Ecological Approach Research Articles

Spatial assessment of biodiversity and conservation priorities in Hamedan Province, Iran, using a landscape ecology approach

Spatial assessment of biodiversity and conservation priorities in Hamedan Province, Iran, using a landscape ecology approach

Temporal trends and spatial and spatiotemporal distribution of schistosomiasis mansoni in northeast Brazil between 2005 and 2016.

Schistosoma mansoni is a parasitic disease of great magnitude for Brazilian public health. We aimed to analyse the temporal trend and spatial and spatiotemporal distribution of positivity rates for schistosomiasis mansoni in northeast Brazil. This is a descriptive study with an ecological approach, carried out between 2005 and 2016. We calculated the positivity rate for the disease and then performed a segmented trend analysis (Joinpoint). For spatial analysis, we smoothed the positivity rates using the local empirical Bayesian method. We checked for spatial autocorrelation using Moran's global and local. Subsequently, we performed Kulldorff's space time sweep analysis. In the period under review, 7 745 650 tests were performed in the northeast, of which 577 793 were positive for Schistosoma mansoni. In the historical series of positivities, it is noted that the highest rates were in Sergipe, Alagoas and Pernambuco. The states of Alagoas and Sergipe showed higher positivity in relation to the average positivity of the northeast and of Brazil. The spatial analysis maps identify clusters of high risk of schistosomiasis cases, mainly in coastal municipalities. There was also stability in positivity rates in some states and the maintenance of endemic areas. Thus effective public health policies are needed in health education in order to reduce schistosomiasis positivity and improve the health conditions of the northeastern population.

Ecological Approach and Departure‐Driving Strategy Optimized by Using Syncretic Learning with Trapezoidal Collocation Algorithm for the Plug‐In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

The eco‐driving strategy is of great significance in driving cost for plug‐in hybrid electric vehicles in driving trips, especially at signalized intersections. To address the issue of further energy saving, this study proposes an ecological approach and departure‐driving strategy by using syncretic learning with trapezoidal collocation algorithm. First, a syncretic learning‐based speed predictor is built by merging back propagation neural networks and radial basis function neural networks. Second, the syncretic learning‐based speed predictor and trapezoidal collocation algorithm are combined to optimize the speed trajectory. Third, the torque between the engine and the motor is distributed by the dynamic programming algorithm. Then, model predictive control optimizes torque output in the control time domain. Finally, the driving interval optimization method is designed to avoid mixed‐integer programming problems and redundant constraints, which make vehicles cross intersections without stopping. The numerical verification results show that the trapezoidal collocation algorithm with syncretic learning has more advantages than other methods in speed trajectory planning. Compared with the original trajectory, the driving time through the intersection is reduced and the total driving cost is lowered by 19.82%. Validation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in energy consumption management at signalized intersections.

Changing ecological environment before and after coastline filling designs

Coastlines are tectonically active places with an impact on physical as well as social and economic restructuring of cities. They play an essential role in the development of urban areas. Furthermore, coastal environments may offer important health benefits. They may also present numerous threats to human health and well-being time to time. With the rapid urbanization in coastal cities, the lack of urban green space and transportation problems have emerged recently, and the cities have grown towards the sea by coastal filling areas as a solution. Especially the construction of highway on the coastline in the Black Sea region of Turkey has adversely impacted relationship between the people and the sea in the city of Trabzon. In this study, initially a literature review was conducted and parameters were specified for coastline usages. A survey study was conducted with 140 individuals who actively use the coastline in the city of Trabzon, in order to specify the past and current coastline usages. The evaluation of the past and current usage shows that people want to meet the sea but feel uncomfortable with the landscape with the fillings. According to the Anova test, the unmodified form of area was chosen to ‘have a more natural landscape (5.77)’ while the modified form of area was preferred ‘to be renovated (4.12)’. This highlights the users’ longing for the past. Therefore, authorities need to address the impact of differences between parameters in depth on the usage of the area on the coastal landscape. Coastal ecology solutions should also be produced with the ecological design approaches.

