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Under climate change, ecosystems are experiencing novel drought regimes, often in combination with stressors that reduce resilience and amplify drought's impacts. Consequently, drought appears increasingly likely to push systems beyond important physiological and ecological thresholds, resulting in substantial changes in ecosystem characteristics persisting long after drought ends (i.e. ecological transformation). In the present article, we clarify how drought can lead to transformation across a wide variety of ecosystems including forests, woodlands, and grasslands. Specifically, we describe how climate change alters drought regimes and how this translates to impacts on plant population growth, either directly or through drought's interactions with factors such as land management, biotic interactions, and other disturbances. We emphasize how interactions among mechanisms can inhibit postdrought recovery and can shift trajectories toward alternate states. Providing a holistic picture of how drought initiates long-term change supports the development of risk assessments, predictive models, and management strategies, enhancing preparedness for a complex and growing challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Island archaeology is a well-established field within the wider discipline, but African contributions to it remain scarce. The Canary Islands are unusual in the broader African context for their relatively long history of occupation (~2000 years) and the intensity with which archaeological research has been, and is, undertaken there. Much of that research, however, has focused on specifically Canarian issues, including efforts to demonstrate connections between the islands' initial settlement and the Classical Mediterranean world. Relatively little of it has been conducted within the broader comparative framework that an island archaeology perspective provides. Additionally, much of the Canarian literature is not directly accessible to non-Hispanophones. In response, I synthesize what is currently known about the archaeology of the Canary Islands, focusing on determining when, how, and by whom they were first settled; the impacts of human settlement on their environments; inter-island variability in precolonial subsistence, social, and political trajectories; and the record left by European contact and subsequent colonization, which began in the 14th century AD. As well as pointing to further opportunities for research within the archipelago, I simultaneously map out several areas where archaeological work there could contribute to wider debates in island archaeology as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the role of Food Industry 4.0 in enhancing food sustainability amidst global challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity. Topics discussed include the integration of digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) in food systems, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and supply chains, and the potential of these technologies to reduce food waste and improve efficiency in various food sectors.

Increasing fire severity and warmer, drier postfire conditions are making forests in the western United States (West) vulnerable to ecological transformation. Yet, the relative importance of and interactions between these drivers of forest change remain unresolved, particularly over upcoming decades. Here, we assess how the interactive impacts of changing climate and wildfire activity influenced conifer regeneration after 334 wildfires, using a dataset of postfire conifer regeneration from 10,230 field plots. Our findings highlight declining regeneration capacity across the West over the past four decades for the eight dominant conifer species studied. Postfire regeneration is sensitive to high-severity fire, which limits seed availability, and postfire climate, which influences seedling establishment. In the near-term, projected differences in recruitment probability between low- and high-severity fire scenarios were larger than projected climate change impacts for most species, suggesting that reductions in fire severity, and resultant impacts on seed availability, could partially offset expected climate-driven declines in postfire regeneration. Across 40 to 42% of the study area, we project postfire conifer regeneration to be likely following low-severity but not high-severity fire under future climate scenarios (2031 to 2050). However, increasingly warm, dry climate conditions are projected to eventually outweigh the influence of fire severity and seed availability. The percent of the study area considered unlikely to experience conifer regeneration, regardless of fire severity, increased from 5% in 1981 to 2000 to 26 to 31% by mid-century, highlighting a limited time window over which management actions that reduce fire severity may effectively support postfire conifer regeneration.

