Human impacts on the terrestrial ecosystem of Fildes Peninsula of King George Island, Antarctica

Antarctic environment has valuable baseline information for understanding the global change. The objectives of this study were to investigate the impacts of human activities on Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem. Based on the investigation results and the sampling analysis of the environment of Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctica, it was shown that there are some artificial radioactive elements—? ? 137 Cs in Antarctic environment: the radioactivity of 137 Cs in the surface soil, the surface moss, the fruticose lichen and the crustaceous lichen are 6 00—14 80, 25 07, 29 04 and 58 07 Bq/kg separately; i.e. the sequence of 137 Cs specific activity is as follows: crustaceous lichen>fruticose lichen>surface moss>surface soil, which demonstrates that the crustaceous lichen is one of the most sensitive monitor ways for the effect of the long term diffusion of 137 Cs. The impacts of the scientific research activities on the partial ecosystem of Fildes Peninsula include: the changes of the landscape and the soil material have made a strong freezing thawing process, which decreases the stability of the ground surface, causes the degradation of the vegetation in the some small areas; some small lakes, runoff and lichens in middle areas of Fildes Peninsula have been affected by the wastes of the stations, in the surrounding areas of the expedition stations, the concentration of Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in the lichen and the water are higher than that of the contrasting area. Fildes Peninsula is one of the most crowded areas of expedition stations, at some extent, the environment and terrestrial ecosystem have been affected by the human activities. The conservation of the environment and ecosystem should be an important aspect of Antarctic environmental sciences.

Cumulative human impacts in the Bering Strait Region

Introduction:Human impacts on Arctic marine ecosystems are increasing in extent and intensity as sea ice shrinks and utilization of marine resources expands.The effects of climate change are being felt across the arctic while stressors such as commercial fishing and shipping continue to grow as the Arctic becomes more accessible.Given these emerging changes,there is need for an assessment of the current cumulative impact of human activities to better anticipate and manage for a changing Arctic.Cumulative human impacts(CHI)assessments have been widely applied around the world in a variety of ecosystem types but have yet to incorporate temporal dynamics of individual stressors.Such dynamics are funda-mental to Arctic ecosystems.Outcomes:Here,we present the first CHI assessment of an Arctic ecosystem to incorporate sea ice as a habitat and assess impact seasonality,using the Bering Strait Region(BSR)as a case study.We find that cumulative impacts differ seasonally,with lower impacts in winter and higher impacts in summer months.Large portions of the BSR have significantly different impacts within each season when compared to a mean annual cumulative impact map.Cumulative impacts also have great spatial variability,with Russian waters between 2.38 and 3.63 times as impacted as US waters.Conclusion:This assessment of seasonal and spatial cumulative impacts provides an under-standing of the current reality in the BSR and can be used to support development and evaluation of future management scenarios that address expected impacts from climate change and increasing interest in the Arctic.

Ecological service assessment of human-dominated freshwater ecosystem with a case study in Yangzhou Prefecture, China

Freshwater ecosystems provide a host of services to humanity. These services are now rapidly being lost, not least because of the inability of making the impacts measurable. To overcome this obstacle, assessment frameworks for freshwater ecosystem services are needed. A simple water equivalent framework to assess the ecological services provided by freshwater ecosystems was developed in this study. It translated the occupation of freshwater ecosystem services into biologically freshwater volumes and then compares this consumption to the freshwater throughput, that is, the ecological capacity available in this region. In this way, we use the example of Yangzhou Prefecture, to account the main categories of human occupation of water ecosystem services. The result showed that there is a huge gap between the consumption and the supply of freshwater ecosystem services. This must encourage local government to make land-use and water management decisions both economically rational and environmentally sound.

Human impact recorded in the sediment of Honghu Lake, Hubei, China

Vertical profiles of the total organic carbon （TOC）, total nitrogen （TN）, phosphorus, susceptibilities, elements and partical size were analyzed in a short ^137Cs-dated sediment core collected from Honghu Lake, China. The average sedimentation rate was 1.55 mm/a. The results indicated that trophic status of Honghu Lake in the historical period had experienced three stages. Before 1840 the lake was characterized with lower productivity, TOC was less than 9.92 g/kg; TN was 0.902 to 1.24 g/kg. During about 1840-1950, population increased quickly, there was an obvious change in TOC with an average of 13.0 g/kg. Since 1950, human impacts have accelerated the lake eutrophication and nutrients enriched in the sediment with TOC of 21.7 to 93.1 g/kg, TN of 1.77 to 8.78 g/kg. The heavy metal concentration profiles presented similar distribution trends except Pb .and Mn. The results from elements analyses indicated that Honghu Lake had not been polluted by heavy metals except lead.

