Spatial Mismatch Research Articles

Measuring the island tourism development sustainability at dual spatial scales using a four-dimensional model: A case study of Shengsi archipelago, China

Measuring the island tourism development sustainability is critical for utilizing the island tourism resources, improving the island's socioeconomic prosperity, and maintaining its ecosystem but challenging due to the complex factors and their spatial heterogeneities. In the present study, a model was established for comprehensively measuring the island tourism development sustainability. The model is composed of four dimensions, namely, tourism attractions, ecological resilience, traffic accessibility, and accommodation capacity, and their spatial heterogeneities at dual spatial scales, i.e., evaluation unit and single island scales. An island tourism development sustainability composite index (ITDSCI, 0–5, dimensionless) was proposed to integrate the four dimensions at the dual scales. Remote sensing, field survey, and statistical data served as the data source, and the geographic information system was used to realize the spatial exhibitions of evaluation results. An important island tourism destination in China, Shengsi Archipelago, was selected to demonstrate the model. The results indicated the distinct heterogeneities of ITDSCI at the dual spatial scales. At evaluation unit scale, ITDSCI ranged from 0 to 5 with 2.21 as the mean value. Within each of the dimensions, point and line resources contributed much more than area resources to the tourism attractions; anthropogenic influence played a dominant role in changing the ecological resilience; and the external and internal traffic were both crucial for traffic accessibility. The four dimensions jointly determined the ITDSCI, with traffic accessibility and tourism attractions making larger contributions than the remaining two dimensions. At single island scale, ITDSCI ranged from 0 to 3.45 with 1.39 as the mean value; it distinctly increased with the increase in island area and shape complexity. Larger islands generally had more point resources and better traffic conditions, while islands with more complex shapes and higher isolation usually contained more line and area resources, respectively. Then, spatial mismatch analyses among the four dimensions revealed the urgency to improve the ecological resilience, and suggestions for coordinating the four dimensions were proposed in scopes of the entire archipelago and the contrasting sub-regions. The empirical study verified the non-collinearity among the four dimensions and validated the effectiveness and applicability of the model in comprehensively measuring the spatial heterogeneity of island tourism development sustainability.

Commuting performance in Shanghai: Efficiency and orderliness

The literature on excess commuting has grown significantly over the past three decades. However, there are still some important open questions about the resulting statistics. Despite researchers proposing several commuting benchmarks and excess metrics, there is poor comparability between empirical studies. Many studies use average trip length to evaluate commuting efficiency of the whole region, while very few studies visualize the spatial organization of (excess) commuting patterns and evaluate its commuting orderliness. Based on a finely disaggregated data base --- the National 1% Population Sampling Survey in Shanghai, this study investigates commuting patterns and their relationship to urban land use arrangement by detailed industrial sectors from the perspectives of both average trip length and spatial organization measured by entropy value. It offers insights into social inequalities, spatial mismatch and commuting performance by identifying which groups of workers make more contribution to urban traffic congestion and have more inefficient and disorderly commutes. The results suggest that there are significant commuting differences between the groups, both socially and spatially. Overlooking the heterogeneity of commuter behaviors and socioeconomic characteristics may overestimate or underestimate excess commuting. Skilled workers commute further and experience more excess commuting than less-skilled workers, which is very different from American cities and brings forth new insights into traditional spatial mismatch. This paper also finds that workers in the manufacturing sector commute longer than those in the wholesale and retail sector but the commuting pattern of the former is more organized and orderly than the latter, indicating that long-distance commuting patterns might not necessarily be inefficient and disorderly and vice versa.

