Predicting the impact of Giant Molerat influenced vegetation on Sanetti Plateau, Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luise Wraase ◽  
Victoria Reuber ◽  
Philipp Kurth ◽  
Nina Farwig ◽  
Georg Miehe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Engineer ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Vegetation Pattern ◽  
Ecosystem Engineers ◽  
Vegetation Patterns ◽  
Local Soil ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

<p>Ecosystem engineers continuously shape and re-shape the spatial and temporal structure of the environment. Burrowing animals are an important group of ecosystem engineers, because of their ability to rework sediments and soils with consequences for e.g. soil formation and vegetation patterns. Simultaneous, burrowing animals depend on climate, local soil characteristics and vegetation. The endemic Giant Molerat (GMR) is a burrowing animal and important ecosystem engineer in the Bale Mountains. As part of the Bale Mountain Exile Hypothesis Project, the aim of this study is to investigate (1) the interlinkages between GMR, climate and vegetation patterns as well as (2) to upscale the influence of GMR on the vegetation pattern across the plateau with Sentinel satellite data. Field data comprise 47 paired plots of 5m x 5m with and without GMR activity. Additionally, 1.500 independent GMR burrow openings have been mapped. For investigating interlinkages, all parameters are first pre-analysed for correlations and their dependencies (1). In the following these results, the remote sensing data and the individual variables are implemented into the prediction model. To increase the accuracy, an error correction of the model is pursued. For this, the area is calculated into likelihoods of areas influenced by GMR, based on the vegetation survey pairs serving as training areas for the correction. The corrected results are used as final input model in a machine learning-based classification approach using Random Forest with forward-feature selection and leave-feature-out option (2). In the following the results of this ongoing upscaling approach used for the Sanetti Plateau, Ethiopia is presented.</p>

How spatial vegetation distribution affects soil erosion and sediment transport

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte Kuegler ◽  
Thomas Hoffmann ◽  
Jana Eichel ◽  
Lothar Schrott ◽  
Juergen Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Vegetation Pattern ◽  
Vegetation Coverage ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Initial Increase ◽  
Vegetation Patterns ◽  
Erosion Rates ◽  
Catchment Areas ◽  
The Impact

<p>There are a multitude of factors that affect soil erosion and the process of sediment movement. One particular factor known to have a considerable impact is vegetation coverage within catchment areas.  Previous studies have examined the impact of vegetation cover on erosion. However, there is a lack of research on how the spatial distribution of vegetation influences erosion rates.</p><p>A greater understanding of hillslope erosion is fundamental in modelling previous and future topographic changes under various climate conditions. Here, the physical based erosion model EROSION 3D © is used to evaluate the impact of a variety of vegetation patterns and degrees of vegetation cover on sediment erosion and transport. The model was applied on a natural catchment in La Campana (Central Chile). For this purpose, three different vegetation patterns were created: (i) random distribution, (ii) water-dependent distribution (TWIR) and (iii) banded vegetation pattern distribution. Additional to this, the areas covered by vegetation generated in the first step were expanded by steps of 10% [0...100%]. The Erosion3D © model then was applied on all vegetation patterns and degrees of cover.</p><p>Our results show an initial increase of soil erosion with increasing plant coverage within the catchment up to a certain cover threshold ranging between 10 and 40%. At larger vegetation cover soil erosion rates decline. The strength of increase and decline, as well as the cover-threshold is strongly conditioned by the spatial vegetation pattern. In the light of this, future research should pay particular attention to the properties of the plants and their distribution, not solely on the amount of biomass within catchment areas.</p>

scholarly journals Ecological restoration and rising CO2 enhance carbon sink, counteracting climate change in northeastern China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binbin Huang ◽  
Fei Lu ◽  
Xiaoke Wang ◽  
Xing Wu ◽  
Lu Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Source Control ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The impact of climate change, rising CO2, land use/land cover change (LC) and land management (LM) on carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems has been widely reported. However, rare studies have been conducted to clarify the impact of climate change and rising CO2 on carbon sink contributed by ecological restoration projects (ERPs). To better understand the impact of climate change and rising CO2 on ERPs, we took the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Project (BTSSCP) zone as an example to set different scenarios to distinguish the confounding effects of these factors on regional carbon budget based on remote sensing data-driven model. Compared with business as usual (BAU), our results showed climate change caused carbon loss of 78.97 Tg. On the contrary, ERPs contributed approximately 199.88 Tg C sink in forest and grassland. Furthermore, rising CO2 also contributed an additional 107.80 Tg C sink. This study distinguished the individual effects of different factors, and clarified the net carbon sink contributed by ERPs and rising CO2 and their significance to enhance regional carbon sink and reverse adverse effects of climate change on carbon sink. Furthermore, ERPs can sequester carbon dioxide faster and more effectively compared with rising CO2.

