Search Results (372)

In the context of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, the forestry sector holds significant potential to contribute to global mitigation efforts. One of the primary drivers of deforestation is land expansion for livestock production. However, both sectors are closely linked to issues of food security and food sovereignty, with the livestock sector playing a crucial role in ensuring food availability. Integrating these two sectors through silvopastoral systems offers a promising solution that supports forest conservation while simultaneously addressing the global food crisis. Among the leading initiatives in forest conservation is REDD+, a mechanism under the UNFCCC that has proven effective in reducing deforestation and forest degradation, as well as in enhancing carbon stock conservation. Following the ratification of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement in 2024, REDD+ has gained recognition as a viable approach for generating international carbon credits. Given the intersection of the livestock and forestry sectors, and the potential of carbon credits to advance the goals of the Paris Agreement, silvopastoral systems could be considered for inclusion in REDD+ strategies under the framework of Article 6. Full article

Community-managed forests within agroforestry landscapes are vital for both carbon sequestration and agricultural sustainability. This study assesses the Hariyali Community Forest (HCF) in western Nepal, emphasizing its role in carbon storage within a Sal (Shorea robusta)-dominated lowland forest containing diverse native and medicinal species. Stratified field inventories combined with satellite-derived biomass and land-use/land-cover data were used to quantify carbon stocks and spatial trends. In 2022, the mean aboveground carbon density was 165 tC ha⁻¹, totaling approximately 101,640 tC (~373,017 tCO₂e), which closely matches satellite-based trends and indicates consistent carbon accumulation. Remote sensing from 2015–2022 showed a net tree cover gain of 427 ha compared to a 2000 baseline of 188 ha, evidencing effective community-led regeneration. The 615 ha Sal-dominated landscape also sustains agroforestry, small-scale horticulture, and subsistence crops, integrating livelihoods with conservation. Temporary carbon declines between 2020 and 2022, linked to localized harvesting and management shifts, highlight the need for stronger governance and local capacity. This study, among the first integrated carbon assessments in Nepal’s lowland Sal forests, demonstrates how community forestry advances REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) objectives while enhancing rural resilience. Linking field inventories with satellite-derived biomass and land-cover data situates community forestry within regional environmental change and SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) targets (13, 15, and 1) through measurable ecosystem restoration and livelihood gains. Full article

Natural products hold immense therapeutic potential, yet they remain underexplored due to challenges in activating or producing them in laboratory settings. Here, we investigate the regulatory capabilities of a new medium-sized Streptomyces Antibiotic Regulator Protein (SARP), Fzm_SARP, in comparison to the well-characterized small SARP, RedD, across 18 diverse actinobacterial strains. In addition to the conserved DNA-binding domains typical of SARP regulators, the medium-sized Fzm_SARP also contains an additional NTPase domain. Our study revealed that 327 of the 422 metabolites (77%) detected in 18 wild-type actinobacterial strains were up-regulated in the SARP over-expressing strains. Among these 422 metabolites, 55% were up-regulated in the two SARP over-expressing strains whereas 15% and 7% were specifically up-regulated in the RedD and Fzm_SARP over-expressing strains, respectively. Interestingly, 244 metabolites not previously detected in the wild-type strains were detected in the two SARP over-expressing strains, resulting in a 58% increase from 422 to 666 metabolites. 36% of these new 244 metabolites were up-regulated in the two SARP over-expressing strains whereas 37% and 27% of these metabolites were specifically up-regulated in the RedD and Fzm_SARP over-expressing strains, respectively. These regulator-specific metabolites also give rise to distinct bioactivity profiles observed for each SARP. Overall, these findings expand our understanding of SARP family regulators and offer valuable insights for future research and applications in microbial biotechnology and secondary metabolite production. Full article

