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In lower altitudes of Austria, Juniperus communis formations of habitat type 5130 of Annex I of the Habitats Directive are only very rarely preserved relicts of former extensive grazing and are nowadays largely forested or have disappeared for other reasons. Only seven currently existing Natura 2000 sites mention and protect this habitat in the total extent of less than 15 ha indicated nationwide, covering only a small fraction of the occurrences that are completely insufficiently known even 25 years after Austria‘s accession to the EU. FFH habitat type mapping carried out in recent years (in particular Nadler & Haug 2018b) shows that there is also a second, even more vital focus of type occurrences in the Alpine region, namely in the high montane to subalpine altitudinal zones with juniper in its low-growing high altitude form (Subspecies nana according to Austrian terminology). Although there have always been sufficient interpretation aids identifying these high altitude occurrences, they have so far not been taken into account in the reporting system according to Article 17 of the Habitats Directive nor in the designation of Natura 2000 protected areas for habitat type 5130. This overview is intended to highlight this problem and improve the level of information.There is a need for official action with regard to the inclusion of LRT 5130 as a protected property in existing Natura 2000 sites, with regard to the designation of significantly larger areas in existing protected areas and with regard to Natura 2000 renominations to be made in high altitude areas; all this has to be connected with efforts to improve the conservation status of this protected property, which must be significantly intensified.The most important causes of endangerment are the abandonment of grassland use and eutrophication, which accelerates the succession to forest, on the one hand, and large-scale clearing in the form of woodland and alpine pasture milling, on the other.

Since the beginning of the Anthropocene, lacustrine biodiversity has been influenced by climate change and human activities. These factors advance the spread of harmful cyanobacteria in lakes around the world, which affects water quality and impairs the aquatic food chain. In this study, we assessed changes in cyanobacterial community dynamics via sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA) from well-dated lake sediments of Lake Tiefer See, which is part of the Klocksin Lake Chain spanning the last 350 years. Our diversity and community analysis revealed that cyanobacterial communities form clusters according to the presence or absence of varves. Based on distance-based redundancy and variation partitioning analyses (dbRDA and VPA) we identified that intensified lake circulation inferred from vegetation openness reconstructions, δ13C data (a proxy for varve preservation) and total nitrogen content were abiotic factors that significantly explained the variation in the reconstructed cyanobacterial community from Lake Tiefer See sediments. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) assigned to Microcystis sp. and Aphanizomenon sp. were identified as potential eutrophication-driven taxa of growing importance since circa common era (ca. CE) 1920 till present. This result is corroborated by a cyanobacteria lipid biomarker analysis. Furthermore, we suggest that stronger lake circulation as indicated by non-varved sediments favoured the deposition of the non-photosynthetic cyanobacteria sister clade Sericytochromatia, whereas lake bottom anoxia as indicated by subrecent- and recent varves favoured the Melainabacteria in sediments. Our findings highlight the potential of high-resolution amplicon sequencing in investigating the dynamics of past cyanobacterial communities in lake sediments and show that lake circulation, anoxic conditions, and human-induced eutrophication are main factors explaining variations in the cyanobacteria community in Lake Tiefer See during the last 350 years.

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are thin microbiological vegetation layers that naturally develop in unfavorable higher plant conditions (i.e., low precipitation rates and high temperatures) in global drylands. They consist of poikilohydric organisms capable of adjusting their metabolic activities depending on the water availability. However, they, and with them, their ecosystem functions, are endangered by climate change and land-use intensification. Remote sensing (RS)-based studies estimated the BSC cover in global drylands through various multispectral indices, and few of them correlated the BSCs’ activity response to rainfall. However, the allocation of BSCs is not limited to drylands only as there are areas beyond where smaller patches have developed under intense human impact and frequent disturbance. Yet, those areas were not addressed in RS-based studies, raising the question of whether the methods developed in extensive drylands can be transferred easily. Our temperate climate study area, the ‘Lieberoser Heide’ in northeastern Germany, is home to the country’s largest BSC-covered area. We applied a Random Forest (RF) classification model incorporating multispectral Sentinel-2 (S2) data, indices derived from them, and topographic information to spatiotemporally map the BSC cover for the first time in Central Europe. We further monitored the BSC response to rainfall events over a period of around five years (June 2015 to end of December 2020). Therefore, we combined datasets of gridded NDVI as a measure of photosynthetic activity with daily precipitation data and conducted a change detection analysis. With an overall accuracy of 98.9%, our classification proved satisfactory. Detected changes in BSC activity between dry and wet conditions were found to be significant. Our study emphasizes a high transferability of established methods from extensive drylands to BSC-covered areas in the temperate climate. Therefore, we consider our study to provide essential impulses so that RS-based biocrust mapping in the future will be applied beyond the global drylands.

