Effects of acidification on aquatic ecosystems

Effects of acidification on aquatic ecosystems are analyzed on the basis of an analytical synopsis of relevant data. Major active agents influencing aquatic organisms and main trends in the reorganization of microbial, phyto- and zooplanktonic, benthic, and fish communities in an acidified environment are described. A generalized concept of changes in ecosystems caused by acid precipitation and accompanying factors is formulated. These changes include the reduction of biodiversity of all structural elements due to the disappearance of species sensitive to acidification, modification of trophic structure, and decrease of fish stock.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 2, 2005, pp. 110–119.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Moiseenko.     

Strategy of Biological Reclamation of Chemically Polluted Ecosystems

The strategy of biological reclamation of ecosystems in the zones of chemical pollution with asymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (ADMH), a highly toxic propellant, is proposed. The strategy is based on the results of comprehensive studies on trends in the interactions of soils, plants, and accompanying microorganisms with ADMH at rocket stage drop sites and in specially established test areas, under natural and controlled conditions.__________Translated from Ekologiya, No. 3, 2005, pp. 193–200.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Ermakov, Panova, Stepanova.     

On the Problem of Assessing the Resistance of Planktonic Community to Adverse Influences

An experimental-analytical method for assessing the vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems under conditions of anthropogenic pollution is considered. Such data are very important for estimating economic damage from accidental environmental pollution and determining the seasons in which industrial activities will be less hazardous in ecological terms. A feasible approach to this problem is based on the study of ecosystem behavior under critical conditions. Phytoplankton, being the main primary producer of organic matter in the aquatic ecosystem, is the key element providing for its stability.__________Translated from Ekologiya, No. 4, 2005, pp. 294–299.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Domnin, Korsak, Mosharov.     

Structure of the communities of small mammals (micromammalia) in forests on western slopes of the Northern Urals

Long-term data on the species composition and ratio of insectivores and rodents in forest ecosystems of the western macroslope of the Northern Urals are considered. It is shown that the micromammalian communities of mountain forests are characterized by higher total abundance and polydominance and comprise greater numbers of common species than the communities of taiga forests in neighboring regions of the Russian Plain. Hence, the mountain-forest communities of small mammals have high indices of species diversity and uniformity.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 2, 2005, pp. 138–145.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Bobretsov, Lukyanova, Poroshin.     

Parameters of Ecological Space and Floristic Diversity of Forest Formations in the Northeast of European Russia

The results of studies on transformations of the floristic diversity of forest ecosystems under the effect of human activity in the southern and middle taiga subzones of the Komi Republic are reviewed. It is shown that the change of dominants in the tree layer leads to the formation of specific biotopes and, as a consequence, to changes in floristic complexes and the cenotic roles of species in the lower layers of forest communities. In the study region, the -diversity of forest communities is determined mainly by two environmental factors: soil fertility and acidity. The factor of illumination has only a slight effect on the -diversity of taiga forests, which is especially clear in the group of deciduous forest formations.__________Translated from Ekologiya, No. 3, 2005, pp. 180–185.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Degteva.     

Land use and cover change in Japan and Tokyo’s appetite for meat

Urban consumption of ecosystems services such as food generates environmental impacts at different geographical scales. In the last few decades Tokyoites have shown an increasing appetite for meat. This study examines the environmental implications of Tokyo’s increasing meat consumption by analyzing how this trend has affected land use and cover change in areas near and far away. Historical databases (1970–2005) are employed in order to explore meat consumption patterns in Tokyo and to relate it with beef and pork production in areas within the country and abroad. It also integrates the historical analysis of production and consumption patterns with a discussion of the drivers (e.g., wealth, price, policies and seafood availability) behind these trends. We identified that meat production in Japan followed three distinct phases between 1877 and 2005. In the first period it took 50 years for production to increase by 50%, while during the next phase production showed the same growth in just half the time. Major changes in land use/cover change because of domestic meat production occurred mainly during the second phase and, thereafter, when domestic production declined and was substituted to a great extent by imports. Despite the increasing consumption of imported meat, Tokyo relies greatly on domestic meat produced in its neighboring prefectures. The paper concludes that regional planning can be used as an effective instrument to protect the environment and secure protein for the population of mega-urban areas such as Tokyo.     