Background: Regulated in development and DNA damage response 1 (REDD1) is a stress-related protein that is found to be involved in tumor progression. The role and internal regulatory mechanism of REDD1 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remain unidentified as of yet. Methods: Immunohistochemical and Western blot tests were performed to evaluate REDD1 expression in LUAD tissues. EdU staining, cell counting kit-8 assays, and colony formation analyses were conducted to estimate cell proliferation. Flow cytometry was applied to examine apoptosis, while migration was detected by a transwell assay. Results: REDD1 was upregulated in LUAD tissues, and hypoxia promoted the expression of REDD1 in LUAD cells. In addition, knockdown of REDD1 inhibited the increase in proliferation, migration, and colony formation induced by hypoxia in LUAD cells. Apoptosis was decreased by hypoxia and restored after REDD1 downregulation. Furthermore, p-ERK and p-JNK signaling pathways were involved in the changes in proliferation, apoptosis, and migration of LUAD cells following REDD1 knockdown under hypoxia. Conclusions: REDD1 may be a possible therapeutic target for LUAD. Full article

REDD+ has emerged as a global strategy for reducing CO₂ emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and shows great promise for the Extractive Reserves of the Brazilian Amazon (RESEX). It is essential to assess whether REDD+ projects have effectively contributed to the conservation of these areas over time. To address this issue, we analyzed land use and cover dynamics in the RESEX Rio Preto-Jacundá (Rondônia) and its surroundings from 2004 to 2020 to evaluate the impacts of a certified REDD+ project. The following two trend scenarios were simulated: (i) pre-implementation (2004–2012), projected to 2020, and (ii) post-implementation (2012–2020), projected to 2028. Historical maps were derived from the TerraClass dataset, and future projections were generated using Markov Chains combined with Cellular Automata. Forest conservation was evaluated through structural metrics such as the number, size, and shape of forest fragments, and the type, frequency, and length of boundaries with other land uses, using ArcGIS tools and Patch Analyst. Carbon sequestration was estimated from the aboveground biomass values of primary and secondary forests. The results showed that the REDD+ mechanism did not achieve the expected environmental benefits, with a decrease in carbon stocks over time and potential negative effects on the richness and composition of local flora. Full article

Spawning habitat partitioning can be important for maintaining sympatric fish species. Likewise, critical spawning habitat loss may challenge the long-term persistence of sympatric fish species. The Bois Brule River, Wisconsin, USA, is a spring-fed, western Lake Superior tributary that supports five naturally reproducing populations of salmonids (native brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis; introduced brown trout Salmo trutta, rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, coho salmon O. kisutch, and chinook salmon O. tshawytscha). Given increases in recreational angler use and predicted climate-associated changes to trout stream habitat, a better understanding of species interactions during spawning is important to guide future management and conservation of these anthropogenically derived sympatric native and introduced salmonids. Our aim was to establish whether there was partitioning or overlapping in the redd site location preferences among native and introduced salmonids inhabiting the Bois Brule River. We mapped species-specific redd locations by canoe over a 15.3 river km section known to be important for salmonid spawning and evaluated physical, flow, and thermal conditions of these habitats of the Bois Brule River during 2021–2022. We found that spring spawning rainbow trout and fall spawning pacific salmonids and brown trout used the same spawning locations on mid-channel, larger gravel reefs downstream of riffle sections. Native brook trout spawned on smaller substrates with lower streamflow on the edges of the channel, with the highest spawning activity occurring in littoral areas of lentic portions of the river. Our findings provide valuable knowledge of critical spawning habitats for sympatric salmonids that may inform habitat conservation and enhancement efforts in the Bois Brule River and other Great Lakes tributaries with similar sympatric, naturally reproducing salmonids populations. Full article

Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) aims to disaggregate a household’s total aggregated power consumption into appliance-level usage, enabling intelligent energy management without the need for intrusive metering. While deep learning has improved NILM significantly, existing NILM models struggle to capture load patterns across both longer time intervals and subtle timings for appliances involving brief or overlapping usage patterns. In this paper, we propose a novel GRU+BERT hybrid architecture, exploring both unidirectional (GRU+BERT) and bidirectional (Bi-GRU+BERT) variants. Our model combines Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) to capture sequential temporal dependencies with Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), which is a transformer-based model that captures rich contextual information across the sequence. The bidirectional variant (Bi-GRU+BERT) processes input sequences in both forward (past to future) and backward (future to past) directions, enabling the model to learn relationships between power consumption values at different time steps more effectively. The unidirectional variant (GRU+BERT) provides an alternative suited for appliances with structured, sequential multi-phase usage patterns, such as dishwashers. By placing the Bi-GRU or GRU layer before BERT, our models first capture local time-based load patterns and then use BERT’s self-attention to understand the broader contextual relationships. This design addresses key limitations of both standalone recurrent and transformer-based models, offering improved performance on transient and irregular appliance loads. Evaluated on the UK-DALE and REDD datasets, the proposed Bi-GRU+BERT and GRU+BERT models show competitive performance compared to several state-of-the-art NILM models while maintaining a comparable model size and training time, demonstrating their practical applicability for real-time energy disaggregation, including potential edge and cloud deployment scenarios. Full article

Accurate assessments of aboveground biomass (AGB) stocks and their changes in extensive Miombo forests are challenging due to the lack of site-specific allometric equations (AEs). Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) is a non-destructive method that enables the calibration of AEs and has recently been validated by the IPCC guidelines for carbon accounting within the REDD+ framework. TLS surveys were carried out in five non-contiguous 1-ha plots in two study sites in the wet Miombo forest of Katanga, in the Democratic Republic Congo. Local wood densities (WD) were determined from wood cores taken from 619 trees on the sites. After a careful checking of Quantitative Structure Models (QSMs) output, the individual volumes of 213 trees derived from TLS data processing were converted to AGB using WD. Four AEs were calibrated using different predictors, and all presented strong performance metrics (e.g., R² ranging from 90 to 93%), low relative bias and relative individual mean error (11.73 to 16.34%). Multivariate analyses performed on plot floristic and structural data showed a strong contrast in terms of composition and structure between sites and between plots within sites. Even though the whole variability of the biome has not been sampled, we were thus able to confirm the transposability of results within the wet Miombo forests through two cross-validation approaches. The AGB predictions obtained with our best AE were also compared with AEs found in the literature. Overall, an underestimation of tree AGB varying from −35.04 to −19.97% was observed when AEs from the literature were used for predicting AGB in the Miombo of Katanga. Full article

The Amazonian forests located within the Guiana Shield store above-average levels of biomass per hectare. However, considerable uncertainty remains regarding carbon stocks in this region, mainly due to limited inventory data and the lack of spatial datasets that account for factors influencing variation among forest types. The present study investigates the spatial distribution of original total forest biomass in the state of Amapá, located in the northeastern Brazilian Amazon. Using data from forest inventory plots, we applied geostatistical interpolation techniques (kriging) combined with environmental variables to generate a high-resolution map of forest biomass distribution. The stocks of biomass were associated with different forest types and land uses. The average biomass was 536.5 ± 64.3 Mg ha⁻¹ across forest types, and non-flooding lowland forest had the highest average (619.1 ± 38.3), followed by the submontane (521.8 ± 49.8) and the floodplain (447.6 ± 45.5) forests. Protected areas represented 84.1% of Amapá’s total biomass stock, while 15.9% was in agriculture and ranching areas, but the average biomass is similar between land-use types. Sustainable-use reserves stock more biomass (40%) than integral-protection reserves (35%) due to the higher average biomass associated with well-structured forests and a greater density of large trees. The map generated in the present study contributes to a better understanding of carbon balance across multiple spatial scales and demonstrates that forests in this region contain the highest carbon stocks per hectare (260.2 ± 31.2 Mg ha⁻¹, assuming that 48.5% of biomass is carbon) in the Amazon. To conserve these stocks, it is necessary to go further than merely maintaining protected areas by strengthening the protection of reserves, restricting logging activities in sustainable-use areas, promoting strong enforcement against illegal deforestation, and supporting the implementation of REDD+ projects. These actions are critical for avoiding substantial carbon stock losses and for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from this region. Full article

