| 1. |
- Giannantoni, Corrado, et al.
(författare)
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Analysis of investments based on the trilateral externality approach (firm, citizen, state)
- 2002
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 2:1-2, s. 27-38
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Trilateral Externality Approach takes its origin from a several year integration activity of various evaluation methodologies (Energetic, Exergetic, Emergetic, Economic, etc.) and aims at giving a rigorous synthesis of such an integration process in the context of Neo-Classical Economics through the fundamental category of externality, in its extensive and intensive meaning.After having shown the different (but complementary) perspectives of elaborating a unifying concept of externality (bottom-up and top-down approaches), the paper presents a limited set of synthetic Indicators for possible strategies of investment (at a regional and national level). An example of application devoted to Hydrogen technologies will show how renewable (or “equipollent”) Sources are already widely “competitive” with respect to fossil fuel technologies, obviously if analyzed in the light of such a general evaluation approach, which involves a unique trilateral relationship between firm, citizen and state.In this context it will be thus much easier to show why the so-called “incentives” (in their several different possible forms) are nothing but a “remuneration” of positive externalities that a firm produces in favor of the collectivity, whereas the state recuperates such “incentives” because of a consequential increase in economic activities induced by those primary externalities, in a non-zero sum global process.
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| 2. |
- Alatalo, Juha M, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Testing reliability of short-term responses to predict longer-term responses of bryophytes and lichens to environmental change
- 2015
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 58, s. 77-85
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental changes are predicted to have severe and rapid impacts on polar and alpine regions. At high latitudes/altitudes, cryptogams such as bryophytes and lichens are of great importance in terms of biomass, carbon/nutrient cycling, cover and ecosystem functioning. This seven-year factorial experiment examined the effects of fertilizing and experimental warming on bryophyte and lichen abundance in an alpine meadow and a heath community in subarctic Sweden. The aim was to determine whether shortterm responses (five years) are good predictors of longer-term responses (seven years). Fertilizing and warming had significant negative effects on total and relative abundance of bryophytes and lichens, with the largest and most rapid decline caused by fertilizing and combined fertilizing and warming. Bryophytes decreased most in the alpine meadow community, which was bryophyte-dominated, and lichens decreased most in the heath community, which was lichen-dominated. This was surprising, as the most diverse group in each community was expected to be most resistant to perturbation. Warming alone had a delayed negative impact. Of the 16 species included in statistical analyses, seven were significantly negatively affected. Overall, the impacts of simulated warming on bryophytes and lichens as a whole and on individual species differed in time and magnitude between treatments and plant communities (meadow and heath). This will likely cause changes in the dominance structures over time. These results underscore the importance of longer-term studies to improve the quality of data used in climate change models, as models based on short-term data are poor predictors of long-term responses of bryophytes and lichens. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Alikas, Krista, et al.
(författare)
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Improved retrieval of Secchi depth for optically-complex waters using remote sensing data
- 2017
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 77, s. 218-227
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Water transparency is one of the ecological indicators for describing water quality and the underwater light field which determines its productivity. In the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) as well as in the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) water transparency is used for ecological status classification of inland, coastal and open sea waters and it is regarded as an indicator for eutrophication in Baltic Sea management (HELCOM, 2007). We developed and compared different empirical and semi-analytical algorithms for lakes and coastal Nordic waters to retrieve Secchi depth (Z(SD)) from remote sensing data (MERIS, 300 m resolution).The algorithms were developed in water bodies with high coloured dissolved organic matter absorption (a(CNOM)(442) ranging 1.7-4.0 m(-1)), Chl a concentration (0.5-73 mg m(-3)) and total suspended matter (0.7-37.5 g m(-3)) and validated against an independent data set over inland and coastal waters (0.6 m < Z(SD) < 14.8 m). The results indicate that for empirical algorithms, using longer wavelengths in the visible spectrum as a reference band decreases the RMSE and increases the coefficient of determination (R-2). The accuracy increased (R-2 = 0.75, RMSE = 1.33 m, n = 134) when Z(SD) was retrieved via an empirical relationship between Z(SD) and K-d (490). The best agreement with in situ data was attained when Z(SD) was calculated via both the diffuse and the beam attenuation coefficient (R-2 = 0.89, RMSE = 0.77 m, n = 89). The results demonstrate that transparency can be retrieved with high accuracy over various optical water types by the means of ocean color remote sensing, improving both the spatial and temporal coverage. The satellite derived Z(SD) product could be therefore used as an additional source of information for WFD and MSFD reporting purposes.
