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Amorphous ice phases are key constituents of water's complex structural landscape. This study investigates the polyamorphic nature of water, focusing on the complexities within low-density amorphous ice (LDA), high-density amorphous ice, and the recently discovered medium-density amorphous ice (MDA). We use rotationally invariant, high-dimensional order parameters to capture a wide spectrum of local symmetries for the characterization of local oxygen environments. We train a neural network to classify these local environments and investigate the distinctiveness of MDA within the structural landscape of amorphous ice. Our results highlight the difficulty in accurately differentiating MDA from LDA due to structural similarities. Beyond water, our methodology can be applied to investigate the structural properties and phases of disordered materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the linear eigenvalue problem associated with reaction-diffusion models for patchy linear domains with any finite number of unique patches. Interface conditions between adjacent patches may be chosen independently to accurately reflect organism behavior. We show that there exists a real principal eigenvalue with a corresponding non-negative eigenfunction that is non-zero interior to the domain. We demonstrate that our model is a generalization of several existing two-patch models. We consider simple three- and four-patch landscapes representing fragmented reserves to illustrate how our model can be used to analyze population persistence, spatial distribution, and migration dynamics. Fragmented landscapes with increased heterogeneity capture migration dynamics not found in landscapes with only two patch types, such as favorable habitat patches that experience net immigration. Conditions for the existence and non-existence of zero-flux conditions interior to three-patch systems are shown, which provide insight to the location of sources and direction(s) of migration. • Principal eigenvalues are studied for patchy domain problems, and corresponding eigenfunctions are positive on the interior. • An implicit equation is used to obtain numerical solutions to eigenvalue problems on previously intractable patchy domains. • Conditions are derived for the existence of extrema for principal eigenfunctions. • Results are used to simulate different landscapes with fragmented reserves. • Predictions are made for migration across landscapes, including when favorable patches might receive net immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most children grow up in urbanised settings with a low possibility to experience biodiversity and nature. However, experiencing nature and other species increases children's wellbeing, health, learning abilities and their understanding of nature values. Play biotopes is one solution for supporting a co-existence between children and different species in nature-based play settings. Play biotopes are based on ecological theories, where structures in the morphology of landscapes at different scales and the content of flora and fauna can support children's interplay with a part of the landscape. However, traditional landscape management is not adapted to support the dynamic nature of play biotopes, especially when considering multiple scales. This makes it interesting to explore more dynamic management concepts arching over multiple scales. Accordingly, we here explore creative management as a scale-based framework for design by management to further develop the concept of play biotopes. Using examples from a landscape laboratory in southern Sweden, we propose that a creative management framework combining the scales of landscape, biotope, place, and object together with play connectivity can support the creation and management of multifunctional play biotopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many landscapes are on the edge literally, particularly here on the Atlantic Coast of Canada. But landscapes everywhere are on the edge metaphorically: on the edge of change. Tackling the collective challenges we face, and redefining a “good life” in these new circumstances, will likely transform the places and landscapes that we care about. Yet change is hard and it is felt unevenly across space and social strata. We often instinctively feel that the landscapes of the present should dominate the future—an idea I've been calling “climax thinking”—but in many cases, those current landscape settings solve old problems and cause new ones. Drawing on recent empirical Atlantic research about renewable energy and coastal adaptation, this lecture explores some of the cultural shifts required to reimagine our landscapes and to meet the challenges ahead, identifying key roles for geographers along the way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) could revolutionize our ability to understand and address climate change. Studies to date have focused on specific AI applications to climate science, technologies, and policy. Yet despite the vast demonstrated potential for AI to change the way in which climate research is conducted, no study has presented a systematic and comprehensive understanding of the way in which AI is intersecting with climate research around the world. Using a novel merged corpus of scholarly literature which contains millions of unique scholarly documents in multiple languages, we review the community of knowledge at the intersection of climate change and AI to understand how AI methods are being applied to climate-related research and which countries are leading in this area. We find that Chinese research institutions lead the world in publishing and funding research at the intersection of climate and AI, followed by the United States. In mapping the specific AI tasks or methods being applied to specific climate