The Białowieża Forest is probably the best known forest in Central and Eastern Europe, owing its fame to not only to its natural value, but also to the disputes which have arisen in recent years concerning approaches to its protection. In this book the authors present the Białowieża Forest and the principles of its protection, as well as the legal remedies constructively derived from the disputes. The proposed remedies can also be applied appropriately to other priceless shared goods and cross-border properties.

While helping Rose Law Firm attor- neys expand professional networks, extend leadership training and advertise their legal acumen, Harrell is also shap- ing what's next at PRSA. Little Rock's chapter has one of the PRSA's highest percentages of members with Accreditation in Public Relations, the organization's badge of competence, diligence, ethics and client service. Ghidotti, who was recently honored as the Little Rock Rotary Club's Rotarian of the Year, serves on the board of the PRSA Counselors Academy, a profession- al development program \"designed by agency leaders for agency leaders\" that held its spring conference in May in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Species richness is a widespread measure to evaluate the effect of different management histories on plant communities and their biodiversity. However, analysing the phylogenetic structure of plant communities could provide new insights into the effects of different management methods on community assemblages and provide further guidance for conservation decisions. Heathlands require permanent management to ensure the existence of such a cultural landscape. While traditional management with grazing is time consuming, mechanical methods are often applied but their consequences on the phylogenetic community assemblages are still unclear. We sampled 60 vegetation plots in dry sandy heathlands (EU habitat type 2310) in northern Germany stratified by five different heathland management histories: fire, plaggen (turf cutting), mowing, deforestation and intensive grazing. Due to the distant relationship of vascular plants and lichens, we assembled two phylogenetic trees, one for vascular plants and one for lichens. We then calculated phylogenetic diversity (PD) and measures of phylogenetic community structure for vascular plant and lichen communities. Deforested areas supported significantly higher PD values for vascular plant communities. We found that PD was strongly correlated with species richness (SR) but the calculation of rarefied PD was uncorrelated to SR leading to a different ranking of management histories. We observed phylogenetic clustering in the lichen communities but not for vascular plants. Thus, management by mowing and intensive grazing promotes habitat filtering of lichens, while management histories that cause greater disturbance such as fire and plaggen do not seem to affect phylogenetic community structure. The set of management strategies fulfilled the goals of the managers in maintaining a healthy heathland community structure. However, management strategies that cause less disturbance can offer an additional range of habitat for other taxonomic groups such as lichen communities.

In the Netherlands, the bulk of the Miocene to lowest Pliocene sedimentary succession is currently assigned to a single lithostratigraphical unit, the Breda Formation. Although the formation was introduced over 40 years ago, the definition of its lower and upper boundaries is still problematic. Well-log correlations show that the improved lecto-stratotype for the Breda Formation in well Groote Heide partly overlaps with the additional reference section of the older Veldhoven Formation in the nearby well Broekhuizenvorst. The distinction between the Breda and the overlying Oosterhout Formation, which was mainly based on quantitative differences in glauconite and molluscs, gives rise to ongoing discussion, in particular due to the varying concentrations of glauconitic content that occur within both formations. In addition, the Breda Formation lacks a regional-scale stratigraphic framework which relates its various regionally to locally defined shallow marine to continental members. In order to resolve these issues, we performed renewed analyses of material from several archived cores. The results of archived and new dinocyst analyses were combined with lithological descriptions and wire-line log correlations of multiple wells, including the wells Groote Heide and Broekhuizenvorst. In this process, the updated dinocyst zonation of Munsterman & Brinkhuis (2004), recalibrated to the Geological Time Scale of Ogg et al. (2016), was used. To establish regionally consistent lithostratigraphic boundaries, additional data was used along a transect across the Roer Valley Graben running from its central part (well St-Michielsgestel-1) towards the southern rift shoulders (well Goirle-1). Along this transect, chronostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic analyses were integrated with well-log correlation and the analyses of seismic reflection data to constrain geometrical/structural relationships as well. The results led to the differentiation of two distinct seismic sequences distinguished by three recognisable unconformities: the Early Miocene Unconformity (EMU), the Mid-Miocene Unconformity (MMU) and the Late Miocene Unconformity (LMU). The major regional hiatus, referred to as the Mid-Miocene Unconformity, occurs intercalated within the present Breda Formation and compels subdivision of this unit into two formations, viz. the here newly established Groote Heide and the younger Diessen formations. Pending further studies, the former Breda Formation will be temporally raised in rank to the newly established Hilvarenbeek subgroup, which comprises both the Groote Heide and Diessen formations. Whereas these two sequences were already locally defined, a third sequence overlying the LMU represents two newly defined lithostratigraphical units, named the Goirle and the Tilburg members, positioned in this study at the base of the Oosterhout Formation. Besides their unique lithological characteristics, in seismic reflection profiles the Goirle and the Tilburg members stand out because of their distinct seismic facies. Use of an integrated, multidisciplinary and regional approach, an improved southern North Sea framework and more comprehensive lithostratigraphic subdivision of Neogene successions is proposed for the Netherlands, to make (cross-border) correlations more straightforward in the future.