Forest fragmentation and human population varies logarithmically along elevation gradient in Hindu Kush Himalaya-utility of geospatial tools and free data set

Hindu Kush Himalaya(HKH) is the largest and the most diverse mountain region in the world that provides ecosystem services to one fifth of the total world population. The forests are fragmented to different degrees due to expansion and intensification of human land use. However, the quantitative relationship between fragmentation and demography has not been established before for HKH vis-à-vis along elevation gradient. We used the globally available tree canopy cover data derived from Landsat-TM satellite to find out the decadal forest cover change over 2000 to 2010 and their corresponding fragmentation levels. Using SRTMderived DEM, we observed high forest cover loss up to2400 m that highly corroborated with the population distribution pattern as derived from satellite observation. In general, forest cover loss was found to be higher in south-eastern part of HKH. Forest fragmentation obtained using ‘area-weighted mean radius of gyration' as indicator, was found to be very high up to 2400 m that also corroborated with high human population for the year 2000 and 2010. We observed logarithmic decrease in fragmentation change(area-weighted mean radius of gyration value),forest cover loss and population growth during 2000-2010 along the elevation gradient with very high R^2 values(i.e., 0.889, 0.895, 0.944 respectively). Our finding on the pattern of forest fragmentation and human population across the elevation gradient in HKH region will have policy level implication for different nations and would help in characterizing hotspots of change. Availability of free satellite derived data products on forest cover and DEM, griddata on demography, and utility of geospatial tools helped in quick evaluation of the forest fragmentation vis-a-vis human impact pattern along the elevation gradient in HKH.

Rainfall patterns of Algerian steppes and the impacts on natural vegetation in the 20^th century

Since 1960, the steppe regions of North Africa have been subject to an increasing desertification, including the degradation of traditional pastures. The initially dominant species （Artemisia herba-alba, Lygeum spartum and Slipa tenacissima） declined and were progressively replaced by other species （Atractylis serratuloides and Salsola vermiculata） that are more tolerant to the new conditions. It is not clear whether these changes are due to anthropogenic reasons or climatic determinism. We have carried out a statistical analysis of the climate to detect putative rainfall changes during the 20th century in the Algerian steppes based on data from 9 meteorological stations, including 2 Saharan stations （El Oued and Touggourt）, 3 pre-Saharan stations （Biskra, Laghouat and Ain Sefra） and 4 steppe stations （Djelfa, Saida, M6ch6ria and E1-Bayadh） located in the arid high plains, which represent the bioclimate diversities of the region. Previous studies suggested that significant rainfall changes for the 20th century only had records in the south of the Oran region. Most of the studies, however, looked at restricted territories over limited periods, and did not integrate the rainiest period 2004-2014. Our work is designed to integrate all the longest time series of meteorological data available for the steppe regions of Algeria. Our results confirm the spatial rainfall distribution （significant rainfall changes only recorded in the southwestern region） evidenced by previous studies, and reveal a decreasing rainfall gradient from northeastern to southwestern Algeria. Moreover, the results reveal a trend of significant decrease of rainfall in the southern Oran region, marked by two drought periods in 1980- 1985 and 1999-2003. However, with the exception of the southwestern region, rainfall overall has not declined since the beginning of the 20th century. While less marked in other regions, the drought appear to have affected all territories of the Algerian steppe. Consequently, our study implies that the climate was not a leading influence in the on-going degradation of the vegetation cover of steppe landscapes. Such a vegetation evolution thus appears to be have been determined more by human activities than by climate forcing.

