Northern Cold Region Research Articles

Assessing the efficiency of urban blue-green space in carbon-saving: Take a high-density urban area in a cold region as an example

Urban blue-green space responds to climate change by providing relatively cooler surrounding environments to indirectly reduce residents' energy consumption and directly adsorb CO2 from the air. However, the carbon-saving potential of urban blue-green space at the urban scale needs to be addressed in the literature. In this study, an improved ideal quantitative model of carbon-saving is constructed from the user's perspective, considering the cooling effects of urban blue-green space and integrating surface temperature, building information, and urban public space layout. A high-density urban area in a northern cold region of China (Tianjin center urban area) is taken as an example to estimate the annual carbon-saving by performing Landsat surface temperature inversions with the delineation of the effective cooling area, as well as regression analyses based on four seasons of data. The results show that the annual carbon-saving in 2021 is about 78 tonneC/km2, equivalent to 2.21 times the carbon sequestration of the same region. Compared with the edge of the center urban area, the urban blue-green space in the center has a carbon-saving with a 1.4 times higher fluctuation value and a cumulative annual difference of about 394 tonneC/km2. Large blue-green patches in the cold region, while capable of conserving more carbon in spring, summer, and fall, become carbon-source in winter due to increased heating energy consumption and reduced willingness of residents to adopt zero-carbon transportation. The indicators that have the most significant impact on the carbon-saving of urban blue-green space are the cooling area and the background surface temperature. The urban blue-green space coverage and the percentage of impervious surfaces, such as buildings and open spaces, will indirectly impact carbon-saving by affecting the cooling area. The above finding recognizes the carbon-saving potential of urban blue-green space in cold regions. It provides a feasible estimation scheme for comparing the carbon-saving capacity in different seasons.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Quantitative Attribution Analysis of Vegetation NDVI in Greater Khingan Mountains Forest-Steppe Ecotone

It is of great significance to explore the dynamic variations in vegetation cover and to identify its driving factors for the restoration and sustainable development of the regional ecological environment. Based on MODIS NDVI data from 2000 to 2020 and contemporaneous meteorological, DEM, land use type, and other data, the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of vegetation in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest-steppe ecotone were deeply analyzed, and its future evolution pattern was predicted by using the methods of Sen+Mann-Kendall trend analysis and Hurst index. At the same time, the influence degree and mechanism of each detection factor and its interaction on vegetation spatial differentiation at the scale of the whole area and different physical geographic divisions were quantitatively revealed by introducing the GeoDetector model. The results showed that:① In terms of spatiotemporal variation, the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of NDVI in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest-steppe ecotone was obvious from 2000 to 2020. Temporally, NDVI fluctuated growth at a rate of 0.002 a-1 (P < 0.05) and underwent an upward mutation in 2011. Spatially, NDVI showed a distribution pattern of "increasing from southwest to northeast," and the NDVI grade transfer was mainly "medium vegetation cover→medium-high vegetation cover" during the 21 years, and the area of vegetation improvement was much larger than that of degradation. ② In terms of trend prediction, the future variation trend of NDVI in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest-steppe ecotone was mainly continuous improvement, accounting for 37%, but was mostly weakly sustained. ③ In terms of driving mechanism, the wind speed, evaporation, and relative humidity had the most significant influence on the spatial differentiation of NDVI over the whole area. The influence of natural factors has been decreasing over the past 21 years, whereas the influence of human factors has been increasing, and the main driving factors of NDVI spatial differentiation were quite different in different vegetation, climate, soil, and geomorphic zones. The synergistic effect between each factor at different spatial scales all showed two-factor or non-linear enhancement relationships, which was significantly enhanced compared with the single-factor effect. This study contributes to clarifying the causes of ecological fragility in the forest-steppe ecotone in the northern cold region and provides scientific support for formulating differentiated protection and management plans for vegetation resources under different environmental conditions.

