scholarly journals New data on the distribution of Menyanthes trifoliata, Carex limosa and Comarum palustre in "Torfeno Branishte" Reserve, "Vitosha" Natural Park, Bulgaria

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Bancheva ◽  
Rayna Natcheva ◽  
Vladimir Vladimirov ◽  
Atanas Tanev ◽  
Galin Gospodinov
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural State ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Natural Park ◽  
Comarum Palustre ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Menyanthes Trifoliata

"Torfeno Branishte" is a Reserve located in "Vitosha" Natural Park, Bulgaria. It was established in 1935 to preserve the peat communities in the high parts of Vitosha Mountain in their natural state. The reserve comprises Bulgaria’s most significant complex of high mountain peatlands. Their age is estimated to be over 1500 years old, and the thickness of the peat cover accumulated during that time can reach up to 2 meters in depth. Their current area is 785.3 hectares. Plant communities dominated or participated by Sphagnum L. and/or other peat-forming mosses are very sensitive to climate change and anthropogenic impact. They often house a large number of plant species with conservation significance. The purpose of this study is to provide new data on the distribution of three extremely rare and endangered plant species. During a field study in "Vitosha" Natural Park related to the selection of sites for monitoring and installation of permanent monitoring sites for climate change monitoring in nature reserve "Torfeno Branishte", two species were found that were considered extinct from the territory of the mountain – Menyanthes trifoliata L. and Carex limosa L. Both species are protected by the Biological Diversity Act and are included in the Red Data Book of Republic of Bulgaria (Peev 2015). Prior to this study, for decades they have been purposefully searched for with no positive result. As a result of this study, the number and population sizes of M. trifoliata and C. limosa were determined. In addition, the populations of Comarum palustre L. and Carex limosa L. that occur at the same location were found to be much larger than previously known. Population sizes of the three species are low, but still viable. The major threat to the well-being of these species is the drought.

scholarly journals High mountain community in a changing climate: a study of agropastoral adaptation in mustang district, Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-70
Author(s):  
Prakash Upadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Adaptive Strategy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Community Capacity ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Climate Resilience ◽  
Mountain Community

This paper explores the changing climate, its impact, and the diversified practices of agropastoral adaption by a mountain community of Nepal. The findings reveal that there is an unswerving link between the changes in climate and their impact on the community and its adaptation options. The vulnerability and risk induced by the climate change has threatened the agropastoral subsistence, the sociocultural and economic structure, and the food sovereignty of the Loba community of Mustang district of Nepal and made them experience unanticipated complications in livelihood. In a changing climate, the community has attuned and restructured its adaptive strategy with diversified practices of collective labour in a traditional agropastoral system of landholding, mystical connectivity and seasonal relocation as an adaptive response ensuring the shared sustenance of the com munity. The challenge of climate change began long ago; it will persevere and be long- lasting. Hence, this paper argues for the need for a prudent adoption of measures to maintain an environmentally suitable agropastoral system of liveli hood well-being. Beyond enhancing community capacity and climate resilience, it is necessary to streamline and readjust indigenous sociocultural institutions by expanding their adaptive capacity, while recognizing the cultural dimensions grounded in systems of meanings and relationships and the way people and their culture experience and respond to exceptional climatic changes.

BAIKAL REGION IN THE UNESCO “MAN AND BIOCPHERE” PROGRAMME

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.M. PLYUSNIN ◽  
◽  
I.N. VLADIMIROV ◽  
A.A. SOROKOVOI
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Baikal Region ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Biosphere Reserves ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Territorial Planning ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Natural Resource Exploitation

The main objective of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program is to ensure a balance between the responsibility of humankind to preserve nature and its biological diversity and the need of natural resource exploitation by human being to improve the social and economic well-being of people. Biosphere reserves are recommended as representative objects for the conservation of biological diversity and, in general, ecological systems. The world network of Biosphere reserves in 2020 included 714 Biosphere reserves in 129 countries, in Russia there are 46 of them. They also act as models for achieving the goals and objectives of sustainable development of territories. The tasks include research related to climate change and the response of natural processes to these changes, implementation of space and cartographic monitoring of nature, educational activities and activities aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. Research on the relationship between man and the biosphere in the Baikal region was carried out with an integrated environmentally oriented planning and use of lands, water and biological resources. For the Lake Baikal World Natural Heritage Site, we have carried out territorial planning and zoning, as well as determined the ecological potential of the landscapes of the Baikal natural territory.