Genetic diversity of Mansonia altissima A. Chev. under different regimes of human impact in the Akure Forest Reserve,Nigeria

Mansonia altissima is an important West African timber tree species. For the purpose of examining the effect of human impact on its genetic diversity, genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of the species under different regimes of human impact were investigated in the Akure Forest Reserve, Nigeria, using 504 amplified fragment length polymorphism （AFLP） markers. The results indicate a very low genetic diversity in M. altissima within the forest reserve （He = 0.045; PPL = 16.75%; Br = 1.162）. The highest genetic diversity was observed in the primary forest （H e= 0.062; PPL - 21.00%; Br = 1.204）, with the lowest genetic diversity in the isolated forest patch （He = 0.032; PPL = 9.00%; B r= 1.089）. A significant and pronounced spatial genetic structure was found in the logged forest and in the isolated forest patch. In contrast, the primary forest exhibited very weak spatial genetic structuring. As expected, no spatial genetic structure was found in the planted stands of M. altissima. From a conservation point of view, our results suggest that genetic diversity ofM. altissima is at risk in the forest reserve. The scale of human impact in the study area could pose a serious threat to the maintenance of genetic diversity of the species. These results would offer practical applications in the conservation of other tropical tree species.

Water discharge changes of the Changjiang River downstream Datong during dry season

Based on hydrometric data and extensive investigations on water-extracting projects, this paper presents a preliminary study on water discharge changes between Datong and Xuliujing during dry season. The natural hydrological processes and human factors that influence the water discharge are analyzed with the help of GIS method. The investigations indicate that the water-extracting projects downstream from Datong to Xuliujing had amounted to 64 in number by the end of 2000, with a water-extracting capacity up to 4,626 m 3 /s averaged in a tidal cycle. The water extraction from the Changjiang River has become the most important factor influencing the water discharge downstream Datong during dry season. The potential magnitude in water discharge changes are estimated based on historical records of water extraction and a water balance model. The computational results were calibrated with the actual data. The future trend in changes of water discharge into the sea during dry season was discussed by taking into consideration of newly built hydro-engineering projects. The water extraction downstream Datong in dry season before 2000 had a great influence on discharges into the sea in the extremely dry year like 1978-1979. It produced a net decrease of more than 490 m 3 /s in monthly mean discharges from the Changjiang into the sea. It is expected that the water extraction will continually increase in the coming decades, especially in dry years, when the net decrease in monthly mean water discharge will increase to more than 1000 m 3 /s and will give a far-reaching effect on the changes of water discharge from the Changjiang into the sea.

The importance of long-term research and monitoring in the Ross Sea

The Ross Sea region is a biologically rich and dynamic environment and,although protected under various instruments of the Antarctic Treaty System,is threatened by a changing climate and increasing human activities locally and globally.This opinion editorial describes the importance of research and monitoring in the Ross Sea and identifies opportunities and barriers to enhance them.

Historical drought and water disasters in the Weihe Plain

Through detailed statistics and analysis of drought and water disasters in the Weihe Plain in the historical period, we discovered that in more than 2300 years (from 370 BC to 2000 AD), natural disasters occurred most frequently in two periods. One is from 610 to 850 AD (from the late Sui Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty) and the other is from 1580 to 2000 AD (after the late Ming Dynasty). Different natural disasters occurred synchronously, that is to say, when the drought occurred frequently, water disasters occurred frequently in the same periods. Frequencies of natural disasters, on the one hand, connected with climate changes and development course of ancient cities, while on the other, related closely to population changes. The excessive exploitation of natural resources and human disturbance and damages to ecological environment are the major reasons for the increased drought and water disasters.

Landscape pattern and its effect on ecosystem functions in Seoul Metropolitan area:Urban ecology on distribution of the naturalized plant species

During land transformation process in the human history, naturalized plants were introduced to several land use patterns by the different ways of plant itself. Including some naturalized plants that had been contribute to land restoration, many naturalized plants have been invaded to original habitat or landscape for native plants. Once the plants were colonized, they extend their area and population size. Urban developed areas often give an important role of source habitat for naturalized plants and expanding their population size. In recent, this situation is appearing as one of environmental problems about the urban landscape management controlling the naturalized plants that invaded in the developed area and conserving the native vegetation. This paper is focusing on relationships between distribution of habitat of naturalized plants and landscape patch in urban area in Seoul. Gangdong-Gu, one of the administrative areas in Seoul was selected for this study. We examined the recent land use change using LANDSAT TM data and spreading of the representative naturalized plants (Robinia pseudoacacia and Eupatorium rugosum) by Seoul Biotope Mapping Project and field survey in 1999. As a result, these two species were often occurred in the same habitat and distributed in forest edge disturbed by man. Their distribution patterns were related to landscape indices (patch size and shape) in the forest edge.