Copyright of Organisationsberatung, Supervision, Coaching is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, I apply the colonization thesis from Jürgen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action to capitalist societies' relationships with their natural environment. Resolving the fixation of his critique of capitalism on the so-called lifeworld (Lebenswelt) to include questions of the environment (Umwelt) opens up new vistas in the ongoing ecological reorientation of Critical Theory. If we think about the exploitation of the natural environment in Habermasian terms, the paradoxical irrationality of the expansion of instrumental rationality from the market mechanism becomes evident, providing us with normative leverage against the systemic devastation of external nature. The conversed colonization thesis calls for promoting the ecological preconditions for self-determined societal development through the collective containment of capitalist dynamics: since it undermines the enabling capacities of the ecosystems based on which the 'project of modernity' thrives, economic instrumentalization of nature can no longer proliferate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As new municipalism comes of age, prefixes proliferate: from democratic and autonomist to post-growth and care municipalisms. How do all these variegations relate to each other and to the wider movement of which they claim a part? What does all this conceptual creativity amount to, epistemologically and politically? How can we distill the most salient lessons for the further development of theory and practice in the years ahead? This article is our attempt to answer such questions and to define more precisely the contours of this emerging field of praxis. First, we delineate within new municipalism the target of our analytical gaze – radical municipalism. Radical municipalism is not simply progressive policies happening in cities, and should not be conflated with pragmatic, entrepreneurial or state-centric perspectives. Rather, we argue it is a speculative hypothesis about how systemic transformation might be wrought through coordinated action at the urban or municipal scale, understood as a strategic entry-point for counter-hegemonic struggle. Key here is proximity and the politicisation and socialisation of proximate relations of encounter and assembly. Second, we delve deeper into what we identify as four salient dimensions marking this terrain – economic reorganisation, democratisation of political decision-making, feminisation of politics, ecological transformation – as a multi-dimensional lens through which to introduce, and situate within the wider literature, the 15 articles that comprise this double special issue. Throughout these contributions to the theory and practice of municipalist strategy, the issue of crisis looms large: both historically, as an animating spur to action and opportunity for political intervention, and operationally, as a structuring condition and limiting factor of a strategy arguably in crisis itself. Finally, we reflect on the epistemological, methodological and political implications of pursuing radical municipalist strategies in the current conjuncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pinyon–juniper (PJ) woodlands are an important component of dryland ecosystems across the US West and are potentially susceptible to ecological transformation. However, predicting woodland futures is complicated by species‐specific strategies for persisting and reproducing under drought conditions, uncertainty in future climate, and limitations to inferring demographic rates from forest inventory data. Here, we leverage new demographic models to quantify how climate change is expected to alter population demographics in five PJ tree species in the US West and place our results in the context of a climate adaptation framework to resist, accept, or direct ecological transformation. Two of five study species, Pinus edulis and Juniperus monosperma, are projected to experience population declines, driven by both rising mortality and decreasing recruitment rates. These declines are reasonably consistent across various climate futures, and the magnitude of uncertainty in population growth due to future climate is less than uncertainty due to how demographic rates will respond to changing climate. We assess the effectiveness of management to reduce tree density and mitigate competition, and use the results to classify southwest woodlands into areas where transformation is (a) unlikely and can be passively resisted, (b) likely but may be resisted by active management, and (c) likely unavoidable, requiring managers to accept or direct the trajectory. Population declines are projected to promote ecological transformation in the warmer and drier PJ communities of the southwest, encompassing 37.1%–81.1% of our sites, depending on future climate scenarios. Less than 20% of sites expected to transform away from PJ have potential to retain existing tree composition by density reduction. Our results inform where this adaptation strategy could successfully resist ecological transformation in coming decades and allow for a portfolio design approach across the geographic range of PJ woodlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological transformation is important for the sustainable development of China's Mineral Resource-based Cities (MRCs). The ecological transformation performance evaluation will help improve the accuracy and pertinence of transformation policy formulation. Based on the innovative division of ecological transformation stages of MRCs (transformation restoration, transformation adjustment, and transformation innovation periods), this empirical study takes 109 MRCs in China as the object and 2013–2019 as the time window and constructs the corresponding evaluation index system of China's MRC ecological transformation and the evaluation model of Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis methods (ESDA) based on the Rough Set-Entropy Weight method. First, our results show that the ecological transformation performance of China's MRCs was poor. By 2019, 98% of the cities were in the adjustment stage. The transformation performance of cities with different resource types differed; from high to low, they were oil cities, ferrous metal cities, coal cities, and non-ferrous metal cities. Second, in terms of time, from 2013 to 2019, China's MRC ecological transformation performance showed a trend of first rising and then slightly fluctuating (from 0.3339 to 0.4158), of which the largest and smallest increases were the oil city (0.09) and black metal city (0.0803), respectively; Third, in terms of space, the ecological transformation of MRC in China had obvious spatial heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and aggregation effect. On this basis, relevant policies such as dynamic monitoring, identification of transformation stage and regional cooperation are put forward. This study effectively expands the research on the ecological transformation of China's MRC and provided evidence for the precise formulation of relevant policies. It also provides a new perspective for the ecological transformation research of MRCs in other developing countries.