Assessing the asthma-related burden of disease in Latin American and Caribbean countries: a sociodemographic perspective

ObjectiveThis study aimed to characterize the burden of asthma-related issues in Latin American and Caribbean countries from 1990 to 2019 and to assess their relationship with the sociodemographic index (SDI). Study designA cross-sectional analysis with an ecological approach was conducted. MethodsThe disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and the SDI data were obtained from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019. Linear regression models were used to evaluate the relationship of interest. ResultsDuring the study period, a total of 41.7 million DALYs were accounted, with the highest rates observed in children aged under 5 years (651, uncertainty interval [UI]: 369 to 1037 per 100,000) and females (342, UI: 241 to 471 per 100,000). In the multiple regression model based on data from 2019, a significant negative association was observed between the log-transformed DALY rates and the SDI. Specifically, for each unit increase in the SDI, asthma-related DALY rates decreased by an average of 0.97 % (95 % confidence interval: 0.48–1.00 %). ConclusionsThis study highlights heterogeneous age, gender, and country-related variations in asthma rates across Latin American and Caribbean countries and emphasizes the influence of sociodemographic factors on its burden.

Sustainability Analysis of Urban Settlement Distribution in Kanigoro

Cities develop as activity centers because they provide more facilities than rural areas. After being established as the capital of Blitar Regency based on Government Regulation No. 3/2010 dated January 5, 2010, Kanigoro experienced a shift from rural to urban land use followed by an increase in population, causing the quality of the environment to decline, requiring the structuring of sustainable urban development from social, economic, and environmental aspects. This study examines the development pattern of urban settlements with an environmental perspective to build an understanding of the spatial growth process that occurs in urbanization and urban formation in a small suburban area. This research uses a quantitative approach from secondary data analysis. Initial identification of the urban regions using Arc GIS to analyze land use conditions, especially settlements, using secondary data images in 2022 to obtain land use and settlement area maps in 2022. Kanigoro Urban Settlement area develops following grid and linear patterns, following road access and service trade. The thick rural-urban mix is primarily agricultural and residential. The ecological approach of Kanigoro Urban tends to be differentiated; the population lives scattered in convenient areas that are easy to reach, and spatial expression is fragmented, including "bridgeheads" prioritized settlements near the city center, learning centrifugal style, urban functions from inside the city to the outside. Based on the land use and spatial pattern of settlement distribution, Kanigoro Urban is proposed to use the stellar/radial city model.

Fine-tuning the isotopic niche of a marine mammal community through a multi-element approach and variable spatial scales

It is commonly assumed that the resolution of the isotopic niche of consumers can be improved with a larger number of chemical elements, but this is only true if steep environmental gradients exist at the appropriate spatial scale. Off Mauritania, the δ13C value is a useful proxy to understand the distribution of marine mammals along the inshore-offshore gradient, and the δ15N value to assess their trophic position. Here, the incorporation of δ18O values as an independent habitat tracer largely improved the resolution of the isotopic niche, because the δ18O gradients, mostly reflecting marked salinity gradients, spanned over broad spatial scales when compared to the home range of marine mammals. On the contrary, δ34S values did not improve much the resolution of the isotopic niche at the species level, although it was useful to identify individuals relying on food webs associated with anoxic sediments, such as seagrass meadows. This is because the δ34S gradient in the area develops over a small spatial scale, compared to the home range of the considered species. This study provides new insights into the use of a muti-element approach in isotopic ecology, and improves the understanding of habitat partitioning between the considered marine mammal species off North Western Africa.