research fields, we highlight gaps and identify opportunities to expand the use of AI in climate research. This paper can therefore greatly improve our understanding of both the current use and the potential use of AI for climate research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of Honey Badger Mellivora capensis (Schreber, 1776) is widely distributed but in-depth of ecological understanding this species is still lacking from Asian portion of its global range. The species is listed in Scheduled-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 providing it with the highest level of protection as this is very rare. The current note presents, the first known camera-trap records of this species in Tarai East Forest Division (TEFD), Uttarakhand, India. During the survey exercise, a total 35 camera traps were randomly installed in different habitats (e.g. Natural Sal forest patch, Mixed forests, Sharda River-Canal) in Surai range of the division. As resulted, two images of Honey Badger were captured from the Sharda River bank-Canal habitat of Bagha-I beat, of Surai range. The camera trap study suggests that Honey Badger is rarely sighted in Tarai east sal forest. For protection and management of this species, further need to generate more information and in-depth understanding of their ecological and of population status in around forest habitat of the division. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Denudation is the opposite process of mountain uplift and plays a major role in the Earth system. Despite the research to constrain its environmental control, uncertainties remain about which are the dominant physicochemical processes at play. Here, the 10Be-derived denudation rate, encompassing time windows from 102 to 105 yr, was modelled in over a thousand basins across the Earth. The results suggest that water and associated life have a positive effect across their whole range, which is regulated by topography due to processes such as the energy expended by rivers on their beds, the feedback between erosion and weathering, and the transport and production rate of soils. Consequently, bioclimatic influence is weak in flat landscapes, but it could vary denudation forty times in mountain settings. It was also observed that other things being equal, water availability steepens basins, so climate also has an indirect effect acting on geological timeframes. The results can be useful for the landscape's numerical modelling and highlight the importance of climate on denudation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse forest landscapes contribute to reaching various forest policy goals. Understanding how the diversity of forests in a landscape is distributed among forest properties and how it is related to biogeographical and ownership factors can be helpful for effective policy implementation. We created a forest characteristics-based typology of non-industrial private forest properties aiming to capture the between-property forest diversity in a municipality in southern Sweden, and studied how it was related to owner age and gender, landscape position, and storm damage. Using public data of forests and latent profile analysis, we detected five clusters of properties. Four clusters differed mainly by age structure and species composition. One of them was clearly marked by a high proportion of young mixed forest following severe storm damage >15 years prior. The fifth cluster was marked by a greater occurrence of nature conservation agreements and conservation value forests. Conifer-dominated properties were larger than broadleaf-dominated properties. Owner age only slightly differed between clusters, being higher for properties characterized by a prevalence of older coniferous or by noble broadleaved forests and nature conservation. Properties in the latter cluster were more often owned by women and located close to lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the possibilities for nature in contemporary times through a ground‐up investigation of nature practices in Chennai, India. It navigates dissonant strands of scholarship on the promise of urban regions as sites of exemplary social natures with an analytical framework that examines how autonomous nonhuman life in Chennai is variously enabled and inhibited. By studying a breadth of natures and nature practices within this urban site (instead of focusing on a particular species or habitat), the paper illuminates the socio‐material processes that undermine some natures even while supporting others, highlighting paradoxical responses to nonhuman agencies and resilience within the domain of ecological concern. The simultaneous analysis of Chennai's abundant and diminishing natures explains dissonances in urban natures scholarship, while offering fresh insights on more equitable approaches to nonhuman nature in human‐dominated landscapes. Specifically, it points to the value of reconfiguring concepts and practices of nature, both within and beyond conservation, in ways that are attentive to the plural forms of nonhuman flourishing and experiential vulnerability. Any meaningful prospect for more‐than‐human futures in urbanising worlds, the paper argues, rests not on biopolitical conservation that seeks to reproduce the past or build future ecologies of ‘legitimate’ natures, but on desisting from the displacement of, and re‐allowing room – conceptual, material and ethical – for already existing natures, whether scientifically valued or unintentional, whether imperilled or flourishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article challenges the proposition put forward by James Fenton in his book Landscape Change in the Scottish Highlands that the landscape is natural. The scientific basis is lacking from his arguments. He relies on his own observations and those of travellers and others without any scientific