三峡库区水源涵养重要区生态系统格局动态演变特征

利用三期遥感分类数据为基础数据源,结合野外地面核查和生态空间分析方法,对三峡库区水源涵养重要区2000~2010年生态系统格局时空动态变化进行了分析。结果表明:研究区内各类生态系统空间分布差异较大,以森林和农田为主体生态系统;10a间,由于三峡水库蓄水淹没了大量农田和林地,导致森林生态系统和农田生态系统分别向湿地生态系统转化了179.99km2和191.27km2;其他生态系统(主要是人工表面)面积在时段内增加了506.63km2,主要是城镇建设占用部分森林和农田转换而来;时段内森林生态系统总的面积未发生较大减少主要是由于近年退耕还林、森林工程等生态工程的实施获得了大量补充;研究区后期的生态系统转化强度在逐渐增强,生态系统动态类型相互转化强度也显示出研究区生态系统类型的转化总体变差。     

基于遥感技术的长江三角洲海岸带生态系统服务价值评估

长三角海岸带是长江三角洲与东海间的重要过渡性区域,基于联合国千年评估提出的生态系统服务框架,以生态学为原理、以遥感反演技术为手段、借助经济学方法,对2005年及2008年长三角海岸带的10项生态系统服务价值进行了评估。结果表明,长三角海岸带2005及2008年的生态系统服务总价值分别为1 235.92、1 493.04亿元,与长三角地区实际GDP对比得出,生态系统服务价值实际降低,海岸带生态环境退化;对于不同的生态系统来说,林地、耕地、湿地的生态系统服务价值较高,为增强生态系统可持续发展应重点加以保护;对于不同的生态系统服务功能来说,旅游娱乐服务、土壤保持、调节水源为价值量最大的3项服务,而调节空气质量、精神文化服务、养分循环为价值量最小的3项服务。     

Morphological-anatomical features of underground organs in some higher plant species in relation to their adaptation to ecological conditions

In seven higher plant species of different taxa, structural features of underground organs have been considered, and the levels of intraspecific variation in some characters of these organs have been determined. Different pathways of the structural adaptation of these species to the environment are demonstrated on the morphological and anatomical levels.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 2, 2005, pp. 97–105.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Tarshis.     

Human impacts on methane emission from mangrove ecosystems in India

This study deals with the emission of methane in relation to changing environmental conditions and human impact, in three mangrove ecosystems of south India. Time-varying fluxes of methane adopting the close chamber technique were used to estimate CH₄ emission from an unpolluted site (Pichavaram mangroves) and two polluted sites viz. (1) Ennore Creek mangroves (affected by fertilizer effluents and crude oil discharges) and (2) Adyar estuary mangroves (affected by the discharges of organic and industrial wastes), covering monthly and seasonal variations. The results indicate annual average CH₄ emissions of 7.4, 5.02 and 15.4 mg m⁻² h⁻¹ from the sediment–water interface of the Pichavaram, Ennore Creek and Adyar estuary respectively. Emission characteristics obtained at Pichavaram mangroves represent a natural variability with changing physico-chemical factors, whereas the emission characteristics at Ennore Creek and Adyar estuary mangroves show anthropogenic influence. Several environmental factors such as oxygen availability, organic matter, soil physical and chemical properties, in addition to human-mediated interventions have been identified as influencing emission rates in the mangrove ecosystems. Preliminary CH₄ emission estimates for the mangrove ecosystems along the Indian sub- continent and the tropical and subtropical coastline of the world by linear extrapolation based on surface area range from 0.05 to 0.37 and 2.8 to 19.25 Tg CH₄ year⁻¹ respectively. Our results also highlight the impact of human activities on future emission of methane from the mangrove ecosystems. Received: 3 March 1999 / Accepted: 14 September 1999     

Indicator based approach for monitoring natural resources of village ecosystems: findings from select ecosystems of southern India

Indian village ecosystems are diverse with respect to population pressures, agricultural activities and production, livestock composition, energy sources, economics and infrastructural capabilities. Natural resource degradation is a major global concern and the factors and processes leading to degradation are regional and scale up from the micro levels such as village ecosystems. There is need for integrated multidisciplinary approaches for monitoring the resource status and environmental issues at the decentralized level. This paper presents an approach to assess village ecosystems using a set of key indicators developed and tested across fourteen diverse village ecosystems of the Southern India. The concept of ecosystem services associated with village ecosystems of India has been described and adopted to identify indicators and assess issues and trends. Comparison across villages has been demonstrated and the indicators successfully reflected the key environmental issues at each village level as well as differences across villages. We also report unique cases of stabilized land use and ‘desakota-like’ trends from village ecosystem studied.     

Exporting natural capital: the foreign eco-footprint on Costa Rica and implications for sustainability

As the world economy ‘globalizes’, trade has become a major mechanism by which much of the human population supports its needs. While trade in resource commodities (natural income) can increase the well-being of people in both exporting and importing countries, it can also lead to depletion of natural capital and the loss of ecosystems integrity. In recent years, various researchers have attempted to address this problem using a consumption-based perspective on ecological change. Their work shows that the loss of ecosystem integrity in almost any region of the world can be attributed to both local and international consumer demand. This paper illustrates the utility of modified eco-footprint analysis in assessing export-related ecological change in Costa Rica. We quantify ecological footprint of consumers around the world on the productive ecosystems of Costa Rica, document the changing character of this footprint and highlight some of the linkages between production for export in Costa Rica and ecological degradation. We then discuss the implications of the increasing trade-based entanglement of nations for ecosystems and global sustainability.     

