Ecological Concepts Research Articles

Oil Politics and the Environmental Crisis in Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

The politics of oil has played a vital role for the massive exploitation of Venezuela’s natural resources such as the petroleum products. When the European colonizers entered into the Latin American countries in the sixteenth century, initially they took hold of the land and the people; later, they pillaged and exploited their natural resources together with the American capitalist cartels. This paper analyzes the petroleum politics that includes the European and American oil cartels that has adversely affected environment in the region. In this paper, I have explored the western capitalists’ petroleum politics in Eduardo Galeano’s book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Mainly I have focused on the case of Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo, where a continuous spilling of oil has brought a huge damage to different water species; for instance, fishery is on the verge of collapse and the surrounding is severely affected. The craving of capitalist alliances for the petroleum products has ignored the fact that humans have to pay the cost of environmental destruction as a result of the oil politics. The paper sheds light on the environmental crisis, which is caused by continuous extracting and spilling of oil in Lake Maracaibo. Subsequently, the Venezuelan prosperity has got threatened as it totally relies on the ‘oil culture’. To explore the widespread ecological damage on Lake Maracaibo and its surroundings, I have used the deep ecological concept of Arne Naess, which argues that there is the connectedness and dependency of living and non-living things with each other so that any disturbance can hamper the whole ecosystem. Besides Naess’s ecological concept, I have also drawn ideas from the insights of ecocritics Cheryll Glotfelty and Val Plum wood to support Naess’s ecological concept and to clarify the conceptual framework of this paper.

Research on the Construction of "One core, three Common Learning" college Teaching Community from the perspective of curriculum Ideology and politics

At present, there are some problems in the construction of college teaching community, such as one-way cognitive construction based on knowledge imparting, single emotion maintenance based on classroom communication and fragmented belief inculcation based on spontaneous orientation. Under the examination of the new connotation of curriculum ideology and politics, these problems need to be solved urgently. With curriculum ideology and politics as the core, with the goals of "knowledge integration", "emotional resonance" and "faith symbiosis", and with the "teacher community", "teacher community", "teacher community" and "student community" under the ecological system concept of "full learning" as the object, this paper studies the strategy of "one core and three common learning" college teaching community construction, which can not only promote the common development of teachers and students, but also promote the common development of teachers and students. Moreover, it can promote the overall development of colleges and universities, make the teaching community of colleges and universities become an important carrier for the implementation of curriculum ideology and politics, and give full play to the overall effect of "cultivating virtues and cultivating people".

Addressing the problem of scale that emerges with habitat fragmentation

AbstractFragmentation and scaleAlthough habitat loss has well‐known impacts on biodiversity, the effects of habitat fragmentation remain intensely debated. It is often argued that the effects of habitat fragmentation, or the breaking apart of habitat for a given habitat amount, can be understood only at the scale of entire landscapes composed of multiple habitat patches. Yet, fragmentation also impacts the size, isolation and habitat edge for individual patches within landscapes. Addressing the problem of scale on fragmentation effects is crucial for resolving how fragmentation impacts biodiversity.Scaling frameworkWe build upon scaling concepts in ecology to describe a framework that emphasizes three “dimensions” of scale in habitat fragmentation research: the scales of phenomena (or mechanisms), sampling and analysis. Using this framework, we identify ongoing challenges and provide guidance for advancing the science of fragmentation.ImplicationsWe show that patch‐ and landscape‐scale patterns arising from habitat fragmentation for a given amount of habitat are fundamentally related, leading to interdependencies among expected patterns arising from different scales of phenomena. Aggregation of information when increasing the grain of sampling (e.g., from patch to landscape) creates challenges owing to biases created from the modifiable areal unit problem. Consequently, we recommend that sampling strategies use the finest grain that captures potential underlying mechanisms (e.g., plot or patch). Study designs that can capture phenomena operating at multiple spatial extents offer the most promise for understanding the effects of fragmentation and its underlying mechanisms. By embracing the interrelationships among scales, we expect more rapid advances in our understanding of habitat fragmentation.