Loss of Selenium from Mollisol Paddy Wetlands of Cold Regions: Insights from Flow-through Reactor Experiments and Process-Based Modeling

Mollisols are critical agricultural resources for securing global food supply. Due to its health importance, selenium (Se) fate in the Mollisols attracts growing concerns. Land use change from conventional drylands to paddy wetlands impacts Se bioavailability in the vulnerable Mollisol agroecosystems. The underlying processes and mechanisms however remain elusive. Here, results of flow-through reactor experiments with paddy Mollisols from northern cold-region sites indicate that continuous flooding with surface water for 48 d induced redox zonation that facilitated the loss of Mollisol Se by up to 51%. Further process-based biogeochemical modeling suggests largest degradation rates of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in 30 cm deep Mollisols that contained the highest-level labile DOM and organic-bound Se. Electron shunting from degradation of Se-bearing DOM coupled to reductive dissolution of Se-adsorbed Fe oxides accounts mainly for Se(IV) release into the pore water. Consequent changes in DOM molecular composition make the reservoir of organic-bound Se vulnerable to flooding-induced redox zonation and likely enhance Se loss through destruction of thiolated Se and emission of gaseous Se from the Mollisol layer. This study highlights a neglected scenario where the speciation-driven loss of bioavailable Se from the paddy wetlands can be a significant consequence in the cold-region Mollisol agroecosystems.

Community structure of endophytic fungi in roots and leaves of Fagopyrum mill and Avena sativa in a Chinese northern cold region

In order to explore the endophytic fungi of Fagopyrum Mill and Avena sativa, Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the community structure and diversity of endophytic fungi in leaves and roots of buckwheat and oat at the mature stage. The results of community structure showed that there were 205 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in buckwheat roots and 181 OTUs in buckwheat leaves based on 97% sequence similarity level. There were 152 OTUs and 127 OTUs in the root and the leaf of oat, respectively. At the phylum level, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the dominant endophytic fungi in buckwheat roots and leaves, while Ascomycota was the dominant endophytic fungus in oat roots and leaves. Alpha diversity analysis showed that the Ace index, Chao index and Shannon index of buckwheat roots were higher than that of buckwheat leaves, and the three indices of oat roots were also higher than that of oat leaves, indicating that the richness and diversity of endophytic fungi community in roots were higher than that in leaves. Biomarkers were found by significant difference analysis in buckwheat and oat. The endophytic functional groups of buckwheat and oat were mainly distributed in Pathotroph and Saprotroph. The results of this study laid a foundation for fully exploiting the dominant endophytic fungal resources of buckwheat and oat and further developing microbial fertilizers.

Flexural fatigue behavior and damage evolution analysis of aeolian sand concrete under freeze–thaw cycle

Aeolian sand is abundant and is widely distributed in western China and thus can reduce the project cost, alleviate the consumption of river sand resources, as well as protect the ecological environment in the application of concrete. Concrete structures, such as roads, bridges, and airport runways in northern cold regions, are exposed to the combined action of freeze–thaw cycle and fatigue load, and the damage mechanism is more serious and complex than that under a single factor. In the present study, the flexural fatigue behavior and damage evolution of aeolian sand concrete under freeze–thaw cycles are studied. Results show that freeze–thaw damage aggravates the flexural fatigue failure of concrete with aeolian sand, and the addition of aeolian sand enhances the average fatigue life of concrete after freeze–thaw cycle. The fatigue life of concrete that has aeolian sand content of 100% is improved more significantly than that of concrete with aeolian sand content of 50%. A double logarithmic fatigue equation is established for varying numbers of freeze–thaw cycles and different failure probabilities. Additionally, the course of flexural fatigue strain and fatigue modulus of aeolian sand concrete under freeze–thaw cycle action follows a typical three-stage development course. The effects of freezing and thawing action on fatigue behavior, such as fatigue strain growth, stiffness degradation, stress–strain relationship, and dissipated energy of 50% aeolian sand concrete (ASC50), are more significant, whereas the effects of 50 and 100 freeze–thaw cycles on the fatigue properties of 100% aeolian sand concrete (ASC100) are not evident. The research results are of great significance for the popularization and use of aeolian sand concrete in cold regions.

Applying NIR and MIR spectroscopy for C and soil property prediction in northern cold-region ecosystems. Which approach works better?

