scholarly journals Wooded meadows of Estonia: conservation efforts for agricultural landscape

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 413 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. SAMMUL ◽  
K. KATTAI ◽  
K. LANNO

We provide an overview of the amount and ecological condition of wooded meadows throughout Estonia after significant changes in agriculture in the second part of 20th century. We also present the first attempt to estimate the success of recent conservation efforts for wooded meadows. Our analysis is based on recent exhaustive inventories. We found that Estonia, despite a decrease of the area in wooded meadows by two orders of magnitude during the 20th century, still has about 8400 ha remaining of which approximately 5800 ha are meadows with, at the least, an intermediate conservation value. The latter is directly dependent on mowing regime. Efforts to preserve wooded meadows include establishment of protected areas and financial support for mowing. The national conservation subsidy has been useful and supportive for wooded meadows, however the total amount of this subsidy has been small compared to the area that could be supported. The much larger funds of agri-environmental subsidies have largely not been available for wooded meadows. Moreover, there has been no record keeping about subsidisation of semi-natural grasslands using agricultural support schemes. Although the preservation of some good examples of wooded meadows in Estonia seems guaranteed, further degradation of this valuable habitat type on a national scale is very probable.;

Crustaceana ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (7) ◽  
pp. 775-795
Author(s):  
Alfred-Ştefan Cicort-Lucaciu ◽  
Gabriel-Lucian Herlo

Abstract In the last two hundred years, the Mureş River Floodplain has suffered major changes caused by dike constructions, meander cutting, and by the transformation of the natural landscape into an agricultural one. In this environmental context, we wanted to find out the degree to which large branchiopod species still survive in the Mureş Floodplain area. Every stagnant aquatic habitat encountered in 2019 in the Mureş Floodplain Natural Park was sampled. For the habitats where more species co-occur, urgent preservation actions must be taken. Most of the species prefer open habitats and have survived in the wheel ruts on agricultural lands. In the absence of natural habitats, the importance of this habitat type becomes a major one. The forest advantages species related to shady habitats, such as Chirocephalus diaphanus. We have found several individuals in the park that showed black spots on their bodies, characteristic of the black disease of fairy shrimp. The presence of the disease only in the populations from wheel ruts suggests that vehicles which make these ruts, could be the carriers of the disease.


2018 ◽  
Vol 169 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Vítková ◽  
Marco Conedera ◽  
Jiří Sádlo ◽  
Jan Pergl ◽  
Petr Pyšek

Dangerous and useful at the same time: management strategies for the invasive black locust The North American black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is considered controversial as many other introduced tree species because of its both positive and negative properties. Based on a literature review and own data we analyze the occurrence of black locust in Czechia and Switzerland and present the management approaches in place. In both countries, black locust is on the blacklist of invasive introduced species. It can grow in a wide range of habitats from urban and agricultural landscape to dry grassland and forest. Meanwhile, the species became in many places part of the environment and human culture, so that neither unrestricted cultivation nor large-scale eradication is feasible. We suggest a context-dependent management which respects the different needs and takes into account the local environmental conditions, land-use, habitat type, risk of spread as well as economic, cultural and biodiversity aspects. To this purpose we propose three management strategies: 1) control respectively gradual suppression of black locust in forests where the species is not welcome, 2) its eradication in sensitive ecosystems as dry grasslands or clear and dry forests and 3) its tolerance in intensively managed agricultural landscapes and in urban environment.


Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802091345
Author(s):  
Larry Knopp ◽  
Michael Brown

In this paper we focus on LGBTQ+ travel guides and the creation of a North American LGBTQ+ urban imaginary as forms and facilitators of activism. Specifically, we consider one of the few continuously published sources detailing such an imaginary in the mid-20th century and its construction of an ‘epistemological grid’ onto which entries were placed. We briefly situate the guides in the context of an emerging (and frequently politicised) mid-20th-century LGBTQ+ media ecosystem, then proceed to a detailed analysis of the imaginary they evoke. Cities are the guides’ assumed building-blocks, along with certain other ontologies, most notably bars, sex establishments and other meeting places (though these change over time). As aggregators of information at a national scale, the guides standardised and communicated particular notions of what LGBTQ+ space was (and is). At the same time, as way-finding tools they helped readers navigate actual communities at the local scale. In so doing, we argue, Damron guides helped shape early forms of LGBTQ+ identity and community in North America – including the establishment of ‘gaybourhoods’. We therefore interpret the guides as both activist and facilitators of activism. They claimed space at an abstract level while simultaneously facilitating place-making, territorialisation and simple survival strategies by actual people on the ground. Our analysis contributes to understandings of the relationship, over time and at multiple scales, between travel guides, an urban-based North American spatial imaginary and LGBTQ+ activism. It also highlights Damron guides’ potential as a rich source of data.


