Challenges during the execution, results, and monitoring phases of ecological restoration: Learning from a country-wide assessment

Outcomes from restoration projects are often difficult for policymakers and stakeholders to assess, but this information is fundamental for scaling up ecological restoration actions. We evaluated technical aspects of the interventions, results (ecological and socio-economic) and monitoring practices in 75 restoration projects in Mexico using a digital survey composed of 137 questions. We found that restoration projects in terrestrial ecosystems generally relied on actions included in minimal (97%) and maximal (86%) intervention, while in wetlands, the preferred restoration strategies were intermediate (75%) and minimal intervention (63%). Only a third of the projects (38%) relied on collective learning as a source of knowledge to generate techniques (traditional management). In most of the projects (73%), multiple criteria (>2) were considered when selecting plant species for plantings; the most frequently used criterion was that plant species were found within the restoration area, native or naturalized (i.e., a circa situm criterion; 88%). In 48% of the projects, the biological material required for restoration (e.g., seeds and seedlings) were gathered or propagated by project implementers rather than purchased commercially. Only a few projects (between 33 and 34%) reached a high level of biodiversity recovery (>75%). Most of the projects (between 69 to71%) recovered less than 50% of the ecological services. Most of the projects (82%) led to improved individual relationships. The analysis revealed a need to implement strategies that are cost-effective, the application of traditional ecological knowledge and the inclusion of indigenous people and local communities in restoration programs at all stages—from planning to implementation, through monitoring. We also identified the need to expand research to develop effective tools to assess ecosystems’ regeneration potential and develop theoretical frameworks to move beyond short-term markers to set and achieve medium- and long-term goals. Cautious and comprehensive planning of national strategies must consider the abovementioned identified gaps.

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INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES AS A PROSPECTIVE DIRECTION OF PLANNING ACTIVITIES OF HOTEL AND RESTAURANT ENTERPRISES OF UKRAINE

Market Infrastructure ◽

10.32843/infrastruct59-10 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ljudmila Neshchadym ◽

Svetlana Тymchuk

Keyword(s):

Internal State ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Restaurant Industry ◽

Product Portfolio ◽

Innovative Strategies ◽

Reducing Costs ◽

Fierce Competition ◽

High Level

The article monitors and analyzes the main strategies for the development of hotel and restaurant enterprises and, accordingly, increase their efficiency and competitiveness; the process of organization and economic planning of hotel and restaurant enterprises has been improved. It is investigated that the enterprises of hotel and restaurant industry of Ukraine partially provide the necessary quality indicators for the provided services, and this is the reason for the insufficient level of competitiveness of services in the domestic market and in European countries. An urgent problem of planning and organizing the activities of hotel and restaurant enterprises is the use of innovative strategies and areas of long-term development to increase the level of competitiveness and quality of services provided. This will intensify innovation processes in Ukraine in the field of services. Innovative strategies and promising areas of development of hotel and restaurant enterprises are extremely important in the management of hotel and restaurant complexes. Innovative strategies in the hotel and restaurant industry are cost-effective and feasible provided a high level of profitability, improving the service process, expanding the range of services, reducing costs, increasing competitiveness, improve and optimize the work of all hotel or restaurant services. The application of innovative strategies in the process of hotel and restaurant enterprises allows them to compete in the field of service. In conditions of fierce competition and rapidly changing market conditions, it is very important not only to focus on the internal state of affairs of the enterprise, but also to develop a long-term strategy. Economic activity requires constant innovation. All services offered by hotel and restaurant enterprises must be introduced in modern innovative ways. This is the basis for successful business, maintaining a consistently high level of competitiveness and improving the quality of service. The selection of the optimal innovation strategy for a hotel or restaurant company is carried out by its management based on the analysis of key factors that characterize its condition and the state of the product portfolio.

