This study presents the first Korean records of two subtropical fish species, Pseudojuloides paradiseus and Diplogrammus xenicus, collected around Jeju-do Island, as well as one boreal fish species, Erilepis zonifer, collected in Busan (approximately 200 km away from Jeju-do Island). In this study, we discuss the implications of the species’ habitat range expansion. Previously, P. paradiseus was known as an endemic species of Japan, while D. xenicus was known to inhabit the Eastern Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean excluding around the equator, and E. zonifer was only known to inhabit the Pacific Ocean between eastern Japan and the western USA. Their habitat range expansions might be attributed to the expansion of the Tsushima Warm Current at the surface layer and/or the North Korean Cold Current at the bottom layer. Our findings may suggest that habitat of marine fish is being changed continuously by climate change or oceanic currents. Therefore, it needs to conduct integrated and systematic monitoring of fish fauna to response changing marine biodiversity.

Basal bark treatment of invasive trees is an approach designed to limit damage to non-target vegetation in the vicinity, but non-target injury is still documented. No study of basal bark treatments has examined the release of herbicide residues from roots of treated plants and resulting non-target impacts. Studies were conducted in Alaska interior and coastal boreal forests on basal bark treatments with aminopyralid and triclopyr on active-growth and dormant invasive chokecherry (Prunus padus L.). The study assessed non-target damage and soil herbicide residue using a combination of visual evaluations, bioassays, and soil residue analyses. Non-target damage from herbicide residues were identified in 40% of treatments containing aminopyralid with triclopyr, 60% of treatments containing aminopyralid alone, and 5% of treatments containing only triclopyr. Laboratory studies of aminopyralid treatments to saplings isolated the effects of herbicide exudation from roots, which was found to be significant, and the magnitude was dependent on dose. Herbicide soil residues in field and laboratory experiments were quantified with analytical detection and plant bioassays. Aminopyralid soil residues were identified in 57% of field treatments receiving 8 to 60 ml of herbicide solution (2% ai) and 70% of laboratory treatments receiving 10 µl of herbicide solution (2% to 16% ai). Triclopyr residues were found from one field treatment following dosage with 28 ml of herbicide solution (18.5% ai). Anatomically, plants grown in soils associated with herbicide-treated trees, both in the field and lab, grew less dry mass than non–herbicide treated controls. This study provides the first evidence that root exudation of herbicide following basal bark treatments contributes to non-target damage of adjacent vegetation and to accumulation of soil herbicide residues. This is an important new factor for integrated pest management within basal bark treatment systems and has implications for other herbicide application types such as injections and frill, as well as determining whether root exudation is species or herbicide specific.

Biological proxies from the Sokli Eemian (Marine Isotope Stage 5e) paleolake sequence from northeast Finland have previously shown that, unlike many postglacial records from boreal sites, the lake becomes increasingly eutrophic over time. Here, principal components (PC) were extracted from a high resolution multi-element XRF core scanning dataset to describe minerogenic input from the wider catchment (PC1), the input of S, Fe, Mn, and Ca-rich detrital material from the surrounding Sokli Carbonatite Massif (PC2), and chemical weathering (PC3). Minerogenic inputs to the lake were elevated early in the record and during two abrupt cooling events when soils and vegetation in the catchment were poor. Chemical weathering in the catchment generally increased over time, coinciding with higher air temperatures, catchment productivity, and the presence of acidic conifer species. Abiotic edaphic processes play a key role in lake ontogeny at this site stemming from the base cation- and nutrient-rich bedrock, which supports lake alkalinity and productivity. The climate history at this site, and its integrated effects on the lake system, appear to override development processes and alters its long-term trajectory.

A collection of more than 1500 specimens of Syllidae (Annelida, Polychaeta) from sub-Arctic and Boreal regions along the coast of Norway has been studied. We report 32 species, two of them new to science, belonging to the genera Sphaerosyllis Claparède, 1863 and Syllis Savigny in Lamarck, 1818, and 16 new to Norway. Sphaerosyllis tarquei sp. nov. is characterized by having long blades on its compound chaetae and the presence of glands inside the dorsal cirri. Syllis kas sp. nov. was reported, figured and described by Uschakov (1955) as Syllis oerstedi (Malmgren, 1867); however, revision of the types of Chaetosyllis oerstedi reveals that they are sexual stolons of Syllis cornuta Rathke, 1843; this species is characterized by the shape of the spiniger-like chaetae, which are relatively short, distally blunt, with a thin distal spine, and unidentate falcigers some of which have similar spines. We also include descriptions and figures of Parexogone longicirris (Webster & Benedict, 1887) and Syllides longocirrata Ørsted, 1845. Finally we include a key of all reported species in the area.

