scholarly journals Biological components of Greek lagoonal ecosystems: an overview

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. NICOLAIDOU ◽  
S. REIZOPOULOU ◽  
D. KOUTSOUBAS ◽  
S. ORFANIDIS ◽  
T. KEVREKIDIS

The paper summarises the available information on the main biological components – phytoplankton, zooplankton, phytobenthos, zoobenthos and fish – of Greek lagoonal ecosystems. Meiobenthos was also studied in one of the lagoons. All components show great variability both in space and time, which is attributed to the variability of environmental conditions. The most important variable influencing species distribution and diversity is the degree of communication with the sea and the nutrient load introduced through fresh water inputs. Certain new methods, which have been applied for evaluation of the ecological quality state of the lagoons, are also presented.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Robertson ◽  
J. Gao ◽  
P. M. Regular ◽  
M. J. Morgan ◽  
F. Zhang

AbstractAnomalous local temperature and extreme events (e.g. heat-waves) can cause rapid change and gradual recovery of local environmental conditions. However, few studies have tested whether species distribution can recover following returning environmental conditions. Here, we tested for change and recovery of the spatial distributions of two flatfish populations, American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides) and yellowtail flounder (Limanda ferruginea), in response to consecutive decreasing and increasing water temperature on the Grand Bank off Newfoundland, Canada from 1985 to 2018. Using a Vector Autoregressive Spatiotemporal model, we found the distributions of both species shifted southwards following a period when anomalous cold water covered the northern sections of the Grand Bank. After accounting for density-dependent effects, we observed that yellowtail flounder re-distributed northwards when water temperature returned and exceeded levels recorded before the cold period, while the spatial distribution of American plaice has not recovered. Our study demonstrates nonlinear effects of an environmental factor on species distribution, implying the possibility of irreversible (or hard-to-reverse) changes of species distribution following a rapid change and gradual recovery of environmental conditions.


Zootaxa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 1941 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
GUSTAVO CARLOS ROSSI ◽  
MAGDALENA LAURITO ◽  
WALTER RICARDO ALMIRÓN

The adult, fourth-stage larvae and the male genitalia of Culex (Culex) apicinus Philippi is redescribed. The pupa is described for the first time. The male genitalia, pupa and fourth-stage larva are illustrated. The available information on the taxonomy and distribution of the species is also included, extending the species distribution in Argentina. Bionomics and distributional data are provided for Culex apicinus.


2021 ◽  
pp. 287-302
Author(s):  
T. V. Shvetsova ◽  
V. E. Shakhova

The results of the study of the chronotope in Russian-language compositions based on the novel about Robinson’s adventures are presented. The material for the work was A. E. Razin’s novel “The Real Robinson” (1860) and Lev Tolstoy’s story “Robinson” (1862). The issues of the specifics of the representation of the chronotopic in the works of Russian writers are considered. The relevance of the study is due to the appeal to the universal of the chronotope, which contains an exhaustive toolkit for the artistic embodiment of images of space and time; as well as the search for new methods of literary analysis of the text. It is shown that in the analyzed texts, a kind of fusion of Russianlanguage compositions with a foreigncultural text in the aspect of a chronotope is realized. The similarities and differences in the rethinking of the story of Robinson are shown on the example of the model of textual connexity, the national specifics of the representation of the image of Robinson are indicated. It is noted that the external and internal chronotopes are retransmitted from work to work and create the basis for the emergence of the author’s intentions. It is proved that chronotopic analysis allows one to form an idea of the peculiarities of the Russian-language interpretation of the story of Robinson.


PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9586
Author(s):  
László Fülöp ◽  
János Ecker

Recycling biomass is indispensable these days not only because fossil energy sources are gradually depleted, but also because pollution of the environment, caused by the increasing use of energy, must be reduced. This article intends to overview the results of plant biomass processing methods that are currently in use. Our aim was also to review published methods that are not currently in use. It is intended to explore the possibilities of new methods and enzymes to be used in biomass recycling. The results of this overview are perplexing in almost every area. Advances have been made in the pre-treatment of biomass and in the diversity and applications of the enzymes utilized. Based on molecular modeling, very little progress has been made in the modification of existing enzymes for altered function and adaptation for the environmental conditions during the processing of biomass. There are hardly any publications in which molecular modeling techniques are used to improve enzyme function and to adapt enzymes to various environmental conditions. Our view is that using modern computational, biochemical, and biotechnological methods would enable the purposeful design of enzymes that are more efficient and suitable for biomass processing.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Levi Simons ◽  
Stevie Caldwell ◽  
Michelle Fu ◽  
Jose Gallegos ◽  
Michael Gatheru ◽  
...  

