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Angelica sinensis polysaccharides are important active ingredients and biological resources in traditional Chinese medicine. Properly changing the fermentation conditions of microorganisms may alter the yield of fermentation products. Based on single factor test results, three factors with great influence on the yield of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides produced by Aspergillus niger were optimized: initial pH value, fermentation time, and culture temperature. According to the box Behnken central combination principle, a response surface analysis scheme with three factors and three levels was designed, and the yields of active polysaccharide of Angelica sinensis were taken as the response value to optimize the fermentation process. The results of response surface analysis showed that under the optimized fermentation temperature of 30 °C, cultivation time of 8 days, and initial pH value of 5, the predicted yield of active polysaccharides from Angelica sinensis was 15.5%, while the actual value was 15.35%, which was 0.11% lower than the predicted value. This indicated that using response surface analysis to optimize the fermentation conditions of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides was reasonable and feasible. This method can effectively improve the biological resource utilization rate of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides.

Angelica sinensis polysaccharides are important active ingredients and biological resources in traditional Chinese medicine. Properly changing the fermentation conditions of microorganisms may alter the yield of fermentation products. Based on single factor test results, three factors with great influence on the yield of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides produced by Aspergillus niger were optimized: initial pH value, fermentation time, and culture temperature. According to the box Behnken central combination principle, a response surface analysis scheme with three factors and three levels was designed, and the yields of active polysaccharide of Angelica sinensis were taken as the response value to optimize the fermentation process. The results of response surface analysis showed that under the optimized fermentation temperature of 30 °C, cultivation time of 8 days, and initial pH value of 5, the predicted yield of active polysaccharides from Angelica sinensis was 15.5%, while the actual value was 15.35%, which was 0.11% lower than the predicted value. This indicated that using response surface analysis to optimize the fermentation conditions of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides was reasonable and feasible. This method can effectively improve the biological resource utilization rate of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides.

In order to alleviate the contradiction between human and land, and expand the city living space, the sea reclamation activities have been developed rapidly in a short time. However, while the reclamation projects have brought remarkable economic benefits, they have caused a lot of negative effects on marine environment and biological resources in the coastal areas.In this paper,the threats of sea reclamation activities on marine hydrological dynamic conditions, water quality, disaster prevention and mitigation were analyzed, and the damages to biodiversity, habitat protection and ecosystem service function value were discussed. The practical countermeasures were put forward, such as improving the management system of national policies and regulations on sea reclamation, strengthening research on ecological restoration planning, and establishing a system for assessing the impact of land reclamation on the ecological environment.

The present review paper focuses on recent developments in edible films and coatings made of base compounds from biological sources, namely plants, animals, algae, and microorganisms. These sources include by-products, residues, and wastes from agro-food industries and sea products that contribute to sustainability concerns. Chitosan, derived from animal biological sources, such as crustacean exoskeletons, has been the most studied base compound over the past three years. Polysaccharides typically constitute no more than 3–5% of the film/coating base solution, with some exceptions, like Arabic gum. Proteins and lipids may be present in higher concentrations, such as zein and beeswax. This review also discusses the enrichment of these bio-based films and coatings with various functional and/or bioactive compounds to confer or enhance their functionalities, such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-enzymatic properties, as well as physical properties. Whenever possible, a comparative analysis among different formulations was performed. The results of the applications of these edible films and coatings to fruit and vegetable products are also described, including shelf life extension, inhibition of microbial growth, and prevention of oxidation. This review also explores novel types of packaging, such as active and intelligent packaging. The potential health benefits of edible films and coatings, as well as the biodegradability of films, are also discussed. Finally, this review addresses recent innovations in the edible films and coatings industry, including the use of nanotechnologies, aerogels, and probiotics, and provides future perspectives and the challenges that the sector is facing.

IntroductionAs one of the megadiverse countries, the effectiveness of wildlife protection in China is of great significance to global biodiversity conservation. With continued evolution and revisions, China’s Wildlife Protection Law has listed over 140 marine species; however, it is still inclined toward terrestrial animals.MethodsTo narrow the gap between compliance and enforcement, we collected 1,309 effective responses from various coastal cities of China through an anonymous online questionnaire survey, to investigate their exposure, understanding and attitudes toward Wildlife Protection Law for marine species (mWPL).ResultsMost respondents demonstrated an overall good understanding about the context, necessity and effectiveness of mWPL. The fisher communities were found to be more aware of the dissemination and implementation of mWPL. However, they understood less of the penal system, and exhibited negative attitudes toward the necessity and punishment of the legislation, probably due to the conflicts between resource utilizations and legislative interventions. The participants also indicated that seahorses, horseshoe crabs and corals were commonly subjected to illegal exploitations.DiscussionWhile most respondents suggested greater fines, tighter laws and better public enforcement, we advocate the exploration of bottom-up options such as community engagement and environmental education to improve compliance and implementation of mWPL for the benefit of marine wildlife conservation in China.