The analysis of macroscopic wood charcoal fragments extracted from soils is frequently used as a palaeoecological tool for reconstructing stand-scale forest composition and fire history. Here we explored the putative loss of palaeoecological information due to charcoal degradation through time and in different biogeographical settings. We compared the relationship between charcoal mass and abundance for soil samples from five biogeographical regions of boreal northeastern North America spanning most of the Holocene period. We verified whether charcoal (Ø ≥ 2 mm) conservation differed as a consequence of different taphonomical processes between organic and mineral soil types. We also assessed the mass/abundance relationship as a function of charcoal residence time in soil. Overall, the slope of the regression between charcoal particles mass (g) and abundance (number of particles) was 0.0042. The slope was not significantly different in samples from organic and mineral soil, and all biogeographical regions had similar slope values except one (higher charcoal fragmentation, probably due to high colluvial activity). Charcoal conservation also did not vary according to residence time in soil. This study shows that macroscopic soil charcoal particles resist fragmentation over millennia in different biogeographical settings and under the influence of various taphonomical processes.

Variations in both width and density of annual rings from a network of tree chronologies were used to develop high-resolution proxies to extend the climate record in the Wrangell Mountain region of Alaska. We developed a warm-season (July–September) temperature reconstruction that spans A.D. 1593–1992 based on the first eigenvector from principal component analysis of six maximum latewood density (MXD) chronologies. The climate/tree-growth model accounts for 51% of the temperature variance from 1958 to 1992 and shows cold in the late 1600s–early 1700s followed by a warmer period, cooling in the late 1700s–early 1800s, and warming in the 20th century. The 20th century is the warmest of the past four centuries. Several severely cold warm-seasons coincide with major volcanic eruptions. The first eigenvector from a ring-width (RW) network, based on nine chronologies from the Wrangell Mountain region (A.D. 1550–1970), is correlated positively with both reconstructed and recorded Northern Hemisphere temperatures. RW shows a temporal history similar to that of MXD by increased growth (warmer) and decreased growth (cooler) intervals and trends. After around 1970 the RW series show a decrease in growth, while station data show continued warming, which may be related to increasing moisture stress or other factors. Both the temperature history based on MXD and the growth trends from the RW series are consistent with well-dated glacier fluctuations in the Wrangell Mountains and some of the temperature variations also correspond to variations in solar activity.

The consequences of considering ecosystem services (ES) in conservation assessment are still widely debated. The degree of success depends on the extent to which biodiversity and ES can be secured under joint conservation actions. Unlike biodiversity, ES conservation is inseparably linked to human beneficiaries. Reconciling biodiversity with ES and conservation can be particularly challenging in sparsely populated areas. This study, in a sparsely-populated region of eastern Canada, focused on freshwater wetland biodiversity and ten ES provided by wetlands. Within a given maximal total area, the results showed that planning for biodiversity underrepresented local flow ES supply by 57% and demand by 61% in conservation networks. Planning for ES alone underrepresented wetland biodiversity surrogates by an average of 34%. Considering both biodiversity and ES simultaneously, all of the biodiversity and ES targets were achieved with only a 6% mean increase in area. Achieving all conservation targets starting from a network that was primarily built for either ES or biodiversity features alone was two to five times less efficient than considering both ES and biodiversity simultaneously in conservation assessment. A better framework is required to translate these spatial synergies into effective joint conservation actions.

Variation among 19 phenological features taken from 48 species of Vaccinium (Ericaceae), both in vivo and in vitro as well as from existing literature, were subjected to several clustering strategies. Our results suggest three distinct phenological clusters that reflect the ability of these taxa to tolerate frost, namely a ‘Tropical’ group of 16 taxa which tolerate no or very little frost; a ‘Temperate’ group whose 17 members tolerate some frost; and finally a ‘Boreal-Arctic’ group whose 15 taxa are winter hardy.