scholarly journals Perspectives on the Ecological Role of Geophysical Sounds

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Almo Farina ◽  
Tim C. Mullet ◽  
Tursynkul A. Bazarbayeva ◽  
Tamara Tazhibayeva ◽  
Diana Bulatova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Anthropogenic Source ◽  
Sea Waves ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Running Water ◽  
Natural Sources ◽  
Ecological Values ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Anthropogenic Sounds

Humans categorize unwanted sounds in the environment as noise. Consequently, noise is associated with negative human and ecological values, especially when it is derived from an anthropogenic source. Although evidence confirms that many machine-generated anthropogenic sounds have negative impacts on animal behavior and communication, natural sources of non-biological sound, such as wind, rain, running water, and sea waves (geophonies) have also been categorized as noise and are frequently dismissed or mischaracterized in acoustic studies as an outside factor of acoustic habitats rather than an integrated sonic component of ecological processes and species adaptations. While the proliferation of machine-generated sound in the Biosphere has become an intrusive phenomenon in recent history, geophony has shaped the Earth’s sonic landscapes for billions of years. Therefore, geophonies have very important sonic implications to the evolution and adaptation of soniferous species, forming essential ecological and semiotical relationships. This creates a need to distinguish geophonies from machine-generated sounds and how species respond to each accordingly, especially given their acoustic similarities in the frequency spectrum. Here, we introduce concepts and terminology that address these differences in the context of ecoacoustics. We also discuss how Acoustic Complexity Indices (ACIs) can offer new possibilities to quantifiably evaluate geophony in relation to their sonic contest.

scholarly journals The Role of Carrion in the Landscapes of Fear and Disgust: A Review and Prospects

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Marcos Moleón ◽  
José A. Sánchez-Zapata
Keyword(s):  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Infection Risk ◽  
Specific Interactions ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Landscape Of Fear ◽  
Terrestrial Environments ◽  
Forensic Scientists

Animal behavior is greatly shaped by the ‘landscape of fear’, induced by predation risk, and the equivalent ‘landscape of disgust’, induced by parasitism or infection risk. However, the role that carrion may play in these landscapes of peril has been largely overlooked. Here, we aim to emphasize that animal carcasses likely represent ubiquitous hotspots for both predation and infection risk, thus being an outstanding paradigm of how predation and parasitism pressures can concur in space and time. By conducting a literature review, we highlight the manifold inter- and intra-specific interactions linked to carrion via predation and parasitism risks, which may affect not only scavengers, but also non-scavengers. However, we identified major knowledge gaps, as reviewed articles were highly biased towards fear, terrestrial environments, vertebrates, and behavioral responses. Based on the reviewed literature, we provide a conceptual framework on the main fear- and disgust-based interaction pathways associated with carrion resources. This framework may be used to formulate predictions about how the landscape of fear and disgust around carcasses might influence animals’ individual behavior and ecological processes, from population to ecosystem functioning. We encourage ecologists, evolutionary biologists, epidemiologists, forensic scientists, and conservation biologists to explore the promising research avenues associated with the scary and disgusting facets of carrion. Acknowledging the multiple trophic and non-trophic interactions among dead and live animals, including both herbivores and carnivores, will notably improve our understanding of the overlapping pressures that shape the landscape of fear and disgust.

Legislative tools in the Czech watershed management policy

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 39-44
Author(s):  
J. Holas ◽  
M. Konvicková
Keyword(s):  
Watershed Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Running Water ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Law System ◽  
Water Quality Regulations

Potential environmental impacts as a result of large-scale farming system in the Czech Republic have created a great deal of concern in recent years. This concern has led to several studies to identify the role of new regulations, directives and other legislative issues in the field of water pollution control. The set of legislative tools related to watershed management policy to promote better agricultural practices is shortly reviewed. The paper emphasises the running water law system amendment with respect to European community water quality regulations.

Natural Tyrosinase Inhibitors: Role of Herbals in the Treatment of Hyperpigmentary Disorders

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 796-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamal Uddin Zaidi ◽  
Sharique A. Ali ◽  
Ayesha Ali ◽  
Ishrat Naaz
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Enzymatic Browning ◽  
Melanin Production ◽  
Natural Sources ◽  
Pigmentary Disorders ◽  
Normal Manner ◽  
Abnormal Accumulation ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Tyrosinase Inhibitors

Cutaneous pigmentation plays critical role in determining the color of skin along with photo protection of skin from dreadful effects of ultraviolet radiations. Conversely, abnormal accumulation of melanin is responsible for hyper pigmentary disorders such as melasma, senile lentigines and freckles. Because of the visible nature of dermatologic diseases, they have a considerable psychosomatic effect on affected patients. Tyrosinase inhibitors are molecules that interrelate in some way with the enzyme to prevent it from working in the normal manner. Past many decades witnessed the quest for the development of natural tyrosinase inhibitors due to imperative role played by tyrosinase in the process of melanogenesis and fungi or fruit enzymatic browning. Mechanism of pigmentation is characterized by the intact process of the synthesis of specialized black pigment within melanosomes. Melanin is synthesized by a cascade of enzymatic and chemical reactions. For this reason, melanin production is mainly controlled by the expression and activation of tyrosinase. In the current article, we discussed tyrosinase inhibitors from the natural sources, which can be an essential constituent of cosmetics products and depigmenting agents for the treatment of hyperpigmentory disorders.

