Securing the Environmental Water Requirements of Seasonally Ponding Wetlands: Partnering Science and Management Through Benefit Sharing

Although environmental flow regime assessments are becoming increasingly holistic, they rarely provoke water managers to enact the adaptive water reallocation mechanisms required to secure environmental water for wetlands. The conditions that cause science-based environmental flow assessments to succeed or fail in informing the management of environmental water requirements remain unclear. To begin to resolve these conditions, we used process tracing to deconstruct the sequence of activities required to manage environmental water in four case studies of seasonally ponding wetlands in Mediterranean and Mesoamerican watersheds. We hypothesized that, when the flexibility and equitability of the socioeconomic system do not match the complexity of the biophysical system, this leads to a failure of managers to integrate scientific guidance in their allocation of environmental water. Diagnostic evidence gathered indicates that science-management partnerships are essential to align institutional flexibility and socioeconomic equitability with the system’s ecohydrological complexity, and thus move from determination to reallocation of environmental water. These results confirm that institutions e.g., river basin organizations need to be supplemented by motivated actors with experience and skill to negotiate allocation and adaptive management of environmental water. These institutional-actor synergies are likely to be especially important in water scarce regions when the need to accommodate extreme hydrological conditions is not met by national governance capacity. We conclude by focusing on benefit sharing as a means to better describe the conditions for successful science-based environmental flow assessments that realize productive efficiency in environmental water allocation i.e., recognition of multiple values for both people and ecosystems.

How AI Changes the Technopreneurship in the Business World and Its Impact on Business Practices

Technopreneurship is the combination of the words “technology” and “entrepreneurship” that refers to commercial activities, including trading, importing and exporting, selling and buying locally or internationally, that are performed using technologies or technological tools, such as online marketing, data analytics, entrepreneurial platforms, artefactual intelligence appliances, robotics, etc. Additionally, technopreneurship also covers data science management, where data mining, data warehousing, big data analysis are among the important processes that are executed on scientific data in order to identify consumers' purchase behaviours and to forecast market trends. Technopreneurship is a form of entrepreneurship with technologies that involve intensive production, operation, and management processes and practise entrepreneurial spirits involving creativity, innovation, risk-taking, adventure, ambition, and foreseeing actions to achieve success.

MODERN PROBLEMS OF APPLYING MATHEMATICAL METHODS IN THE ASPECT OF ECONOMICS

The penetration of the mathematical apparatus into the economy created the basis for the development of methods of economic analysis, econometrics, mathematical programming, economic statistics, etc. Today, the interpenetration of different branches of knowledge continues, in particular, the application of mathematical methods in the natural and social sciences and in the economic sphere. Among mathematical methods of data processing are polynomial, linear, quadratic, trigonometric, exponential and combined dependencies, differential and algebraic equations. The statistical processing of data from the evaluation of the structure and dynamics of the phenomenon has gone in the direction of correlation analysis and forecasting. The deep penetration of mathematics into specific sciences and the success achieved through a combination of methods from different branches of knowledge is described by many researchers. The possibilities of applying mathematics are increasingly being explored in areas of knowledge where phenomena are poorly structured and characterized by the high complexity of sociology, political science, management and economics. The article presents a retrospective analysis of the development of scientific and applied research concerning the process of mathematics of science and the possibilities of using mathematical methods in economics in particular. Problems and constraints encountered in applying mathematical methods in economic research have been identified. Measures have been identified to ensure the adequacy of the development of economic and mathematical models from the standpoint of approaches to their construction, the improvement of management processes and the improvement of the training of specialists in economic fields.

Mapping and monitoring genetic diversity of an alpine freshwater top predator by applying newly proposed indicators

Genetic diversity is the basis for population adaptation and long-term survival, yet rarely considered in biodiversity monitoring. One key issue is the need for useful and straightforward indicators of genetic diversity. To test newly proposed indicators, we monitored genetic diversity over 40 years (1970-2010) in metapopulations of brown trout inhabiting 27 small mountain lakes representing 10 water systems in central Sweden. Three of the indicators were previously proposed for broad, international use for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) context, while three others were recently elaborated for national use by a Swedish science-management effort and applied for the first time here. The Swedish indicators use molecular genetic data to monitor genetic diversity within and between populations and assess the effective population size (Ne). We used a panel of 96 SNPs and identified 29 discrete populations retained over time. Over 40 percent of the lakes harbored more than one population indicating that brown trout biodiversity hidden as cryptic, sympatric populations are more common than recognized. The Ne indicator showed values below the threshold (Ne≤500) in 20 populations with five showing Ne<100. Although statistically significant genetic diversity reductions occurred in several populations, they were mostly within proposed threshold limits. Metapopulation structure appears to buffer against diversity loss; when applying the indicators to metapopulations most indicators suggest an acceptable genetic status in all but one system. The CBD indicators agreed with the national ones but provided less detail. We propose that all indicators applied here are appropriate for monitoring genetic diversity within species.

