Recent Scientific Papers
Ecological Indicators
Integrating Sciences for Monitoring, Assessment and Management
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| Use “risk of system failure” rather than additive aggregation methods of indicators when assessing habitat quality | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): Christian Damgaard, Morten Strandberg, Christian Kjær, Peter Borgen SørensenAbstractThe choice of method for aggregation of ecological indicators is important for the outcome of the aggregation. We demonstrate and discuss how additive versus risk of system failure (i.e. use of one-out-all-out logic) aggregation methods can result in opposing outcomes when assessing the conservation status of habitat types under the EU-habitat directive. In additive aggregation systems, failure to meet a given ecological... | ||
| Use of sterols to monitor surface water quality change and nitrate pollution source | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): Kei Nakagawa, Hiroki Amano, Ronny Berndtsson, Yuji Takao, Takahiro HosonoAbstractCoprostanol was tested as ecological indicator to trace domestic and manure effluents and to investigate possible pollution sources in surface water. Pollution assessment was performed by analysing NO3−, NO2−, coprostanol (5β(H)-Cholestan-3β-ol), and cholestanol (5α(H)-Cholestan-3β-ol) in water samples from 42 sites along rivers in Shimabara and Unzen City, Japan. NO2-N concentration exceeded 0.04 mg L−1 at 2... | ||
| Operational Life Cycle Impact Assessment weighting factors based on Planetary Boundaries: Applied to cosmetic products | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): Marcial Vargas-Gonzalez, François Witte, Patricia Martz, Laurent Gilbert, Sébastien Humbert, Olivier Jolliet, Rosalie van Zelm, Jacques L'HaridonAbstractLife Cycle Assessment (LCA) is frequently used by companies to assess the environmental performance of their products and services using a large set of environmental indicators. However, LCA practitioners and decision-makers are often unable to prioritize environmental indicators evaluated in LCA and tend to focus on indicators they consider material from... | ||
| Trend-cycles of vegetation dynamics as a tool for land degradation assessment and monitoring | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): M.H. Easdale, C. Fariña, S. Hara, N. Pérez León, F. Umaña, P. Tittonell, O. BruzzoneAbstractThe use of time series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), obtained from satellite sensors has become frequent in studies for land degradation assessment and monitoring. Linear trends of NDVI are usually considered as indicators of vegetation dynamics and widely used as proxies for land degradation. Yet, long-term trends of NDVI often exhibit unidirectional (monotonic) but also cyclic (non-monotonic... | ||
| Spatial and seasonal variability of sedimentary organic matter and its origin in an algal-blooming eutrophic lake | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): Megumu Fujibayashi, Maoko Ashino, Kunihiro Okano, Naoyuki MiyataAbstractKnowledge of the origin of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) in lakes contributes to our understanding of the carbon cycle and provides valuable guidance for lake ecosystem management. To elucidate the changes in the spatial and seasonal origins of SOM in a eutrophic lake, we collected sediment at 31 sampling points in Lake Hachiro, northern Japan, in June and November of 2016 and April and June of 2017, and measured total organic carbon... | ||
| How do ecological resilience metrics relate to community stability and collapse? | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): Caleb P. Roberts, Dirac Twidwell, David G. Angeler, Craig R. AllenAbstractThe concept of ecological resilience (the amount of disturbance a system can absorb before collapsing and reorganizing) holds potential for predicting community change and collapse—increasingly common issues in the Anthropocene. Yet neither the predictions nor metrics of resilience have received rigorous testing. The cross-scale resilience model, a leading operationalization of resilience, proposes resilience can be quantified by the... | ||
| Responses of soil denitrifying bacterial communities carrying nirS, nirK, and nosZ genes to revegetation of moving sand dunes | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): Hailong Li, Ying Zhang, Tingting Wang, Shuwei Feng, Qing Ren, Zhenbo Cui, Chengyou CaoAbstractRevegetation is commonly the first step to restoring degraded ecosystems in desertified regions. Large areas of plantations have been planted on moving sand dunes to control land desertification in the Horqin sandy land of Northeastern China. This method aims to recover the vegetation and improve soil nutrients thereby resulting in the change in soil microbial community and affecting soil nitrogen cycle... | ||
| What precedes fluoride-response symptomatology: Microscopic or physiological damage? | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): Bruno Francisco Sant'Anna-Santos, Aristéa Alves Azevedo, Marco Antônio Oliva, Naiara Viana Campos, Marcelo Pedrosa GomesAbstractWe investigated biomarkers for early fluoride (F)-detection in the environment using the F-sensitive species Spondias dulcis. Plants were exposed to F (5 ml l−1) to determine the sequence of events preceding the visual appearance of the characteristic symptomatology of F toxicity. Decreases in photosynthetic rates in plants upon F exposure were related to decreasing stomatal... | ||
| Effect of dam construction on nutrient deposition from a small agricultural karst catchment | ||
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| Publication date: December 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 107Author(s): Yunqi Zhang, Jia Liao, Zengli Pei, Xue Lu, Shujian Xu, Xiaoli WangAbstractAssessing the effects of dam construction on nutrient deposition in small catchments is important to our understanding of the influence of dam interception on downstream nutrient transport as well as of the link between nutrient loss from sloping land and the eutrophic status of large rivers. This study investigates the effect of dam construction on nutrient deposition from a small agricultural karst catchment over the past 50 years... | ||
| New insights about the primary production dependence on abiotic factors: Ria de Aveiro case study | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Leandro Vaz, Silja Frankenbach, João Serôdio, João M. DiasAbstractThe Ria de Aveiro is a mesotidal coastal lagoon located in the north coast of Portugal. Although the biophysics of this coastal system has been extensively researched in previous studies, there is still a lack of knowledge about the fate of biomass of fluvial origin in the lagoon and on the on the limiting factors of growth of their plankton communities. Based on this assumption, this study presents a first attempt to perform an integrated... | ||