Julia Martin's A Millimetre of Dust: Visiting Ancestral Sites (Cape Town: Kwela, 2008) and Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines (London: Picador/Pan Books, 1987) celebrate the worldviews of indigenous South African and Australian people respectively. Indigenous understandings of the world turn on kinship with nature rather than control of nature, and are spiritual rather than material. Martin's travelogue refuses to privilege humans over animals, and Chatwin's text illustrates the inseparability of the sacred and the profane in the lives of Aboriginals. Both authors present readers with mysteries: the imagined presence of vanished Khoisan people, and the invisible pathways across Australia sung into existence by the ancestors of Aboriginals. Both authors know that the stories they are telling are necessarily a collection of fragments that resist translation and appropriation. Yet thinking about these indigenous fragments can rescue us from the spiritual denials of our commercialised world. Finally, I follow Barry Lopez in suggesting ways in which readers of Chatwin's and Martin's texts can be inducted into a heightened ecological awareness, drawing on the senses, memory, and narrative to convert the places we know into the sacred spaces of our imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a theological rationale for engaging in a great ecological transformation. The author argues that this transformation cannot be achieved solely with technological means. Rather, we need far more than a great industrial transformation. We also need ecological justice that gives the nature of the earth and the animals their rights; recognition that ecological justice is related to social justice and, especially, to the rights of future generations; a new understanding of nature that liberates the nature of the earth from its modern, alienated status as a mere object; a new understanding of humanity that embeds human beings in the community of creation; and finally, a new cosmic spirituality that sanctifies lived life and engenders "respect for life" for everything that lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has always been a conviction in the ecumenical movement that social service is part of the essence of what it means to be the church. The strengthening of social and political witness of churches through church-related agencies and networks in the context of the beginning development discourse from the 1960s until the 1990s, however, led to a scenario in which the secular language of development and political action received much attention. In 2014 at the Malawi consultation, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Action of Churches Together (ACT Alliance) reviewed their working relationships and explored better collaboration between agencies and churches, stating that the specific nature of churches as entities with an added value and particular profile in the area of social and political service would be strengthened. From this consultation, a mandate was given by the WCC Central Committee to develop a study document on the understanding and core components of the concept of "ecumenical diaconia", which then was made available to the 11th Assembly of the WCC in Karlsruhe, 2022. This article introduces the context, major content, and key convictions of this study document and related discussions in Karlsruhe. It answers the question: what is the significance of the global ecumenical fellowship of churches in focusing on a common language of diaconia and a more explicit church-related terminology to describe and strengthen the social services of churches and their engagement in diaconia and social witness? It is recognized that this article is predominantly written from a German context and perspective in its construction of the international discourse on ecumenical diaconia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can depth psychology contribute to ecological transformation? Keywords: climate change; climate psychology; deep ecology; depth psychology; ecopsychotherapy; ecological transformation; ecological crisis; nature; review EN climate change climate psychology deep ecology depth psychology ecopsychotherapy ecological transformation ecological crisis nature review 1505 1519 15 11/30/22 20221101 NES 221101 'I cannot emphasize enough that time is running out. Climate change, deep ecology, depth psychology, climate psychology, ecopsychotherapy, nature, review, ecological transformation, ecological crisis One-sided rationalism, climate change, dreams and the sacredness of nature: 13 dialogues I Earth, Climate, Dreams: Dialogues with Depth Psychologists in the Age of the Anthropocene i (2019), eds. [Extracted from the article]

