Biodiversity, trait composition and ecological functioning: impacts of coastal urbanisation on subtropical mudflats

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (9) ◽  
pp. 1043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navodha G. Dissanayake ◽  
Christopher L. J. Frid ◽  
Bryony A. Caswell
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Cumulative Effects ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Ecological Functioning

The world’s coastlines have become heavily modified over the last century, with the adjacent natural habitats declining in biodiversity and health under increasing pressure from urbanisation. In this study we assessed the structure and biological traits of macrofaunal assemblages from 24 south-east Queensland mudflats in order to determine whether ecological functioning (e.g. primary production, nutrient cycling) and the delivery of ecosystem services was affected by urbanisation. This work represents the most comprehensive assessment of mudflat assemblages in the region to date. The mudflats contained 50 macrofaunal taxa and so were comparable to other local intertidal systems. Summer assemblages contained more species, more individuals and had differing taxonomic composition. When indexed as a proportion of subcatchment area, urbanisation did not correspond to a clear impact on macrofaunal composition; rather, the nature of the industry or activity was critical. Mudflats from subcatchments with industries producing organic wastes significantly differed from subcatchments with <1.3% cover of these industries. Functioning was conserved in mudflats experiencing current levels of enrichment, but this may decline with growing pressure from human populations. The results of this study illustrate that large-scale spatial data, such as from satellites, can be used to detect the cumulative effects of urbanisation when the pressures are highly resolved.

Production of Utilizable Energy from Renewable Resources: Mechanism, Machinery and Effect on Environment

2015 ◽  
Vol 1116 ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neelima Mahato ◽  
Mohd Omaish Ansari ◽  
Moo Hwan Cho
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Resources ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Biomass Energy ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Renewable Energy Resources ◽  
Natural Habitats

The renewable energy sources had been known to humankind since the very beginning of the human civilization, though practiced in very primitive forms. The first civilization and subsequent greater civilizations, came up, existed, and flourished at or near river valley/basins. Rivers provided water for irrigation, domestic utilization, transportation; overall development of the entire civilization. In the latter years, the increase in the human population and certain revolutionary inventions and discoveries like fire, the wheel, and domestication of cattle and animals led the movement and spread of the human populations in the other parts of the globe far from river irrigated lands. Humans learnt to utilize underground waters and harvest rainwater for living and survival. In the course of development, there also increased demand for more energy and its storage so that it can be utilized as and when required. This brought humankind to discover the laws of thermodynamics, emergence of combustion engines, electromagnetic induction, electricity and storage devices, such as batteries and supercapacitors. The development has been revolutionized since last few centuries with increasing demand of energy with growing industries and a faster life. Nowadays, because of massive exploitation of fossil resources for fuel and electricity, and concerns of global warming, exploring renewable energy alternatives are gaining momentum. Of many renewable resources, viz., sun, wind, water, geothermal, biomass, etc., the biomass energy is the most widely studied one in terms of both, published literature and wide social acceptance across the globe followed by solar and wind energy.The chapter presents the potential alternatives to non-renewable energy resources, mechanism and machinery to draw and exploit the energy in the usable or utilizable form; past, present, recent progresses and future scope of the ongoing researches on this subject. The chapter also deals with the relative merits or pros and cons of the massive and large scale installation of machinery to produce electricity from some of the noteworthy renewable energy resources, such as, wind, water and sun, which is affecting the local environment or natural habitats, flora and fauna; overall influence on the delicate balance of the ecosystem.

scholarly journals Food-web structure and ecosystem services: insights from the Serengeti

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1524) ◽  
pp. 1665-1682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Dobson
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Migratory Species ◽  
Food Web Structure ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Serengeti Ecosystem ◽  
Full Diversity

The central organizing theme of this paper is to discuss the dynamics of the Serengeti grassland ecosystem from the perspective of recent developments in food-web theory. The seasonal rainfall patterns that characterize the East African climate create an annually oscillating, large-scale, spatial mosaic of feeding opportunities for the larger ungulates in the Serengeti; this in turn creates a significant annual variation in the food available for their predators. At a smaller spatial scale, periodic fires during the dry season create patches of highly nutritious grazing that are eaten in preference to the surrounding older patches of less palatable vegetation. The species interactions between herbivores and plants, and carnivores and herbivores, are hierarchically nested in the Serengeti food web, with the largest bodied consumers on each trophic level having the broadest diets that include species from a large variety of different habitats in the ecosystem. The different major habitats of the Serengeti are also used in a nested fashion; the highly nutritious forage of the short grass plains is available only to the larger migratory species for a few months each year. The longer grass areas, the woodlands and kopjes (large partially wooded rocky islands in the surrounding mosaic of grassland) contain species that are resident throughout the year; these species often have smaller body size and more specialized diets than the migratory species. Only the larger herbivores and carnivores obtain their nutrition from all the different major habitat types in the ecosystem. The net effect of this is to create a nested hierarchy of subchains of energy flow within the larger Serengeti food web; these flows are seasonally forced by rainfall and operate at different rates in different major branches of the web. The nested structure that couples sequential trophic levels together interacts with annual seasonal variation in the fast and slow chains of nutrient flow in a way that is likely to be central to the stability of the whole web. If the Serengeti is to be successfully conserved as a fully functioning ecosystem, then it is essential that the full diversity of natural habitats be maintained within the greater Serengeti ecosystem. The best way to do this is by controlling the external forces that threaten the boundaries of the ecosystem and by balancing the economic services the park provides between local, national and international needs. I conclude by discussing how the ecosystem services provided by the Serengeti are driven by species on different trophic levels. Tourism provides the largest financial revenue to the national economy, but it could be better organized to provide more sustained revenue to the park. Ultimately, ecotourism needs to be developed in ways that take lessons from the structure of the Serengeti food webs, and in ways that provide tangible benefits to people living around the park while also improving the experience of all visitors.