From the Mountain to the Valley: Drivers of Groundwater Prokaryotic Communities along an Alpine River Corridor.

Rivers are the "tip of the iceberg", with the underlying groundwater being the unseen freshwater majority. Microbial community composition and the dynamics of shallow groundwater ecosystems are thus crucial, due to their potential impact on ecosystem processes and functioning. In early summer and late autumn, samples of river water from 14 stations and groundwater from 45 wells were analyzed along a 300 km transect of the Mur River valley, from the Austrian alps to the flats at the Slovenian border. The active and total prokaryotic communities were characterized using high-throughput gene amplicon sequencing. Key physico-chemical parameters and stress indicators were recorded. The dataset was used to challenge ecological concepts and assembly processes in shallow aquifers. The groundwater microbiome is analyzed regarding its composition, change with land use, and difference to the river. Community composition and species turnover differed significantly. At high altitudes, dispersal limitation was the main driver of groundwater community assembly, whereas in the lowland, homogeneous selection explained the larger share. Land use was a key determinant of the groundwater microbiome composition. The alpine region was more diverse and richer in prokaryotic taxa, with some early diverging archaeal lineages being highly abundant. This dataset shows a longitudinal change in prokaryotic communities that is dependent on regional differences affected by geomorphology and land use.

Analysis of Mina Padi Innovation Village based on local wisdom as a learning resource assisted by biological simulation applications

Mina Padi Innovation Village was a potential village for natural resources in cultivating rice and fish on the same agricultural land. The innovation villages studied in this study were Janten and Margoluwih villages, which had different topography. This study aims to analyze the local potential of Mina Padi ecosystem found in Janten and Margoluwih villages as a learning resource in ecology courses, third semester biology education students by integrating project learning and utilizing biology simulation applications in learning activities. This study used descriptive qualitative and exploratory methods. Data collection techniques used observation, identification, and documentation. The result of local potential was in the form of utilizing village natural resources into an innovative agricultural land, which has its own peculiarities different from other villages. The local potential of Mina Padi innovation village was in accordance with the study of structural and functional concepts of ecosystem, community and population ecology, freshwater aquatic habitat ecology, and artificial ecosystem. The local potential of Mina Padi innovation village has the potential to be a source of ecological learning material.

A two concentric circles model incorporating availability of ecosystem services and affordability of humans to clarify the ecological security concept

As human influences on natural ecosystems continue to expand, the utilization of natural resources is approaching a threshold where unsustainability threatens the security of human society. As the challenging tradeoffs between human resource demand, ecological sustainability and the security of human society have become more widely recognized, ecological security issues have received extensive attention. However, despite the emergence of substantial body of scientific research on these broader issues, there is still no broad consensus on the definition of ecological security and how it should be applied to mediate resource use and conservation dilemmas. Across the body of published research in this subject area, the criteria and evaluation methods are often so different that the results of different studies are difficult to compare. In this paper, we propose that ecological security refers to the degree to which the condition of ecosystem can support a certain level of socioeconomic development or quality of life. We propose a simple geometric model to quantify ecological security in two dimensions: the availability of ecosystem services and the affordability of humans. The availability dimension is determined by the supply and demand of ecosystem services and the affordability dimension is determined by the cost and the paying capacity balance to obtain ecosystem services. Then, we applied this model to two hypothetical cases to demonstrate its usefulness. The most important feature of the proposed model is that it enables the quick evaluation of important aspects of ecological security for a study area using eight key factors. Although the shape and geographic characteristics of a study area are usually more complex than the hypothetical case, our model can be applied if the conditions are properly simplified or adjusted.

Not every high‐latitude or high‐elevation forest edge is a treeline

AbstractAttempts at identifying climate warming effects on mountain and arctic vegetation caused a recent hype in treeline studies. In this perspectives article, we recall the need of clear‐cut definitions, a consistent terminology and a theoretical framework that permits hypothesis testing. Founded in the ecological niche concept, the application of the fundamental niche edge to treeline permits defining the potential climatic limit of tree growth, while the realized niche edge captures all deviations for reasons related to other, more local, abiotic factors, biotic interactions, disturbances and human interventions. An important point is that a globally common phenomenon calls for a common abiotic driver which is the temperature at the low temperature edge of the niche of the life form tree. We explain why other abiotic factors that may affect the local range limits, such as microclimate, moisture and wind do not devaluate the classical isotherm concept. Our key message is that applying a clearly defined concept of potential treeline, also allows defining deviations from it and explaining the deviations within a reproducible theoretical framework.