Climate changes and the aggressive attitude towards the environment as a result of human activity in recent decades have had increasingly negative effects everywhere on a global scale, including in our country. Studies from recent years show that the process of transition to an ecological economy in Bulgaria is still quite inert and poorly effective. In the present study, the dynamics of a series of indicators for sustainable development and ecological economy, defined by Eurostat, have been analyzed. Trend models have been developed for the selected indicators concerning the 2010-2020 period and forecasts for their development with a 2-year horizon have been compiled. Based on the results, the country’s progress on the way of ecological transformation of the economy has been considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological invasions represent an important and unique case of ecological transformation that can strongly influence species and entire ecosystems. Challenges in managing invasions arise on multiple fronts, ranging from diverse and often divergent values associated with native and introduced species, logistical constraints, and transformation via other change agents (e.g., climate and land‐use change). We address biological invasions considering the Resist‐Accept‐Direct (RAD) framework for addressing ecological transformation. Because RAD is focused on decisions, we address both social and ecological factors that influence preferences for decision alternatives. We address social factors first as these can constrain the range of alternatives considered in an ecological context. Next, we address ecological dynamics by modeling trajectories from RAD alternatives in a two‐species scenario involving impacts of introduced brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) on native bull trout (S. confluentus). Results reveal that decision alternatives aligned with each of the major components of RAD can produce positive outcomes. In a management context, these findings highlight the value of investing in early engagement to fully identify decision alternatives, formalizing models of system dynamics to understand ecological trajectories, and applying this knowledge to set the stage for longer term efforts to address biological invasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of climate change, Health is mobilizing to find solutions and reduce its environmental impact. The CAP (understand, act and share) sustainable hospital toolbox cited in the roadmap for the Ecological Planning of the French Health System offers 3 original, operational and complementary tools to: (1) acculturate professionals in the sector (Plan Health Faire®), (2) build the establishment strategy (2030 Agenda), and (3) take action with healthcare professionals (The Sustainable Units program)., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Global warming and the disruption in ecosystems have been identified as the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century. Today, the French healthcare system accounts for 6.6% to 10% of overall greenhouse gas emissions in France. This system is currently not resilient and totally dependent on fossil fuels. Therefore, a transformation of the current system is needed in order to reduce the deterioration of populations' health. Medical education and pedagogy have been identified as a major solution for the ecological transformation of the healthcare system. The introduction of early education on ecology and environmental health in the first and second cycles of medical studies is a major lever for action. From the third cycle of medical studies, and more specifically in pathology, it is essential to teach this topic to residents and experienced pathologists, whether in "theoretical teaching" or "applied to the medical specialty". The aim of this review is to identify the educational programs and training currently available in the medical courses and at the post-graduate level, regarding ecology/environmental health and the consequences on human health. Then, we will detail more specifically the pedagogical perspectives and training opportunities for pathology residents and pathologists., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Formalin is the international gold-standard fixative in pathology laboratories. However it is not the ideal one considering its deleterious effects on individuals and the environment. Complete formalin removal or even substitution does not seem possible in the near future. In this update, we present various tools allowing to integrate the use of formalin into an ecocare approach. Among them, formalin recycling according to the protocol developed by the University Hospital of Bordeaux is simple to implement and delivers rapid and significant results, allowing pathology professionals to meet the sustainable development objectives included in the France 2030 agenda., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

The ecological transformation of the mineral resource-based cities (MRBCs) is the key to promoting the construction of ecological civilization and realizing the sustainable development of the social economy and society in China. Existing research ignores the influence of public participation on other subjects in the process of transformation, which is essential to solve the dilemma faced by the ecological transformation of MRBCs. In view of this, from the perspective of stakeholders, this study constructs a new evolutionary game model, which is jointly participated in by the government, enterprises, and social factors (SF) (including public, self-media, and non-governmental organizations). This paper discusses the interests of the main parties and their inter-relationships and reveals the causal mechanism and influencing factors of the dilemma of the ecological transformation of the MRBCs. Our results demonstrate that the evolution and convergence of strategies among the