scholarly journals MENGENAL PEREKAYASA EKOSISTEM

OSEANA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-53
Author(s):  
Allsay Kitsash Addifisyukha Cintra
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Ecosystem Engineer ◽  
Ecosystem Engineering ◽  
Ecosystem Engineers ◽  
Habitat Conditions ◽  
Habitat Condition ◽  
The Impact

UNDERSTANDING THE ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS. Ecosystem engineers are organisms that can create, destroy or even maintain the sustainability of a particular habitat. The process of ecosystem engineering begins with structural changes in the environment and subsequently change the abiotic the biotic term or the existence of other organisms. Ecosystem engineers are divided into two, namely autogenic and allogenic engineers. Autogenic engineers change the habitat condition by shifting their body conditions, whereas allogenic engineers that can directly change habitat conditions. The impact of ecosystem engineers on the environment is determined by the magnitude and duration of structural changes made or abandoned by the ecosystem engineer. Understanding the concept of ecosystem engineering is useful as one of the efforts to restore habitat and conservation acts.

scholarly journals Mapping the pyrogenic dynamics of forest geosystems on the northeastern shore of Lake Baikal

2021 ◽  
Vol 895 (1) ◽  
pp. 012032
Author(s):  
A V Myadzelets
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
General Description ◽  
Vegetation Maps ◽  
Field Observation Data ◽  
Insignificant Difference ◽  
State Changes ◽  
The Individual ◽  
River Valleys ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The paper considers the impact of the pyrogenic factor on the landscapes of the Barguzinskii Range. Model representative sites with natural and disturbed mountain-taiga geosystems are identified in the territory of the Trans-Baikal National Park (Svyatoi Nos Peninsula) and the Barguzinskii Nature Reserve (Shumilikha, Tarkulik, and Davsha river valleys). We used geoinformation methods, landscape interpretation mapping, field observation data, remote sensing data and traditional comparative geographical methods for assessment and mapping. The collected data are systematized in the form of a geoinformation database for individual sections and visualized in a cartographic form. We compiled vegetation maps, taking into account the features of the relief and soil types and gave a general description of the landscape state to analyze the pyrogenic impact on local landscapes. It was also revealed that the modification processes of forest geosystems caused by the pyrogenic impact are widespread across wide swathes, but have a different character. It depends on the individual spatial geographical features of the selected representative sites and the nature and time of the direct pyrogenic factor exposure, e.g., the frequency, intensity, especially the microclimate, relief, etc. The paper shows that the restorative stages of plant dynamics in the model sites are clearly traced. We have established an insignificant difference between the current and reference states in places of weak pyrogenic impact, significant local state changes in places of extensive areal impact, and significant and catastrophic changes in places of lasting and intense pyrogenic impact. Maps of the geosystem disturbance caused by both pyrogenic and natural factors for the model sites were compiled.

scholarly journals White-matter degradation and dynamical compensation support age-related functional alterations in human brain

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spase Petkoski ◽  
Petra Ritter ◽  
Viktor Jirsa
Keyword(s):  
Average Length ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Bimodal Distribution ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

Structural connectivity of the brain at different ages is analyzed using diffusion-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. The largest decrease of the number and average length of stream- lines is found for the long inter-hemispheric links, with the strongest impact for frontal regions. From the BOLD functional MRI (fMRI) time series we identify age-related changes of dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) and spatial covariation features of the FC links captured by meta- connectivity (MC). They indicate more constant dFC, but wider range and variance of MC. Finally we applied computational whole-brain network model based on oscillators, which mechanistically expresses the impact of the spatio-temporal structure of the brain (weights and the delays) to the dynamics. With this we tested several hypothesis, which revealed that the spatio-temporal reorga- nization of the brain with ageing, supports the observed functional fingerprints only if the model accounts for: (i) compensation of the individual brains for the overall loss of structural connectivity, and (ii) decrease of propagation velocity due to the loss of myelination. We also show that having these two conditions, it is sufficient to decompose the time-delays as bimodal distribution that only distinguishes between intra- and inter-hemispheric delays, and that the same working point also captures the static FC the best.