On models for landscape connectivity: a case study of the new-born wetland of the Yellow River Delta

The models for landscape connectivity are distinguished into models for line connectivity, vertex connectivity, network connectivity and patch connectivity separately. Because the models for line connectivity, for vertex connectivity, and for network connectivity have long been studied and have become ripe, the model for patch connectivity is paid special attention in this paper. The patch connectivity is defined as the average movement efficiency (minimizing movement distance) of animal migrants or plant propagules in patches of a region under consideration. According to this definition, a model for landscape connectivity is mathematically deduced to apply to GIS data. The application of model for patch connectivity in the new-born wetland of the Yellow River Delta shows patch connectivity has a negative interrelation with human impact intensity and landscape diversity.

Development of land desertification in Bashang area in the past 20 years

Natural conditions in Bashang area are characterized by zonal transitions which are liable to be impacted by natural disasters and intensified human activities. The extremely fragile eco-environment is also liable to have desertification formed and developed. In the 18 years from 1978 to 1996, the desertified land area of Bashang within the scope of the map nearly doubled, a total increase of 2199.11 km2, averaging an increase of 122.17 km2 per year. Moreover, the seriously desertified area increases rapidly. Land desertification in Bashang is the combined result of natural factors and irrational human economic activities. Cultivated land expansion, population growth, and overgrazing aggrevate desertification development.

Seasonal and interannual variations of flow discharge from Pearl River into sea

Flow discharge from the river basin into the sea has severe impacts on the immediate vicinity of river channels, estuaries, and coastal areas. This paper analyzes the features and temporal trends of flow discharge at Pearl River＇s three main gauge stations： the Wuzhou, Shijiao, and Boluo gauge stations on the West River, North River, and East River, respectively. The results show no significant trend in annual mean discharge into the sea at the three gauge stations. Changes of monthly mean discharge at the Boluo Gauge Station are evident, and a majority of monthly discharge in the dry season displays significant increasing trends. Furthermore, changes of the extreme discharge are quite evident, with a significant decreasing trend in the annual maximum discharge and a significant increasing trend in the minimum one. The significantly decreasing ratio of the flood discharge to annual discharge at the Boluo Gauge Station indicates that the flow discharge from the East River has increased in the dry season and decreased in the flood season since the construction of dams and reservoirs. At the other two gauge stations, the Wuzhou and Shijiao gauge stations, the seasonal discharge generally does not change perceptibly. Human impacts, especially those pertaining to reservoir and dam construction, appear to be responsible for the seasonal variation of flow discharge. The results indicate that the construction and operation of dams and reservoirs in the East River have a greater influence on flow discharge, which can well explain why the seasonal variation of flow discharge from the East River is more evident.

Human’s digital footprints on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau:Variations during festivals and impacts on nature reserves

Mobile internet and wireless communication technologies have produced unprecedented location-aware data.Such big geospatial data can be used as a proxy measure of the‘digital footprints’left by us on the planet and provide a valuable opportunity to understand the dynamic and short-term human disturbance on the nature at fine scales.This study investigated the spatiotemporal variations of human’s digital footprints on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using smartphone-users-generated Tencent’s location request data.The results showed that human’s digital footprints cover less than 5%of Qinghai and Tibet,exhibiting either a U-shaped or an N-shaped temporal change pattern during the major festivals.Spatial changes of the digital footprints manifested a transition process from dispersion to concentration in Xining and Lhasa.Human disturbance assessment of seven large nature reserves on the plateau showed that the Qinghai Lake is the most disturbed one as shown by 14.6%of its area is stained with human digital footprints and the areal average of footprint intensity is 1.59,and the disturbance was significantly escalated during the National Day holiday.By contrast,the Qangtang and Hoh Xil are the least affected nature reserves with the two indices less than 1%and 0.1,respectively.

