Components Of Natural Environment Research Articles

Bacterial diversity in the waterholes of the Kruger National Park: an eDNA metabarcoding approach 1.

Bacteria are essential components of natural environments. They contribute to ecosystem functioning through roles as mutualists and pathogens for larger species, and as key components of food webs and nutrient cycles. Bacterial communities respond to environmental disturbances, and the tracking of these communities across space and time may serve as indicators of ecosystem health in areas of conservation concern. Recent advances in DNA sequencing of environmental samples allow for rapid and culture-free characterization of bacterial communities. Here we conduct the first metabarcoding survey of bacterial diversity in the waterholes of the Kruger National Park, South Africa. We show that eDNA can be amplified from waterholes and find strongly structured microbial communities, likely reflecting local abiotic conditions, animal ecology, and anthropogenic disturbance. Over timescales from days to weeks we find increased turnover in community composition, indicating bacteria may represent host-associated taxa of large vertebrates visiting the waterholes. Through taxonomic annotation we also identify pathogenic taxa, demonstrating the utility of eDNA metabarcoding for surveillance of infectious diseases. These samples serve as a baseline survey of bacterial diversity in the Kruger National Park, and in the future, spatially distinct microbial communities may be used as markers of ecosystem disturbance, or biotic homogenization across the park.

Radioecological situation on the territory of the Volga Region Department of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring in 2016

The environment quality is an extremely relevant question, including taking into account radio-ecological situation. The development of local agriculture should take into account various radiation parameters that determine the current radiation situation. In particular, it is necessary to do regular radioecological monitoring of environmental pollution of the Samara Region and adjacent territories on the main types of radiometric observations. The paper focuses on the reliable and rapid detection of radioactive contamination, assessment of the radiation situation with the help of radio-ecological control of natural environment components. In the paper on the basis of the Volga Region Department of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring data the authors assess the radiation situation in the settlements of Samara, Saratov, Orenburg, Penza and Ulyanovsk Regions. The paper contains values of aerosols -activity concentration in the surface layer of the atmosphere as well as the data of the average annual values in Samara and adjacent regions. According to the data of radioecological monitoring the level of total -activity of radioactive fallout from the atmosphere is shown. The maximum values of the total -activity concentration of the atmospheric surface layer aerosols were recorded in summer, which is due to the secondary wind dust rise from the contaminated areas. It was shown that the average annual value of the total -activity of aerosols according to the results of studies is within the normal limits. The paper also contains conclusions about the degree of danger of the atmosphere surface layer contamination by technogenic radionuclides.

Comparative and Legal Analysis of Criminal and Legal Protection of Individual Components of Natural Environment: European Experience

The article is dedicated to criminal and legal protection of both the natural environment, and its individual components. This research describes legislation on environmental protection in the most developed European countries such as Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, and also pays attention to international experience. There are laws on criminal responsibility for attacks on objects of natural environment and international acts have been analysed.

Integrated assessment of the environmental quality in Odessa agglomeration

A study into the topical issue of environmental quality assessment by a range of indicators is given a review in the paper. An integrated approach is made use of in the research which is based on the case study of the Odessa industrial-and-urban agglomeration (IUA).Quality assessment of the natural components of the Odessa IUA environment by means of integrated indices of the natural environmental status and the natural component quality revealed that the studied urban ecosystem is impersistent on the whole, however, the environmental quality is quite favorable and the technogenic load is low. The environmental reliability of the studied area was classified as low.Prospects for development of Odessa Agglomeration, despite the complicated environmental situation, are quite favorable, due to the advantageous economic and geographical location, and the well-developed research, technical and recreational potential. Application of the structural analysis approach to definition of the adaptation strategy for the area makes it possible to suggest the ways for optimization of the natural environment component in the Odessa IUA.The assessment criteria for the area under study and the suggested adaptive governance tools constitute the research outcomes.

Substantiation of the siting of construction facilities in the Central Ecological Zone of the Baikal Natural Area: ecological and economic aspects

The implementation of cost intensive construction projects is determined by the availability of natural resources and the environmental capacity of areas. The objective of the research consists in the development of a methodological approach to the assessment of the siting of construction facilities in the territories, characterized by ecological limitations and the substantiation of siting acceptability criteria. The authors analyzed the potential risks caused by the siting of construction facilities on the basis of (1) the impact produced by the facilities, used for economic activities, on the environment, and (2) the assessment of ecological and socioeconomic consequences of this impact. The core method of research consists in the integral ranking of territories, based on the environmental capacity of the natural environment's components and the anthropogenic impact, while their reconciliation represents one of the most relevant objectives of environmentally sustainable development of territories. The analytical results, generated by the co-authors, serve as the starting point for the research-based substantiation of the siting of construction facilities, because the following condition serves as the basic criterion: the anthropogenic impact, produced on territories, must not exceed the self-recovery potential of the local natural system.

