Virtual participatory mapping of nature-based solutions in the Grande de Tárcoles River basin, Costa Rica: Connecting diverse knowledge systems in a context of physical immobility.

Co-design processes are of key importance in planning and implementing Nature-based Solutions (NBS), but require boundary management between diverse holders of local, practical and scientific knowledge. Participatory and map-based planning tools, such as Geodesign workshops, can facilitate such boundary management through mobilising knowledge holders, and translating and negotiating between different perspectives. The COVID-19 pandemic hindered physical mobility, but offered an, albeit unintended, opportunity to explore new ways of virtual mobility for facilitating boundary management in NBS co-design through digital participatory tools. This short communication aims to demonstrate how a spatial planning process for NBS can be facilitated in an online context. We draw on an international case study for co-designing NBS in Costa Rica, conducted during the severe lock-down restriction of the COVID-19 pandemic. This novel approach showcases how physical presence and movement is replaced by virtual mobility enabled through an online geographic map-based environment that allowed participants to communicate their opinions and co-create local and regional NBS actions. The case study included developing and testing a co-design tool to understand and map local perceptions of social-ecological problems, and an actual co-design process for siting NBS options and jointly exploring their implications. We present two levels of the process: 1) the adaptation of the co-design tool, and 2) the use and usefulness of the co-design tool. Our evaluation shows that the tool served its purpose well and provided useful support to local stakeholders. We recommend to test further strategical combinations of in-person and virtual methods in NBS co-design processes to improve NBS planning and implementation.

An environmental justice perspective on ecosystem services.

Mainstreaming of ecosystem service approaches has been proposed as one path toward sustainable development. Meanwhile, critics of ecosystem services question if the approach can account for the multiple values of ecosystems to diverse groups of people, or for aspects of inter- and intra-generational justice. In particular, an ecosystem service approach often overlooks power dimensions and capabilities that are core to environmental justice. This article addresses the need for greater guidance on incorporating justice into ecosystem services research and practice. We point to the importance of deep engagement with stakeholders and rights holders to disentangle contextual factors that moderate justice outcomes on ecosystem service attribution and appropriation in socio-political interventions. Such a holistic perspective enables the integration of values and knowledge plurality for enhancing justice in ecosystem services research. This broadened perspective paves a way for transformative ecosystem service assessments, management, and research, which can help inform and design governance structures that nourish human agency to sustainably identify, manage, and enjoy ecosystem services for human wellbeing.

Participatory research in times of COVID-19 and beyond: Adjusting your methodological toolkits.

Solving grand environmental societal challenges calls for transdisciplinary and participatory methods in social-ecological research. These methods enable co-designing the research, co-producing the results, and co-creating the impacts together with concerned stakeholders. COVID-19 has had serious impacts on the choice of research methods, but reflections on recent experiences of "moving online" are still rare. In this perspective, we focus on the challenge of adjusting different participatory methods to online formats used in five transdisciplinary social-ecological research projects. The key added value of our research is the lessons learned from a comparison of the pros and cons of adjusting a broader set of methods to online formats. We conclude that combining the adjusted online approaches with well-established face-to-face formats into more inclusive hybrid approaches can enrich and diversify the pool of available methods for postpandemic research. Furthermore, a more diverse group of participants can be engaged in the research process.

The male phenotype in osteopathia striata congenita with cranial sclerosis.

Osteopathia striata with cranial sclerosis (OSCS) is an X-linked disease caused by truncating mutations in WTX. Females exhibit sclerotic striations on the long bones, cranial sclerosis, and craniofacial dysmorphism. Males with OSCS have significant skeletal sclerosis, do not have striations but do display a more severe phenotype commonly associated with gross structural malformations, patterning defects, and significant pre- and postnatal lethality. The recent description of mutations in WTX underlying OSCS has led to the identification of a milder, survivable phenotype in males. Individuals with this presentation can have, in addition to skeletal sclerosis, Hirschsprung disease, joint contractures, cardiomyopathy, and neuromuscular anomalies. A diagnosis of OSCS should be considered in males with macrocephaly, skeletal sclerosis that is most marked in the cranium and the absence of metaphyseal striations. The observation of striations in males may be indicative of a WTX mutation in a mosaic state supporting the contention that this sign in females is indicative of the differential lyonization of cells in the osteoblastic lineage.

Planning and governing nature-based solutions in river landscapes: Concepts, cases, and insights.

