Ecologies最新文献_第10页

Climatic and Biological Factors Related with Goat Grazing Management in the Arid Grassland of the Coquimbo Region (Northern Chile) 科金博干旱草原山羊放牧管理的气候与生物因素

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-10-21 DOI: 10.3390/ecologies2040020

D. Patón

{"title":"Climatic and Biological Factors Related with Goat Grazing Management in the Arid Grassland of the Coquimbo Region (Northern Chile)","authors":"D. Patón","doi":"10.3390/ecologies2040020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ecologies2040020","url":null,"abstract":"(1) Background: Desertification is one of the most important environmental impacts around the world. In the semiarid grassland of North of Chile, overgrazing has deep effects on arid lands and consequently on its economy and social development. It is necessary to conduct very detailed studies to determine how the climate, the botanical composition and the grazing system affects this process; (2) Methods: In this paper, we have determined the effect on arid grasslands of three goat managements: exclusions, continuous and deferred grazing on forage biomass, richness, Berger–Parker’s dominance and Shannon’s diversity. This study was developed in Las Cardas Range Station (CEALC) of the University of Chile in the Coquimbo region. The effect of annual and seasonal rainfall on biomass, diversity, richness and dominance parameters was determined; (3) Results: Allochthonous, endemic and native species showed significant changes both for seasonal and annual precipitation. In contrast, the grazing system only affected dominance and biomass of native and endemic species. Deferred grazing was the only management system that increased overall biomass productivity, especially on the best forage plant species. Exclusions showed a positive influence on more endangered species, which were the most vulnerable to goat overgrazing; (4) Conclusions: In consequence, we proposed a network of areas under deferred grazing combined with exclusions. This strategy can increase simultaneously forage productivity, grassland conservation and preservation of associated resources as hunting and wildlife tourism. Moreover, this strategy of range management will allow the sustainability of community of farmers in one of the poorest and most desertified areas in South America.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43785198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Relationships in Diversity, Vegetation Indexes and Water Area in Terminal Lake of the Tarim River, Northwest China 塔里木河末端湖多样性、植被指数和水域面积的关系

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-09-30 DOI: 10.3390/ecologies2040019

Xinfeng Zhao, Tao Lin, Hailiang Xu, Aishajiang Aili, Wan-yu Zhao, Yongqiang Yang

引用次数: 0

Response of Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services to Climate Change in China: A Review 中国生物多样性、生态系统和生态系统服务对气候变化的响应：综述

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-09-22 DOI: 10.3390/ecologies2040018

Haijiang Yang, X. Gou, Dingcai Yin

{"title":"Response of Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services to Climate Change in China: A Review","authors":"Haijiang Yang, X. Gou, Dingcai Yin","doi":"10.3390/ecologies2040018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ecologies2040018","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change is having a significant impact on the global ecosystem and is likely to become increasingly important as this phenomenon intensifies. Numerous studies in climate change impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecosystem services in China have been published in recent decades. However, a comprehensive review of the topic is needed to provide an improved understanding of the history and driving mechanisms of environmental changes within the region. Here we review the evidence for changes in climate and the peer-reviewed literature that assesses climate change impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem, and ecosystem services at a China scale. Our main conclusions are as follows. (1) Most of the evidence shows that climate change (the increasing extreme events) is affecting the change of productivity, species interactions, and biological invasions, especially in the agro-pastoral transition zone and fragile ecological area in Northern China. (2) The individuals and populations respond to climate change through changes in behavior, functions, and geographic scope. (3) The impact of climate change on most types of services (provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural) in China is mainly negative and brings threats and challenges to human well-being and natural resource management, therefore, requiring costly societal adjustments. In general, although great progress has been made, the management strategies still need to be further improved. Integrating climate change into ecosystem services assessment and natural resource management is still a major challenge. Moving forward, it is necessary to evaluate and research the effectiveness of typical demonstration cases, which will contribute to better scientific management of natural resources in China and the world.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49313627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 6