Natural is not in it: Irony, Environment and Genre in Spoor (2017)

ABSTRACT Agnieszka Holland’s animal rights horror-thriller Spoor (2017) can be read as a revenge tale wherein women, non-hegemonic men and animals join forces against the hunters and, implicitly, against what they represent: the conservative worldview of the current nationalist government in Poland. Spoor offers a feminist, queer and ecological response to these values and, in the process, expands our comprehension of how ecocinema might look or feel. While narratively human-centred, the film uses several strategies to foster an aesthetic attunement to non-human beings and non-anthropocentric politics. However, Spoor also transcends ecocinema by putting itself in quotation marks. In its self-reflexive use of extreme genericity, Spoor exemplifies Nicole Seymour’s observation that politically engaged cinema can sometimes fail to follow the available scripts for ‘appropriate’ environmental feeling. This paper argues that, by merging tenderness and despair with more distanced modes, including irony, humour and metageneric playfulness, Spoor departs from serious approaches prevalent in environmental filmmaking, questioning the authenticity and proximity central to the very concept of ecology. Spoor’s aesthetic and affective complexity rests on blending fakery and feeling, which problematises existing ways of understanding how eco-films engage us.

Empirical evidence of type III functional responses and why it remains rare

More than 70 years after its introduction, the framework of resource density-dependent consumption rates, also known as predator-prey functional responses, remains a core concept in population and food web ecology. Initially, three types of responses were defined: linear (type I), hyperbolic (type II), and sigmoid (type III). Due to its potential to stabilize consumer-resource population dynamics, the sigmoid type III functional response immediately became a “holy grail” in population ecology. However, experimentally proving that type III functional responses exist, whether in controlled laboratory systems or in nature, was challenging. While theoretical and practical advances make identifying type III responses easier today, decades of research have brought only a limited number of studies that provide empirical evidence for type III response curves. Here, we review this evidence from laboratory- and field-based studies published during the last two decades. We found 107 studies that reported type III responses, but these studies ranged across various taxa, interaction types, and ecosystems. To put these studies into context, we also discuss the various biological mechanisms that may lead to the emergence of type III responses. We summarize how three different and mutually independent intricacies bedevil the empirical documentation of type III responses: (1) challenges in statistical modeling of functional responses, (2) inadequate resource density ranges and spacing, and (3) biologically meaningful and realistic design of experimental arenas. Finally, we provide guidelines on how the field should move forward based on these considerations.

From One to Many Natures: Integrating Divergent Urban Nature Visions to Support Nature-Based Solutions in Australia and Europe

Urban nature and ways of protecting, designing and even mimicking natural processes are some of the most popular themes inspiring humanities and natural science studies in different disciplines around the globe. Urban nature, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions are three intertwined concepts. This paper will highlight some of the many visions for urban nature (e.g., four urban natures: native, cultivated, designed/horticultural and spontaneous natures) and interpretations of nature-based solutions. While there are some similarities in the interpretation of urban natures by different disciplines, some significant differences exist. This paper analyses and synthesises knowledge from divergent theoretical concepts of urban natures in Europe and Australia, and the associated ecological concepts of novel and designed ecosystems. The complexity of urban natures and native landscapes has fostered the development of several typologies that often lead to misunderstanding between discipline areas and difficulties with practical implementation, such as in urban planning or landscape design. We argue that differences in interpreting the scope of urban nature are often underlined by the specific socio-political, historical, cultural and ecological contexts of a country or region (e.g., Australia and Europe). By applying an interdisciplinary approach, we explore the concept of urban natures by analysing and synthesising links between different disciplines. A transdisciplinary perspective is an important premise for collaboration between ecological sciences and landscape architecture in many restoration projects, or when social and ecological sciences jointly address societal challenges with the help of nature-based solutions co-created using participatory approaches. The latter highlights the role of transdisciplinary research to link practitioners, policymakers and scientists, helping to engage with citizens and inform design. The analysis of several examples from Europe and Australia allowed us to depict different approaches to existing urban natures and methods of their design, enhancement and conservation. These examples highlight that different urban natures are sources of inspiration for nature-based solutions that can be successfully implemented in contemporary landscape and planning practice.

