Ecological Limits Research Articles

Silicon supplementation mitigates salinity stress on Ocimum basilicum L. via improving water balance, ion homeostasis, and antioxidant defense system

Salinity is a key worldwide ecological restriction to sustainable crop production and food security. Various methods were used for inducing salinity tolerance including biotechnological approaches or application of stress tolerance-inducing substances. Silicon supplementation has a decisive role in alleviating of salinity injury, however, the definite mechanisms behind stay scantily understood, and must be examined. The imperative roles of sodium metasilicate (Si, 100 ppm) application methods (foliar spraying at 100 mg/l; soil additive at 100 mg/kg soil; foliar spraying at 100 mg/l plus soil additive at 100 mg/kg soil), in improving growth and essential oil yield, maintaining water status, activating antioxidant system, and keeping ion homeostasis of salt affected-sweet basil (6000 mg NaCl/kg soil) were studied. Salinity induced a notable increase in oxidative biomarkers, coupled with higher osmolyte concentration and osmotic potential (OP) values, as well as increased superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities. Alternatively, sweet basil growth, essential oil yield, and catalase activity were reduced under salinity. Furthermore, salinity aggravated ion imbalance, decreased photosynthetic pigment and disrupted the plants' water status. Silicon application drastically increased osmolyte accumulation associated with sustained water status, increased OP, and improved osmotic adjustment (OA) capacity. Additionally, Si application enhanced antioxidant aptitude associated with decreased oxidative biomarkers and improved growth, photosynthetic pigment, and essential oil yield. Greater outcomes were achieved with the foliar spraying method, compared with other application methods. Salinity stress evoked modification in protein assimilation capacity and possibly will withdraw protein biosynthesis and reduce total protein band number; however, Si application may adjust the expression of salinity inducible proteins. Foliar spraying of Si with or without soil additive accelerates the expression of peroxidase isozyme over salinized or control plants. Collectively, Si foliar spraying alleviated salinity-related injuries on sweet basil by maintaining water status, increasing osmolyte assimilation, improving OA, enhancing redox homeostasis, and antioxidant capacity.

Corona's Bio-Economic Crisis and the Post-Corona World

ABSTRACT While pandemics are pervasive, this is for the first time that the capitalist mode of production reached the outer limits of biology, biosphere, ecology, economy, geography, and international relations in unison resulting in an all-encompassing crises that devastated the entire planet. The upshot of this pandemic has overwhelmed the infrastructure of public health across the globe with stunning speed and with infections in millions in just a few months and the velocity of economic damage and devastation much worse than the Great Depression of the last century. It is also the “proof of the pudding” for the “conquest of mode of production”—à la Marx and against the view of majority on the left that incorrectly identify globalization as neoliberalism—i.e., holding a doctrine as an epoch. It is implicit that this crisis must alarm those assembling within the Cox-Robinson group in heterodox international relations theory that seemingly holds unto a mirage of “neoliberal international order”—amounting to self-delusion that indeed may have its own Catch-22. Precise periodization of capitalism is inseparable from value theory. This paper underscores the authenticity of value-theoretic periodization toward the identity of our epoch.

Can tourism contribute to environmentally sustainable development? Arguments from an ecological limits perspective

Due to its potential to deliver economic benefits without major extractive activities, tourism is often considered as a means to sustainable development. However, there is inadequate problematization of the environmental impact of tourism in existing tourism research. A major weakness of the sustainable tourism discourse is the negligence of relatively well-known ecological principles of limits, entropy, and Jevons paradox. This selective review puts forth the argument of ecological limits to inform tourism sustainability research and advances two hypotheses for further problematization of the concept and future research. Consequently, it is argued that with the accelerating impoverishment of the biosphere, tourism could only meaningfully contribute to environmentally sustainable development by pivoting away from incremental solutions and by embracing the idea of transformative change through concepts such as degrowth and planetary limits.

Two-Stage Super-Efficiency Slacks-Based Model to Assess China's Ecological Wellbeing.

