scholarly journals The vegetation cover of the «Aryskannyg» cluster of the «Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina» Reserve (Ubsunur hollow) (the southern slopes of the East Tannu-Ola Mountain Range, Republic of Tyva)

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-85
Author(s):  
Andrey Mikhailovich Samdan
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Mountain Tundra ◽  
Steppe Communities ◽  
Mixed Grass

This paper studies the vegetation cover organization of the Aryskannyg cluster of the state natural biosphere reserve Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina. In the course of the work 2 ecological and phytocoenotic profiles were laid and 2 large-scale mapping was carried out. The steppe type of vegetation is mainly represented by different variants of real turf-and-slag steppes: shrubby, petrophytic and dry. The original steppe communities are the resurrection ( Selaginella sanguinolenta ) and eastern feather grass coenoses ( Stipa orientalis ). An independent high-altitude belt forms mountain expositional forest-steppes. The forest component consists of grass and rhytidium larch forests, and the daurian rhododendron occupies an active position in the undergrowth. The steppe component consists of thickened mixed-grass-stop-grass meadow, as well as mixed-grass-fine-grained-slag petrophytic steppes. The mountain-taiga belt is represented by communities of larch and cedar formations. The high-altitude belt is dominated by yernik ( Betula rotundifolia ) and dryad ( Dryas oxyodontha ) mountain-tundra communities. It is revealed that the territory has a complex vegetation cover, which was formed in the conditions of mountain relief and sharply continental climate, the diversity of plant communities (from dry-steppe to mountain-tundra) is due to the length of the cluster territory in three high-altitude zones and the complex influence of latitudinal and local abiotic factors. The leading factors in the distribution of vegetation are the exposure of the slopes and the absolute height of the terrain.

Large-scale mapping of the catenas vegetation in Subarctic tundra

1995 ◽  
pp. 3-21
Author(s):  
S. S. Kholod
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Block Diagram ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Ecological Barriers ◽  
Functional Zones

One of the most difficult tasks in large-scale vegetation mapping is the clarification of mechanisms of the internal integration of vegetation cover territorial units. Traditional way of searching such mechanisms is the study of ecological factors controlling the space heterogeneity of vegetation cover. In essence, this is autecological analysis of vegetation. We propose another way of searching the mechanisms of territorial integration of vegetation. It is connected with intracoenotic interrelation, in particular, with the changing role of edificator synusium in a community along the altitudinal gradient. This way of searching is illustrated in the model-plot in subarctic tundra of Central Chukotka. Our further suggestion concerns the way of depicting these mechanisms on large-scale vegetation map. As a model object we chose the catena, that is the landscape formation including all geomorphjc positions of a slope, joint by the process of moving the material down the slope. The process of peneplanation of a mountain system for a long geological time favours to the levelling the lower (accumulative) parts of slopes. The colonization of these parts of the slope by the vegetation variants, corresponding to the lowest part of catena is the result of peneplanation. Vegetation of this part of catena makes a certain biogeocoenotic work which is the levelling of the small infralandscape limits and of the boundaries in vegetation cover. This process we name as the continualization on catena. In this process the variants of vegetation in the lower part of catena are being broken into separate synusiums. This is the process of decumbation of layers described by V. B. Sochava. Up to the slope the edificator power of the shrub synusiums sharply decreases. Moss and herb synusium have "to seek" the habitats similar to those under the shrub canopy. The competition between the synusium arises resulting in arrangement of a certain spatial assemblage of vegetation cover elements. In such assemblage the position of each element is determined by both biotic (interrelation with other coenotic elements) and abiotic (presence of appropriate habitats) factors. Taking into account the biogeocoenotic character of the process of continualization on catena we name such spatial assemblage an exolutionary-biogeocoenotic series. The space within each evolutionary-biogeocoenotic series is divided by ecological barriers into some functional zones. In each of the such zones the struggle between synusiums has its individual expression and direction. In the start zone of catena (extensive pediment) the interrelations of synusiums and layers control the mutual spatial arrangement of these elements at the largest extent. Here, as a rule, there predominate edificator synusiums of low and dwarfshrubs. In the first order limit zone (the bend of pediment to the above part of the slope) one-species herb and moss synusiums, oftenly substituting each other in similar habitats, get prevalence. In the zone of active colonization of slope (denudation slope) the coenotic factor has the least role in the spatial distribution of the vegetation cover elements. In particular, phytocoenotic interactions take place only within separate microcoenoses of herbs, mosses and lichens. In the zone of the attenuation of continualization process (the upper most parts of slope, crests) phytocoenotic interactions are almost absent and the spatial distribution of vegetation cover elements depends exclusively on the abiotic factors. The principal scheme of the distribution of vegetation cover elements and the disposition of functional zones on catena are shown on block-diagram (fig. 1).

