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The demographic history of East-Central Europe after the Neolithic period remains poorly explored, despite this region being on the confluence of various ecological zones and cultural entities. Here, the descendants of societies associated with steppe pastoralists form Early Bronze Age were followed by Middle Bronze Age populations displaying unique characteristics. Particularly, the predominance of collective burials, the scale of which, was previously seen only in the Neolithic. The extent to which this re-emergence of older traditions is a result of genetic shift or social changes in the MBA is a subject of debate. Here by analysing 91 newly generated genomes from Bronze Age individuals from present Poland and Ukraine, we discovered that Middle Bronze Age populations were formed by an additional admixture event involving a population with relatively high proportions of genetic component associated with European hunter-gatherers and that their social structure was based on, primarily patrilocal, multigenerational kin-groups. 1-12 200

The paper aims to state the research protocol for the innovation-seeking behavior of Small- to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), related to the classification of knowledge needs expressed in the networking databases. The dataset of 9301 networking offers as the outcome of proactive attitudes represents the content of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) database. The data set has been semi-automatically obtained using the rvest R package, and then analyzed using static word embedding neural network architecture: Continuous Bag-of-Words (CBoW), predictive model Skip-Gram, and Global Vectors for Word Representation (GloVe) considered the state-of-the-art models, to create topic-specific lexicons. The proportion of offers labeled as Exploitative innovation to Explorative innovation is balanced with a 51%–49% proportion. The prediction rates show good performance with an AUC score of 0.887, and the prediction rates for exploratory innovation 0.878 and explorative innovation 0.857. The performance of predictions with the frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) technique shows that the research protocol is sufficient to categorize the innovation-seeking behavior of SMEs using static word embedding based on the description of knowledge needs and text classification, but it is not perfect due to the general entropy related to the outcome of networking. In the context of networking, SMEs place a greater emphasis on explorative innovation in their innovation-seeking behavior. They prioritize smart technologies and global business cooperation, whereas current information technologies and software are more of interest to SMEs that adopt an exploitative innovation approach.

Question: When evaluating forests in terms of their biodiversity, distinctiveness and naturalness, the affinity of the constituent species to forests is a crucial parameter. Here we ask to what extent are vascular plant species associated with forests, and does species’ affinity to forests vary between European regions?. Location: Temperate and boreal forest biome of Northwestern and Central Europe. Methods: We compiled EuForPlant, a new extensive list of forest vascular plant species in 24 regions spread across 13 European countries using vegetation databases and expert knowledge. Species were region-specifically classified into four categories reflecting the degree of their affinity to forest habitats: 1.1, species of forest interiors; 1.2, species of forest edges and forest openings; 2.1, species that can be found in forest as well as open vegetation; and 2.2, species that can be found partly in forest, but mainly in open vegetation. An additional “O” category was distinguished, covering species typical for non-forest vegetation. Results: EuForPlant comprises 1,726 species, including 1,437 herb-layer species, 159 shrubs, 107 trees, 19 lianas and 4 epiphytic parasites. Across regions, generalist forest species (with 450 and 777 species classified as 2.1 and 2.2, respectively) significantly outnumbered specialist forest species (with 250 and 137 species classified as 1.1 and 1.2, respectively). Even though the degree of shifting between the categories of forest affinity among regions was relatively low (on average, 17.5%), about one-third of the forest species (especially 1.2 and 2.2) swapped categories in at least one of the study regions. Conclusions: The proposed list can be used widely in vegetation science and global change ecology related to forest biodiversity and community dynamics. Shifting of forest affinity among regions emphasizes the importance of a continental-scale forest plant species list with regional specificity. QuestionWhen evaluating forests in terms of their biodiversity, distinctiveness and naturalness, the affinity of the constituent species to forests is a crucial parameter. Here we ask to what extent are vascular plant species associated with forests, and does species’ affinity to forests vary between European regions?LocationTemperate and boreal forest biome of Northwestern and Central Europe.MethodsWe compiled EuForPlant, a new extensive list of forest vascular plant species in 24 regions spread across 13 European countries using vegetation databases and expert knowledge. Species were region-specifically classified into four categories reflecting the degree of their affinity to forest habitats: 1.1, species of forest interiors; 1.2, species of forest edges and forest openings; 2.1, species that can be found in forest as well as open vegetation; and 2.2, species that can be found partly in forest, but mainly in open vegetation. An additional “O” category was distinguished, covering species typical for non-forest vegetation.ResultsEuForPlant comprises 1,726 species, including 1,437 herb-layer species, 159 shrubs, 107 trees, 19 lianas and 4 epiphytic parasites. Across regions, generalist forest species (with 450 and 777 species classified as 2.1 and 2.2, respectively) significantly outnumbered specialist forest species (with 250 and 137 species classified as 1.1 and 1.2, respectively). Even though the degree of shifting between the categories of forest affinity among regions was relatively low (on average, 17.5%), about one-third of the forest species (especially 1.2 and 2.2) swapped categories in at least one of the study regions.ConclusionsThe proposed list can be used widely in vegetation science and global change ecology related to forest biodiversity and community dynamics. Shifting of forest affinity among regions emphasizes the importance of a continental-scale forest plant species list with regional specificity.

Here, we report, for the first time, a microsporidian infection in laboratory-reared larvae of the damselfly Ischnura elegans. Infected larvae originated from field-collected adult females, which were caught in southern Poland in August 2020 (the second half of the flight season). Higher rearing temperatures and the presence of predator cues from the invasive alien signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) increased the number of infected larvae. Infected larvae had distorted wing development, and all individuals died before emergence. Hence, microsporidian infection in I. elegans larvae impacted damselfly morphology and life history. We propose that warming temperature and stress caused by non-consumptive effects triggered by invasive alien predators are possible factors that produce negative fitness consequences following microsporidian infection in a key amphibious ectotherm.

In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and policy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives. Introduction: Earth systems models, land cover, and the past Holocene land use and its significance: LandCover6k Classifying past land use The LandCover6k land use classification and variables Implementation of the classification in a geospatial database Archaeological land use mapping: Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya - Mesopotamia classification. - Arabia land use data. - Arabia classification. Conclusion