Снижение техногенной нагрузки на компоненты природной среды в строительной отрасли

Снижение техногенной нагрузки на компоненты природной среды в строительной отрасли

Comparative and Legal Analysis of Criminal and Legal Protection of Individual Components of Natural Environment: European Experience

The article is dedicated to criminal and legal protection of both the natural environment, and its individual components. This research describes legislation on environmental protection in the most developed European countries such as Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, and also pays attention to international experience. There are laws on criminal responsibility for attacks on objects of natural environment and international acts have been analysed.

Assessment of integrated watershed health based on the natural environment, hydrology, water quality, and aquatic ecology

Abstract. Watershed health, including the natural environment, hydrology, water quality, and aquatic ecology, is assessed for the Han River basin (34 148 km2) in South Korea by using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The evaluation procedures follow those of the Healthy Watersheds Assessment by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Six components of the watershed landscape are examined to evaluate the watershed health (basin natural capacity): stream geomorphology, hydrology, water quality, aquatic habitat condition, and biological condition. In particular, the SWAT is applied to the study basin for the hydrology and water-quality components, including 237 sub-watersheds (within a standard watershed on the Korea Hydrologic Unit Map) along with three multipurpose dams, one hydroelectric dam, and three multifunction weirs. The SWAT is calibrated (2005–2009) and validated (2010–2014) by using each dam and weir operation, the flux-tower evapotranspiration, the time-domain reflectometry (TDR) soil moisture, and groundwater-level data for the hydrology assessment, and by using sediment, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen data for the water-quality assessment. The water balance, which considers the surface–groundwater interactions and variations in the stream-water quality, is quantified according to the sub-watershed-scale relationship between the watershed hydrologic cycle and stream-water quality. We assess the integrated watershed health according to the U.S. EPA evaluation process based on the vulnerability levels of the natural environment, water resources, water quality, and ecosystem components. The results indicate that the watershed's health declined during the most recent 10-year period of 2005–2014, as indicated by the worse results for the surface process metric and soil water dynamics compared to those of the 1995–2004 period. The integrated watershed health tended to decrease farther downstream within the watershed.

Biofilm development and environmental determinants in Vibrio cholerae

Biofilm associated Vibrio cholerae exhibits hypervirulence and supreme fitness against the harsh stresses during its infectious cycle. It is important to study the relationships between the regulation mechanism of V. cholerae biofilm development and its environmental adaption in host niche and aquatic habitat. Here, we summarize the recent advances in V. cholerae biofilm, including biofilm compositions, development and regulation. Particularly, we extensively discuss how V. cholerae fosters its biofilm architecture and assembly via sensing and responding various environmental determinants, such as bacterium self-produced molecules, natural environment components and host factors.

The integrated assessment of natural resources status at the rural commune – case study of the Olszanka, Mazovian Voivodeship

Abstract The assessment of the possibilities of the integrated index method application for the determination of the environmental resources values to mark out the developing trends for the rural commune was the aim of the work. The typical agricultural commune Olszanka, located in Mazovian Voivodeship, was chosen for the case study. The land use structure, the quality of agricultural production area, water, soil, air, biological diversity and landscape were being analyzed as the components of the natural agricultural environment. The high spatial differentiation of analyzed components of the rural environment was proved. The applied method may be used for working out the development strategy for another rural communes, because it takes into consideration the status of area resources in qualitive, quantative and spatial forms and enables the assessment of the issue in systemic way with accuracy sufficient to the problem complexity.