2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-685
Author(s):  
John Kemp

This paper is intended to provide an outline of how the lead and line formed a vital, but often overlooked, role in safe navigation during the 16th Century, with some comments on its later use up to, and into the 20th Century. During this period, the development of the more mathematical dead-reckoning and the more exciting astro-navigation attracted the attention of the literate commentators who were responsible for record keeping while the often illiterate sailors got on with practising their craft. Also, May (1970), has commented that, “the navigators during the great age of discovery must have made extensive use of the lead and line, but references are extremely sparse, for all their rough log-books were destroyed and only the most important references to their navigational proceedings were copied into the fair accounts of their voyages which have come down to us.”


2021 ◽  
pp. 25-34
Author(s):  
Dóra Arnóczkyné Jakab ◽  
Antal Nagy

Orthoptera fauna and assemblages of natural and semi-natural grasslands of the Hungarian Lowland are well-known, however, little is known about assemblages living in agricultural and anthropogenic habitats such as arable lands, roadsides, hedges, and riverbanks. Due to climate change, intensification of agriculture, and change of habitat use, these habitat types become increasingly important. To collect data on these mainly unknown habitat types, a three-year study was carried out on the Orthoptera fauna and assemblages of the firth region of the Tisza and Sajó rivers. This area was mainly unknown, and our research contributes to increasing knowledge and provides a base for further investigations. In the 40 sampling sites of the studied region, an occurrence of 30 Orthoptera species was recorded based on 2241 sampled individuals. In this study, we provide 540 new distribution data records of orthopterans that means an almost eightfold increase of the known data. Orthoptera assemblages of different agricultural habitat types showed significant differences considering both species richness and composition. Data suggested that non-cultivated habitat patches of dirt-roads, roadsides and stubble fields and even extensively used pastures, hayfields and alfalfa, red clover, and even wheat fields can preserve relatively species-rich Orthoptera assemblages. Contrary weedy sites of these cultivars and intensively used arable lands (maize, sunflower and rape fields) showed extremely low species diversity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Laura Bailey ◽  
Morag Cross

Excavations on a site at 19 West Tollcross, Edinburgh, produced evidence of activity in the area from the medieval period to the 20th century. The medieval remains are likely to relate to activity on the periphery of a settlement in the hinterland of Edinburgh, thus confirming the archaeological potential of settlements now subsumed under the modern city. Excavation through the deep stratigraphy, when supplemented with documentary evidence, offered a glimpse into evolution of the area from an ‘agricultural landscape’ to an ‘industrial’ area, constantly being transformed in line with contemporary technological innovations. More recent remains associated with Lochrin Distillery, slaughterhouses, Edinburgh Ice and Cold Storage Company’s unit, an ice rink and a garage were uncovered.


2020 ◽  
pp. 355-367
Author(s):  
Igor A. Konovalov ◽  

Increased interest in the local government history is associated not just with the necessity to peer into the past, but also with purely practical needs. While returning to forgotten traditions, it is important to take into account the heritage of centuries. Today, we need to take a fresh look at well-known facts, to cast away old delusions and myths, and to prevent the emergence of new ones. Theoretical basis of the paper is such methods as historicism, objectivity, alternativeness; they allow an unbiased approach to the analysis of the problems and a critical attitude towards the sources. The methodology includes the use of means and methods of local, systemic, problem-chronological, and comparative historical methods, as well as the development of a “new imperial history.” The paper systematizes sources on formation and development of the local government in Siberia in the Imperial period. The following groups of sources are highlighted: regulatory and legal acts; documents of management and record keeping; statistical materials; periodicals; sources of personal provenance. There is regional specificity in the content and structure of sources. The sources characterize the history of local government in Siberia in the 18th - early 20th century, wherein personal, socio-political, and departmental conflicts played an important role. The article attempts to show the role and place of the general police in the local government of pre-revolutionary Siberia and to analyze the main sources on the subject. It focuses on structure, nature, organizational and legal problem of the local government in Siberia in the 18th - early 20th century.