As industrialization and urbanization in China have significantly increased ecological problems such as environmental pollution and resource waste, it has become important to be able to comprehensively assess ecological wellbeing performance (EWP) when seeking high-quality human wellbeing and economic growth within specific ecological limits. Therefore, to explore the EWP spatial and temporal distribution characteristics, this paper established an evaluation index system that considers ecological economic efficiency and economic welfare efficiency from input and output perspectives. The EWPs in 30 Chinese provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) from 2006 to 2017 were then measured using a two-stage super-efficiency slacks-based model (Super-SBM) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) window analysis method. It was found that: (1) the average EWP value in the Chinese provinces was relatively low at 0.698, with the highest EWP in Beijing, Hainan, and Shanghai and the lowest in Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Qinghai; (2) the average provincial EWP fluctuated from 2006 to 2017 with a “decline-rise-decline-rise” feature; (3) China’s EWP value was spatially supported by the quadrangular “Beijing-Shanghai-Hainan-Sichuan” pole and continued to radiate to areas along these lines. These research findings provide theoretical insights and practical implications for regional ecological protection and human welfare improvements in China.

Application of a New Species‐Richness Based Flow Ecology Framework for Assessing Flow Reduction Effects on Aquatic Communities

AbstractWater‐resources managers are challenged with maintaining a balance among beneficial uses throughout river networks and need robust means of assessing potential risks to aquatic life resulting from flow alterations. This study generated ecological limit functions from species‐streamflow relations to quantify potential fish richness response to flow alteration and compared results to currently accepted streamflow management guidelines. Modeled responses of absolute richness change were watershed specific and varied among sample sets derived from hydrologic unit classifications of different sizes (large HUC 6 basins to regional scale HUC 8). With a 20% flow reduction, 10% of HUC 8 predicted a richness decrease in one or more taxa. While absolute richness change was consistent across streams within a HUC, percent richness change was stream size dependent. Comparisons with Instream Flow Incremental Methodology habitat models predicted habitat loss greater than percent richness change; however, predictions for habitat and richness decreased similarly as stream size decreased. Watershed‐specific responses from flow reductions could allow water‐resources management decisions to be made locally based on the predicted richness change for certain sized streams. Quantitative results highlight the utility of a richness‐based framework for generating watershed‐specific risk assessments that validate and inform currently employed water‐resources management practices.

Globalization, electricity consumption and ecological footprint: An autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) approach

In light of the growing need for countries to stay within their ecological limits, this paper examines how the current wave of globalization and electricity consumption drive human demands on ecological resources for Ghana from 1971−2016. Having accounted for structural breaks, the evidence from the Autoregressive Distributive Lag bound test shows that there is a long-run association between the variables. The results reveal that globalization positively and significantly stimulates the ecological footprint. More specifically, economic and social globalization inspire the ecological footprint whiles political globalization improves the environmental sustainability by exerting a reducing effect on the ecological footprint. We further demonstrate that electricity consumption particularly from fossil-fuel based energy source deteriorates the environmental quality. Moreover, economic growth and urbanization contribute to environmental degradation. Furthermore, the causality results disclose the feedback hypothesis between ecological footprint and electricity consumption and a one-way causal relationship running from globalization to ecological footprint. Some policy insights are elucidated premised on the evidence presented.

Elfgen: A New Instream Flow Framework for Rapid Generation and Optimization of Flow–Ecology Relations

AbstractEffective water resource management requires practical, data‐driven determination of instream flow needs. Newly developed, high‐resolution flow models and aquatic species databases provide enormous opportunity, but the volume of data can prove challenging to manage without automated tools. The objective of this study was to develop a framework of analytical methods and best practices to reduce costs of entry into flow–ecology analysis by integrating widely available hydrologic and ecological datasets. Ecological limit functions (ELFs) describing the relation between maximum species richness and stream size characteristics (streamflow or drainage area) were developed. Species richness is expected to increase with streamflow through a watershed up to a point where it either plateaus or transitions to a decreasing trend in larger streams. Our results show that identifying the location of this "breakpoint" is critical for producing optimal ELF model fit. We found that richness breakpoints can be estimated using automated low‐supervision methods, with high‐supervision providing negligible improvement in detection accuracy. Model fit (and predictive capability) was found to be superior in smaller hydrologic units. The ELF model ("elfgen" R package available on GitHub: https://github.com/HARPgroup/elfgen) can be used to generate ELFs using built‐in datasets for the conterminous United States, or applied anywhere else streamflow and biodiversity data inputs are available.