While the methods for monitoring deforestation are relatively well established, there is still no compromise on those for forest degradation. We propose here a systematic review on studies about forest degradation in the Congo Basin. Our analysis focused on seven key anthropogenic causes of forest degradation. Shifting agriculture emerged as the most significant driver, accounting for 61% ± 28.58% (mean ± SD) of canopy opening, 73.16% ± 16.88% aboveground carbon loss, and 30.37% ± 30.67% of tree species diversity loss over a 5–60-year period. Our analysis reveals a significant disconnect. Only 29% of the reviewed studies address this driver, while over 64% focus primarily on the consequences of industrial timber harvesting. Despite its comparatively minor contribution to degradation, with effects range from only 8.98% ± 13.63% of canopy opening, 14.79% ± 22.21 aboveground carbon loss, and 4.27 ± 21.07 tree species diversity loss over 1–20 years. Indeed, most of the methods focus on detecting changes in canopy structure associated with forest logging over a short period (0–5 years). These illustrate the need for a shift in focus in scientific research towards innovative methods, which can be developed over time, to monitor the various impacts of all causes of forest degradation. Full article

REDD+ is a global mechanism that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by preventing deforestation and forest degradation, enhancing forest carbon stocks, and promoting sustainable forest management in developing countries. It plays a crucial role for developing countries in achieving climate targets under the Paris Agreement and can be implemented at the project, subnational, and national levels. Subnational REDD+ offers several advantages over project-level, such as reduced risk of overestimating emissions and enhanced management of leakage. However, the comprehensive opportunities and challenges of subnational REDD+ have not been extensively investigated in the literature. This paper aims to undertake a thorough review of subnational REDD+, highlighting its potential and the obstacles it faces. This systematic review synthesizes the existing literature on subnational REDD+ implementation, analyzing 54 peer-reviewed articles published between 2005 and 2024. The review identified three key factors for the effective implementation of subnational REDD+: financial, social, and institutional factors. Within these three factors, both opportunities and challenges were discussed, drawing on case studies and synthesizing practical implications. Our findings demonstrate that successful subnational REDD+ initiatives require integrated approaches that address the causal relationships between financing mechanisms, governance structures, and stakeholder engagement. The discussion further explores these interdependencies, revealing how constraints in one dimension create cascading effects across others. This study provides empirical insights and actionable recommendations for policymakers and project developers engaged in climate change mitigation efforts. Full article

Community Forest Management (CFM) and REDD+ projects have emerged as key strategies for promoting environmental conservation and livelihood improvement. This review explores the effectiveness of incorporating free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), safeguard principles, grievance redress mechanisms, and benefit-sharing mechanisms into CFM and REDD+ in Cambodia, with a focus on enhancing communities’ livelihoods and climate change adaptation. This paper synthesizes findings from recent literature on CFM and REDD+ in Cambodia and internationally, analyzing key case studies, policy frameworks, and community engagement strategies. Findings suggest that while REDD+ projects offer potential economic and ecological benefits, challenges related to land tenure, equity in benefit-sharing, and community participation remain. This review highlights the need for stronger community engagement, a robust conflict management structure, clear land tenure policies, equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms, and more climate change adaptation activities to ensure the success of CFM and REDD+ projects in Cambodia and the Global South. Full article