Addition of nocturnal pollinators modifies the structure of pollination networks

Although the ecological network approach has substantially contributed to the study of plant-pollinator interactions, current understanding of their functional structure is biased towards diurnal pollinators. Nocturnal pollinators have been systematically ignored despite the publication of several studies that have tried to alleviate this diurnal bias. Here, we explored whether adding this neglected group of pollinators had a relevant effect on the overall architecture of three high mountain plant-pollinator networks. Including nocturnal moth pollinators modified network properties by decreasing total connectivity, connectance, nestedness and robustness to plant extinction; and increasing web asymmetry and modularity. Nocturnal moths were not preferentially connected to the most linked plants of the networks, and they were grouped into a specific “night” module in only one of the three networks. Our results indicate that ignoring the nocturnal component of plant-pollinator networks may cause changes in network properties different from those expected from random undersampling of diurnal pollinators. Consequently, the neglect of nocturnal interactions may provide a distorted view of the structure of plant-pollinator networks with relevant implications for conservation assessments.

Towards ecological everything – The ecological university, ecological subjectivity and the ecological curriculum

There are no perfect solutions to the complex mess the planet is in right now, but there might be some better directions for the contemporary ‘university in ruins’ (Readings, 1996). In a world of struggling liberal democracies, climate change, biodiversity loss and global pandemics, this paper builds on the philosophical work informing the Ecological University (Barnett, 2018; Stratford, 2019) to shore up the theoretical groundwork for an ecological approach to higher education. While such a concept is fanciful (or utopian) in many respects, the possibilities for an ‘ecological’ turn in higher education policy and practice – beyond liberal and neoliberal approaches to higher education – point towards university policy and practice requiring a clearer understanding of ecological subjectivity as a basis for an ecological curriculum in higher education. This paper explores how ecological subjectivity could be developed via the concept of Anthropocene Intelligence. It explores how Anthropocene Intelligence can be used as a way of challenging the mainstream, liberal context of the higher education curriculum. Several ways in which this might occur are pointed to with potential changes to economics teaching being detailed as an example of the transformation that might be possible in an ecological higher education curriculum.

The characteristics and influencing factors of farmland soil microplastic in Hetao Irrigation District, China

Microplastic pollution, a major global concern, has garnered increasing attention in agricultural ecosystem research. China’s Hetao Irrigation District, vital for grain production in the Yellow River Basin, lacks sufficient research on microplastic pollution of agricultural soils. This study, based on a detailed background investigation and testing of 47 samples, is the first to elucidate the characteristics and potential influencing factors of microplastics in the Hetao Irrigation District. The abundance of microplastics in the farmland soil ranged from 1810 to 86331 items/kg, with 90% measuring below 180 µm and mainly in film and fragment forms. Predominant polymers were polyethylene (PE, 43.0%) and polyamide (PA, 27.8%). Key pollution influencers were identified as agricultural inputs, with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) being the most extensively used plastic type. The carbonyl index and hydroxyl indices of the detected LDPE microplastics ranged from 0.041 to 0.96 and 0.092 to 1.20, respectively. The study highlights the significance of mulching management and agronomic practices in shaping microplastic characteristics. Potential pollution sources include agricultural inputs, irrigation equipment, domestic waste, and tire wear. Proposed effective strategies include responsible plastic use, robust waste management, and irrigation system upgrades, establishing a foundation for future ecological risk assessments and effective management approaches in the Hetao Irrigation District. Environmental implicationThe harmful substances studied in this paper are microplastics, which are widely distributed in the environment and have potential ecological risks. This study is the first to investigate the characteristics of microplastics in farmland soil within the Hetao Irrigation Area, a region that is of critical importance to agricultural production in the Yellow River Basin of China. The study provides comprehensive insights into the factors influencing the characteristics of microplastics and speculates on their sources. These findings offer a novel perspective on the assessment of microplastic contamination in the area and provide valuable recommendations for prevention and control measures.

