Groundwater and Its Role in Maintaining the Ecological Functions of Ecosystems—A Review

Author(s):  
Elisabet Verònica Wehncke ◽  
Néstor Alberto Mariano
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
pp. 78-98
Author(s):  
T. V. Kotova

Proceedings of the International conference (ИнтерКарто. ИнтерГИС, Russia) devoted to geographical information systems for sustainable development of territories have been published annually since 1994. The articles discuss theoretical and methodological aspects of geoinformation support for environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable de­velop­ment, issues of geoinformatics, cartography, remote sensing of the Earth, problems of environmental sustainability and environmental impact assessment. Over a quarter of a century, the conference proceedings got more than 125 articles related to the use of geoinformation technologies to the study and mapping of vegetation. The review of proceedings gives the concrete examples how to solve problems of vegetation mapping using GIS, it is focused on publications providing some examples of GIS appli­cation to the vegetation studies. The review is organized into thematic sections according the field of application of Geoinformatics: 1.Vegetation, 2. Dynamics, state and ecological functions of vegetation, 3. Biodiversity and its assessment, 4. Plant resources, 5. Monitoring of vegetation. The Vegetation section contains publications on vegetation studies and mapping performed for some regions of Russia — the North of the Far East, the Republic of Sakha (Yaku­tia), the Tyva Republic, Central Siberia, and others. More than half of the articles are devoted to vegetation dynamics, state and ecological functions of vegetation at different hierarchical levels. Some papers present the results of the studies based on new types of information sources (photographs) and visualization methods (animation). The use of geoinformation technologies to study biological diversity was included in the agenda of five conference sessions and later reflected in more than ten publications. They cover the development and creation of GIS, the use of geoinformation technologies for the analysis, assessment and mapping of biodiversity, for its monitoring and conservation. Quite a large number of articles are devoted to the study of forest resources. GIS technologies were used to solve problems of forest management, cartometric analysis of forested areas, determination of taxation indicators, systematization of forest conditions, etc. Examples of geoinformation versatile research for medicinal plant resources are given to assess their quality, resources and productivity in the region, to identify growing areas, including ones to be protected. Most of the published materials concerning to vegetation monitoring mainly relate to forests and forest management.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-506
Author(s):  
Zhou Liwei ◽  
Dai Yucheng
Keyword(s):  

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 809
Author(s):  
Sen Wang ◽  
Wanyu Liu ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Haotian Sun ◽  
Yali Qian ◽  
...  

Microorganisms existing in airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) have key implications in biogeochemical cycling and human health. In this study, PM2.5 samples, collected in the typical basin cities of Xi’an and Linfen, China, were analyzed through high-throughput sequencing to understand microbial seasonal variation characteristics and ecological functions. For bacteria, the highest richness and diversity were identified in autumn. The bacterial phyla were dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes. Metabolism was the most abundant pathway, with the highest relative abundance found in autumn. Pathogenic bacteria (Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Serratia, and Delftia) were positively correlated with most disease-related pathways. Besides, C cycling dominated in spring and summer, while N cycling dominated in autumn and winter. The relative abundance of S cycling was highest during winter in Linfen. For fungi, the highest richness was found in summer. Basidiomycota and Ascomycota mainly constituted the fungal phyla. Moreover, temperature (T) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) in Xi’an, and T, SO2, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in Linfen were the key factors affecting microbial community structures, which were associated with different pollution characteristics in Xi’an and Linfen. Overall, these results provide an important reference for the research into airborne microbial seasonal variations, along with their ecological functions and health impacts.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 1775
Author(s):  
Kai Tian ◽  
Xin-an Yin ◽  
Jie Bai ◽  
Wei Yang ◽  
Yan-wei Zhao

River system network (RSN) connectivity is important to maintain the environmental and ecological functions of wetlands. Quantitative evaluation of connectivity can provide crucial support for efforts to improve wetland connectivity and to restore and protect wetland ecosystems. Most existing evaluation methods uniformly generalise RSN to form an undifferentiated RSN of edges and nodes that is taken as a whole to evaluate the connectivity. However, actual RSNs comprise rivers, canals, ditches, lakes, and ponds, which differ substantially in their structures, morphologies, and attributes. The mix of RSN elements therefore defines grades that give RSNs distinctive characteristics. Moreover, RSNs with different grades perform different ranges of environmental and ecological functions. The existing evaluation methods, which have some limitations, do not account for these characteristics. To account for these differences, we examined the grade characteristics and their impact on environmental and ecological functions. We established a grading system of RSN elements and a grading method of RSN, and constructed the structural connectivity evaluation indicator system for RSNs at different grades. On this basis, we propose a method for grading evaluation of RSN connectivity. We used China’s Baiyangdian Wetland to demonstrate the use of the system and validate the results. The proposed method provided an objective and accurate evaluation of RSN connectivity and clarified the differences in connectivity among RSNs with different grades, thereby providing improved guidance for the development and maintenance of the environmental and ecological functions of RSNs.


Proceedings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Sara Fareed Mohamed Wahdan ◽  
François Buscot ◽  
Witoon Purahong

The return of plant residues to the ground is used to promote soil carbon sequestration, improve soil structure, reduce evaporation, and help to fix additional carbon dioxide in the soil. The microbial communities with diverse ecological functions that colonize plant residues during decomposition are expected to be highly dynamic. We aimed to characterize microbial communities colonizing wheat straw residues and their ecological functions during the early phase of straw decomposition. The experiment, run in Central Germany, was conducted in a conventional farming system under both ambient conditions and a future climate scenario expected in 50–70 years from now. We used MiSeq illumina sequencing and network analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal ITS genes. Our results show that future climate alters the dynamics of bacterial and fungal communities during decomposition. We detected various microbial ecological functions within wheat straw residues such as plant growth-promoting bacteria, N-fixing bacteria, saprotrophs, and plant pathogenic fungi. Interestingly, plant pathogenic fungi dominated (~87% of the total sequences) within the wheat residue mycobiome under both ambient and future climate conditions. Therefore, we applied co-occurrence network analysis to predict the potential impacts of climate change on the interaction between pathogenic community and other bacterial and fungal microbiomes. The network under ambient climate consisted of 91 nodes and 129 correlations (edges). The highest numbers of connections were detected for the pathogens Mycosphaerella tassiana and Neosetophoma rosigena. The network under future climate consisted of 100 nodes and 170 correlations. The highest numbers of connections were detected for the pathogens Pseudopithomyces rosae and Gibellulopsis piscis. We conclude that the future climate significantly changes the interactions between plant pathogenic fungi and other microorganisms during the early phrase of decomposition.


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