Effects Of Human Activities Research Articles

Coherent Change Detection for Multipass SAR

This paper focuses on the detection, from a stack of repeated-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, of such changes causing a target to completely lose the correlation between one epoch and another. This can be the consequence of human activities, such as construction, destruction, and agricultural activities, and also be the consequence of hazards, such as earthquake, landslides, or flooding, to buildings or terrains. The millimetric sensitivity of SAR makes it valuable for detecting such changes. This paper approaches two coherent change detection methods: a space coherent, time incoherent one and a full space and time coherent one, both based on the generalized likelihood ratiob (LR) test. A preliminary validation of the method is provided by processing two Sentinel-1 data stacks of 2016 Central Italy earthquake and by comparing the results with the map of damaged buildings in Amatrice and Accumoli made by Copernicus Emergency Management Service.

Discovering Ecological Awareness of Filipino Education Students

Ecological awareness is a way of thinking about the world in terms of its interdependent natural and human systems, including a consideration of the consequences of human actions and interactions within the natural context. Hence, this research determined the level of ecological awareness of Filipino education students, with the aim of strengthening their ecological awareness through enrichment activities. The input of the study was determined by employing self-made questionnaire as the principal tool for gathering data. Through appropriate statistical tools and analyses of data, the study revealed that the respondents are greatly female individuals who belonged to the bracket of middle income, reached high school level which was the parent’s highest educational attainment and acquired General Weighted Average (GWA) in Natural Sciences (NS) ranging from 2.00-2.49. It also revealed that the respondents are aware when it comes to caring and practical competency. Further, it was revealed that there is no significant relationship between sex and ecological awareness while there is a significant relationship between socio-economic status, parent’s highest educational attainment, GWA in NS and ecological awareness. The above-mentioned findings recommend to conduct programs that integrate caring, knowledge, and action that determine potential to enhance student’s ecological awareness and promote transparency and public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters.

Análise das alterações dos parâmetros de qualidade da água do Rio Do Carmo, afluente do rio doce, após rompimento da barragem de fundão, em Mariana-MG

A água é o principal recurso para vida no planeta, estando relacionada à sobrevivência das espécies e ao equilíbrio da biodiversidade. A poluição aquática é consequência principalmente das atividades humanas. No dia 5 de novembro de 2015, a barragem de rejeitos de Fundão que armazenava os rejeitos da mineração de ferro da empresa Samarco se rompeu, atingindo o rio Gualaxo do Norte, desaguando no rio do Carmo até a sua chegada no rio Doce. O estudo objetivou avaliar a qualidade das águas do rio do Carmo por meio dos dados disponibilizados pelo IGAM (Instituto de Gestão de Águas de Minas Gerais) em dois pontos de monitoramento, RD009 e RD071, comparando os resultados com os limites permitidos pela legislação vigente e realizar análise relacionando os resultados observados com o rompimento da barragem de Fundão em Mariana-MG. Foi selecionado o período de 2013 a 2017 e após filtragem dos dados, foram analisados os parâmetros inorgânicos alumínio dissolvido, arsênio total, bário total, cádmio total, chumbo total, cianeto livre, cloreto total, cobre dissolvido, cromo total, ferro dissolvido, fósforo total, manganês total, mercúrio total, níquel total, nitrato, nitrito, nitrogênio amoniacal total, sulfato total, sulfeto e zinco total e demais parâmetros como clorofila “a”, sólidos dissolvidos totais, fenóis totais e cor verdadeira, demanda bioquímica de oxigênio (DBO), óleos e graxas, oxigênio dissolvido, turbidez e pH in loco. No geral os parâmetros atenderam a legislação vigente, com exceção do fósforo, manganês, alumínio e arsênio. Apenas o parâmetro turbidez demonstrou possível relação com o rompimento da barragem.

