Investigating potential supply of ecosystem services in cultural landscapes through efficiency analysis.

One of the paramount challenges in natural resource management revolves around the delicate equilibrium between the demand for and the supply of diverse Ecosystem Services (ESs) within a cultural landscape. Recognizing the centrality of cultural landscapes to human well-being, the sustainability of these landscapes hinges upon the health and stability of ecosystems that can effectively provide the required ESs. Over the long term, the sustainable supply of ESs is constrained by the potential supply of ESs. Understanding the potential supply of ESs is crucial for averting compromises to the ecosystems within a landscape. This article introduces a novel perspective on evaluating the ESs of a landscape by means of efficiency analysis. Instead of presenting the potential supply of ESs in absolute terms, we offer a comparative analysis of ESs' relative supply to associated management costs. In principle, the efficiency of Landscape Units (LUs) is defined as the ratio of the potential supply of multiple ESs to the costs associated with land use and land cover management. The resultant efficiency maps serve as hot and cold spot maps, revealing efficient ecosystem compositions that yield multiple ESs. This composition reflects management efforts, incorporating various management costs. Forests emerge as pivotal ecosystems in landscapes, delivering the most ESs at the lowest costs. These efficiency maps offer valuable insights for regional planners, enabling them to enhance the supply of ES in inefficient LUs by studying the ecosystem structure and associated costs of the most efficient LUs.

Assessment of the stand structure of protective forest monitoring based on statistical models in Irano-Turanian phytogeographical regions of Iran.

One of the most important data that forest management planners need for effective decisions is the data related to the forest structure. The aim of the study is to investigate and analyse the structure of protective forests in Irano-Turanian phytogeographical regions, Iran. Since there are many shrubs in this phytogeographical region, it is very difficult to measure the stand diameter at any height (breast or root height). For this reason, it is necessary to analyse the parameters of height and crown cover to investigate and analyse forest structure. For that purpose, two study plots were selected, and basic data were analysed by using statistical distributions, scatter plots and R2 coefficients. With EasyFit software and Anderson‒Darling test, it was found that the Weibull (3P) and Pearson 6 (4P) distributions for the crown cover factor and the Gen-Pareto and Pert distributions for the height factor have the best goodness-of-fit for the distribution of the different crown cover classes and heights in the studied forest. Moreover, the results confirm that there is a very weak R2 coefficient between crown cover and root collar diameter, with R2 = 0.513 and 0.369 in plots 1 and 2, respectively. Therefore, the combination of crown cover and height parameters is more suitable for use when analysing stand structure in such forests, although the values of R2 are still low (0.673 and 0.524 in plots 1 and 2, respectively). The results of this study show that in protective forests with many shrubs, it is better to focus on the height and crown cover of ​trees and of shrubs rather than on parameters related to stand/tree diameter when analysing stand structure.

Decision Support Framework for Evaluating The Barriers To Salvage Logging: A Case Study on Private Forest Management in Slovenia.

Natural disturbances have increased the extent of forest damage in recent decades and influenced the share of salvage logging and forest management practices in many European countries. These challenges have a significant impact on private forest owners, as 56% of all forestland in Europe is privately owned. The current study researched barriers to salvage logging in private forests in a three-phase framework. First, barriers were identified by conducting a literature review, and they were critically reviewed by experts. In the second phase, stakeholders were selected, and in the third phase, they evaluated barriers using the multicriteria decision-making, best-worst method. The developed framework was applied in the case of Slovenian private forest management. According to the stakeholders, the most important group of barriers consists of organizational and logistical factors, while the most important individual barrier is the organization of logging and skidding. It is expected that this framework can contribute to finding appropriate solutions that meet stakeholders' expectations and that are very helpful and important in removing barriers to the efficiency of salvage logging in private forests.

How Can We Advance Integrative Biology Research in Animal Science in 21st Century? Experience at University of Ljubljana from 2002 to 2022.

In this perspective analysis, we strive to answer the following question: how can we advance integrative biology research in the 21st century with lessons from animal science? At the University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Animal Science, we share here our three lessons learned in the two decades from 2002 to 2022 that we believe could inform integrative biology, systems science, and animal science scholarship in other countries and geographies. Cultivating multiomics knowledge through a conceptual lens of integrative biology is crucial for life sciences research that can stand the test of diverse biological, clinical, and ecological contexts. Moreover, in an era of the current COVID-19 pandemic, animal nutrition and animal science, and the study of their interactions with human health (and vice versa) through integrative biology approaches hold enormous prospects and significance for systems medicine and ecosystem health.

