Ecological Law Research Articles

Ecologically-sustainable futures for large-scale renewables and how to get there

To arrive at a sustainable future we need offshore renewables to succeed, and to do so we need to work together. There have been ecological showstoppers in the past and there will be again in the future unless we can co-design devices, array layouts and site locations of multiple very large-scale developments such that cumulative ecological effects can be assessed and conflicts with ecological laws, local communities and fishing industries be minimized. In order to effectively spatially manage our marine habitats, weigh-up ecological trade-offs and avoid/adapt to the worst effects of climate change, we need all those involved to understand, at some degree of detail, how our marine ecosystems function such that impact mitigation efforts can start at the design stage of devices and developments. This paper outlines a straightforward way to convey the most important environmental issues that are concerning renewables developments, as well as in the context of climate change, and at the scales of individuals and ecosystems. It covers a range of suggestions for the design of data collection, analysis and modelling frameworks to deal with these concerns and finishes with suggestions for potential avenues for future collaboration between ecological and engineering sciences.

Variance in Landscape Connectivity Shifts Microbial Population Scaling.

Understanding mechanisms shaping distributions and interactions of soil microbes is essential for determining their impact on large scale ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation, waste decomposition, and nutrient cycling. As the functional unit of soil ecosystems, we focus our attention on the spatial structure of soil macroaggregates. Emulating this complex physico-chemical environment as a patchy habitat landscape we investigate on-chip the effect of changing the connectivity features of this landscape as Escherichia coli forms a metapopulation. We analyze the distributions of E. coli occupancy using Taylor's law, an empirical law in ecology which asserts that the fluctuations in populations is a power law function of the mean. We provide experimental evidence that bacterial metapopulations in patchy habitat landscapes on microchips follow this law. Furthermore, we find that increased variance of patch-corridor connectivity leads to a qualitative transition in the fluctuation scaling. We discuss these results in the context of the spatial ecology of microbes in soil.

“There Is No ‘Away:’” Ecological Fact as Jewish Theological Problem

The “second law of ecology”—that all matter remains part of the earthly ecosystem—poses a theological challenge to Jewish monotheisms. Climate change has further underscored the urgency of understanding and acting in light of the interconnected materiality of the world. Yet Jewish theological discourse has remained largely detached from broader planetary conditions and from the metabolization of these conditions in the environmental humanities. The few contemporary Jewish theologians who recognize ecological crisis as worthy of comment have largely responded to it by propping up apologetic accounts of Jewish theology and ethics that rely on a construction of the divine as outside of the world. I argue that ecological crisis reveals the inadequacy of extant approaches to Jewish theology, which either promote ethical monotheism and a stewardship model of relation to the nonhuman world or claim to promote divine immanence while nonetheless reinscribing human dominion.

Briefly about the emergence of anthropogenic land transformation in Azerbaijan; types and characteristics of anthropogenic impacts

The study of the anthropogenic transformation of land in Azerbaijan began with the study of the directions of changes in irrigated lands. Studies show that when ignoring the laws of soil and ecology, anthropogenic influences lead to the fact that the lands in Azerbaijan, as elsewhere on earth, are subjected to various degrees of degradation. Uncontrolled and intensive grazing of cattle on high and medium mountain areas, on the borders of summer pastures with forests, has led to a decrease in the upper borders of forests, increased erosion processes, high water and flash flooding. Soil degradation in many regions of the Azerbaijan, including the Jeyranchol plain, has created important economic, biological, environmental, and other problems. Based on the conducted research, it was determined that about 80% of the land resources of Azerbaijan have been subjected to natural and anthropogenic degradation to some extent.

