Legal regulation of the use and protection of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation: certain relevant issues

The subject of this research is a set of legal norms regulating social relations that arise in the context of use and protection of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The goal lies in formulation of the conclusions and recommendations for the improvement of legal regulation in this sphere. The relevance of the selected topic is substantiated by interest of the state in the development of Arctic Zone as a strategic resource base for accelerating the economic growth of the Russian Federation. Among the priority national interests are also the environmental protection of region, conservation of the native habitat and traditional way of living of the indigenous small-numbered peoples. This emphasizes the importance of intensification of use and preservation of the vulnerable areas of the region. The author dwells on the current issues of the formation of territories of traditional management of natural resources and legal status of their lands; rights of the indigenous peoples to land in their native habitat and traditional economy; provision of land plots to entrepreneurs who are the residents of the Arctic Zone; protection of the Arctic lands, etc. The conclusion is made on the existence of gaps and contradictions in legislation of the indicated sphere, which requires revision and improvement. This pertains to the questions of formation of the territories of traditional management of natural resources, maintenance and modification of their boundaries, establishment of the special protection regime in the federal law, etc. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the adopted simplified procedure for providing entrepreneurs who are residents of the Arctic Zone with land plots aimed at expansion of the development of natural resources of the Arctic, may negatively affect the status of lands and overall fragile environment of the Arctic Zone, and thus, lead to infringement upon the interests of the local population, including the indigenous peoples. The author formulates a number of recommendations for the improvement of legislation, among which is the amendments to the Paragraph 2 of the Article 39.34 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation on the establishment of highly restricted cases of termination of permits using the land plots by the indigenous small-numbered peoples.

Biomorphometry of coconut crabs (Birgus latro) in Laigoma Island, North Maluku, Indonesia

Coconut crab is a coastal animal that lives in costal forest on islands of tropical Indo-Pacific. Crab populations are currently under threat of extinction. Several issues contribute to this, including high levels of exploitation, degradation of their native habitat, land clearance, and plantations development. This study aimed to examine the biomorphometric of coconut crabs, which includes the composition, sex ratio, distribution, widht and weight relation, condition factors and gonad maturity level. The descriptive explorative methods was used in this research. The results showed that the composition of 156 coconut crabs consisted of 82 females. The results obtained a balanced sex ratio. The size of the carapace width obtained ranged from 40.15 to 88.55 mm, with a weight of 150-565 grams. The relationship between width and capacity is allometric. The values obtained from these factors ranged from 1.01 to 1.03 for men and 1.01 to 1.012 for females. The gonad maturity level of male and female mud crabs was dominated by TKG III and IV. This indicated that the research time was in spawning period.

Growth and Spread of the Argentine Black and White Tegu in Florida

The Argentine black and white tegu is one of the largest lizard species in the Western Hemisphere, growing up to four feet long. The tegu’s broad habitat use and omnivorous diet create the potential for severe ecological impacts in areas outside its native habitat. This publication presents updated information about efforts to understand and manage the problem of invasive tegus in the state of Florida. It presents the implications of continued expansion of their range.

Synergistic effects of habitat configuration and land-use intensity shape the structure of bird assemblages in human-modified landscapes across three major neotropical biomes

Maximizing biodiversity persistence in heterogeneous human-modified landscapes is hindered by the complex interactions between habitat quality and configuration of native and non-native habitats. Here we examined these complex interactions considering avian diversity across 26 sampling sites, each of which comprised of three sampling points located across a gradient of disturbance: core native habitat fragment, fragment edge, and non-native adjacent matrix. The 78 sampling points were further nested within three neotropical biomes—Amazonia, Cerrado and Pantanal—in central-western Brazil. Matrix type consisted of cattle pastures in the Amazon and teak plantations in the Pantanal and Cerrado. We considered the interactive effects of (1) disturbance-context: fragment core, edge and adjacent matrix, (2) matrix type: tree plantation or cattle pastures, both subject to varying land-use intensity, and (3) native habitat configuration (fragment size, shape and isolation) on bird species richness, abundance and composition. Based on point-count surveys, we recorded 210 bird species. Bird species richness and abundance declined across the disturbance gradient, while genus composition only differed within the adjacent matrix, particularly cattle-pastures. The effect of native habitat area was positive but only detected at fragment edges. Overall bird diversity increased at sites characterized by higher availability of either relict trees within pasture landscapes or old-growth trees within teak plantation landscapes. The core of native fragments played a primary role in ensuring the persistence of bird diversity, regardless of fragment size. In contrast to pastures, tree plantations likely harbour a higher proportion of forest-dependent species while bird diversity can be further enhanced by reduced management intensity in both matrix types. Strategies to maximize avian persistence should not only include retaining native habitats, but also maximizing the size of core native habitats. Likewise, more structurally complex matrix types should be encouraged while maintaining low levels of land-use intensity.

AXENIC CULTURE OF PHILONOTIS FALCATA (HOOK.) MITT., AN ALTERNATIVE TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF LARGE-SCALE COLLECTION FROM NATIVE HABITAT

Axenic culture of Philonotis falcata, collected from Idukki district of Kerala was established. Spores were surface sterilized in sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) and inoculated into half strength Hoagland’s Basal media of pH 6.0. The inoculated tubes were incubated at 25°C at 18h light, 6h dark cycle for 30 days. The protonema developed were transferred to 30 ml fresh half strength media in conical flasks with different pH and kinetin concentrations and incubated for 45 days. Gametophyte proliferation, growth pattern and photosynthetic pigment content were estimated. Among the various media composition, pH5.0 with 0.5 mg/L kinetin supported maximum bud proliferation and growth. Pigment production was higher at pH 6.0, 0.5 mg/L kinetin. There seem to have interaction between pH and kinetin in growth, biomass production and pigment production. TLC plate analysis revealed similar banding pattern between wild and in vitro plant metabolites, indicating the possibility of using axenic plants in extraction of bioactive compounds thereby reducing the impact of collection from native habitat

Insects in the City: Does Remnant Native Habitat Influence Insect Order Distributions?

There is increasing interest in developing urban design principles that incorporate good ecological management. Research on understanding the distribution and role of beneficial pollinating insects, in particular, is changing our view of the ecological value of cities. With the rapid expansion of the built environment comes a need to understand how insects may be affected in extensive urban areas. We therefore investigated insect pollinator capture rates in a rapidly growing and densely urbanized city (Melbourne, Australia). We identified a remnant native habitat contained within the expansive urban boundary, and established study sites at two nearby populated urban areas. We employed standard pan trap sampling techniques to passively sample insect orders in the different environments. Our results show that, even though the types of taxonomic groups of insects captured are comparable between locations, important pollinators like bees and hoverflies were more frequently captured in the remnant native habitat. By contrast, beetles (Coleoptera) and butterflies/moths (Lepidoptera) were more frequently observed in the urban residential regions. Our results suggest that the maintenance of native habitat zones within cities is likely to be valuable for the conservation of bees and the ecosystem services they provide.