Relationship between parameters of public parks and their surroundings and the richness, diversity and species composition of vascular herbaceous plants on the example of Krakow in Central Europe

Greenery is a natural value in urban space. To maintain the richness and diversity of greenery, it is necessary to understand the factors and mechanisms that influence vegetation. The purpose of this paper was to determine the impact of selected features of public parks and factors on the richness and diversity of herbaceous plants. In Krakow public parks, this richness and diversity is greater in parks with a larger area and habitat heterogeneity, the presence of migration corridors, and natural elements. Full stand coverage negatively affects diversity. Biologically inactive surface affects richness and diversity as well as a number of different groups of plant species. The presence of rare and non-synanthropic species is related to the park’s surface, natural elements, and its heterogeneity.

GLOBAL AND REGIONAL TRENDS IN MIGRATION, REMITTANCES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS IN THE NATIONAL SEGMENT

This article discusses aspectsand integration characteristics of international migration in the world and regions. Based on statistical information, the main trends of the migration movement and prospects for the development of the labor market are determined. The author analyzed the data on priority country directions of labor migration from Uzbekistan and the state of money transfers on aglobal, regional and national scale. Information on domestic legal policy and ratified internationalagreements is summarized. He proposed possible solutions to improve research tools in the study of migration processes.Keywords:labor migrants, international migration, migration corridors, sub-regions, positive effects, World Bank, remittances, pandemic, system of safe, orderly and legal labor migration, reintegration, International Labour Organization, сonvention, treaty, agreement

Checklist of the flora of the vicinity of Balakliya (Kharkiv region, Ukraine): native and alien taxa, distribution of rare plants, new findings

For the first time, information on the flora of the Siverskyi Donets basin in the vicinity of Balakliya town (Kharkiv region of Ukraine) was summarized based on the comprehensive analysis of published data, herbarium material, and own field examinations. Field surveys were conducted during September 2015 and March-July 2016. The surveyed areas were located mainly in the valleys of the Sіverskyi Donets river and some of its tributaries within the former Balakliуa district. The conspectus of flora comprising 933 taxa of vascular plants (including 798 recorded during field surveys) has been prepared. In particular, 739 taxa of native and 194 taxa of alien plants were recorded. The habitats of 14 species from the Red Book of Ukraine were found. The locations of other protected, uncommon and new for the flora of the region plant species were also identified. Several taxa (i.e., some of the calciphytes like Astragalus albicaulis, Linum czernjajevii, Odontarrhena tortuosa subsp. cretacea, Scutellaria supina, and Silene supina) were found out of their previously known ranges. Newly established locations of some other species (e.g., Ephedra distachya, Onosma simplicissima, and Ornithogalum boucheanum) significantly complement previously known chorological data. Finally, information about new findings of such alien taxa actively expanding new areas as Cornus sanguinea subsp. australis, Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Sedum sexangulare, Ulmus pumila, and Vitis vulpina is provided.It has been established that the flora of the Siverskyi Donets basin in the vicinity of Balakliya town is a rich natural center of phytodiversity being under active adventisation. Forest reclamation plantations play a significant role in spreading the alien plants. Railway and the pine terrace of the Siverskyi Donets also serve the migration corridors for many of such alien plants.

Acoustic Telemetry Monitors Movements of Wild Adult Catfishes in the Mekong River, Thailand and Laos

Research on fish movement and habitat use in large tropical rivers is urgently needed to protect fisheries that are a primary source of protein for millions of people. In this pilot study, acoustic telemetry was used to monitor movements of wild catfishes in a 94.6 rkm reach of Mekong River, where it functions as the border between Thailand and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). Twenty fish were tagged and released in May 2006 and monitored through May 2007 with 17 fixed-site acoustic receivers. Ten receivers had detection probabilities ranging from 0.67 to 1.00, and five receivers had detection probabilities of 0.50 or less. Detection probability was not correlated with river width. Eighteen (90%) of the tagged fish were detected by at least one receiver. Monitoring durations of individual fish ranged from 0.1 to 354.4 days. The longest total movement was 88.3 rkm, while the longest upstream movement was 52.1 rkm. Movement rates ranged from 0.1 to 156.7 rkm/d. This work provided preliminary data on movement patterns of wild Mekong catfishes. The methods and lessons learned from this study can be used for future positional telemetry research to address management-relevant uncertainties about migration corridors, habitat use, efficacy of fish reserves, and river development planning.

