Search results for "ecosystem"
showing 10 items of 1752 documents
Ecosystem services mapping and assessment for policy- and decision-making : Lessons learned from a comparative analysis of European case studies
2020
This paper analyses and compares a set of case studies on ecosystem services (ES) mapping and assessment with the purpose of formulating lessons learned and recommendations. Fourteen case studies were selected during the EU Horizon 2020 “Coordination and Support Action” ESMERALDA to represent different policy- and decision-making processes throughout the European Union, across a wide range of themes, biomes and scales. The analysis is based on a framework that addresses the key steps of an ES mapping and assessment process, namely policy questions, stakeholder identification and involvement, application of mapping and assessment methods, dissemination and communication and implementation. T…
Small changes, big impacts: Geographic expansion in small-scale fisheries
2020
Abstract Small-scale fisheries are an important, yet neglected, millenarian activity that has been undergoing significant changes that threaten its future. Understanding how this activity is spatially distributed and the factors that drive its use of the marine space over time can shed some light on how fishing efforts and their impacts have moved over different parts of coastal marine ecosystems. This study investigated changes to the spatial distribution of small-scale fisheries along the Brazilian equatorial region between 1994 and 2014 and the factors, from ecological to socioeconomic, that influenced this shift. Bayesian hierarchical spatial models were used together with environmental…
Functional ecological patterns and the effect of anthropogenic disturbances on a recently restored Mediterranean coastal lagoon. Needs for a sustaina…
2012
Abstract We present here a detailed case study on the lessons learned after a restoration process of a natural ecosystem, which can be considered as an ecological experiment. Senillar de Moraira is a brackish water small coastal lagoon located in the Spanish Mediterranean coast. It is separated from the sea by a sand bar and a beach, and is regularly fed by groundwater. Mostly due to the strong anthropogenic pressure this lagoon was degraded, and a restoration process, consisting mostly on the rebuilt of hydrogeomorphological features, was accomplished about a decade ago. After the restoration project, ecological monitoring was performed to reveal the recovery of the ecological integrity of…
Leukoma antiqua (Bivalvia) - A high-resolution marine paleoclimate archive for southern South America?
2018
The Patagonian Sea in the SW Atlantic is one of the most productive marine ecosystems worldwide. Besides its economic relevance, this shelf sea serves as a major sink for atmospheric CO2 and thus plays a major role in global climate. Despite that, the marine climate dynamics in that region remain barely known. Instrumental records only cover the last 30 years or so and high-resolution climate archives are currently not available. Here, we explore the possibility to obtain seasonally to inter-annually resolved paleotemperature data from shells of the bivalve mollusk, Leukoma antiqua collected alive from the shallow subtidal zone of the San Jorge Gulf. Results demonstrate that this species gr…
Retama species growing in different ecological-climatic areas of northeastern Algeria have a narrow range of rhizobia that form a novel phylogenetic …
2009
International audience; Sixty-seven isolates were isolated from nodules collected on roots of Mediterranean shrubby legumes Retama raetam and Retama sphaerocarpa growing in seven ecological-climatic areas of northeastern Algeria. Genetic diversity of the Retama isolates was analyzed based on genotyping by restriction fragment length polymorphism of PCR-amplified fragments of the 16S rRNA gene, the intergenic spacer (IGS) region between the 16S and 23S rRNA genes (IGS), and the symbiotic genes nifH and nodC. Eleven haplotypes assigned to the Bradyrhizobium genus were identified. Significant biogeographical differentiation of the rhizobial populations was found, but one haplotype was predomin…
Life in the Palaeozoic: an overview of land and sea ecosystems
2017
The Palaeozoic Era, lasting from 541-252 million years ago, was a time of dramatic geographical, climatic, and evolutionary changes. During this Era, life experienced a tremendous transformation and many critical macroevolutionary events took place, including important biotic radiations and diversifications, and three of the five major mass extinctions on the Earth history (Raup&Sepkoski 1982). The advent and diversification of most modern metazoan phyla occurred during the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, in the so-called Cambrian Explosion and Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) (Servais et al. 2010). During the Ordovician, tectonic movements lead to a global cooling that cul…
Parasite communities as indicators of recovery from pollution: parasites of roach (Rutilus rutilus) and perch (Perca fuviatilis) in central Finland.
2003
We compared parasite communities in fish taken from a polluted lake (L. Vatia) and two control lakes before (1986) and after (1995) nine years of markedly reduced chemical and nutrient loading from a pulpmill in central Finland. Discriminant analyses of the 1995 data, using a function based on the 1986 data, showed that the parasite communities in the fish from the two control lakes had changed relatively little, whereas those from L. Vatia had converged on those from the mesotrophic control lake, indicating substantial recovery from the effects of pollution. Only a few species of parasites provided evidence for recovery. These were anodontid glochidia, which had increased markedly in perch…
Effect of catchment characteristics on aquatic carbon export from a boreal catchment and its importance in regional carbon cycling
2013
Inland waters transport and emit into the atmosphere large amounts of carbon (C), which originates from terrestrial ecosystems. The effect of land cover and land-use practises on C export from terrestrial ecosystems to inland waters is not fully understood, especially in heterogeneous landscapes under human influence. We sampled for dissolved C species in five tributaries with well-determined subcatchments (total size 174.5 km(2)), as well as in various points of two of the subcatchments draining to a boreal lake in southern Finland over a full year. Our aim was to find out how land cover and land-use affect C export from the catchments, as well as CH4 and CO2 concentrations of the streams,…
The role ofSphagnummosses in the methane cycling of a boreal mire
2010
Peatlands are a major natural source of atmospheric methane (CH4). Emissions from Sphagnum-dominated mires are lower than those measured from other mire types. This observation may partly be due to methanotrophic (i.e., methane-consuming) bacteria associated with Sphagnum. Twenty-three of the 41 Sphagnum species in Finland can be found in the peatland at Lakkasuo. To better understand the Sphagnum-methanotroph system, we tested the following hypotheses: (1) all these Sphagnum species support methanotrophic bacteria; (2) water level is the key environmental determinant for differences in methanotrophy across habitats; (3) under dry conditions, Sphagnum species will not host methanotrophic ba…
Stable carbon isotopic composition of peat columns, subsoil and vegetation on natural and forestry-drained boreal peatlands.
2018
We studied natural and forestry-drained peatlands to examine the effect of over 34 years lowered water table on the δ13C values of vegetation, bulk peat and subsoil. In the seven studied sites, δ13C in the basal peat layer was 1.1 and 1.2 ‰ lower than that of the middle-layer and surface layer, respectively. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the δ13C values of the basal and surface peat layers, possibly due to carbon (C) recycling within the peat column. In the same mire complex, natural fen peat δ13C values were lower than those of the nearby bog, possibly due to the dominance of vascular plants on fen and the generally larger share of recycled C in the fens than in the…