scholarly journals Efficient Approximate Range Aggregation over Large-scale Spatial Data Federation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Yexuan Shi ◽  
Yongxin Tong ◽  
Yuxiang Zeng ◽  
Zimu Zhou ◽  
Bolin Ding ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Data Federation

scholarly journals Oceanic islands and climate: using a multi-criteria model of drivers of change to select key conservation areas in Galapagos

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Escobar-Camacho ◽  
Paulina Rosero ◽  
Mauricio Castrejón ◽  
Carlos F. Mena ◽  
Francisco Cuesta
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Marine Reserve ◽  
Galapagos Islands ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Galápagos Islands ◽  
Drivers Of Change

AbstractThe unique marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the Galapagos Islands are highly vulnerable to human-based drivers of change, including the introduction of invasive species, unsustainable tourism, illegal fishing, overexploitation of ecosystem services, and climate change. These drivers can interact with climate-based drivers such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) at multiple temporal and spatial scales, exacerbating their negative impacts on already fragile ecosystems and the socioeconomic system of the Archipelago. In this review, we performed a literature review based on published literature from 1945 to 2020 and local and global climate databases to analyze drivers of change in the Galapagos. We developed and applied a spatial impact assessment model to identify high-ecological value areas with high sensitivity and exposure scores to environmental change drivers. We identified 13 priority HEVA that encompass ca. 23% (14,715 km2) of the Galapagos Archipelago, distributed in nearly 3% of the Galapagos Marine Reserve and 20% Galapagos National Park. Current and future impacts are likely to concentrate on the inhabited islands’ highlands, whereas marine impacts concentrate along most of the Galapagos Islands’ shorelines. These results are important for guiding the design and implementation of adaptation measures aimed at increasing ecosystem resilience and human adaptive capacity in the face of global environmental change. Overall, these results will be valuable in their application for preserving Galapagos biota, securing the provision of vital ecosystem services for resident human populations, and sustaining the nature-based tourism industry.

scholarly journals Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Gong ◽  
Liangtao Li ◽  
Jan C. Axmarcher ◽  
Zhenrong Yu ◽  
Yunhui Liu
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Habitat Islands ◽  
Local Plant ◽  
Ecological Functioning

AbstractIn the intensively farmed, homogenous agricultural landscape of the North China Plain, family graveyards form distinct cultural landscape features. In addition to their cultural value, these graveyards represent semi-natural habitat islands whose potential roles in biodiversity conservation and ecological functioning has remained poorly understood. In this study, we investigated plant species richness on 199 family graveyards of different ages and sizes. In accordance with biogeography theory, both overall and insect-pollinated plant species richness increased with area and age of graveyards. Even small graveyards show a strong potential for conserving local plant richness, and a mosaic of both large and small family graveyards could play an important role in the conservation of farmland biodiversity and related ecosystem functions. The launch of agri-environmental measures that conserve and create semi-natural habitats, in turn benefitting agricultural biodiversity and ecological functioning, has proven difficult in China due to the shortage of dispensable arable land. Given the great value of family graveyards as semi-natural habitats reflected in our study, we propose to focus preliminary efforts on conserving these landscape features as existing, widespread and culturally important semi-natural habitat islands. This would represent an effective, complementary policy to a subsequent re-establishment of other semi-natural habitats for the conservation of biodiversity and ecological functioning in agricultural landscapes.

Dryland Degradation and Expansion: Implications for Mexican Policies from the Earth System Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Gabriel Lopez Porras
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Sustainable Land Management ◽  
System Perspective ◽  
The Earth

Despite international efforts to stop dryland degradation and expansion, current dryland pathways are predicted to result in large-scale migration, growing poverty and famine, and increasing climate change, land degradation, conflicts and water scarcity. Earth system science has played a key role in analysing dryland problems, and has been even incorporated in global assessments such as the ones made by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. However, policies addressing dryland degradation, like the ‘Mexican programme for the promotion of sustainable land management’, do not embrace an Earth system perspective, so they do not consider the complexity and non-linearity that underlie dryland problems. By exploring how this Mexican programme could integrate the Earth system perspective, this paper discusses how ’Earth system’ policies could better address dryland degradation and expansion in the Anthropocene.