Biodynamics enriched organic amendments in improving leaf and soil nutrition of Khasi mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco)

Biodynamics is a holistic, and ecological approach in organic farming which emphasizes building up the soil. The present experiment studied effect of biodynamics enriched organic amendments on yield attributing characters and yield, leaf and soil nutrition of Khasi mandarin. The experiment comprised of eleven treatments viz. T1: Farm yard manure (FYM), T2: vermicompost (VC), T3: Pig manure (PIM), T4: Poultry manure (POM), T5: Neem cake (NC), T6: FYM + Cow Pat Pit (CPP) + Bio Dynamic (BD) 500 + BD 501, T7: VC + CPP + BD 500 + BD 501, T8: PIM + CPP + BD 500 + BD 501, T9: POM + CPP + BD 500 + BD 501, T10: NC + CPP + BD 500 + BD 501 and T11: control (RDF). Results revealed that the highest increment in N-S, E-W spread (0.28 and 0.29 m), canopy volume (4.79 m3), leaf total N (2.43%), K (1.96%), Fe (274.97 ppm), Mn (26.84 ppm), Cu (11.08 ppm) chlorophyll a (1.52 mg/g), chrolophyll b (0.60 mg/g), total chlorophyll (2.12 mg/g), soil organic carbon (7.29 g kg−1), inorganic carbon (2.23 g kg−1), total carbon (9.52 g kg−1), total N (0.681 g kg−1), available N (643.86 kg ha−1), P (87.06 kg ha−1), K (206.34 kg ha−1), Fe (62.12 ppm), Mn (28.95 ppm), Cu (2.66 ppm), Zn (2.20 ppm), bacteria (53.92 × 104 CFU/g) and fungi (44.79 × 104 CFU/g) was recorded with T7. Hence, T7 is most effective biodynamics enriched organic amendment in leaf and soil nutrition of Khasi mandarin.

Eco-Efficiency of Olive Farms across Diversified Ecological Farming Approaches

Eco-efficiency is commonly used as an indicator of sustainability since it expresses the efficiency with which natural resources are utilized to meet people’s needs. Agriculture relies heavily on these ecological resources and by-produces significant environmental burdens, shifting the interest of researchers and policymakers toward the promotion of ecological practices. However, limited evidence exists regarding eco-efficiency across various ecological approaches like low input, conservation, and organic farming. This paper contributes to the existing literature and provides insight into the eco-efficiency of Cretan olive farms managed under different ecological approaches. Olive oil production is vital for the socio-economic sustainability of Mediterranean agriculture, a significant element of the region’s culture, and the basis of the well-known “Mediterranean diet”; therefore, it is crucial to investigate eco-efficient management options for olive farmers. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a second-stage statistical analysis are employed to estimate the eco-efficiency of olive farms and investigate factors affecting it. Composite indicators for biodiversity, soil, and input management are incorporated in the eco-efficiency model. The results indicate that organic farms achieve the highest eco-efficiency scores, followed by other ecological approaches. Additionally, eco-efficiency seems to be explained by farmers’ dependency on subsidies, commitment to farming activity, and environmental awareness.

HME, NFE, and HAE-1 efflux pumps in Gram-negative bacteria: a comprehensive phylogenetic and ecological approach.

The three primary resistance-nodulation-cell division (RND) efflux pump families (heavy metal efflux [HME], nodulation factor exporter [NFE], and hydrophobe/amphiphile efflux-1 [HAE-1]) are almost exclusively found in Gram-negative bacteria and play a major role in resistance against metals and bacterial biocides, including antibiotics. Despite their significant societal interest, their evolutionary history and environmental functions are poorly understood. Here, we conducted a comprehensive phylogenetic and ecological study of the RND permease, the subunit responsible for the substrate specificity of these efflux pumps. From 920 representative genomes of Gram-negative bacteria, we identified 6205 genes encoding RND permeases with an average of 6.7 genes per genome. The HME family, which is involved in metal resistance, corresponds to a single clade (21.8% of all RND pumps), but the HAE-1 and NFE families had overlapping distributions among clades. We propose to restrict the HAE-1 family to two phylogenetic sister clades, representing 41.8% of all RND pumps and grouping most of the RND pumps involved in multidrug resistance. Metadata associated with genomes, analyses of previously published metagenomes, and quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) analyses confirmed a significant increase in genes encoding HME permeases in metal-contaminated environments. Interestingly, and possibly related to their role in root colonization, genes encoding HAE-1 permeases were particularly abundant in the rhizosphere. In addition, we found that the genes encoding these HAE-1 permeases are significantly less abundant in marine environments, whereas permeases of a new proposed HAE-4 family are predominant in the genomes of marine strains. These findings emphasize the critical role of the RND pumps in bacterial resistance and adaptation to diverse ecological niches.