Abstract In an increasingly urbanized world, there is the need for a framework to assess ecological conditions in these anthropogenically dominated environments. Using species observations from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), along with remotely sensed environmental layers, we used MaxEnt to construct species distribution models (SDMs) of native and non-native species in Los Angeles. 25 native and non-native Indicator species were selected based on the sensitivities of their SDM, as measured by the Symmetric Extremal Dependence Index (SEDI), to environmental gradients. These SDMs were summarized to produce ecological indices of native and non-native biodiversity in Los Angeles. We found native indicator species to have a greater sensitivity to environmental conditions than their non-native counterparts, with the mean SEDI score of native and non-native species MaxEnt models being 0.72 and 0.71 respectively. While both sets of species were sensitive to land use categories and housing density, native species were more sensitive to natural landscape variables while non-native ones were more sensitive to measures of water and soil contamination. Using random forest modeling we also found our native index could be more reliably predicted, given environmental conditions, than its non-native counterpart. The mean Pearson correlation between actual and predicted index values were 0.86 and 0.84 for native and non-native species. From these results we conclude that using SDMs to predict the biodiversity of environmental species is a suitable approach towards evaluating ecological conditions in urban environments, with the environmental sensitivity of native SDMs outperforming non-native ones.


Author(s):  
Thu Thi Nguyen ◽  
Thi Dieu Tran ◽  
Tran Vu Khanh Linh ◽  
Thai Son Le ◽  
Trang Thanh Pham ◽  
...  

Agricultural land fires have been linked to various and adverse impacts on ecosystems, food security and the agriculture sector. Understanding the patterns and drivers of agricultural land fires is essential for effective agricultural land fire management. The key objectives of this study were to (1) analyze the temporal and spatial patterns of agricultural land fires using satellite remote sensed data, (2) assess a range of environmental conditions that could drive the occurrence of agricultural land fires, (3) determine the best model for predicting agricultural land fires and (4) determine the relative contribution of each environmental condition variable on the best predictive model. We used both univariate and multivariate regressions for the fire prediction capability of four independent environmental conditions (fuel, weather, topographic and anthropogenic). Analysis of historical satellite data revealed that agricultural land fires were more frequent than forested land fires. Our analyses also revealed that fuel condition was the most important variable for predicting agricultural land fires followed by weather, topographic and anthropogenic conditions. This study provides a novel multivariate model for predicting agricultural land fires that harbors the potential to improve agricultural land fire management and reduce fire risk within the agricultural sector.


2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1946) ◽  
pp. 20202779
Author(s):  
Patrick L. Thompson ◽  
Sonia Kéfi ◽  
Yuval R. Zelnik ◽  
Laura E. Dee ◽  
Shaopeng Wang ◽  
...  

The biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationship is expected to be scale-dependent. The autocorrelation of environmental heterogeneity is hypothesized to explain this scale dependence because it influences how quickly biodiversity accumulates over space or time. However, this link has yet to be demonstrated in a formal model. Here, we use a Lotka–Volterra competition model to simulate community dynamics when environmental conditions vary across either space or time. Species differ in their optimal environmental conditions, which results in turnover in community composition. We vary biodiversity by modelling communities with different sized regional species pools and ask how the amount of biomass per unit area depends on the number of species present, and the spatial or temporal scale at which it is measured. We find that more biodiversity is required to maintain functioning at larger temporal and spatial scales. The number of species required increases quickly when environmental autocorrelation is low, and slowly when autocorrelation is high. Both spatial and temporal environmental heterogeneity lead to scale dependence in BEF, but autocorrelation has larger impacts when environmental change is temporal. These findings show how the biodiversity required to maintain functioning is expected to increase over space and time.


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