ANALISA PROFIL MUKA AIR BANJIR SUNGAI KRUENG PASE KABUPATEN ACEH UTARA

Excess water capacity in river areas will cause flood hazards that mostly occur in downstream areas that are flood areas at high risk as a result of natural processes and the effects of human actions. In the case of floods, water runoff undermines the embankments and drowns agricultural / settlement areas upstream, and is aggravated by considerable sedimentation. Based on the existing problems, the analysis of the discharge and the water level (water profile) becomes very important to get a precise picture of locations prone to the overflow of the river Kr. This pase. Discharge and water profile analysis using HEC RAS software for various return periods. From the results of the research is expected to get a clear picture of the location that is vulnerable to overflow so that in handling the river will be on target. Based on the calculation using HEC RAS software, at point P 581 the water level condition at 2.3 years discharge the difference of the height of the embankment and the water level is 50 cm to 60 cm, while in the discharge condition 25 years the elevation of the face almost passes through the dike's height with a selisish of about 10 -15 cm. This condition is an unsafe category because for rivers whose debit is greater than 15 m3/s the minimum wavelength is 1.00 m. So that with good conditions at 2.3 years discharge and 25 years of discharge is very potential to occur overflow.Keywords: discharge, waterlevel, flood

Analysis of Environmental References in the Texts of the Four Gospels Using Descriptive Statistics

Christian ecotheology uses theology to examine the consequences of human action on ecology. It comes from the notion that the natural world is the creation and the good of God. The study of the Sacred Texts and the analysis of their references to the environment provides information on the relation of human beings to the environment and reveals the approach of each author. In this study, a detailed descriptive statistical analysis of the environmental references of the four Gospels of the New Testament was carried out. The different aspects of the environment (natural, anthropogenic, and spiritual) were explored and a quantitative analysis of the environmental references was performed for the texts of the four Gospels using descriptive statistics measures. The results show that the anthropogenic environment is the most commonly cited, with the spiritual environment coming next and the natural environment in the third position.

Response of phytoplankton to enhanced atmospheric and riverine nutrient inputs in a coastal upwelling embayment

Over the past decades, as a consequence of human activity, there was an increase in nutrient inputs to the ocean and they are expected to enhance even more in the future. Coastal areas, accounting for a significant proportion of marine primary productivity, are the most vulnerable zones to anthropogenic impacts. The response of phytoplankton communities to an increase in organic and inorganic nutrients levels from natural allochthonous sources was assessed in microcosm experiments conducted in a coastal system affected by intermittent upwelling events (Ría de Vigo, NW Iberia). Three nutrient addition experiments were performed in spring, summer and autumn, when surface water was supplemented with 5 and 10% of atmospheric and riverine matter. Pico-, nano- and microphytoplankton abundances, chlorophyll a concentration (Chl a) and primary production rates (PP) were measured and compared with those in the control seawater sample (without additions) after 48 h of incubation. Simultaneous experiments with controlled additions of inorganic and organic nutrients were also performed in order to describe the limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth at each experiment. The composition of the matter inputs and the structure of the phytoplankton communities determined the type of response observed. Phytoplankton responses varied among seasons, being positively correlated with dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentrations. As expected, the phytoplankton responses to external nutrient inputs were stronger under low nutrient levels (summer) than when phytoplankton was already growing in nutrient replete conditions (spring). Null and negative responses to the natural inputs were observed in autumn, which suggests that the oceanic phytoplankton advected to this coastal system during downwelling events could be occasionally inhibited by these nutrient inputs. In a future global change scenario, characterized by enhanced nutrient inputs from riverine and atmospheric origin, the response of phytoplankton communities will strongly depend on the concentration and chemical composition of these inputs and on the structure of phytoplankton communities able to respond to them.