Climate acts as an environmental filter to plant pathogens.

Climate shapes the distribution of plant-associated microbes such as mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi. However, the role of climate in plant pathogen community assembly is less understood. Here, we explored the role of climate in the assembly of Phytophthora communities at >250 sites along a latitudinal gradient from Spain to northern Sweden and an altitudinal gradient from the Spanish Pyrenees to lowland areas. Communities were detected by ITS sequencing of river filtrates. Mediation analysis supported the role of climate in the biogeography of Phytophthora and ruled out other environmental factors such as geography or tree diversity. Comparisons of functional and species diversity showed that environmental filtering dominated over competitive exclusion in Europe. Temperature and precipitation acted as environmental filters at different extremes of the gradients. In northern regions, winter temperatures acted as an environmental filter on Phytophthora community assembly, selecting species adapted to survive low minimum temperatures. In southern latitudes, a hot dry climate was the main environmental filter, resulting in communities dominated by drought-tolerant Phytophthora species with thick oospore walls, a high optimum temperature for growth, and a high maximum temperature limit for growth. By taking a community ecology approach, we show that the establishment of Phytophthora plant pathogens in Europe is mainly restricted by cold temperatures.

Valuing conservation and socio-environmental services on an Amazon frontier: the Extractive Reserves of the Terra do Meio

In the Brazilian Amazon, forest conservation has relied on the presence of 'traditional communities' and Indigenous peoples to secure legally demarcated protected areas from deforestation and biodiversity degradation. Facing pressures for land-use change from a rapidly encroaching frontier of resource extraction and commodity production, there is no guarantee that Indigenous peoples or traditional communities will continue to occupy these forests or continue to fulfill the role of forest protectors except under certain conditions. In this article, we detail the case of the extractive reserves of the Terra do Meio and consider what conditions would be needed for traditional communities to continue to occupy and protect protected areas. Employing an agrarian political ecology approach, we draw on years of ethnographic research in this area to argue that forest peasant livelihoods, which revolve around the forest areas of use, produce both ecological and cultural diversity in the forest. We term this socio-ecological arrangement the productive system of the colocação, the system and geographies of forest peasant livelihoods that upholds and is upheld by diverse socio-ecological relationships. Contemporary forest conservation regimes, however, have largely failed to incentivize and value these forest peasant livelihoods in ways that would sustain them in the face of commoditizing frontier pressures. Any mechanisms that pay for forest conservation should remunerate communities for their entire socio-ecological relationships, those relationships that are upheld through forest peasant livelihoods, not simply their products. We propose an approach to valuing forest communities' socio-environmental services, and we argue that such valuation would be more effective for conservation and cultural/ecological diversity than existing proposals for payments for ecosystem services (PES).

Deliberative ecologies: a relational critique of deliberative systems

AbstractThis paper advocates a move beyond the systemic approach in the field of Deliberative Democracy. It argues that the notion ofdeliberative ecologycan deliver the necessary conceptual elements that deliberative democrats seek in deliberative systems without some of the problems they either overlook or embrace. To advocate the advantages of an ecological perspective to deliberation, the article focuses on six axes of comparison: (i) performances of actants (instead of functions of arenas and players); (ii) articulations and translations (instead of transmission); (iii) vulnerabilities (instead of pathologies and dysfunctions); (iv) practice (instead of institutionally-oriented design); (v) diverse temporalities (instead of linear temporality) and; (vi) hologram-based analysis (instead of systemic analysis). In a nutshell, the article claims that the ecological approach to deliberation has the advantage of conceptualizing an ever-changing web of relations of interdependency, which connects diverse entities that are either relevant to a public discussion or that hinder its enactment.