Supply and demand dynamics of hydrologic ecosystem services in the rapidly urbanizing Taihu Lake Basin of China

Although it is challenging to integrate supply and demand to comprehensively understand urbanization effects on ecosystem services, this knowledge is essential, especially in rapidly urbanizing areas. A spatially explicit approach was developed here to synthesize supply and demand dynamics of the two most important hydrologic services in the rapidly urbanizing Taihu Lake Basin (TLB) of eastern China. The supply of water purification (WPS) and flood mitigation (FMS) were measured as nitrogen removal and runoff retention, respectively. Whereas the demand for water purification (WPD) was quantified as the difference between total and permitted nitrogen loading based on relevant water quality standards, the demand for flood mitigation (FMD) was estimated as the vulnerability to potential flood damage, including economic losses and causalities. We found a spatial mismatch where high WPS and FMS occurred in mountainous areas while high WPD and FMD concentrated in urban and agricultural areas across the basin. WPS and WPD decreased by 10% and 20%, respectively during 2000–2015, due mainly to loss of croplands to urban expansion. This was also the main cause of decreased FMS by 7% but increased FMD by 67%, which underscored the importance of conserving croplands in rapidly urbanizing regions of the TLB. Overall, land use composition had strong associations with WPD (r2 ≥ 0.57) and FMS (r2 ≥ 0.38) at the sub-basin scale, while the configuration of multiple land uses, such as urban sprawl, cropland fragmentation, and riparian buffers were crucial in influencing WPS. In comparison, FMD was most sensitive to urban expansion (r2 = 0.74), economic development (r2 = 0.81), and population growth (r2 = 0.93). These findings provide new insights into sustainable land management for coordinating supply of and demand for hydrologic services in the TLB and other urbanizing watersheds of the world.

Evaluation of several recently developed sampling strategies within the coarse pixel scale for validation of coarse-resolution satellite albedo products

ABSTRACT Due to the spatial heterogeneity and the spatial scale mismatch between in situ and satellite-based measurements, optimal ground sampling should be made to increase the representativeness of in situ observations. Therefore, many ground sampling strategies have been proposed, but their performance within the coarse pixel has not been evaluated. Hence, this study evaluated four typical methods regarding their ability to obtain pixel scale ground ‘truth’. Random combination (RC) performs best, with the always fewest samples to satisfy representativeness errors (REs) of 3% in the case of a small number of samples. When the goal of sampling is to obtain in situ measurements with REs close to 0 at the expense of increasing the number of samples, cumulative representativeness sampling (CRS) is more effective than RC in less heterogeneous areas. Geo-statistical model-based sampling (GSS) does not work well because the number of samples within the coarse pixel scale cannot support a robust semi-variogram model. Stratified sampling (SS) is highly dependent on spatial heterogeneity and does not work well in the case of small sample sizes. This study gives important guidance for ground sample deployment within the coarse pixel for validation of coarse-resolution satellite albedo products over a heterogeneous surface.

Framework for improving DoLP and AoLP reconstruction quality in microgrid polarimeters.

In polarimetric imaging, degree and angle of linear polarization (DoLP and AoLP, respectively) are computed from ratios of Stokes parameters. In snapshot imagers, DoLP and AoLP are degraded by inherent mismatches between the spatial bandwidth of the S0, S1, and S2 parameters reconstructed by demosaicking from microgrid polarizer array (MPA)-sampled data. To overcome this, we rigorously show that log-MPA-sampled data approximately decouples DoLP and AoLP from the intensity component (S0) in the spatial Fourier domain. Based on this analysis, we propose an alternative demosaicking strategy aimed at estimating DoLP and AoLP directly from MPA-sampled data. Our method bypasses Stokes parameter estimation, alleviating the spatial bandwidth mismatch problems altogether and reducing computational complexity. We experimentally verify the superior DoLP and AoLP reconstructions of the proposed log-MPA demosaicking compared to the conventional Stokes parameter demosaicking approach in simulation. We simulated the conventional 2 × 2 MPA patterns as well as the more recently introduced 2 × 4 MPA patterns, and report quantitative results (mean squared error, structural similarity index, and polarization angular error) using five demosaicking approaches drawn from the literature. We also provide a closed-form error analysis on the log-MPA-sampled data to demonstrate that the approximation error is negligible for real practical applications.