Integrating gradient with scale in ecological and evolutionary studies.

Gradient and scale are two key concepts in ecology and evolution that are closely related but inherently distinct. While scale commonly refers to the dimensional space of a specific ecological/evolutionary (eco-evo) issue, gradient measures the range of a given variable. Gradient and scale can jointly and interactively influence eco-evo patterns. Extensive previous research investigated how changing scales may affect the observation and interpretation of eco-evo patterns; however, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of changing gradients. Here, synthesizing recent research progress, we suggest that the role of scale in the emergence of ecological patterns should be evaluated in conjunction with considering the underlying environmental gradients. This is important because, in most studies, the range of the gradient is often part of its full potential range. The difference between sampled (partial) versus potential (full) environmental gradients may profoundly impact observed eco-evo patterns and alter scale-gradient relationships. Based on observations from both field and experimental studies, we illustrate the underlying features of gradients and how they may affect observed patterns, along with the linkages of these features to scales. Since sampled gradients often do not cover their full potential ranges, we discuss how the breadth and the starting and ending positions of key gradients may affect research design and data interpretation. We then outline potential approaches and related perspectives to better integrate gradient with scale in future studies.

The spatial scaling of mutualistic network diversity

How species richness scales spatially is a foundational concept of community ecology, but how biotic interactions scale spatially is poorly known. Previous studies have proposed interactions-area relationships (IARs) based on two competing relationships for how the number of interactions scale with the number of species, the ‘link-species scaling law’ and the ‘constant connectance hypothesis.’ The link-species scaling law posits that the number of interactions per species remains constant as the size of the network increases. The constant connectance hypothesis says that the proportion of realized interactions remains constant with network size. While few tests of these IARs exist, evidence for the original interactions-species relationships are mixed. We propose a novel IAR and test it against the two existing IARs. We first present a general theory for how interactions scale spatially and the mathematical relationship between the IAR and the species richness-area curve. We then provide a new mathematical formulation of the IAR, accounting for connectance varying with area. Employing data from three mutualistic networks (i.e. a network which specifies interconnected and mutually-beneficial interactions between two groups of species), we evaluate three competing models of how interactions scale spatially: two previously published IAR models and our proposed IAR. We find the new IAR described by our theory-based equation fits the empirical datasets equally as well as the previously proposed IAR based on the link-species scaling law in one out of three cases and better than the previously-proposed models in two out of three cases. Our novel IAR improves upon previous models and quantifies mutualist interactions across space, which is paramount to understanding biodiversity and preventing its loss.

Study of Covid-19 - Related Ecological Habitat of College Students: A Survey

In recent years, the interaction of people with the surrounding ecological environment has become increasingly unsafe for health, namely the person' physical and mental capabilities. This is especially true of the younger generation, like students of higher educational institutions, who have weakened immunity due to a busy study schedule, constant mental overload and stress. That is, health, as a sign of the quality of life of a student, is associated with the ecological situation and lifestyle, therefore, is one of the main concepts of human ecology. The influence of additional negative factors, such as stress and restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, greatly increases the risk of developing students' mental health problems. Unexpected isolation related to Covid-19 has caused disruption to daily routines, especially in students. The sudden change in the learning environment and limited social interactions and activities posed an unusual situation for children's developing brains. The study aim is to investigate and identify the psychological threats posed by students of different ages (under 20, between 21–25, and 26-32) in this pandemic of COVID-19. It was found that 28.0% of students were often nervous and stressed in the age group under 20, in contrast to 26.5% and 11.1% in groups 21 to 25 and over 26, respectively. In the younger group of students, 10.2% of students never felt upset, in the group of 21-25 years old - 8.3% and over 26 years old - 5.6%. It was concluded that it is mandatory to assess the student's psychological health and to plan for necessary support mechanisms, mainly during the recovery phase, because depression, stress, fear of getting infected, fear of losing a loved one, fear about getting jobs and related academic issues, disturbance in sleeping pattern, increase in duration of screen time, etc., were found to be common among students of all age groups.