A Simple Spatial Method for Identifying Point Clusters by Neighbourhood Relationships 一种基于邻域关系的点簇空间识别方法

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-08-10 DOI: 10.3390/ecologies2030017

N. Sillero

{"title":"A Simple Spatial Method for Identifying Point Clusters by Neighbourhood Relationships","authors":"N. Sillero","doi":"10.3390/ecologies2030017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ecologies2030017","url":null,"abstract":"Point events can be distributed regularly, randomly, or in clusters. A cluster of points is defined by the distance from which any point included in a cluster is farther from any other point outside the cluster. Many solutions and methods are possible to define clustering distance. I present here a simple method, nearest neighbour index clustering (NNIC), which separately identifies local clusters of points using only their neighbourhood relationships based on the nearest neighbour index (NNI). It computes a Delaunay triangulation among all points and calculates the length of each line, selecting the lines shorter than the expected nearest neighbour distance. The points intersecting the selected Delaunay lines are considered to belong to an independent cluster. I verified the performance of the NNIC method with a virtual and a real example. In the virtual example, I joined two sets of random point processes following a Poisson distribution and a Thomas cluster process. In the real example, I used a point process from the distribution of individuals of two species of Iberian lizards in a mountainous area. For both examples, I compared the results with those of the nearest neighbour cleaning (NNC) method. NNIC selected a different number of clustered points and clusters in each random set of point processes and included fewer points in clusters than the NNC method.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46936709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 4

Sustainability Assessment Methodologies: Implications and Challenges for SIDS 可持续性评估方法:对小岛屿发展中国家的影响和挑战

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-08-04 DOI: 10.3390/ecologies2030016

Pierre Olivier St Flour, Chandradeo Bokhoree

{"title":"Sustainability Assessment Methodologies: Implications and Challenges for SIDS","authors":"Pierre Olivier St Flour, Chandradeo Bokhoree","doi":"10.3390/ecologies2030016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ecologies2030016","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past years, an increasing number of initiatives was considered to address emerging global sustainability issues. Sustainability assessment tools were the most commonly applied methodologies towards measuring sustainability performance. There are a number of assessment tools and techniques for sustainable development. This article aims at identifying the various sustainability assessment tools at country level taking into consideration the integration of environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The target of this paper is to compare the various sustainability measurement techniques and their characteristics using evaluation criteria. The outcome of this analysis is used to direct and clarify researchers and practitioners on sustainability assessment at country level, more specifically in developing countries. The focus of the paper rests on the Brundtland Report definition of sustainable development. The work was carried out using a bibliometric analysis approach based on Web of Science platform from the period 2000 to 2020. There was tremendous works which were conducted on sustainability assessment during the last two decades. The comparative analyses show the research gap among the various tools with respect to the criteria they satisfied. The research discussion suggests that a sustainability assessment framework for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is identified as a future research direction.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48234826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 16

Leaf Traits of Trees in Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests of Peninsular India 印度半岛热带干燥常绿森林树木的叶片特征

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-07-21 DOI: 10.3390/ECOLOGIES2030015

