Search results for "Ecosystem"

Improving soil and water conservation and ecosystem services by sustainable soil management practices: From a global to an Italian soil partnership

2020

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identify the need to restore degraded soils in order to improve productivity and the provision of ecosystem services. The aim is to support food production, store and supply clean water, conserve biodiversity, sequester carbon, and improve soil resilience in a context of climate change. Within this framework, in order to achieve the SDGs and to correct land management in the long-term, soil management is considered mandatory. The reduction of land degradation should be based on various sustainable soil management practices that improve and maintain soil organic matter levels, increase water infiltration, and improve soil water management. This tec…

A quantitative insight into the impact and performance of seed accelerators and their accelerated start-ups

2020

El tema de investigación de esta tesis es el estudio de las aceleradoras de emprendimiento (AE), consideradas la nueva generación de incubadora de empresas (Bøllingtoft, 2012). Tanto las incubadoras como las aceleradoras permiten a las empresas jóvenes comenzar su actividad a través de un proceso de aprendizaje, consultoría e inversión, con el objetivo de aumentar sus posibilidades de supervivencia y crecimiento en el mercado durante sus primeros meses de vida (Cohen y Hochberg, 2014). El número de AE ha aumentado drásticamente desde la primera Aceleradora conocida en 2005 (Y Combinator), hasta un estimado de más de 3.000 AE en todo el mundo (Hochberg, 2016). Europa en particular, experimen…

Innovation development to new business in incumbent firms : a case study on the pharmaceutical companies in Finland

2016

This thesis examines new business development in incumbent firms in market environment that is changing faster than ever before. The framework of this study, model to the new business development, is created at the literature re-view part of this study and it is tested for incumbent pharmaceutical companies in Finland. Model enables to study differences between traditional and new businesses in incumbent firms, innovation process for new business develop-ment and business ecosystem structure of incumbent firm. The goal of the re-search is to identify ways of incumbent firms to develop new business to be able to compete against more agile companies. Technological development has enabled new …

Inorganic nanomaterials in the aquatic environment: behavior, toxicity, and interaction with environmental elements

2016

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to present characteristics, toxicity and environmental behavior of nanoparticles (NPs) (silver, copper, gold, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, iron oxide) that most frequently occur in consumer products. In addition, NPs are addressed as the new aquatic environmental pollutant of the 21stcentury. NPs are adsorbed onto particles in the aquatic systems (clay minerals, fulvic and humic acids), or they can adsorb environmental pollutants (heavy metal ions, organic compounds). Nanosilver (nAg) is released from consumer products into the aquatic environment. It can threaten aquatic organisms with high toxicity. Interestingly, copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) demonstrate…

Wood Ash Effects on Soil Fauna and Interactions with Carbohydrate Supply: A Minireview

2011

Wood ash effects on soil animals in a boreal forest ecosystem are reviewed focusing on recent results on interactive effects of wood ash and organic amendments, and laboratory microcosms as a tool to understand soil food webs are discussed. Loose wood ash can reduce the populations of enchytraeids, collembolans and mites, but increase nematode populations particularly in experimental laboratory ecosystems with little or no primary production. Recent studies indicate that the repressive effect on enchytraeids depends on carbon availability. Carbohydrate supply seemed to alleviate the negative wood ash effect on enchytraeid body size and abundance. The fact that carbon alleviated wood ash eff…

The role of agroecosystems for invasion of a generalist herbivore

2014

Return of the Apex Predator : How Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) Re-Establishment Shapes an Ecosystem

2021

Re-establishment of a declined apex predator fish species in a lake ecosystem may have dramatic effects on other fish and plankton community already inhabiting the ecosystem. We studied mechanistically potential impacts of re-establishment of the brown trout (Salmo trutta) in the west-central European Lake Constance focusing on two commercially important fish species: whitefish and Eurasian perch. We compared simulation model outputs from two versions of an allometric trophic network model for Lake Constance, one with and one without the trout as the apex predator. The re-establishment of the declined brown trout reduced the perch population directly by predation and indirectly by increased…

Applying the Capabilities Approach to Ecosystems

2017

The capabilities approach has attracted broad interest in environmental ethics. One very interesting application is the environmental or extended capabilities approach which promotes the notion of environmental capabilities that contribute to the flourishing of non-human beings and ecological systems. The approach however lacks any account of the capabilities of ecological systems. This essay applies the environmental capabilities approach at the ecosystem level and examines how the flourishing of an ecosystem can be understood in terms of capabilities. Ecosystem flourishing presumes the ability of a given system to maintain its characteristic functions, diversity and quality, and do so eve…

Functional structure of European forest beetle communities is enhanced by rare species

2022

Biodiverse communities have been shown to sustain high levels of multifunctionality and thus a loss of species likely negatively impacts ecosystem functions. For most taxa, however, roles of individual species are poorly known. Rare species, often most likely to go extinct, may have unique traits and functional roles. Alternatively, rare species may be functionally redundant, such that their loss would not disrupt ecosystem functions. We quantified the functional role of rare species by using captures of wood-living (saproxylic) beetle species, combined with recent databases of morphological and ecological traits, from three regions in central and northern Europe. Using a rarity index based…

Smart Terminal System of Systems’ Cyber Threat Impact Evaluation

2023

Systems of system-level thinking is required when the purpose is to develop a coherent understanding of the ecosystem where every user and system requirements are divided into specific parts. The smarter project, as a part of the Sea4value program of DIMECC, aims to develop harbor operations, including passenger and cargo transportation, in a way that port processes will improve, emissions will decrease, and overall security will enhance in smart ports. This paper describes cyber-attack impacts against the Smart terminal system of systems in the cyber realm by utilizing the MITRE ATTACK® framework to map the objectives of threat actors. The Smart Terminal system environment includes ICT, IC…