Comparison of varve preservation and characteristics between remote and urban lakes in Finland

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarianna Salminen ◽  
Mikko Uotinen ◽  
Saija Saarni
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Environmental Sciences ◽  
Varved Sediments ◽  
Urban Lakes ◽  
Local Factors ◽  
Induced Changes ◽  
Catchment Morphometry ◽  
Eastern Finland

<p>Comparison of varve preservation and characteristics between remote and urban lakes in Finland</p><p> </p><p>Sarianna Salminen<sup>1</sup>, Mikko Uotinen<sup>1</sup>, and Saija Saarni<sup>2</sup></p><p><sup>1</sup>Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, Finland</p><p><sup>2</sup>Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland</p><p> </p><p>The occurrence of varved sediments in Finnish lakes is known to be dependent on certain features, such as morphometry of the lake and its catchment. However, varve preservation triggered by recent hypoxia has been observed in Finnish lakes of which sediments are not naturally laminated. In these lakes human-induced eutrophication and hypoxia might have been the major factor triggering varve preservation.</p><p>Here we compare varve preservation, varve characteristics, and varve qualities between one remote and naturally laminated (Lake Lehmilampi in Eastern Finland) and two lakes close to urban areas (Lake Vesijärvi in Southern Finland and Lake Kallavesi in Eastern Finland) with recent start of varve preservation.</p><p>Surplus of organic matter leading to hypoxia seems to have triggered the start of varve preservation in Lake Vesijärvi and possibly in Lake Kallavesi in the 20th century. In these two lakes several varve microfacieses were identified representing human-induced changes in the catchment. In the remote Lake Lehmilampi sedimentation rate is lower compared to the two urban lakes and the number of identified microfacieses is lower. The results suggest that in these three lakes varve characteristics, varve quality, and the cause of varve preservation as well as the continuity of varve preservation differ between lakes as a result of regional and local factors. In Lake Lehmilampi varve preservation seems to be dependent on lake and catchment morphometry as well as climate, whereas in Lake Vesijärvi and Lake Kallavesi varve preservation mainly seems to be dependent on anthropogenic factors. For instance, in Lake Vesijärvi rehabilitation actions seem to have affected varve preservation turning the sediment non-laminated. Furthermore, varve characteristics and quality seem to be sensitive to climate in Lake Lehmilampi, whereas in Lake Vesijärvi and Lake Kallavesi they correspond to anthropogenic changes.</p>

scholarly journals Microplastic Pollution in Surface Water of Urban Lakes in Changsha, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingshi Yin ◽  
Changbo Jiang ◽  
Xiaofeng Wen ◽  
Chunyan Du ◽  
Wei Zhong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Maximum Concentration ◽  
Emerging Pollutants ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Dominant Type ◽  
Urban Lakes ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

As emerging pollutants, microplastics have attracted the attention of scholars from all over the world. However, there is a lack of research on freshwater areas, even in densely populated urban areas. This study investigated eight urban lakes in Changsha, China. It was found that microplastic concentrations ranged from 2425 ± 247.5 items/m3 to 7050 ± 1060.66 items/m3 in the surface water of research areas and the maximum concentration was found in Yuejin Lake, a tourist spot in the center of the city. Anthropogenic factors are an important reason for microplastic abundance in urban lakes. The major shape of microplastics was linear and most of the microplastics were transparent. More than 89.5% of the microplastics had a size of less than 2 mm. Polypropylene was the dominant type in the studied waters. This study can provide a valuable reference for a better understanding of microplastic pollution in urban areas of China.