Ecological issues related to N deposition to natural ecosystems: research needs

There has and continues to be concern about the effects of elevated nitrogen (N) deposition on natural ecosystems. In this paper, research on natural ecosystems, including wetlands, heathlands, grasslands, steppe, naturally regenerated forests and deserts, is evaluated to determine what is known about nitrogen cycling in these ecosystems, the effects of elevated nitrogen on them and to identify research gaps. Aquatic ecosystems are not included in this review, except as they are part of the larger ecosystem. Research needs fall into several categories: (1) improved understanding and quantification of the N cycle, particularly relatively unstudied processes such as dry deposition, N fixation and decomposition/mineralization; (2) carbon cycling as affected by increased N deposition; (3) effects on arid ecosystems and other "neglected" ecosystems; (4) effects on complex ecosystems and interactions with other pollutants; (5) indicators and assessment tools for natural ecosystems.     

Climate change vulnerability and resilience: current status and trends for Mexico

Climate change alters different localities on the planet in different ways. The impact on each region depends mainly on the degree of vulnerability that natural ecosystems and human-made infrastructure have to changes in climate and extreme meteorological events, as well as on the coping and adaptation capacity toward new environmental conditions. This study assesses the current resilience of Mexico and Mexican states to such changes, as well as how this resilience will look in the future. In recent studies (Moss et al. in Vulnerability to climate change: a quantitative approach. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Washington DC, 2001; Brenkert and Malone in Clim Change 72:57–102, 2005; Malone and Brenkert in Clim Change 91:451–476, 2008), the Vulnerability–Resilience Indicators Model (VRIM) is used to integrate a set of proxy variables that determine the resilience of a region to climate change. Resilience, or the ability of a region to respond to climate variations and natural events that result from climate change, is given by its adaptation and coping capacity and its sensitivity. On the one hand, the sensitivity of a region to climate change is assessed, emphasizing its infrastructure, food security, water resources, and the health of the population and regional ecosystems. On the other hand, coping and adaptation capacity is based on the availability of human resources, economic capacity, and environmental capacity. This paper presents two sets of results. First, we show the application of the VRIM to determine state-level resilience for Mexico, building the baseline that reflects the current status. The second part of the paper makes projections of resilience under socioeconomic and climate change and examines the varying sources and consequences of those changes. We used three tools to examine Mexico’s resilience in the face of climate change, i.e., the baseline calculations regarding resilience indices made by the VRIM, the projected short-term rates of socioeconomic change from the Boyd–Ibarrarán computable general equilibrium model, and rates of the IPCC-SRES scenario projections from the integrated assessment MiniCAM model. This allows us to have available change rates for VRIM variables through the end of the twenty-first century.     

Human appropriation of aboveground photosynthetic production in the Czech Republic

We assessed human impacts on ecosystems by calculating the proportion of aboveground net primary production appropriated by humans (aHANPP) in the territory of the Czech Republic. The human appropriation of aboveground net primary production reached 21.5 Tg C per year in 2006 or 56% of the annual potential natural productivity. Harvested productivity equivalent aNPP_H is contributing to the overall appropriation of photosynthetic production by 80%. Considerable productivity losses have been induced by agricultural land conversion and urbanization. While artificial surfaces are responsible for the appropriation of whole ecosystem production, productivity of urban green areas and managed forests can even exceed natural productivity levels. In the period 1990–2000, the aHANPP dropped by 7%, but the indicator shows an increase by over 2% in the period 2000–2006. The indicator of human appropriation of net primary production enables translation of land cover changes into measures of ecosystem services affected by human activities. We found aHANPP to be a suitable indicator of human impacts on ecosystems, as it detects trends and enables spatial mapping of human impacts.     

Site Tenacity in the Willow Ptarmigan (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lagopus lagopus</Emphasis> L.) in the Northern Yamal Peninsula

The return of willow ptarmigans to the sites in which they nested the previous year has been studied using color banding. No factors influencing the return index have been revealed, except for its dependence in males on the time when spring begins in a given year. In northernYamal, in contrast to the temperate zone, some surviving birds fail to return to their former nesting sites. Polymorphism of individuals with respect to territorial behavioral strategy is proposed for L. lagopus populations at the northern boundary of the species range.__________Translated from Ekologiya, No. 3, 2005, pp. 215–221.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Tarasov.     