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| 5. |
- Andersson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Memory carriers and stewardship of metropolitan landscapes
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 70, s. 606-614
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- History matters, and can be an active and dynamic component in the present. We explore social-ecological memory as way to diagnose and engage with urban green space performance and resilience. Rapidly changing cities pose a threat and a challenge to the continuity that has helped to support biodiversity and ecological functions by upholding similar or only slowly changing adaptive cycles over time. Continuity is perpetuated through memory carriers, slowly changing variables and features that retain or make available information on how different situations have been dealt with before. Ecological memory carriers comprise memory banks, spatial connections and mobile link species. These can be supported by social memory carriers, represented by collectively created social features like habits, oral tradition, rules-in-use and artifacts, as well as media and external sources. Loss or lack of memory can be diagnoses by the absence or disconnect between memory carriers, as will be illustrated by several typical situations. Drawing on a set of example situations, we present an outline for a look-up table approach that connects ecological memory carriers to the social memory carriers that support them and use these connections to set diagnoses and indicate potential remedies. The inclusion of memory carriers in planning and management considerations may facilitate preservation of feedbacks and disturbance regimes as well as species and habitats, and the cultural values and meanings that go with them.
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| 6. |
- Angeler, David
(författare)
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Evaluating environmental conditions of a temporary pond complex using rotifer emergence from dry soils
- 2010
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 10, s. 545–549-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study we evaluated the usefulness of rotifer emergence from dry soils to indicate the environmental status of a remnant temporary pond complex in an agricultural area in central Spain. Because the ponds did not flood during our project, emergence was studied in relation to environmental variables in outdoor microcosms. Redundancy analysis and nestedness analysis showed that salinity and total nitrogen concentrations shaped the emerged communities. Depauperate rotifer assemblages from pond microcosms with higher salinity and nitrogen levels were nested subsets of species-rich communities from microcosms of less enriched sites. Rotifer community structure also identified small ponds as reference sites that should receive priority in conservation and degradation mitigation programs. Results suggest that rotifer emergence from rewetted sediments using microcosms can be useful for evaluating the nutrient status during the dry phase of temporary wetlands. While results from this approach are conservative, requiring comparisons with field observations, their tentative value lies in alerting management and providing a basis for future research of poorly studied but threatened temporary habitats. Rotifer emergence could be a useful alternative to traditional biological indicators of nutrient status that depend on the presence of water. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 7. |
- Angeler, David
(författare)
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Tracking spatial regimes in animal communities: Implications for resilience-based management
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spatial regimes (the spatial extents of ecological states) exhibit strong spatiotemporal order as they expand or contract in response to retreating or encroaching adjacent spatial regimes (e.g., woody plant invasion of grasslands) and human management (e.g., fire treatments). New methods enable tracking spatial regime boundaries via vegetation landcover data, and this approach is being used for strategic management across biomes. A clear advancement would be incorporating animal community data to track spatial regime boundaries alongside vegetation data. In a 41,170-hectare grassland experiencing woody plant encroachment, we test the utility of using animal community data to track spatial regimes via two hypotheses. (H1) Spatial regime boundaries identified via independent vegetation and animal datasets will exhibit spatial synchrony; specifically, grassland:woodland bird community boundaries will synchronize with grass:woody vegetation boundaries. (H2) Negative feedbacks will stabilize spatial regimes identified via animal data; specifically, frequent fire treatments will stabilize grassland bird community boundaries. We used 26 years of bird community and vegetation data alongside 32 years of fire history data. We identified spatial regime boundaries with bird community data via a wombling approach. We identified spatial regime boundaries with vegetation data by calculating spatial covariance between remotely-sensed grass and woody plant cover per pixel. For fire history data, we calculated the cumulative number of fires per pixel. Setting bird boundary strength (wombling R-2 values) as the response variable, we tested our hypotheses with a hierarchical generalized additive model (HGAM). Both hypotheses were supported: animal boundaries synchronized with vegetation boundaries in space and time, and grassland bird communities stabilized as fire frequency increased (HGAM explained 38% of deviance). We can now track spatial regimes via animal community data pixel-by-pixel and year-by-year. Alongside vegetation boundary tracking, tracking animal community boundaries can inform the scale of management necessary to maintain animal communities endemic to desirable ecological states. Our approach will be especially useful for conserving animal communities requiring large-scale, unfragmented landscapes-like grasslands and steppes.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Ari Noriega, Jorge, et al.