tripartite game agents exhibit strong interaction. First, the single industrial structure, low regulatory efficiency, and weak ecological awareness substantially increase the cost of transformation, thus exacerbating the dilemma of MRBC transformation. Second, the transformation intensity and comprehensive income are important factors affecting the transformation, and the effect intensity of influencing factors in different transition stages is different, which implies that the focus of policies in different stages is different. Third, in the process of promoting enterprise ecological transformation, government supervision and SF supervision have significant complementary effects. However, high-intensity supervision has a significant crowding-out effect on the willingness of SF to participate. Therefore, the government needs to balance the intensity of supervision and willingness of SF to participate. Compared with the existing research, this study comprehensively reflects the complex dynamic game process of the ecological transformation of MRBCs in China and can provide a reference for the policy of promoting the ecological transformation of MRBCs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to outline the potential and outlooks of development of circular economy in Bulgaria, as well as demonstrate the need for adequate measures on part of public authorities to encourage this change. The research is based on a primary survey of Bulgarian employers’ attitudes towards pursuing a corporate policy relating to the principles of sustainable development, which was conducted among 400 enterprises. The analysis reveals untapped potential not only with regard to a more efficient use of resources, in both the private and public sectors, but also in terms of underestimating the significance of the issue. The firms could significantly reduce their costs, improve their compatibility and their export potential if they apply new business models and new innovative technologies, which are both resource-efficient and eco-friendly.

Ecological transformations are occurring as a result of climate change, challenging traditional approaches to land management decision-making. The resist-accept-direct (RAD) framework helps managers consider how to respond to this challenge. We examined how the feasibility of the choices to resist, accept, and direct shifts in complex and dynamic ways through time. We considered 4 distinct types of social feasibility: regulatory, financial, public, and organizational. Our commentary is grounded in literature review and the examples that exist but necessarily has speculative elements because empirical evidence on this newly emerging management strategy is scarce. We expect that resist strategies will become less feasible over time as managers encounter situations where resisting is ecologically, by regulation, financially, or publicly not feasible. Similarly, we expect that as regulatory frameworks increasingly permit their use, if costs decrease, and if the public accepts them, managers will increasingly view accept and direct strategies as more viable options than they do at present. Exploring multiple types of feasibility over time allows consideration of both social and ecological trajectories of change in tandem. Our theorizing suggested that deepening the time horizon of decision-making allows one to think carefully about when one should adopt different approaches and how to combine them over time., (© 2024 The Author(s). Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

How robust is our assessment of impacts to ecosystems and species from a rapidly changing climate during the 21st century? We examine the challenges of uncertainty, complexity and constraints associated with applying climate projections to understanding future biological responses. This includes an evaluation of how to incorporate the uncertainty associated with different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios and climate models, and constraints of spatiotemporal scales and resolution of climate data into impact assessments. We describe the challenges of identifying relevant climate metrics for biological impact assessments and evaluate the usefulness and limitations of different methodologies of applying climate change to both quantitative and qualitative assessments. We discuss the importance of incorporating extreme climate events and their stochastic tendencies in assessing ecological impacts and transformation, and provide recommendations for better integration of complex climate–ecological interactions at relevant spatiotemporal scales. We further recognize the compounding nature of uncertainty when accounting for our limited understanding of the interactions between climate and biological processes. Given the inherent complexity in ecological processes and their interactions with climate, we recommend integrating quantitative modeling with expert elicitation from diverse disciplines and experiential understanding of recent climate-driven ecological processes to develop a more robust understanding of ecological responses under different scenarios of future climate change. Inherently complex interactions between climate and biological systems also provide an opportunity to develop wide-ranging strategies that resource managers can employ to prepare for the future.