Developing reliable predictions of soil attributes is necessary to understand northern cold-region climate-soil feedback. Calibration models using near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy were developed to predict eight commonly measured soil properties for 119 soil samples representing a range of vegetation types, parent materials, and soil types spanning >23° of latitude from southeast Alaska to the Canadian high Arctic. In order to obtain a more accurate prediction, this study compared the performance of linear and non-linear calibration techniques, including lasso regression (Lasso), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF) and classic partial least squares (PLS) to predict different soil properties of these soils. Comparing the four models, we noticed that their performance was quite similar for MIR overall, while NIR achieved better results with a PLS model for our dataset. PLS coupled with MIR showed a better performance for soil parameters, such as total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), cation exchange capacity (CEC) and clay (R-squared of 0.9, 0.81, 0.80, and 0.84) when compared with NIR (R-squared of 0.85, 0.72, 0.81 and 0.68). However, using either MIR or NIR spectroscopy, PLS predictions for bulk density (BD) and sand content were not accurate. The variable importance analysis based on the PLS model successfully estimated the relative contribution of wavelengths influencing soil property predictions most. Overall, TOC, TN, CEC and clay mineral predictions are closely related to the occurrence of specific spectral bands in the MIR region. For example, wavelengths at 2978 and 1761 cm −1 for TOC and TN, as well as at 3064 cm−1 for CEC, were selected as the most influential predictor variables. We demonstrated that MIR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for more extensive monitoring in soils of the northern cold climate region; however, NIR could be utilized for rapid estimates when the highest accuracy is not essential.

Analysis of the Relationship between Mechanical Properties and Pore Structure of MSW Incineration Bottom Ash Fine Aggregate Concrete after Freeze-Thaw Cycles Based on the Gray Theory

The destruction of concrete building materials in severely cold regions of the north is more severely affected by freeze-thaw cycles, and the relationship between the mechanical properties and pore structure of concrete with fine aggregate from municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration bottom ash after freeze-thaw cycles is analyzed under the degree of freeze-thaw hazard variation. In this paper, the gray correlation method is used to calculate the correlation between the relative dynamic elastic modulus, compressive strength, and microscopic porosity parameters to speculate on the most important factors affecting their changes. The GM (1,1) model was established based on the compressive strength of the waste incineration ash aggregate concrete, the relative error between the simulated and actual values in the model was less than 5%, and the accuracy of the model was level 1, indicating that the GM (1,1) model can well reflect the change in the compressive strength of the MSW incineration bottom ash aggregate concrete during freeze-thaw cycles. Using the gray correlation method, the correlation between the relative dynamic elastic modulus, compressive strength, air content, specific surface area, pore spacing coefficient, and pore average chord length was calculated, and the pore spacing coefficient and pore average chord length were determined to be highly correlated with each other. This determination can help analyze and infer the deterioration mechanism of concrete subject to freeze-thaw cycles. These results can provide a theoretical basis for guiding the engineering practice of concrete with fine aggregates of household bottom ash in the northern cold region.

Mechanisms of changing speciation and bioavailability of selenium in agricultural mollisols of northern cold regions

The distribution, speciation, and bioavailability of selenium (Se) - an essential micronutrient for human beings - in agricultural soils influence the resource recovery of agricultural benefits and the sustainable use of Se in agroecosystems. Quantitative understanding in this regard however remains limited in the world's mollisol agroecosystems, despite their critical importance in securing global food supply. Herein, a systematic investigation of Se in the river sediment-irrigation water-mollisols-rhizosphere-rice seeds continuum, at the core zone of the northern mollisol regions, was conducted to elucidate the hydrological-hydrogeochemical processes and mechanisms responsible for the distribution and bioavailability of Se. The content of total Se in the mollisols ranged between 0.12 and 0.54 mg/kg with an average of 0.31 mg/kg. At the riverside flood plains, humic-acid bound Se accounted on average for 39 % of total Se. This pool of Se can be transformed to water-soluble and ion-exchangeable Se(VI), supporting a higher potential of Se bioavailability at riparian agricultural mollisols. For mollisol lands far from the river channels, the topography affects the speciation and partitioning of Se presumably through regulating water retention and organic matter transport. Moreover, altering pH and redox conditions in response to irrigation with the river water may boost Se bioavailability in weakly acidic and high Eh mollisols. It can be in part ascribed to the transformation of organic-bound Se along with infiltrated oxygenated water that leads to the increase of water-soluble and ion-exchangeable Se. These findings reinforce that hydrological-hydrogeochemical perturbations due to irrigation with surface water need to be assessed carefully in the management of Se resources in the mollisol agroecosystems.

