infrastructure and talent. Practical/implications The single most important characteristic of the Virtual Enterprise is “openness”, which brings value at three levels: inside the enterprise, with partners outside the enterprise and with the wider ecosystem. Originality/value The research found that the high technology adopters who focus on “openness” and “ecosystems” enjoy a 40 percent revenue growth performance premium over their advanced competitors.

Functional Diversity within Gut Microbiomes: Implications for Conserving Biodiversity

Conservation research has historically been conducted at the macro level, focusing on animals and plants and their role in the wider ecosystem. However, there is a growing appreciation of the importance of microbial communities in conservation. Most microbiome research in conservation thus far has used amplicon sequencing methods to assess the taxonomic composition of microbial communities and inferred functional capabilities from these data. However, as manipulation of the microbiome as a conservation tool becomes more and more feasible, there is a growing need to understand the direct functional consequences of shifts in microbiome composition. This review outlines the latest advances in microbiome research from a functional perspective and how these data can be used to inform conservation strategies. This review will also consider some of the challenges faced when studying the microbiomes of wild animals and how they can be overcome by careful study design and sampling methods. Environmental changes brought about by climate change or direct human actions have the potential to alter the taxonomic composition of microbiomes in wild populations. Understanding how taxonomic shifts affect the function of microbial communities is important for identifying species most threatened by potential disruption to their microbiome. Preservation or even restoration of these functions has the potential to be a powerful tool in conservation biology and a shift towards functional characterisation of gut microbiome diversity will be an important first step.

Quotas regulation is necessary but not sufficient to mitigate the impact of SCUBA diving in a highly visited marine protected area

When effectively managed, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can produce wide ecosystem benefits that can foster, directly and indirectly, local economies. Tourism is one of the sectors mainly benefited by the effect of conservation. SCUBA diving represents an important tourism activity, especially in the context of MPAs, where it is one of the few activities often fostered rather than limited, for its capacity to integrate environmental and socio-economic sustainability. However, SCUBA diving can also produce negative impacts on the environment when tourism frequentation exceeds a sustainable threshold, these potentially generating negative effects on the sector itself. In this study, we (1) investigated the impact of SCUBA diving in one of the most frequented diving areas of the Mediterranean Sea (Cabo de Palos – Islas Hormigas marine reserve), and (2) assessed the potential benefits over time related to the adoption of a regulation change for the diving activity (i.e., formally adoption of diving quotas). Specifically, we compared demographic (density of alive and dead colonies) and morphometric (height, width and complexity) characteristics of the false coral (Myriapora truncata) between dived and fully protected (non-dived) locations over four diving seasons (one before and three after the change in diving quotas). The density of alive colonies of the false coral was, on average, six times lower in dived locations compared to controls, highlighting a clear impact of SCUBA diving (consistent over time). Colonies were also significantly smaller in dived locations. The diving quotas produced a significant reduction of the ratio dead/total colonies in the dived locations soon after their adoption, but these benefits disappeared over the following years, possibly due to a gradual decline in operators' and divers’ observance and concern, rather than an increasing number of dives. This suggests that the adoption of effective regulations is crucial for the environmental sustainability of diving tourism in protected areas and can provide positive effects, but an effort is needed to ensure that compliance is consistent over time, and that low-impact diving practices are adopted by this important recreational sector.

Plastics and Plankton in Our Seas

Plastic litter is found everywhere. Walk onto any beach around the world and you will almost certainly find plastic. The harm that large plastic litter can cause to marine animals is well-known; for example, you may have seen sad pictures of turtles eating plastic bags or seals tangled in discarded fishing nets. However, scientists are also concerned about microscopic-sized plastic that we do not normally see, and the problems these tiny plastic particles can cause to small marine animals called zooplankton. We focus on a group of zooplankton called copepods. These small-but-mighty crustaceans are amongst the most abundant animals on our planet, and they play a vital role in regulating Earth’s climate. In this article, we will explain what happens when copepods encounter this microscopic plastic, why they eat plastic, and the impacts it has on their health and on the wider ecosystem.