Evaluation of carbon stock variation in Northern Italian soils over the last 70 years

Carbon (C) sequestration in soils is gaining increasing acceptance as a means of reducing net carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to the atmosphere. Numerous studies on the global carbon budget suggest that terrestrial ecosystems in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere act as a large carbon sink of atmospheric CO₂. However, most of the soils of North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Eastern Europe lost a great part of their organic carbon pool on conversion from natural to agricultural ecosystems during the explosion of pioneer agriculture, and in Western Europe the adoption of modern agriculture after the Second World War led to a drastic reduction in soil organic carbon content. The depletion of organic matter is often indicated as one of the main effects on soil, and the storage of organic carbon in the soil is a means of improve the quality of soils and mitigating the effects of greenhouse gas emission. The soil organic carbon in an area of Northern Italy over the last 70 years has been assessed In this study. The variation of top soil organic carbon (SOC) ranged from −60.3 to +6.7%; the average reduction of SOC, caused by agriculture intensification, was 39.3%. This process was not uniform, but related to trends in land use and agriculture change. For the area studied (1,394 km²) there was an estimated release of 5 Tg CO₂-C to the atmosphere from the upper 30 cm of soil in the period 1935–1990.     

Some characteristics of plutonium distribution in the atmospheric air and plants in the zone surrounding the Mayak Production Association

The results of long-term studies on plutonium distribution in the atmospheric air and plants in the area surrounding the Mayak Production Association in the years 1976–1995 are summarized. Data are presented on the changes in plutonium concentration in the air overtime at some points located in the survey zone and the impact zone of the industrial enterprise as compared to those in the control region. In addition, data on the changes in air plutonium concentration depending on the season and direction of wind are presented; the ratios between plutonium concentrations in the air and the fallout are analyzed.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 1, 2005, pp. 20–25.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Chudin, Shcherbakova, Maslovskii, Kocheva, Iovlev, Denisenko, Demin, Mamin, Chebotina.     

The Campus Demotechnic Index: a comparison of technological energy consumption at US colleges and universities

The Campus Demotechnic Index (CDI) was modified from the Demotechnic Index (D-Index) to serve as an index of energy use for US colleges and universities. CDI values were calculated by assessing the total campus energy used for the built and mobile environments against energy required to meet the basal metabolic demand of the total campus population. Like the D-Index, the CDI measured the scalar quantity of energy used relative to the quantity of energy required for simple survival on a per capita basis, thus providing a rational metric for comparison among institutions. For the interval 2000–2005, CDI was calculated for 64 US higher education institutions and compared using maximum, minimum, mean and median CDI values, total gigajoules used, campus population, and consumption-adjusted population. Wilcoxon signed rank test results compared pair-by-pair differences of ranked CDI values from 2000 to 2005 to determine whether CDI values were significantly increasing or decreasing over time. In general, CDI values increased over time, but increases over the 6-year interval were only significantly higher in 8 of 30 two-year comparisons; in 2005, CDI values ranged from 1.1 to 56.3 (mean = 11.9, median = 8.2, n = 64), whereas in 2000, CDI values ranged from 2.0 to 53.0 (mean = 12.6, median = 9.1, n = 22). Results suggest that the CDI may serve as a useful metric for tracking campus energy efficiency over time as well as a means of comparison of energy use among institutions.     

Aggregated Estimation of the Basic Parameters of Biological Production and the Carbon Budget of Russian Terrestrial Ecosystems: 1. Stocks of Plant Organic Mass

The data presented were obtained at the first stage (1993–1999) of studies on evaluating the basic parameters of biological production in Russian terrestrial ecosystems in order to provide information for assessing and modeling the carbon budget of the entire terrestrial biota of the country. Stocks of phytomass (by fractions), coarse woody debris, and dead roots (underground necromass) were calculated by two independent methods, which yielded close results. The total amount of phytomass in Russian terrestrial ecosystems was estimated at 81800 Tg (=10¹² g = million t) dry matter, or 39989 Tg carbon. Forest ecosystems comprise a greater part (82.1%) of live plant organic matter (here and below, comparisons are made with respect to the carbon content); natural grasslands and brushwoods account for 8.8%; the phytomass of wetlands (bogs and swamps), for 6.6%; and the phytomass of farmlands, for only 2.5%. Aboveground wood contains approximately two-thirds of the plant carbon (63.8%), and green parts contain 9.9%. For all classes of ecosystems, the proportion of underground phytomass averages 26.7% of the total amount, varying from 22.0% in forests to 57.1% in grasslands and brushwoods. The average phytomass density on lands covered with vegetation (1629.9 million hectares in Russia) is 5.02 kg/m² dry matter, or 2.45 kg C/m². The total amount of carbon in coarse woody debris is 4955 Tg C, and 9180 Tg C are in the underground necromass. In total, the vegetation of Russian terrestrial ecosystems (without litter) contains 54124 Tg carbon.