Maria Amélia Martins-Loução

Mankind’s strong dependence on nitrogen (N) began when we started farming and, ever since, we have depended on nitrogen in the soil for plant production. More than a century has passed since the discovery of N as an element until the advent of synthetic fertilizers. Today, after a century of Haber–Bosch innovation, many other endeavors and challenges can be launched to understand how the effects of N in the environment can be perceived as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. All this knowledge evolution was truly dependent on the scientific advances, both technological and methodological, and particularly on the approaches at the micro and macro level. As with nearly everything in our lives (e.g., events, people, food, decisions, world history), we tend to use the dichotomy ‘good or bad’ to categorize, and scientific advances are no exception. The integration of scientific and technological advances allows us to move beyond this simple dichotomy ‘good or bad’ and to make choices. Here, we review the main marks in understanding plant nutrition throughout time, with special emphasis on N, from the Greeks to the most recent trends in the 21st century. Since improving plant N use efficiency is a main avenue to meet several Sustainable Developmental Goals (e.g., SDG2 zero hunger, SDG12 responsible production and consumption, SDG15 life on land), the European Green Deal, and The Farm to Fork strategy, we propose that the ecological principles must be integrated in agro-ecosystem management. During the last 40 years, our research group has contributed to: (i) the clarification of the so-called dichotomy of choices when it comes to the environmental effects of N; and (ii) fetching natural solutions for N manmade problems. This was based on the knowledge that life is a continuous symbiotic interplay between mutualism and parasitism depending on environmental conditions and that there is a need for feeding people, assuring food quality and diminishing environmental impacts. We argue that, as a society, we have the scientific and technological means to learn from nature and to apply the ecological rules in agro-ecosystems. However, this is a choice we must make as individuals and as a society.

This article enhances some ideas and opinions related with the challenges that women across the world face nowadays to pursue a professional career. The route they take has frequent obstacles of a distinct nature, which are not always comparable with those faced by men. The starting point of this work is the conclusions of the workshop “Women empowerment and gender equality, responsible research and innovation”—Research Project “SOILdarity”. This workshop revealed a diversified view about the subject, evidencing its connection with the social sustainability, with a special focus on academia and research management. This document introduces the topic in the context of the workshop, revises key aspects of women’s empowerment in a society still dominated by men’s opinions and organization (gender balance, obstacles and strategies), highlights the situation of women in academia and in research management, and gives the authors’ opinions about some questions related to gender and equality. We conclude that all societal actors must acknowledge women as key actors in contributing to social sustainability, working together towards creating an environment where they can have leadership roles.

Reviewing the ecological studies on the endangered endemic Plantago almogravensis Franco, an Al-hyperaccumulator plant, and combining these with morphological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular data, significant knowledge on the limiting factors that cause its narrow geographical distribution and rarity status is achieved, which can contribute to suited conservation guidelines. Emphasis was given on (i) the major factors limiting P. almogravensis’ ecological niche (biotic and abiotic); (ii) phases of the life cycle and population dynamics; and (iii) and the phylogenetically close taxa (Plantago subulata aggregate) in order to fill the knowledge gaps in the uniqueness of P. almogravensis ecology, its phylogeny, and conservation status. The identification of relevant ecological data and using plant functional (morphological and physiological) traits, as well as genetic attributes, substantiate into a powerful tool to guide protection and conservation measures, usable toward this and other endangered hyperaccumulator plant species. Knowledge of the limitations of this strongly narrowly distributed plant allows for better design of conservation measures and to guide value and investment strategies in order to secure the species’ current area (habitat conservation and reclamation), direct the expansion of the existing population (assisting in populational densification and colonization), and/or grant ex situ conservation (genetic resources conservation).

Com a presente dominância do Homem sobre os ecossistemas, a sociedade enfrenta agora novos desafios do foro social, ético e ambiental. A Ecologia, como ciência transversal e holística, tem muito a contribuir para a construção do conhecimento científico, aquisição de dados e elaboração de propostas de resolução de problemas ambientais com vista a diluir o ecocentrismo e catastrofismo. A ecologia enquanto ciência pode e deve mostrar as relações entre espécies, entre comunidades e ecossistemas, entre o Homem e a natureza, minimizando noções de destruição absolutistas, e contribuindo para um diálogo científico sobre ferramentas de gestão e conservação. Este é o contributo que se pretende dar com este artigo, através de dois casos de estudo, que permitirão sugerir novas medidas de gestão e atitudes sociais perante problemas reais.