Drivers of Human Migration: A Review of Scientific Evidence

While migration research is at the peak of its productivity, a substantial gap persists between scientific evidence and policy action. As societal complexity increases, migration theory loses track on the numerous factors of human migration; the information on the most relevant factors affecting human migration (i.e., migration drivers), essential for policy decision-making, are hidden and dispersed across the ever-growing literature. Introducing a novel approach to conducting a literature review, emphasizing an unbiased selection of literature and the approach to analysing literature by coding, we collect evidence on the most pertinent migration factors. The study establishes a methodology for a quick but rigorous, collaborative gathering of evidence, as well as an initial inventory and an interactive map of nearly 200 factors working at different migration corridors.

Information Achievements of Prehistory in the Panorama of Archaeological Cultures in the Urals and Western Siberia

Our focus is the type of responses the population of the taiga zone of the Urals and Western Siberia gave to cognitive challenges, as well as dynamics and rhythms of information breakthroughs of the Stone-Early Iron Age. The existence of multi-directional migration corridors indicated formation of an extremely diverse anthropological, linguistic and cultural composition of the taiga pioneer population, thus creating natural communication barriers in the context of severe inter-group competition for resources. Against this background, in the Neolithic (7th–5th millenniums BC), a practice of building fortified settlements, hill-forts, and “sacrificial hills” became widespread — and that was not typical of hunters and fishermen. Erection of those complex and labor-consuming structures required mobilization of a significant number of people, as well as resources and expertise, and contributed to group consolidation in a new territory. It was that type of dramatic disruption that occurred at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millenniums BC. Considerable changes in the way of life of the taiga population came as a direct result of the “metallurgical revolution”. The development of independent metallurgical centers in the Middle Urals traditional ideas about the inability of the population of the appropriating lifestyle to adopt transformative strategies. The northernmost regions became another watershed in the region. The turn of the Eras was marked by development in reindeer herding, which was accompanied by a series of discoveries in the fields of food production, transport development, communications, trade, and symbolic activities. Archaeological data directly indicate the formation of adequate responses and information breakthroughs to the cognitive challenges of the high latitudes of Eurasia, and explain the variety of forms of socio- ideological adaptations and evolutionary alternatives.

The COVID-19, Migration and Livelihood in India: Challenges and Policy Issues

The worldwide spread of COVID-19 first reported from Wuhan in China is attributed to migration and mobility of people. In this article, we present how our understanding of migration and livelihood could be helpful in designing a mitigating strategy of the economic and social impact of COVID-19 in India. We conclude that there are many challenges migrants face during the spread of COVID-19 resulting from nation-wide lockdown. Many internal migrants faced problems such as lack of food, basic amenities, lack of health care, economic stress, lack of transportation facilities to return to their native places and lack of psychological support. On the other hand, COVID-19 has also brought into sharp focus the emigrants from India and the major migration corridors India shares with the world as well. There is huge uncertainty about how long this crisis will last. This article further provides some immediate measures and long term strategies to be adopted by the government such as improving public distribution system, strengthening the public health system, integration of migrants with development, decentralisation as a strategy to provide health services, and providing support to return migrants to reintegrate them, and also strengthen the database on migration and migrant households.

Stuck in the middle. A geographical appraisal of the oldest insectivores – and a marsupial – from the Vallès-Penedès Basin (early Miocene, Catalonia, Spain)

The Vallès-Penedès Basin in Catalonia (NE Spain) forms a biogeographically important connection between central Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. Whereas this is well documented for the late middle and early late Miocene, the early Miocene sequence has received far less attention. New excavations yielded micromammal assemblages from the Ramblian and early Aragonian. Among the euliphotyhplans and metatherian studied, we recognize seven non-soricid species (Amphiperatherium frequens von Meyer, 1846, Galerix symeonidisi Doukas, 1986 and Galerix remmerti van den Hoek Ostende, 2003, Desmanodon daamsi van den Hoek Ostende, 1997, Heterosorex neumayrianus Schlosser, 1887, Chainodus sp., Plesiodimylus sp.) and six species of shrews (Paenelimnoecus sp., Miosorex sp., cf. Clapasorex, cf. Oligosorex, cf. Florinia sp. and Soricinae indet.). They confirm the intermediate position of the Vallès-Penedès also at the time of the older faunas, but show that differences with the Iberian inland were less pronounced. These differences can be explained by higher humidity in the coastal region, as indicated by the presence of dimylids. The differences between this coastal area and inland basin confirm the potential of coastal regions as migration corridors.