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3. Art for change : transformative learning and youth empowerment in a changing climateJulia Bentz, Karen O'Brien, 2019, original scientific article Abstract: Young people represent a powerful force for social change, and they have an important role to play in climate change responses. However, empowering young people to be “systems changers” is not straightforward. It is particularly challenging within educational systems that prioritize instrumental learning over critical thinking and creative actions. History has shown that by creating novel spaces for reflexivity and experimentation, the arts have played a role in shifting mindsets and opening up new political horizons. In this paper, we explore the role of art as a driver for societal transformation in a changing climate and consider how an experiment with change can facilitate reflection on relationships between individual change and systems change. Following a review of the literature on transformations, transformative learning and the role of art, we describe an experiment with change carried out with students at an Art High School in Lisbon, Portugal, which involved choosing one sustainable behavior and adopting it for 30 days. A transformative program encouraged regular reflection and group discussions. During the experiment, students started developing an art project about his or her experience with change. The results show that a transformative learning approach that engages students with art can support critical thinking and climate change awareness, new perspectives and a sense of empowerment. Experiential, arts-based approaches also have the potential to create direct and indirect effects beyond the involved participants. We conclude that climate-related art projects can serve as more than a form of science communication. They represent a process of opening up imaginative spaces where audiences can move more freely and reconsider the role of humans as responsible beings with agency and a stake in sustainability transformations.
Keywords: climate change, education, transformative learning, art, adaptation, transformation
Published in DiRROS: 29.06.2026; Views: 108; Downloads: 110
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4. Creative, embodied practices, and the potentialities for sustainability transformationsJulia Bentz, Letícia Cabeçadas do Carmo, Nicole Schafenacker, Jörn Schirok, Sara Dal Corso, 2022, original scientific article Abstract: This paper argues for an integrative approach to sustainability transformations, one that reconnects body and mind, that fuses art and science and that integrates diverse forms of knowledge in an open, collaborative and creative way. It responds to scholarship emphasizing the importance of connecting disparate ways of knowing, including scientific, artistic, embodied and local knowledges to better understand environmental change and to foster community resilience and engagement. This paper draws on the experience of an arts-based project in Lisbon, Portugal, and explores embodied and performative practices and their potential for climate change transformations. It puts forward and enlivens an example, where such forms of engaging communities can provide new insight into how equitable, just and sustainable transformations can come about. The process involved a series of interactive workshops with diverse arts-based methods and embodied practices to create performative material. From this process, a space emerged for the creation of meaning about climate change. Three key elements stood out in this process as being potentially important for the emergence of meaning-making and for understanding the impact of the project: the use of metaphors, embedding the project locally, and the use of creative, embodied practices. This furthers research, suggesting that the arts can play a critical role in engaging people with new perspectives on climate change and sustainability issues by offering opportunities for critical reflection and providing spaces for creative imagination and experimentation. Such processes may be important for contributing to the changes needed to realize transformations to sustainability.
Keywords: climate change, experiential learning, arts-based approach, art and climate, inspiration, meaningmaking, embodiment, imagination
Published in DiRROS: 19.06.2026; Views: 132; Downloads: 83
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5. Copper toxicity as stressor in Chaetoceros calcitrans under different salinity levels: Growth inhibition, ROS accumulation, and alterations in fatty acid and PUA profilesRajaa Kholssi, Juan Rodríguez-Marquez, María Úbeda-Manzanaro, Marta Sendra, Ignacio Moreno-Garrido, Ana Bartual, 2026, original scientific article Abstract: The sensitivity of marine microalgae to metal contamination, particularly copper (Cu), is well recognized in ecotoxicology, providing key insights into predicting marine pollution impacts. This study examined the combined effects of Cu toxicity and salinity on the diatom Chaetoceros calcitrans under controlled laboratory conditions. Toxicity assays were conducted using two environmentally relevant Cu concentrations (2 and 5 μg L−1) and three salinity levels (33, 36, and 39) over 96 h, with cell responses analyzed via flow cytometry. Specific growth rate (SGR), chlorophyll fluorescence, fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) composition, polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUAs), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production were evaluated. Results showed that SGR increased from 1.7 d−1 at salinity 33 to 1.9 d−1 at 39, indicating enhanced growth at higher salinity. However, Cu exposure significantly reduced SGR, particularly under 5 μg L−1 Cu at salinity 33, where SGR dropped to 0.86 d−1. ROS levels were highest under the combined low salinity (33) and 5 μg L−1 Cu treatment, suggesting strong oxidative stress. PUA profiles shifted with Cu and salinity, with stress-related compounds such as 2E,4E/Z-decadienal and 2E,4E/Z,7Z-decatrienal increasing at low salinity. Fatty acid analysis revealed marked rises in saturated fatty acids, especially palmitic acid (C16:0) and myristic acid (C14:0), under Cu exposure. In the Cu2/39 treatment, C16:0 reached 1.34 × 104 fmol cell−1 compared to 1.36 × 103 fmol cell−1 in the control. Monounsaturated fatty acids, notably palmitoleic acid (C16:1), also increased, reaching 7. 46 × 103 fmol cell−1 versus 1.71 × 103 fmol cell−1 in the control. Conversely, polyunsaturated fatty acids, including arachidonic acid (C20:4) and eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5 n-3), decreased significantly following Cu exposure. Overall, elevated salinity mitigated Cu-induced growth inhibition but intensified oxidative and biochemical stress, underscoring the complex, endpoint-specific responses of C. calcitrans to multiple environmental stressors.