Feminist Forms and Borderless Landscapes in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet

Pioneering Scottish novelist Ali Smith experiments with literary form and, in response to the contemporary climate crisis, she plants environmental themes into her poetic prose. Smith’s seasonal quartet includes four stand-alone but interconnected novels that capture the critical and cyclical changes that come with an industrial, post-Brexit world. This change includes the ever-growing borders that divide people and places. Smith crosses and removes borders in her four published volumes—Autumn (2016), Winter (2017), Spring (2019), and Summer (2020)—to reunite Europeans with their fragmented, common land. Her third volume, Spring, demands particular attention for its archive of feminist and ecological forms. Spring exhibits the work of British visual artist Tacita Dean (1965—), whose 2018 exhibition at the Royal Academy, titled Landscape, implores the viewer to consider their place in temporal and geological time scales. Dean’s form-breaking style resists modern art’s limitations and, like Smith’s experimental fiction, refuses to conform to borders or, in this case, genre conventions. A practice well versed in the politics of exclusion, feminist art has the capacity to model a borderless world. Smith’s gallery of feminist art further incites us to remediate marginalized subjects and restore our relationship with the wider ecosystem.

Discussion on IoT Security Recommendations against the State-of-the-Art Solutions

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging concept comprising a wide ecosystem of interconnected devices and services. These technologies collect, exchange and process data in order to dynamically adapt to a specific context. IoT is tightly bound to cyber-physical systems and, in this respect, has relevant security implications. A need for IoT security guidelines was identified by the industry in the early 2010s. While numerous institutions across the globe have proposed recommendations with a goal to help developers, distributors and users to ensure a secure IoT infrastructure, a strict set of regulations for IoT security is yet to be established. In this paper, we aim to provide an overview of security guidelines for IoT proposed by various organizations, and evaluate some of the existing technologies applied to ensure IoT security against these guidelines. We gathered recommendations proposed by selected government organizations, international associations and advisory groups, and compiled them into a set of the most common and important considerations, divided into eight categories. Then we chose a number of representative examples from IoT security technologies and evaluated them against these criteria. While none of the examined solutions fulfill all recommendations on their own, the existing technologies introduced by those solutions could be combined to create a design framework which satisfies all the requirements of a secure IoT device. Further research on this matter could be beneficial. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive survey to evaluate different security technologies for IoT device security against the compilation of criteria based on existing guidelines.

Evidence of Similarities in Ecosystem Service Flow across the Rural-Urban Spectrum

In 2006, the world’s population passed the threshold of being equally split between rural and urban areas. Since this point, urbanisation has continued, and the majority of the global population are now urban inhabitants. With this ongoing change, it is likely that the way people receive benefits from nature (ecosystem services; ES) has also evolved. Environmental theory suggests that rural residents depend directly on their local environment (conceptualised as green-loop systems), whereas urban residents have relatively indirect relationships with distant ecosystems (conceptualised as red-loop systems). Here, we evaluate this theory using survey data from >3000 households in and around Hyderabad, India. Controlling for other confounding socioeconomic variables, we investigate how flows of 10 ES vary across rural, peri-urban and urban areas. For most of the ES we investigated, we found no statistical differences in the levels of direct or indirect use of an ecosystem, the distance to the ecosystem, nor the quantities of ES used between rural and urban residents (p > 0.05). However, our results do show that urban people themselves often travel shorter distances than rural people to access most ES, likely because improved infrastructure in urban areas allows for the transport of ES from wider ecosystems to the locality of the beneficiaries’ place of residence. Thus, while we find some evidence to support red-loop–green-loop theory, we conclude that ES flows across the rural-urban spectrum may show more similarities than might be expected. As such, the impact of future urbanisation on ES flows may be limited, because many flows in both rural and urban areas have already undergone globalisation.

Environmental nitrate impacts foraging and agonistic behaviours of invasive non-native crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus and Faxonius virilis)

Invasive species often co-occur in nature and positive or negative interactions among them can affect community structure and ecosystem functioning. Outcomes depend on the intrinsic traits of the species involved and on how species’ performance is affected by the environmental conditions of the recipient ecosystem. Here, we investigated the impact of nitrate, a nutrient common in urban and agricultural sewage discharges, on two invasive crayfish species (Pacifastacus leniusculus and Faxonius virilis) co-occurring in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone in the UK. Crayfish were exposed to two ecologically relevant nitrate concentrations (≤ 10 and 50 mg NO3−/l) and seven traits relating to foraging success and interspecific interactions were assessed. During monospecific experimental trials, elevated nitrate had a similar impact on the foraging efficacy of P. leniusculus and F. virilis, reducing their ability to sense and find food. However, during dyadic interspecific competition experiments, higher nitrate caused a greater reduction in the number of aggressive behaviours of F. virilis towards P. leniusculus. As such, changes in environmental nitrate regime may affect interactions between these invasive species in regions of sympatry with consequences for their respective invasion dynamics and the wider ecosystem.