Most species in an ecosystem could help supply essential ecosystem services, according to a recent study. The researchers found that 84% of species in the grassland ecosystems they studied contributed towards at least one ecosystem service. Losing any of these species would therefore degrade the ecosystem services such an environment could provide.

Plant biodiversity is crucial to the functioning of natural ecosystems in drylands across the world, according to recent research. Preserving plant diversity will be particularly important for maintaining the quantity and quality of services provided by ecosystems found in drylands that are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and desertification.

Researchers argue that of the five mechanisms available for ensuring the provision of ecosystem services ??? prescription, penalties, persuasion, property rights and payments ??? only payments are likely to be effective at the global level. However, while a number of international Payments for Ecosystem Services (IPES) schemes exist, their impact on ecosystem services remains negligible.

Changing environmental conditions could put diverse ecosystems, such as rainforests and coral reefs, at greater risk of multiple extinctions. A new study suggests that, rather than protecting ecosystems from collapse, high levels of biodiversity may actually prove risky in a situation such as climate change ??? where an unpredictable environment can suddenly extinguish a population needed to support an ecosystem, leading to knock-on effects further up the food chain.

A synthesis of 192 studies has provided a quantitative estimate of the impact of the loss of plant biodiversity on ecosystem primary production, showing that this impact could be as great as that of other major environmental changes, such as climate warming, rising ozone levels and ocean acidification. They examined the effects of biodiversity loss on primary plant production of biomass and decomposition of plant litter, both of which underpin the carbon cycle and provision of key ecosystem services.

Climate change could alter the species diversity of an important type of polar bacterial community, according to laboratory tests. At temperatures similar to those forecasted using current climate warming rates, researchers observed an increase in toxin-producing bacteria that could alter freshwater polar ecosystems.

The advantages of soft ecosystem-based climate change adaptation over hard infrastructure-based approaches are becoming increasingly recognised. A new analysis highlights these advantages and calls for more effort to improve our understanding of ecosystem-based adaptation's (EbA) effectiveness.

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to climate change could help avoid future food crises in Africa, a new review suggests. By examining United Nations EbA projects implemented across Africa, the authors demonstrate that such approaches help improve the climate change resilience of production systems and the communities dependent upon them.

Constructed wetlands can regulate stormwater flows and improve water quality, helping humans to adapt to a changing climate. New research has now shown that, if carefully designed, they can also be used for climate change mitigation by storing carbon, while also providing biodiversity and cultural ecosystem services.

Tourists would be willing to pay for increased biodiversity and reduced clear-felling in forests, a recent Finnish case study suggests. In a survey of over 900 visitors to Lapland, most stated that they felt landscape quality and biodiversity were important, and that they would be happy to pay their share for preserving these qualities.

The economic benefits of restoring natural ecosystems outweigh the costs, according to new research. The study examined the financial costs and benefits of restoring a range of ecosystems, including those found in marine, inland and coastal habitats, and concludes that in most cases the large value of ecosystem services provides a net economic benefit.

Researchers have developed a new method of mapping seafloor habitats, which uses easily measured environmental properties to infer the type and extent of seafloor ecosystems. It could help in the effective implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the researchers suggest.

Guidelines to establish reserves protecting deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seep ecosystems have been proposed. A group of stakeholders from 14 countries have put forward the Dinard Guidelines for Chemosynthetic Ecological Reserves, to help design and manage reserves for these unique ecosystems in national and international waters.

The planned expansion of offshore wind farms in the German Bight of the North Sea will provide hard surfaces in what is currently a soft-bottom habitat. This could see an increase in the numbers of some species, such as mussels, which attach themselves to these hard structures, in turn leading to increased numbers of fish and crabs specialised to this habitat, new research suggests.

Researchers have developed a new risk assessment scheme for invasive alien species that not only predicts their direct effects on biodiversity, but also their impacts on ecosystem services. Furthermore, the scheme allows sources of uncertainty in a species??? impact to be identified, and can be applied to a range of different species.

Ocean warming driven by climate change will reduce the amount of food reaching marine life on the seafloor, a recent study suggests. This would result in a 5.2% global reduction in seafloor biomass by the end of the 21^st century and biodiversity hotspots, such as cold-water coral reefs, will be particularly badly affected, say the researchers.

Ash dieback in the UK is likely to lead to the extinction or decline of over 50 species which are reliant on or highly associated with this tree, including mosses, lichens and beetles, a new study suggests. The researchers recommend that the ash trees are not felled but left to die naturally and in time replaced with mixtures of species such as beech and sycamore which support similar woodland species.

Intensive trawling could turn seafloor ecosystems into ‘deserts of the sea’, new research warns. The study found that continuous bottom trawling for shrimp in a deep-sea Spanish canyon has damaged the foundations of marine ecosystems by dramatically reducing seafloor biodiversity and nutrients in sediment.