Laws of Ecology and Their Promise of Explanations

A number of ecologists have put forward various proposals that ecology has laws, yet they have not explicated what role laws play in ecological explanations. Marcel Weber (1999), Lev Ginzburg and Mark Colyvan (2004) correct this deficiency and also make their case for laws of ecology: the principle of competitive exclusion and Malthus’s law of exponential growth respectively. According to Weber, the principle of competitive exclusion explains phenomena (1) by direct application, or (2) by describing a default state from which observed phenomena deviate and mechanisms are called to account for the discrepancy. Independently of Weber, Ginzburg and Colyvan articulate a role similar to (2) for Malthus’s law. I argue that Weber’s proposition of explanation by direct application is not consistent with Gause’s account of “bottle experiments” that he uses to support it and does not do justice to ecologists’ explanatory practice. To address these problems, I articulate an alternative account of explanation by direct application—the covering-law model—based on a proposal by Elgin and Sober (2002) and show that even in this proposal mechanisms play a key explanatory role. I also demonstrate how the covering-law model accounts for how Malthus’s law can explain by direct application and for its role of descriptor of a default state. Finally, I argue that the views on laws as components in covering-law model explanations or as descriptors of default states do not give sufficient attention to the prominent explanatory role of mechanisms and to the demanding task of identifying and describing them, and ought to be corrected.

Ecological network complexity scales with area.

Larger geographical areas contain more species-an observation raised to a law in ecology. Less explored is whether biodiversity changes are accompanied by a modification of interaction networks. We use data from 32 spatial interaction networks from different ecosystems to analyse how network structure changes with area. We find that basic community structure descriptors (number of species, links and links per species) increase with area following a power law. Yet, the distribution of links per species varies little with area, indicating that the fundamental organization of interactions within networks is conserved. Our null model analyses suggest that the spatial scaling of network structure is determined by factors beyond species richness and the number of links. We demonstrate that biodiversity-area relationships can be extended from species counts to higher levels of network complexity. Therefore, the consequences of anthropogenic habitat destruction may extend from species loss to wider simplification of natural communities.

The model of the «environment» concept in ecological law of Russia (the end)

The model of the «environment» concept in ecological law of Russia (the end)

The model of the «environment» concept in ecological law of Russia

The model of the «environment» concept in ecological law of Russia

“Глобальное потепление” и энергетический переход (внешнеэкономический аспект)

Last 10‒15 years ‘global warming’ is presented as the main threat to humanity, allegedly more dangerous than a possible nuclear catastrophe. To counteract ‘climate change’ an energy transit mechanism has been launched on national and international levels. Among its aims ‒ phasing out traditional energy resources, reducing output of other products with an intensive carbon emission, forced despite the costs, transition to renewable energy resources. To achieve these aims a lot of measures are examined including EU possible applying the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism which may be interpreted as a trade war instrument. Many such measures contradict the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) the aims of which were formulated as to avoid dangers for production and sustainable growth especially for developing countries. One-sided energy transition may destabilize the situation at world markets and destroy international trade system based on WTO principles. Possible counteractions of Russia should be determined first of all by the aims of supporting its competiveness. This implies in particular the use of traditional energy resources (oil, gas, coal) in Russian economy as long as possible. Critical attitude to the prevailing international climate agenda does not mean that the author underestimates the importance of environmental issues for Russia. The close-down of many factories after the collapse of the Soviet Union diminished pollution in some places. But new dangers have appeared ‒ privately owned vehicles, urban solid waste, abandoned farmersʹ lands, ill-conceived and even criminal lodging construction. Speaking of numerous environmental and biodiversity metrics, our country fails to keep pace with advanced standarts. Even under Western sanctions Russia should increase financial outlets in order to improve environmental situation in the country. More effective ecological laws are badly needed not only in industry and transport but also in regional and municipal development.