Keywords: climate change, ecotoxicology, marine diatom, flow cytometry, lipids
Published in DiRROS: 11.06.2026; Views: 184; Downloads: 220
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8. The MedFireAtlas : a regional historical fire database for the Mediterranean BasinEvrim A. Şahan, Margarita Arianoutsou, Davide Ascoli, Damir Barčić, Damir Barčić, Anastasia N. Christopoulou, Peter Fulé, Emilia Gutiérrez, Ante Ivanović, Jernej Jevšenak, Nikica Ogris, 2026, published scientific conference contribution abstract Keywords: forest fire, climate change
Published in DiRROS: 12.05.2026; Views: 224; Downloads: 187
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9. Climate impacts apple pollination, yield and economic outcomes of farmersClémence Riva, Stella Gachoki, Noureddine Adjlane, Danilo Bevk, Yamina Haider, 2026, original scientific article Abstract: Animal-mediated pollination is crucial to global food production but is increasingly threatened by environmental degradation, habitat loss and climate change. The extent to which temperature affects pollination services and crop yields is poorly understood. Using standardised monitoring in 33 apple orchards across Europe and Northern Africa over two years, this study assessed how ambient temperature affects flower visitors, fruit set, fruit quality and economic outcomes. Observation-time warm temperatures increased pollinator abundance, particularly of honey bees, while long-term mean annual temperatures enhanced pollination services for apple weight. Apple yield and the economic benefits to farmers increase with temperature, while the role of pollinators decreases along the climatic long-term mean annual temperature. These important findings suggest that another process may be at play beyond animal-mediated pollination. It was hypothesised that wind-mediated pollination may occur preferentially in Mediterranean regions, where farmers adapt their management strategies to benefit from this service. These results highlight the effects of climate change on agricultural production, the economic outcomes of farmers and food security and emphasise the need for climate-resilient strategies to support animal-mediated pollination and other ecosystem services.
Keywords: animal-mediated pollination, climate change, economic value, insect pollinators, Malus domestica, pollination services
Published in DiRROS: 05.05.2026; Views: 255; Downloads: 270
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10. Systematics and evolutionary history of raft and nursery-web spiders (Araneae: Dolomedidae and Pisauridae)Kuang-Ping Yu, Ren-Chung Cheng, Charles R. Haddad, Akio Tanikawa, Brogan L. Pett, Luis N. Piacentini, Ho Yin Yip, Yuya Suzuki, Arnaud Henrard, Christina J. Painting, Cor J. Vink, Eileen A. Hebets, Mark S. Harvey, Matjaž Kuntner, 2025, complete scientific database of research data Abstract: Pisauridae are a global and heterogeneous assemblage of spider genera with diverse morphologies and lifestyles. So far, the monophyly of Pisauridae and the inclusion of fishing spiders (Dolomedes) in this family have not been thoroughly tested. Here, we amend the systematics and classification of these lineages within a UCE phylogenomic framework and through a detailed morphological reappraisal. For estimations of their evolutionary age, we perform and compare outcomes from two divergence estimation approaches, an a posteriori likelihood, and an a priori Bayesian. Phylogenies reject the monophyly of both Pisauridae and Dolomedes: 1) Focal Clade I groups true Pisauridae genera including Pisaura; 2) Focal Clade II contains Blandinia and is sister to Trechaleidae and Lycosidae; 3) Focal Clade III groups Dolomedes, Megadolomedes, and Ornodolomedes, and is sister to Blandinia, Trechaleidae, and Lycosidae. We therefore propose to delimit Pisauridae by removing Dolomedidae rank resurrected (including Dolomedes, Bradystichus, Megadolomedes, Caledomedes, Mangromedes, Ornodolomedes, and Tasmomedes) and Blandinia incertae sedis. Likelihood and Bayesian time calibration approaches yield comparable divergence estimations: Pisauridae origin is estimated at 29–40 Ma; Blandinia 21–34 Ma; Dolomedidae 10–17 Ma; Dolomedes 9–16 Ma. Reconstructions suggest that the evolution of terrestrial and web-building lifestyles from semi-aquatic ancestors in Pisauridae coincided with cooling and drying climates during the mid-Miocene, but this was not the case in the few recent cases of terrestrialization in Dolomedes species. This historic reconstruction illustrates how climatic changes, or rapid radiation, can drive lifestyle diversification.
Keywords: classification, climate change, divergence time estimation, Dolomedes, fishing spiders, lifestyle evolution, MCMCtree, RelTime
Published in DiRROS: 13.04.2026; Views: 244; Downloads: 320
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