scholarly journals Trends in Population Size of Rare Plant Species in the Alpine Habitats of the Ukrainian Carpathians under Climate Change

Diversity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriy Kobiv
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Frost Damage ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Alpine Plant ◽  
Cold Adapted ◽  
Subalpine Zone ◽  
Alpine Species ◽  
Alpine Habitats

Population trends in rare alpine plant species in the high-mountain zone of the Ukrainian Carpathians are described with regard to the types of habitats where they occur. Populations of cold-adapted species confined to snowbeds, alpine screes, poorly vegetated rocks, and the highest ridges, as well as mires and springs, are very vulnerable to climate change, while their habitats tend to shrink. The direct impact of warming affects mainly the most cryophilic species. Another driver of changes is climate-induced succession that results in denser vegetation cover and encroachment of more thermophilic plants, which replace low-competitive rare alpine species. Their replacement is largely caused by the loss of open microsites suitable for seed recruitment. However, the climate-driven decrease of snow cover often leads to frost damage to vegetation that provides gaps appropriate for the establishment of many rare species. One of the groups of species that benefit from warming includes rather thermophilic tall herbs that are more common in the subalpine zone but have been actively spreading at higher altitudes lately.

Is Canada fulfilling its obligations to sustain marine biodiversity? A summary review, conclusions, and recommendations 1This manuscript is a companion paper to Hutchings et al. (doi:10.1139/a2012-011) and VanderZwaag et al. (doi:10.1139/a2012-013) also appearing in this issue. These three papers comprise an edited version of a February 2012 Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel Report.

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Hutchings ◽  
Isabelle M. Côté ◽  
Julian J. Dodson ◽  
Ian A. Fleming ◽  
S. Jennings ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Companion Paper ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
New Research ◽  
Research Initiatives ◽  
Developed Nations

Canada has made numerous national and international commitments to sustain marine biodiversity. Given current and potential threats to biodiversity from climate change, fisheries, and aquaculture, we provide a summary review of Canada’s progress in fulfilling its obligations to protect, conserve, recover, and responsibly exploit marine biodiversity. We conclude that Canada has made little substantive progress, when compared to most developed nations, in meeting its biodiversity commitments. Much of Canada’s policy and rhetoric has not been operationalised, leaving many of the country’s national and international obligations unfulfilled in some key areas, such as the establishment of marine protected areas and incorporation of the precautionary approach to fisheries management. We conclude that regulatory conflict within Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the absolute discretion exercised by the national Minister of Fisheries and Oceans contribute significantly to an unduly slow rate of policy and statute implementation. We recommend new approaches and measures to sustain Canadian marine biodiversity and new research initiatives to support scientific advice to decision-makers. Many recommendations focus on management actions required to meet existing commitments to biodiversity conservation. Overall, we conclude that the most effective strategy is to protect existing biological diversity and to rebuild depleted populations and species to restore natural diversity. By improving and protecting the biodiversity in Canada’s oceans, such a strategy will restore the natural resilience of Canada’s ocean ecosystems to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change and other anthropogenic activities with consequent long-term benefits for food security and social and economic well-being.

scholarly journals POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON PLANT DIVERSITY OF HILLY AREAS OF AZAD KASHMIR AND THEIR MITIGATION: A REVIEW

