A simple and effective heuristic approach was developed and validated to predict the concentration of non-relevant metabolites (nrM) of pesticides in groundwater and drinking water resources based on the simulated concentrations in leachate as used in product authorizations. The evaluation of extensive monitoring data for 50 nrM has demonstrated that the heuristic has a high predictive performance, i.e., concentrations of < 10...

Encounters between flowers and invertebrates are key events for the functioning of tropical forests. Assessing the structure of networks composed of the interactions between those partners leads to a better understanding of ecosystem functioning and the effects of environmental factors on ecological processes. Gathering such data is, however, costly and time‐consuming, especially in the highly diverse tropics. We aimed to prov...

Black root rot is a disease of the strawberry with increasing importance for Germany. Until the early years of the twenty-first century, very different pathogens, including fungi and nematodes, were thought to cause this disease. However, based on substantial research between 2007 and 2014 at the fruit-growing center Jork (Esteburg, Germany) fungi with Cylindrocarpon- like anamorphs, i.e., Dactylonectria torresensis and Ilyone...

Seventy five percent of the world's food crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop yield, as well as to anticipate changes in this service, develop predictions, and...

Exploring the potential of eucalyptol as a masking agent for aversive odors, we found that eucalyptol masks the olfactory but not the trigeminal sensation of ammonia in a previous study. Here, we further investigate the processing of a mixture consisting of eucalyptol and ammonia, two olfactory–trigeminal stimuli. We presented the two pure odors and a mixture thereof to 33 healthy participants. The nostrils were stimulated alt...

Assessing the degree to which climate explains the spatial distributions of different taxonomic and functional groups is essential for anticipating the effects of climate change on ecosystems. Most effort so far has focused on above‐ground organisms, which offer only a partial view on the response of biodiversity to environmental gradients. Here including both above‐ and below‐ground organisms, we quantified the degree of topo...

Epiphytes are hyper‐diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non‐vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence a...