Numerous varieties of life forms have filled the earth throughout evolution. Evolution consists of two processes: self-replication and interaction with the physical environment and other living things around it. Initiated by von Neumann et al. studies on self-replication in cellular automata have attracted much attention, which aim to explore the logical mechanism underlying the replication of living things. In nature, competition is a common and spontaneous resource to drive self-replications, whereas most cellular-automaton-based models merely focus on some self-protection mechanisms that may deprive the rights of other artificial life (loops) to live. Especially, Huang et al. designed a self-adaptive, self-replicating model using a greedy selection mechanism, which can increase the ability of loops to survive through an occasionally abandoning part of their own structural information, for the sake of adapting to the restricted environment. Though this passive adaptation can improve diversity, it is always limited by the loop’s original structure and is unable to evolve or mutate new genes in a way that is consistent with the adaptive evolution of natural life. Furthermore, it is essential to implement more complex self-adaptive evolutionary mechanisms not at the cost of increasing the complexity of cellular automata. To this end, this article proposes new self-adaptive mechanisms, which can change the information of structural genes and actively adapt to the environment when the arm of a self-replicating loop encounters obstacles, thereby increasing the chance of replication. Meanwhile, our mechanisms can also actively add a proper orientation to the current construction arm for the sake of breaking through the deadlock situation. Our new mechanisms enable active self-adaptations in comparison with the passive mechanism in the work of Huang et al. which is achieved by including a few rules without increasing the number of cell states as compared to the latter. Experiments demonstrate that this active self-adaptability can bring more diversity than the previous mechanism, whereby it may facilitate the emergence of various levels in self-replicating structures.

Marine Recreational Fishing (MRF) is a highly attended complex activity, extremely evident along the coastlines, and mainly practiced among riparian communities. For that reason, this activity plays an important role to effectively contribute to the collective well-being, both from the social and economic points of view. However, it may negatively affect the fish stocks and the marine environment in general, mainly due to the removal of biological resources. The growing need to evaluate the magnitude of marine recreational fishing is recognized worldwide, especially in the last decade, when inclusive fishing programs began to focus their attention on this fishing activity. Based on its unexpected evidence and its wider repercussion on social behavior, the COVID-19 pandemic is considered by the scientific community as one of the most unique opportunities to better understand the social phenomenon and their repercussion on the environment. In this work will be reported very preliminary results on the consistency of marine recreational fishing in the case study of the Marche region (Italy). Number of recreational fishers and fishing effort were estimated through a telephone survey conducted in the Italian side of the Northern Adriatic Sea (FAO GFCM Geographical Sub Area 17) by interviewing 580 households. The sampling strategy also included a recall survey, which was carried out every month on a list of recruited fishers. In this manner, additional information was collected, such as detailed fishing effort, catches, and expenditures. In addition, biological data of catches were estimated through several on-site surveys. The information collected from January and December 2020 was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of social restrictions and access to marine places, inevitably impacting on marine recreational fishing features, including the biological resources and the related economic aspects.

As a new research focus in the field of biological resources, crayfish shells have great potential for development and utilization. In this review, the typical methods and research progress of separating the primary components such as chitosan, protein, and astaxanthin from crayfish shells and converting crayfish shells into functional carbon-based materials are introduced in detail. Then, the application of crayfish shell and typically modified crayfish-shell biochar in adsorption, antibacterial, electrochemical, etc. is reviewed. Finally, the future research outlook is proposed. This review can provide some perspectives on the development of the application of crayfish shells and crayfish-shell derivatives.