Developing Water-Quality Model for Jingpo Lake Based on EFDC

Water-quality model simulation is the key to understanding hydrological processes and water-quality dynamic(s). In this study, Jingpo Lake, which is the most typical lake in the northern cold region of China, was selected as the research object. A numerical simulation model for transporting and diffusing the chemical oxygen demand (CODMn) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3N) with ice-covered and open-water periods was constructed and calibrated using the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC). Parameters such as the bottom roughness, ice roughness, diffusion coefficient, horizontal momentum diffusivity, molecular eddy viscosity, molecular diffusivity, buoyancy influence coefficient, CODMn decay rate and NH3N decay rate were validated. The research findings show that there were differences in the hydrodynamic water-quality changing process during the ice-covered and open-water periods, as well as for the seasonal ice-covered waterbody. The key parameter decay rates of the CODMn and NH3N in the ice-covered periods were lower than those in the open-water periods due to the water-temperature decline. The R2 of the CODMn and NH3N reached 90.71% and 79.79%, respectively. Thus, it may be concluded that the EFDC model could well reflect changes in the water level of Jingpo Lake, as well as the transport and diffusion of the CODMn and NH3N in Jingpo Lake.

Performance and economic evaluation of a solar-air hybrid source energy heating system installed in cold region of China

This paper proposes a solar-air source energy storage heating system (SASES-HS), which can solve the problems of high energy consumption and difficult defrosting when the ambient temperature is low. By coupling solar energy,air energy and phase change energy, the system heats the end of the user through a two-stage heat pump. In order to analyze the feasibility of the system, the mathematical model of the system is established, and an experimental platform is built. A typical experimental condition was chosen to analyze the performance of the system in detail. The results show that the system can continuously provide high-temperature hot water of nearly 60°C for buildings in a severe cold environment of −20°C for 24 h, and the heat exchange temperature difference is as high as 80°C. In addition, the system operates with a higher coefficient of performance than a single-stage heat pump system. The COP can reach the level of 4.1 during the day and as low as 2.5 at night. The operating cost of the system only accounts for 65.8% and 88.4% of the coal-fired boiler and the air source phase change heat pump, respectively. And the CO2 emissions of this system only account for 57.5% and 88.4% of the coal-fired boiler and the air source phase change heat pump, respectively. In view of the analysis of operational performance and economic and environmental benefits, it is found that the system is worth popularizing and using in the northern cold regions.

Rotational failure of concrete lining slabs induced by water level changes in ice-covered reservoirs in cold regions: Mechanism, patterns, and prevention measures

Reservoirs lined with concrete slabs are very common in the northern cold regions of China. Failures such as the rotation and the dislocation of concrete lining slabs are usually found in those ice-covered reservoirs each year in winter. In this study, the interaction processes between water, ice, and lining when water level changes in ice-covered reservoirs are evaluated based on the theory of beams on elastic foundation. In general, ice cover can generate a rotation effect (bending moment) on concrete lining slabs when water level changes in ice-covered reservoirs. Under such conditions, the bending moment at the ice edge increases with the increase of the ice cover width and thickness. Once the tensile stress at the interface between concrete slab and its base layer exceeds the tensile strength of the interface itself, the concrete slab separates from its base layer and the support condition of the ice cover changes from fix-supported to hinge-supported. Then the rotational failure of the concrete slab may occur due to the rotation effect acted by ice cover. The calculated rotation angle of the concrete lining slab is in agreement with the angle observed at a reservoir in northwest China. In addition, prevention measures such as concrete lining slabs with hydrophobic coating on the surface, concrete lining slabs with dark surface, anchoring concrete slabs to reservoir slope, and integral large-scale lining modules are proposed to mitigate such rotational lining failures in ice-covered reservoirs. The results can help to improve the performance and service life of reservoirs in cold environments.