Target Ecological Limits and Not Economic Growth

Economic growth has both benefits and detriments for the sustainability of human flourishing. Economic growth has resulted in increased natural resource utilisation and discharges of emissions and wastes, which is worrying from a sustainability perspective. However, economic growth is intrinsically not a bad thing. It has many beneficial aspects, in particular the increasing supply of necessary goods and services that are needed to facilitate the flourishing of a growing human population. Furthermore, all types of economic growth are not necessarily impacting negatively on the natural environment. The key point is that global policy should not simply target economic growth with the aim of constraining it and striving for negative growth as a means to solving environmental sustainability concerns. This paper outlines the concept of ecological limits associated with natural resource utilisation and discharge of harmful emissions and wastes. It suggests that, instead of targeting economic growth, policies should target specific natural resource utilisation and emission discharge rates that exceed their ecological limits. Action plans should be developed and implemented using socioeconomic and technological approaches that try to bring these specific utilisations or discharges back to within their ecological limits. This may impact negatively on economic growth in the short to medium term but it is targeting specific resources and emissions that are unsustainable and the economic growth associated with them only. In the longer term, these actions may facilitate economic growth, while remaining within ecological limits.

Dendritic microborings in brachiopod shells from the Silurian of the Barrandian area, Czech Republic

Four types of dendritic microborings preserved as natural casts were observed on the surfaces of brachiopod shells from the Silurian in Central Bohemia: Rhopalondendrina jakubinka isp. nov., ? Clionolithes isp., and an indeterminate dendrinid are of Llandovery (Aeronian) age, Clionolithes amoebae isp. nov. is of Ludlow (Gorstian) age. Rhopalondendrina jakubinka forms a dense plexus of thin rhizoidal tunnels extending from a broad and curved entrance tunnel. ? Clionolithes isp. forms characteristically rarely branching thin meandering tunnels with a globular central node, while C. amoebae forms rosette-like microborings with sinuously curved primary branches and scarce lateral branches of smaller size. Microborings are present both on outer and inner surfaces of shells; their location and number confirm massive infestation of dead shells which were exposed on the sea floor for long time intervals and which were not affected by mechanical abrasion of the shells. This indicates narrow ecological limits for these endobionts, most likely within the deeper euphotic zone.

Lake expansion elevates equilibrium diversity via increasing colonization

AbstractAimRates of colonization, speciation and extinction determine species richness and endemism in insular systems. The general dynamic model of island biogeography (GDM) predicts that speciation and extinction rates depend on island area and elevation via their control on ecological limits to diversification and therefore covary with an island's geological history. Additionally, the colonization rate may increase with area and elevation through the ‘target effect’, which can be mediated by reduced ‘environmental filtering’. Here we test whether the area and depth expansion of an island‐like ecosystem, a lake, caused a shift in diversity dynamics.LocationLake Biwa, Japan, whose geological history and biota are well documented.TaxonFishes.MethodsWe extended the phylogenetic island biogeography framework DAISIE (Dynamic Assembly of Island biota through Speciation, Immigration and Extinction) to accommodate time‐shifts in macroevolutionary rates and in carrying capacity. Using phylogenetic information on colonization and speciation times for the complete Lake Biwa fish community (70 taxa), we tested for a shift in macroevolutionary assembly rates and reconstructed the temporal diversity trajectory in the lake. We assessed the power to identify a shift through a wide range of scenarios and benchmarked against simulated fossil records.ResultsWe detected an increase in colonization rate of fishes at 0.2 million years ago (Ma), with limited support for the existence of ecological limits. The reconstructed diversity trajectory was close to a source‐sink equilibrium diversity prior to the shift and remained well below a new shift‐driven elevated equilibrium thereafter. We found sufficient power to identify an increase in colonization rate up to 1.5 Ma, whereas extinction concealed the signal of earlier shifts.Main conclusionsThe fish diversity dynamics of Lake Biwa show a response to changes in area and depth and phylogenies carry a signature of these changes. The detected increase in colonization rate following Lake Biwa's expansion, elevating the fish diversity, is unlikely due to a predicted increase in ecological limits feeding back on colonization rate. We therefore call for (additional) explanations: the target effect, whereby larger islands attract more species, and reduced environmental filtering due to higher habitat diversity associated with increased lake area/depth.

Comparative Germination Ecology of Two Endemic Rhaponticum Species (Asteraceae) in Different Climatic Zones of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps (Piedmont, Italy).