The purpose of this study was to examine if teachers who participated in a continuous professional development (CPD) programme were able to develop an understanding of inquiry-based science education (IBSE). The CPD programme was designed to IBSE in both formal and informal, Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) contexts, to discuss its role as a tool to improve pedagogic practises in science teaching and to explore the application of the method in teaching biodiversity and climate change. A qualitative design using pre- and post-programme questionnaires was used to investigate teachers’ understanding and classroom implementation of inquiry. Evolution of teachers’ practises were also evaluated during the different steps of CPD course and served as a checking and a remind of what is really an authentic scientific inquiry. The results of two-year independent courses suggest that the CPD programme appeared beneficial in resolving teaching misconceptions about IBSE. Teachers were able to experience, evaluate and reflect on their own practise. At the end, they developed new approaches to apply scientific inquiry while teaching biodiversity and climate change in the context of their own classrooms.

The 150th anniversary of ecology was celebrated in 2016 with a round table discussion at the European Parliament, Brussels. There was an aspiration to develop a social collective mind of what ecology, as a science, represents in the present threatened world. The date, 14 September, was chosen because it was on that day Haeckel had published his "

Soils are being degraded at an alarming rate and thereby also crucial ecosystem goods and services. Nitrogen (N) enrichment is a major driver of this degradation. While the negative impacts of N enrichment on vegetation are well known globally, those on various ecological interactions, and on ecosystem functioning, remain largely unknown. Because Mediterranean ecosystems are N limited, they are good model systems for evaluating how N enrichment impacts not only vegetation but also ecological partnerships and ecosystem functioning. Using a 7‐year N‐manipulation (dose and form) field experiment running in a Mediterranean Basin maquis located in a region with naturally low ambient N deposition (−1 y⁻¹), we assessed the impacts of the N additions on (i) the dominant plant species (photosynthetic N‐use efficiency); (ii) plant–soil ecological partnerships with ectomycorrhiza and N‐fixing bacteria; and (iii) ecosystem degradation (plant–soil cover, biological mineral weathering and soil N fixation). N additions significantly disrupted plant–soil cover, plant–soil biotic interactions, and ecosystem functioning compared with ambient N deposition conditions. However, the higher the ammonium dose (alone or with nitrate), the more drastic these disruptions were. We report a critical threshold at 20–40 kg ammonium ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ whereby severe ecosystem degradation can be expected. These observations are critical to help explain the mechanisms behind ecosystem degradation, to describe the collective loss of organisms and multifunction in the landscape, and to predict potential fragmentation of Mediterranean maquis under conditions of unrelieved N enrichment. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Besides being one of the most popular ornamental bulbs in western horticulture, the Mediterranean genus Narcissus has been the subject of numerous studies focusing on a wide scope of topics, including cytogenetics, hybridization and the evolution of polymorphic sexual systems. Phylogenetic hypotheses based on chloroplast data have provided a backbone for the genus but a detailed phylogenetic framework is still lacking. To fill this gap, we present a phylogenetic study of the genus using five markers from three genomes: ndhF and matK (chloroplast DNA), cob and atpA (mitochondrial DNA), and ITS (nuclear ribosomal DNA). In addition, we use chromosome counts from 89 populations representing 69 taxa. All analyses confirm that Narcissus is monophyletic with two main lineages largely corresponding to subg. Hermione and subg. Narcissus , but with incongruences between organellar and nuclear ribosomal phylogenies. At the infrageneric levels, our phylogenetic results challenge well‐established taxonomic groups, such as sect. Jonquillae , sect. Bulbocodii and sect. Pseudonarcissi , each of which contains at least two distinct lineages that do not constitute monophyletic groups, and highlight the influence of allopolyploid species in the monophyly of sections within subg. Hermione. The type of the genus and its section is also nested within sect. Pseudonarcissi supporting new nomenclatural changes. Our results also confirm the intersubgeneric hybrid nature of several hybrids including allopolyploids (e.g., N. dubius, N. tortifolius, N. miniatus). Morphological and cytogenetic evidence independently support the hypothesis that some of the incongruence can be attributed to hybridization, such as the splits of sect. Bulbocodii and sect. Pseudonarcissi or the disparate phylogenetic placements of sect. Aurelia and sect. Ganymedes. Together, this indicates a significant role for reticulate evolution in shaping the diversity of this genus. A Bayesian divergence time analysis suggests that the major diversification events took place during the Neogene and provides younger estimates for the main nodes than previous studies, which fit paleoclimatic and paleotectonic reconstructions of the western Mediterranean during this period.