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Infectious diseases pose a substantial threat to global health security. Key wildlife species, potentially harbouring numerous zoonotic pathogens, are increasingly being forced to adapt to disturbances from land-use change, human encroachment and climate change. Although the evidence is rather convincing pertaining to the increased risks of zoonotic diseases with degradation and disturbances, the scientific literature on the mitigating effects of ecosystem restoration on zoonotic spillover is scattered, inconclusive and challenged by the lack of a conceptual framework and practical guidance. In light of rising restoration needs and activities, we outline six critical considerations when examining impacts of zoonotic diseases from ecosystem restoration: (1) assessment of zoonotic disease targets; (2) time lag between restoration and recovery; (3) integration of trophic rewilding; (4) robust study designs; (5) controlling for confounding and modifying drivers; and (6) stakeholder engagement and co-creation with communities. Failure to account for these considerations makes the scientific contribution of restoration less valuable and may even jeopardize global efforts to reverse the global biodiversity decline.

Climate change is one of several drivers of recurrent outbreaks and geographical range expansion of infectious diseases in Europe. We propose a framework for the co-production of policy-relevant indicators and decision-support tools that track past, present, and future climate-induced disease risks across hazard, exposure, and vulnerability domains at the animal, human, and environmental interface. This entails the co-development of early warning and response systems and tools to assess the costs and benefits of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures across sectors, to increase health system resilience at regional and local levels and reveal novel policy entry points and opportunities. Our approach involves multi-level engagement, innovative methodologies, and novel data streams. We take advantage of intelligence generated locally and empirically to quantify effects in areas experiencing rapid urban transformation and heterogeneous climate-induced disease threats. Our goal is to reduce the knowledge-to-action gap by developing an integrated One Health—Climate Risk framework.

The mineralization of nitrogen (N) and especially the regeneration of ammonium are critical processes performed by bacteria in aquatic ecosystems. Quantifying these processes is complicated because bacteria simultaneously consume and produce ammonium. Here we use experimental data on the effects of the molecular composition of the supplied substrates, combined with a classical stoichiometric model of ammonium regeneration, to demonstrate how the quantification of these processes can be improved. We manipulated a batch culture experiment with an isolated bacterial community by adding three different types of N substrates: dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN, nitrate), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON, amino acid) and a mixture of DIN and DON. With such experiment set-up, the ammonium regeneration per se could be easily tracked without using complicated methods (e.g. isotope dilution). We compared the experimental data with the predictions of Goldman et al’ model (1987) as well as with a revised version, using the measured consumption carbon:nitrogen ratio (C:N ratio), rather than an estimated consumption ratio. We found that, for all substrates, and in particular, mixed substrates where C and N are partially dissociated between different molecules, estimates of ammonium regeneration rates can be improved by measuring the actual consumption C: N ratio.

In aquatic ecosystems, there are 2 major forms of N available at the base of the planktonic food web: dissolved organic N (DON) and dissolved inorganic N (DIN). In DON, N is associated with organic C, which may promote both heterotrophs and autotrophs. In environments where DIN nitrate is the prevailing N form and dissociated dissolved organic C (DOC) is available, heterotrophs may also be promoted, but they may compete with the autotrophs for DIN. The influence of associated or dissociated CN nutrient sources on the interaction between organisms and the food web function is poorly known and has not been studied before. To approach this question, we performed a microcosm experiment with a coastal microbial food web, where N and C nutrient sources were provided either associated in 1 molecular compound (DON), or dissociated in 2 separate molecular compounds (DIN and DOC). The results showed that association or dissociation of C and N input had marked effects on all trophic levels, most probably through its effect on bacteria-phytoplankton interaction, which switched between increased coupling and increased competition. The biomass of all components of the food web benefitted from the association of C and N in a single DON molecule. Our study indicated that the degree of association between C and N is an important factor affecting the productivity and efficiency of the microbial food web. Therefore, the C and N association should be considered when studying aquatic systems.

The concentrations of ambient nutrients and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in northern coastal ecosystems often show large variations, due to the spatiotemporal differences in terrestrial inputs. How these variations affect the stoichiometry of coastal planktonic organisms is, however, poorly known. Here we assessed the spatiotemporal variability of C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorous (P) concentrations of the seawater on the elemental stoichiometry of seston and dominant mesozooplankton taxa in a coastal area of the northern Baltic Sea. The freshwater inflow peaked in spring following the snowmelt and brought a significant amount of DOC, but not N and P to the coastal system. DOC was the main environmental descriptor for seston C:N stoichiometry. The C:N ratio of seston from 0.7 to 50 μm and mesozooplankton followed the temporal pattern of water C:N ratio, while the temporal trend of bacteria C:N showed an opposite pattern. Our results also indicated that the C:N ratio of seawater controlled both seston and mesozooplankton C:N ratios. Our findings imply that inflows of terrestrial DOC alter the stoichiometry and reduce the nutritional quality of planktonic food webs in northern coastal ecosystems.