Conservation and privatization decisions in land reform of New Zealand’s high country

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Adena R Rissman ◽  
Molly C Daniels ◽  
Peter Tait ◽  
Xiaojing Xing ◽  
Ann L Brower
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Conservation Easement ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
Lower Productivity ◽  
Ecological Values

Summary Neoliberal land reforms to increase economic development have important implications for biodiversity conservation. This paper investigates land reform in New Zealand’s South Island that divides leased state-owned stations (ranches) with private grazing leases into state-owned conservation land, private land owned by the former leaseholder and private land under protective covenant (similar to conservation easement). Conserved lands had less threatened vegetation, lower productivity, less proximity to towns and steeper slopes than privatized lands. Covenants on private land were more common in intermediate zones with moderate land-use productivity and slope. Lands identified with ecological or recreational ‘significant inherent values’ were more likely to shift into conserved or covenant status. Yet among lands with identified ecological values, higher-threat areas were more likely to be privatized than lower-threat areas. This paper makes two novel contributions: (1) quantitatively examining the role of scientific recommendations about significant inherent values in land reform outcomes; and (2) examining the use of conservation covenants on privatized land. To achieve biodiversity goals, it is critical to avoid or prevent the removal of land-use restrictions beyond protected areas.

scholarly journals Building Bridges: A Participatory Stakeholder Framework for Sustainable Urban Construction Logistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2678
Author(s):  
Nicolas Brusselaers ◽  
Koen Mommens ◽  
Cathy Macharis
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sustainable Construction ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Implementation Barriers ◽  
Urban Construction ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Roll Out ◽  
Construction Works

The urban built environment concentrates due to the growing urbanization trend, triggering construction and renovation works in urban areas. Although construction works often revitalize cities upon completion, the associated logistics activities engender a significant financial and environmental footprint if not handled appropriately. Cities have the largest potential to reduce negative impacts through requirements on construction logistics. However, today, there is a lack of knowledge within cities on how to set such demands and how to involve and manage the numerous and varying stakeholders in these processes. This paper presents a participatory decision-making framework for the governance of urban construction logistics on economic, environmental and societal levels, building further on the Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA). The framework was then implemented on a use case in the dense urban Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium), gathering a wide variety of stakeholders in the context of a sustainable Construction Logistics Scenario (CLS) evaluation. Special attention was paid on the identification of implementation barriers and the role of governments to facilitate the introduction and city-wide roll-out of novel CLS. Findings show how different processes are site-, actor- and condition-specific, thereby delivering a common built object which is often based on different motivations and concerns. The study proposes a flexible, replicable and upscalable framework both from an inter- and intracity perspective, which can serve to support (1) the management of processes and CLS, (2) the management of people and the community, and (3) the project and city, in the context of multi-level governance.

scholarly journals The Role of Biophilic Agents in Building a Green Resilient City; the Case of Birmingham, UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5033
Author(s):  
Linda Novosadová ◽  
Wim van der Knaap
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Climate Resilience ◽  
Natural Land ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Community Projects ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
The City

The present research offers an exploration into the biophilic approach and the role of its agents in urban planning in questions of building a green, resilient urban environment. Biophilia, the innate need of humans to connect with nature, coined by Edgar O. Wilson in 1984, is a concept that has been used in urban governance through institutions, agents’ behaviours, activities and systems to make the environment nature-inclusive. Therefore, it leads to green, resilient environments and to making cities more sustainable. Due to an increasing population, space within and around cities keeps on being urbanised, replacing natural land cover with concrete surfaces. These changes to land use influence and stress the environment, its components, and consequently impact the overall resilience of the space. To understand the interactions and address the adverse impacts these changes might have, it is necessary to identify and define the environment’s components: the institutions, systems, and agents. This paper exemplifies the biophilic approach through a case study in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom and its biophilic agents. Using the categorisation of agents, the data obtained through in-situ interviews with local professionals provided details on the agent fabric and their dynamics with the other two environments’ components within the climate resilience framework. The qualitative analysis demonstrates the ways biophilic agents act upon and interact within the environment in the realm of urban planning and influence building a climate-resilient city. Their activities range from small-scale community projects for improving their neighbourhood to public administration programs focusing on regenerating and regreening the city. From individuals advocating for and educating on biophilic approach, to private organisations challenging the business-as-usual regulations, it appeared that in Birmingham the biophilic approach has found its representatives in every agent category. Overall, the activities they perform in the environment define their role in building resilience. Nonetheless, the role of biophilic agents appears to be one of the major challengers to the urban design’s status quo and the business-as-usual of urban governance. Researching the environment, focused on agents and their behaviour and activities based on nature as inspiration in addressing climate change on a city level, is an opposite approach to searching and addressing the negative impacts of human activity on the environment. This focus can provide visibility of the local human activities that enhance resilience, while these are becoming a valuable input to city governance and planning, with the potential of scaling it up to other cities and on to regional, national, and global levels.