Equity in walking access to community home care facility resources for elderly with different mobility: A case study of Lianhu District, Xi'an.

As the aging of China's population continues to deepen, a number of elderly care facilities relying on community platforms to provide home care services have been established in urban communities, effectively alleviating the problem of difficult community elderly care, while a spatial mismatch between the facilities and the elderly population has also emerged. To solve this problem, this paper analyzes the equity in walking access to community home care facilities for elderly people with different mobility abilities in Lianhu District of Xi'an City, taking the resources of community home care facilities as the research object. Firstly, the coverage rate of the facilities was calculated based on the 15-minute walking range of the elderly with different mobility, and the accessibility of the facilities was measured using the Kernel Density-type two-step moving search method. Then, Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve and location entropy were used to analyze the spatial matching pattern of facilities and elderly population. The results show that there is a serious spatial mismatch between the resources of community home care facilities and the elderly population with mobility restriction. In addition, the available facility area per capita is low for more than 80% of the elderly with mobility restriction, and the road network density has a significant impact on the access of the elderly with mobility restriction to the community home care facility resources. These research results indicate that the spatial layout and configuration of community home care facilities are unfair to the elderly with poor mobility, and that these elderly care facility configurations do not favor the disadvantaged groups.

Effects of climate and land-cover change on the conservation status of gibbons.

Species shift their distribution in response to climate and land-cover change, which may result in a spatial mismatch between currently protected areas (PAs) and priority conservation areas (PCAs). We examined the effects of climate and land-cover change on potential range of gibbons and sought to identify PCAs that would conserve them effectively. We collected global gibbon occurrence points and modeled (ecological niche model) their current and potential 2050s ranges under climate-change and different land-cover-change scenarios. We examined change in range and PA coverage between the current and future ranges of each gibbon species. We applied spatial conservation prioritization to identify the top 30% PCAs for each species. We then determined how much of the PCAs are conserved in each country within the global range of gibbons. On average, 31% (SD 22) of each species' current range was covered in PAs. PA coverage of the current range of 9 species was <30%. Nine species lost on average 46% (SD 29) of their potential range due to climate change. Under climate-change with an optimistic land-cover-change scenario (B1), 12 species lost 39% (SD 28) of their range. In a pessimistic land-cover-change scenario (A2), 15 species lost 36% (SD 28) of their range. Five species lost significantly more range under the A2 scenario than the B1 scenario (p=0.01, SD 0.01), suggesting that gibbons will benefit from effective management of land cover. PA coverage of future range was <30% for 11 species. On average, 32% (SD 25) of PCAs were covered by PAs. Indonesia contained more species and PCAs and thus has the greatest responsibility for gibbon conservation. Indonesia, India, and Myanmar need to expand their PAs to fulfill their responsibility to gibbon conservation. Our results provide a baseline for global gibbon conservation, particularly for countries lacking gibbon research capacity.

Quantitative Simulation and Verification of the Coordination Curves between Sustainable Development and Green Innovation Efficiency: From the Perspective of Urban Agglomerations Development

Green innovation efficiency is the symbol of competitiveness; sustainable development is an important way to enhance social and economic development comprehensively. By deeply understanding the coordination development law and facilitating the development progress between the two, it has great practical significance for the promotion of sustainable development in China. Based on multi-source data, this paper discusses the basic principle of the climbing rule for the coordination process between sustainable development and green innovation efficiency in urban agglomerations and constructs a mathematical model to obtain its geometric expression. Then, according to the entropy weight model, SBM-DEA model and coordination model, the sustainable development level, green innovation efficiency and coordinated development level are calculated. Finally, through the simulation verification methods, the coordination process and the formation and development process of urban agglomerations are cross-discussed. The results are as follows: (1) The differences in growth rates are the main reason for the spatial distribution mismatch between sustainable development and green innovation efficiency. (2) Highly coordinated regions have gradually extended from the national level to the surrounding low-level urban agglomerations. (3) The coordination level between sustainable development and green innovation efficiency passed the antagonism period and is expected to rise further in the near future and (4) The coordination progress in urban agglomeration is a wave-like climbing curve that changes with the development of urban agglomeration.