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
K. F. Akbar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Observation System ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Mixed Forests ◽  
Mountain Ecosystems ◽  
Distribution Ranges ◽  
Azad Kashmir ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Azad Kashmir has variety of mountain ecosystems which are rich in floral and faunal diversity. These ecosystems are fragile and are under stress due to various natural and anthropogenic pressures. Mountain ecosystems of Azad Kashmir are more vulnerable to global warming and are expected to show its impacts rapidly. Climate change may cause major changes in distribution ranges of different vegetation types. As a result of climate change, the area of three vegetation groups (alpine, grassland/arid woodlands and deserts) is expected to decrease and the areas of five types (cold conifer/mixed woodland, cold conifer/mixed forests, temperate conifer/mixed forests, warm conifer/mixed forests, and steppe/arid shrub lands) are expected to increase. Climate change is going to affect conservation of plant species and ecosystems by causing direct loss of plant species and intensify the effects of existing threats such as habitat degradation, deforestation and over-harvesting of plants by local communities, pollution and invasive species. These stresses, acting individually and collectively on species, communities and ecosystems, are depleting and will continue to deplete biodiversity. The negative impacts of climate change are multi-dimensional and wide-ranging. Their mitigation requires an integrated and coordinated policy response for conservation of plant resources. These measures include a regular monitoring and observation system, restoration of degraded habitats and forests, identifying new solutions involving cross-sectoral linkages to conserve biological diversity of Azad Kashmir by supporting the intricate and complex responses of species and ecosystems to climate change.

Alpine Biome

Ecology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laszlo Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Stress Gradient ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Test Field ◽  
Alpine Ecosystems ◽  
Parallel Change

Temperature decreases with latitude from the equator to the poles and with elevation from the lowlands to mountains peaks. A parallel change in biota, most apparent in how plant growth forms give rise to a sequence of tree-dominated biomes/vegetation belts, from tropical lowland evergreen rain forest to boreal taiga or upper montane forest, until tree growth form is no longer sustainable (latitudinal and elevational treelines) and the landscape changes into open low-stature shrub and forb vegetation: polar tundra at high latitudes and alpine vegetation in the mountains. While the concept of tundra biome is well established, no such thing as an “alpine biome” is recognized by most biogeographers. Biogeographically, the alpine “biome” is rather heterogeneous as it encompasses the climatically treeless cold-limited portions of mountain environments in all latitude climate/life zones from the tropics to the poles. The total extent of the alpine biome is estimated at being c. 3 percent of the total land surface of the Earth, where about 4 percent of known vascular plant species occur. The regional biological richness of alpine ecosystems is highly variable across continents, ranging from c. 200 plant species in the east African high volcanic mountains to more than 3,000 species in the north Andean “páramos.” Our knowledge of alpine ecosystems is uneven when mountains are considered worldwide. The Alps and other European mountains are well described botanically and zoologically, allowing comparative biogeographical analyses. Ecological and ecophysiological research in alpine ecosystems has been focusing on diversity/productivity-environment (primarily [micro-]climate) relationships: species acclimation, tolerance, and evolution, the bases of dispersal and distribution. The alpine biome has recently become a test field of the stress-gradient hypothesis and the focus of climate change impact studies, largely through modeling. The history and phylogeography of alpine organisms is also an active field. The number of population and community level studies is small in alpine ecosystems, and they are mostly associated with studying disturbance factors, such as (over)grazing or atmospheric deposition. While ecosystem services that alpine environments contribute to human well-being are increasingly being recognized, their sustainable use largely remains a theoretical consideration. Following major changes in land use in the 1960s, a large proportion of the biome is protected in economically developed countries; in developing countries it continues to provide important goods and services for sustaining local livelihoods. Initiatives are ongoing to undertake long-term integrated research to observe and report changes to the structure and functioning of alpine ecosystems in response to climate change and human land use.

Marketing Linkages: Secretariat Governance of the Climate-Biodiversity Interface

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sikina Jinnah
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Active Player ◽  
Executive Secretary ◽  
Response Measures

In this article I argue that, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), led by its autonomously entrepreneurial Executive Secretary, influences overlap management by strategically linking biodiversity and climate change issues. Specifically, the Secretariat marketed (filtered, framed, and reiterated) strategic frames of the biodiversity-climate change interface that reframed biodiversity from a passive victim of climate impacts, to an active player in climate response measures (i.e. adaptation). This reframing is significant in that a major hurdle to selling the benefits of biodiversity conservation to countries with more pressing development concerns has been the perceived limited relevance of conservation to human well-being. In emphasizing biodiversity's role in human adaptation and security, the Secretariat has begun to shape member state discourse surrounding the biodiversity-climate change linkage. Ultimately aimed at enriching our emerging theoretical understanding of the role of international bureaucracies in global governance, this article illuminates: (1) how the Secretariat understands and manages biodiversity-climate linkages; (2) the origins of the Secretariat's understanding and activities surrounding this issue; and (3) how Secretariat participation in overlap management is beginning to influence CBD political processes and outcomes.