Xenosociology: Meeting the Predator in the Theory of Val Plumwood

Plumwood as a famous eco feminist, Delveaux (2001) had influenced the analyses inside the ecological ethic and deep ecology, and formed specific approach in ecological disputes, defined as ecosophy (Warren, 1996), involving ecological approach as inherent to human, especially female nature. Female attributes are celebrated, since they can influence the development of feminist ethic, as care ethic, global care ethic (Adam, 2004). This form of ethic influenced development of animal ethic, or Xeno Ethic in her works. Disputes around the position of female identity, (especially inherent to an educated professor such as herself), are caused by her encounter with the crocodile in Cacadu national park; after she was assured that she can use canoe in that area, safely. Val Plumwood, with her book Meeting the predator, had influenced the changes in discussions about animal ethics, transpecism, and the importance of human body and environment, that involves different forms of organisms, from predators to dangerous and exotic plants, that can also be seen as xeno organism threatening the life.

Functionalisms and the Philosophy of Action

ABSTRACTFocusing on the recent work of Michael Bratman as emblematic of several important developments in the philosophy of action, I raise four questions that engage with a set of interlocking concerns about systemic functionalism in the philosophy of action. These questions are: (i) Are individual and institutional intentions the same kind of thing? (ii) Can the risk of proliferation of systemic functional explanations be managed? (iii) Is there an appealing basis for the apparent methodological individualism in our theories of action and agency? and (iv) Why not, instead, pursue a methodologically anti‐individualist and ecological approach to action and agency? The latter alternative, I suggest, offers a promising way to retain many of the core insights of the Bratmanian project while avoiding the difficulties inherent to some of the methodological presumptions of some strands of contemporary philosophy of action.

How Can Accounting Reformulate the Debate on Natural Capital and Help Implement Its Ecological Approach?

This study resituates the notion of Natural Capital (NC) in a cosmological perspective and mobilizes accounting theory to propose a fresh approach to the concept. Thus, we firstly offer a critical analysis of NC to clarify the differences between its (capitalist) economic and ecological approaches. To do this, we perform a “Latourian” anthropological analysis of the mainstream notion of capital, repositioned in the Modern cosmology, as well as the notion of “Ecology.” We show that the mainstream use of NC is incompatible with an ecological perspective, even in the case of Economic “Strong Sustainability.” As an outcome, this study renews the critical analysis of Strong versus Weak sustainability. We then connect this debate with the concept of capital in “Traditional” Accounting (TA). We argue that TA theory provides a relevant framework to structure the debate on NC and to implement an ecological conceptualization of this notion. At the corporate level, in particular, the difference between a capitalist and an ecological NC relies on the difference between a debit (economic) and a credit (accounting) concept of capital. This study so proposes an extension of the “classical” accounting practices in historical costs to a more ecological vision of NC, linking accounting practices understood by current corporate stakeholders to ecological requirements. By doing this, we want to open a potential path of research in ecological economics and accounting based on an alternative perspective on NC.

The Problem of Coordination in Movement and Art

In this paper, I explore the possibility that the creation of art involves a version of the coordination problem that lies at the center of the ecological approach to movement. Both movement and art require finely coordinated adjustments to a large number of interrelated components, and in most cases, the complexity of this task is such that the solution—the specific coordination that is sought—cannot be formulated beforehand. In addition, I propose that in both movement and art, the process of coordination is guided by a single property, such that the maximization of this property leads to a maximally effective coordination.