Analysis on Energy Saving Transformation of Central Heating System in Existing Buildings

By comparing the indexes before and after the energy-saving transformation, the heating system in the northern cold region after the transformation of the existing pipe network is studied. Taking a renovation project in severe cold area as an example, the energy-saving renovation of heating system is analyzed. Through data collation and comparison, after the renovation, all energy-saving indexes of heating pipe network meet the requirements of heat users, and good results are achieved. After the renovation, the water consumption and electricity consumption in heating season are saved by 24% and 21%, and the cost of heating system is saved by 335,100 yuan compared with that before the renovation. After the transformation, the user satisfaction is increased by 59%, and the energy-saving effect is remarkable.

300MW Class Units Circulating Pump for Heating Network Electric to Steam-Driven Comparative Study of Two Kinds of Economic Transformation Program

Jilin Province is located in the northern cold regions, winter heating period of up to five months, the thermal power plants in the larger proportion of the heating unit to improve the economy is a priority issue before us. Most thermal power plant in our province are used in electric network circulating pump run, a larger share of electricity plants, such as the use of steam-driven run, can reduce electricity consumption increased grid power plant, with better economic benefits, and whether the transformation potential, we need to demonstrate feasibility. To speed up the transformation project power industry the pace of industrial upgrading, power plant emissions-reduction targets.

Experimental Study on Surface Protection of Concrete Panel in Reservoir Basin of Pumped Storage Power Station in Cold Region

Affected by various unfavorable factors during construction and operation,concrete panels of pumped storage power stationsin cold regions are prone to cracks, freeze-thaw erosion and other defects, which reduce the impermeabilityand durability of concrete panels. In order to effectively improve the impermeabilityand freezing resistancedurability of concrete panels, SK monocomponentpolyurea was selected for laboratory testsuch as tensile strength, freezing resistance, impermeabilityand xenon lamp weatheringaccording to the climatic conditions in northern cold regions and the operation characteristics of pumped storage power stations. Field protection tests were put into practiceon the reinforced concrete panels of the upper reservoir of Shisanling pumped storage power station, and 10 years of tracking tests were carried out. The experimental results show that SK monocomponent polyurea has good mechanical properties and long-term durability, which can play a positive role in improving the impermeabilityand anti-freezedurability of concrete panels. The protective effect is remarkable.

Spatial distribution of unidirectional trends in temperature and temperature extremes in Pakistan

Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries of the world to temperature extremes due to its predominant arid climate and geographic location in the fast temperature rising zone. Spatial distribution of the trends in annual and seasonal temperatures and temperature extremes over Pakistan has been assessed in this study. The gauge-based gridded daily temperature data of Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) having a spatial resolution of 1° × 1° was used for the assessment of trends over the period 1960–2013 using modified Mann-Kendall test (MMK), which can discriminate the multi-decadal oscillatory variations from secular trends. The results show an increase in the annual average of daily maximum and minimum temperatures in 92 and 99% area of Pakistan respectively at 95% level of confidence. The annual temperature is increasing faster in southern high-temperature region compared to other parts of the country. The minimum temperature is rising faster (0.17–0.37 °C/decade) compared to maximum temperature (0.17–0.29 °C/decade) and therefore declination of diurnal temperature range (DTR) (− 0.15 to − 0.08 °C/decade) in some regions. The annual numbers of both hot and cold days are increasing in whole Pakistan except in the northern sub-Himalayan region. Heat waves are on the rise, especially in the hot Sindh plains and the Southern coastal region, while the cold waves are becoming lesser in the northern cold region. Obtained results contradict with the findings of previous studies on temperature trends, which indicate the need for reassessment of climatic trends in Pakistan using the MMK test to understand the anthropogenic impacts of climate change.

Influence of temperature fluctuations on one-stage deammonification systems in northern cold region.