Abstract Laboratory studies are often criticized for not being representative of processes occurring in natural populations. One reason for this is the fact that laboratory populations generally do not capture enough of the genetic variation of natural populations. This can be mitigated by mixing the genetic background of several field populations when creating laboratory populations. From these outbred populations, it is possible to generate inbred lines, thereby freezing and partitioning part of their variability, allowing each genotype to be characterized independently. Many studies addressing adaptation of organisms to their environment, such as those involving quantitative genetics or experimental evolution, rely on inbred or outbred populations, but the methodology underlying the generation of such biological resources is usually not explicitly documented. Here, we developed different procedures to circumvent common pitfalls of laboratory studies, and illustrate their application using two haplodiploid species, the spider mites Tetranychus urticae and Tetranychus evansi. First, we present a method that increases the chance of capturing high amounts of variability when creating outbred populations, by performing controlled crosses between individuals from different field‐collected populations. Second, we depict the creation of inbred lines derived from such outbred populations, by performing several generations of sib‐mating. Third, we outline an experimental evolution protocol that allows the maintenance of a constant population size at the beginning of each generation, thereby preventing bottlenecks and diminishing extinction risks. Finally, we discuss the advantages of these procedures and emphasize that sharing such biological resources and combining them with available genetic tools will allow consistent and comparable studies that greatly contribute to our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes.

Subject and purpose of work: This paper presents bioeconomy as a solution to sustainable development challenges in Africa. It identifies the current state of bioeconomy and its production determinants in African countries and regions, and the potential that bioeconomy has in these jurisdictions. This paper also highlights possible policy inputs for a sustainable bioeconomy on the continent.

Abstract Background Annotation of cell identity is an essential process in neuroscience that allows comparison of cells, including that of neural activities across different animals. In Caenorhabditis elegans, although unique identities have been assigned to all neurons, the number of annotatable neurons in an intact animal has been limited due to the lack of quantitative information on the location and identity of neurons. Results Here, we present a dataset that facilitates the annotation of neuronal identities, and demonstrate its application in a comprehensive analysis of whole-brain imaging. We systematically identified neurons in the head region of 311 adult worms using 35 cell-specific promoters and created a dataset of the expression patterns and the positions of the neurons. We found large positional variations that illustrated the difficulty of the annotation task. We investigated multiple combinations of cell-specific promoters driving distinct fluorescence and generated optimal strains for the annotation of most head neurons in an animal. We also developed an automatic annotation method with human interaction functionality that facilitates annotations needed for whole-brain imaging. Conclusion Our neuron ID dataset and optimal fluorescent strains enable the annotation of most neurons in the head region of adult C. elegans, both in full-automated fashion and a semi-automated version that includes human interaction functionalities. Our method can potentially be applied to model species used in research other than C. elegans, where the number of available cell-type-specific promoters and their variety will be an important consideration.

According to the guidelines of the Nagoya Protocol, species are now recognized as ‘resources’ and owned by each country, thereby emphasizing the significance of biological resources and the importance of the continuous efforts made to systematically manage them. Despite these efforts, climate change, which influences climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation, is expected to negatively impact the struggle for conservation of biological resources by affecting species’ habitats. We aimed to devise methodologies that could be utilized for the management of biological resources, especially valuable tree species, that are experiencing difficulties due to climate change. First, changes in habitat of the northern-region plant Needle fir (Abies holophylla) due to of climate change were estimated using the BIOMOD2 package in R under the RCP8.5 scenario. Second, the time period of management was estimated based on the change in habitat area over time. It is expected that 30% of the current habitat of A. holophylla will be lost by 2030 and 50% will be lost by 2042. Third, four management zones (maintenance, reduction, dispersal, and non-habitat areas) were derived by comparing habitats according to the period of management required. In this case, we compared the present and the time point at which 30% habitat loss (2030) is expected to occur. After that, the management steps that can be taken for each management zone were suggested. Our results show the impact of climate change, especially change in Bio1 (annual mean temperature) and Bio13 (precipitation of wettest month), on species distribution patterns and have potential applicability in biological resource management. We have specified the suitable point of time, area, and direction of management in this study, which will contribute to climate change management planning and policy-making. By doing so, we hope that when a management policy on biological resources is applied, by dividing the four management zones, policymakers will be able to apply a cost-efficient policy.

The article is concerned with an analysis of the influence of economic and production factors on the development of bio-oriented economy in Ukraine. It is defined that the modern development of science and biotechnology has become the basis for the formation and development of the conception of bio-oriented economy, which includes agriculture, food industry, forestry, fish farming and aquaculture, fuel production based on recoverable biological resources (biofuels), pharmaceuticals and selected spheres of the chemical industry. In order to analyze the development of the bio-oriented economy in Ukraine, it is proposed to explore the following economic and production factors, which together influence the resulting indicator: gross agricultural products; gross food industry products; investments in agriculture; the number of agricultural enterprises; gross added value of agriculture; employment in agriculture. It is defined that gross agricultural products, gross food production, investments in agriculture, the number of agricultural enterprises are the factors that demonstrate positive dynamics and their quantitative expressions increase over time. Other factors, as included within this study to the economic and production, are characterized by negative dynamics, that is, a fall, which in general will negatively impact the development of sectors of the bio-oriented economy.