Urbanization of fauna on the example of marsh frog (Pelophylax ridibundus)

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 116-123
Author(s):  
A. P. Korzh ◽  
T. V. Zahovalko
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cognitive Modeling ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Migration Routes ◽  
Corrective Effect ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Recently, the number of published works devoted to the processes of synanthropization of fauna, is growing like an avalanche, which indicates the extreme urgency of this theme. In our view, the process of forming devices to coexist with human and the results of his life reflects the general tandency of the modern nature evolution. Urbanization is characteristic for such a specific group of animals like amphibians, the evidence of which are numerous literature data. Many researchers use this group to assess the bioindicative quality of the environment. For this aim a variety of indicators are used: from the cellular level of life of organization up to the species composition of the group in different territories. At the same time, the interpretation of the results is not always comparable for different areas and often have significantly different interpretations by experts. Urban environment, primarily due to the contamination is extremely aggressive to amphibians. As a consequence, the urban populations of amphibians may be a change in the demographic structure, affecting the reproductive ability of the population, the disappearance of the most sensitive species or individuals, resizing animals, the appearance of abnormalities in the development, etc. At the same time play an important amphibians in the ecosystems of cities, and some species in these conditions even feel relatively comfortable. Therefore, it is interesting to understand the mechanisms of self-sustaining populations of amphibians in urban environments. To assess the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on the development of amphibian populations were used cognitive modeling using the program Vensim PLE. Cognitive map of the model for urban and suburban habitat conditions were the same. The differences concerned the strength of connections between individual factors (migration, fertility, pollution) and their orientation. In general, factors like pollution, parasites, predators had negative impact on the population, reducing its number. The birth rate, food and migration contributed to raising number of individuals. Some of the factors affected on the strength to of each other as well: the majority of the factors affected the structure of the population, had an influence on the fertility. Thanks to it the model reflects the additive effect of complex of factors on the subsequent status of the population. Proposed and analyzed four scenarios differing strength and duration of exposure. In the first scenario, a one-time contamination occurs and not subsequently repeated. The second and third scenario assumes half board contamination, 1 year (2 scenario) and two years (scenario 3). In the fourth scenario, the pollution affected the population of amphibians constantly. In accordance with the results of simulation, much weaker than the natural populations respond to pollution - have them as an intensive population growth and its disappearance at constant pollution is slow. Changes to other parameters of the model showed that this pollution is the decisive factor -only the constant action leads to a lethal outcome for the populations. All other components of the model have a corrective effect on the population dynamics, without changing its underlying trand. In urban areas due to the heavy impact of pollution maintaining the population is only possible thanks to the migration process – the constant replenishment of diminishing micropopulations of natural reserves. This confirms the assumption that the form of existence metapopulations lake frog in the city. In order to maintain the number of amphibians in urban areas at a high level it is necessary to maintain existing migration routes and the creation of new ones. Insular nature of the placement of suitable habitats in urban areas causes the metapopulation structure of the types of urbanists. Therefore, the process of urbanization is much easier for those species whicht are capable of migration in conditions of city. In the initial stages of settling the city micropopulationis formed by selective mortality of the most susceptible individuals to adverse effects. In future, maintaining the categories of individuals is provided mainly due to migration processes metapopulisation form of the species of existence is supported). It should be noted that the changes in the previous levels are always saved in future. In the case of reorganizations of individuals we of morphology can assume the existence of extremely adverse environmental conditions that threaten the extinction of the micropopulations. 

scholarly journals FEATURES OF ASSESSMENT OF ANTHROPOGENIC LOADS ON NATURAL COMPLEXES

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
P. Evdokimov
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Anthropogenic Impact ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Regulatory Documents ◽  
Dialectical Approach ◽  
The Impact

the article describes the problems of assessing the anthropogenic impact of human activity on natural com-plexes surrounding urbanized territories. Among the main research tasks are development of methodological foundations for assessing the quanti-tative and qualitative composition at anthropogenic impact on natural complexes surrounding urban areas. The main method of this research include a dialectical approach that focuses on generally accepted logi-cal research methods (analysis, systematic approach, generalization) and their synthesis using relevant in-formation materials. The author considered various methods of assessing the impact of various factors on the environment, and also carried out the examination of urban decisions related to the appointment of a category (status) the natural resources included in the urban environment in Moscow. The Russian capital is a European metropolis, the largest city-millionaire in Europe and a typical object of research to identify the effects of various anthropogenic factors. The implementation at economic activity in the metropolis is accompanied by the emergence of problems, the solution of which has not been found yet. Analysis of methods for assessing the impact at the various factors on the environment was carried out taking into account the provisions in regulatory documents governing the appointment for protected areas urban environment. Provisions of regulatory documents and decisions of executive authorities designed to use natural (forest) resources in urban environments. The absence of approved methods for assessing certain types of land plots with a protected status was identified. The main factors affecting the quality of biogeocenosis were identified. The main features of the applica-tion methods for assessing the status and possibility in recreational development in territories of varying de-grees at development are considered.

