Key message Genetic components explain a moderate, yet statistically significant proportion of the phenotypic variation in tree architecture and hydraulic traits of beech trees growing in naturally regenerated monospecific stands. Abstract Drought tolerance of European beech has been increasingly questioned in recent years. However, the influence of genetic factors and forest management on growth performance and key hydraulic...

Deadwood is widely recognized as a source of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions during decomposition. Accurately assessing CO 2 fluxes from deadwood-influenced soil under field conditions is essential for understanding the role of deadwood in the carbon (C) cycle. To this end, we implemented a field-based, closed-chamber approach and measured CO 2 fluxes over a period of nearly 1.5 years at three different study sites, one on si...

The forest floor (FF) plays a key role in carbon, nutrient, and water cycling. It is the biologically most active compartment of forest soils, highly responsive to environmental conditions. Yet, its response to current changes in environmental conditions and forest management is understudied. Temperate forests are among the best studied ecosystems globally, providing the necessary ecological and biogeochemical background infor...

Zusammenfassung Die Studie untersucht die Entwicklung der Grundwasserstände in Deutschland anhand von 5844 Messstellen sowie deren Reaktionsdynamik gegenüber klimatologischen Antrieben im Referenzzeitraum 1991–2020. Zusätzlich wird die Entwicklung seit 2018 im Kontext der außergewöhnlichen Dürreperiode betrachtet, um die Reaktionsfähigkeit und Vulnerabilität der Grundwassersysteme gegenüber extremen klimatischen Bedingungen zu...

Doubled haploid plants can be produced from immature female or male germ cells. The male germ line is mostly preferred since the number of microspores exceeds by far the number of egg cells. Applying this method, microspores need to be switched from the gametophytic to the sporophytic development. In contrast to conventional breeding programs, the time to obtain homozygosity with this method is shortened from approx. 6 years t...

Regenerating forests comprise a significant proportion of tropical forest ecosystems, yet species assembly mechanisms after anthropogenic disturbances remain poorly understood. Locally established ant communities follow predictable paths along forest regeneration gradients, but whether this results from dispersal limitation or habitat filtering is unclear. Social insects, with highly mobile dispersing reproductives (alates) bu...

Metacommunity theory has expanded our understanding of how spatial dynamics and local interactions influence species communities. Different assembly archetypes, reflecting different roles of species differences, habitat differences, and dispersal have been described, but we lack empirical studies specifically in terrestrial habitats testing which archetype is most important. In a replicated design, we experimentally enhanced s...

Digital transformation is the key to turning public authorities into organisations that make decisions based on data-driven insights. Big geodata analysis can enable public authorities to tackle complex sustainability issues in order to achieve long-term goals. However, the efficient management of large amounts of geodata through the implementation of viable and state-of-the-art data infrastructures represents a major challeng...

1,2-Unsaturated pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) induce severe acute and chronic hepatotoxicity. Effects include an impairment of the cell cycle. To elucidate this effect, cell cycle progression was analyzed by flow cytometry, changes in cell and nucleus size, differential gene expression and protein phosphorylation patterns of regulatory key proteins in the Chinese hamster lung fibroblast cell line V79 and/or the human hepatoblas...

Highly accurate radiation pressure (RP) force modeling is required for precise orbit determination, gravity field recovery, and thermosphere density retrieval. For radar altimetry missions, especially the radial component is important, and validating RP force models in general is still challenging. In this study, we focus on the precise modeling and validation of RP forces for low Earth orbit satellites with given macro-model....

Aim We test the hypothesis that wind dispersal is more common among emergent tree species given that being tall increases the likelihood of effective seed dispersal. Location Americas, Africa and the Asia‐Pacific. Time period 1970–2020. Major taxa studied Gymnosperms and Angiosperms. Methods We used a dataset consisting of tree inventories from 2821 plots across three biogeographic regions (Americas, Africa and Asia‐Pacific),...

Background Little is known about the progression of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and predicting factors in spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). Such knowledge is crucial to identify modifiable factors promoting everyday life with SCA and attenuating HRQoL decline. Objectives This study is to assess HRQoL progression and identify factors affecting SCA patients’ HRQoL. Methods Longitudinal data (three-year follow-up) of 310 S...

Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) research has provided strong evidence and mechanistic underpinnings to support positive effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning, from single to multiple functions. This research has provided knowledge gained mainly at the local alpha scale (i.e. within ecosystems), but the increasing homogenization of landscapes in the Anthropocene has raised the potential that declining biodiv...

Antibacterial natural products with novel chemical structures and unprecedented mechanisms of action inspire antibiotic drug discovery and form valuable tools for studying bacterial physiology. New technologies are being developed and improved to access untapped sources of new compounds, accelerate their biological and chemical characterization, and rapidly dereplicate already known compounds. Nature still holds many unknown a...

Although health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has developed into a crucial outcome parameter in clinical research, evidence of the EQ-5D-3L validation performance is lacking in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) types 1, 2, 3, and 6. The objective of this study is to assess the acceptability, validity, reliability, and responsiveness of the EQ-5D-3L. For n = 842 predominantly European SCA patients of two longitudinal...

With SCAview, we present a prompt and comprehensive tool that enables scientists to browse large datasets of the most common spinocerebellar ataxias intuitively and without technical effort. Basic concept is a visualization of data, with a graphical handling and filtering to select and define subgroups and their comparison. Several plot types to visualize all data points resulting from the selected attributes are provided. The...