| The effects of topographical factors on the distribution of plant communities in a mountain meadow on the Tibetan Plateau as a foundation for target-oriented management | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Yujie Niu, Jianwei Zhou, Siwei Yang, Bin Chu, Sujie Ma, Huimin Zhu, Limin HuaAbstractMountains are storehouses of biodiversity and natural resources. However, mountain rangeland is one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world due to the harsh natural conditions. The biodiversity and productivity in mountain regions are further under severe threat because of topography heterogeneity and poor management. To improve mountain rangeland management to sustain ecosystem services, we should better understand the... | ||
| Changes in plant functional traits and their relationships with environmental factors along an urban-rural gradient in Guangzhou, China | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Guangman Song, Jun Wang, Taotao Han, Quan Wang, Hai Ren, Huoxing Zhu, Xiangying Wen, Dafeng HuiAbstractRapid urbanization in southern China has had significant impacts on the monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forests and caused a series of environmental issues. How plants, in particular plant functional traits, respond to urbanization is hence of importance for their acclimation to changing environments. In this study, we investigated the changes of plant functional traits associated with plant competition and... | ||
| Magnetic susceptibility as indicator of anthropogenic disturbances in forest topsoil: A review of magnetic studies carried out in Central European forests | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Tadeusz Magiera, Adam Łukasik, Jarosław Zawadzki, Wolfgang RöslerAbstractForest topsoil is subjected to physical and chemical degradation due to the deposition of urban and industrial dust and landfill, as well as physical disturbances including a relic of former cultivation, clearcutting, and afforestation. Such disturbances are observed in all natural and semi-natural forests across Europe, but most intensively in urban forests surrounding cities and industrial areas. Magnetic susceptibility constitutes... | ||
| Mapping the city-scale supply and demand of ecosystem flood regulation services—A case study in Shanghai | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Ju Shen, Shiqiang Du, Qingxu Huang, Jie Yin, Min Zhang, Jiahong Wen, Jun GaoAbstractIn the context of climate change and rapid urbanization, pluvial flooding has posed an increasing challenge for urban sustainability and drawn research attention to better understanding the role of an ecosystem’s flood regulation service (EFRS) in mitigating floods. However, relatively little is known about the supply and demand of the EFRS at the city scale and about the effect of nature-based solutions on the EFRS. To... | ||
| Seasonal variation of mercury in commercial fishes of the Amazon Triple Frontier, Western Amazon Basin | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Stephani Ferreira da Silva, Diomar Cavalcante Oliveira, João Paulo Góes Pereira, Simone Pinto Castro, Brenda Natasha Souza Costa, Marcelo de Oliveira LimaAbstractArtisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) has been spreading in the Western Amazon. ASGM is one of the main sources of pollution by anthropogenic mercury on the environment in the Amazon. Ecotoxicological approaches are important to monitoring aquatic ecosystems. They evaluate interactions among contaminants and living organisms and detect... | ||
| Using ignorance scores to explore biodiversity recording effort for multiple taxa in the Caatinga | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Ricardo A. Correia, Alejandro Ruete, Juliana Stropp, Ana C.M. Malhado, Janisson W. dos Santos, Thainá Lessa, José A. Alves, Richard J. LadleAbstractThe availability of quality information about species distributions is clearly central to the development of successful conservation efforts. Digital records of species occurrences are increasingly available and have been used in a number of conservation applications, such as species distribution models and conservation prioritization efforts. However, our... | ||
| Development of digital photographic approaches to assess leaf traits in broadleaf tree species | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Francesco Chianucci, Carlotta Ferrara, Martina Pollastrini, Piermaria CoronaAbstractPlants display a large number of traits which are reflected in physiological and ecological functions (functional traits). Leaf traits are amongst the most important functional traits. However, a great challenge in measuring leaf traits in the field is that direct methods are limited by the cost of the instruments and the time and work required by direct measurements, which are often destructive. As an alternative, we... | ||
| Experimental research on trade-offs in ecosystem services: The agro-ecosystem functional spectrum | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Zhongxue Zhou, Guy M. Robinson, Bingjie SongAbstractThe analytic methods currently widely applied in studying trade-offs of ecosystem services have certain limitations. There is scope to use different methods to better analyse the comprehensive influence of the change in an individual service on that of overall services, and to examine the relationship between total ecosystem services and the structure of services delivered by an ecosystem. This paper develops the concept of an ‘agricultural functional... | ||
| Evaluation of C-reactive-like protein in Mytilus galloprovincialis | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Lorena Franco-Martínez, Asta Tvarijonaviciute, Sandra V. Mateo, José J. Cerón, Diego Romero, Miguel Oliveira, Mariana Teles, Silvia Martínez-SubielaAbstractC-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute phase protein of the innate immune system with an important role as biomarker in many biological processes in mammals. However, there is a lack of information regarding CRP in molluscs and there is no data about the presence of CRP-like protein in mussels. In the present work, CPR-like protein was identified and... | ||
| Don’t save lemons! The impact of older technology vehicles on environmental expenditure at regional level in Italy | ||
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| Publication date: November 2019Source: Ecological Indicators, Volume 106Author(s): Elina De Simone, Marcella D'Uva, Salvatore ErcolanoAbstractThis paper aims to investigate the impact of older technology vehicles on local environmental expenditures in Italy at regional level. Our research hypothesis states that the incidence of high emission technology vehicles, causing higher environmental damage, can increase the environmental expenditure in regions endowed with older fleets. Through a panel data analysis in the period 2004–2014, we show that technological obsolescence, by causing an... | ||