Individual play patterns stimulated by a familiar object are group-driven.

This study investigates the dynamics of play behaviour within groups of four juvenile pigs and uses a novel clustering and statistical modelling approach to describe new details in how individuals play with a familiar object (toy rope). We examined complex state sequence data collected during a 30 min home pen play test, using the package TraMineR, where the states were defined as object play, locomotor/social play and no play. From behavioural observations, and based on the relative proportion of the different types of object play observed, each individual was later categorised as an initiator or joiner type of player. Initiators were found to be more solitary and to show more object play whereas joiners were more social and showed less object play. The majority of groups did not have an initiator type of player, yet on average they played more. Despite strong group and type of player effects, we identified three general individual play patterns. On a group level, our results demonstrate differences in how a period of playing develops, that playing with the object simultaneously occurs more often in groups than expected by chance and that the number of pigs playing together is stable over time.

Decision support framework for evaluating the operational environment of forest bioenergy production and use: Case of four European countries.

Complex policy-making situations around bioenergy production and use require examination of the operational environment of the society and a participatory approach. This paper presents and demonstrates a three-phase decision-making framework for analysing the operational environment of strategies related to increased forest bioenergy targets. The framework is based on SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis and the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART). Stakeholders of four case countries (Finland, Germany, Norway and Slovenia) defined the factors that affect the operational environments, classified in four pre-set categories (Forest Characteristics and Management, Policy Framework, Technology and Science, and Consumers and Society). The stakeholders participated in weighting of SWOT items for two future scenarios with SMART technique. The first scenario reflected the current 2020 targets (the Business-as-Usual scenario), and the second scenario contained a further increase in the targets (the Increase scenario). This framework can be applied to various problems of environmental management and also to other fields where public decision-making is combined with stakeholders' engagement. The case results show that the greatest differences between the scenarios appear in Germany, indicating a notably negative outlook for the Increase scenario, while the smallest differences were found in Finland. Policy Framework was a highly rated category across the countries, mainly with respect to weaknesses and threats. Intensified forest bioenergy harvesting and utilization has potentially wide country-specific impacts which need to be anticipated and considered in national policies and public dialogue.

Biogas production from brewery spent grain enhanced by bioaugmentation with hydrolytic anaerobic bacteria.

Lignocellulosic substrates are widely available but not easily applied in biogas production due to their poor anaerobic degradation. The effect of bioaugmentation by anaerobic hydrolytic bacteria on biogas production was determined by the biochemical methane potential assay. Microbial biomass from full scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor treating brewery wastewater was a source of active microorganisms and brewery spent grain a model lignocellulosic substrate. Ruminococcus flavefaciens 007C, Pseudobutyrivibrio xylanivorans Mz5(T), Fibrobacter succinogenes S85 and Clostridium cellulovorans as pure and mixed cultures were used to enhance the lignocellulose degradation and elevate the biogas production. P. xylanivorans Mz5(T) was the most successful in elevating methane production (+17.8%), followed by the coculture of P. xylanivorans Mz5(T) and F. succinogenes S85 (+6.9%) and the coculture of C. cellulovorans and F. succinogenes S85 (+4.9%). Changes in microbial community structure were detected by fingerprinting techniques.

Thirty-four generations of divergent selection for 8-week body weight in chickens.

Chickens of the Slovenian commercial Prelux-bro line were divergently selected over 34 generations for high and low BW at 8 wk of age. The aim of the study was to estimate responses to selection with a nonlinear model. Estimates of BW for each generation were provided by the mixed model. For fitting generation means against generation or cumulative selection differential, an exponential model was used. Estimates of realized heritability over generations were derived from regression of the response on cumulative selection differential. After 34 generations, the lines differed by approximately 2,220 g for males and 1,860 g for females. Estimates for a selection limit in the high line were 2,598.4 and 2,144.1 g, for males and females, respectively. A selection limit was not reached in the low line. Half of the selection response was obtained after approximately 6 to 8 generations in the high line and 20 to 28 generations in the low line. Estimated realized heritability decreased over generations. Heritability was larger for females than males and reduction of heritability was more rapid in the high line than in the low line. Genetic SD decreased over generations. Phenotypic SD increased over generations in the high line, but was constant in the low line in the initial 22 generations and decreased thereafter. According to the good fit of the nonlinear model and informative parameter estimates, the results confirmed the usefulness of the nonlinear model for analyzing responses to long-term selection.