material being presented to back up his argument. This review quotes from the scientific evidence by internationally respected palaeo-ecologists that demonstrate that there is factual evidence of tree and woodland removal by humans on many occasions over the millennia since human settlement. The book and this review should hopefully stimulate further scientific analysis and result in a more objective debate on whether the landscape of the highlands is natural or most likely the result of human activity or a combination of both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has emerged as a pivotal tool for exploring cellular landscapes across diverse species and tissues. Precise annotation of cell types is essential for understanding these landscapes, relying heavily on empirical knowledge and curated cell marker databases. In this study, we introduce MarkerGeneBERT, a natural language processing (NLP) system designed to extract critical information from the literature regarding species, tissues, cell types, and cell marker genes in the context of single-cell sequencing studies. Leveraging MarkerGeneBERT, we systematically parsed full-text articles from 3702 single-cell sequencing-related studies, yielding a comprehensive collection of 7901 cell markers representing 1606 cell types across 425 human tissues/subtissues, and 8223 cell markers representing 1674 cell types across 482 mouse tissues/subtissues. Comparative analysis against manually curated databases demonstrated that our approach achieved 76% completeness and 75% accuracy, while also unveiling 89 cell types and 183 marker genes absent from existing databases. Furthermore, we successfully applied the compiled brain tissue marker gene list from MarkerGeneBERT to annotate scRNA-seq data, yielding results consistent with original studies. Conclusions: Our findings underscore the efficacy of NLP-based methods in expediting and augmenting the annotation and interpretation of scRNA-seq data, providing a systematic demonstration of the transformative potential of this approach. The 27323 manual reviewed sentences for training MarkerGeneBERT and the source code are hosted at https://github.com/chengpeng1116/MarkerGeneBERT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many conservation actions must be implemented with limited data. This is especially true when planning recovery efforts for extirpated populations, such as grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) within the Bitterroot Ecosystem (BE), where strategies for reestablishing a resident population are being evaluated. Here, we applied individual-based movement models developed for a nearby grizzly bear population to predict habitat use in and near the BE, under scenarios of natural recolonization, reintroduction, and a combination. All simulations predicted that habitat use by grizzly bears would be higher in the northern half of the study area. Under the natural recolonization scenario, use was concentrated in Montana, but became more uniform across the northern BE in Idaho over time. Use was more concentrated in east-central Idaho under the reintroduction scenario. Assuming that natural recolonization continues even if bears are reintroduced, use remained widespread across the northern half of the BE and surrounding areas. Predicted habitat maps for the natural recolonization scenario aligned well with outlier and GPS collar data available for grizzly bears in the study area, with Spearman rank correlations of ≥0.93 and mean class values of ≥9.1 (where class 10 was the highest relative predicted use; each class 1–10 represented 10% of the landscape). In total, 52.4% of outlier locations and 79% of GPS collar locations were in class 10 in our predicted habitat maps for natural recolonization. Simulated grizzly bears selected habitats over a much larger landscape than the BE itself under all scenarios, including multiple-use and private lands, similar to existing populations that have expanded beyond recovery zones. This highlights the importance of recognizing and planning for the role of private lands in recovery efforts, including understanding resources needed to prevent and respond to human-grizzly bear conflict and maintain public acceptance of grizzly bears over a large landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature and landscapes are increasingly recognized as integral to human health, well-being, and sense of belonging. As such, nature and landscapes offer potential benefits for nature-based integration (NBI) efforts aimed at fostering a sense of inclusion among new residents. Although such linkages are recognized, NBI research remains limited with fruitful potential for place-based and immigrant-oriented community organizations or governments interested in fostering a sense of inclusion, belonging, identity, and even environmental responsibility among new residents. In this article, we demonstrate the application of a collaborative NBI study among Oregon's growing Slavic immigrant community. This study, through a community geography and community-based participatory research approach, sought to gauge community interactions with and sense of place to Oregon's natural environment, notably mountain landscapes. Although with limitations, this study demonstrates the potential of NBI to enrich nature-based programs, immigrant advocacy organizations, government engagement efforts, and landscape planning with opportunities to better understand and tools to potentially engage diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cartographic landscape analysis of Lake Doshne employs geographic landscape methods, GIS cartographic modeling, and geo-ecological analysis. This study includes hydrochemical analysis of the lake's water mass, focusing on saline blocks, tropho-saprobiological indicators, and specific toxic action indicators. Three geological