The Risk of Water Erosion on the Foothills of the Middle High Atlas (Morocco): Tagueleft Basin Case Study : خطر التعرية المائية على السفوح بالأطلس الكبير الأوسط (المغرب): دراسة حالة حوض تاكلفت

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rizki Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Land Degradation ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Potential Method ◽  
Water Erosion ◽  
High Atlas ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Impact

The Tagueleft basin is geographically located in the northern edges of the Middle High Atlas, which is a geomorphological fragile area. The impact of human activity has accelerated water erosion in this mountains area. This is reflected in dynamic and unstable foothills, a decrease in forests density and degradation in the production of the land. On the other hand, land degradation due to human overexploitation of natural resources has increased land degradation in the area. The interest in the risk of erosion on the foothills in the area under study comes in the context of our contribution to clarify the role of geomatical and geomorphological approaches in explaining and identifying the mechanisms responsible for current foothills dynamism through water erosion and its negative impacts on the environment and local development. The aim of the study was to use the EPM (Erosion Potential Méthod) which is formulated by Slobodan Gavrilovic for erosion in mountainous areas and to test the reliability of its results based on fieldwork and remote sensing data. The results of the erosion assessment and its quantification by applying the coefficient (W) for the theoretical model in the area under study have shown that erosion is very important and it touches on wide areas as it appears through the domain classification of the distribution erosion in Tagueleft basin.

scholarly journals The Bioavailability of Astaxanthin Is Dependent on Both the Source and the Isomeric Variants of the Molecule

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myriam MIMOUN-BENARROCH ◽  
Cindy HOGOT ◽  
Larbi RHAZI ◽  
Claude Narcisse NIAMBA ◽  
Flore DEPEINT
Keyword(s):  
Cultured Cells ◽  
Haematococcus Pluvialis ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Intestinal Barrier ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Permeable Membrane ◽  
Natural Sources ◽  
Uptake Studies ◽  
Colonic Cells

Astaxanthin is a marine carotenoid that has a number of potential health benefits, including a very strong antioxidant potential. Present in the flesh of salmonids and shellfish, its natural sources currently on the market for food supplements come from the algae Haematococcus pluvialis and krill. However other natural sources can be found and may be of interest. Cellular uptake studies were performed on Caco-2/TC7 colonic cells. The cells were cultured on a semi-permeable membrane to create a polarized and functional epithelium, representative of the intestinal barrier. Four sources of astaxanthin were selected and compared; synthetic, natural extracts from bacteria, algae or yeast. Astaxanthin was incorporated at a concentration of 5µM into mixed micelles and applied to cultured cells and concentration of astaxanthin measured by HPLC in both apical and basolateral compartments. Small variations in bioavailability were observed at 3 hours. After 6 hours, only the algae source of astaxanthin was still present in the apical compartment as the esterified form. Structure-activity relationships are further discussed. Animal experiments using yeast and algae sources in different types of matrices confirm the role of source and formulation in the bioavailability potential of astaxanthin.

scholarly journals Exploring the intersections: researchers and communication professionals' perspectives on the organizational role of science communication

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaisu Koivumäki ◽  
Clare Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Influences ◽  
Research Organizations ◽  
Funding Policies ◽  
Negative Impacts

PurposeThis paper reports on research exploring the intersections between researchers and communication professionals' perspectives on the objectives, funders and organizational influences on their science communication practices.Design/methodology/approachExamining one context, the inter-organizational BCDC Energy Research project based at five different research organizations in Finland, this paper presents data from semi-structured interviews with 17 researchers and 15 communication professionals.FindingsThe results suggest that performance-based funding policies that drive the proliferation of large-scale research projects can create challenges. In particular, a challenge arises in generating a shared sense of identity and purpose amongst researchers and communication professionals. This may have unintended negative impacts on the quality and cohesiveness of the science communication which occurs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was exploratory in nature and focuses on one organizational and institutional environment. Further research with a wider number of projects, as well as funders, would be conducive to a greater understanding of the issues involved.Practical implicationsOn a practical level, this research suggests that the creation of clearer communications awareness and guidance may be helpful in some large-scale projects, particularly involving broad numbers of organizations, individual researchers and funders.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies examining the perspectives of both researchers and communication professionals working over one project, drawing together a range of different institutional and disciplinary perspectives. The results highlight the importance of the influences of funding on science communication aims, assumptions, cultures and structures. The article articulates the need for further research in this area.

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