scholarly journals Prioritization of the vector factors controlling <i>Emiliania huxleyi</i> blooms in subarctic and arctic seas: A multidimensional statistical approach

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Kondrik ◽  
Eduard Kazakov ◽  
Svetlana Chepikova ◽  
Dmitry Pozdnyakov
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Approach ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Marine Ecology ◽  
Arctic Seas ◽  
Prediction Ability ◽  
The North ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Producing very extensive blooms in the world's oceans in both hemispheres, a coccolithophore E. huxleyi is capable of affecting both the marine ecology and carbon fluxes at the atmosphere-ocean interface. At the same time, it is subject to the impact of multiple co-acting environmental forcings, which determine the spatio-temporal dynamics of E. huxleyi blooming phenomenon. To reveal the individual importance of each forcing factor (FF) that is known to significantly control the extent and intensity of E. huxleyi blooms and can be retrieved from remote sensing data, we used long-term spatial time series (1998–2016) of sea surface temperature and salinity, incident photosynthetically active radiation, and Ekman layer depth relevant to the marine environments located in the North Atlantic, Arctic and North Pacific oceans, namely the North, Norwegian, Greenland, Labrador, Barents and Bering seas. The FFs retrieved were subjected to statistical analyses. The descriptive statistical approach has shown that E. huxleyi phytoplankton were highly adaptive to the environmental conditions and capable of arising and developing within wide FFs ranges, which proved to be expressly sea-specific. It was also found that there were FFs optimal ranges (also sea-specific), within which the blooms were particularly extensive. The application of the Random Forest Classifier (RFC) approach to each target sea allowed to reliably rank the FFs considered in terms of their role in the spatio-temporal dynamics of E. huxleyi blooms. With the only exception of the Bering Sea, allegedly due to temporally established untypical hydrological conditions, the prediction ability of RFC modeling characterized in terms of precision, recall, and f1-score generally was in excess of 70 %, thus indicating the adequacy of the developed models for FFs prioritization with regard to E. huxleyi blooms.

Accent Policy and Accent Modification Enterprises as Potential Indicators of Intercultural Power Relations: A Call for an Updated Research Agenda

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brynne D. Ovalle ◽  
Rahul Chakraborty
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Cultural Organization ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.

Investigating the Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Stigma Among Young Adults With History of Suicide Attempts

Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meshan Lehmann ◽  
Matthew R. Hilimire ◽  
Lawrence H. Yang ◽  
Bruce G. Link ◽  
Jordan E. DeVylder
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
High Risk Population ◽  
High Functioning ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. Background: Self-esteem is a major contributor to risk for repeated suicide attempts. Prior research has shown that awareness of stigma is associated with reduced self-esteem among people with mental illness. No prior studies have examined the association between self-esteem and stereotype awareness among individuals with past suicide attempts. Aims: To understand the relationship between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among young adults who have and have not attempted suicide. Method: Computerized surveys were administered to college students (N = 637). Linear regression analyses were used to test associations between self-esteem and stereotype awareness, attempt history, and their interaction. Results: There was a significant stereotype awareness by attempt interaction (β = –.74, p = .006) in the regression analysis. The interaction was explained by a stronger negative association between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among individuals with past suicide attempts (β = –.50, p = .013) compared with those without attempts (β = –.09, p = .037). Conclusion: Stigma is associated with lower self-esteem within this high-functioning sample of young adults with histories of suicide attempts. Alleviating the impact of stigma at the individual (clinical) or community (public health) levels may improve self-esteem among this high-risk population, which could potentially influence subsequent suicide risk.

The Role of Threat and Economic Uncertainty in Support for Scottish Independence

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kopasker
Keyword(s):  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Economic Expectations ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Levels Of Support

Existing research has consistently shown that perceptions of the potential economic consequences of Scottish independence are vital to levels of support for constitutional change. This paper attempts to investigate the mechanism by which expectations of the economic consequences of independence are formed. A hypothesised causal micro-level mechanism is tested that relates constitutional preferences to the existing skill investments of the individual. Evidence is presented that larger skill investments are associated with a greater likelihood of perceiving economic threats from independence. Additionally, greater perceived threat results in lower support for independence. The impact of uncertainty on both positive and negative economic expectations is also examined. While uncertainty has little effect on negative expectations, it significantly reduces the likelihood of those with positive expectations supporting independence. Overall, it appears that a general economy-wide threat is most significant, and it is conjectured that this stems a lack of information on macroeconomic governance credentials.

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