Aim. The aim of the study is to analyze the species composition of commercial fish catches in water bodies of the Stavropol Territory for two periods from 1986 to the present.Methods. The first period from 1986 to 2003 is conventionally highlighted and the second period from 2009 to 2017. Data on linear and area characteristics of the territorial objects was obtained using Landsat 8 satellite imagery.Results. In 2017, in the fish industry of the Stavropol Territory, 10.8 thousand tons of marketable fish were produced, which was about 70% of the best production level in 1990. The share of common carp production was 58%, silver carp – 34%, white Amur – 5% , other carp fish species – 3%, trout and sturgeon – 1%. In 2017, 1415 tons of fish seeds were produced bringing the total to 19 million units, which is 4 times less than in 1990. The importance of fish catching in providing the population of the region with fish is not so great in comparison with fish farming. In different periods of the last thirty years, the total annual catch in regional state water bodies (reservoirs) ranged from a maximum of 1065 tons (1990) to a minimum of 82 tons (2016). The average annual catch in all state water bodies for the period 1986 – 2003 amounted to 357 tons; fish productivity was 32 kg, with fluctuations from 2 to 113 kg/ha in eleven water bodies. Over the past 9 years, since 2009, the average annual catch in all state water bodies has decreased and amounted to 285 tons.Conclusion. For the period of 1986-2003, the average annual catch of common carp and silver crucian carp was 94 tons each and 79 tons of silver carp; the total share of these three species in catches was 85%. Over the past 9 years (2009-2017), the total share of these fish in the catches has decreased to 66%. The average annual catch of common carp and silver carps was almost halved, while the catch of less valuable silver crucian carp increased and reached 103 tons.

Biological resources are multifarious encompassing organisms, genetic materials, populations, or any other biotic components of ecosystems, and fine-grained data management and processing of these diverse types of resources proposes a tremendous challenge for both researchers and practitioners. Before the conceptualization of data lakes, former big data management platforms in the research fields of computational biology and biomedicine could not deal with many practical data management tasks very well. As an effective complement to those previous systems, data lakes were devised to store voluminous, varied, and diversely structured or unstructured data in their native formats, for the sake of various analyses like reporting, modeling, data exploration, knowledge discovery, data visualization, advanced analysis, and machine learning. Due to their intrinsic traits, data lakes are thought to be ideal technologies for processing of hybrid biological resources in the format of text, image, audio, video, and structured tabular data. This paper proposes a method for constructing a practical data lake system for processing multimodal biological data using a prototype system named ProtoDLS, especially from the explainability point of view, which is indispensable to the rigor, transparency, persuasiveness, and trustworthiness of the applications in the field. ProtoDLS adopts a horizontal pipeline to ensure the intra-component explainability factors from data acquisition to data presentation, and a vertical pipeline to ensure the inner-component explainability factors including mathematics, algorithm, execution time, memory consumption, network latency, security, and sampling size. The dual mechanism can ensure the explainability guarantees on the entirety of the data lake system. ProtoDLS proves that a single point of explainability cannot thoroughly expound the cause and effect of the matter from an overall perspective, and adopting a systematic, dynamic, and multisided way of thinking and a system-oriented analysis method is critical when designing a data processing system for biological resources.

BackgroundGlobal challenges related to access and benefit sharing (ABS) of biological resources have become a key concern in the area of research on herbal medicines, ethnopharmacology, drug discovery, and the development of other high value products for which Intellectual Property protection can be secured. While the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, Rio 1992) has been recognized as a huge step forward, the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol (NP) and of new forms of collaboration often remain unresolved, especially in the context of “the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources” (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2011). The vision and the specific implementation of this international treaty vary from country to country, which poses additional challenges.AimsUsing a case study approach, in this analysis we aim at understanding the specific opportunities and challenges for implementing international collaborations regarding ABS in six Latin American countries—Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, México, Panama, and Peru. Based on that analysis, we provide recommendations for the path ahead regarding international collaborations under ABS agreements in ethnopharmacological research.Results and DiscussionsThe implementation of the NP varies in the six countries; and while they are all rich in biodiversity, access and benefit sharing mechanisms differ considerably. There is a need to engage in a consultation process with stakeholders, but this has often come to a halt. Institutional infrastructures to implement national policies are weak, and the level of knowledge about the NP and the CBD within countries remains limited.ConclusionsDifferent policies in the six countries result in very diverse strategies and opportunities relating to the equitable use of biodiversity. A long-term strategy is required to facilitate a better understanding of the treaties and the resulting opportunities for a fairer development and implementation of transparent national polices, which currently differ in the six countries. So far, the benefits envisioned by the CBD and the NP remain unfulfilled for all stakeholders involved including local communities.

