Urban agglomeration has become the main regional unit to cope with global challenges. However, with the development of economic globalisation and urbanisation, urban agglomeration is facing increasing pressure on nature resources and ecological environment. This study takes the Fujian Delta Urban Agglomeration (FDUA) in China as the research area. Emergy analysis theory is used to evaluate the health

Fixation of Phosphorus into locked forms hampers the availability of this important soil element. Phosphate Solubilising Microorganisms (PSM) play an important role of solubilisation and mineralization of these fixed forms into bio-available forms through reactions that are complex but provide simple solutions to P deficiency in soils. Semi-arid soil may have high total phosphorus concentrations but

This review provides a broad conceptual overview of different approaches to measuring marine ecosystem condition and guidance for framework development (particularly relevant for developing countries). The objectives were to review definitions of ecosystem condition and identify the core approaches and key challenges within the research area. Furthermore, we reviewed the advantages and disadvantages

Mountain forest ecosystems provide us with life-supporting ecosystem services that are valuable for local, regional, and global communities. Ecological niche-based models have been used extensively, with remarkable success, in understanding the influence of climate change on potential distribution of species. In this study, we used maximum entropy (MaxEnt) modelling to predict the potential distribution

Species distribution models (SDMs) are an effective tool in ecological restoration, but the application of SDMs in wetland restoration is rare owing to limited survey data. Based on field survey of the iconic, widespread wetland species Phragmites australis (Poaceae), we built maximum entropy (MaxEnt) models to study the current and future delimitation of wetlands in the Songnen Plain in Northeast

Argentina is considered megadiverse for Cactaceae, and Jujuy province, with a high proportion of cacti endemism, is a critical region for their preservation. Cacti deterioration is mainly associated with habitat degradation, agricultural frontier advance, urbanization, illegal collection and trade. Of the three species of columnar cacti within Trichocereus genus that are present, Trichocereus atacamensis

The Weihe River is the largest tributary of the typically sediment-laden Yellow River in China. Assuming that high sediment concentrations may increase the turbidity of water bodies, and therefore affect riverine ecosystem, in which the bacterioplankton are crucial components and serve as important indicators of environmental and ecological status through their structure and response to the environment

Establishing robust estimates of polar marine biodiversity is important for interpreting future changes in the Arctic; however, despite a recent increase in scientific expeditions, this region remains relatively underexplored. Particularly overlooked in biodiversity assessments are small species, such as protists, fungi, and many small invertebrates that are collectively known as meiofauna. These species

Structural complexity plays a key role in the functioning of coral reef ecosystems. Reef-building corals are major contributors to this complexity, providing shelter and food for numerous invertebrates and fish species. Both structural complexity and shelter capacity of reefscapes are determined by several components such as spurs and grooves, slope, caves and holes, vegetation and coral colonies.

The sustainable development of urban systems requires an understanding of interactions between the economic, social, and ecological systems within and beyond the urban systems. In this paper, emergy-based indicators in consideration of ecosystem services were built for evaluating urban systems’ sustainability performance through a case study of Simao, China. The emergy analysis results of Simao implied

Body size plays a key role for the productivity and resilience of marine populations. This work analyses the variation in body size indicators taken from ~ 400 000 individuals during the period 2000–2018 for a set of 20 key commercial species of the small-scale fishery of Galicia (SW Europe). Mean body size showed relatively stable inter-annual trends during the study period, and, at the year level

Urban areas are major consumers of environmental resources and thus often place unsustainable demands on natural resources. As half of the world’s population (55%) lives in urban areas, the environmental degradation produced by cities threatens the health and quality of life of a fair share of the world’s population. For these reasons, progress towards sustainable urban development must be monitored

Habitat loss and fragmentation resulting from environmental changes are main drivers of global biodiversity loss, as the survival of metapopulations relies on the ability of individuals to disperse among suitable habitat patches. To prioritize conservation efforts, methods are needed for evaluating the robustness of metapopulations against habitat loss. We therefore investigate this robustness for

Under current levels of global warming most demersal species in the Northeast Atlantic are experiencing tropicalization, meridionalization or borealization of their distributions, leading to profound changes in demersal communities. We explore these changes using the Community Weighted Mean Temperature (CWMT), an index to link the thermal preference of demersal fish communities and temperature. The

Efficient implementation of nematodes-based indices for ecological quality assessment requires fundamental knowledge on their biodiversity and functional patterns along with the drivers that generate these patterns. Though, it is still unclear if nematodes taxonomical attributes are driven by the same environmental drivers as their functional (biological traits) counterparts, or if their taxonomical