A new approach to predicting whether a degraded ecosystem can be successfully restored is presented in a recent study. The researchers who developed it show how it works with the case of peatland restoration. Their method uses a computer model to link restoration success or failure with plant species and management techniques on the sites.

Wild plants and animals consumed as food provide an important ecosystem service that deserves more policy attention, claims a recent study. To support their argument, the researchers gathered data which show the significance of wild food to European traditions, cultural identity and recreation.

Adapted habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) may help decision makers select projects to restore damaged ecosystems under a limited budget. HEA, used to assess damages to natural resources, can help to clarify objectives and compare trade-offs between projects to choose the most cost-effective among them, according to this study’s authors.

Chemical contamination impairs ecosystem function and reduces biodiversity. Restoration of contaminated ecosystems is important to re-establish the ecosystem services on which society depends. This study provides recommendations to maximise the success of restoration projects by considering when, where and how contaminated sites should be restored.

The frequency and severity of flooding is expected to increase in the future. This study explored how these changes will affect rivers, in terms of structure as well as animal and plant life. The authors discuss the management implications of their findings and highlight areas for future research, including developing early warning systems for threats to ecosystems.

Discarding – returning unwanted catches to the sea – is seen as wasteful, but banning the practice would remove an important food source for many marine organisms. This study modelled the effects of gradually reducing and abruptly banning discards using data from a protected bay in Australia. The researchers recommend gradual reduction of discards in order to maintain ecosystem stability.

Urban gardeners in Barcelona, Spain, identified 20 ecosystem service benefits, from pollination to environmental learning, in a recent study. Cultural ecosystem services — mainly related to the opportunity for residents to interact with nature — were the most common and highly valued of the ecosystem services identified.

Agroforestry — managing trees alongside crop or animal-production systems — has been proposed as a means of protecting biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem service supply. A study bringing together evidence has confirmed that agroforestry does have an overall positive effect over conventional (separate) agriculture and forestry. Its environmental benefits, which should be considered in rural planning policy, include reduced nutrient run-off and soil erosion, and biodiversity protection.

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) could be made better for biodiversity and local people with the help of two new evaluation methods presented by a recent study. The methods, which assess the value of SuDS sites for wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, recreation and education, are described by the study’s authors as cost-effective, quick and reliable, and could help designers plan and retrofit SuDS that are wildlife-friendly and socially inclusive.

Biodiversity’s contribution to ecosystem services in grasslands — at different levels of the food chain (known as trophic levels1) — has been assessed in a new study. Higher species diversity across trophic levels — particularly for plants, insects and soil microbial decomposers — is important for the provision of multiple ecosystem services related to food production, recreational benefits, or climate regulation. Species diversity across different trophic groups was also found to be just as important in controlling ecosystem functioning as the management intensity of grasslands and environmental factors, such as climate or soil type.

Plant diversity improves soil stability, the results of a greenhouse experiment and a long-term field study show. This study, which covered a range of different soil types, is one of the first to investigate the effects of plant diversity on soil structure, which is important for provision of ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and the mitigation of excessive run-off. The findings could help tackle the problem of soil degradation, the researchers suggest.

Climate change is having mixed — but mostly negative — impacts on ecosystem services, suggest data analysed by a new study. The research, which brings together the findings of over 100 other studies, found that 59% of reported impacts of climate change on ecosystem services are negative, while just 13% are positive. However, the method of research was shown to strongly influence whether impacts are reported as positive or negative, with expert opinion studies far more negative than other types of study.

A new study has assessed the value of ecosystem-based approaches to mitigating climate changes and conserving biodiversity in Germany. The researchers highlight the trade-offs and synergies between climate adaptation and nature conservation and suggest that effective ecosystem-based climate policy requires improved coordination between different sectors, such as agriculture, forestry and energy.

Ecosystems provide myriad services upon which human societies and economies depend. However, most efforts to quantify and conserve these ecosystem services (ES) focus more on service ‘supply’ (functions which potentially benefit humans) than on ‘demand’ (human desire for that supply). This study maps supply and benefit for three ES — flood mitigation, crop pollination, and nature-based recreation — in the state of Vermont, northeast USA, and finds that efforts to conserve ES could be more efficient if policymakers consider ‘demand’, whilst also decreasing trade-offs with biodiversity protection and conservation.

Pollution from agricultural pesticides can present a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems. Researchers have now developed a guide to identify the most appropriate measures to reduce pesticides entering waterways. It focuses on reducing pesticide entry via spray drift or runoff.

Silver nanoparticles are toxic to common bacteria at concentrations found in many aquatic environments across the globe, new research has found. Bacteria often form a key part of ecosystems and these impacts may be felt by the entire system, the researchers warn.

The combined effects of pollution and rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including CO₂, may have effects on marine ecosystems that are more damaging than expected, warns new research. The study found that bacteria capable of breaking down oil pollution were far less abundant in sediment in acidified waters. Although increased ultraviolet-B (UV-B) light reduced these negative impacts, the researchers caution that deeper waters or other waters with less UV-B, may still suffer.