Assessing landscape patterns in climate vulnerability, as well as resilience and resistance to drought, disturbance, and invasive species, requires appropriate metrics of relevant environmental conditions. In dryland systems of western North America, soil temperature and moisture regimes have been widely utilized as an indicator of resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasive plant species by providing integrative indicators of long-term site aridity, which relates to ecosystem recovery potential and climatic suitability to invaders. However, the impact of climate change on these regimes, and the suitability of the indicator for estimating resistance and resilience in the context of climate change have not been assessed. Here we utilized a daily time-step, process-based, ecosystem water balance model to characterize current and future patterns in soil temperature and moisture conditions in dryland areas of western North America, and evaluate the impact of these changes on estimation of resilience and resistance. Soil temperature increases in the twenty-first century are substantial, relatively uniform geographically, and robust across climate models. Higher temperatures will expand the areas of mesic and thermic soil temperature regimes while decreasing the area of cryic and frigid temperature conditions. Projections for future precipitation are more variable both geographically and among climate models. Nevertheless, future soil moisture conditions are relatively consistent across climate models for much of the region. Projections of drier soils are expected in most of Arizona and New Mexico, as well as the central and southern U.S. Great Plains. By contrast, areas with projections of increasing soil moisture include northeastern Montana, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, and many areas dominated by big sagebrush, particularly the Central and Northern Basin and Range and the Wyoming Basin ecoregions. In addition, many areas dominated by big sagebrush are expected to experience pronounced shifts toward cool season moisture, which will create more area with xeric moisture conditions and less area with ustic conditions. In addition to indicating widespread geographic shifts in the distribution of soil temperature and moisture regimes, our results suggest opportunities for enhancing the integration of these conditions into a quantitative framework for assessing climate change impacts on dryland ecosystem resilience and resistance that is responsive to long-term projections.

Management of protected areas must adapt to climate impacts, and prepare for ongoing ecological transformation. Future-Proofing Conservation is a dialogue-based, multi-stakeholder learning process that supports conservation managers to consider the implications of climate change for governance and management. It takes participants through a series of conceptual transitions to identify new management options that are robust to a range of possible biophysical futures, and steps that they can take now to prepare for ecological transformation. We outline the Future-Proofing Conservation process, and demonstrate its application in a pilot programme in Colombia. This process can be applied and adapted to a wide range of climate adaptation contexts, to support practitioners in developing positive ways forward for management and decision-making. By acknowledging scientific uncertainty, considering social values, and rethinking the rules that shape conservation governance, participants can identify new strategies towards "future-oriented conservation" over the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel three-stage division method for ecological transformation is proposed. • Comprehensively evaluated the performance of MRC ecological transformation. • Revealing the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of MRC ecological transformation. • Provide suggestions for the ecological transformation of MRCs in developing countries. Ecological transformation is important for the sustainable development of China's Mineral Resource-based Cities (MRCs). The ecological transformation performance evaluation will help improve the accuracy and pertinence of transformation policy formulation. Based on the innovative division of ecological transformation stages of MRCs (transformation restoration, transformation adjustment, and transformation innovation periods), this empirical study takes 109 MRCs in China as the object and 2013–2019 as the time window and constructs the corresponding evaluation index system of China's MRC ecological transformation and the evaluation model of Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis methods (ESDA) based on the Rough Set-Entropy Weight method. First, our results show that the ecological transformation performance of China's MRCs was poor. By 2019, 98% of the cities were in the adjustment stage. The transformation performance of cities with different resource types differed; from high to low, they were oil cities, ferrous metal cities, coal cities, and non-ferrous metal cities. Second, in terms of time, from 2013 to 2019, China's MRC ecological transformation performance showed a trend of first rising and then slightly fluctuating (from 0.3339 to 0.4158), of which the largest and smallest increases were the oil city (0.09) and black metal city (0.0803), respectively; Third, in terms of space, the ecological transformation of MRC in China had obvious spatial heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and aggregation effect. On this basis, relevant policies such as dynamic monitoring, identification of transformation stage and regional cooperation are put forward. This study effectively expands the research on the ecological transformation of China's MRC and provided evidence for the precise formulation of relevant policies. It also provides a new perspective for the ecological transformation research of MRCs in other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of “ecological symbiosis” discovered by Margulis and Raulock updates the relationship between humans and nature to “the symbiotic relationship between man and ecology as a whole”. Human activities transform human ecology from the aspects of life evolution and cultural evolution. Artificial intelligence, as the core of human ecology, has a symbiotic relationship with human beings, and has the independence of human ecology. The possibility of life becomes a symbiotic species with humans.

