scholarly journals Filling the Information Gap in Meta-Ecosystem Ecology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea J. Little ◽  
Matteo Rizzuto ◽  
Thomas M. Luhring ◽  
Julia D. Monk ◽  
Rob Nowicki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Ecology ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Ecosystem Research ◽  
Information Gap ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Local Ecosystem ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Spatial Flows ◽  
Matter Energy

Fluxes of matter, energy, and information over space and time contribute to ecosystems’ functioning. The meta-ecosystem framework addresses the dynamics of ecosystems linked by these fluxes, however, to date, meta-ecosystem research focused solely on fluxes of energy and matter, neglecting information. This is problematic due to organisms’ varied responses to information, which influence local ecosystem dynamics and can alter spatial flows of energy and matter. Furthermore, information itself can move between ecosystems. Therefore, information should contribute to meta-ecosystem dynamics, such as stability and productivity. Specific subdisciplines of ecology currently consider different types of information (e.g., social and cultural information, natural and artificial light or sound, body condition, genotype, and phenotype). Yet neither the spatiotemporal distribution of information nor its perception are currently accounted for in general ecological theories. Here, we provide a roadmap to synthesize information and meta-ecosystem ecology. We begin by defining information in a meta-ecological context. We then review and identify challenges to be addressed in developing information meta-ecology. Finally, we present new hypotheses for how information could impact dynamics across scales of spatio-temporal and biological organization.

scholarly journals Meta-ecosystem dynamics and functioning on finite spatial networks

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1777) ◽  
pp. 20132094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin N. Marleau ◽  
Frédéric Guichard ◽  
Michel Loreau
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Strong Dependence ◽  
Spatial Models ◽  
Finite Size ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Connectivity Matrix ◽  
Ecological Concepts ◽  
Local Ecosystem ◽  
Spatial Flows

The addition of spatial structure to ecological concepts and theories has spurred integration between sub-disciplines within ecology, including community and ecosystem ecology. However, the complexity of spatial models limits their implementation to idealized, regular landscapes. We present a model meta-ecosystem with finite and irregular spatial structure consisting of local nutrient–autotrophs–herbivores ecosystems connected through spatial flows of materials and organisms. We study the effect of spatial flows on stability and ecosystem functions, and provide simple metrics of connectivity that can predict these effects. Our results show that high rates of nutrient and herbivore movement can destabilize local ecosystem dynamics, leading to spatially heterogeneous equilibria or oscillations across the meta-ecosystem, with generally increased meta-ecosystem primary and secondary production. However, the onset and the spatial scale of these emergent dynamics depend heavily on the spatial structure of the meta-ecosystem and on the relative movement rate of the autotrophs. We show how this strong dependence on finite spatial structure eludes commonly used metrics of connectivity, but can be predicted by the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the connectivity matrix that describe the spatial structure and scale. Our study indicates the need to consider finite-size ecosystems in meta-ecosystem theory.

Unoccupied aerial vehicle-assisted monitoring of benthic vegetation in the coastal zone enhances the quality of ecological data

2021 ◽  
pp. 030913332110520
Author(s):  
Niels Svane ◽  
Troels Lange ◽  
Sara Egemose ◽  
Oliver Dalby ◽  
Aris Thomasberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Zostera Marina ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Fucus Vesiculosus ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Spatial Extent ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Ecological Data ◽  
Error Matrix ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Traditional monitoring (e.g., in-water based surveys) of eelgrass meadows and perennial macroalgae in coastal areas is time and labor intensive, requires extensive equipment, and the collected data has a low temporal resolution. Further, divers and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) have a low spatial extent that cover small fractions of full systems. The inherent heterogeneity of eelgrass meadows and macroalgae assemblages in these coastal systems makes interpolation and extrapolation of observations complicated and, as such, methods to collect data on larger spatial scales whilst retaining high spatial resolution is required to guide management. Recently, the utilization of Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has gained popularity in ecological sciences due to their ability to rapidly collect large amounts of area-based and georeferenced data, making it possible to monitor the spatial extent and status of SAV communities with limited equipment requirements compared to ROVs or diver surveys. This paper is focused on the increased value provided by UAV-based, data collection (visual/Red Green Blue imagery) and Object Based Image Analysis for gaining an improved understanding of eelgrass recovery. It is demonstrated that delineation and classification of two species of SAV ( Fucus vesiculosus and Zostera marina) is possible; with an error matrix indicating 86–92% accuracy. Classified maps also highlighted the increasing biomass and areal coverage of F. vesiculosus as a potential stressor to eelgrass meadows. Further, authors derive a statistically significant conversion of percentage cover to biomass ( R2 = 0.96 for Fucus vesiculosus, R2 = 0.89 for Zostera marina total biomass, and R2 = 0.94 for AGB alone, p < 0.001). Results here provide an example of mapping cover and biomass of SAV and provide a tool to undertake spatio-temporal analyses to enhance the understanding of eelgrass ecosystem dynamics.

