Fluvial processes and landforms

The period 1965-2000 saw a sustained increase in research and publication on fluvial processes and landforms. The trend toward generalisation and/or mechanistic understanding, rather than site-specific history, continued. Research was multi-disciplinary, with important contributions from hydraulic engineers, geologists and physical geographers and from experimental and theoretical approaches as well as geomorphological and sedimentological fieldwork. Rapidly increasing computer power underpinned new measurement methods and greatly increased the scope of data analysis and numerical modelling. There were major advances in understanding the interaction of river process and form at reach scale, with growing recognition of differences between sand-bed and coarse-bed rivers. Field studies outside Europe and North America led to greater awareness of the diversity of river planforms and deposition landforms. Conceptual models of how rivers respond to natural or anthropogenic change in boundary conditions at different timescales were refined, taking advantage of studies of response to land use change, major floods, and volcanic eruptions. Dating of sediments allowed greater appreciation of fluctuations in the incidence of extreme driving events over centuries and thousands of years. Towards the end of the period research on bedrock rivers began to take off.

Oxygen regime of rivers in the area of sources of economic impact according to long-term monitoring of the Russian meteorological service

The results of long-term observations of the hydrochemical service of the Russian Meteorological Service on the content of dissolved oxygen in the rivers of Russia are considered. Data on the basins of the Amur, Lena, Ob, Volga for 1988-2007 is analyzed. We compared the average monthly oxygen concentrations above and below the sources of exposure – cities, large industrial enterprises – in total, about 100 paired sections were used. The study showed that in about half of these river sections, sometimes (in 14.8 % of cases) small changes in oxygen concentration (6.5-8.3 %) are observed. Wherein, both a decrease and an increase in oxygen concentration can occur below the sources of anthropogenic impact. The latter is typical for winter time, when the flow of heated wastewater into the river leads to formation of an air-hole and the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere into the water. Small rivers in cities experience the greatest stress; however, in general, for all the rivers under consideration, the anthropogenic change in the oxygen regime of the rivers is small and does not significantly affect the sustainability of the development of the territories.

Anthropocene Conjunctures

This chapter contextualizes the rise of Anthropocene discourse across academic disciplines and provides critical examples from think tanks and Indigenous strategies of political ecology. It illustrates the pitfalls and potential offered by this new periodization of anthropogenic change, and the definition of the anthropos that the term calls into question.

Heritage Naturecultures

This chapter considers the threats posed to heritage sites by anthropogenic change. Anthropocene changes confront researchers and communities alike with a collapse in distinctions between cultural and natural heritage. Examples include a recent novel, the climate strategy of the US National Parks, the material memory of the Lapland War in northern Finland, and intangible landscapes in South Asian video games that offer players an immersive encounter with aerial species (e.g. birds, insects) and mythological beings.

Biogeochemical consequences of a changing Arctic shelf seafloor ecosystem

Unprecedented and dramatic transformations are occurring in the Arctic in response to climate change, but academic, public, and political discourse has disproportionately focussed on the most visible and direct aspects of change, including sea ice melt, permafrost thaw, the fate of charismatic megafauna, and the expansion of fisheries. Such narratives disregard the importance of less visible and indirect processes and, in particular, miss the substantive contribution of the shelf seafloor in regulating nutrients and sequestering carbon. Here, we summarise the biogeochemical functioning of the Arctic shelf seafloor before considering how climate change and regional adjustments to human activities may alter its biogeochemical and ecological dynamics, including ecosystem function, carbon burial, or nutrient recycling. We highlight the importance of the Arctic benthic system in mitigating climatic and anthropogenic change and, with a focus on the Barents Sea, offer some observations and our perspectives on future management and policy.

Impacts of anthropogenic change on biodiversity affect disease spillover risk

The integration of biodiversity conservation and public health has gained significant traction, leading to new efforts to identify win–win solutions for the environment and health. At the forefront of these efforts is pin-pointing ways in which biodiversity conservation can reduce risk of zoonotic spillover, especially given the consequences of epidemics and pandemics of wild animal origin. However, there is currently an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms by which biodiversity change influences the spillover process, limiting the application of integrated strategies aimed at achieving positive outcomes for both conservation and disease management. Here, we review the literature, considering a broad scope of biodiversity dimensions, to identify cases where zoonotic pathogen spillover is mechanistically linked to changes in biodiversity. By reframing the discussion of biodiversity and disease using mechanistic evidence while encompassing multiple aspects of biodiversity, including functional diversity, landscape diversity, phenological diversity, and interaction diversity, we work toward general principles that can guide future research and more effectively integrate the related goals of biodiversity conservation and spillover prevention. We conclude by summarizing how these principles could be used to integrate spillover prevention into ongoing biodiversity conservation initiatives.

Community Bioacoustics: Studying Acoustic Community Structure for Ecological and Conservation Insights

The diversity of animal acoustic signals has evolved due to multiple ecological processes, both biotic and abiotic. At the level of communities of signaling animals, these processes may lead to diverse outcomes, including partitioning of acoustic signals along multiple axes (divergent signal parameters, signaling locations, and timing). Acoustic data provides information on the organization, diversity and dynamics of an acoustic community, and thus enables study of ecological change and turnover in a non-intrusive way. In this review, we lay out how community bioacoustics (the study of acoustic community structure and dynamics), has value in ecological monitoring and conservation of diverse landscapes and taxa. First, we review the concepts of signal space, signal partitioning and their effects on the structure of acoustic communities. Next, we highlight how spatiotemporal ecological change is reflected in acoustic community structure, and the potential this presents in monitoring and conservation. As passive acoustic monitoring gains popularity worldwide, we propose that the analytical framework of community bioacoustics has promise in studying the response of entire suites of species (from insects to large whales) to rapid anthropogenic change.

Innovation and geographic spread of a complex foraging culture in an urban parrot

The emergence, spread, and establishment of innovations within cultures can promote adaptive responses to anthropogenic change. We describe a putative case of the development of a cultural adaptation to urban environments: opening of household waste bins by wild sulphur-crested cockatoos. A spatial network analysis of community science reports revealed the geographic spread of bin opening from three suburbs to 44 in Sydney, Australia, by means of social learning. Analysis of 160 direct observations revealed individual styles and site-specific differences. We describe a full pathway from the spread of innovation to emergence of geographic variation, evidencing foraging cultures in parrots and indicating the existence of cultural complexity in parrots. Bin opening is directly linked to human-provided opportunities, highlighting the potential for culture to facilitate behavioral responses to anthropogenic change.