Plastic mulching has become a globally applied agricultural practice for its instant economic benefits such as higher yields, earlier harvests, improved fruit quality and increased water-use efficiency. However, knowledge of the sustainability of plastic mulching remains vague in terms of both an environmental and agronomic perspective. This review critically discusses the current understanding of the environmental impact of plastic mulch use by linking knowledge of agricultural benefits and research on the life cycle of plastic mulches with direct and indirect implications for long-term soil quality and ecosystem services. Adverse effects may arise from plastic additives, enhanced pesticide runoff and plastic residues likely to fragment into microplastics but remaining chemically intact and accumulating in soil where they can successively sorb agrochemicals. The quantification of microplastics in soil remains challenging due to the lack of appropriate analytical techniques. The cost and effort of recovering and recycling used mulching films may offset the aforementioned benefits in the long term. However, comparative and long-term agronomic assessments have not yet been conducted. Furthermore, plastic mulches have the potential to alter soil quality by shifting the edaphic biocoenosis (e.g. towards mycotoxigenic fungi), accelerate C/N metabolism eventually depleting soil organic matter stocks, increase soil water repellency and favour the release of greenhouse gases. A substantial process understanding of the interactions between the soil microclimate, water supply and biological activity under plastic mulches is still lacking but required to estimate potential risks for long-term soil quality. Currently, farmers mostly base their decision to apply plastic mulches rather on expected short-term benefits than on the consideration of long-term consequences. Future interdisciplinary research should therefore gain a deeper understanding of the incentives for farmers and public perception from both a psychological and economic perspective in order to develop new support strategies for the transition into a more environment-friendly food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Nanjing Normal University / Nanjing Shi Da Xue Bao (She Hui Ke Xue Ban) is the property of Nanjing Shifan Daxue and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent studies in both the environmental sciences and geography highlight unforeseen ecological transformations occurring in eco-social landscapes. These transformations often result in ‘novel’ or ‘hybrid’ ecosystems that differ from the original ecosystems both in ecological character and social setting. However, little is known about the causes, consequences, and dynamics of such transformations in complex urban environments and the consequences for highly sensitive ecosystem types such as wetlands. This paper investigates the environmental history and recent ecological transformations in the urban wetlands of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Our methodology includes a combination of techniques from environmental history, wetland science and urban ecology. We investigate the ecological changes in the wetlands from colonial times to the present and establish relationships among wetland ecology (the hydro-soil-vegetation nexus), landscape change, community, and governance factors. We conclude that from 1980 onwards, the Colombo urban wetlands have undergone an overall transformation in both wetland type (composition and structure) and the social setting. Hydrological modification, watershed urbanization and the changes in ecosystem use were identified as the main causes of wetland transformation with the causes and consequences of the transformation having complex feedback loops. We synthesize these relationships into a post hoc conceptual model that will be of broader utility as a general framework to understand eco-social interactions in the governance of urban ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]