Nature-based solutions (NBS), understood as actions that use ecosystem processes to address societal needs, can play important roles to future-proof river landscape development for people and nature. However, knowledge gaps exist how NBS can be planned and implemented at landscape scales. This Special Issue brings together insights and experiences from studies of assessing, planning, and implementing NBS in river landscapes in Europe and beyond. It addresses three research fields: (i) NBS effects, looking at the effectiveness of NBS to achieve ecological, social, and/or economic outcomes, (ii) NBS planning, focusing on approaches for planning and designing NBS, and (iii) NBS governance, relating to governance and business models for implementation. The twelve contributions deliver evidence on how NBS outperform conventional, rather technical solutions, provide guidance and tools to operationalize the NBS concept into practice, and showcase successful governance models of NBS in different contexts. The editorial ends with an outlook on further research needs.

Governance models for nature-based solutions: Seventeen cases from Germany.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) for mitigating climate change are gaining popularity. The number of NBS is increasing, but research gaps still exist at the governance level. The objectives of this paper are (i) to give an overview of the implemented NBS for flood risk management and mitigation in Germany, (ii) to identify governance models that are applied, and (iii) to explore the differences between these models. The results of a hierarchical clustering procedure and a qualitative analysis show that while no one-size-fits-all governance model exists, polycentricism is an important commonality between the projects. The study concludes by highlighting the need for further research on traditional governance model reconversion and paradigm changes. We expect the findings to identify what has worked in the past, as well as what is important for the implementation of NBS for flood risk management in future projects.

Planning nature-based solutions: Principles, steps, and insights.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) find increasing attention as actions to address societal challenges through harnessing ecological processes, yet knowledge gaps exist regarding approaches to landscape planning with NBS. This paper aims to provide suggestions of how planning NBS can be conceptualized and applied in practice. We develop a framework for planning NBS by merging insights from literature and a case study in the Lahn river landscape, Germany. Our framework relates to three key criteria that define NBS, and consists of six steps of planning: Co-define setting, Understand challenges, Create visions and scenarios, Assess potential impacts, Develop solution strategies, and Realize and monitor. Its implementation is guided by five principles, namely Place-specificity, Evidence base, Integration, Equity, and Transdisciplinarity. Drawing on the empirical insights from the case study, we suggest suitable methods and a checklist of supportive procedures for applying the framework in practice. Taken together, our framework can facilitate planning NBS and provides further steps towards mainstreaming.

The knowledge transfer potential of online data pools on nature-based solutions.

Improving the adoption of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) requires learning from successes and failures. Knowledge derived from implemented cases helps to identify for instance drivers and barriers of NBS implementation, generates lessons learned, and supports their upscaling. Online data pools that catalogue information from NBS case studies may help scientists and practitioners to create this knowledge. The aim of this review is to assess the knowledge transfer potential of online data pools for implementing and upscaling NBS. For that, we compared 21 online data pools that report on NBS case studies in terms of topics, availability and quality of information on NBS. We found a high variability in quantity, type and quality of the information documented, hindering comparability and limiting knowledge transfer. Our results show that the most common knowledge provided was on actions undertaken on NBS, their outcomes, case study site descriptions, specific challenges and information on responsible entities and partners. Information on key attributes of NBS, such as on ecosystem processes and services as well as on governance and financing issues, was often omitted. The missing information however would be important for further comparative research to overcome implementation gaps for NBS. Based on the discussion of our findings we propose categories for a more efficient online data pool and give recommendations for further research on NBS.

A novel mitochondrial ATP6 frameshift mutation causing isolated complex V deficiency, ataxia and encephalomyopathy.

We describe a novel frameshift mutation in the mitochondrial ATP6 gene in a 4-year-old girl associated with ataxia, microcephaly, developmental delay and intellectual disability. A heteroplasmic frameshift mutation in the MT-ATP6 gene was confirmed in the patient's skeletal muscle and blood. The mutation was not detectable in the mother's DNA extracted from blood or buccal cells. Enzymatic and oxymetric analysis of the mitochondrial respiratory system in the patients' skeletal muscle and skin fibroblasts demonstrated an isolated complex V deficiency. Native PAGE with subsequent immunoblotting for complex V revealed impaired complex V assembly and accumulation of ATPase subcomplexes. Whilst northern blotting confirmed equal presence of ATP8/6 mRNA, metabolic 35S-labelling of mitochondrial translation products showed a severe depletion of the ATP6 protein together with aberrant translation product accumulation. In conclusion, this novel isolated complex V defect expands the clinical and genetic spectrum of mitochondrial defects of complex V deficiency. Furthermore, this work confirms the benefit of native PAGE as an additional diagnostic method for the identification of OXPHOS defects, as the presence of complex V subcomplexes is associated with pathogenic mutations of mtDNA.