scholarly journals Urban Nocturnal Cooling Mediated by Bluespace

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanfeng Cui ◽  
Leiqiu Hu ◽  
Zhihua Wang ◽  
Qi Li
Keyword(s):  
Air Temperature ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Apparent Temperature ◽  
Urban Lakes ◽  
Temperature And Humidity ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
Near Shore ◽  
Cooling Effects

Abstract The spatiotemporal characteristics of air temperature and humidity mediated by urban bluespace are investigated using a combination of dense network of climatological observations in a medium-sized US city, computational fluid dynamics and analytical modeling approaches. Both numerical simulation and observational results show that the rate of change of hourly averaged air temperature and humidity at 3.5 m over urban areas peaks two hours after sunset, while it decreases with time monotonically over greenspace, indicating different impacts due to presence of urban lakes. The apparent temperature decreases with distance to lakes in urban area due to higher near-shore humidity. This highlights that urban lakes located near city center can deteriorate the nighttime cooling effects due to elevated humidity. Finally, two analytical models are presented to explain the connection between the surface and air temperature as well as the spatial variation of air temperature and humidity adjacent to the urban lakes. These simplified models with parameters being inferred from the network of measurements have reasonably good performance compared to the observations. Compared to other sophisticated numerical simulations, these analytical models offer an alternative means that is easily accessible for evaluating the efficacy of bluespace on urban nocturnal cooling.

Anthropogenic impact on behavior of nutrients and potentially toxic elements in the Moskva River water

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galina Shinkareva ◽  
Oxana Erina ◽  
Maria Tereshina ◽  
Dmitriy Sokolov ◽  
Mikhail Lychagin
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Anthropogenic Impact ◽  
Toxic Elements ◽  
Potentially Toxic Elements ◽  
Low Flow ◽  
Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Water Runoff ◽  
Large Reservoir ◽  
Moskva River

<p>The Moskva River catchment is a complex system consisting of a network of rivers affected by a wide variety of land- and water-use factors that create unique spatial and temporal patterns of their water quality. Major sources of anthropogenic impact on the Moskva River and its tributaries include multiple flow regulation structures on streams, direct pollution from municipal sewage and industrial wastewaters of Moscow megacity and smaller towns, runoff generated in agricultural areas and within multiple landfills located on the watershed, and many more. Only a short upstream section of the Moskva River remains relatively unchanged in terms of water runoff and geochemistry.</p><p>In 2019, we began a pioneering study focusing on collecting detailed field data on geochemistry of water, suspended matter and bottom sediments of the Moskva River and its major tributaries, including concentrations of nutrients, potentially toxic elements (PTEs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). The main purpose of this project is to obtain a holistic picture of material fluxes within the river system combined with an inventory of natural and anthropogenic factors controlling them.</p><p>Our results indicate gradual increase of total dissolved solids, and content of nutrients and some PTEs (i.e., Cu) in water along the course of Moskva River. It can be linked to non-point pollution, as well as drastic changes occurring downstream Moscow and other urban areas caused by direct pollution. Massive increase of chloride, sulfate, sodium, mineral phosphorus, nitrogen, Mo and Sr concentrations in water is observed downstream outlets of Moscow wastewater treatment plants, which is characteristic of insufficiently treated urban sewage. Concentrations of nutrients and PTEs only slightly decrease downstream the city, remaining at levels often exceeding environmental guidelines up to the river’s mouth, whereas increased concentrations of other pollutants, such as TPH, are more closely limited to urban areas and fade more quickly with distance from the source.</p><p>Nutrient pollution of the Moskva River, as well as concentrations of some PTEs (i.e., Sb, Pb), steadily increased during summer low-flow period, when low dilution capacity limits biochemical self-purification. On the other hand, Mn, Co and Zn reached maximum concentrations during the spring flood due to their accumulation in city road dust and subsequent concentrated inflow with snowmelt runoff.</p><p>The Moskva River tributaries that flow within close proximity to the metropolitan area were revealed to have significantly higher pollution levels than the Moskva River itself, indicating stronger anthropogenic stress.</p><p>Balance calculations performed on our database showed that during the flood the Mozhaysk Reservoir – the single large reservoir on the Moskva River – retains huge volumes of major elements and PTE, at times even greater than their subsequent input from urban areas downstream from the dam. It proves crucial role of the reservoir’s retention capacity in the Moskva River’s geochemical balance formation.</p><p>Authors acknowledge Russian Geographical Society (project 28/2019-I), Russian Science Foundation (project 19-77-30004) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project 19-05-50109) for financial support.</p>