scholarly journals A methodological roadmap to quantify animal-vectored spatial ecosystem subsidies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Ellis-Soto ◽  
Kristy M. Ferraro ◽  
Matteo Rizzuto ◽  
Emily Briggs ◽  
Julia D. Monk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Movement ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Nutrient Transport ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Impacts ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Ecosystem Theory ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
High Level ◽  
Tracking Devices

Ecosystems are open systems connected through spatial flows of energy, matter, and nutrients. Predicting and managing ecosystem interdependence requires a rigorous quantitative understanding of the drivers and vectors that connect ecosystems across spatio-temporal scales. Animals act as such vectors when they transport nutrients across landscapes in the form of excreta, egesta, and their own bodies. Here, we introduce a methodological roadmap that combines movement, foraging, and ecosystem ecology to study the effects of animal-vectored nutrient transport on meta-ecosystems. The meta-ecosystem concept — the notion that ecosystems are connected in space and time by flows of energy, matter, and organisms across boundaries — provides a theoretical framework on which to base our understanding of animal-vectored nutrient transport. However, partly due to its high level of abstraction, there are few empirical tests of meta-ecosystem theory, and while we may label animals as important mediators of ecosystem services, we lack predictive inference of their relative roles and impacts on diverse ecosystems. Recently developed technologies and methods — tracking devices, mechanistic movement models, diet reconstruction techniques and remote sensing — have the potential to facilitate the quantification of animal-vectored nutrient flows and increase the predictive power of meta-ecosystem theory. Understanding the mechanisms by which animals shape ecosystem dynamics may be important for ongoing conservation, rewilding, and restoration initiatives around the world, and for more accurate models of ecosystem nutrient budgets. We provide conceptual examples that show how our proposed integration of methodologies could help investigate ecosystem impacts of animal movement. We conclude by describing practical applications to understanding cross-ecosystem contributions of animals on the move.

scholarly journals Mapping Urbanization as an Anthropedogenetic Process: A Section through the Times of Urban Soils

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Vialle ◽  
Mario Giampieri
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Soils ◽  
Dynamic Vision ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Map Series ◽  
The Times ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Ecological Transition

Current trends of spatial planning policies give a strategic role to soils, the multifunctionality of which must be considered as a crucial driver facing cities’ forthcoming social-ecological transition. However, soils within urban areas are insufficiently studied as a long-term record of environmental history and heavy anthropization. This article investigates the extreme qualitative variability of urban soils by presenting a conceptual model and cartographic workflow highlighting soil evolution processes as a value which co-variates with urbanization. Based on a case study in West Lausanne (Switzerland), the layers and map series of an atlas underscore the applicability of different types of information and spatial analysis for documenting the influence of anthrosediments and land cover changes. Combined with empirical profile descriptions, such a consolidated concept map defines a template, in the form of a complex spatio-temporal figure, on which to apply the state factor approach. Instead of using a simple spatial transect or gradient, the increasing anthropic dominance over original landscape conditions is explained using a section through time. An urban anthroposequence consequently retraces contrasting soil development pathways as a coherent bundle of historical trajectories. Such a narrative integrates various facets of land use, including one-off construction techniques and recurring maintenance practices, planning tools, and morphologies, into a specific ‘project for the ground’ which brought forth the mixed mesh of the Swiss Plateau ‘cityterritory.’ Ultimately, the dynamic vision conveyed by these intertwined soil–urbanization coevolution trajectories outlines opportunities for the regeneration of the resource deposit made up of both West Lausanne’s urban fabric and its soils as a palimpsest.

