Ecosystem integrity and the ?fish wars?

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Westra
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Febria ◽  
Maggie Bayfield ◽  
Kathryn E. Collins ◽  
Hayley S. Devlin ◽  
Brandon C. Goeller ◽  
...  

In Aotearoa New Zealand, agricultural land-use intensification and decline in freshwater ecosystem integrity pose complex challenges for science and society. Despite riparian management programmes across the country, there is frustration over a lack in widespread uptake, upfront financial costs, possible loss in income, obstructive legislation and delays in ecological recovery. Thus, social, economic and institutional barriers exist when implementing and assessing agricultural freshwater restoration. Partnerships are essential to overcome such barriers by identifying and promoting co-benefits that result in amplifying individual efforts among stakeholder groups into coordinated, large-scale change. Here, we describe how initial progress by a sole farming family at the Silverstream in the Canterbury region, South Island, New Zealand, was used as a catalyst for change by the Canterbury Waterway Rehabilitation Experiment, a university-led restoration research project. Partners included farmers, researchers, government, industry, treaty partners (Indigenous rights-holders) and practitioners. Local capacity and capability was strengthened with practitioner groups, schools and the wider community. With partnerships in place, co-benefits included lowered costs involved with large-scale actions (e.g., earth moving), reduced pressure on individual farmers to undertake large-scale change (e.g., increased participation and engagement), while also legitimising the social contracts for farmers, scientists, government and industry to engage in farming and freshwater management. We describe contributions and benefits generated from the project and describe iterative actions that together built trust, leveraged and aligned opportunities. These actions were scaled from a single farm to multiple catchments nationally.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Jenssen ◽  
Stefan Nickel ◽  
Winfried Schröder

Abstract Background Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and climate change can have impacts on ecological structures and functions, and thus on the integrity of ecosystems and their services. Operationalization of ecosystem integrity is still an important desideratum. Results A methodology for classifying the ecosystem integrity of forests in Germany under the influence of climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition is presented. The methodology was based on 14 indicators for six ecosystem functions: habitat function, net primary function, carbon sequestration, nutrient and water flux, resilience. It allows assessments of ecosystem integrity changes by comparing current or prospective ecosystem states with ecosystem-type-specific reference states as described by quantitative indicators for 61 forest ecosystem types based on data before 1990. Conclusion The method developed enables site-specific classifications of ecosystem integrity as well as classifications with complete coverage and determinations of temporal trends as shown using examples from the Thuringian Forest and the “Kellerwald-Edersee” National Park (Germany).


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorhaine Santos-Silva ◽  
Tamaris Gimenez Pinheiro ◽  
Amazonas Chagas-Jr ◽  
Marinêz Isaac Marques ◽  
Leandro Dênis Battirola

Abstract: Myriapods constitute important edaphic macrofauna taxa which dwell in different trophic levels and influence the dynamics of these environments. This study evaluated the variation in composition, richness and abundance of edaphic myriapod assemblages as a function of the distribution and structure of flooded and non-flooded habitats (spatial variation) and hydrological seasonality (temporal variation) in a floodplain of the northern Pantanal region of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Sampling was carried out in three areas of the Poconé Pantanal, along an altitudinal and inundation gradient consisting of inundated and non-inundated habitats and different vegetation formations. Three quadrats (10 x 10 m) were delimited within each habitat type, where sampling was performed using pitfall traps and mini-Winkler extractors during the dry, rising water, high water and receding water periods of two hydrological cycles within the Pantanal (2010/2011 and 2011/2012). A total of 549 millipedes were collected, consisting of 407 Diplopoda and 142 Chilopoda distributed in six orders, 12 families and 20 species. The assemblages composition varied throughout the seasonal periods, indicating that the rising water and dry periods differed from the high water and receding water periods. In addition to the variation between seasonal periods, myriapod richness and abundance also varied in relation to areas consisting of different vegetation formations. Thus, it can be concluded that the hydrological seasonality associated with the inundation gradient and different vegetation types were determinant in the heterogeneous spatial and temporal distribution of myriapod assemblages, validating that the conservation of these invertebrates in the Pantanal is directly linked to the preservation of vegetation, and consequently, ecosystem integrity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
XiangWen Xiong ◽  
Mingzi Wu

<p>This paper presents a novel ecological &amp; energized modules (EEMs) system for transportation and bridge systems. It has a general interest in almost all human living &amp; ecological systems, civil engineering, and infrastructure. As an underlying and fundamental system of zero energy, zero- water-consumption, and zero-carbon with a 100% greening rate and 100% clean energy, high- quality air, and powerful carbon capture system with significant positive spillover for global carbon removal and climate challenges, etc., the EEMs bridge system is easy, fast, efficient, and zero- dependence on the large complex equipment during the construction. It is applied to a wide variety of bridge systems, such as road bridges, footbridges, flyovers, and overpasses. It’s pollution-free, safe, noiseless, and can be used soon after paving, repairing, and re-laying. The EEMs bridge system has unique superiority in ecosystem integrity and connectivity, resulting in available consequences for global biodiversity, local species interactions, ecosystem integrity and connectivity.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Dudgeon

River ecosystems in monsoonal Asia are experiencing human impacts to the detriment of the rich biodiversity they support. Threats include hydrologic alteration, pollution, habitat destruction, overexploitation, and invasive exotic species. Global warming will cause further changes to river ecosystems, and may act synergistically with other threat factors. Significant upward or northward range adjustments by the freshwater biota will be necessary to cope with rising temperatures, but there will be significant constraints upon dispersal ability and availability of suitable habitat for many organisms. Global warming will exacerbate existing impacts of hydrologic alteration because of the adaptive human responses that will be engendered by changes in climate and runoff, particularly dams constructed for hydropower generation, flood protection, water storage, and irrigation. The consequences of further hydrologic alteration and habitat fragmentation will be profound, since almost all ecological processes, material transfers and life-cycle events in the rivers of monsoonal Asia are mediated or controlled by flow. Thus a change in the timing or amounts of flow changes everything. Collaborative research to determine the environmental allocation of water flow needed to maintain ecosystem integrity and sustain biodiversity in the human-dominated rivers of monsoonal Asia should be a priority for ecologists, engineers and water-resource managers.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document