Urban streams and ecosystems are highly affected by the intense development of cities and an increase of impervious surfaces. If these environments are close to their pristine state, they can be considered a nature-based solution promoting the integration of both green and blue elements in the cities, while providing a wide range of services (e.g. better aesthetics, air quality, leisure areas, and

Rainforests ensure fundamental water-related ecosystem services that are currently threatened by land-use change, in particular deforestation. Quantitative assessments of water-related ecosystem services have traditionally focused on the benefits linked to direct water availability for humans. Under this perspective, forests have been considered as water consumers, due to high interception and transpiration

In the European Union the basic requirements in the subject of the appropriate quality of water, constituting a habitat for fish, was established in Directive 2006/44/EC (EU, 2006) on the quality of fresh waters needing protection or improvement in order to support fish life (currently implicitly repealed by Directive 2000/60/EC). This legislation presents the list of parameters that should be controlled

The study presents the first comprehensive overview of ecosystem services (ES) research from the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), a region often referred to as the ‘water tower of Asia’. Through a systematic literature search, we consolidated 439 peer-reviewed journal articles related to ecosystem services in the HKH. A bibliometric analysis was carried out to examine the temporal trend, geographical distribution

Seagrass condition, resilience and ecosystem services are affected by the below-ground tissues (BGr) but these are rarely monitored. In this study we compiled historical data across northern Australia to investigate biomass allocation strategies in 13 tropical seagrass species. There was sufficient data to undertake statistical analysis for five species: Cymodocea serrulata, Halophila ovalis, Halodule

The characteristics of the benthic community structure can effectively reflect the health status of the river ecosystem and the quality of the river ecological environment. It is of great significance to identify the limiting factors of benthic community structure for the maintenance of river ecosystem health. As a typical semi-arid ecological fragile area, the eco-environmental problems in the Wei

This study was carried out in the Yenisei estuary and in the adjacent part of the Kara Sea shelf. We analyzed and compared the distribution patterns of the different benthic taxa and size classes (micro-, meio-, macro- and megabenthos) along a pronounced gradient of environmental factors. Four ecological zones were distinguished based on certain environmental parameters, from the upper riverine area

This paper aims at collating and reviewing all data collected using the ESCA (Ecological Status of Coralligenous Assemblages) index from 2009 to 2018 during different local applications, in order to evaluate at large spatial scale its effectiveness and temporal variability. To this scope, the large-scale response of ESCA to anthropogenic disturbance was tested comparing ESCA values calculated at 42

In general, studies are carried out to determine the location and to resolve trade-offs in the management of forests according to ecosystem services. The government of Turkey also has been advancing this type of analysis in the practical management of forests. The creation of ecosystem services (ES) suitability map for forests through a participatory approach can provide forest managers valuable information

Andean lakes are important for human well-being and biodiversity conservation, yet human-induced environmental changes threaten their biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide. Knowledge of the relationship between biodiversity and environmental factors can provide insight into how human activity impacts lakes. We report trends of community composition of aquatic bird communities at six

With the continued adoption of passive acoustic monitoring as a tool for rapid and high-resolution ecosystem monitoring, ecologists are increasingly making use of a suite of acoustic indices to summarise the sonic environment. Though these indices are often reported to well represent some aspect of the biology of an ecosystem, the degree to which they are confounded by various extraneous sonic conditions

Masting is a complex mechanism which is mainly driven by a combination of internal plant resources and climatic conditions. While the driving role of climate in masting is being intensively studied, the interplay among climate, seed production, vegetation growth and phenology still needs further investigation. The objectives of this study were to identify the climatic determinants of different levels

Assessments of the ecological status of freshwater ecosystems, such as mandated by the EU Water Framework Directive, are routinely conducted by monitoring macroinvertebrates. However, for the quality assessment of fine sediments, macroinvertebrates are of limited suitability. In such habitats they show a low species diversity and often low densities, whereas a more diverse meiofauna can be found. Among

Environmental monitoring is a key component of understanding and managing ecosystems. Given that most monitoring efforts are still expensive and time-consuming, it is essential that monitoring programs are designed to be efficient and effective. In many situations, the expensive part of monitoring is not sample collection, but instead sample processing, which leads to only a subset of the samples being

The convergence of environmental pollution is one of the contemporary issues in economics. Indeed, most of the long-run climate projections and future predictions of environmental conditions are based on convergence presumption. The pioneer studies initially focused on the convergence of carbon emission per capita, yet convergence of ecological footprint per capita, accepted as a more comprehensive