Species–area relationships of the Aegean, a comparative approach between six taxa

Islands occupy a proportionately small area on Earth, however they play a crucial role in Ecology and Biogeography, as they constitute “natural laboratories”. The increased number of species, with increasing island area, is such a commonly observed pattern that it has been labelled as one of the few laws of ecology. The Aegean archipelago is of broad biogeographical interest, as it has a considerable number of islands in addition to a rich paleogeographical and geological history, while being divided among three continents (Europe, Asia, Africa). As a result, the composition of life in the Aegean is dominated by species of European, Asian, African origin as well as species endemic in the archipelago. In this framework, we approached the species–area relationship (SAR) of the Aegean islands for six different organismic groups (birds, herptiles, snails, isopods, tenebrionids and chilopods) and 20 different models. The aim was to determine which model(s) perform better for each taxon and also to compare the z and C parameters of the power model between animal groups, which are the only model parameters to date that have been linked with biological processes. We compared the relationship across different taxa for the entire archipelago and for the exact same islands, in two subgroups with similar paleogeographic history and environmental conditions in the central and eastern Aegean. For the taxonomic groups that were examined a strong correlation between the number of species and area was found, except for chilopods and herptiles. Although there is no universal best model for the SAR of the Aegean, the power model performed better for invertebrates, whereas concerning vertebrates there was more ambiguity in the shape of the relationship.

Papakū Makawalu and grounded theory: a combined and collective analysis for Hawai’i land stewardship—Honuaiākea

Kia’i (protectors) opposed to the building of a Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, a profoundly sacred site and ecologically vital one, impeded its construction to date. The sanctity of Mauna Kea and its implications for Hawai’i’s sovereignty and land ownership are central to the struggle, yet what are the Indigenous ecological laws of Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) that ground opposition to the Thirty Meter Telescope? To construct a land stewardship policy, the Edith Kanaka’ole Foundation leadership bridged Papakū Makawalu, a Kanaka Maoli methodology, with grounded theory. Edith Kanaka’ole Foundation leaders organized a series of events where experts collectively and individually merged the two methods to analyse chants. Our article presents a discussion of (a) the struggles over land use on Mauna Kea, (b) the processes for merging methodological traditions, and (c) reflections on Kīho’iho Kānāwai (restoring Kānāwai for Island Stewardship), the final document of Honuaiākea (Earth in Expanse).

Source, Partition and Ecological Risk of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Karst Underground River Environment, Southern China

As the main source of drinking water in the karst areas of southern China, underground rivers play an important supporting role in local economic and social development. However, due to the special aquifer structure in the karst areas of southern China, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can easily enter the water environment of underground rivers and cause serious pollution, which will affect the water quality safety. In this study, Qing-shui Spring underground river in Nanning city was selected as a representative of the typical underground river in southern China, and the pollution characteristics, source analysis, ecological risk assessment and diffusion law of PAHs were studied. The results showed that the total concentration of PAHs in groundwater and surface sediments was in the range of 282.42–464.88 ng/L and 400.14–1194.69 ng/g, respectively, and the overall concentrations of PAHs were below the moderate pollution level. Pollutant discharge and physical and chemical properties of PAHs caused the concentrations of PAHs to decrease gradually from upstream to downstream, but the proportion of high-cyclic PAHs increased gradually. According to the source analysis results of the ratio method, PAHs sources in groundwater were mainly biomass combustion sources in the upstream, oil sources in the middle and mixed sources in the downstream. Sediment and groundwater had some differences. The middle and upper reaches were the source of biomass combustion, while the middle and lower reaches were the mixed source. The ecological risk assessment results showed that the ecological risk of groundwater was at a moderate level, while the ecological risk of sediment was at a low level. Benzo[a]anthracene (BaA) and benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF) in groundwater and acenaphthylene (Acy) and fluoranthene (Flu) in sediment should be monitored intensively. Appropriate control measures should be put in place to prevent further pollution. Partition coefficients varied from 0.73 to 3.85 L/g in the sediment–water interface, increasing with the rise of PAH compounds. All of the organic carbon partition coefficients (Koc) in the sediment–water interface were higher than predicate values based on the typical model of equilibrium distribution; this indicated that PAHs were strongly adsorbed in the sediment. The linear free energy relationship coefficient between the Koc value and the n-octanol-water partition coefficient (Kow) was 0.85 but the slope was lower than 1, indicating that sediment in the Qing-shui Spring underground river had weak lipophilic characteristics and adsorption ability for PAHs. The results can provide a reference for the risk assessment and pollution control of PAHs in the karst underground rivers in South China.