СУТНІСТЬ ЗЕЛЕНОГО МАРКЕТИНГУ

In recent years the global environment has deteriorated due to gradual growth of the population. The destruction of environmental systems is linked to the lifestyle and behavior of consumers, especially with excessive consumption and inappropriate use of resources. Climate change, loss of biodiversity, atmospheric pollution, and waste management are the most important global environmental issues. Today's state of the environment and the catastrophic consequences of human activities require revision of existing approaches to management. The new approach should be based on deep respect for the environment, rational use of resources and the recycling of waste from production and consumption. Green marketing addresses these challenges. The article further developed the definition of environmental marketing, which, unlike existing ones, emphasizes the importance of environmental marketing to social and ethical marketing and the harmonization of the economic and environmental interests of the consumer, producer and society by creating and satisfying the demand for environmental (eco-friendly, non-hazardous for environment) products. The difference between green marketing and traditional one is substantiated. The main difference in green marketing is focusing on its long-term effects; it gives priority focus on environmental issues; marketing support of the entire value chain of goods from extraction of raw materials to consumption and utilization; the use of a proactive waste management strategy. The main advantages and problems of using green marketing in the enterprise are discussed. The concept of a "green" marketing mix is expanded by adding two more elements: "People" and "Processes". Green marketing encourages customer training to improve their environmental awareness and enable them to participate in environmental activities, and helps to rationalize using of scarce resources. Green marketing contributes to the production and distribution of environmentally friendly goods and services that maximally meet the needs and desires of people in the most beneficial and environmentally friendly way. This contributes to reducing the depletion and exploitation of natural resources.

The Anthropocene Divide: Obscuring Understanding of Social-Environmental Change

Much scientific debate has focused on the timing and stratigraphic signatures for the Anthropocene. Here we review the Anthropocene in its original usage and as it has been imported by anthropology in light of evidence for long-term human-environment relationships. Strident debate about the Anthropocene’s chronological boundaries arises because its periodization forces an arbitrary break in what is a long-enduring process of human alterations of environments. More importantly, we argue that dividing geologic time based on a “step change” in the global significance of social-environmental processes contravenes the socially differentiated and diachronous character of human-environment relations. The consequences of human actions are not the coordinated synchronous product of a global humanity but rather result from heterogeneous activities rooted in situated sociopolitical contexts that are entangled with environmental transformations at multiple scales. Thus, the Anthropocene periodization, what we term th...

The potential of paleoecology for functional forest restoration planning: lessons from Late Holocene Italian pollen records

We describe forest landscape transformations during the last two millennia in the Italian peninsula by analyzing local (Rieti basin – Lago Lungo) and regional (RF93-30 Adriatic Sea) sediment cores. We identify a dynamic forest ecosystem through paleoecologic reconstruction and consider potential interventions for effective restoration of the most ancient, least disturbed forest ecosystem. The most degraded ecosystems in consequence of human activities were hygrophilous (wet) and mesic forests. In the Rieti Basin, degraded forest ecosystems on mountain slopes are undergoing some degree of forest succession and have less need of restoration. However, management plans for biodiversity, ecosystem services and resources conservation are needed to achieve more sustainable development. In Rieti, the paleoecological investigation revealed a dramatic decrease of deciduous wet and mesic tree taxa through time due to human landscape transformation. The starting point for restoration of a Mediterranean forest ecosystem that preserves natural biodiversity and associated ecosystem services requires recreating some portion of the floodplain wetland ecological niche. Once floodplain forest ecological niche has been recreated, the original ecosystem composed of Alnus, Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia spp., Carpinus betulus and Acer spp., all species which today are rare, should be planted on the basis of microsite characteristics and tree autoecology.

A Study on Air Pollution and Environmental Challenges in Chennai City

Environmental pollution is a severe issue in both developed and developing countries. Pollution is defined undesirable state of natural environment being contaminated with harmful substances as a consequence of human activities. There is clear relationship between the growth manmade green house gas emissions and observed environmental climate change are claimed by policymakers. The most important causes of air pollution are human economic activities such as use of vehicles and industrial operations mainly in Chennai city. Air pollution is various types such as noise, water, air. It causes damages that are normally inflicted in society at large rather than on those directly responsible. In several city air is already polluted that it has been causing illness and deaths among elderly people and children. The high pollution density has placed great strain on available infrastructure and major problem for environmental in major cities of Tamil Nadu. It is recognized that climate change due to global warming going to important threat safety of millions of people not only living near coastline but also impacts on changing cyclones. The aim of the study focuses on objectives to environment in Chennai city to estimate the problems of air pollution environment in Challenge in Chennai city and suggest health cost of vehicular pollution and to suggest the Government measure to control air pollution in environment Chennai city.