M. Udayakumar, T. Sekar

{"title":"Leaf Traits of Trees in Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests of Peninsular India","authors":"M. Udayakumar, T. Sekar","doi":"10.3390/ECOLOGIES2030015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ECOLOGIES2030015","url":null,"abstract":"A plant functional trait study was conducted to know the existing relationship between important leaf traits namely, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), and leaf life span (LL) in tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEFs) of Peninsular India. Widely accepted methodologies were employed to record functional traits. The relationships between SLA and LDMC, LDMC and LL, and SLA and LL were measured. Pearson’s coefficient of correlation showed a significant negative relationship between SLA and LDMC, and SLA and LL, whereas a significant positive relationship was prevailed between LDMC and LL. The mean trait values (SLA, LDMC, and LL) of evergreens varied significantly from deciduous species. SLA had a closer relationship with LDMC than LL. Similarly, LL had a closer relationship with SLA than LDMC. Species with evergreen leaf habits dominated forest sites under study. Evergreen species dominate the study area with a high evergreen-deciduous ratio of 5.34:1. The S strategy score of trees indicated a relatively higher biomass allocation to persistent tissues. TDEFs occur in low elevation, semiarid environment, but with the combination of oligotrophic habitat, high temperature and longer dry season these forests were flourishing as a unique evergreen ecosystem in the drier environment. The relationships found between leaf traits were in concurrence with earlier findings. Trees of TDEFs survive on the poor-nutrient habitat with a low SLA, high LDMC, and LL. This study adds baseline data on key leaf traits to plant functional trait database of India.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3390/ECOLOGIES2030015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43858882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 6

A Designed Eco-Art and Place-Based Curriculum Encouraging Students’ Empathy for the Environment 设计的生态艺术与场所课程鼓励学生对环境的同情

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-06-28 DOI: 10.3390/ecologies2030014

Asvina Sunassee, Chandradeo Bokhoree

{"title":"A Designed Eco-Art and Place-Based Curriculum Encouraging Students’ Empathy for the Environment","authors":"Asvina Sunassee, Chandradeo Bokhoree","doi":"10.3390/ecologies2030014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ecologies2030014","url":null,"abstract":"Environmental art education is gaining importance in schools as arts education begins to acquire a more significant role in environmental education. This emerging field of study is an interdisciplinary endeavor that is centered on the different fields of environmental education and visual art education and provides a means of making students aware of environmental issues through environmental art education. It has been suggested that students get into a relationship with nature prior to the request to conserve the environment in order to be nature connected. This abstract focuses on teaching and learning through the arts, a pedagogical way in which students discuss the challenging aspects of environmental issues. The aim of this study is to make students act like protectors of their environment through an eco-art place-based curriculum. This paper’s pedagogies will provide educators with a framework for developing environmental art education lessons and curricula. This experimental study has been planned to gather data from interviews and observation of students and by making the students participate in nature-related activities. The findings show that students prefer to let go of their fascination with formulating better ecological perspectives. On the positive side, a few students went through some frustration during the program and the activities. Students have given positive feedback on the program in positive terms, such as “fun”, “interesting”, and “cool”, to express their experience gained through the class activities.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3390/ecologies2030014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49540637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

Students’ Empathy for the Environment through Eco-Art Place-Based Education: A Review 从生态艺术场所教育看学生对环境的移情

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-05-20 DOI: 10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020013

Asvina Sunassee, Chandradeo Bokhoree, A. Patrizio

{"title":"Students’ Empathy for the Environment through Eco-Art Place-Based Education: A Review","authors":"Asvina Sunassee, Chandradeo Bokhoree, A. Patrizio","doi":"10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020013","url":null,"abstract":"The existing state of the world climate creates the need for an educational programme that incorporates effective proposals for the environment that can be practically implemented. The present environmental education literature has changed due to new study paradigms. Understanding how students relate to nature, how their personal beliefs and behaviours are influenced, and how their actions are affected can provide an increased understanding of how they can contribute meaningfully to global objectives. This paper aims to analyse educational research papers published in the area of environmental art education in order to find the factor with the greatest effect and illuminate how they can help to improve the measures implemented. This study paper (i) focuses on students’ engagement with an environment curriculum; (ii) demonstrates the need for action related to the environment; (iii) encourages critical thinking; and (iv) demonstrates students’ independent thinking and rational decision making. The findings show that such research can help to improve environmental art education based on action and take future research challenges into account.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47814949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 13

Genus-Physiognomy-Ecosystem (GPE) System for Satellite-Based Classification of Plant Communities 基于卫星植物群落分类的属-地貌-生态系统(GPE)系统

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-04-09 DOI: 10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020012