Resource imbalance between consumers and their resources can come from inadequate resource quantity or quality. The ecological stoichiometry theory focuses on understanding the consequences of imbalance in elemental composition.  In this thesis, I have used both resource quality (e.g., inorganic vs organic forms of nutrients) and resource quantity (e.g., terrestrial and freshwater nutrient loading to natural coastal systems) to address the consequences of consumer-resource imbalance in planktonic food webs. First, I provided a framework that summarizes how the stoichiometric imbalance is transferred from one biological level to another. The framework highlights the importance of the distribution of elements among different chemical forms and the distribution of elements among connected ecosystems. The framework then served as a guideline for the empirical work of my thesis.  Second, I studied the response of bacterial community mineralization to the relative availability of different forms of nitrogen (inorganic vs. organic form) in a batch culture experiment. The study shows that different forms of nitrogen can significantly influence the growth of bacteria. More importantly, my results show that it is crucial to measure the actual bacterial carbon to nitrogen consumption ratio, rather than use classical theoretical models, to be able to make an accurate prediction of bacterial ammonium regeneration. Third, I tested the effect of different forms of nitrogen on microplankton food web dynamics in a microcosm experiment. I found that differences between nitrogen forms have a strong impact on food web dynamics that is channeled by the bacteria-phytoplankton interaction at the base of the food web. The whole microplankton food web benefits from organic forms of nitrogen as a result of increased mutualistic interactions between bacteria and phytoplankton. Hence, the form of nitrogen is an important factor to be considered in microplanktonic food web dynamics, at least on the short-term. In the final part of this thesis, I explored resource quality and quantity effects on the stoichiometric response of a natural coastal ecosystem in a field study. I expected that the relative availability of inorganic or organic forms of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in our sampling bays may affect organismal elemental composition both temporally and spatially. The results indicate that the stoichiometry among seston size fractions and zooplankton varied more through time than in space. However, zooplankton stoichiometry was relatively stable among species within specific months. Overall, the concentration of dissolved organic carbon and dissolved organic nitrogen in the water column were the major explanatory variables for the seston stoichiometry. In summary, this thesis uses multiple systems to elucidate how the form and input of nutrients shape the plankton food web dynamics and its stoichiometric responses.

Phosphorus (P) often limits the biomass of primary producers in freshwater lakes. However, in unproductive northern lakes, where anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition is low, N instead of P can limit primary producers. In addition, light can be limiting to primary producers at high concentrations of coloured dissolved organic matter (cDOM), as cDOM is the major determinant of light penetration in these lakes.

To address resource limitation of epilithic algal biomass, we repeatedly sampled epilithon (periphyton on stony substrata) in 20 lakes covering a large, correlated cDOM and N‐deposition gradient across boreal and subarctic Sweden. Across these lakes, pelagic total N (TN) and total P (TP) were positively correlated, and benthic light supply was negatively correlated, with cDOM. Microscopically determined algal biovolume and epilithic carbon (C), N and P were subsequently regressed against benthic light supply and pelagic TN and TP.

Patterns in epilithic biovolume were driven by N2‐fixing cyanobacteria, which accounted for 2%–90% of total epilithic biovolume. Averaged over the growing season, epilithic algal biovolume, C and N were negatively related to TP and positively to TN, and were highest in the clearest, most phosphorus‐poor lakes, where epilithon was heavily dominated by potentially N2‐fixing cyanobacteria.

A structural equation model supports the hypothesis that cDOM had two counteracting effects on total epilithic algal biovolume: a positive one by providing N to algae that depend on dissolved N for growth, and a negative one by shading N2‐fixing cyanobacteria, with the negative effect being somewhat stronger.

Together, these findings suggest that (1) light and N are the main resources limiting epilithic algal biomass in boreal to subarctic Swedish lakes, (2) epilithic cyanobacteria are more competitive in high‐light and low‐nitrogen environments, where their N2‐fixing ability allows them to reach high biomass, and (3) epilithic N increases with N2 fixer biomass and is—seemingly paradoxically—highest in the most oligotrophic lakes.

Biological stoichiometry is an approach that focuses on the balance of elements in biological interactions. It is a theory that has the potential to causally link material processes at all biological levels—from molecules to the biosphere. But the lack of a coherent operational framework has so far restricted progress in this direction. Here, we provide a framework to help infer how a stoichiometric imbalance observed at one level impacts all other biological levels. Our framework enables us to highlight the areas of the theory in need of completion, development and integration at all biological levels. Our hope is that this framework will contribute to the building of a more predictive theory of elemental transfers within the biosphere, and thus, to a better understanding of human-induced perturbations to the global biogeochemical cycles.

Heavy rainfall events causing significant terrestrial runoff into coastal marine ecosystems are predicted to become more frequent with climate change in the Mediterranean. To simulate the effects of soil runoff on the pelagic food web of an oligotrophic Mediterranean coastal lagoon, we crossed soil extract addition (increasing nutrient availability and turbidity) and fish presence in a full factorial design to coastal mesocosms containing a natural pelagic community. Soil extract addition increased both bacteria and phytoplankton biomass. Diatoms however profited most from soil extract addition, especially in the absence of fish. In contrast zooplankton and fish did not profit from soil extract addition. Furthermore, our data indicate that nutrients (instead of light or carbon) limited basal production. Presumed changes in carbon availability are relatively unimportant to primary and secondary production in strongly nutrient limited systems like the Thau Lagoon. We conclude that in shallow Mediterranean coastal ecosystems, heavy rainfall events causing soil runoff will (1) increase the relative abundance of phytoplankton in relation to bacteria and zooplankton, especially in the absence of fish (2) not lead to higher biomass of zooplankton and fish, possibly due to the brevity of the phytoplankton bloom and the slow biomass response of higher trophic levels.