(författare)
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Does ecotourism impact biodiversity? : An assessment using dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) as bioindicators in a tropical dry forest natural park
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 117
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ecotourism can be defined as an environmental activity that takes place in well-preserved areas for recreation and with the responsibility of promoting their conservation. Nowadays, ecotourism is seen as a friendly pastime, but it can potentially affect negatively community diversity and structure by a number of processes such as soil compaction, erosion, and habitat alteration, among many others. Nonetheless, there is hardly any information on the impact of ecotourism in the Tropical Dry Forests and protected areas of the Neotropical region. In an attempt to fill this knowledge gap, the effect of ecotourism was evaluated in a study of a Tropical Dry Forest in the Tayrona National Natural Park of Colombia using dung beetles as bioindicators. A large-scale sampling of three sites with different levels of tourism intensity (no tourism - NT, low tourism - LT, and high tourism - HT) was performed using pitfall tramps baited with human/pig dung during two climatic seasons (rainy and dry). A total of 3238 individuals belonging to nine genera and 15 species were collected. Significant differences in abun-dances, richness, and the Shannon Wiener diversity index were observed between areas with tourism and those without. These differences disappeared during the dry season in response to the strong reduction in species abundance and richness associated to that time of year. All areas maintained a homogeneous beetle structure in terms of functional groups present irrelevant of the intensity level of tourism. Beta diversity analysis shows that the dung beetle assemblage has a nested structure, indicating that the pressure exerted by tourism entails the loss of particular species. Our results advocate that it is necessary to implement conservation strategies in order to reduce the negative impact of tourism on the National Park's biodiversity.
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| 10. |
- Banabazi, Mohammad Hossein
(författare)
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Anthropogenic and natural fragmentations shape the spatial distribution and genetic diversity of roe deer in the marginal area of its geographic range
- 2023
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 154
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Habitat destruction and fragmentation are major factors in the destruction of genetic diversity and affect the movement behavior of the Roe deer population in the remaining habitats. Here, we study the population and landscape genetics of Capreolus capreolus (roe deer) in northern and northwestern Iran using twelve polymorphism microsatellite markers. From 111 total specimens, 63 had successful extraction (6 feces, 35 tissues, 9 bones, and 13 antlers). We considered 30 microsatellite polymorphic loci, of which only 12 were amplified for our further analysis. For genetic diversity analysis, the Weir-Cockerham method was applied to measure the inbreeding coefficient (FIS) and fixation index (FST) for each locus as well as for each population. For landscape genetics, the susceptibility patterns of genetic variations were assessed using three hypotheses including isolation by distance (IBD), isolation by environment (IBE), isolation by resistance (IBR), and individual landscape genetic analysis. A habitat suitability map as an indicator of landscape resistance was constructed from several species distribution models (SDMs) algorithms including Generalized Boosting Models (GBM), Maximum Entropy (Maxent), Random Forest (RF), Generalized Linear Model (GLM), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) and artificial neural networks (ANN) and an ensemble model. Our estimated FIs index showed that the Golestan, Arasbaran, and Guilan populations had the highest and lowest genetic diversity among roe deer populations. According to the Fst criterion, our results showed that Golestan and East Azarbaijan (Arasbaran) had the highest and Mazandaran had the lowest genetic distance patterns. Our results do not suggest that there is high genetic differentiation for roe deer in the region, with high levels of gene flow between study areas. We found that geographic distance has no significant relationship with genetic distance and that there is no significant relationship between the ecological niche non-similarity matrix and the genetic distance matrix. The most influential factors affecting gene flow in roe deer were aspect and elevation variables. The analysis suggests that the landscape has no significant influence on the structuring of the studied population and shows little genetic differentiation.
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