scholarly journals Repeated surveying over 6 years reveals that fine-scale habitat variables are key to tropical mountain ant assemblage composition and functional diversity

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mulalo M. Muluvhahothe ◽  
Grant S. Joseph ◽  
Colleen L. Seymour ◽  
Thinandavha C. Munyai ◽  
Stefan H. Foord
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Species Composition ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Composition Analysis ◽  
Fine Scale

AbstractHigh-altitude-adapted ectotherms can escape competition from dominant species by tolerating low temperatures at cooler elevations, but climate change is eroding such advantages. Studies evaluating broad-scale impacts of global change for high-altitude organisms often overlook the mitigating role of biotic factors. Yet, at fine spatial-scales, vegetation-associated microclimates provide refuges from climatic extremes. Using one of the largest standardised data sets collected to date, we tested how ant species composition and functional diversity (i.e., the range and value of species traits found within assemblages) respond to large-scale abiotic factors (altitude, aspect), and fine-scale factors (vegetation, soil structure) along an elevational gradient in tropical Africa. Altitude emerged as the principal factor explaining species composition. Analysis of nestedness and turnover components of beta diversity indicated that ant assemblages are specific to each elevation, so species are not filtered out but replaced with new species as elevation increases. Similarity of assemblages over time (assessed using beta decay) did not change significantly at low and mid elevations but declined at the highest elevations. Assemblages also differed between northern and southern mountain aspects, although at highest elevations, composition was restricted to a set of species found on both aspects. Functional diversity was not explained by large scale variables like elevation, but by factors associated with elevation that operate at fine scales (i.e., temperature and habitat structure). Our findings highlight the significance of fine-scale variables in predicting organisms’ responses to changing temperature, offering management possibilities that might dilute climate change impacts, and caution when predicting assemblage responses using climate models, alone.

Vegetation structure of tundra and taiga on the map of the natural vegetation of Europe

2007 ◽  
pp. 13-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. K. Yurkovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Space Structure ◽  
Middle Taiga ◽  
Russian Plain ◽  
Forest Communities ◽  
The North ◽  
Tundra Vegetation ◽  
Starting Point

I have focused only on some features of structure in the taiga vegetation cover. In conclusion I would like to tell some words about the causes of complicated space structure of the taiga and tundra vegetation cover. The causes of latitudinal differentiation are climatic undoubtedly, but heterogeneity of vegetation cover within the limits of tundra and taiga subzones is accounted for different factors. In tundra abiogenic factors prevail, first of all the permafrost processes. That is the reason why tundra vegetation cover is so sensible to any disturbances and so hard regenerates after various transformations. In taiga the space structure is mostly the result of self-regulation and self- restoration of biota. The abiotic factors, certainly, play significant role, but they recede to the second plan. So we showed that in the north and middle taiga the structure of vegetation cover, during the Holocene up to present time, is determined in many respects by the increasing role of mires. Suffice it to look at the map of distribution of mires in order to estimate their role in vegetation cover of the easteuropean taiga (Yurkovskaya, 1980). So, the increase of mire area on the Russian Plain in m2/year per 1000 ha varies between 200 and 700, the average increas is ca 300—400 m2/year (Elina et all., 2000). The mires favour peniplenization and unite the separate areas of forest communities into the whole by means of forming the buffer paludificated territories (various hydrophilous variants of forest communities). But if mires, at all their stability, after destroying practically don't restore, the forests even after continuous cuttings restore their structure and composition through the series of successional stages unless an ecotope is damaged completely. Hence the space structure of taiga is the result, first of all, self development and self regulation of its vegetation cover. But, as it is known, at present time the process of destruction of natural biota has gone too far that the question arises not only about supporting its state and structure but also about the survival of the mankind itself. In this regard the vegetation map of Europe is the invaluable basis, which gives the starting point for all conservational, ecological and economical measures. But it is important to learn reading and using the map. And this is one of our actual goals.

The large-scale vegetation maps of the western coast of Peter the Great Bay (Far East, the Sea of Japan)

2000 ◽  
pp. 50-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. V. Osipov ◽  
V. P. Verkholat
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Far East ◽  
Peter The Great Bay ◽  
The Sea Of Japan ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
Spatial Unit ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Great Bay ◽  
River Valleys