CRYOSTEM was initiated in 2010 to create a multicenter biobank in the field of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT). After initially concentrating on Graft-versus-Host Disease, CRYOSTEM has broadened its focus to all HSCT complications. Thanks to a network of 33 transplant units and 23 Biological Resources Centers, CRYOSTEM has established a standardized collection of high-quality biological samples associated with well-annotated clinical data from donors and patients pre- and post-HSCT. Plasma, dried pellets and viable cells in DMSO are isolated and cryopreserved from blood samples. Currently, the collection has reached almost 200,000 available samples coming from nearly 5,800 patients. Since 2015, CRYOSTEM has provided the national and international scientific community with these samples for large-scale research to improve the knowledge of HSCT complications. Funding statement: CRYOSTEM has been funded by the French government’s “National Investment Program” (call for proposals “COHORTES”, agreement ANR-10-COHO-008) and has also received financial support from INCa (call for proposals “BCB”, agreement 2013-192) and patient associations.

The species richness and composition of macro- and microfungi on vine species in the parks of Ekaterinburg City (the Ural macroregion, Russia) located in the southern boreal vegetation subzone in a continental climate was studied. The average annual air temperature has increased by 3.1 °C since the beginning of the 20th century; therefore, the conditions for the growth of vines have improved. These conditions include warmer winters and, consequently, less frost damage to perennial plants. Due to the warmer climate, the area of vines grown in the city has increased five times over half a century, and the yield of grapes has grown 3.7 times. The alien East Asian vines are the most dominate vine species cultivated, while European, North American, and native plant species, including archaeophytes, together only represent a handful of the species cultivated. At the same time, 65% of the area of woody vines in the city is covered by a North American species, namely Parthenocissus quinquefolia. An increase in the number of vine species, their biomass, and covered areas contributes to an increase in the number of fungal species growing on these vine species. In total, 81 species of phytopathogenic and 87 species of saprobic macro- and microfungi have been recorded during the century-long history of mycological research in Ekaterinburg City. Mycobiota of vines in Ekaterinburg City is biogeographically heterogeneous and 1.1–3.2 times richer in comparison with ones of the regions located on the northern limit of natural ranges of the vines. Recorded macrofungi (Basidiomycota) are predominantly present on native boreal species; however, some exotic tropical and subtropical East Asian fungal species (that have not ever been recorded on other substrates in the natural forests of the Urals and Siberia) are found here too. Recorded microfungi are highly specialized vine-associated species (mainly Ascomycota) that are widespread within the natural ranges of the vines and absent in the boreal zone of Eurasia: there are 63 vine-associated species (15 macro- and 48 microfungi) in Ekaterinburg that are not found in the Urals on other substrates. Many of these species have been recorded for the first time in this study, so we consider that they invaded Ekaterinburg City in the last 20 years, likely due to the warming climate observed over the last decades in the region. There are 19 and 32 species of phytopathogenic fungi collected in the families Cucurbitaceae and Vitaceae, respectively. During the past 40 years, the recorded fungal species richness has increased by 16% on Cucurbitaceae, as well as 37% on grapes. In this study, the distribution of vine-associated fungi, including phytopathogenic fungal species, from the nearest regions of ancient vine culture (Southern European Russia and the Caucasus, Central Asia, the south of the Russian Far East) to the boreal regions of the Urals were investigated. The increase in the range of these phytopathogenic fungal species can lead to significant economic losses to the regional agricultural sector.

Five surveys were carried out in the Wuliangshan area, Yunnan Province, P.R. China, based on a combination of morphological features and molecular evidence. Around 2454 specimens of wood-decaying fungi were collected. The paper summarizes the obtained results on the wood-decaying fungi of this area, consisting in 95 species distributed in 59 genera, 23 families and 9 orders. Their hosts and substrates were also identified. A checklist of wood-decaying fungi is given. Sequences of the ITS nrRNA gene region of the studied specimens were generated and phylogenetic analysis was performed with maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference methods. The present list of wood-decaying fungi enriches the knowledge of fungal diversity worldwide and supplies the basic data for future applications.