THE CONSTRUCTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF LIEBIG’S LAW OF THE MINIMUM IN THE PARADIGM OF SYNTHESIS OF A NEURAL NETWORK SUBJECT STATE CLASSIFIER

Liebig's law of the minimum is one of the fundamental laws in ecology, which states that the most significant factor for the organism is the factor that deviates most from its optimal value and at the same time most significantly limits the successful life of the organism, being the weakest link in the chain of its ecologic needs. Therefore it is very important to identify the weak link in the life of organisms while classifying and predicting ecologic conditions. However, taking into account ambiguity of the factor influence, compensation of the influence of some factors by others, as well as the synergistic effect of influencing the result, Liebig's law should be considered as a law operating under conditions of a high degree of uncertainty, which makes it difficult to apply it effectively in some cases. The purpose of the article is to find a deterministic relationship of input factors with an objective function (a set of indicators of the study subject state), which involves the synthesis of an ensemble of neural network models with forced learning on retrospective data examples, to ensure their adequacy, performance and accuracy, to create an algorithm for modifying the value of input factors for a given class the state of the study subject for a pragmatic, highly effective use of Liebig's law in practice. In the paper it is considered a technology for quantitative evaluation of the determining force of influencing factors on the organism state based on the synthesis of an ensemble of adequate models of the relationship between the space of input factors and the state of the study subject. A quantitative differential evaluation of the influence of input factors on the state of the subject was carried out; the adaptation of input factors to the objective state of the study subject was algorithmized. It expands the possibilities of practical application of the Liebig’s law of the minimum, both in the quantitative evaluation of problematic ecologic factors, and in their variations to achieve the required state of the subject. The invariance of the developed technology for the quantitative evaluation of the determining force of the input factors to the features of the subject area has been established, which makes it possible to extend the obtained results to the animal and plant world and emphasizes the universality of the provisions of Liebig's law

Ecological Linkages between a Biofilm Ecosystem and Reactor Performance: The Specificity of Biofilm Development Phases.

In biofilm-based engineered ecosystems, the reactor performance was closely linked to interspecies interactions within a biofilm ecosystem, whereas the ecological processes underpinning such linkage were still unenlightened. Herein, the principles of community succession and assembly were integrated to capture the ecological laws of biofilm development by molecular ecological networks and assembly model analysis based on the 16S rRNA sequencing analysis and metagenomics in a well-controlled moving bed biofilm reactor. At the initial colonization phase (days 0-2, driven by initial colonizers), interspecific cooperation (74.18%) facilitated initial biofilm formation, whereas some pioneers, and keystone species disappeared at later phases. At the accumulation phase (days 3-30, rapid biofilm development), interspecific cooperation (81.41 ± 5.07%) contributed to rapid biofilm development and keystone species were mainly involved in quorum sensing or positively correlated with extracellular polymeric substance production. At the maturation phase (days 31-106, a well-adapted quasi-equilibrium state), increased interspecific competition (32.74 ± 4.77%) and higher small-world property facilitated the rapid information transportation and pollutant treatment, and keystone species were positively correlated with the removal of COD and NH4+-N. Homogenizing dispersal diminished the contemporary community dissimilarities, while turnover but rather nestedness governed the temporal variations in the biofilm succession period. This study highlighted the specificity of ecological processes at distinct biofilm development phases, which would advance our understanding on the development-to-function linkages in biofilm-based treatment processes.