sections of anthropogenic and pre-Quaternary complexes, along with a geological–lithological transverse profile of the lake basin, were developed. Additionally, a geographical landscape model of the lake's natural aquatic complex was presented, distinguishing littoral–sublittoral and profundal aquatic sub-tracts and five types of aquafacies with landscape metric assessments. This approach enables a comprehensive analysis and the creation of cartographic models that can serve as a basis for lake cadastre and optimization of the ecological and landscape conditions in local territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clarifying the issues related to the supply, demand, and flow of ecosystem services is crucial for regional landscape management. This study employs the equivalence factor method and demand index quantification to analyze the supply and demand of ecosystem services in the Zheng-Bian-Luo region in 2000 and 2020. We used hotspot analysis tools and the minimum cumulative resistance model to establish the ecological corridors, identifying the spatial flow paths of ecosystem services in our site. By calculating the flow volume of the key corridor value through the breakpoint formula and field strength theory and combining this with the ratio of the regulating service value, we computed the ecological compensation amount, thereby realizing the value of the ecosystem service. The results indicate that the area of balance between ecosystem service supply and demand gradually decreased and the deficit area in the Zheng-Bian-Luo region increased 43.62% from 2000 to 2020 along with rapid urbanization. The total value flow of ecosystem services by the important ecological corridors in 2000 and 2020 was USD 242.40 million and USD 365.92 million, respectively. In 2020, it was predicted that Luanchuan County would receive ecological compensation totals of USD 237.76 million from each ecological demand area, and mainly from Jinshui District. Our findings support enhancing the quality of the ecological environment and optimizing the landscape management of the Yellow River's Henan section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composed of diptych photographs stitched together in a poetic travelogue through nuclear-infused (Indigenous) lands, annie ross's Pots and Other Living Beings reenvisions social and ecological relations, value structures, and knowledge frameworks in its encounter with violated landscapes of the American Southwest. In its embrace of the blighted remainders of nuclear testing, industry, and consumerism, Pots and Other Living Beings is not a typical "environmental" text. Like ross's weaving and visual installations, this work is alive to relations of reciprocity and kinship with more-than-human worlds in what one could best describe as a spiritual engagement with the abandoned, unremarked leavings of nuclearization, industrial capitalism, and waste cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abrasion acts to smooth glacial terrains and leaves behind linear scratch-like features (striations) on bedrock landscapes. Striations are often used as measures of glacier flow directions, but their morphology can also provide information about the subglacial stress conditions that produced the features. While striations are often abundant in the field, the processes that create them can be opaque and hard to examine in situ because they occur under thick layers of flowing ice. To alleviate that difficulty and provide information for interpretation of the populations of striations that are observed in the field, we conducted a set of laboratory experiments in which a ring of temperate debris-laden ice was slid atop a planar marble bed under various contact force conditions that led to the creation of hundreds of striations. During the experiment, numerous glaciological properties were continuously measured, including the resistive drag. Following the completion of the experiments, the marble beds were extracted, and the striations were measured for length and categorized by morphological type, and a subset was measured using a highresolution white-light profilometer. These experiments showed that, similar to field observations, type 2 striations were initially the most abundant; however, we found that type 3 striations became the most abundant at large displacements. We found good correlation between the abundance of striations as a function of displacement and measured drag as a function of displacement. When taken together, these results suggest that, in natural settings, ice flow around small roughness elements in glacier beds can “reset” the basal debris field, causing striations to become more abundant in their wake. As roughness is linked to quarrying, abrasion rates may increase in areas of increased quarrying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article illustrates how to research complex infrastructure networks using critical cartography. Maps, infographics, and datascapes are employed to study how contemporary flows of goods, people, and money are redefining a specific location. This topic has been widely investigated in science and technology studies; however, it has seldom been addressed by applying visual methods. Cartography, in particular, is generally regarded as a subject of analysis, rather than an investigative tool. Conversely, this contribution discusses the theory and explores critical cartography as a speculative and artistic practice for problematizing the spatialization of policies, financial interests, and trade flows. It adds another level of understanding to the field of inquiry, and can help in developing counternarratives. This method is adopted to investigate the Port of Trieste, Italy, where radical transformations have been driven by international investment and infrastructural programs. Critical cartography can help to