Comparative studies of seed germination of closely related taxa can help increase our understanding of the ecological limitations of cold-adapted plants and forecast how they might respond to global warming. No studies exist on the relationship between thermoclimatic belts that classify mountain life zones according to bioclimatic criteria and the germination strategy of alpine plants. The aim of this study was to assess this relationship using two closely related species growing in different thermotypes and to test whether their germination responses were related to the climate at natural sites. Fresh Rhaponticum bicknellii and R. scariosum seeds were cold stratified for 0, 30, 60 and 90 days and tested for germination at 10, 15 and 20 °C. At the same time, seed burial experiments were run in the field and in the plant nursery. A GLM analysis showed that the length of cold stratification affected significantly only the germination of R. bicknellii seeds, while increasing temperatures prompted germination in both species. We found that R. bicknellii adopts a drought-avoiding germination strategy, while R. scariosum germination is favoured by warm temperatures. Our findings support the general view that alpine plants do not share common germination requirements and that any conclusions should be interpreted from a biogeographical and bioclimatic perspective. Therefore, seed germination and seedling establishment of endemic alpine species can also be predicted by looking at the bioclimate of the species’ range.

The Earliest Ursine Bear Demonstrates the Origin of Plant-Dominated Omnivory in Carnivora.

SummaryIn Carnivora, increases in body size often lead to dietary specialization toward hypercarnivory. Ursine bears (Tremarctos and Ursus), however, are the only omnivorous Carnivora that evolved large body sizes (i.e., >50 kg). Traits contributing to their gigantism, and how those traits evolved, have never been studied. Here we propose that special dental characters of Ursinae (parallel buccal and lingual ridges) permit a sagittally oriented mastication associated with increasing emphasis on plant foods. This pattern can be traced back to a new early diverging bear of plant-dominated omnivorous diet, Aurorarctos tirawa gen. et sp. nov. from the late Middle Miocene of North America, which was supported as the earliest known ursine bear by phylogenetic analysis. The anatomical transition to increased masticatory efficiency, probably together with the ability to hibernate, helped bears break prior ecological limitations on body size and led to the evolution of a distinctive lineage of herbivorous-omnivorous, large-bodied Carnivora.

Diversity and structure preferences for ant-hemipteran mutualisms in cocoa trees (Theobroma cacao L., Sterculiaceae)

The aim of this study is to evaluate the diversity and specificity of ant-hemipteran mutualisms according to the different structures observed on cocoa trees. The experiment was carried out in two cocoa planting systems: cabruca and derruba total at Ilhéus, Brazil. We made observations and collected monthly over one year the mutualistic ants and hemipterans that occurred on Theobroma cacao L. trees. Observations were performed on cacao trees at three distinct sites of the plant: flowers, pods and leaf flush. We observed 932 ant-hemipteran associations, comprising 203 different mutualistic interactions. The assemblage was composed of 26 hemipteran species and 54 ant species. No differences were observed in the ant community, however, we found differences in the hemipteran community according to the different structure evaluated. We recorded a total of 404 trophobiosis events on pods, 394 on leaf flushes and 134 on flowers. Our results point out the diversity of ant-hemipteran trophobioses in the cocoa agrosystems resembles the diversity found in tropical forests and demonstrate that the location of interactions may result in ecological restrictions for some organisms involved in these trophobioses in cacao agrosystems.

Environmental sustainability of European production and consumption assessed against planetary boundaries

The planetary boundaries (PBs) represent a well-known concept, which helps identify whether production and consumption systems are environmentally sustainable in absolute terms, namely compared to the Earth's ecological limits and carrying capacity. In this study, the impacts of production and consumption of the European Union in 2010 were assessed by means of life cycle assessment (LCA)-based indicators and compared with the PBs. Five different perspectives were adopted for assessing the impacts: a production perspective (EU Domestic Footprint) and four distinct consumption perspectives, resulting from alternative modelling approaches including both top-down (input-output LCA) and bottom-up (process-based LCA). Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results were assessed against LCIA-based PBs, which adapted the PBs framework to the LCIA indicators and metrics of the Environmental Footprint method (EF). Global environmental impacts transgressed several LCIA-based PBs. When assessing the overall environmental impacts of EU consumption compared to the global LCIA-based PBs, impacts of EU consumption related to climate change, particulate matter, land use and mineral resources were close or already transgressed the global boundaries. The EU, with less than 10% of the world population, was close to transgress the global ecological limits. Moreover, when downscaling the global PBs and comparing the impacts per capita for an average EU citizen and a global one, the LCIA-PBs were significantly transgressed in many impact categories. The results are affected by uncertainty mainly due to: (a) the intrinsic uncertainties of the different LCA modelling approaches and indicators; (b) the uncertainties in estimating LCIA-based PBs, due to the difficulties in identifying limits for the Earth's processes and referring them to LCIA metrics. The results may anyway be used to define benchmarks and policy targets to ensure that consumption and production in Europe remains within safe ecological boundaries, as well as to understand the magnitude of the effort needed to reduce the impacts.