Impact mechanisms of urbanization processes on supply-demand matches of cultivated land multifunction in rapid urbanization areas

Rapid urbanization areas face multifunctional allocation problems of cultivated land, especially in spatial supply-demand mismatches. Deconstructing supply-demand characteristics of cultivated land multifunction and probing impacts of multidimensional urbanization on them will help achieve the sustainable development of limited cultivated land resources in rapid urbanization areas. This study constructed a theoretical framework oriented by four functions (production function, ecological function, cultural landscape function, and social security function) to map supply-demand match patterns of cultivated land multifunction at the multiscale. The main urban area of Hangzhou, with a high urbanization level, was used as an empirical area to discuss the effects of multidimensional urbanization processes on the supply-demand balance. Results showed that the widening supply-demand gaps of cultivated land multifunction and their significant spatial heterogeneity appeared in rapid urbanization areas. As the scale increased, deficit regions for production, cultural landscape, and social security functions shrank toward central urban areas, and smaller scales could better reflect their changes and development trends; deficit regions for ecological function expanded outward along central urban areas and had a higher agglomeration, and thus larger scales were more important. Economic urbanization had the greatest influence on the supply-demand balance of production, cultural landscape, and social security functions, while ecological function was more closely related to population urbanization. The interaction between the two urbanization dimensions had a greater effect on the supply-demand balance than a single dimension. These findings can provide new ideas for supply-demand balance paths of cultivated land multifunction in rapid urbanization areas.

Analysis of the Green Development Effects of High-Speed Railways Based on Eco-Efficiency: Evidence from Multisource Remote Sensing and Statistical Data of Urban Agglomerations in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, China

As part of the modern transport infrastructure, high-speed railways (HSRs) have been considered an important factor affecting eco-efficiency (EE). This study used multisource remote sensing and statistical data from 185 counties representing urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR) in China from 2009 to 2018. The study integrated ArcGIS analysis, the Super-SBM (super slack-based measure) model, and the DSPDM (dynamic spatial panel Durbin model) to explore the spatial effects of HSRs on EE. The results showed that the coordinates of the interannual centers of gravity for EE and HSRs both fell in the same county, possessing similar parameter values for the standard deviation elliptical, a negative spatial mismatch index, and obvious spatial mismatch characteristics. In different spatially dislocated areas, the spatial effects of HSRs on EE are variable. Overall, the short-term effects are more intense than the long-term effects, and both the long-term and short-term effects are dominated by the effects of spatial spillover. A new perspective is proposed to explore the green development effects of HSRs, with a view to providing policy implications for the enhancement of EE and the planning of HSRs.

Agglomeration of the new energy industry and green innovation efficiency: Does the spatial mismatch of R&D resources matter?

Based on China's provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, this paper examines the complex impact of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency from the perspective of spatial mismatch of research and development (R&D) resources. The super slack-based measured directional distance function (super-SBM-DDF) is applied to measure the green innovation efficiency, while the least square dummy variable model (LSDV) is implemented to evaluate the mismatch of R&D resources in the new energy industry. Based on the generalized method of moment (GMM), the moderating effect model, and the dynamic threshold model are employed to investigate the threshold effect of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency and the moderating effect of spatial mismatch of R&D resources. We come to the following findings. First, the agglomeration of China's new energy industry exhibits a “west-east-central” gradient distribution. In the meantime, there is a widespread insufficient mismatch of R&D resources in the majority of regions. Second, the agglomeration of the new energy industry can significantly boost the efficiency of green innovation. Moderate agglomeration can have a marginally enhancing effect, whereas excessive agglomeration will obscure the green innovation effect of new energy industry agglomeration. Third, the relationship between the new energy industry agglomeration and green innovation efficiency is negatively moderated by the mismatch of R&D resources, while the moderating effect is amplified by the mismatch of innovation financial resources. Fourth, there are two inflection points in the positive impact of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency when the innovation resource mismatch is assigned as the threshold variable.