Cold and fluctuant temperatures are still a bottleneck for the application of one-stage deammonification in mainstream anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation). In this study, to simulate the practical but critical operational condition under rapidly fluctuant temperatures between April and May in cold northern area, two deammonification reactors with anammox granular sludge and nitritation flocculent sludge were tested under the cold shock with temperature fluctuations (11-18°C). Under the controlled temperature (32°C), good performances were obtained in both reactors. However, after the cold shock (ca. 13°C), both reactors deteriorated similarly. The ammonia removal efficiencies decreased by half, while total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies decreased by two thirds. Nitrite accumulated in both reactors, while nitrate production was not disturbed although its contributions from nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) increased. In the stage with increasing wastewater temperatures (17.5 ± 2.2°C), several operational conditions were tested to recover the performances, including limited dissolved oxygen, long hydraulic retention time (HRT), high nitrogen loading with elevated pH, and low NH4+-N (60mg/L), which did not significantly improve the performances, while the phenomena of heterotrophic nitrate reduction dramatically improved the nitrogen removal performances under limited aeration. During the cold temperature shock, insufficient anammox activity, and nitrate overproduction were the main problems.

Study on the Present Situation and Countermeasures of Rural House in Rural Community of Northern Cold Region

Study on the Present Situation and Countermeasures of Rural House in Rural Community of Northern Cold Region

Influence of site and soil properties on the DRIFT spectra of northern cold-region soils

We investigated the influence of site characteristics and soil properties on the chemical composition of organic matter in soils collected from a latitudinal transect across northern cold-region through analysis of diffuse reflectance Fourier transform mid infrared (DRIFT) spectra of bulk soils. The study included 119 soil samples collected from 28 sites including tundra, boreal forest, grassland, and coastal rainforest ecosystems. Organic, mineral, and cryoturbated soil horizons, both seasonally and perennially frozen, representing a variety of depths and edaphic conditions were examined. The amount and chemical composition of organic matter, as well as site and soil properties, exerted a strong influence on the DRIFT spectra. The spectra were highly sensitive to the extent of organic matter decomposition, enabling the ordination of organic (Oi, Oe and Oa) horizons. Differences in absorbance intensity for several spectral bands indicated that Oi horizons contained greater abundance of relatively fresh residues, phenolic-OH compounds, aliphatic compounds, and carbohydrates. In contrast, Oa horizons had a greater presence of amide groups, aromatics, CC bonds, carboxylates and carboxylic acids. Another significant factor differentiating these horizons was the incorporation of clays and silicates into the Oa horizons. Calculated ratios of characteristic spectral bands showed a clear trend of increasing decomposition from Oi to Oe to Oa. The DRIFT spectra were related to many site/soil attributes including land cover type, parent material, and associated factors, such as permafrost presence/absence, drainage class, horizon depth, bulk density, cation exchange capacity, and pH. A single DRIFT spectral band was identified that might be used in future studies to quickly estimate the organic carbon, total nitrogen, and carbon:nitrogen ratios of northern soils. Our results demonstrate that the information contained in DRIFT spectra of soil integrates the quantity and chemical composition of soil organic matter with soil properties and highlights the potential for using this information to assess the degradation state of organic matter stored in northern cold-region soils.

Experimental Study on Mixture Ratio and Performance of New Type of Haydite Concrete

Lightweight aggregate concrete has the advantages of light weight, high strength, energy saving, and thermal insulation, which is widely used for building energy efficiency engineering. This thesis researches a new type of haydite concrete which is composed of Shale ceramsite and Ceramic sand. Through orthogonal test and physical and mechanical performance test, it determines the optimum mixture proportion, the relationship of dry apparent density and compressive strength. It provides the basis for the new concrete, especially in northern cold region and seismogenetic area of low-rise buildings have broad application prospects.

Integrating taxonomic and trait analyses to assess the impact of damming on fish communities in a northern cold region river

Dams are considered one of the most important threats to freshwater ecosystems. To date, assessments of the impact of riverine impoundments are based primarily on taxonomic approaches where little can be inferred about functional ecological change. We assessed the impact of damming in a cold region river fish community in Alberta, Canada, by integrating taxonomic and trait-based approaches over time (before, during the first 5 years, and after 5 years of dam construction), considering the longitudinal habitat and environmental change created by reservoir formation (downstream, reservoir, and upstream). Integrating both approaches was found to be informative, as alterations to taxonomic composition in fish communities provided initial clues to a functional response in a spatiotemporal context. Biomonitoring should therefore explicitly consider longitudinal spatial gradients in the design, implementation, and evaluation of management actions. Understanding the underlying environmental causes of why the combination of some traits are connected to the risk of species loss or a decline in their distribution is an important step towards the development of better conservation and mitigation strategies.