Sexual forms and their ecological correlates of flowering plants in Siberia

The flora of Siberia includes 4500 species, 815 genera, and 123 families of angiosperms. The causes of the relationship between sexual forms and such ecological and biological features of plants as the life form, the mode of pollination, pericarp’s consistency, habitat type, zonal group, and the ecological group in relation to moistening were analyzed and discussed. For the first time, we demonstrated that gynomonoecy in the flora of Siberia was associated with a semiwoody growth form, pollination by wind, and propagation in zonal communities. It was revealed that gynodioecy in Siberia was associated with a semiwoody growth form, circumpolar or Eurasian distribution, and floodplain meadows. It was found that the ratio of dioecious and hermaphrodite plants in the ecological-biological complexes of species directly depends on the frequency of the abundance of species with endemic areas.     

The multifunctionality of urban farming: perceived benefits for neighbourhood improvement

Urban farming – a type of urban agriculture focused on entrepreneurial food production – serves multiple functions in neighbourhoods; yet these are not well delineated. Expectations for urban farming often centre on traditional measures of economic development, potentially overlooking other benefits. Through a qualitative case study conducted in Baltimore, Maryland, we sought to understand community perceptions regarding the ways in which urban farms can benefit cities. Interviews with residents, neighbourhood leaders, and urban farmers in three residential neighbourhoods with urban farms revealed the pathways by which community members view farms as improving neighbourhoods. Benefits stemmed from four primary changes urban farms made to study neighbourhoods: creation of public projects welcoming involvement, physical improvement of degraded space, production of local food, and creation of new businesses. These changes led to multiple perceived benefits including increased social connectedness, a transformed physical landscape, improved neighbourhood reputation, increased access to fresh produce, and educational, youth development, and employment opportunities. Our findings demonstrate the importance of a multifunctional paradigm that accounts for social and educational functions in assessing the value of urban farming and bring empirical evidence to the concept of multifunctional agriculture. Urban farms with strong social aims may appear to contribute little to economic development if measured using traditional indicators of success such as job creation or fiscal impacts, but provide numerous other benefits for community development.     

Microbial fuel cells: Advances in electrode modifications for improvement of system performance

There is an increasing trend to conduct the researches related to Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) in the recent years. Limited power output has been the major obstacle for the practical application and upscaling of MFCs. Attempts have been made on electrode modifications such as anode treatments, cathode modifications with catalysts and bio cathodes developments to produce varying degrees of improved output current depending upon the types of modifications. Power density and Coulombic efficiency have been considered as the important parameters to analyze the system performances. This paper overviews on the advances made in MFCs’ researches focusing on different types of electrodes modifications along with the involved methodology. Furthermore, the system performances of different modified MFCs are compared in terms of the power density and the Coulombic efficiency.     

A case study of an isolated wind powered electricity system meeting 100% of local demand

Using meteorological and electricity demand data for a 4-year period, electricity demand in Shetland was modeled to provide an estimate of the demand over a 30-year period from 1 January 1981. That modeled demand was then compared to estimated wind power output over the same period using the WAsP model. The wind farm output was estimated for a range of sizes of wind farm up to the consented 370 MW Viking Wind Farm in Shetland. Some wind power was available for 94% of the time and the 370 MW wind farm would meet 100% of demand for nearly 80% of the time. The statistics of single and accumulated deficits were calculated for a range of wind farms and estimates of the amount of additional generation capacity and additional power requirements were assessed. The study suggests that with storage, wind power in Shetland could meet all electricity demand in Shetland at around £130 to £150/MWh (excluding subsidy) and with a grid connection allowing the sale of excess power, those costs could be reduced.     

Seasonal dynamics of heart rate variability in three murine rodent species

Seasonal dynamics of heart rate variability in individuals of late summer and autumn generations have been studied in three rodent species kept in a vivarium: the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus), and northern red-backed vole (Cl. rutilus). It has been shown that the cardiac function of the rodents in autumn and winter is mainly controlled by autonomic mechanisms: the heart rate is slow, cardiovascular control systems are relaxed. During the winter-spring transition, the role of central cardiovascular circuits increases because of the necessity to activate all body systems by spring.     

Pathways of rural change: an integrated assessment of metabolic patterns in emerging ruralities

While rural transformations are nothing new in human history, current processes of rural change occur under multiple forces at an unprecedented pace, involving profound and unexpected changes in land use and users, and rapid transformations in the metabolic patterns of rural systems. The present special section aims to shed light on current drivers and pathways of rural change by analyzing, under a common conceptual and theoretical framework, examples of new ruralities that are emerging as responses across different world regions. Within this context, this introduction presents: (1) common research questions of the six presented cases of rural change; (2) the general theoretical and methodological framework of integrated assessment of societal metabolism adopted to analyze rural systems and (3) the main contributions and conclusions that could be drawn from six context-specific case studies from Asia, Latin America and Europe.     

Ecology of Siberian stone pine (Pinus sibirica Du Tour) and Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.) in the Altai mountain glacial basins

Data are presented on the ecology of Siberian stone pine and Siberian larch in recent Altai mountain glacial basins at elevations above 2100 m a.s.l. The representative example of the Aktru basin is used to demonstrate the ranges of tolerance of these tree species to a series of ecological factors.     

The structure of bumblebee communities (Hymenoptera,Apidae, Bombus spp.) in some ecosystems of Kunashir Island and Southern Sakhalin (Russian Far East)

The structure of bumblebee communities has been studied in some ecosystems of Kunashir Island and Southern Sakhalin. The island taxocenes include five to eight bumblebee species. Bombus hypnorum is dominant in the majority of habitats. In geothermal areas near hot springs on Kunashir, the families of this species develop more rapidly than in areas without geothermal heating.