unravel this tangle by unveiling the cross-scalar dimension of contemporary global trade and the complex landscape of infrastructural networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the 2022 Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework both signal the urgent need to upscale restoration efforts worldwide. Facilitative policy and governance frameworks are critical to these efforts. However, the legal barriers to restoration have been historically understudied. This paper assesses the legal issues affecting the implementation of ecological restoration, synthesized across four broad themes: recognizing the role of law in supporting ecological restoration, the incompatibility of some existing laws with the purposes of ecological restoration, the need to clarify terminology, and the legal challenges for restoration at the landscape scale. It concludes by summarizing the key considerations from the literature to inform effective legal frameworks for ecological restoration and identifying areas for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life changes that impelled Saint-John Perse and Lorand Gaspar into the desert are well known: Perse's 1920 expedition into the Gobi Desert during his diplomatic assignment in China, and Gaspar's residence in Jerusalem near the Judaean Desert, 1954 to 1970. More interesting is the poetic stratification that barren ecologies instill in Anabase (1924) and Sol absolu (1972). Perse's adventurer prince encounters several climates during his inland journey yet binds particularly with the desert, which infiltrates his discourse and the texture of his self-image. Human geography becomes a means to master the habitat as a stepping-stone for personal assertion. Climate on the frontier inspires his encomiastic language of jubilation for quest and companions. Gaspar's topography suggests a less rhetorical contact with environment, yet his desert's materiality penetrates its inhabitants, nomads like the Beduin or the poet, who treks this desert via language. Gaspar's poetics of barren environment is not as epic as Anabase (1924), yet the jubilation that tectonic challenge incites in his idiom is founded on interpenetration of psyche and ecosystem rather than the poetics of dominion deployed in Anabase. Omnipresent conceits of "living matter" and "material psyche" are critical to the understanding of these two desert poems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the Narmada Valley in western India displaced more than 30,000 families, mostly from Indigenous communities. Many of those displaced were resettled in regions that had a starkly different ecological and social composition from the mountainous areas they were forced to leave. In this paper we draw on the anthropology of landscape, linguistic anthropology, and ethnophysiography to chart the transformation of referential landscape terminology in the indigenous Bhili language as a result of displacement and subsequent resettlement. We focus on semantic domains covering ecological features such as soil, rivers, and forests, as well as the use of land for functional purposes. In doing so, we demonstrate how bridging conceptual and perceptual ethnographic approaches to landscape provides a more holistic view of displacement that encompasses both the memories of the places left behind as well as the unfolding process of resettlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate-change refugia can support biodiversity by maintaining buffered conditions despite climate change and are a critical tool for the unfolding extinction crisis. Despite their capacity to protect biodiversity, climate-change refugia will be increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of multiple interacting stressors and may hence require management. Effective protection of biodiversity under climate change can be facilitated by managing or newly establishing climate-change refugia on the basis of multiple factors and processes that create them. Using four clear steps, appropriate actions to maintain climate-change refugia, ranging from minimal management to more extensive restoration efforts, can be determined. Identifying and managing climate-change refugia can reduce extinctions and contribute to landscapes that are holistically managed for biodiversity conservation under climate change. Earth is facing simultaneous biodiversity and climate crises. Climate-change refugia – areas that are relatively buffered from climate change – can help address both of these problems by maintaining biodiversity components when the surrounding landscape no longer can. However, this capacity to support biodiversity is often vulnerable to severe climate change and other stressors. Thus, management actions need to consider the complex and multidimensional nature of refugia. We outline an approach to understand refugia-promoting processes and to evaluate refugial capacity to determine suitable management actions. Our framework applies climate-change refugia as tools to facilitate resistance in modern conservation planning. Such refugia-focused management can reduce extinctions and maintain biodiversity under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Valuing water is receiving increasing attention within the global water policy agenda as a new water management paradigm. However, it is not yet clear how it can be operationalized in local water management contexts. We apply the Value Landscapes Approach as a conceptual framework to show how water-related preferences are informed by underlying assigned/water values and governance-related values and how these values may explain three different visions for water management among professional respondents in a Northern Kenyan case study. Through making shared and conflicting values explicit, these insights may serve as a foundation for addressing water conflicts