Preface: Listen to the voices of local beech forests: An ecological and evolutionary conception of beech under phylogenetic and environmental constraints

AbstractBeech has long been the subject of ecological research in many fields. Recent studies using new methods are now being conducted. This special feature focuses on local beech forests and offers a collection of articles to readers of Ecological Research.

Issue Information

Ecological ResearchVolume 38, Issue 2 p. 211-213 ISSUE INFORMATIONFree Access Issue Information First published: 23 March 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1703.12328AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume38, Issue2Listen to the voices of local beech forests: An ecological and evolutionary conception of beech under phylogenetic and environmental constraintsMarch 2023Pages 211-213 RelatedInformation

Sacrifice Zones

AbstractThis article provides a genealogy and analysis of the concept of a sacrifice zone. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, the article traces the origins and transformation of sacrifice zones from (1) a livestock and land management concept into (2) a critical energy concept during the 1970s, (3) an Indigenous political ecology concept in the 1980s, and, finally, (4) an environmental justice concept in the 1990s and beyond. The article identifies the concept’s core content and argues in favor of calling sites of concentrated environmental injustice sacrifice zones, over alternatives such as “fenceline communities” or “dumping grounds,” in part because the concept of sacrifice, derived from the Latin “to make sacred,” is polysemous, signifying both violent victimization and sacred life. This explains why some activists have employed the sacrifice zone concept to generate a positive vision for transforming sacrifice zones into sacred zones. This analysis of the concept’s development through time, social friction, and geographic mobility advances efforts to broaden environmental justice theory from a focus on distributive justice to critical and constructive engagement with culture and religion. The article pursues one implication of this study by suggesting an amendment to the concept of “slow violence”: environmental injustice is better theorized as “slow sacrifice”—a political ecology of life and death, the goal of which is to concentrate death in some places so that other places might experience full, sustainable life. Such a theory makes visible a wider set of existing cultural and religious responses to environmental injustices.

Are ecological niche optimum and width of forest plant species related to their functional traits?

The ecological niche is one of the central concepts in plant ecology. Understanding which biological traits influence plant niches remains limited, preventing large-scale generalizations. Using a representative pool of 94 herb-layer species frequently occurring in the Slovenian forest vegetation types and an extensive suite of 28 plant functional traits, we tested whether traits serve as predictors for the optimum and width of plant species ecological niche. Niche optimum (mean) and niche width (standard deviation) of each species were derived from community-level ecological indicator values for six environmental gradients, i.e., light, temperature, continentality, moisture, soil reaction and nutrients. We investigated relationships between niche parameters and functional traits through a random forest analysis to account for relatively high trait correlations. Our results suggest that niche optimum and width of forest plant species are related to their functional traits. The two niche parameters were best explained by similar set of traits; however, the relative importance of traits differed substantially. Traits associated with disturbances (frequency and severity), plant dispersal (seed mass, dispersal syndrome), leaf economics spectrum (specific leaf area) and life strategy (CSR scores) showed the highest overall significance in predicting niche optimum and width. Functional traits were, on average, better predictors for niche optimum (average variance explained across all six environmental factors: 20.2%) than for niche width (average variance explained: 7.7%). Intraspecific trait variability, not considered in this study, likely plays an important role in case of niche width. The analyses suggest that, while not all traits impact niche parameters to the same degree, it is crucial to consider traits representing different ecological dimensions and revealing leading patterns of trait coordination. We recommend that the relative importance of traits for species niche parameters should be tested on a larger spatial scale using broader pool of forest understory plants across Europe.