2019 ◽  
pp. 449-457
Author(s):  
Yulia E. Zheleznyakova ◽  

This article focuses on the problem of peasants’ attitude towards female education in rural schools of the Kazan gubernia. The author draws on a variety of archival and published sources: documents of management and record keeping of institutions responsible for schools functioning, statistical data, periodicals, etc. In pre-revolutionary Russia, peasants constituted the vast majority of the population. This fully applies to the Kazan gubernia, one of Russian agricultural regions. The specificity of the gubernia was in its multi-ethnic and multi-confessional population structure: the Russians, the Tatars, the Chuvash, the Mari, the Mordvins, the Udmurt, etc. An important factor in Russian modernization of the second half of the 19th - early 20th century was Zemstvo school, a significant sociocultural institution contributing to spiritual well-being and material welfare of the masses. It promoted basic literacy and, more importantly, inclusion of millions of liberated peasants into civil life. Expansion of the Zemstvo schools network was a step towards universal primary education. Zemstvo also attempted to solve the so-called “women’s question.” Believing that woman should be full member of the society, Zemstvo delegates sought to make primary education universal. The majority of rural schools in the Kazan gubernia were Zemstvo schools, where children of both sexes were trained, but for a long period of time boys predominated. For a long time it was believed that a woman does not need literacy, it was deemed a luxury. Farmers’ views on the education of girls and women changed over time, awareness of the need for their training grew. A noticeable progress occurred in the days of the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1081-1091
Author(s):  
Natalya A. Belyaeva ◽  
◽  
Natalya A. Shabelnikova ◽  

The article is devoted to the problems of forming a sources base for studying the history of fighting smuggling in the Russian Far East, a subject which is becoming a line of historical research. In many respects, this is due to activation of scientific activity in the Far Eastern departmental universities. Transfer of the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East from Tomsk to Vladivostok has played its role in studying smuggling as a historical phenomenon in the Far East. Although they appreciate the work done for introducing into scientific use Soviet period documents from state and departmental archives, the authors can’t help noting fragmentary use of documents of the RGIA DV. This is what prevents reconstruction of a complete and objective picture of fighting smuggling in the periphery. The authors study new possibilities of forming a source base for studying the history of combating smuggling in the first decades of the 20th century. They note that opening all fonds the RGIA DV for researchers in 2013 created favorable conditions for comprehensive study of customs records, this peculiar source on the history of smuggling. A complex of these documents is preserved in the fonds of the customs agencies that operated in the Amur and Trans-Baikal area in the pre-revolutionary period: regional offices of customs administration, custom offices, custom posts. They had to shoulder the bulk of counter-smuggling work in the absence of border guard. Study of some archival cases demonstrates information potential of customs record keeping. The authors contend the need to improve the methods of identification and introduction into scientific use of sources on the history of fighting smuggling. Further prospects for development of this line of historical research are associated with use of the entire complex of customs agencies documents which is supposed to expand the subject-matter and to force researchers to address it not just as a crime, but also as a social and cultural phenomenon.


2007 ◽  
Vol 87 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 225-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
S K Javorek ◽  
R. Antonowitsch ◽  
C. Callaghan ◽  
M. Grant ◽  
T. Weins

Agricultural land in Canada comprises cultivated land, hayland and grazing land with associated riparian areas, wetlands, woodlands, and natural grasslands. Although these agro-ecosystems support many species of Canada’s native fauna, agricultural land use is dynamic, and changes in agricultural practices can have important implications for biodiversity. We report on Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s National Agri-environmental Health Analysis and Reporting Program’s assessment of wildlife habitat on farmland in Canada. Habitat use matrices were developed for 493 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians associated with farm land habitat in Canada. We derived patterns of land use from Statistics Canada’s Census of Agriculture data and applied them at the soil landscape polygon scale. We developed a proportionally weighted Habitat Capacity index to relate habitat use and land use. A 5% decrease in Habitat Capacity occurred on Canada’s agricultural land from 1981 to 2001, associated with an expansion in cropland and a decline in pasture. A regional pattern of small decline in Habitat Capacity is evident in the Prairie Provinces, where dramatic declines in the use of summerfallow had a positive impact on Habitat Capacity. In eastern Canada, greater decreases in Habitat Capacity occurred, associated with an increase in agricultural intensification. Policies and programs designed to sustain biodiversity should not be developed independently of socioeconomic factors or policies favouring agricultural intensification. We recommend a holistic approach to making policy decisions relevant to environmental and economic sustainability in the Canadian agricultural landscape. Key words: Biodiversity, land use change, agroecosystems, wildlife habitat, indicators


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