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Variation and adaptation of leaf water content among species, communities, and biomes

Environmental Research Letters ◽

10.1088/1748-9326/ac38da ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (12) ◽

pp. 124038

Author(s):

Ruomeng Wang ◽

Nianpeng He ◽

Shenggong Li ◽

Li Xu ◽

Mingxu Li

Keyword(s):

Water Content ◽

Plant Species ◽

Plant Communities ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Life Forms ◽

Systematic Investigation ◽

Leaf Water ◽

Leaf Water Content ◽

Plant Life Forms

Abstract Leaf water content (LWC) is essential for the physiological activities in plants, but its spatial variation and the underlying mechanisms in natural plant communities are unclear. In this study, we measured the LWC of 5641 plant species from 72 natural communities in China, covering most terrestrial ecosystems, to answer these questions. Our results showed that LWC, on average, was 0.690 g g–1, and was significantly higher in forests and deserts than in grasslands. LWC was significantly different among different plant life forms, and ranked on averages in the following order: herbs > shrubs > trees. Interestingly, LWC decreased with increasing humidity and increased in dry environments. Furthermore, the variations of LWC in plant communities were higher in arid areas and those species with lower LWC in a plant community were more sensitive to changing environments. These results demonstrated the adaptations of plants to water regime in their habitats. Although, phylogeny has no significant effect on LWC, plant species both in forests and grasslands evolve toward higher LWC. Variations of LWC from species to community to biome represent the cost-effective strategy of plants, where plant species in drier environment require higher input to keep higher LWC to balance water availability and heat regulation. This systematic investigation fills the gaps on how LWC varies spatially and clarifies the different adaptation mechanisms regulating LWC across scales.

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Ecological Restoration Strategies in Fragile Subtropical Mountain Ecosystems in China Based on Long-term Research in Changting County

Journal of Resources and Ecology ◽

10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2015.03.002 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 139-145 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Zhu Hejian

Keyword(s):

Ecological Restoration ◽

Mountain Ecosystems ◽

Restoration Strategies

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Effects of different levels replacement of ensiled pistachio epicarp with corn silage on fattening parameters and lamb performance

Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science ◽

10.1017/s1752756200030052 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 2009 ◽

pp. 166-166

Author(s):

A Mahdavi ◽

M Zaghari ◽

M Zahedifar ◽

A Nikkhah ◽

F Alemi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Phenolic Compounds ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Environmental Pollutant ◽

Carcass Composition ◽

Corn Silage ◽

High Level ◽

Different Levels

There is about 430000 hectares of pistachio garden in Iran and annual dry pistachio production is 688000 tones. There are some problems with this by-product are including: 1) deterioration in less than 24 hours so it could not stored for long term. 2) Pistachio epicarp contains high level of tannins and other phenolic compounds, and there is little information about its effects in ruminants. 3) This by-product is potentially an environmental pollutant and cost effective for disposal. A study was conducted to investigate possibility of different levels replacement of ensiled pistachio epicarp (EPE) with corn silage and its effects on growth rate and carcass composition of lambs.

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Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil by Selection of Plant Species

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.1130.572 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 1130 ◽

pp. 572-576 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ting Luo ◽

Brenda K.C. Chan ◽

Rui Yong Wang

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metal ◽

Plant Species ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Great Effort ◽

Lead And Zinc ◽

Zn Concentration ◽

Zinc Mine ◽

Promising Solution ◽

Root Tissues

Contamination of heavy metals in soil has raised potential long term environmental and health concerns due to its accumulation and possibility of entering the food chain. Being cost effective and simple operation, phytoremediation is seen as an emerging technology and promising solution to remediate polluted soils. In recent years, great effort has been concentrated on screening a variety of hyperaccumulators. This paper evaluates four plant species Solanumnigrum L.PterismultifidaPois, Pterisvittata L and Brassicajuncea grown under different heavy metal (Cu, Cd, Pb and Zn) concentration in greenhouse pot trial. From pot experiment, the mobility of contaminants (Cd and Zn) in soil were reduced by being concentrated and absorbed onto root tissues and stems in Solanumnigrum L. and Brassicajuncea whereas Cu and Pb were stabilized in the root tissues of all four plant species. The different transport phenomena towards different contaminants and the phytostablization ability makes these four plants suitable pioneer species in remediation and revegetation in abandoned copper, lead and zinc mine.