Influence of hydrology, sediment supply and sediment gradation on river bar morphodynamics: application to the Loire River at Bréhémont (France)

Rivers inherently show heterogeneous sediment sizes and can also show a strong sediment supply variability in time because of natural episodic events or as a consequence of human activities, which alter the characteristics and dynamics of alluvial bars at the macro-scale. The impact of the combination between sediment size heterogeneity and sediment supply variation, or even with other forcings (i.e. hydrology, channel geometry) remains poorly documented. In this work, a physics-based numerical model is applied on a trained reach of a sandy-gravel bed river to investigate the combination of these parameters on bar morphodynamics. The morphodynamic computations are performed with a two-dimensional depth-averaged hydrodynamic solver, internally coupled to a sediment transport and bed evolution module, which estimate the transport of graded sediment and model bed stratigraphy, respectively. A 1 km long reach of the Loire River at Bréhémont (France) is selected to conduct the numerical investigations. The interaction between several forcing mechanisms induces highly complex bar morphodynamic processes in this area.A comprehensive set of high-definition data is available, which allows to study the river morphodynamics for a succession of three flooding events and a period of low flows. Based on this model, a variety of scenarios is presented with the aim of exploring the implications of sediment gradation, geometrical and boundary forcing effects on in situ bars morphodynamics.

Eucalypt leaf litter impairs growth and development of amphibian larvae, inhibits their antipredator responses and alters their physiology.

Consequences of human actions like global warming, spread of exotic species or resource consumption are pushing species to extinction. Even species considered to be at low extinction risk often show signs of local declines. Here, we evaluate the impact of eucalypt plantations, the best-known exotic tree species worldwide and its interaction with temperature and predators on amphibian development, growth, antipredator responses and physiology. For this purpose, we applied a fully factorial experiment crossing two types of leaf litter (native oak or eucalypt), two temperatures (15 and 20°C) and presence/absence of native predators. We found that leachates of eucalypt leaf litter reduced amphibian development and growth, compromised their antipredator responses and altered their metabolic rate. Increased temperature itself also posed serious alterations on development, growth, antioxidant ability and the immune status of tadpoles. However, the combined effects of eucalypt leaf litter and increased temperature were additive, not synergistic. Therefore, we show that non-lethal levels of a globally spread disruptor such as leachates from eucalypt leaf litter can seriously impact the life history and physiology of native amphibian populations. This study highlights the need to evaluate the status of wild populations exposed to human activities even if not at an obvious immediate risk of extinction, based on reliable stress markers, in order to anticipate demographic declines that may be hard to reverse once started. Replacing eucalypt plantations with native trees in protected areas would help improving the health of local amphibian larvae. In zones of economic interest, we would recommend providing patches of native vegetation around ponds and removing eucalypt leaf litter from pond basins during their dry phase.

The age of (omni)policy

The eff ects of human activity that concomitantly bring harm to nature, ecologicalbalance and our very being, along with the extinction of particular animaland plant species, no longer can be ignored. Th e state of peril that today’ssociety is in, with ensuant environmental challenges that scientists, analysts,politicians and humanity altogether have been faced with, is the thesis of theJusuf Žiga’s book.

Effects of Long-Term Anthropogenic Disturbance on the Benthic Episammic Diatom Community of an Ancient, Tropical Lake.

Habitat homogenization, nutrient enrichment and loss of biodiversity are broadly recognized as the consequences of human activity in aquatic systems. Diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) are frequently used in aquatic environmental assessment and impact monitoring, but in unique habitats dominated by endemic taxa, traditional approaches may not be appropriate. We examined the impacts of long term anthropogenic impacts upon the littoral episammic diatom community around the town of Soroako, located on Lake Matano, an ancient tropical lake. Lake Matano is located on central Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, and socio-economic conditions are typical of developing nations. Although differences in nutrient concentrations were undetectable with field-based spectroscopy approaches, mean Shannon diversity was decreased in association with proximity the town-site. However, mean ß-diversity was maintained despite several decades of shoreline modification at Soroako. Elevated abundances of early-successional diatom taxa in the disturbed area drove differences between areas immediately offshore of Soroako and those farther away. These findings suggest that increased physical disturbance and TSS loads around Soroako, rather than increased nutrient loading, influenced shifts in the diatom community. These results suggest that microscopy-based biomonitoring approaches are sensitive indicators of environmental modification that could be useful in areas where access to cutting-edge analytical equipment is limited.