Information Management in Mobile Environments Using a Location-Aware Intelligent Agent System

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Amrish Vyas ◽  
Victoria Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Agent ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Agent System ◽  
Content Dissemination ◽  
New Era ◽  
Location Aware ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Push And Pull ◽  
User Location

Recent rise in the level of comfort and demand to access various types of information using mobile devices can be attributed to the advancements in wireless as well as Internet technologies. This demand leads us to the new era of mobile computing. Location-based services (LBS) are engendering new passion in mobile services utilizing users’ location information. Such spatio-temporal information processing entails the need for a dynamic middleware that accurately identifies changing user location and attaches dependent content in real-time without putting extra burden on users. Our work focuses on creating a distributed infrastructure suitable to support such scalable content dissemination. As a result this chapter offers a conceptual framework, location-aware intelligent agent system (LIA) in integration with publish/subscribe middleware to comprehensively address dynamic content dissemination and related issues. We discuss the operational form of our framework in terms of PUSH and PULL strategies.

scholarly journals Quantitative aspects of metabolic organization: a discussion of concepts

2001 ◽  
Vol 356 (1407) ◽  
pp. 331-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.A.L.M Kooijman
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Empirical Models ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Dynamic Energy Budget ◽  
Scaling Relationships ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Subcellular Processes ◽  
Metabolic Organization

Metabolic organization of individual organisms follows simple quantitative rules that can be understood from basic physical chemical principles. Dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory identifies these rules, which quantify how individuals acquire and use energy and nutrients. The theory provides constraints on the metabolic organization of subcellular processes. Together with rules for interaction between individuals, it also provides a basis to understand population and ecosystem dynamics. The theory, therefore, links various levels of biological organization. It applies to all species of organisms and offers explanations for body–size scaling relationships of natural history parameters that are otherwise difficult to understand. A considerable number of popular empirical models turn out to be special cases of the DEB model, or very close numerical approximations. Strong and weak homeostasis and the partitionability of reserve kinetics are cornerstones of the theory and essential for understanding the evolution of metabolic organization.

Józef Muczkowski: Dyrektor Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej, historyk

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Krawczyk
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Scientific Development ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Information Gap ◽  
History Of ◽  
Professional Field ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
The 19Th Century

The purpose of the presented thesis is to show a figure of one of the directors of the Jagiellonian Library in the 19th century, a professor at the Jagiellonian University and historian – Józef Muczkowski. In the thesis, the Professor’s personal life has been presented in chronological order, as well as his achievements in the professional field and his scientific accomplishments. The thesis consists of seven chapters, each dealing with issues related to the individual stages of the Professor’s life. Special attention has been focused on the process of intellectual and scientific development of Józef Muczkowski from his birth, through youth, to the period of holding office of the director of the Jagiellonian Library, and finally up to the last days of his life. Large part of the work is devoted to changes that were implemented by the Professor during the period when he was the Jagiellonian Library director. It concerns, among others, the organisation of library collections and complete reconstruction of the library building which is located within the Collegium Maius edifice. The thesis also introduces a broad spectrum of activities undertaken by the Professor in the political field. Presentation of profiles of his loved ones and relationships that connected him with his family and other people of science constitutes important part of the work because it connects all chapters. The thesis is based largely on unpublished sources, such as manuscripts, numerous fragments of official letters and the Professor’s correspondence. Analysis and interpretation of many types of information sources, followed by their elaboration and organisation, allow to fill the “information gap” regarding the person of Józef Muczkowski. As a result, by recreating Józef Muczkowski’s professional path, the thesis also supplements the information resource of history of the Jagiellonian Library in the first half of the 19th century.

scholarly journals Building African Ecosystem Research Network for sustaining local ecosystem goods and services

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armand Sedami Igor Yevide ◽  
Bingfang Wu ◽  
Xiubo Yu ◽  
Xiaosong Li ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Network ◽  
Ecosystem Goods And Services ◽  
Ecosystem Research ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Local Ecosystem

scholarly journals The ecosystem: research and practice in North America

Web Ecology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Bocking
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Atomic Energy Commission ◽  
Ecosystem Approach ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Ecosystem Ecology ◽  
Ecosystem Research ◽  
Energy Transfers ◽  
Functional Components ◽  
Biological Program

Abstract. Since the early 1940s, the ecosystem approach has been developed in a variety of forms by North American ecologists. Lindeman established its foundation, with his focus on functional components and energy transfers between trophic levels; this view was developed further by several ecologists, including G. Evelyn Hutchinson, and H. T. and E. P. Odum. Ecosystem ecology eventually became closely associated with powerful American institutions, such as the Atomic Energy Commission, receiving ample support; in association with the International Biological Program it became known as "big ecology''. More recently, ecosystem ecology has exhibited strengthened interest in spatial patterns, the role of species in ecosystems, and global change. This history has encompassed various ontological, methodological, ethical and political claims regarding the place of this approach in the discipline of ecology and in environmental governance.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document