Ram C. Sharma

{"title":"Genus-Physiognomy-Ecosystem (GPE) System for Satellite-Based Classification of Plant Communities","authors":"Ram C. Sharma","doi":"10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020012","url":null,"abstract":"Vegetation mapping and monitoring is important as the composition and distribution of vegetation has been greatly influenced by land use change and the interaction of land use change and climate change. The purpose of vegetation mapping is to discover the extent and distribution of plant communities within a geographical area of interest. The paper introduces the Genus-Physiognomy-Ecosystem (GPE) system for the organization of plant communities from the perspective of satellite remote sensing. It was conceived for broadscale operational vegetation mapping by organizing plant communities according to shared genus and physiognomy/ecosystem inferences, and it offers an intermediate level between the physiognomy/ecosystem and dominant species for the organization of plant communities. A machine learning and cross-validation approach was employed by utilizing multi-temporal Landsat 8 satellite images on a regional scale for the classification of plant communities at three hierarchical levels: (i) physiognomy, (ii) GPE, and (iii) dominant species. The classification at the dominant species level showed many misclassifications and undermined its application for broadscale operational mapping, whereas the GPE system was able to lessen the complexities associated with the dominant species level classification while still being capable of distinguishing a wider variety of plant communities. The GPE system therefore provides an easy-to-understand approach for the operational mapping of plant communities, particularly on a broad scale.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":"2 1","pages":"203-213"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47162044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 8

Stable Isotope Analysis of Ozark Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) Living and Preserved Museum Tissue Reveals a Shift in Their Generalist Diet Composition Ozark Hellbender（隐鳃亚纲阿氏隐鳃亚目主教）生活和保存的博物馆组织的稳定同位素分析揭示了它们一般饮食组成的变化

Ecologies Pub Date : 2021-04-06 DOI: 10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020011

W. R. Hiler, S. Trauth, B. Wheeler, A. Jimenez, M. Radanović, Joseph R Milanovich, A. Christian

{"title":"Stable Isotope Analysis of Ozark Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) Living and Preserved Museum Tissue Reveals a Shift in Their Generalist Diet Composition","authors":"W. R. Hiler, S. Trauth, B. Wheeler, A. Jimenez, M. Radanović, Joseph R Milanovich, A. Christian","doi":"10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020011","url":null,"abstract":"Ozark hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) have undergone marked population declines across their entire distribution. A variety of ecological life history research has been conducted to determine the cause(s) of the declines. Historically, hellbender diet studies used stomach content examination methods; however, alternative approaches such as less intrusive stable isotope analyses are now options for researchers. The goals of our study were to conduct stable isotope analysis on live and formalin-preserved museum specimen Ozark hellbender tissues to identify diet composition in the Eleven Point and Spring rivers, Arkansas. Also, we used stable isotope analysis to investigate if Spring River hellbender diets have changed over time. We sampled fish, live hellbenders (non-destructively), and formalin-preserved hellbender tissues from museum collections for stable isotope analysis. We sampled crayfish for assemblage composition and stable isotope analysis. The results of our stable isotope study revealed three main findings: (1) there were no statistically significant differences between hellbender δ13C and δ15N values among sites and hellbender stable C and N isotopes were correlated with body length; (2) traditional δ13C versus δ15N bi-plots and trophic discrimination values did not provide complete discernment in hellbender diets; however, Bayesian MixSIAR models revealed hellbenders to be generalists, and (3) the use of δ13C and δ15N values adjusted historic formalin-fixed and ethanol preserved hellbenders matched well with current crayfish and fish stable isotope values based on Bayesian MixSIAR models. These findings provide important diet information and a possible tool to examine dietary patterns from preserved specimens that may be used for hellbender conservation and management.","PeriodicalId":72866,"journal":{"name":"Ecologies","volume":"2 1","pages":"187-202"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3390/ECOLOGIES2020011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44466217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0