Holocene climate change in northeastern China reconstructed from lipid biomarkers in a peat sequence from the Sanjiang Plain

Lipid biomarkers extracted from a sediment-peat sequence from the Sanjiang Plain were analyzed to assess the change in regional vegetation and climate during the last 8 ky. The combination of n-alkane and n-alkanoic acid distributions and published pollen and plant macrofossil records for the lake sediments underlying the peat reveal that the region experienced a warmer and wetter period before ca. 6ka that corresponds to the monsoon maximum and Holocene climate optimum in northeast China. The climate then entered a cold and wet period from 6 to 4ka. A shift to warmer and drier conditions starting 4ka is recorded asa transformation from a shallow lake to a peat deposit. From 1.5 to 0.4ka, the region entered a cold and wet period that was followed by warm and dry conditions for the most recent 0.4 ky. Our lipid-based paleoclimate reconstruction was compared with Holocene reconstructions based on lipid records from the nearby Hani peat sequence, peat cellulose δ13C results from the Jinchuan peat sequence, and pollen records from other lakes in northeast China. Most of the regional paleoclimate changes reconstructed from the lipid proxies in the Sanjiang Plain peat sequence have a strong link with sea surface temperature changes in the Sea of Japan that were influenced by summer solar insolation at 65°N and the East Asia summer monsoon. In contrast, the change to the warmer and drier conditions of the last four centuries seems to be mainly a consequence of human activity.

A STUDY OF RUSKIN BOND’S “TENACITY OF MOUNTAIN WATER”

“I am not a religious person but if I were to say I have a religion then I would say I am a nature worshipper.” Ruskin Bond Ruskin Bond, a prolific writer, is known for his short stories, novellas and poems and is widely popular especially in Children’s Literature Circles. His stories can be likened to an ecological narrativedesigned to spread awareness about the bitter consequences of human actions that damage the planet’s basic life support system. He has received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in India for ‘Our Trees Still grow in Dehra’ in 1992. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014. Ruskin Bond’s stories breathe his great love and sincere concern for nature which is all encompassing and all pervasive.The prismatic portrayal of nature in Bond’s stories enraptures the soul. He draws our sense towards the natural brilliance manifest all around us by presenting a painstakingly drawn out record of the the natural life around him. The amazingly captured landscapes with its myriad forms of life inked by Bond’s imagination and his inimitable style come with a strong lesson on the need to protect and preserve nature. My paper proposes to study Bond’s short story entitled “Tenacity of Mountain Water” that exploresthe interlinked web of life through a simple narrative. Weaving the threads of eco consciousness through the narrative, he marvels at how a tiny rivulet of water becomes a beautiful roaring cascade nourishing and beautifying the entire landscape. The story offers the informed reader a chance to investigate the underlying ecological values and also revisit the human perception of natural resources.

Scaling from Metabolism to Population Growth Rate to Understand How Acclimation Temperature Alters Thermal Performance.

The mean and variance of environmental temperature are changing as a consequence of human activities. Ectotherms are sensitive to these temperature changes in the short term, typically displaying a unimodal response of most biological rates to temperature (thermal performance curves; TPCs). Many organisms, however, may acclimate or evolve in response to new temperature regimes. In particular, population growth rate TPCs (r TPCs) reflect the ability to maintain positive growth under a range of temperatures, and therefore shifts in r TPCs due to acclimation are fundamental to our understanding of how ectotherms will respond to changes in climate. Here, we derive a model for r TPCs rooted in temperature dependent metabolic rate (through enzyme kinetics and activity). We then use this model to interpret the effects of acclimation to different temperatures on r TPCs of the protist Paramecium bursaria. Intermediate acclimation temperatures generally resulted in higher upper critical thermal limits, thermal optima, maximum population growth rate, and the area under the TPC. Lower critical thermal limits increased linearly with acclimation temperature, causing a decrease in thermal breadth with increased acclimation temperature. Thus, rather than showing improved performance at the acclimation temperature, P. bursaria appeared to pay a price at all temperatures for acclimating to higher temperatures. The fits of our data to our model also suggest that changes in the structure and function of metabolic enzymes may underlie the changes in the TPCs. Specifically, our results suggest that both the delta heat capacity and delta enthalpy of formation of metabolic enzymes may have increased with acclimation. Since these two factors are correlated across acclimation temperatures, our data also suggest potential trade-offs that may constrain changes in TPCs.