scholarly journals Observed and Potential Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 4140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sorin Cheval ◽  
Cristian Mihai Adamescu ◽  
Teodoro Georgiadis ◽  
Mathew Herrnegger ◽  
Adrian Piticar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Rapid Onset ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Various environmental factors influence the outbreak and spread of epidemic or even pandemic events which, in turn, may cause feedbacks on the environment. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic on 13 March 2020 and its rapid onset, spatial extent and complex consequences make it a once-in-a-century global disaster. Most countries responded by social distancing measures and severely diminished economic and other activities. Consequently, by the end of April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to numerous environmental impacts, both positive such as enhanced air and water quality in urban areas, and negative, such as shoreline pollution due to the disposal of sanitary consumables. This study presents an early overview of the observed and potential impacts of the COVID-19 on the environment. We argue that the effects of COVID-19 are determined mainly by anthropogenic factors which are becoming obvious as human activity diminishes across the planet, and the impacts on cities and public health will be continued in the coming years.

scholarly journals Landscape Potential and Light Pollution as Key Factors for Astrotourism Development: A Case Study of a Slovak Upland Region

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 374
Author(s):  
Radoslava Kanianska ◽  
Jana Škvareninová ◽  
Stanislav Kaniansky
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Multicriteria Analysis ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Land Utilization ◽  
Recreation Area ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Night Sky ◽  
Study Sites

Astrotourism is considered to be a modern form of ecotourism. The main resource for astrotourism is a high-quality night sky, but this is very sensitive to natural as well as anthropogenic factors; for example, land utilization and expansion of urban areas often cause the negative effect of light pollution. The aim of the study is to perform a lighting survey by night sky brightness (NSB) measurements using the sky quality meter (SQM-L) at 20 study sites of the Slovenské stredohorie Upland region (Slovakia) and to assess the region’s potential for astrotourism development (PAD) using a multicriteria analysis. The NSB values ranged from 19.90 (city Žiar nad Hronom at Žiarska kotlina Basin) to 21.54 mag/arcsec2 (recreation area Poľana at Poľana Mountains). At 14 out of 20 study sites, the NSB values even reached 21.2 mag/arcsec2, as recommended by the International Dark-Sky Association for dark-sky parks. Four study sites were categorized as sites with medium PAD, and sixteen with low PAD. No study site reached a high or very high PAD. The best conditions for astrotourism development are fulfilled mainly by the Poľana Mountains geographical unit. The findings can be used for sustainable astrotourism development, land management, and planning to ensure socioeconomic development, together with nature and dark-sky conservation.

Echinococcus multilocularis – a zoonosis of anthropogenic environments?