A reconnaissance survey of channel bank particulate phosphorus concentrations, controls and estimated contributions to riverine loads across England.

Channel banks can contribute a significant proportion of fine-grained (<63 μm) sediment to rivers, thereby also contributing to riverine total particulate phosphorus loads. Improving water quality through better agricultural practices alone can be difficult since the contributions from non-agricultural sources, including channel banks, can generate a 'spatial mismatch' between the efficacy of best management applied on farms and the likelihood of meeting environmental objectives. Our study undertook a reconnaissance survey (n=76 sites each with 3 profiles sampled) to determine the total phosphorus (TP) concentrations of channel banks across England and to determine if TP content can be predicted using readily accessible secondary data. TP concentrations in adjacent field topsoils, local soil soil type/texture and geological parent material were examined as potential predictors of bank TP. Carbon and nitrogen content were also analysed to explore the impacts of organic matter content on measured TP concentrations. The results suggest that channel bank TP concentrations are primarily controlled by parent material rather than P additions to adjacent topsoils through fertilizer and organic matter inputs, but significant local variability in concentrations prevents the prediction of bank TP content using mapped soil type or geology. A median TP concentration of 873 mg kg-1 was calculated for the middle section of the sampled channel bank profiles, with a 25th percentile of 675 mg kg-1, and 75th percentile of 1159 mg kg-1. Using these concentrations and, in comparison with previously published estimates, the estimated number of inland WFD waterbodies in England for which channel bank erosion contributes >20% of the riverine total PP load increased from 15 to 25 (corresponding range of 17-35 using the 25th and 75th percentiles of measured TP concentrations). Collectively, these 25 waterbodies account for 0.2% of the total inland WFD waterbody area comprising England.

Subcortical tau‐accumulation predicts neuronal dysfunction in the cortex based on functional connectivity in 4R‐tauopathies

AbstractBackground4‐repeat (4R) tauopathies are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by cerebral accumulation of 4R tau pathology. The most prominent 4R‐tauopathies are progressive‐supranuclear‐palsy (PSP) and corticobasal‐syndrome (CBS) characterized by tau accumulation in subcortical nuclei as well as cortical neuronal dysfunction, as shown by PET‐assessed hypoperfusion and glucose hypometabolism. Yet, there is a spatial mismatch between subcortical tau deposition patterns and cortical neuronal dysfunction and it is unclear how these two pathological brain changes are interrelated. Here, we hypothesized that subcortical tau pathology induces diaschisis‐like neuronal dysfunction in functionally connected cortical regions.MethodWe included 47 patients with clinically diagnosed PSP or CBS who underwent structural MRI and 18F‐PI‐2620 tau‐PET. PI‐2620 PET was recorded using a dynamic one‐shot, two‐stop acquisition protocol, to determine an early 0.5‐2.5min post‐tracer‐injection perfusion window for assessing cortical neuroinjury in 200 cortical ROIs of the Schaefer atlas, as well as a 20‐40min post‐tracer‐injection window to determine 4R‐tau load in 32 subcortical ROIs of the TIAN atlas. We determined tau epicenters as 10% of subcortical ROIs with highest tau‐PET, and assessed the connectivity of tau epicenters to cortical ROIs using an age‐matched 3T resting‐state fMRI template derived from 69 healthy elderly. Using linear regression, we assessed whether i) higher subcortical tau‐PET was associated with overall reduced cortical perfusion and ii) whether cortical hypoperfusion was observed preferentially in regions closely connected to subcortical tau epicenters.ResultAs hypothesized, higher subcortical tau‐PET was associated with lower cortical perfusion (R=‐0,37, p‐value: &lt;0,011, Fig.1). Using group‐average tau‐PET and perfusion‐PET, we found that the seed‐based connectivity pattern of subcortical tau epicenters predicted cortical perfusion patterns, where cortical regions that were more closely connected to the tau epicenter showed stronger hypoperfusion (R=‐0,16, p‐value: &lt;0,023, Fig.2A). This association was also observed on the subject level, as indicated by overall negative b‐values of the association between tau epicenter connectivity and cortical perfusion (one‐sample t‐test: t‐value: ‐3,45, p‐value: &lt;0,001, Fig.3).ConclusionIn 4R‐tauopathies subcortical tau‐accumulation is associated with remote neuronal dysfunction in functionally connected cortical regions. This suggests that subcortical tau pathology may induce diaschisis‐like cortical dysfunction, which may contribute to clinical disease manifestation and clinical heterogeneity.

