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Investment has a crucial impact on the economic development of territories. Traditionally, scholars studied many factors influencing investment (cost of interest rate, labor productivity, GDP growth, financial firm's performance). At present, the existing body of literature demonstrates the shift of factors related to territorial investment attractiveness. Besides economic dimension, the ecological and social matters take key stages (the ESG concept and the triple bottom line concept). Our study is aimed at exploring the relationship between investment at municipal level and ecological factors, considering regional specifics and settlement patterns in Russia. We applied hierarchical (multilevel) modeling with spatial effects to accomplish a twofold goal: to estimate what share of investment variance attributed to municipal and regional scale; to distinguish between spatial error at regional level and influence of average investment in neighboring municipalities at municipal level. Our findings show that 32% total investment variance accounted for regional scale; investment is positively associated with population, production per capita and the ratio of circulating water and sequentially used water to used fresh water. The results of this paper could be useful in developing policy for attracting investment at regional and municipal levels. Given vast national territories, a variety of different regions and heterogeneous settlement patterns, our study lays an initial ground of assessing environmental impact on investment in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low production costs and useful properties of synthetic polymers have led to their ubiquitous use, from food packaging and household products to high-tech applications in medicine and electronics. Incomplete recycling of plastic materials results in an accumulation of plastic waste, which slowly degrades to produce tiny plastic particles, commonly known as "microplastics" (MPs). MPs can enter water bodies, but only recently the problem of MP pollution of sea and fresh waters has become clearly evident and received considerable attention. This paper critically reviews the accumulated data about the distribution of MPs in the freshwater ecosystems of Russia. The available data on MP abundance in the lakes and river systems of the Russian Federation are analyzed (including the large Lakes Baikal, Ladoga, Onego, Imandra and Teletskoe, and the Volga, Northern Dvina, Ob, and Yenisei Rivers within their tributaries) and compared with the data on freshwater MP contents in other countries. In Russia, the main sources of MP pollution for rivers and lakes are domestic wastewater, containing microfibers of synthetic textiles, fishing tackle, and plastic waste left on shores. Among the MPs detected in the surface waters and bottom sediments, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) particles predominate. The most common types of MPs in the surface freshwaters are fibers and fragments, with fibers prevailing in the bottom sediments. The reported average MP concentrations in the waters range from 0.007 items/m3 at the mouth of the Northern Dvina River to 11,000 items/m3 in the Altai lakes. However, the estimates obtained in different studies must be compared with great precaution because of significant differences in the methods used for MP quantification. The approaches to further improve the relevance of research into MP pollution of fresh waters are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most frequent causative agents of cercarial dermatitis in Europe are the avian schistosomes of the genus Trichobilharzia . They preferably parasitize birds of the Anatidae. Trichobilharzia spp. schistosomes are also able to penetrate mammalian skin, posing a health risk to mammals, including humans. Currently several loci from nuclear and mitochondrial genomes are determined for European species of Trichobilharzia . Among them there is 1 genome sequence, ToSau3A, which is suitable for detection of Trichobilharzia spp. infection in aquatic systems. In the present paper, we used a PCR assay to obtain novel genome sequences from cercariae isolates of 3 European bird schistosome species ( Trichobilharzia franki , Trichobilharzia szidati , and Trichobilharzia regenti ) collected from freshwater ponds in Belorussia and Russia. We applied RAPD-fingerprinting using 1 random primer to differentiate 3 trichobilharzian species and subsequently cloned and sequenced putative species-specific RAPD fragments. One of them (410 bp in length), which was obtained for T. franki , revealed 64% homology with the repeat region of Schistosoma mansoni (GenBank FN357352) and turned out to be suitable for designing a specific primer pair (TR98F and TR98R) to detect 7 novel DNA sequences in the genome of 3 European Trichobilharzia species. The newly designed primer pair was found to be potentially suitable for PCR-based detection of trichobilharzian infection in snails. PCR primers TR98F and TR98R amplified only the DNA isolated from cercariae and sporocysts of 3 trichobilharzian species, but neither the DNA of 3 other digenean species ( Bilharziella polonica , Apatemon sp., and Diplostomum sp.) nor the DNA of uninfected host snails ( Lymnaea stagnalis , Radix auricularia , and Radix ovata ).

Abstract: Using participatory scenario-making has become increasingly common in environmental assessments that aim for policy impact. In this development, ‘social work’ – i.e., construction and usage of the scenarios – has received only a little analytical interest. In this paper, we contribute to filling this gap of knowledge by focusing on the construction of scenarios and asking what kind of policy relevant knowledge these kinds of participatory experiments can provide for the resolution of environmental problems. We draw on experiences gained from a SCENES scenario-making experiment wherein a comprehensive set of scenarios for the future management of European freshwater resources was developed in a highly participatory manner. The SCENES work aimed at providing policy-relevant knowledge for implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). In this paper, we analyse and compare how issues were formulated and articulated as public concerns during the scenario-making process for the Narew River Basin, in Poland, and Lake Peipsi, in Estonia. The empirical narratives highlight that scenario-making assisted in articulation of the critical entanglements between the water systems and regional socio economic development. The implementation of the WFD has been largely unable to address these issues. In this sense, SCENES engaged in the articulation of public concerns. In SCENES there was, however, a latent tension in seeing scenario-making as either informing or forming social choices for water management. The epistemic principle of informing guided many of the methodological choices made during SCENES, whilst attempts aimed at issue formation characterised the panellists’ way of developing scenarios. Resolving this tension is decisive for the future governance of European freshwater resources. We close the paper by discussing why. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Horseshoe crabs are extant marine euchelicerates that have a fossil record extending well into the Palaeozoic. Extreme xiphosurid morphologies arose during this evolutionary history. These forms often reflected the occupation of freshwater or marginal conditions. This is particularly the case for Austrolimulidae--a xiphosurid family that has recently been subject to thorough taxonomic examination. Expanding the austrolimulid record, we present new material from the Olenekian-aged Petropavlovka Formation in European Russia and assign this material to Attenborolimulus superspinosus gen. et sp. nov. A geometric morphometric analysis of 23 horseshoe crab genera illustrates that the new taxon is distinct from limulid and paleolimulid morphologies, supporting the assignment within Austrolimulidae. In considering Triassic austrolimulids, we suggest that the hypertrophy or reduction in exoskeletal sections illustrate how species within the family evolved as opportunistic taxa after the end-Permian extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kara and Laptev seas receive about one half of total freshwater runoff to the Arctic Ocean from the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena rivers. Discharges of these large rivers form freshened surface water masses over wide areas in these seas. These water masses, i.e., the Ob-Yenisei and Lena river plumes, generate an eastward buoyancy boundary current that accounts for the large-scale zonal freshwater transport along the Siberian part in the Arctic Ocean. In this study we investigate spreading of the Ob-Yenisei plume from the Kara Sea to the Laptev Sea through the Vilkitsky Strait and of the Lena plume from the Laptev Sea to the East-Siberian Sea through the Laptev and Sannikov straits during ice-free season. Large horizontal density gradient between freshened plume water and salty ambient sea water is the main driver of these processes, however, their intensity strongly depends on local wind forcing. The Ob-Yenisei plume is spreading to the Laptev Sea in a narrow alongshore current which is induced by strong and long-term southwesterly winds. Under other wind forcing the plume does not reach the Vilkitsky Strait. The Lena plume is almost constantly spreading to the East-Siberian Sea as a large-scale surface water mass which intensity is governed by eastward Ekman transport and is prone to large synoptic variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]