scholarly journals Spatial Agglomeration of China’s Forest Products Manufacturing Industry: Measurement, Characteristics and Determinants

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1006
Author(s):  
Zhenhuan Chen ◽  
Hongge Zhu ◽  
Wencheng Zhao ◽  
Menghan Zhao ◽  
Yutong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Spatial Data Analysis ◽  
Forest Protection ◽  
Spatial Agglomeration ◽  
Continuous Space

China’s forest products manufacturing industry is experiencing the dual pressure of forest protection policies and wood scarcity and, therefore, it is of great significance to reveal the spatial agglomeration characteristics and evolution drivers of this industry to enhance its sustainable development. Based on the perspective of large-scale agglomeration in a continuous space, in this study, we used the spatial Gini coefficient and standard deviation ellipse method to investigate the spatial agglomeration degree and location distribution characteristics of China’s forest products manufacturing industry, and we used exploratory spatial data analysis to investigate its spatial agglomeration pattern. The results show that: (1) From 1988 to 2018, the degree of spatial agglomeration of China’s forest products manufacturing industry was relatively low, and the industry was characterized by a very pronounced imbalance in its spatial distribution. (2) The industry has a very clear core–periphery structure, the spatial distribution exhibits a “northeast-southwest” pattern, and the barycenter of the industrial distribution has tended to move south. (3) The industry mainly has a high–high and low–low spatial agglomeration pattern. The provinces with high–high agglomeration are few and concentrated in the southeast coastal area. (4) The spatial agglomeration and evolution characteristics of China’s forest products manufacturing industry may be simultaneously affected by forest protection policies, sources of raw materials, international trade and the degree of marketization. In the future, China’s forest products manufacturing industry should further increase the level of spatial agglomeration to fully realize the economies of scale.

Modeling and Implementation of Inter-Campuses Equipment Optimized Management Based on WebGIS

2013 ◽  
Vol 680 ◽  
pp. 534-539
Author(s):  
Wei Feng Ma
Keyword(s):  
Information Management ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Mathematics Model ◽  
Data Mapping ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
New Research ◽  
Research Challenge

With the rapid expansion of the campus scale and the increasing of the geographically dispersed campus, how to adopt new theory, new method and new technology to realize the equipment optimized assignment and the information management is a new research challenge. It is the key to safeguard the national fund to use reasonably, and to speed up the development of education healthily. Through analyzing the domestic and foreign related research works, the paper proposed that it can take use of the spatial data expression and analysis with Geographic Information System (GIS) to realize the large-scale and inter-campuses equipment optimized assignment and information management. It discussed the mathematics model and the system architecture. Moreover, the paper described the key implementation technology in great detail such as spatial data mapping with MapInfo professional 9 and the development of WebGIS functions with MapXtreme. The results show that the solution is feasible and effective.

A Research of Matching Algorithm and Strategy on Entity with Complex Area

2012 ◽  
Vol 209-211 ◽  
pp. 252-255
Author(s):  
Li Guo ◽  
Hai Ying Zheng ◽  
Yong Hong Wang ◽  
Bin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Data Matching ◽  
Large Scale Data ◽  
Polygon Area ◽  
Spatial Data Integration ◽  
One And Many ◽  
Complex Polygon ◽  
Scale Data ◽  
Matching Relation

Data matching technology is a key technology for spatial data integration and fusion. This paper represents a solution to the complex polygon area, defines the area overlapped rate in the aspect of geometric measure, presents the data matching idea based on area overlapped rate .Then, this paper discusses and realizes the data matching relation of area elements including one to one , many to one and many to many. At last, region targets are set as the study object, large scale data are taken for example. We draw the conclusion: this algorithm is efficient.

scholarly journals Marsh rabbit mortalities tie pythons to the precipitous decline of mammals in the Everglades

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1805) ◽  
pp. 20150120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. McCleery ◽  
Adia Sovie ◽  
Robert N. Reed ◽  
Mark W. Cunningham ◽  
Margaret E. Hunter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Faunal Communities ◽  
Python Molurus ◽  
Scale Experiment ◽  
Precipitous Decline ◽  
Python Molurus Bivittatus ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ecological Functioning

To address the ongoing debate over the impact of invasive species on native terrestrial wildlife, we conducted a large-scale experiment to test the hypothesis that invasive Burmese pythons ( Python molurus bivittatus ) were a cause of the precipitous decline of mammals in Everglades National Park (ENP). Evidence linking pythons to mammal declines has been indirect and there are reasons to question whether pythons, or any predator, could have caused the precipitous declines seen across a range of mammalian functional groups. Experimentally manipulating marsh rabbits, we found that pythons accounted for 77% of rabbit mortalities within 11 months of their translocation to ENP and that python predation appeared to preclude the persistence of rabbit populations in ENP. On control sites, outside of the park, no rabbits were killed by pythons and 71% of attributable marsh rabbit mortalities were classified as mammal predations. Burmese pythons pose a serious threat to the faunal communities and ecological functioning of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, which will probably spread as python populations expand their range.

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