Petrochemical lubricants have toxic effects on Antarctic seafloor ecosystems even after five years of degradation, a new study suggests. Examining the impacts of a standard lubricant and one marketed as biodegradable, the researchers were able to show that algae, which form the basis of the food chain, remained affected even after five years. Furthermore, the biodegradable lubricant appeared to provide no environmental benefits, as it had greater impacts in the long term.

The economic benefits of the ecosystem services provided by constructed wetlands far outweigh the costs of maintaining them, new research has confirmed. Analysis of a wetland that treats the third largest lake in Florida, US, shows that it provides ecosystem services worth $1.79 (€1.64) million per year, against costs of less than half that figure.

A new study shows that run-off from de-icing road salts can affect freshwater aquatic ecosystems by increasing certain types of plankton. The study is the first to compare effects of the most popular road salt, sodium chloride, with the effects of alternative salts and additives used to increase de-icing efficiency. Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that magnesium chloride and salt additives are used cautiously near water bodies.

For the first time, researchers have quantified the link between heat waves, the removal of ozone from the atmosphere by vegetation, ground-level ozone concentrations and its impact on human health and ecosystems. They found that high ozone levels, enhanced by effectively ‘turning-off’ the loss of ozone to the vegetated surface, could have caused around 460 extra deaths during a UK heat wave in 2006. In contrast, the heat wave protected ecosystems from ozone damage as plants absorbed less ozone from the atmosphere.ozone damage as plants absorbed less ozone from the atmosphere.

European emissions of sulphur and nitrogen pollution have fallen greatly in recent decades, a new report shows. However, even at present levels they harm sensitive ecosystems, and will continue do so for some years to come.

The devastating earthquake that ravaged Japan in 2011 may have also wreaked havoc on vital fisheries.

Southern Asia, western Europe and southern Australia are among the areas at most risk.

Scientists discover how entire ecosystems benefit from wolves keeping herbivores on edge.

After a 42-year battle, the Petitcodiac River flows freely again.

The sea has a dead zone the size of Texas, and it's growing bigger every year because of sewage and fertilizer flowing into the waters.

New method of training AI poised to eliminate the need for expensive cloud infrastructure and bring the era of ubiquitous, human-like artificial intelligence a decade closer.

Business Insider Intelligence

• This is a preview of The Payments Ecosystem research report from Business Insider Intelligence.
• Purchase this report.
• Business Insider Intelligence offers even more consumer coverage with Payments & Commerce Pro. Subscribe today to receive industry-changing payments and commerce news and analysis to your inbox.

The power dynamics in the payments industry are changing as businesses and consumers shift dollars from cash and checks to digital payment methods. Cards dominate the in-store retail channel, but mobile wallets like Apple Pay are seeing a rapid uptick in usage.

At the same time, e-commerce will chip away at brick-and-mortar retail as smartphones attract a rising share of digital shopping. Digital peer-to-peer (P2P) apps are supplanting cash in the day-to-day lives of users across generations as they become more appealing and useful than ever.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• Xinja cut its Stash high-yield savings account rate, likely attempting to weather the current crisis
• PayPal's slowdown began to improve in April as stay-at-home orders tick up e-commerce usage
• Jobs for thousands of young consultants are being upended. From delaying start dates to cutting internships, here's what 8 top firms, like Deloitte and McKinsey, are doing.

The old paradigm for supply chain networks has run its course, and the future is in multi-enterprise, or multi-party business networks

What we need before Skill India is perhaps a Skill Government mission. And what’s more, in this Budget season, a visionary leader can do this without much fund allocation.

Fungi are key players in the health, diversity, and productivity of forest ecosystems in Pacific Northwest forests, as mycorrhizal associations, pathogens, decomposers, nontimber resources, and food resources for wildlife. A number of invertebrate species are associated with wood decay fungi, serve as vectors for fungal pathogens, or are fungivorous (consume fungi) and influence rates of wood decay and nutrient mineralization. In Washington and Oregon, 31 wildlife species among 8 families are fungivores, and at least 14 wildlife species disperse fungi. Down wood can provide nurse substrates for seedlings and beneficial mycorrhizal fungi, refuges from pathogenic soil fungi, sources of nutrients for decay fungi, and substrates supporting overall fungal diversity. Presence, density, distribution, and diversity of fungi are influenced by forest stand management practices, forest age class, and effects of fire. Old forests provide for a suite of rare fungi species. Old legacy trees retained during forest harvest can provide some degree of conservation of beneficial and rare fungi. Fungi can be difficult to detect and monitor; surveying for fungi at various times of the year, for multiple (at least 5) years, and by including hypogeous (belowground) samples, can improve detection rates. Studies are needed in the Pacific Northwest to quantify the amount of down wood—number of pieces, sizes, total biomass, percentage of forest floor cover, and other attributes—necessary for maintaining or restoring fungal biodiversity and viable levels of individual fungi species, especially rare species.