This account has two aims. The first is to provide a tribute to Dr. Pincus Philip Levine, the founder of Avian Diseases. It addresses several facets of the life and times of this remarkable and interesting personality, giving some insight into the why and how he came to establish the journal. It touches on his background; his character; his astute and searching mind; his ability to interact with others; his influence on veterinary, and especially avian, medicine; and his teaching genius and reveals the positive force he was in his interactions with others. Then, it turns to a celebration of the first half-century of the journal that he created, essentially single-handedly, and reviews some of the history regarding the stimulus, birthing pains, and gradual evolution of the journal through a succession of editors, business managers, and supporting casts to the publication that we see today, nearly 50 yr later. Artículo histórico- Revista Avian Diseases (Enfermedades de las Aves): la creación y evolución del legado de P. Philip Levine. Este artículo tiene dos objetivos. El primero es proporcionar un homenaje al Dr. Pincus Philip Levine, el fundador de la revista Avian Diseases (Enfermedades de las Aves). Este artículo abarca varios aspectos de la vida y tiempo de este personaje notable e interesante, y proporciona una idea de por qué y cómo él llegó a establecer la revista. Aborda a fondo su carácter; su mente astuta y de búsqueda, su capacidad de interactuar con los demás, su influencia en veterinaria; especialmente en medicina aviar y su genio educador revelan la fuerza positiva de sus interacciones con los demás. Posteriormente, el artículo se convierte en una celebración del primer medio siglo de la revista que él creó, prácticamente sin ayuda y revisa parte de la historia en relación con el estímulo, las dificultades de su creación y la evolución gradual de la revista a través de una sucesión de editores, de gerentes y de equipos de personas que han apoyado a la publicación actual, por casi 50 años.

To unravel the short-term climate variability during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11, which represents a close analogue to the Holocene with regard to orbital boundary conditions, we performed microfacies and time series analyses on a ~3200-yr-long record of annually laminated Holsteinian lake sediments from Dethlingen, northern Germany. These biogenic varves comprise two sub-layers: a light sub-layer, which is controlled by spring/summer diatom blooms, and a dark sub-layer consisting mainly of amorphous organic matter and fragmented diatom frustules deposited during autumn/winter. Time series analyses were performed on the thickness of the light and dark sub-layers. Signals exceeding the 95% and 99% confidence levels occur at periods that are near-identical to those known from modern instrumental data and Holocene palaeoclimatic records. Spectral peaks at periods of 90, 25, and 10.5 yr are likely associated with the 88-, 22- and 11-yr solar cycles, respectively. This variability is mainly expressed in the light sub-layer spectra, suggesting solar influence on the palaeoproductivity of the lake. Significant signals at periods between 3 and 5 yr and at ∼6 yr are strongest expressed in the dark sub-layer spectra and may reflect an influence of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) during autumn/winter. Our results suggest that solar forcing and ENSO/NAO-like variability influenced central European climate during MIS 11 similarly to the present interglacial, thus demonstrating the comparability of the two interglacial periods at sub-decadal to decadal timescales.

It is crucial to define and quantify possible impacts of climate change on wildlife in order to be able to pre-adapt management strategies for nature conservation. Thus, it is necessary to assess which species might be affected by climatic changes, especially at the regional scale. We present a novel approach to estimate possible climate change induced turnovers in bird communities and apply this method to Lüneburg Heath, a region in northern Germany. By comparing species pools of future climatically analogous regions situated in France with the Lüneburg Heath species pool, we detected possible trends for alterations within the regional bird community in the course of climate change. These analyses showed that the majority of bird species in Lüneburg Heath will probably be able to tolerate the projected future climate conditions, but that bird species richness, in general, may decline. Species that might leave the community were often significantly associated with inland wetland habitats, but the proportion of inland wetlands within the regions had a significant influence on the magnitude of this effect. Our results suggest that conservation efforts in wetlands have to be strengthened in light of climate change because many species are, in principle, able to tolerate future climate conditions if sufficient habitat is available.