Spatiotemporal changes, trade-offs, and synergistic relationships in ecosystem services provided by the Aral Sea Basin

Intense human activities in the Aral Sea Basin have changed its natural distribution of land use. Although they provide certain economic benefits, these anthropogenic influences have led to the rapid shrinkage of the Aral Sea, severely affecting the region’s ecosystem. However, the spatiotemporal variability of the Aral Sea Basin’s Ecosystem Service Values (ESVs) is not well understood. In this study, we used 300-meter resolution land use maps from 1995, 2005, and 2015 and the Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (PLUS) model to predict the future land use patterns of the Aral Sea Basin in 2025. Simultaneously, we divided the Aral Sea Basin into three regions (upstream, midstream, and downstream) and evaluated the dynamic responses of their ESVs to Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes. The changes in the types of ecosystem services provided by the Aral Sea Basin, their trade-off, and synergistic relationships were analyzed by weighting their associations. The results showed that from 1995 to 2025, the grassland, urban, and cropland areas in the Aral Sea Basin will expand rapidly, while the areas covered by water bodies will shrink rapidly, causing a total loss of 31.97 billion USD. The downstream loss of 27.79 billion USD of the total amount is mainly caused by the conversion of water bodies to bare land. The ESVs of the middle region will increase by 6.81 billion USD, mainly due to the large amount of water extracted from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers in the middle regions of the Aral Sea Basin that are used to reclaim cultivated land and expand urban areas. The ESVs and areas experiencing land use changes in the upper regions are relatively small. At the same time, our results show that biodiversity, food production, and water regulation are the major ecosystem service functions, and account for 79.46% of the total ESVs. Of the ecosystem service relationships in the Aral Sea Basin, synergy accounts for 55.56% of the interactions, with a fewer amount of trade-off exchanges. This synergy mainly exists in the relationships involving water regulation, waste treatment and recreation, and culture and tourism. We propose protection measures that will coordinate eco-environmental protection efforts with socioeconomic development in the region in order to achieve the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

Defensive strategies of Norway spruce and Kurile larch heartwood elucidated on the micron-level

To decarbonize the building sector, the use of durable wood materials must be increased. Inspiration for environmentally benign wood protection systems is sought in durable tree species depositing phenolic extractives in their heartwood. Based on the hypothesis that the micro-distribution of extractives influences durability, we compared the natural impregnation patterns of non-durable, but readily available Norway spruce to more durable Kurile larch by mapping the distribution of heartwood extractives with Confocal Raman Imaging and multivariate data decomposition. Phenolics of both species were associated with hydrophobic oleoresin, likely facilitating diffusion through the tissue. They accumulated preferentially in lignin-rich sub-compartments of the cell wall. Yet, the distribution of extractives was found not to be the same. The middle lamellae contained flavonoids in larch and aromatic waxes in spruce, which was also found in rays and epithelial cells. Spruce-lignans were tentatively identified in all cell types, while larch-flavonoids were not present in resin channels, hinting at a different origin of synthesis. Larch-oleoresin without flavonoids was only found in lumina, indicating that the presence of phenolics in the mixture influences the final destination. Together our findings suggest, that spruce heartwood-defense focuses on water regulation, while the more efficient larch strategy is based on antioxidants.

Alleviating peatland fire risk using water management trinity and community involvement

Conventionally, agriculture in peatland requires soil drainage to enable the crops to grow. This often results in being over-drained and makes it vulnerable to fires. The risk can be contained by applying water management trinity (WMT), which creates canals for water regulation and reservoirs instead of drainage. This study aimed to examine, elaborate, and validate the WMT effect and community involvement in minimizing fire risk in peatland. We collected water table depth every two weeks from 1 April 2017 to 31 December 2020 in a coconut plantation under WMT and employed Focus Groups Discussions (FGD) in five villages in Pulau Burung District, Indragiri Hilir Regency, Riau. The result showed that the existence of WMT for more than three decades has successfully maintained water table depth between 30 and 70 cm that is influenced by seasons. The fire occurrence based on the FGD interview has been validated with hotspot data from NASA’s FIRMS. This research also employed SWOT analysis to examine the local fire mitigation strategy. The progress in lowering fire incidents and risk should be intervened with finding long-term solutions to increase farmers’ capability on sustainable agriculture. Our finding reveals that the main strength in lowering fire risk is people’s awareness in every village on the negative impact of land burning, along with the existence of WMT.