Difficulties of digitalization: information technology in business, science, management education

Changes in Russia and the world are persistently pushing business, science and education to step into the digital space. At the same time, organizations, regardless of their field of activity, require a certain readiness, without which any digital innovation would be premature or unnecessary. However, it is not only the «digital maturity» of an organization that affects the success of its transformation towards the use of new digital technologies. The ability of workers and the organization as a whole to experiment is also important, as well as a certain enthusiasm, which is based on awareness of the progress in the field of information technology.

Preface

International Forestry Forum “Forest ecosystems as global resource of the biosphere: calls, threats, solutions” (FORESTRY-2021) continued a series of events held since 2008. FORESTRY-2021 was jointly organized by Voronezh State University of Forestry and Technologies named after G. F. Morozov (Russia), Madrid Polytechnic University (Spain), Belgrade University (Serbia), Belarusian State Technical University (Belarus), Czech University of Life Sciences and Academy of Agrarian Sciences (Czech Republic), Zvolen Technical University (Slovakia), and Research Institute of Forest Genetics, Breeding and Biotechnology (Russia) and held in 09-10 September 2021, Voronezh, Russia. FORESTRY-2021 was a large discussion platform which brought together practitioners, academicians and young researchers from different disciplines with an interest in forest to present research and state-of-the-art knowledge and theories in forestry and to strengthen collaboration between institutions in forest science, management and industry. The goal of the Forum was constructive discussion of the tasks and modernization’s mechanisms, innovative and technological development of the forest complex of Russian Federation and foreign countries, implementation of priority national and international programs and projects; development and presentation of specific recommendations for solving key problems in this area, assistance in the formation of a strategic partnership of the scientific and expert community, legislative and executive authorities, public organizations, business structures and the media, focused on the priority tasks of modernization and scientific and technological development of forestry and the timber industry. List of Keynote speakers, Forum Proceedings, Program Committee, Organizing Committee of FORESTRY-2021, Web-page, Editors of FORESTRY-2021 Proceedings are available in the pdf

ANNALS OF THE KOLA SCIENCE CENTER. YEAR 2015.

The chronology of the main events of the history of the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2015 is presented: the results of researches, scientific and management activities, information on events, social life, state and scientific awards and transformations, as well as photographs from the Archive of the Department of Science Management of FRC KSC RAS.

We Can Better Manage Ecosystems by Connecting Solutions to Constraints: Learning from Wetland Plant Invasions

Wetlands provide critical wildlife habitat, improve water quality, and mitigate the impacts of floods, droughts, and climate change. Yet, they are drained, filled, dredged, and otherwise altered by humans, all of which contribute to their high susceptibility to plant invasions. Given the societal significance of wetlands and the disproportionately large amount of time and money spent controlling invaders in remaining wetlands, a fundamental shift must occur in how we approach restoration of plant-invaded wetlands. The need for more research is often used as an excuse for a lack of progress in invader management but, in fact, constraints to invader management are spread across the science, management, and stakeholder engagement domains. At their intersection are “implementation gap” constraints where the monumental efforts required to bridge the gap among scientists, managers, and community stakeholders are often unassigned, unrewarded, and underestimated. Here we synthesize and present a portfolio of broad structured approaches and specific actions that can be used to advance restoration of plant-invaded wetlands in a diversity of contexts immediately and over the long-term, linking these solutions to the constraints they best address. These solutions can be used by individual managers to chart a path forward when they are daunted by potentially needing to pivot from more familiar management actions to increase efficiency and efficacy in attaining restoration goals. In more complex collaborations with multiple actors, the shared vocabulary presented here for considering and selecting the most appropriate solution will be essential. Of course, every management context is unique (i.e., different constraints are at play) so we advocate that involved parties consider a range of potential solutions, rather than either assuming any single solution to be universally optimal or relying on a solution simply because it is familiar and feasible. Moving rapidly to optimally effective invasive plant management in wetlands may not be realistic, but making steady, incremental progress by implementing appropriate solutions based on clearly identified constraints will be critical to eventually attaining wetland restoration goals.

Awareness Mentality and Strategic Behavior in Science

Acknowledgement of scientific achievements was and is essentially achieved through the citation of a publication. Increasingly, however, it is no longer just the publication itself that plays an important role, but also the degree of attention that a scientist achieves with this very publication. Thus, the importance of strategic behavior in science is progressing and an awareness mentality is spreading. In this paper, the causes and backgrounds of this development are discussed, identifying the use of reductionist, quantitative systems in science management and research funding, the loss of critical judgment and technocratic dominance, quantitative assessments used for decision making, altmetrics and the like as alternative views, the use of perception scores in reference databases and universities as well as ambitions of journals as main drivers. Besides, different forms of strategic behavior in science and the resulting consequences and impacts are being highlighted.