in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a landscape, boundaries are the physically or socially defined lines that mark the limits of spaces. They can appear static and binary, and therefore analytically restricted. Yet it is argued here that while space is often analyzed in archaeology to inform social, economic, or institutional interpretations of a landscape, the analysis of boundaries is a complimentary method that captures movement, control, and prohibition mechanisms. Analyzing boundaries is shown to reveal aspects of change – sometimes diachronic and sometimes ephemeral – and a malleability that is often linked to materiality. The examination of the early nineteenth-century historical boundaries of Point Puer, a juvenile convict prison (1834–49) located in lutruwita/Tasmania, Australia, is used as a case study to illustrate their common archaeological forms. It is reasoned that the analysis of boundaries contributes dynamic interpretations of historical landscapes by theorizing boundaries as spatial frameworks to examine social and experiential elements of space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of EURE is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile 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.)

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. 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.)

Enabling diverse actors to address interlinked sustainability issues is important and challenging. This paper focuses on how to design a dialogue-based knowledge co-production process to nurture collective action. Using the conceptualization of systems, target, and operational knowledge as the guiding framework, we designed and combined different complementary activities to invite actors to look at a wicked problem through multiple lenses and reflect on their own positions, perspectives, knowledge, and values. With a carefully documented workshop series held with local actors on Öland, Sweden, as our empirical case study, we demonstrate how we moved from exploring the multifunctionality of landscapes and understanding actors' different values, preferences, and priorities, to developing four strategies for effectively accelerating and expanding efforts to adapt to climate change. Our study reveals how the process of mobilizing, articulating, and connecting individually held systems, target, and operational knowledge nurtures collective action. It also leverages dialogue-based processes as cornerstones in addressing sustainability challenges in an inclusive and equitable way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sky Bridge 721 was opened on 13 May 2022. It is located in the area of the Kralicky Sneznik mountain massif in the area of the Dolni Morava Mountain Resort. It was built in two years and spans the valley between the two ridges Slamnik and Chlum with a length of 721 metres. It has become a new landmark of the region, although in reality it is almost invisible when viewed from a distance. It winds like a thin thread below the horizon of the mountain ridge, suspended between the sky and the ground, so that it does not interfere with the view of the surrounding countryside. It was a real challenge to bridge such a wide valley at a height of nearly 100 metres and to achieve a subtle line of the footbridge that would not disturb the silhouette of the mountain massif. This is the story of the whole process, from the design to the statics, construction, design and implementation, that the TAROS NOVA a.s. team had to overcome during the implementation of the footbridge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although position within the estuarine landscape is known to influence structural characteristics and ecological functioning of many habitats, the influence of position on subtidal oyster reef characteristics and functioning is relatively understudied. This study assessed habitat provision by oysters and benthic macrofauna on subtidal bar and patch oyster reefs within the northwestern Gulf of Mexico estuary. Bar reefs had greater and more variable oyster density, biomass, and volume, as well as dead shell material, compared to patch reefs. Benthic macrofaunal community composition differed between reef types, with bar reefs hosting 11× and 30× higher biomass of Porcellanidae and Ampithoidae crustaceans, and patch reefs supporting 34× and 47× higher biomass of Eunicidae annelids and Leptocheliidae crustaceans. The environmental variables most highly correlated with macrofaunal communities on both bar and patch reefs were sediment chlorophyll-a, volume of dead oyster shells, and depth. Despite differences in structural characteristics and position within the estuarine landscape, subtidal oyster reefs are often managed as a single habitat type. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering location in oyster reef conservation and restoration efforts to better predict and optimize faunal provision outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Fire Ecology 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.)