Two territories on the western coast of Peter the Great Bay were mapped in the large scale. The geobotanical mapping means revealing and displaying the essential regularities of vegetation cover. Both the spatial and temporal regularities of vegetation under natural and anthropogenic influences are well pronounced in the territory under consideration. The concept of the vegetation spatial unit (vegetation complexes) was applied as a basis for mapping. The maps and their legend were worked out as a system of vegetation combination types (vegetation combination is a spatial unit of the supracoenotic level). Such categories, as vegetation of tops and slopes, lowlands and river valleys, sea coasts reflect maximal contrasts in vegetation cover, so they are the highest level divisions of the map legend. Types of succession series and stages of series are developed for construction of the second and third levels of the legend. Communities, similar in ecotope, total species composition, saplings and some other characteristics, are referred to one type of series. 5 types of series have been distinguished: dry, fresh, moist, very moist, wet. The main factor of dynamics in considered territory is fire and the series are mainly pyrogeneous. Series are presented as sequences of vegetation stages. The vegetation stages for tops and slopes are: closed low forest — open low woodland — shrub thicket with saplings — meadow with saplings, for lowlands and river valleys they are: open low woodland — thicket of saplings — meadow or mire with saplings.

scholarly journals Strategic resources and smallholder performance at the bottom of the pyramid

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Olthaar ◽  
Wilfred Dolfsma ◽  
Clemens Lutz ◽  
Florian Noseleit
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Agricultural Economics ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Bottom Of The Pyramid ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Strategic Resources ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Resource Based Theory

In a competitive business environment at the Bottom of the Pyramid smallholders supplying global value chains may be thought to be at the whims of downstream large-scale players and local market forces, leaving no room for strategic entrepreneurial behavior. In such a context we test the relationship between the use of strategic resources and firm performance. We adopt the Resource Based Theory and show that seemingly homogenous smallholders deploy resources differently and, consequently, some do outperform others. We argue that the ‘resource-based theory’ results in a more fine-grained understanding of smallholder performance than approaches generally applied in agricultural economics. We develop a mixed-method approach that allows one to pinpoint relevant, industry-specific resources, and allows for empirical identification of the relative contribution of each resource to competitive advantage. The results show that proper use of quality labor, storage facilities, time of selling, and availability of animals are key capabilities.

scholarly journals Inverse Infiltration Modeling of Dike Covers Made of Dredged Material Using PEST and AMALGAM

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Tim Jurisch ◽  
Stefan Cantré ◽  
Fokke Saathoff
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Dredged Materials ◽  
Measurement Results ◽  
Large Scale Field ◽  
Eigenvalue Ratio ◽  
Ill Posed ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Installation Technology

A variety of studies recently proved the applicability of different dried, fine-grained dredged materials as replacement material for erosion-resistant sea dike covers. In Rostock, Germany, a large-scale field experiment was conducted, in which different dredged materials were tested with regard to installation technology, stability, turf development, infiltration, and erosion resistance. The infiltration experiments to study the development of a seepage line in the dike body showed unexpected measurement results. Due to the high complexity of the problem, standard geo-hydraulic models proved to be unable to analyze these results. Therefore, different methods of inverse infiltration modeling were applied, such as the parameter estimation tool (PEST) and the AMALGAM algorithm. In the paper, the two approaches are compared and discussed. A sensitivity analysis proved the presumption of a non-linear model behavior for the infiltration problem and the Eigenvalue ratio indicates that the dike infiltration is an ill-posed problem. Although this complicates the inverse modeling (e.g., termination in local minima), parameter sets close to an optimum were found with both the PEST and the AMALGAM algorithms. Together with the field measurement data, this information supports the rating of the effective material properties of the applied dredged materials used as dike cover material.

scholarly journals ShadingNet: Image Intrinsics by Fine-Grained Shading Decomposition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil S. Baslamisli ◽  
Partha Das ◽  
Hoang-An Le ◽  
Sezer Karaoglu ◽  
Theo Gevers
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Image Decomposition ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Decomposition Algorithms ◽  
Ambient Light ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Large Scale Dataset ◽  
Direct Illumination

AbstractIn general, intrinsic image decomposition algorithms interpret shading as one unified component including all photometric effects. As shading transitions are generally smoother than reflectance (albedo) changes, these methods may fail in distinguishing strong photometric effects from reflectance variations. Therefore, in this paper, we propose to decompose the shading component into direct (illumination) and indirect shading (ambient light and shadows) subcomponents. The aim is to distinguish strong photometric effects from reflectance variations. An end-to-end deep convolutional neural network (ShadingNet) is proposed that operates in a fine-to-coarse manner with a specialized fusion and refinement unit exploiting the fine-grained shading model. It is designed to learn specific reflectance cues separated from specific photometric effects to analyze the disentanglement capability. A large-scale dataset of scene-level synthetic images of outdoor natural environments is provided with fine-grained intrinsic image ground-truths. Large scale experiments show that our approach using fine-grained shading decompositions outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms utilizing unified shading on NED, MPI Sintel, GTA V, IIW, MIT Intrinsic Images, 3DRMS and SRD datasets.