Low aerial imagery – an assessment of georeferencing errors and the potential for use in environmental inventory

Abstract Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly being used in close range photogrammetry. Real-time observation of the Earth’s surface and the photogrammetric images obtained are used as material for surveying and environmental inventory. The following study was conducted on a small area (approximately 1 ha). In such cases, the classical method of topographic mapping is not accurate enough. The geodetic method of topographic surveying, on the other hand, is an overly precise measurement technique for the purpose of inventorying the natural environment components. The author of the following study has proposed using the unmanned aerial vehicle technology and tying in the obtained images to the control point network established with the aid of GNSS technology. Georeferencing the acquired images and using them to create a photogrammetric model of the studied area enabled the researcher to perform calculations, which yielded a total root mean square error below 9 cm. The performed comparison of the real lengths of the vectors connecting the control points and their lengths calculated on the basis of the photogrammetric model made it possible to fully confirm the RMSE calculated and prove the usefulness of the UAV technology in observing terrain components for the purpose of environmental inventory. Such environmental components include, among others, elements of road infrastructure, green areas, but also changes in the location of moving pedestrians and vehicles, as well as other changes in the natural environment that are not registered on classical base maps or topographic maps.

Environmental Requirements for Ensuring of Chemical Safety in the Development of Industrial Technologies

There was provided information on the effects of mass production and the use of hazardous chemicals. There were defined strategic errors during technological processes designing associated with the neglect of environmental aspects/ There was demonstrated that the use of harmful chemical substances for industrial and agricultural technologies often are not justified. There was given analysis of international activities on ensuring global chemical safety, and identified the challenges facing Russian applied science and chemical industry for the greening of the manufacturing sector. On the basis of the analysis of the current documents of the national and international levels, a priority list of the substances most frequently used in industry, representing the greatest danger to man and the components of natural environment, was compiled. Formulated the main activities to limit the production and use of extremely and particularly dangerous substances, primary carcinogens, in the development of advanced technology for the large-scale production. Put a question of the need for a phased replacement of these chemicals by the search for alternatives.

African hydroclimatic variability during the last 2000 years

Abstract The African continent is characterised by a wide range of hydroclimate regimes, ranging from humid equatorial West Africa to the arid deserts in the northern and southern subtropics. The livelihoods of much of its population are also vulnerable to future climate change, mainly through variability in rainfall affecting water resource availability. A growing number of data sources indicate that such hydroclimatic variability is an intrinsic component of Africa's natural environment. This paper, co-authored by members of the PAGES Africa 2k Working Group, presents an extensive assessment and discussion of proxy, historical and instrumental evidence for hydroclimatic variability across the African continent, spanning the last two millennia. While the African palaeoenvironmental record is characterised by spatially disjunctive datasets, with often less-than-optimal temporal resolution and chronological control, the available evidence allows the assessment of prominent spatial patterns of palaeomoisture variability through time. In this study, we focus sequentially on data for six major time windows: the first millennium CE, the Medieval Climate Anomaly (900–1250 CE), the Little Ice Age (1250–1750 CE), the end of the LIA (1750–1850 CE), the Early Modern Period (1850–1950), and the period of recent warming (1950 onwards). This results in a continent-wide synthesis of regional moisture-balance trends through history, allowing consideration of possible driving mechanisms, and suggestions for future research.

Small‐scale Geodiversity Regulates Functioning, Connectivity, and Productivity of Shrubby, Semi‐arid Rangelands

AbstractGeodiversity has recently been attracting increasing attention as a measure of diversity for the physical components of natural environments. It has shown positive relations with biodiversity, as well as with several ecosystem services. Yet, so far, geodiversity studies have focused on relatively large spatial scales, ranging between hillslope, basin, and landform scales. It is proposed that either natural‐induced or anthropogenic‐induced, small‐scale (centimeter‐scale to few decimeter‐scale) geodiversity has a large impact on the hydrological connectivity and overall functioning of semi‐arid rangelands and other shrubby and woody drylands. It is further proposed that greater small‐scale geodiversity increases the on‐site retention of water and soil resources, decreasing the vulnerability of rangelands to prolonged droughts and climatic changes. Particularly, positive impact of moderate grazing intensity on rangelands functioning is demonstrated by the formation of livestock trampling routes, which transect hillslopes, increase ecosystem geodiversity, and modify the spatial redistribution of scarce water and soil resources at the patch scale. Numerical simulations of a mathematical model for vegetation patterns in water‐limited systems show that the trampling routes increase the survivability of vegetation patches under prolonged droughts. In practical terms, the concept of small‐scale geodiversity is relevant for the determination, monitoring, and assessment of land degradation, as well as for restoration projects of eroded lands and degraded ecosystems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Main Activities in the Field of Environment Protection and Environmental Safety in Operation of St. Petersburg Metro Facilities

This report presents main activities of St. Petersburg Metro in the field of environmental protection and environmental safety. The quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the negative impact on the natural environment components have been analyzed. This report contains information on the ongoing activities in this area, as well as in the field of sanitary and epidemiological safety of the public in operation of passenger space of stations and the rolling stock. Also the goals and primary objectives in environmental management as part of the development strategy of the St. Petersburg Metro have been described.