This article analyzes the data of researching ecological variability of important agronomic traits in potato varieties introduced under the severe climate conditions of the Altai Mountains after several years of environmental variety trials in different altitudinal zones of the Altai Republic. The trials were performed for 31 potato cultivars of various maturity groups. They made it possible to identify varieties most suitable for cultivation in the areas of testing, with high levels of productivity and stable manifestation of this trait under different weather conditions. The analysis was based on the methods suitable for assessing the interaction between factors and all the traits, with consequent evaluation of variations in individual traits under different environmental factors.

The article analyzes the natural resource potential of the Western Ukrainian borderland: history, development, current state and conditions. Land resources and land fund of the Borderland as well as the main trends in its use as the basis of agriculture and the operational base of society have been characterized. The role of water, biological and recreational resources in the structure of the natural resources of the region has been described. Current trends in the use of Western Ukrainian borderland mineral resources have been analyzed.

Purpose. The study analyzed the possibility and conditions for the effective operation of heating systems during the transition of the heat-generating capacity to biofuels energy. The straw of cereal crops, which are prevailing in Dnipro region, is used for this. The main purpose is scientific calculation of opportunities and cost of specific measures for such a transition. As an example it was taken the boiler-room of campus at Dnipropetrovsk National University of Railway Transport named after Academician V. Lazaryan (DNURT) that consumes natural gas. Methodology. The work analyses the legislative base of Ukraine, which promotes the using of renewable energy sources as fuel, as well as the incentive mechanisms for the development of this trend. The paper identifies opportunities of Prydniprovsk region to ensure straw supply for the boiler-room. Cost parameters of cargo transportation on the territory of Ukraine in 2016, which depend on the distance and the size of the trucks, are analysed. These indicators, as well as indicators related to its purchase, are considered together with energy potential of using the straw as fuel. Findings. With existing in Ukraine (as of 2016) the grain yielding capacity in the agriculture and cost indicators in the field of transportations, the transition of capacity share to biofuel is sufficiently profitable. The thermal power unit cost can be reduced fourfold. Originality. For the first time it is proposed to use the new integrated approaches to assess the cost of thermal power unit boiler with its transition to the use of renewable energy sources. The authors also proposed a new logistics delivery of these sources to the place of their application. From a technical and cost points of view it was determined the optimal order of capacity transfer for new renewable sources of energy in a given region depending on the structure of areas under crops and their productivity. Originality. The introduction of the proposed solutions and approaches to capacity boiler renewable energy sources can be realized with a relatively small investment and can provide significant economic benefits.

The article considers the issues of systematization, modeling and presentation of regional biological resources data. The problem of providing regional state authorities with actual biological resources data and an analysis tool has been stated. The necessity of complex analysis of heterogeneous biological resources data in connection with the landscape factors has been articulated. The system of biological resources’ cartographic models (BRCM) is proposed as tools for the regional authorities to develop the BRCM for practical appliances. The goal and the target audience of the system are named. The principles of cartographic visualization of information in the BRCM are formulated. The main sources of biological resources data are listed. These sources include state cadastres, monitoring and statistics. The scales for regional and topical biological resources’ cartographic models are stated. These scales comprise two scale groups for depicting the region itself and its units of internal administrative division. The specifics of cartographic modeling and visualization of relief according to legal requirements to public cartographic data are described. Various options of presentation of biological resources’ cartographic models, such as digital maps, 3Dmodels and cartographic animation are described. Examples of maps and cartographic 3D-models of Novosibirsk Region forests are shown. The conclusion about practical challenges solved with BRCM has been made.

Cited data on anthropogenic pollution of the estuaries in south Primorye (northwestern coast of the Japan Sea) are briefly reviewed and analyzed. The estuaries are ranked by concentration of pollutants in the sewage disposed to the rivers and by integrated abiotic index calculated as the sum of toxicity in the bottom sediments and concentration of petrohydrocarbons in water and grounds. By these parameters, the oligohaline estuaries of big rivers as the Razdolnaya and Artemovka have the highest level of pollution, the mesohaline estuaries as the Tesnaya, Gladkaya, and Kievka have the intermediate rank of anthropogenic impact, and the polyhaline estuaries of small rivers as the Sukhodol, Shkotovka, Barabashevka, and Ryazanovka are low polluted. The estuarine ecosystems are generally well-adapted to high variability of environmental factors, and therefore are highly resistant to anthropogenic pollution. There is concluded that, despite of considerable pollution in some cases, dynamics of the estuaries dwellers abundance is determined mainly by natural factors, first of all by the volume of freshwater discharge, the estuarine ecosystems in Primorye function normally, and the state of their biological resources is sufficient. Thus, fishery, aquaculture, and recreations have at present good prospects in the estuaries and adjacent marine and river waters, in parallel with other economic activity, as hydraulic constructions, certainly under condition of all requirements of the nature protection legislation and with ecological monitoring. For these water bodies, technological and economic development can successively coexist with traditional nature management and wildlife preserving.