The trend of wetting or drying is an important metric of regional and global climate change. Based on daily meteorological data during 1951–2018 from 10 stations in arid regions of North China, the performances of two indicators, relative humidity (RH) and actual water vapour pressure (ea), in evaluating the trends of air humidification are investigated. Results show that annual RH decreases by 0–0

The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery are widely used for crop yield analysis. However, the growth metrics derived from the MODIS NDVI or EVI have so far not been explored and applied to crop yield yet. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to design NDVI-

Water table drawdown accelerates peatland degradation and carbon loss from peatland, but phenolic compounds—the concentration and composition of which are determined by vegetation community composition—can slow down carbon loss. However, the response of phenolic compounds to water table drawdown is not clear. We aimed to clarify how water table drawdown influence soil phenolic compounds composition

With the rapid economic development and continuous growth of population in rapid urbanized area, the health status of urban ecosystem is undergoing profound changes, which will have a negative impact on the sustainable development. In order to systematically evaluate the health status of urban ecosystem in rapid urbanized area of central China, this paper puts forward a new assessment framework of

A water sample was obtained from an arheic oasis in the deep Sahara Desert, the Gueltates Afilal in Tamanrasset (Algeria). Five diatom strains were isolated, cultivated and identified as Tryblionella apiculata, Nitzschia supralitorea, Fistulifera saprophila, Navicula veneta and Thalassiosira pseudonana using a combination of scanning electron microscopy and next generation sequencing. The diatoms identified

Extreme temperature events have increased in intensity, duration and frequency in the last century, with potential consequences on organisms and ecosystems. In many streams, leaf litter of terrestrial origin is a key resource for microorganisms and some detritivores, and its decomposition has a main role on ecosystem functioning and is often used as an indicator of ecological integrity. As litter is

To achieve responsible consumption and production under UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, national agri-food consumption and production need to be assessed against environmental limits. We downscaled the land-system change planetary boundary and allocated national-scale cropland environmental limits for agri-food consumption via fair-share allocation based on population, and for agri-food production

Recent studies have reported on dramatic cases of aerial insect population declines by focusing on the measure of the total biomass of caught insects. However, there is currently no consensus about how biomass patterns among sites and habitats might consistently capture the subtleties of changes in aerial insect community structure. Here, we investigated the relationship between the total biomass of

Maps of regulating urban ecosystem services (UES) aid identification of priority areas for green–blue infrastructure investment to improve urban resilience to environmental hazards. Current mapping approaches however may present coarse spatial resolutions, and often fail to consider how UES flows serve resident demand at the appropriate micro-scale. In addition, prohibitive costs involved in collecting

The rapid development of urban megaregions has changed the regional thermal environment by raising the land surface temperature (LST) in a continuous area. The thermal environment problem in urban megaregions has become a research focus. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the LST and the external expansion and internal spatial patterns of impervious surfaces area (ISA) in Guangdong

Ecological quality (EQ) is the foundation of all ecosystem services (ESs) and is critical for the improvement of human welfare. To clarify the link between ecosystems and human well-being, the present study investigated the relationship between EQ and ESs in the Pingjiang watershed in a red soil hilly region (southern China) in 2016. The remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and the ecosystem service

Crop failure temperatures (CFTs) are critical upper threshold temperatures above which plant growth and development stop. Climate variability with CFTs has an essential impact on agriculture, which leads to a decrease in plant yield to nearly zero. This study innovatively combines data analysis and analysis of published literature to develop causal chains/loops using Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Responses

Bioenergy feedstock production on degraded land can serve as a means for modulating land competition for food versus energy. Due to little or no agricultural value of degraded soil, fortification of the soil with an organic amendment or inoculum will improve biomass productivity. However, as farmers struggle to rejuvenate their degraded land, there is a need for a quick screening strategy to select

Soil and vegetation, as the basic structural unit of artificial ecosystems, play an important role in ecological restoration in opencast coal mining areas, and both exhibit a complex interaction. However, the traditional method cannot well characterize the inter action between the soil and vegetation. In order to reveal the interaction between soil and vegetation in the reclaimed area of opencast coalmine

Ecosystem services (ESs), as important indicators for ecosystem conditions, are always interacted complexly, however, the underlying mechanisms remain not fully understood. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region is a typical example of this complexity and is one of the most populous regions globally. In this study, we take the BTH region as the study area and try to identify the spatiotemporally complex