2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Romig ◽  
D. Thoma ◽  
A.-K. Weible
Keyword(s):  
Echinococcus Multilocularis ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Host Population ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Crop Fields ◽  
Infection Pressure ◽  
Animal Hosts ◽  
Natural Grassland

AbstractTransmission of the fox tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis, the causative agent of human alveolar echinococcosis, is known to depend on various environmental factors which are subject to human influence. Epidemiological data suggest that in most endemic regions anthropogenic landscape changes (e.g. deforestation and agricultural practices) have led to more favourable conditions for the parasite's animal hosts, especially arvicolid rodents, thereby increasing the risk for parasite transmission and human disease. Examples are the conversion of forests or crop fields into meadows and pastures in Europe, China and North America, and overgrazing of natural grassland in central Asia. Other anthropogenic factors include interference with host population densities by wildlife disease control, changing hunting pressure and provision of new habitats, e.g. in urban areas. Domestic dogs may, under certain conditions, get involved in the otherwise largely wildlife-based transmission, and thereby greatly increase the infection pressure to humans. The introduction of neozootic host species may increase transmission, or even initiate the parasite's life-cycle in previously non-endemic regions. Lastly, the parasite itself may be accidentally introduced into non-endemic areas, if suitable host populations are present (e.g. in northern Japan).

scholarly journals Global assessment of rural–urban interface in Portugal related to land cover changes

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 1647-1664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marj Tonini ◽  
Joana Parente ◽  
Mário G. Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Burnt Area ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Cover Class

Abstract. The rural–urban interface (RUI), known as the area where structures and other human developments meet or intermingle with wildland and rural area, is at present a central focus of wildfire policy and its mapping is crucial for wildfire management. In the Mediterranean Basin, humans cause the vast majority of fires and fire risk is particularly high in the proximity of infrastructure and of rural/wildland areas. RUI's extension changes under the pressure of environmental and anthropogenic factors, such as urban growth, fragmentation of rural areas, deforestation and, more in general, land use/land cover change (LULCC). As with other Mediterranean countries, Portugal has experienced significant LULCC in the last decades in response to migration, rural abandonment, ageing of population and trends associated with the high socioeconomic development. In the present study, we analyzed the LULCC occurring in this country in the 1990–2012 period with the main objective of investigating how these changes affected RUI's evolution. Moreover, we performed a qualitative and quantitative characterization of burnt areas within the RUI in relation to the observed changes. Obtained results disclose important LULCC and reveal their spatial distribution, which is far from uniform within the territory. A significant increase in artificial surfaces was registered near the main metropolitan communities of the northwest, littoral-central and southern regions, whilst the abandonment of agricultural land near the inland urban areas led to an increase in uncultivated semi-natural and forest areas. Within agricultural areas, heterogeneous patches suffered the greatest changes and were the main contributors to the increase in urban areas; moreover, this land cover class, together with forests, was highly affected by wildfires in terms of burnt area. Finally, from this analysis and during the investigated period, it appears that RUI increased in Portugal by more than two-thirds, while the total burnt area decreased by one-third; nevertheless, burnt area within RUI doubled, which emphasizes the significance of RUI monitoring for land and fire managers.

scholarly journals Underground Built Heritage as catalyser for Community Valorisation. Underground4value

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Pace ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Underground Space ◽  
Built Heritage ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

This paper is about how framing an innovative approach for community empowerment by organising networks and consortia for preparing proposals in different research programme frameworks. In the beginning, there was as study for classifying underground spaces and using them as a solution for a sustainable over ground urban development. By advancing in the proposals preparation, the team developed a completely different vision. The underground space was more and more seen as a place for building local identity and sense of belonging, progressing from a functional to a cultural value, from a site conservation to a community valorisation approach, by giving centrality to the people and their needs. As first step, the project faced the challenge of regenerating urban areas by realising Underground Built Heritage potential for local communities and experimenting a methodological approach on sustainability transition. Just like a story, the paper describes the evolution of the approaches, and the implementation of the activities, also if unsuccessful in the competition. The consortium grew and matured, a network based on strong analysis and revision, whose members developed an impressive social capital and learned by any failure. Piece by piece, this network was able to achieve the success, and to start a COST Action, the CA 18110 “Underground Built Heritage as catalyser for Community Valorisation”. The Action, funded for establishing and implementing an expert network, promotes balanced and sustainable approaches to preserve the Underground Built Heritage (UBH) and, at the same time, to realise the potential of the underground space in urban and rural areas for regeneration policies. The paper finally explains how a wellmotivated group of people can transform a network activity, with a little budget, in a research and on field project and how such a network can provide innovative tools for engaging and empowering local communities.

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