scholarly journals Population extinctions driven by climate change, population size, and time since observation may make rare species databases inaccurate

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kaye ◽  
Matt A Bahm ◽  
Andrea S Thorpe ◽  
Erin C Gray ◽  
Ian Pfingsten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Rare Species ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Population Extinction ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Potential Signal

Loss of biological diversity through population extinctions is a global phenomenon that threatens many ecosystems. Managers often rely on databases of rare species locations to plan land use actions and conserve at-risk taxa, so it is crucial that the information they contain is accurate and dependable. However, climate change, small population sizes, and long gaps between surveys may be leading to undetected extinctions of many populations. We used repeated survey records for a rare but widespread orchid, Cypripedium fasciculatum (clustered lady's slipper), to model population extinction risk based on elevation, population size, and time between observations. Population size was negatively associated with extinction, while elevation and time between observations interacted such that low elevation populations were most vulnerable to extinction, but only over larger time spans. We interpret population losses at low elevations as a potential signal of climate change impacts. We used this model to estimate the probability of persistence of populations across California and Oregon, and found that 31%-56% of the 2415 populations reported in databases from this region are likely extinct. Managers should be aware that the number of populations of rare species in their databases is potentially an overestimate, and consider resurveying these populations to document their presence and condition, with priority given to older reports of small populations, especially those at low elevations or in other areas with high climate vulnerability.

scholarly journals Coastal Ecosystem Services Assessment in the Framework of the Climate Change Effects: Study Case Bay of Cadiz Natural Park (Spain)

2020 ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Alba López-Herrera ◽  
J. Adolfo Chica-Ruiz ◽  
María Luisa Pérez-Cayeiro
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Natural Park ◽  
Regulation Services ◽  
Protected Natural Area ◽  
Services Evaluation ◽  
Bay Of Cadiz ◽  
Bay Of Cádiz

An ecosystem service assessment in the Bay of Cadiz Natural Park has been undergone in relation to the effects of climate change. The ecosystems in the study area were analyzed and 3 different types were indentified: 1) beaches and dunes, 2) marshes and 3) marine environment (including the marine phanerogam meadows), and the ecosystem services (providing, regulating and cultural services) that these ecosystems offer have also been identified. The services state was valued to determine which ones are the most exposed and which the most vulnerable to the climate change effects and its possible future trends through climatic simulators has been made. The results allowed to conclude that most of the ecosystem services showed a negative trend, especially the regulation services which are more associated with the climate change phenomenon. Keywords: Protected natural area, ecosystem services, evaluation of ecosystems, human well-being, climate change.

scholarly journals Governance Challenges for Implementing Nature-Based Solutions in the Asian Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 102-113
Author(s):  
Kanako Morita ◽  
Ken'ichi Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Stages Of Economic Development

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are recognized under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. This relatively new concept has become a key element in strategies for green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. NbS consist of a range of measures that address various societal challenges, including climate change, natural disasters, and water security, by combining human well-being and biodiversity benefits. Although the importance of NbS has been widely recognized, existing studies on aspects of their governance are limited and mainly focus on NbS in European countries. There is little relevant research in other regions, including Asia. This study aimed to explore challenges for NbS governance by analyzing the development and implementation of NbS in Asia. We focused on NbS in the fields of climate change mitigation and adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and infrastructure. In these three fields, NbS are linked to climate security issues and have been widely implemented in Asian countries. This analysis identified the challenges for NbS governance for countries at different stages of economic development, and for developing measures for NbS with different institutions and actors. It recognizes the importance of a framework that matches the need for NbS with relevant institutions and actors at various scales and in various sectors. Guidelines are required to integrate NbS into strategies and policies at national and local levels and also into international cooperation.

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