Have countries moved towards sustainable development or not? Definition, criteria, indicators and empirical analysis

Have countries moved towards sustainable development (SD) or not? To answer the question, first, a new SD definition, i.e. “Achieving higher and more equally distributed well-being levels within ecological limits”, is proposed. Second, based on the definition and from a global perspective, four criteria are established to judge whether countries have moved towards SD, which are: (1) well-being levels have been higher and more equally distributed; (2) levels of ecological consumption have been lower; (3) ecological capacities have strengthened; and (4) the Ultimate Efficiency, which is the efficiency of transforming ecological consumption into human well-being, has improved. Developing countries with ecological consumption below global average do not have to meet the second criterion. Third, the Happy and Equal Human Development Index, the Ecological Footprint and the Biocapacity are selected to measure human well-being, ecological consumption and ecological capacities, respectively and two consistent methods are used to measure the Ultimate Efficiency. The empirical analysis of 102 countries during 2011–2016 demonstrates that 19 countries have met the required four or three criteria and moved towards SD and that 12 countries have met none of the required criteria and moved against SD. The main contribution is to provide a clear SD definition, specific criteria and reliable indicators for measuring national performance and informing decision making on moving towards SD. Therefore, whether countries have moved towards SD or not can be judged and measured continuously and regularly. Future research needs to detailedly explore why countries have met or not met one certain criterion.

Species-Richness Responses to Water-Withdrawal Scenarios and Minimum Flow Levels: Evaluating Presumptive Standards in the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins

Water-resource managers are challenged to balance growing water demand with protecting aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity. Management decisions can benefit from improved understanding of water-withdrawal impacts on hydrologic regimes and ecological assemblages. This study used ecological limit functions for fish groups within the Tennessee and Cumberland River basins to predict species richness responses under simulated constant-rate (CR) and percent-of-flow (POF) withdrawals and for different minimum flow level protections. Streamflow characteristics (SFC) and richness were generally less sensitive to POF withdrawals than CR withdrawals among sites, fish groups, and ecoregions. Species richness generally declined with increasing withdrawals, but responses were variable depending on site-specific departures of SFCs from reference conditions, drainage area, fish group, ecoregion, and minimum flow level. Under POF withdrawals, 10% and 20% daily flow reductions often resulted in loss of <1 species and/or ≤5% richness among fish groups. Median ecological withdrawal thresholds ranged from 3.5–31% for POF withdrawals and from 0.01–0.92 m3/s for CR withdrawals across fish groups and ecoregions. Application of minimum flow level cutoffs often resulted in damping effects on SFC and richness responses, indicating that protection of low streamflows may mitigate hydrologic alteration and fish species richness loss related to water withdrawals. Site-specific and regionally summarized responses of flow regimes and fish assemblages under alternative withdrawal strategies in this study may be useful in informing water-management decisions regarding streamflow allocation and maintaining ecological flows.

The Dynamics of Bird Diversity in the New World.

Three prominent explanations have been proposed to explain the dramatic differences in species richness across regions and elevations, (i) time for speciation, (ii) diversification rates, and (iii) ecological limits. But the relative importance of these explanations and, especially, their interplay and possible synthesis remain largely elusive. Integrating diversification analyses, null models, and geographic information systems, I study avian richness across regions and elevations of the New World. My results reveal that even though the three explanations are differentially important (with ecological limits playing the dominant role), each contributes uniquely to the formation of richness gradients. Further, my results reveal the likely interplay between the explanations. They indicate that ecological limits hinder the diversification process, such that the accumulation of species within a region gradually slows down over time. Yet, it does not seem to converge toward a hard ceiling on regional richness. Instead, species-rich regions show suppressed, but continued, diversification, coupled with signatures of possible competition (esp. Neotropical lowlands). Conversely, species-poor, newly-colonized regions show fast diversification and weak to no signs of competition (esp. Nearctic highlands). These results held across five families of birds, across grid cells, biomes, and elevations. Together, my findings begin to illuminate the rich, yet highly consistent, interplay of the mechanisms that together shape richness gradients in the New World, including the most species-rich biodiversity hotspots on the planet, the Andes and the Amazon. [Biogeography; community; competition; macroevolution; phylogenetics; richness gradient.]