scholarly journals Transformer Meets Convolution: A Bilateral Awareness Network for Semantic Segmentation of Very Fine Resolution Urban Scene Images

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 3065
Author(s):  
Libo Wang ◽  
Rui Li ◽  
Dongzhi Wang ◽  
Chenxi Duan ◽  
Teng Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Texture Features ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Autonomous Driving ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Urban Scene ◽  
Fine Resolution ◽  
With Memory

Semantic segmentation from very fine resolution (VFR) urban scene images plays a significant role in several application scenarios including autonomous driving, land cover classification, urban planning, etc. However, the tremendous details contained in the VFR image, especially the considerable variations in scale and appearance of objects, severely limit the potential of the existing deep learning approaches. Addressing such issues represents a promising research field in the remote sensing community, which paves the way for scene-level landscape pattern analysis and decision making. In this paper, we propose a Bilateral Awareness Network which contains a dependency path and a texture path to fully capture the long-range relationships and fine-grained details in VFR images. Specifically, the dependency path is conducted based on the ResT, a novel Transformer backbone with memory-efficient multi-head self-attention, while the texture path is built on the stacked convolution operation. In addition, using the linear attention mechanism, a feature aggregation module is designed to effectively fuse the dependency features and texture features. Extensive experiments conducted on the three large-scale urban scene image segmentation datasets, i.e., ISPRS Vaihingen dataset, ISPRS Potsdam dataset, and UAVid dataset, demonstrate the effectiveness of our BANet. Specifically, a 64.6% mIoU is achieved on the UAVid dataset.

scholarly journals Microbial Diversity of Terrestrial Geothermal Springs in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh: A Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1473
Author(s):  
Ani Saghatelyan ◽  
Armine Margaryan ◽  
Hovik Panosyan ◽  
Nils-Kåre Birkeland
Keyword(s):  
16S Rrna ◽  
Microbial Diversity ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Hot Springs ◽  
Hot Spring ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Geothermal Springs ◽  
Bacterial Phyla ◽  
Terrestrial Hot Springs

The microbial diversity of high-altitude geothermal springs has been recently assessed to explore their biotechnological potential. However, little is known regarding the microbiota of similar ecosystems located on the Armenian Highland. This review summarizes the known information on the microbiota of nine high-altitude mineralized geothermal springs (temperature range 25.8–70 °C and pH range 6.0–7.5) in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. All these geothermal springs are at altitudes ranging from 960–2090 m above sea level and are located on the Alpide (Alpine–Himalayan) orogenic belt, a seismically active region. A mixed-cation mixed-anion composition, with total mineralization of 0.5 mg/L, has been identified for these thermal springs. The taxonomic diversity of hot spring microbiomes has been examined using culture-independent approaches, including denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), 16S rRNA gene library construction, 454 pyrosequencing, and Illumina HiSeq. The bacterial phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, and Firmicutes are the predominant life forms in the studied springs. Archaea mainly include the phyla Euryarchaeota, Crenarchaeota, and Thaumarchaeota, and comprise less than 1% of the prokaryotic community. Comparison of microbial diversity in springs from Karvachar with that described for other terrestrial hot springs revealed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Deinococcus–Thermus are the common bacterial groups in terrestrial hot springs. Contemporaneously, specific bacterial and archaeal taxa were observed in different springs. Evaluation of the carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen metabolism in these hot spring communities has revealed diversity in terms of metabolic activity. Temperature seems to be an important factor in shaping the microbial communities of these springs. Overall, the diversity and richness of the microbiota are negatively affected by increasing temperature. Other abiotic factors, including pH, mineralization, and geological history, also impact the structure and function of the microbial community. More than 130 bacterial and archaeal strains (Bacillus, Geobacillus, Parageobacillus, Anoxybacillus, Paenibacillus, Brevibacillus Aeribacillus, Ureibacillus, Thermoactinomyces, Sporosarcina, Thermus, Rhodobacter, Thiospirillum, Thiocapsa, Rhodopseudomonas, Methylocaldum, Desulfomicrobium, Desulfovibrio, Treponema, Arcobacter, Nitropspira, and Methanoculleus) have been reported, some of which may be representative of novel species (sharing 91–97% sequence identity with their closest matches in GenBank) and producers of thermozymes and biomolecules with potential biotechnological applications. Whole-genome shotgun sequencing of T. scotoductus K1, as well as of the potentially new Treponema sp. J25 and Anoxybacillus sp. K1, were performed. Most of the phyla identified by 16S rRNA were also identified using metagenomic approaches. Detailed characterization of thermophilic isolates indicate the potential of the studied springs as a source of biotechnologically valuable microbes and biomolecules.

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