The materialization of the Buen Vivir and the Rights of Nature: Rhetoric and Realities of Guayaquil Ecológico urban regeneration project

In 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to declare nature as a subject of rights based on the ‘Buen Vivir’ (Good Living) philosophy which is premised on an indigenous principle that envisions a world where humans are part-and-parcel of a larger natural and social environment. Although Ecuador’s constitution is groundbreaking from a legal standpoint, the question arises of how the rights of nature is spatially manifested beyond the designation of protected areas? To shed light on such interrogation, this article, based on qualitative research, focuses on the linear park component of the mega-project Guayaquil Ecológico heralded as a first materialization which champions the “Rights of Nature” under the vision of the Buen Vivir. It unravels the contested rhetoric and realities of the Guayaquil Ecológico linear park in a critical review of the as-built project in relation to the larger objectives of Buen Vivir. The Guayaquil Ecologico linear park promised to simultaneously upgrade both social and environmental dimensions. However, it did not fully address the complexity of Guayaquil’s socio-ecological context and some of the structural injustices of the estuarine territory. Buen Vivir was rhetorically mobilised to implement a project where aesthetic dimensions dominated, further perpetuating socio-ecological vulnerabilities through relocation and evictions. Furthermore, its implementation was dependent on a specific political moment, leaving it in a state of abandonment and neglect. The Buen Vivir philosophy—as a decolonial stance that challenges western forms of development—can offer a fundamental base to question current modes of territorial occupation based on extractivist planning and design strategies. It holds significant potential to serve as base to re-think the relationship between forms of settlement, natural dynamics, and worldviews.

Ecological and Molecular Interactions between Insects and Fungi

Insects and fungi represent two of the most widespread groupings of organisms in nature, occurring in every kind of ecological context and impacting agriculture and other human activities in various ways. Moreover, they can be observed to reciprocally interact, establishing a wide range of symbiotic relationships, from mutualism to antagonism. The outcome of these relationships can in turn affect the extent at which species of both organisms can exert their noxious effects, as well as the management practices which are to be adopted to counter them. In conjunction with the launch of a Special Issue of Microorganisms with the same title, this article offers a general overview of the manifold aspects related to such interactions from the perspective of implementing our capacity to regulate them in a direction more favorable for the environment, crop production and human health.

Are Environmental Regulations to Promote Eco-Innovation in the Wine Sector Effective? A Study of Spanish Wineries

In a changing socio-economic and ecological context, the agri-food industry, where the use of natural resources is very important, must pay more and more attention to green and eco-innovation. Public decision-makers have started to implement measures to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices by companies, which are also pressured by supply and demand factors. This article aims to determine the factors that drive eco-innovation in the wine sector in Spain, a mature and traditional sector characterized by its high fragmentation. In particular, we sought to determine the role environmental regulations play in promoting eco-innovation in the sector. To this end, an empirical study was developed using a structural equation model established using a partial least squares technique for a sample of 251 wineries from all over the country. The study shows that the current regulatory framework inhibits eco-innovation in Spanish wineries, who are more encouraged by positioning and external motivation factors.

Learning Monologues at Bedtime Improves Sleep Quality in Actors and Non-Actors

Several studies show that pre-sleep learning determines changes in subsequent sleep, including improvements of sleep quality. Our aims were to confirm this finding using a more ecological task (learning a theatrical monologue) and to investigate whether the effect is modulated by expertise. Using a mixed design, we compared polysomnographic recordings of baseline sleep (BL, 9-h TIB) to those of post-training sleep (TR, with the same TIB but preceded by the training session), in one group of actors (N = 11) and one of non-actors (N = 11). In both groups, TR appears reorganized and re-compacted by the learning session, as shown, among others, by a significant decrease of WASO%, awakenings, arousals, and state transitions and by a trend towards an increased number of complete cycles and total cycle time. Concerning memory performance, the number of synonyms produced was significantly higher in the morning relative to immediate recall. No between-groups differences emerged either for sleep or memory variables. Our data confirm pre-sleep learning’s beneficial effect on sleep quality in an ecological context. While expertise appears not to influence memory-related sleep mechanisms, results on morning recall support the recent view that sleep’s role in memory processes consists in trace “transformation” for adaptive purposes, rather than rote consolidation.