Subcortical tau‐accumulation predicts neuronal dysfunction in the cortex based on functional connectivity in 4R‐tauopathies

AbstractBackground4‐repeat (4R) tauopathies are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by cerebral accumulation of 4R tau pathology. The most prominent 4R‐tauopathies are progressive‐supranuclear‐palsy (PSP) and corticobasal‐syndrome (CBS) characterized by tau accumulation in subcortical nuclei as well as cortical neuronal dysfunction, as shown by PET‐assessed hypoperfusion and glucose hypometabolism. Yet, there is a spatial mismatch between subcortical tau deposition patterns and cortical neuronal dysfunction and it is unclear how these two pathological brain changes are interrelated. Here, we hypothesized that subcortical tau pathology induces diaschisis‐like neuronal dysfunction in functionally connected cortical regions.MethodWe included 47 patients with clinically diagnosed PSP or CBS who underwent structural MRI and 18F‐PI‐2620 tau‐PET. PI‐2620 PET was recorded using a dynamic one‐shot, two‐stop acquisition protocol, to determine an early 0.5‐2.5min post‐tracer‐injection perfusion window for assessing cortical neuroinjury in 200 cortical ROIs of the Schaefer atlas, as well as a 20‐40min post‐tracer‐injection window to determine 4R‐tau load in 32 subcortical ROIs of the TIAN atlas. We determined tau epicenters as 10% of subcortical ROIs with highest tau‐PET, and assessed the connectivity of tau epicenters to cortical ROIs using an age‐matched 3T resting‐state fMRI template derived from 69 healthy elderly. Using linear regression, we assessed whether i) higher subcortical tau‐PET was associated with overall reduced cortical perfusion and ii) whether cortical hypoperfusion was observed preferentially in regions closely connected to subcortical tau epicenters.ResultAs hypothesized, higher subcortical tau‐PET was associated with lower cortical perfusion (R=‐0,37, p‐value: &lt;0,011, Fig.1). Using group‐average tau‐PET and perfusion‐PET, we found that the seed‐based connectivity pattern of subcortical tau epicenters predicted cortical perfusion patterns, where cortical regions that were more closely connected to the tau epicenter showed stronger hypoperfusion (R=‐0,16, p‐value: &lt;0,023, Fig.2A). This association was also observed on the subject level, as indicated by overall negative b‐values of the association between tau epicenter connectivity and cortical perfusion (one‐sample t‐test: t‐value: ‐3,45, p‐value: &lt;0,001, Fig.3).ConclusionIn 4R‐tauopathies subcortical tau‐accumulation is associated with remote neuronal dysfunction in functionally connected cortical regions. This suggests that subcortical tau pathology may induce diaschisis‐like cortical dysfunction, which may contribute to clinical disease manifestation and clinical heterogeneity.