This study aims to investigate the changes in landscape metrics with varying spatial resolution from Sentinel-2 (10 m), SPOT 7 (1.5 m), Pleaides (0.5 m), and Worldview-4 (0.3 m) images. We implemented Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) techniques to all images to identify 21 land use and land cover (LULC) classes, which were then used to calculate several landscape metrics. We performed the Welch hypothesis testing on the class-level landscape metrics and applied Standardized Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with the correlation matrix to reveal the multivariate pattern of landscape metrics. Our results showed that 10 m and even the 1.5 m spatial resolutions cannot guarantee the identification of all LULC classes, and class areas change with varying spatial resolution (sometimes with 200% differences). Sentinel-2 images have some limitations, specifically from the landscape ecological planning perspective; on the other hand, Pleaides and Worldview-4 seem good alternatives to understand habitats' viability and landscape isolation/connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theory links dispersal and diversity, predicting the highest diversity at intermediate dispersal levels. However, the modulation of this relationship by macro-eco-evolutionary mechanisms and competition within a landscape is still elusive. We examine the interplay between dispersal, competition and landscape structure in shaping biodiversity over 5 million years in a dynamic archipelago landscape. We model allopatric speciation, temperature niche, dispersal, competition, trait evolution and trade-offs between competitive and dispersal traits. Depending on dispersal abilities and their interaction with landscape structure, our archipelago exhibits two 'connectivity regimes', that foster speciation events among the same group of islands. Peaks of diversity (i.e. alpha, gamma and phylogenetic), occurred at intermediate dispersal; while competition shifted diversity peaks towards higher dispersal values for each connectivity regime. This shift demonstrates how competition can boost allopatric speciation events through the evolution of thermal specialists, ultimately limiting geographical ranges. Even in a simple landscape, multiple intermediate dispersal diversity relationships emerged, all shaped similarly and according to dispersal and competition strength. Our findings remain valid as dispersal- and competitive-related traits evolve and trade-off; potentially leaving identifiable biodiversity signatures, particularly when trade-offs are imposed. Overall, we scrutinize the convoluted relationships between dispersal, species interactions and landscape structure on macro-eco-evolutionary processes, with lasting imprints on biodiversity. This article is part of the theme issue 'Diversity-dependence of dispersal: interspecific interactions determine spatial dynamics'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions to disperse from a habitat stand out among organismal behaviours as pivotal drivers of ecosystem dynamics across scales. Encounters with other species are an important component of adaptive decision-making in dispersal, resulting in widespread behaviours like tracking resources or avoiding consumers in space. Despite this, metacommunity models often treat dispersal as a function of intraspecific density alone. We show, focusing initially on three-species network motifs, that interspecific dispersal rules generally drive a transition in metacommunities from homogeneous steady states to self-organized heterogeneous spatial patterns. However, when ecologically realistic constraints reflecting adaptive behaviours are imposed—prey tracking and predator avoidance—a pronounced homogenizing effect emerges where spatial pattern formation is suppressed. We demonstrate this effect for each motif by computing master stability functions that separate the contributions of local and spatial interactions to pattern formation. We extend this result to species-rich food webs using a random matrix approach, where we find that eventually, webs become large enough to override the homogenizing effect of adaptive dispersal behaviours, leading once again to predominately pattern-forming dynamics. Our results emphasize the critical role of interspecific dispersal rules in shaping spatial patterns across landscapes, highlighting the need to incorporate adaptive behavioural constraints in efforts to link local species interactions and metacommunity structure. This article is part of the theme issue 'Diversity-dependence of dispersal: interspecific interactions determine spatial dynamics'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the influence of dispersal on ecological selection is the subject of intense research, we still lack a thorough understanding of how ecological selection operates to favour distinct dispersal strategies in metacommunities. To address this issue, we developed a model framework in which species with distinct quantitative dispersal traits that govern the three stages of dispersal—departure, movement and settlement—compete under different ecological contexts. The model identified three primary dispersal strategies (referred to as nomadic, homebody and habitat-sorting) that consistently dominated metacommunities owing to the interplay of spatiotemporal environmental variation and different types of competitive interactions. We outlined the key characteristics of each strategy and formulated theoretical predictions regarding the abiotic and biotic conditions under which each strategy is more likely to prevail in metacommunities. By presenting our results as relationships between dispersal traits and well-known ecological gradients (e.g. seasonality), we were able to contrast our theoretical findings with previous empirical research. Our model demonstrates how landscape environmental characteristics and competitive interactions at the intra- and interspecific levels can interact to favour distinct multivariate and context-dependent dispersal strategies in metacommunities. This article is part of the theme issue 'Diversity-dependence of dispersal: interspecific interactions determine spatial dynamics'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the midlatitudes of the planet, we are facing the imminent disappearance of one of our best high-resolution (pre)historic climate and anthropogenic pollution archives, namely the loss of glacial ice, through accelerated global warming. To capture these records and interpret these vanishing archives, it is imperative that we extract ice-cores from midlatitude regions where glaciers still survive and analyse them within frameworks