The Ecological Interpretation of Unbiased Estimator for the Taxonomic Ratio: Different Approaches for Local and Regional Flora

Taxonomic ratio in an ecological context is considered as an indicator of the level of competitive exclusion. In spite of more than a century of discussions on taxonomic ratio, the problem of finding an unbiased estimator for flora characterisation remains unsolved. The traditional form of taxonomic ratio (species/genus or species/families ratio) is biased, which depends on the area of territory for which the floral composition was established. This circumstance makes the taxonomic ratio an inadequate characteristic of the flora. To solve the problem of finding an unbiased estimator for the taxonomic ratio, we have combined two fundamental ecological generalisations. The first is that species that belong to the same genus usually live in similar habitats and have similar morphological features. The struggle for life between species from the same genus is, therefore, more intense than between species from different genera. The second is species–area relationship. We have considered the problem of finding an unbiased taxonomic relationship using the Arrhenius curves to fit species–area relationships. This combination allowed us to find a form of unbiased taxonomic relationship. The example of Cyanophyceae flora shows that this indicator is closely related to a wide range of ecological and biogeographical characteristics of vegetation. The residual of the linear equation of dependence of the logarithm of the number of species on the logarithm of the number of genera is an unbiased indicator of the taxonomic relation, which is independent of the number of genera (or number of families) and the sampling size (or area). An unbiased taxonomic relationship is a characteristic of regional flora, which depends on a wide range of its ecological and biogeographical features.

Memory over matter?—a conceptual framework to integrate social–ecological l legacies in agricultural NCP co-production

To better account for how social–ecological legacies of social and ecological systems jointly shape the current composition, the quality and quantity of nature’s contribution to people (NCPs), we integrate the concept of NCP co-production into social–ecological system thinking. Our expanded framework highlights how NCP co-production is frequently entangled within its social–ecological context, such as legacies, current resources and social activities. Additionally, we underline the relevance of non-material and material dimensions of resources in NCP co-production. To illustrate the potential of this expanded framework, we explore its application to an agricultural system of the French Northern Alps. We conclude that this framework (1) facilitates the understanding of society–ecosystem interactions in a specific regional social–ecological context; (2) helps to better conceptualise the interdependencies between resources and social activities; (3) demonstrates how current rule sets to organise social–ecological legacies affect the entire NCP co-production chain. The framework’s further implementation requires more research to better understand the complex interlinkages between the social and the ecological subsystems that underpin socioeconomic activities.

Location of studies and evidence of effects of herbivory on Arctic vegetation: a systematic map

Background Herbivores modify the structure and function of tundra ecosystems. Understanding their impacts is necessary to assess the responses of these ecosystems to ongoing environmental changes. However, the effects of herbivores on plants and ecosystem structure and function vary across the Arctic. Strong spatial variation in herbivore effects implies that the results of individual studies on herbivory depend on local conditions, i.e., their ecological context. An important first step in assessing whether generalizable conclusions can be produced is to identify the existing studies and assess how well they cover the underlying environmental conditions across the Arctic. This systematic map aims to identify the ecological contexts in which herbivore impacts on vegetation have been studied in the Arctic. Specifically, the primary question of the systematic map was: “What evidence exists on the effects of herbivores on Arctic vegetation?”. Methods We used a published systematic map protocol to identify studies addressing the effects of herbivores on Arctic vegetation. We conducted searches for relevant literature in online databases, search engines and specialist websites. Literature was screened to identify eligible studies, defined as reporting primary data on herbivore impacts on Arctic plants and plant communities. We extracted information on variables that describe the ecological context of the studies, from the studies themselves and from geospatial data. We synthesized the findings narratively and created a Shiny App where the coded data are searchable and variables can be visually explored. Review findings We identified 309 relevant articles with 662 studies (representing different ecological contexts or datasets within the same article). These studies addressed vertebrate herbivory seven times more often than invertebrate herbivory. Geographically, the largest cluster of studies was in Northern Fennoscandia. Warmer and wetter parts of the Arctic had the largest representation, as did coastal areas and areas where the increase in temperature has been moderate. In contrast, studies spanned the full range of ecological context variables describing Arctic vertebrate herbivore diversity and human population density and impact. Conclusions The current evidence base might not be sufficient to understand the effects of herbivores on Arctic vegetation throughout the region, as we identified clear biases in the distribution of herbivore studies in the Arctic and a limited evidence base on invertebrate herbivory. In particular, the overrepresentation of studies in areas with moderate increases in temperature prevents robust generalizations about the effects of herbivores under different climatic scenarios.