Mobile animals and immobile protected areas: improving the coverage of nature reserves for Asian elephant conservation in China

AbstractMany protected areas worldwide have been established to protect the last natural refuges of flagship animal species. However, long-established protected areas do not always match the current distributions of target species under changing environmental conditions. Here we present a case study of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus in Xishuangbanna, south-west China, to evaluate whether the established protected areas match the species’ current distribution and to identify key habitat patches for Asian elephant conservation. Our results show that currently only 24.5% of the predicted Asian elephant distribution in Xishuangbanna is located within Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, which was established for elephant conservation. Based on the predicted Asian elephant distribution, we identified the most important habitat patches for elephant conservation in Xishuangbanna. The three most important patches were outside Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and together they contained 43.3% of the estimated food resources for Asian elephants in all patches in Xishuangbanna. Thus, we identified a spatial mismatch between immobile protected areas and mobile animals. We recommend the inclusion of the three identified key habitat patches in a new national park currently being planned by the Chinese authorities for the conservation of the Asian elephant.

Deconstructing the dimensions of alpha diversity in squamate reptiles (Reptilia: Squamata) across the Americas

AbstractAimOur aim is to document the dimensions of current squamate reptile biodiversity in the Americas by integrating taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional data, and assessing how this may vary across phylogenetic scales. We also explore the potential underlying mechanisms that may be responsible for the observed geographical diversity patterns.LocationThe Americas.Time periodPresent.Major taxaSquamate reptiles.MethodsWe used published data on the distribution, phylogeny, and body size of squamate reptiles to document the current dimensions of their alpha diversity in the Americas. We overlapped species ranges to estimate taxonomic diversity (TD) and calculated phylogenetic diversity (PD) using mean pairwise phylogenetic distance (MPD), speciation rate (DivRate) and Faith's phylogenetic index (PD). We estimated functional diversity (FD) as trait dispersion in the multivariate space using body size and leg development data. We implemented a deconstructive macroecological approach to understand how spatial mismatches between the three facets of diversity vary across phylogenetic scales, and the potential eco‐evolutionary mechanisms driving these patterns across space.ResultsWe found a strong latitudinal gradient of TD with a large accumulation in tropical regions. PD and FD patterns were largely similar likely due to the high phylogenetic signal in the traits used, and higher values tended to be concentrated in harsh and/or heterogeneous environments. We found differences between major clades within Squamata that display contrasting geographical patterns. Several regions across the continent shared the same spatial mismatches between dimensions across clades, suggesting that similar eco‐evolutionary processes are shaping these regional reptile assemblages. However, we also found evidence that non‐mutually exclusive processes can operate differently across clades.Main conclusionsThe deconstructive approach implemented here is based on a solid macroecological framework. We can extend this to other taxonomic groups to establish whether there are particularities about how different eco‐evolutionary mechanisms shape biodiversity facets in a spatially explicit context.

Mobility Intersections: Gender, Family, Culture and Location in the Gauteng City-Region

Abstract The morphology of many South African cities has changed little over the last 25 years: with some of the poorest communities still living on the peripheries in informal settlements and old townships. The resulting spatial mismatch, with difficulties of access and mobility, has been recorded and engaged with elsewhere; the day-to-day implications for households and families have been less well-considered. In work that was undertaken between March 2019 and February 2020 using a mixed-method approach that included focus groups, a smartphone mobility app, mapping and qualitative interviews, as well as, the use of other on-line communication platforms such as WhatsApp to gather data, the team looked at the intersection between mobility, access and household dynamics. Results surface and highlight how old spatial planning logics have direct impact on contemporary spatial footprints, mobility patterns and transit choices. Former ‘White’ neighbourhoods, designed to be relatively self-contained and meet the needs of the suburban population, still ensure relatively small spatial footprints that are car-reliant. While those living in older informal settlements and townships still have the burden of long distances to access economic and often educational advancement. Similarly, the historical layout of transport modes continues to affect the day-to-day decisions of modal choice. However, these spatial patterns and historical transit planning are overlaid with gender expectations and gendered divisions of labour—as women continue to carry most of the childcare and domestic responsibilities and men continue to feel the necessity for household income provision. Thus, historical and continued segregation in the city-region intersects with diverse dimensions of race, class and culture to perpetuate widespread gendered mobility patterns in the Gauteng City-Region.