This research examines the governance of carbon rights in comparison with 7 other countries, focusing on Vietnam’s carbon markets and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries implementation. Through constitutional theory and comparative analysis, the study explores carbon rights and their governance frameworks. It utilizes surveys, in-depth interviews, and literature reviews to scrutinize governance mechanisms. A comparative analysis of Vietnam with countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, and the Philippines was performed. It highlights differences in legal, institutional, and policy frameworks. Australia and New Zealand, early adopters of carbon rights policies promoting private ownership, have developed strong markets. In contrast, Indonesia and other Global South nations are still evolving their frameworks, with a focus on state-controlled systems that restrict participation and equity. The findings indicate substantial gaps in Vietnam’s carbon rights governance compared to other countries, especially in terms of legal clarity, stakeholder engagement, and policy coherence. Accordingly, this study recommends that Vietnam should adopt a robust legal framework for carbon rights, improve transparency in carbon markets, and integrate Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries strategies within broader environmental governance objectives. Vietnam’s carbon rights ought to be designated as national assets to ensure equitable distribution among various forest ownership groups. Benefit-sharing mechanisms could be fashioned following the successful implementation of the Payment for Forest Environmental Services policy. The research concludes that, with these enhancements, Vietnam could emerge as a key player in the global carbon market and effectively leverage Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries for sustainable development and climate objectives. Full article

Rarámuri Criollo (RC) cattle have been raised by the isolated Tarahumara communities of Chihuahua, Mexico, for nearly 500 years, mostly under natural selection and minimal management. RC cattle were introduced to the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Jornada Experimental Range (RCJER) in 2005 to begin evaluations of beef production performance and their adaptation to the harsh ecological and climatic conditions of the Northern Chihuahuan Desert. While this research unveiled crucial information on their phenotypic plasticity and adaptation, the genetic diversity and structure of the RCJER population remains poorly understood. This study analyzed the genetic diversity, population structure, ancestral composition, and selection signatures of the RCJER herd using a ~64 K SNP array. The RCJER herd exhibits moderate genetic diversity and low population stratification with no evident clustering, suggesting a shared genetic background among different subfamilies. Admixture analysis revealed the RCJER herd represents a distinctive genetic pool within the Criollo cattle breeds, with significant Iberian ancestry. Selection signatures identified candidate genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL) for traits associated with milk composition, growth, meat and carcass, reproduction, metabolic homeostasis, health, and coat color. The RCJER population represents a distinctive genetic resource adapted to harsh environmental conditions while maintaining productive and reproductive attributes. These findings are crucial to ensuring the long-term genetic conservation of the RCJER and their strategic expansion into locally adapted beef production systems in the USA. Full article

This study developed an integrated approach for estimating tropical forest aboveground biomass (AGB) by combining UAV–LiDAR structural metrics and Sentinel-2B spectral data, optimized through successive projections algorithm (SPA) feature selection and random forest (RF) regression. Field surveys across three tropical forest sites in Hainan Province (49 plots) provided ground-truth AGB measurements, while UAV–LiDAR (1 m resolution) and Sentinel-2B (10 m) data were processed to extract 98 and 69 features, respectively. The results showed that LiDAR-derived elevation metrics (e.g., percentiles and kurtosis) correlated strongly with the AGB measurements (r = 0.652–0.751), outperforming Sentinel-2B vegetation indices (max r = 0.520). SPA–RF models with selected features significantly improved accuracy compared to full-feature RF, achieving R² = 0.670 (LiDAR), 0.522 (Sentinel-2B), and 0.749 (coupled data), with the fusion model reducing errors by 46–54% in high-biomass areas. Despite Sentinel-2B’s spectral saturation limitations, its integration with LiDAR enhanced spatial heterogeneity representation, particularly in complex canopies. The 200-iteration randomized validation ensured a robust performance, with mean absolute relative errors of ≤0.071 for fused data. This study demonstrates that strategic multi-sensor fusion, coupled with SPA-optimized feature selection, significantly improves tropical AGB estimation accuracy, offering a scalable framework for carbon stock assessments in support of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and climate mitigation initiatives. Full article