Are Antarctic Specially Protected Areas safe from plastic pollution? a survey of plastic litter at Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island, Antarctica

A number of studies have reported in the last decades the presence of plastics in the Southern Ocean,which are liable to reach the coast and accumulate on the Antarctic Continent.Despite this,there are few data on the amount of plastic pollution on Antarctic beaches below 60°S.Here we provide valuable information about the presence of plastic debris in Byers Peninsula,Livingston Island,South Shetland Islands,an Antarctic Specially Protected Area(ASPA)and a hotspot for biodiversity.A total of 129 locations with between 1 and 5 items were recorded among the 3 survey sites on Byers Peninsula.Most of the observed items are likely to derive from fishing and local sources such as tourism and research activities.We discuss the potential impacts of their presence on local fauna and some of the consequences on the Antarctic ecosystem.From this survey of plastic accumulation in an ASPA,we propose the implementation of mitigation strategies,such as systematic monitoring of the abundance and distribution of plastic waste,in order to identify trends in marine debris and control the levels of plastic pollution in the Maritime Antarctic region.

Geochemical analysis of multi-element in archaeological soils from Tappe Rivi in Northeast Iran

Multi-element analysis in historical sites is a major issue in archaeological studies;however,this approach is almost unknown among Iranian scholars.Geochemical multi-element analysis of soil is very important to evaluate anthropogenic activities.The aim of this study consists of assessing the potential usefulness of multi-elemental soil analysis,obtained by Analytical Jena atomic absorption spectrophotometer(AAS) and ICP-MS,to recognize ancient anthropogenic features on the territory of Tappe Rivi(North Khorasan,Iran).For that purpose,a total of 80 ancient soil samples were sampled from each soil horizon and cultural layer.The research involved Fe,Al,Cd,Cu,Ni,Co,Cr,Pb,and P which trace element samples were extracted according to the International Standard ISO 11466 and phosphorus samples by Olsen method.Besides,the contamination of the soils was assessed based on enrichment factors(EFs) by using Fe as a reference element.This geochemical/archaeological approach highlights that the content of most elements in the Parthian and Sassanid ages were significantly higher than the contents of the elements in other zones,which shows that by the development of the eras,the content of the elements has also increased.Also,the accumulation of metals in the Rivi site was significantly higher than in the control area.Among the sampled zones,enrichment factor(EF) indicated that the enrichment of Cu and phosphate at the Parthian and Sassanid had the highest content.This result is important because it shows that the amount of metals and human activities are directly related to each other during different ages.

Gastropods Diversity in Thondaimanaru Lagoon (Class: Gastropoda), Northern Province, Sri Lanka

Thondaimanaru lagoon (TL) is one of the three lagoons in the Jaffna Peninsula, Sri Lanka. TL (N-9.819584, E-80.134086), which is 74.5 Km2. Fringing these lagoons are mangroves, large tidal flats and salt marshes. The present study is carried out to assess the diversity of gastropods in the northern part of the TL. The sampling of gastropods was performed by using quadrat method from July 2015 to June 2016. Different sites were selected and rainfall data, water temperature, salinity of the water and GPS values were collected. Collected gastropod shells were classified using standard taxonomic keys and their morphological as well as morphometrical characteristics were analyzed. A total of 23 individual gastropods were identified from the lagoon which belongs to 21 genera of 15 families among them 11 gastropods were identified up to species level.

Analysis on Landscape Pattern in the Upper and Middle Reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River:Taking Zhongba County,Angren County, Rikaze City as Example

Taking Zhongba County, Angren County, Rikaze City located at the Upper and Middle Reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River as landscape units , this paper studied the difference of the landscape pattern under various degrees of human disturbance in the three areas. The results showed that： the three areas all reflected the same characteristic of landscape pattern in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the natural landscapes were in the absolute dominant position. However, from Zhangba to Rikaze, with human disturbance intensity increasing, anthropogenic features of landscapes became more and more outstanding, In Zhongba, the landscape structure appeared to be simpler with coarse grains and a less rich diversity, Conversely, in Rikaze, the landscape showed a complicated shape with finer grains and a relatively richer diversity, This reflected that the impact of human activities to natural landscape behaved a gradually-growing trend from the upper reach to the middle one of Yarlung Zangbo River Basin.