Technological Processing of Oil Waste

Since oil waste is one of the most dangerous component of natural environment, the great attention should be paid for the problem of its keeping and processing. Oil waste may be processed in thermal, physical, chemical and biological ways. Present article describes the processing of oil waste by light thermal cracking. Products of thermal cracking of oil waste, due to their properties, may be widely used in motor oil and other kinds of fuel production.

Modeling Factors with Influence on Sustainable University Management

The main objective of this paper is to present the factors with influence on the sustainable university management and the relationships between them. In the scientific approach we begin from a graphical model, according to which the extracurricular activities together with internal environmental factors influence students’ involvement in such activities, the university attractiveness, their academic performance and their integration into the socially-economic and natural environment (components related with sustainable development). The model emphasizes that individual performances, related to students’ participation in extracurricular activities, have a positive influence on the sustainability of university management. The results of the study have shown that the university sustainability may be influenced by a number of factors, such as students’ performance, students’ involvement in extracurricular activities or university’s attractiveness and can in turn influence implicitly also the sustainability of university management. The originality of the paper consists in the relationships study using the modeling method in general and informatics tools of modeling in particular, as well as through graphical visualization of some influences, on the sustainability university management.

Heavy metals risk assessment in water and bottom sediments of the eastern part of Lake Manzala, Egypt, based on remote sensing and GIS

The contamination of natural environment components such as soil, sediment, water and biota by heavy metals is a major, worldwide concern. The concentrations of Zn, Cd, Cu, Mn and Pb in water and bottom sediments of the Eastern Lake Manzala (ELM) are collected and analyzed. The geostatistical, change detection and land use/land cover analyses in addition to the geospatial mapping and GIS data integration are carried out in the present study to monitor and assess the different types of pollution. The findings indicated that the sediments and water of ELM constitute an ultimate sink for heavy metals in ELM aquatic system. During the last few years, the industrial together with the other anthropogenic activities has had a negative consequence for the natural environment of the ELM. This unfavourable condition also impacts the aquatic ecosystems. The contaminated water body of ELM with heavy metals greatly affected the lake food, organisms, and, hence, humans. The heavy metal concentration in ELM is found in riskier levels than the world permissible limits, which poses a serious environmental concern. The results revealed an agreement with abandoned heavy metal concentration effluents from human activities such as industrial, agricultural and domestic wastes in addition to sewage water and commercial activities. The ELM area is considered as a risky area contaminated with heavy metals, and it requires the establishment of awareness campaigns, periodic monitoring and evaluation along most communities of the lake margin. It is concluded that it is essential for planners and decision makers to seriously consider taking appropriate action now concerning the recommendations of the present study results establishing future sustainable development plan of the ELM.

CHARAKTERYSTYKA REGIONALNA PIENIN NA POTRZEBY TERENOWEJ EDUKACJI PRZYRODNICZEJ

The paper comprises geographic characteristics of Pieniny region which is introductory material for field classes at university level. First, localization of the region was depicted and its division into microregions. Next, particular components of natural environment i.e. geological structure, land relief, climatic conditions, water relations, soils, vegetation and fauna were characterized. In the next part, human activity was discussed, against the background of natural environment, which results in development of cultural landscapes. The presented description of Pieniny, in the paper, may be exemplary and auxiliary material for the construction of characteristics of other regions.

城市化过程引起的环境地质问题及其防治对策

作为城市自然环境的一大重要组成部分，地质环境是必须得到高度重视的。但伴随着城市大规模建设，城市地下资源开发、城市工业和生活垃圾污染等方面引起了地质环境的破坏。本文在归纳城市规划区地质环境条件的基础上，进行了环境地质问题分析，论述了城市各功能区内的主要环境地质问题现状及其危害，并针对每个分区突出的环境地质问题提出了科学的防治对策和建议。 As an important component of urban natural environment, the geological environment must be attracted considerable attention. However, accompanying with the large scale urban construction, underground resources exploitation, urban industry and waste contamination caused destruction of geological environment. In this paper, based on summarizing up the geological environmental conditions of the urban planning area, environmental geological problems are analyzed. The main status quo of environmental geological problems and their hazards are respectively discussed. The countermeasures and suggestions for prominent environmental geological problems in each urban planning area are also put forward.