Nature protection law of Ukraine in the context of globalization challenges

law of Ukraine in the context of globalization challenges. Attention is focused on both the opportunities and the constraints associatedwith globalization, in its impact on the development trends of nature protection law in Ukraine. This branch of Ukrainian law asa whole is formed, both in the general norms of ecological law, as well as in the land, water, subsoil, forest, floristic legislation, andalso in the territorial planning legislation. At the same time, new globalization challenges related to the need to address nature conservationand biodiversity protection are prompting an increasingly active shift in the legal regulation of relevant relations from the localand national to the international level. And nature protection legislation in its development must take into account appropriate approa -ches. The general structural and systemic factors of the Ukrainian national legislation cannot be neglected. The article analyzes Ukraine's participation in international cooperation in the field of nature protection and biodiversity conservation. Important factors that motivateUkraine’s environmental law to further development are related to Ukraine’s European integration. One of the main aspects ofUkraine's implementation of the Association Agreement is the approximation of Ukrainian legislation to EU law. Moreover, "natureprotection, in particular biological and landscape diversity (eco-networks) conservation and protection" stands out among the principalareas of environmental cooperation between Ukraine and the EU. International and European environmental requirements cannot beimplemented mechanically, but thoughtfully, comprehensively analyzing the possible consequences for the law-making and lawenforcementsphere of Ukraine. It is from such positions that the article critically evaluates the Draft Law of Ukraine "On the Territoriesof the Emerald Network" in order to fulfill the Ukrainian obligations under the Association Agreement.

Species Composition of Microbiota in City Buses

Introduction: Regulatory documents of the Russian sanitary legislation provide no standardization of microbiological indicators for urban public transportation. At the same time, extensive studies of public transport microbiome conducted in different countries demonstrated that the external environment (stations and platforms) and the interior of vehicles contain a large number of various microorganisms, the number of which is independent of air temperature, route duration, or the number of passengers. The objective of our work was to study the species composition of microbiota in urban buses and to assess its structure using methods of synecological and epidemiological analysis. Methods: We analyzed wipe samples from generally accessible bus interior surfaces. In total, 41 buses of 16 routes from three conditional groups (“Nagornaya” (Upland), “Zarechnaya” (Transverse) and “Interdistrict”) were examined. We applied methods of classical bacteriology, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for microorganism identification, and synecological analysis. Results and discussion: We identified 85 types of microorganisms, 15 of which were found in all groups of routes. The bus microbiota followed the same ecological laws as natural microbiocenoses. The greatest number of species was represented by genera Staphylococcus (16), Acinetobacter (11), Bacillus (11), Pseudomonas (8), and Pantoea (5). The majority of identified microorganisms belonged to genera Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, and Pantoea. Among 15 species of microorganisms “common” to three groups of buses, 60 % were representatives of human microbiota. Microorganisms were found in large quantities on fabric seat backs (up to 18,600 CFU/cm3), seat back handles (up to 76,500 CFU/cm3), leather loop-holders (up to 6,400 CFU/cm3), and visually dirty surfaces (11,200 CFU/cm3). Conclusions: Our findings indicate the need to standardize microbiological indicators and develop guidelines for monitoring the efficiency of disinfection of interiors of public passenger vehicles.

ЕКОКОНЦЕПТИ У ЦИКЛІ РОМАНІВ ДЖ. МАРТІНА «ПІСНЯ ЛЬОДУ І ПОЛУМ’Я» В АСПЕКТІ ЇХНЬОГО ПЕРЕКЛАДУ УКРАЇНСЬКОЮ МОВОЮ

The formation of the present-day translation discourse is stipulated by the influence of interdisciplinary research, including the development of environmental discipline in the humanities, in the connection with which the emergence of the ecology of translation is natural and relevant. The work contains the results of the analysis of the dynamics vectors of ecosences embodied by a number ecoconcepts by means of their implementation in the series of novels by J. Martin "A Song of Ice and Fire " in its translation into Ukrainian. The study is based on the laws of the present-day linguistic ecology and the theory of harmonization of the translation space. In accordance with the positive dynamics vector of translation the harmonization of the translation space is achieved by preserving the identifies ecosences. In accordance with negative dynamics vector of translation the harmonization of the translation space is not achieved: ecosences are lost.