Rewetting does not return drained fen peatlands to their old selves

Peatlands have been drained for land use for a long time and on a large scale, turning them from carbon and nutrient sinks into respective sources, diminishing water regulation capacity, causing surface height loss and destroying biodiversity. Over the last decades, drained peatlands have been rewetted for biodiversity restoration and, as it strongly decreases greenhouse gas emissions, also for climate protection. We quantify restoration success by comparing 320 rewetted fen peatland sites to 243 near-natural peatland sites of similar origin across temperate Europe, all set into perspective by 10k additional European fen vegetation plots. Results imply that rewetting of drained fen peatlands induces the establishment of tall, graminoid wetland plants (helophytisation) and long-lasting differences to pre-drainage biodiversity (vegetation), ecosystem functioning (geochemistry, hydrology), and land cover characteristics (spectral temporal metrics). The Paris Agreement entails the rewetting of 500,000 km2 of drained peatlands worldwide until 2050-2070. A better understanding of the resulting locally novel ecosystems is required to improve planning and implementation of peatland rewetting and subsequent management.

Evaluation of Different Runoff Curve Number (CN) Approaches on Water Regulation Services Assessment in Intermittent Micro Catchment Dominated by Oil Palm Plantation

Surface runoff is a primary driving factor for water regulation services on oil palm plantations as it determines the hydrological components and other biogeochemical process. Therefore, understanding on their interaction and contribution within the watershed system is important to support decision-making system. Here, we applied Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT) model to simulate water regulation services for an intermittent micro-catchment dominated by oil palm plantation in Harapan Landscapes, Batanghari Regency, Jambi Province. In this study, we used two different runoff curve number (CN) approaches in the SWAT model, namely the soil moisture curve number (CN-SM) and the plant evaporation curve number (CN-ET), to evaluate their applicability and uncertainty for assessing water regulation services. SWAT was automatically calibrated and validated against daily observed streamflow data. The results showed that the model performed well as indicated by hydrograph visual interpretation and statistical indicators. The performance was good for calibration and validation for both approaches with high R2 and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE). Also, the uncertainty was acceptable with P-factor >70% and R-factor <1. Differences in CN-SM and CN-ET's conceptual structure have caused variations in the calibrated parameters' best-fit value and their sensitivity to streamflow simulations, which implicated for other components' output water regulation services. However, CN-ET approach was less responsive to area's biophysical conditions for runoff generation than CN-SM one. This implicated that CN-ET generated low soil water storage and an overestimated actual evapotranspiration. This modeling exercise showed selection of a runoff CN approach by considering biophysical characteristics is important for calculating and simulating water balance component in such watershed. The accuracy of the simulation will significantly influence watershed management recommendations to improve water regulation's sustainability.

Hydrocephalus Revisited: New Insights into Dynamics of Neurofluids on Macro- and Microscales

New experimental and clinical findings question the historic view of hydrocephalus and its 100-year-old classification. In particular, real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow and detailed insights into brain water regulation on the molecular scale indicate the existence of at least three main mechanisms that determine the dynamics of neurofluids: (1) inspiration is a major driving force; (2) adequate filling of brain ventricles by balanced CSF upsurge is sensed by cilia; and (3) the perivascular glial network connects the ependymal surface to the pericapillary Virchow–Robin spaces. Hitherto, these aspects have not been considered a common physiologic framework, improving knowledge and therapy for severe disorders of normal-pressure and posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus, spontaneous intracranial hypotension, and spaceflight disease.