Are we telling the same story? Comparing inferences made from camera trap and telemetry data for wildlife monitoring.

Estimating habitat and spatial associations for wildlife is common across ecological studies and it is well known that individual traits can drive population dynamics and vice versa. Thus, it is commonly assumed that individual- and population-level data should represent the same underlying processes, but few studies have directly compared contemporaneous data representing these different perspectives. We evaluated the circumstances under which data collected from Lagrangian (individual-level) and Eulerian (population-level) perspectives could yield comparable inference to understand how scalable information is from the individual to the population. We used Global Positioning System (GPS) collar (Lagrangian) and camera trap (Eulerian) data for seven species collected simultaneously in eastern Washington (2018-2020) to compare inferences made from different survey perspectives. We fit the respective data streams to resource selection functions (RSFs) and occupancy models and compared estimated habitat- and space-use patterns for each species. Although previous studies have considered whether individual- and population-level data generated comparable information, ours is the first to make this comparison for multiple species simultaneously and to specifically ask whether inferences from the two perspectives differed depending on the focal species. We found general agreement between the predicted spatial distributions for most paired analyses, although specific habitat relationships differed. We hypothesize the discrepancies arose due to differences in statistical power associated with camera and GPS-collar sampling, as well as spatial mismatches in the data. Our research suggests data collected from individual-based sampling methods can capture coarse population-wide patterns for a diversity of species, but results differ when interpreting specific wildlife-habitat relationships.

Changes in the vertical distribution of age‐0 walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) during warm and cold years in the southeastern Bering Sea

AbstractIn the last 20 years, the southeastern Bering Sea has shifted its thermal variability to longer‐term (4–6 years) ocean–ecosystem temperature stanzas. Age‐0 walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) populations respond to thermal changes with horizontal (east–west) shifts in spatial distribution over the continental shelf, though there are limited data on whether thermally mediated vertical shifts in distribution also occur. Vertical shifts may impact predator–prey overlap between age‐0 pollock and their lipid‐rich prey, calanoid copepods and euphausiids, resulting in different feeding conditions that ultimately affect fish body condition prior to winter onset. For this study, we analyzed acoustic backscatter measured during acoustic trawl surveys over the southeastern Bering Sea shelf in cold years (2011, 2012) and warm years (2014 and 2016) to determine the vertical distribution of age‐0 pollock. This study presents evidence that age‐0 pollock changes in vertical distribution were related to changes in ocean annual temperature. Age‐0 pollock went from occurring deeper in the water column during cold periods to being surface‐oriented during warm periods, potentially exacerbating spatial mismatches between pollock and prey. We relate patterns in a vertical position to physical water column properties, feeding, and bioenergetic condition of collected pollock and discuss implications for recruitment success during different thermal oceanographic stanzas.

Relating forecast and satellite precipitation to generate future skillful ensemble forecasts over the northwest Himalayas at major avalanche and glacier sites

Availability of skillful precipitation forecast is crucial for regions such as the Himalayas which directly influence millions of people in the Indian subcontinent. The deterministic raw forecasts obtained from the numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are often biased. In this work, we present a novel approach of considering the spatial mismatch between the precipitation forecast and observation data in developing a statistical model. To deal with the mismatch in the spatial scale, a famous alternative approach could be ‘spatial downscaling and bias correction (SDBC)’. We attempt to blend the traditional approach of SDBC with a multiple-point geostatistics (MPS) approach to generate better-skilled forecasts. We consider the slope, aspect, and other topographical variables, along with the NWP model output, and observation data in a multivariate setup of the MPS (with SDBC) model to generate skillful forecast ensembles. We evaluate the daily generated 25 ensemble forecast members at avalanche and glacier sites. The generated multiple forecast members allow us to assess the uncertainty in the precipitation forecast. The outcome of the study would be helpful to water resource managers, disaster relief authorities, avalanche forecast agencies, and climate change experts for the sustainable development of the Himalayas.