Trait means or variance-What determines plant species' local and regional occurrence in fragmented dry grasslands?

One of the few laws in ecology is that communities consist of few common and many rare taxa. Functional traits may help to identify the underlying mechanisms of this community pattern, since they correlate with different niche dimensions. However, comprehensive studies are missing that investigate the effects of species mean traits (niche position) and intraspecific trait variability (ITV, niche width) on species abundance. In this study, we investigated fragmented dry grasslands to reveal trait‐occurrence relationships in plants at local and regional scales. We predicted that (a) at the local scale, species occurrence is highest for species with intermediate traits, (b) at the regional scale, habitat specialists have a lower species occurrence than generalists, and thus, traits associated with stress‐tolerance have a negative effect on species occurrence, and (c) ITV increases species occurrence irrespective of the scale. We measured three plant functional traits (SLA = specific leaf area, LDMC = leaf dry matter content, plant height) at 21 local dry grassland communities (10 m × 10 m) and analyzed the effect of these traits and their variation on species occurrence. At the local scale, mean LDMC had a positive effect on species occurrence, indicating that stress‐tolerant species are the most abundant rather than species with intermediate traits (hypothesis 1). We found limited support for lower specialist occurrence at the regional scale (hypothesis 2). Further, ITV of LDMC and plant height had a positive effect on local occurrence supporting hypothesis 3. In contrast, at the regional scale, plants with a higher ITV of plant height were less frequent. We found no evidence that the consideration of phylogenetic relationships in our analyses influenced our findings. In conclusion, both species mean traits (in particular LDMC) and ITV were differently related to species occurrence with respect to spatial scale. Therefore, our study underlines the strong scale‐dependency of trait‐abundance relationships.

Agricultural land use disrupts biodiversity mediation of virus infections in wild plant populations.

Summary Human alteration of natural habitats may change the processes governing species interactions in wild communities. Wild populations are increasingly impacted by agricultural intensification, yet it is unknown whether this alters biodiversity mediation of disease dynamics.We investigated the association between plant diversity (species richness, diversity) and infection risk (virus richness, prevalence) in populations of Plantago lanceolata in natural landscapes as well as those occurring at the edges of cultivated fields. Altogether, 27 P. lanceolata populations were surveyed for population characteristics and sampled for PCR detection of five recently characterized viruses.We find that plant species richness and diversity correlated negatively with virus infection prevalence. Virus species richness declined with increasing plant diversity and richness in natural populations while in agricultural edge populations species richness was moderately higher, and not associated with plant richness. This difference was not explained by changes in host richness between these two habitats, suggesting potential pathogen spill‐over and increased transmission of viruses across the agro‐ecological interface. Host population connectivity significantly decreased virus infection prevalence.We conclude that human use of landscapes may change the ecological laws by which natural communities are formed with far reaching implications for ecosystem functioning and disease.

The Framework of Ecological Law

Environmental law has always been hampered by its reductionist approach to the natural environment or more precisely, to the human-nature relationship. In contrast, ecological law would encourage us to think about the law from an Earth-centered perspective. But even more than thinking about the legal issues, ecological law reflects and advocates a changed mindset. We need to develop a mindset that is conscious of what has worked in the past and what promises to work in the future. This could be addressed through development of eco-centric law, inclusion of eco-centric grundnorm, transforming law and governance, and institutionalizing trusteeship governance. At the end, it is proposed that ecological law would frame our thinking in a way that reflects not only the traditional values of connectedness with nature, but equally leading cutting-edge sciences of today such as ecology, earth system science and health sciences.