Distribution and drivers of global mangrove forest change, 1996-2010.

For the period 1996-2010, we provide the first indication of the drivers behind mangrove land cover and land use change across the (pan-)tropics using time-series Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array-type L-band SAR (PALSAR) data. Multi-temporal radar mosaics were manually interpreted for evidence of loss and gain in forest extent and its associated driver. Mangrove loss as a consequence of human activities was observed across their entire range. Between 1996-2010 12% of the 1168 1°x1° radar mosaic tiles examined contained evidence of mangrove loss, as a consequence of anthropogenic degradation, with this increasing to 38% when combined with evidence of anthropogenic activity prior to 1996. The greatest proportion of loss was observed in Southeast Asia, whereby approximately 50% of the tiles in the region contained evidence of mangrove loss, corresponding to 18.4% of the global mangrove forest tiles. Southeast Asia contained the greatest proportion (33.8%) of global mangrove forest. The primary driver of anthropogenic mangrove loss was found to be the conversion of mangrove to aquaculture/agriculture, although substantial advance of mangroves was also evident in many regions.

Recommendations for monitoring freshwater fishes in river restoration plans: A wasted opportunity for assessing impact

Abstract Many human activities in and on rivers cause the loss of freshwater biodiversity, especially fish, which now are one of the most endangered vertebrate groups. River fragmentation caused by the construction of dams is one of the main threats to fish species. In Spain, which has the highest number of dams per square kilometre in the world, more than half of all fish species are threatened by these constructions. The government has initiated the National Strategy for River Restoration, a plan to restore rivers and preserve their inhabitants, which includes the removal of dams. An information search and query was conducted to determine if fish monitoring was performed before and after dam removal, and the result was negative. Therefore, an assessment of the effects of dam removal on fish communities at a large spatial scale was not possible. Instead, an analysis was carried out to measure the effects of dam removal on river connectivity using a geometric network. The analysis of river connectivity improvement showed that 66% of removed dams had one or more dams less than 5 km away. The removal of dams increased the connected river length by an average of 6.4 km per dam removed, with the range varying between 1.04 km and 9.48 km, depending on the river basin. These results show that, although monitoring programmes are strongly recommended after restoration actions, they are not usually performed. This is a wasted opportunity to gather large datasets to understand better the effects of human actions on fish communities and on rivers. River connectivity results may reflect a demolition strategy based more on economic and social opportunism rather than on ecological considerations. It is strongly recommended that dam removal plans should be based on ecological selection methods to achieve greater river improvements with less investment.

Groundwater and surface-water interactions and impacts of human activities in the Hailiutu catchment, northwest China

The interactions between groundwater and surface water have been significantly affected by human activities in the semi-arid Hailiutu catchment, northwest China. Several methods were used to investigate the spatial and temporal interactions between groundwater and surface water. Isotopic and chemical analyses of water samples determined that groundwater discharges to the Hailiutu River, and mass balance equations were employed to estimate groundwater seepage rates along the river using chemical profiles. The hydrograph separation method was used to estimate temporal variations of groundwater discharges to the river. A numerical groundwater model was constructed to simulate groundwater discharges along the river and to analyze effects of water use in the catchment. The simulated seepage rates along the river compare reasonably well with the seepage estimates derived from a chemical profile in 2012. The impacts of human activities (river-water diversion and groundwater abstraction) on the river discharge were analyzed by calculating the differences between the simulated natural groundwater discharge and the measured river discharge. Water use associated with the Hailiutu River increased from 1986 to 1991, reached its highest level from 1992 to 2000, and decreased from 2001 onwards. The reduction of river discharge might have negative impacts on the riparian ecosystem and the water availability for downstream users. The interactions between groundwater and surface water as well as the consequences of human activities should be taken into account when implementing sustainable water resources management in the Hailiutu catchment.