Assessment of Habitat Selection by Invasive Plants and Conditions with the Best Performance of Invasiveness Traits

Habitat selection is one of the fundamental concepts in ecology and means that each organism should choose the habitat that will maximize its success. Invaders may be an underestimated object in research on habitat selection. Invasive plants experience enormous propagule pressure and bear the costs of spreading in disturbed anthropogenic habitats. It means that they do not necessarily achieve maximum invasiveness traits in such habitats, which they selected to colonize. This study aimed to assess habitats where invaders are likely to occur from the set of all available ones in the landscape and the habitats with the best performed traits of invaders. The research was conducted on 52 and 112 plots in 2019 and 2021, respectively, in South-Eastern Poland, and the invasive plants were Caucasian hogweeds Heracleum sp. In the first year, the circle plots had a 50 m radius and were to measure habitat areas and traits of hogweeds (height, number of individuals in the plot, cover, and number of flowering specimens). Detrimental correspondence analysis and linear mixed model investigated that hogweeds achieved the best performance reflected by traits in continuous habitats—meadows and forests. In the second year, the plots to measure habitats had a 100 m radius. The reference plots were far from the invasion exposure, and the paired control vs. Heracleum ones had the same habitats with the potential to be invaded. The generalized linear mixed model showed that the probability of the hogweeds occurrence was higher when the habitat was overgrowing with a simultaneous decrease in open areas and in the increasing ruderal area with a decrease in bushes. The impact of the invader’s habitat on the invasion performance depended on the purpose of habitat selection. When invaders spread and increased invasive extent or appeared in habitat edges, they did not reach the highest traits, the best performing in continuous habitats. The specificity of habitat selection of invaders is another aspect that distinguishes invasion science from classic ecology.

The eco-munitionary subject: Conservation with and of firearms

The Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937 was a transformative piece of legislation for wildlife management and conservation in the United States, incentivizing the creation of state wildlife agencies and establishing funding mechanisms for these agencies. The legislation directs an excise tax on firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment to a fund to support wildlife restoration projects by state wildlife agencies. In 2021 alone, this generated more than $1 billion in project funds. Although commonly framed as a user pays model of conservation whereby hunters fund wildlife management, most of the excise taxes collected on firearms and ammunition are now associated with non-hunting uses. Despite this disconnect, many firearms industry groups continue to support and promote their relationship to Pittman-Robertson. Here, we examine the role of Pittman-Robertson in shaping the relationship between firearms and conservation and seek to understand how this relationship is reproduced. We examine this shifting relationship through an analysis of amendments to Pittman-Robertson since its creation and a discourse analysis of contemporary materials from web sites of firearms, hunting, shooting, and conservation organizations. Drawing on the concept of environmentality and diverse ecologies, we argue that Pittman-Robertson has contributed to the production of, and been re-shaped by, a distinct environmental actor: the eco-munitionary subject.

The analysis of green advertisement communication strategy based on deep factorization machine deep learning model under supply chain management

AbstractArtificial intelligence (AI) technology has brought new reconstruction opportunities for the intelligence of the advertisement industry through the help of AI technologies such as machine learning and deep learning. First, the relationship between AI and the attractiveness of green advertisements is investigated, and the influence of different AI technologies in green advertisements on consumers' perception of the attractiveness of green advertisements is summarized. Second, based on the green advertisement dissemination rate data set, the data visualization exploration is carried out, and the data deletion and coding processing are carried out aiming at different characteristic variables. Finally, according to the problems existing in the current green advertisement communication and the high‐dimensional and sparse characteristics of the communication rate data set. In this paper, based on Deep FM (Factorization Machine), Gradient Boost Decision Tree (GBDT) is added to assist the experiment, and the prediction performance of green advertising communication is tested. The results are as follows. (1) Different AI expressions in green advertisements will affect consumers' perception of the attractiveness of green advertisements. (2) The prediction ability of Deep FM model after feature engineering is better than that of data cleaning only. The prediction effect of the model is obviously improved. The purpose of this paper is to integrate green advertising media communication into the ecological concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, strengthen the political belief of ecological civilization construction, and conform to the communication trend of today's severe ecological situation.