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Vivid Imagers Are Better at Detecting Salient Changes

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001.27.4.218 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 218-228 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Paul Rodway ◽

Karen Gillies ◽

Astrid Schepman

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Change Detection ◽

Visual Imagery ◽

Detection Task ◽

Level Of Detail ◽

Detection Accuracy ◽

Change Detection Task ◽

Term Change ◽

High Level

This study examined whether individual differences in the vividness of visual imagery influenced performance on a novel long-term change detection task. Participants were presented with a sequence of pictures, with each picture and its title displayed for 17 s, and then presented with changed or unchanged versions of those pictures and asked to detect whether the picture had been changed. Cuing the retrieval of the picture's image, by presenting the picture's title before the arrival of the changed picture, facilitated change detection accuracy. This suggests that the retrieval of the picture's representation immunizes it against overwriting by the arrival of the changed picture. The high and low vividness participants did not differ in overall levels of change detection accuracy. However, in replication of Gur and Hilgard (1975) , high vividness participants were significantly more accurate at detecting salient changes to pictures compared to low vividness participants. The results suggest that vivid images are not characterised by a high level of detail and that vivid imagery enhances memory for the salient aspects of a scene but not all of the details of a scene. Possible causes of this difference, and how they may lead to an understanding of individual differences in change detection, are considered.

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Physical and Psychological Benefits of Written Emotional Expression

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000231 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 242-251 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Éva Kállay

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Expressive Writing ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Health Problems ◽

Future Research ◽

Psychological Benefits ◽

Cost Effective Treatment ◽

Meta Analyses

Abstract. The last several decades have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of individuals suffering from both diagnosable and subsyndromal mental health problems. Consequently, the development of cost-effective treatment methods, accessible to large populations suffering from different forms of mental health problems, became imperative. A very promising intervention is the method of expressive writing (EW), which may be used in both clinically diagnosable cases and subthreshold symptomatology. This method, in which people express their feelings and thoughts related to stressful situations in writing, has been found to improve participants’ long-term psychological, physiological, behavioral, and social functioning. Based on a thorough analysis and synthesis of the published literature (also including most recent meta-analyses), the present paper presents the expressive writing method, its short- and long-term, intra-and interpersonal effects, different situations and conditions in which it has been proven to be effective, the most important mechanisms implied in the process of recovery, advantages, disadvantages, and possible pitfalls of the method, as well as variants of the original technique and future research directions.

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Antithrombotic Therapy for DVT/PE

Hämostaseologie ◽

10.1055/s-0038-1659983 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 17 (03) ◽

pp. 161-162

Author(s):

Thomas Hyers

Keyword(s):

Molecular Weight ◽

Low Molecular Weight Heparin ◽

Oral Anticoagulants ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Therapeutic Agents ◽

Great Promise ◽

Term Therapy ◽

Low Molecular Weight ◽

Long Term Therapy

SummaryProblems with unfractionated heparin as an antithrombotic have led to the development of new therapeutic agents. Of these, low molecular weight heparin shows great promise and has led to out-patient therapy of DVT/PE in selected patients. Oral anticoagulants remain the choice for long-term therapy. More cost-effective ways to give oral anticoagulants are needed.

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Strategic planning in grassland farming: Principles andapplications

Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association ◽

10.33584/jnzg.1997.59.2241 ◽

1997 ◽

pp. 191-197

Author(s):

W.J. Parker ◽

N.M. Shadbolt ◽

D.I. Gray

Keyword(s):

Strategic Planning ◽

Performance Indicators ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Key Performance Indicators ◽

Strategic Plans ◽

Effective Manner ◽

Farm Business ◽

Pastoral Farming ◽

Financial Environment

Three levels of planning can be distinguished in grassland farming: strategic, tactical and operational. The purpose of strategic planning is to achieve a sustainable long-term fit of the farm business with its physical, social and financial environment. In pastoral farming, this essentially means developing plans that maximise and best match pasture growth with animal demand, while generating sufficient income to maintain or enhance farm resources and improvements, and attain personal and financial goals. Strategic plans relate to the whole farm business and are focused on the means to achieve future needs. They should be routinely (at least annually) reviewed and monitored for effectiveness through key performance indicators (e.g., Economic Farm Surplus) that enable progress toward goals to be measured in a timely and cost-effective manner. Failure to link strategy with control is likely to result in unfulfilled plans. Keywords: management, performance

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