Aim. To aim is to assess stocks and the fisheries of aquatic biological resources in the western part of the middle Caspian Sea and perspectives for the use of their resource potential.Methods. On the basis of the literature sources and our own data on the fish inventory in the western part of the Middle Caspian, we discuss possible reasons for emerging environmental, economic and other problems in the use of biological resources.Results. The main negative factors are the large-scale poaching, resulting in a catastrophic reduction in stocks of sturgeon and other valuable fish species of the Caspian Sea, a natural penetration of alien organisms (Mnemiopsis) and overfishing of some species. The potential danger is large-scale development of oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea, which can lead to even worse situation for the biological resources of the sea.Conclusions. In order to preserve the biological resources of the sea it is necessary to create conditions for steadily developing fishing and fish processing enterprises, thus ensuring the satisfaction of the constant demand for fish products and an increase in the revenue base of the budget and the well-being of the Russian population.

The aim is to assess the dynamics of the Caspian Sea and its impacts on coastal areas as well as to develop recommendations for economic activity in a highly unstable position of the coastline.Methods. Based on the analysis of scientific sources and our own data on the dynamics of the Caspian Sea, are discussed the possible causes of the unstable regime of the sea level and its impacts on the ecological system of the coastal areas.Results. One of the problems of the Caspian Sea is the problem of sea-level change and predicting such changes. The analysis shows that the level of the Caspian Sea will continue to experience long-term (including thirty-year and secular) fluctuations in the range of absolute marks minus 26 to minus 33 m, which is close to the shoreline as in 1977.Conclusions. We find it possible to prevent the negative effects of level fluctuations, preserve biodiversity and biological resources of the Caspian Sea on condition that during the economic activities in the zone off the coast we take into account possible changes in the natural conditions of the coastal zone at risk from -20 to -34 meters of true altitude, i.e. elevations within which the sea water level will fluctuate.

The aim is to analyze the current state of mountain agriculture in a crisis of traditional agricultural civilization based on terraced agriculture.Results and discussion. The introduction defines the concept of "innovation development" and the necessity of the institutional approach to identify and break the obstacles for the development of the agricultural sector in mountainous Dagestan. The following section provides a summary of the history of agricultural civilization in the mountainous Dagestan and proves the necessity of the inventory of resources before the adoption of the program of development of this region. Then, consecutively, it discusses the need for an inventory of land resources, vegetation resources (including genetic resources) and wildlife resources. Each section provides consistent guidance on inventory and further utilization of the resource. We discuss some of the conceptual approaches to the improvement of the agricultural sector, in particular branding the territory, promotion of horticulture areas in mid and high lands with new crops, the possibility of medicinal crop on terraced land.Conclusions. The findings discuss the impact of the humanitarian factor on the effectiveness of the implementation of innovative approaches for the development of the agricultural sector in the mountainous Dagestan.

The main industry in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is the mining industry, which will continue to expand in the future. Already today there are quite a lot of investment projects for the development of minerals in the Arctic, North-West and South Yakutia, which will be implemented in the territories of indigenous minorities of the North. Indigenous Evens, Evenks, Yukaghirs make up 4.2% of the total population of the republic and are characterized by low genetic diversity, which can lead to negative consequences in relation to their health status when exposed to technogenic pollution. Purpose of the study: assessment of the state of life of indigenous minorities of the North in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) under the conditions of a new stage of industrial development of territories of traditional nature management. The planned increasing industrial development of territories of traditional nature management can cause large-scale disturbances of the earth’s surface, depletion of biological resources, environmental pollution, which will ultimately lead to deterioration in the quality of life of the population. In order to take measures to prevent and reduce the negative impacts of industrial development of the territories of residence and traditional activities of indigenous minorities of the North, when implementing new projects, the expert commission recommends concluding a trilateral agreement on cooperation and financing of specific programs between industrial companies, government bodies of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and authorized representatives of indigenous minorities of the North. Research area—the position of indigenous minorities of the North in the conditions of industrial development of the North, Siberia and the Far East. This study looks at the impact of industrial development on the natural environment and the traditional way of life of indigenous population. Compensation for damage to the nomadic tribal communities of reindeer herders has taken place. Only about 250 thousand representatives of 40 indigenous peoples live in these regions, who are included in the official list of indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East.