High biomass production with abundant leaf litterfall is critical to ameliorating soil quality and productivity in reclaimed sandy desertification land

Long-term data regarding soil properties and crop growth are powerful resources substantially contributing to our knowledge of soil-forming processes of reclaimed sandy desertification land. Generalized ecological principles derived from long-term observations that help to maintain or improve soil quality and productivity is critical for guiding field management practices while suitable for newly reclaimed sandy desertification land still need to be evaluated. Here, a 14-yr old experiment showed that soil quality index (SQI) had an “increase-decline-recovery” tendency in irrigation and fertilizer addition desertification lands while it remained at constantly low levels in desertification land with only irrigation. Stably decent yield and net incomes were obtained after 3–4 years’ consecutive irrigation and fertilizer addition management. Correlation between crop productivity and SQI followed a saturation characteristic curve with threshold at 0.5, corresponding to soil organic carbon (SOC) ~5.0 g kg−1, below which crop productivity was linearly declined. 60% of observed inter-annual variations in SQI were explained by quantity of leaf litter, which was three times higher than explanatory power of root residue. No substantial changes occurred in soil mechanical components while the soil microbial biomass carbon, water-stable aggregate and heavy carbon pool in SOC were significantly improved by 2–9 folds in reclaimed desertification lands. Results revealed that increased biomass production with abundant residue retention is crucial for ameliorating soil quality, stabilizing high yield and economic gains, supporting the “High Biomass Cropping System” ecological hypothesis. Ecological limitations and opportunities to sustainable utilization of sandy desertification land were discussed.

Ecological Limits as the Driver of Bird Species Richness Patterns along the East Himalayan Elevational Gradient.

Variation in species richness across environmental gradients results from a combination of historical nonequilibrium processes (time, speciation, extinction) and present-day differences in environmental carrying capacities (i.e., ecological limits affected by species interactions and the abundance and diversity of resources). In a study of bird richness along the subtropical east Himalayan elevational gradient, we test the prediction that species richness patterns are consistent with ecological limits using data on morphology, phylogeny, elevational distribution, and arthropod resources. Species richness peaks at midelevations. Occupied morphological volume is roughly constant from low elevations to midelevations, implying that more species are packed into the same space at midelevations compared with low elevations. However, variance in beak length and differences in beak length between close relatives decline with elevation, which is a consequence of the addition of many small insectivores at midelevations. These patterns are predicted from resource distributions: arthropod size diversity declines from low elevations to midelevations, largely because many more small insects are present at midelevations. Weak correlations of species mean morphological traits with elevation also match predictions based on resources and habitats. Elevational transects in the tropical Andes, New Guinea, and Tanzania similarly show declines in mean arthropod size and mean beak length and, in these cases, likely contribute to declining numbers of insectivorous bird species richness along these gradients. The results imply that conditions for ecological limits are met, although historical nonequilibrium processes are likely to also contribute to the pattern of species richness.

Landscape Planning as a Basis for Sustainable Development of a Region (Simferopol Region and the Town of Simferopol, Republic of the Crimea Taken as an Example)

This research deals with the theoretical principles of landscape planning. The possibility for applying geographical information systems (GIS) to carry out landscape planning on different levels has been studied. Geographical informational systems (GIS) can be used on every stage of planning work and they provide processing and analyzing a great amount of spatial data about natural components, submission and dissemination of the results by plotting the maps, their typing as well as distributing over on-line resources. The chart of landscape planning with its application has been worked out. The main stages of the research include: spade-work\\ preliminary (data collection and information storage, alongside with cartographic, informational, statistical data), examining the territory and its environment, considering the landscape features of the territory. Geographic information system data can help to make up landscape planning of the territory of Simferopol region and the town of Simferopol of the Republic of the Crimea. During this stage of landscape planning a set of maps i.e. maps of natural and economic landscape subsystems, adverse natural processes, ecological network, landscape and ecological restrictions has been plotted. By reference to all maps for the territory of Simferopol region, the map for landscape planning as well as functional zoning of territory have been worked out. According to the received data, measures against adverse processes have been planned.