Aim. We present the data on the biological resources of the Caspian Sea, based on the analysis of numerous scientific sources published between years of 1965 and 2011. Due to changes in various biotic and abiotic factors we find it important to discuss the state of the major groups of aquatic biocenosis including algae, crayfish, shrimp, pontogammarus, fish and Caspian seal. Methods. Long-term data has been analyzed on the biology and ecology of the main commercial fish stocks and their projected catches for qualitative and quantitative composition, abundance and biomass of aquatic organisms that make up the food base for fish. Results and discussion. It has been found that the widespread commercial invertebrates in the Caspian Sea are still poorly studied; their stocks are not identified and not used commercially. There is a great concern about the current state of the main commercial fish stocks of the Caspian Sea. A critical challenge is to preserve the pool of biological resources and the restoration of commercial stocks of Caspian fish. For more information about the state of the marine ecosystem in modern conditions, expedition on Caspian Sea should be carried out to study the hydrochemical regime and fish stocks, assessment of sturgeon stocks, as well as the need to conduct sonar survey for sprat stocks. Conclusions. The main condition for preserving the ecosystem of the Caspian Sea and its unique biological resources is to develop and apply environmentally-friendly methods of oil, issuing concerted common fisheries rules in various regions of theCaspian Sea, strengthening of control for sturgeon by all Caspian littoral states. The basic principle of the protection of biological resources is their rational use, based on the preservation of optimal conditions of their natural or artificial reproduction.

The movement towards the protection of traditional knowledge particularly on the medicinal uses of plants (TKMUP) in South Africa reflects a global albeit belated interest in the protection of traditional knowledge associated with biological resources. Hence, it was not surprising South Africa like most developing nation, sought in response to instances of the misappropriation of its TKMUP and other TK associated with its biological resources, to provide a measure of protection for such knowledge using the intellectual property (IP) system. This is evident in the adoption of the Policy Framework for the Protection of Indigenous Knowledge through the Intellectual Property System in 2008 which identified patent as one of the major IP tools in the protection of the TK. The Policy Framework represents a paradigmatic shift from South Africa’s earlier sceptical and dialectical approach to, and experience with the IP system in context of TK. This paper therefore examines the benefits and challenges involved in using the patent system in the protection of TK particularly those relating to the medicinal uses of plants (TKMUP). Such examination became necessary as South Africa’s natural capital of biological diversity, together with its wealth of indigenous TK, has been recognised as an important resource base for promoting economic growth through biological innovations under the recently adopted Bio-economy Strategy. It finds that patents offer a great potential in not only protecting TKMUP from misappropriation, but also in promoting the commercialisation of innovative TKMUP or inventions based on or derived from TKMUP in South Africa. However, this can only be possible if the challenges identified in this paper can be successfully navigated.

The article is devoted to the manifestations of corruption in the field of natural resources’ protection. The author gives examples of investigative and judicial practices, suggests the ways of improving legislation in law enforcement optimization in this sphere.

The article is devoted to the manifestations of corruption in the field of natural resources’ protection. The author gives examples of investigative and judicial practices, suggests the ways of improving legislation in law enforcement optimization in this sphere.

Detailed report about main items of XVII Annual Theriological Workshop in Ukraine with chronological review of all sessions, round tables and field trainings.

This paper reviews the problem of forest capital reproduction in the value concept from the standpoint of multi-functional model of forest management in terms of the lease relations. The theoretical formation of forest regeneration funding mechanism is based on its market organization. The concept of forest resources reproduction based on the definition of gross income is proposed. The funding mechanism of forest resources reproduction in terms of their lease is described. The proposed concept of forest capital reproduction remains one of the central ideas of Marx's economic theory that is nowadays commonly called "double-system approach" or "dual system approach", within which value and price categories are used simultaneously. The notion of forest reproduction policy is formulated. The author concludes on the need for forest reproduction policy in the Russian Federation to receive independent legal regulation with pragmatic and responsible steps to create the investment potential for the reproduction of forest resources.