of inter-disciplinary research. In this paper, we focus on Georgia, part of the Greater Caucasus. Results of ice-core analyses from the region have never, to date, been integrated with its other abundant palaeo-environmental, archaeological and historical sources. We review the results of international projects on palaeo-environmental/geoarchaeological sediment archives, the archaeology of metal economies and preliminary ice-core data in Georgia. Collectively, we show that the different strands need to be integrated to fully explore relationships between climate/landscape change and human societal transformations. We then introduce an inclusive interdisciplinary framework for ongoing research on these themes, with an ultimate future goal of using data from the past to inform societal resilience strategies in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-sample hydrology datasets have become increasingly available, contributing to significant scientific advances. However, in Europe, only a few such datasets have been published, capturing only a fraction of the wealth of information from national data providers in terms of available spatial density and temporal extent. We present "EStreams", an extensive dataset of hydro-climatic variables and landscape descriptors and a catalogue of openly available stream records for 17,130 European catchments. Spanning up to 120 years, the dataset includes streamflow indices, catchment-aggregated hydro-climatic signatures and landscape attributes (topography, soils, geology, vegetation and landcover). The catalogue provides detailed descriptions that allow users to directly access streamflow data sources, overcoming challenges related to data redistribution policies, language barriers and varied data portal structures. EStreams also provides Python scripts for data retrieval, aggregation and processing, making it dynamic in contrast to static datasets. This approach enables users to update their data as new records become available. Our goal is to extend current large-sample datasets and further integrate hydro-climatic and landscape data across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed the relative importance of environmental filtering and dispersal limitation in structuring foliage- and ground-dwelling arthropod communities in central North Carolina. We hypothesized that differences in both local environment and dispersal distance between sites would predict differences in community composition, but that dispersal distance would be more important for ground arthropods than for foliage arthropods. We used variance partitioning to quantify the relative explanatory power of differences in the local environment and dispersal distance between sampling plots. For foliage arthropods, the full set of predictors explained 37–39% of the variance in community dissimilarity, while the full set of predictors explained 42–56% of the variance for ground arthropods. Environmental predictors alone consistently explained more variance in community dissimilarity than geographic predictors alone for ground arthropods, but the variance explained by each predictor set alone varied for foliage arthropods depending on the metric of community dissimilarity. Examining communities of multiple arthropod groups across the same spatial gradient highlights the scale-dependence of these processes and illustrates how variation in the environment can alter the relative abundance of specialist and generalist taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractDemic dispersals of humans into new regions are often carried out in phases, some exploratory and others aimed at establishing a resident population. Here we propose that “prospecting” characterizes human and hominin behavior connected with the early exploratory phases of human migratory behavior. Along with behavioral epigenetic factors, prospecting is a form of agency and intentional action in human behavior that drove the exploration of previously uninhabited landscapes preceding the arrival of resident populations. Using the well-documented Norse exploration of the North Atlantic as a source of hypotheses, we consider the initial exploration of the Greek islands in the Paleolithic and consider the possibility that this exploration was based on prospecting as a risk-taking and novelty-seeking behavior that underpinned dangerous and logistically challenging sea crossings to oceanic islands in the Aegean Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization has led to homogenizing heritage site landscapes, and the protective measures have become disconnected from public needs. Additionally, the complex and diverse overall characteristics of heritage sites and the uneven distribution of values across different areas are related to the lack of landscape experience assessment. The "subjective + objective" cognitive evaluation and visual perception framework that adopts the Scenic Beauty Estimation Procedure-Semantic Differential (SBE–SD) method and eye-tracking analysis can compensate for the limitations of a single evaluation method by integrating quantitative and qualitative analysis. This research takes the Yi'an Fortress in Zhangpu County, Fujian Province, as the object and examines the visual experiences of different areas and types of landscapes within the Yi'an Fortress. The findings reveal several key insights: (1) Significant differences were found in the landscape experiences of different areas within the heritage site. The visual experience score of the core building area of Yi'an Fortress is (1.01) > the heritage entrance area (0.897) > the residential area (0.841) > the natural ecological area (0.784), indicating that the natural ecological area should be the focus of future protection and development efforts, with a particular emphasis on enhancing the 'landscape aesthetic' and 'landscape cultural' aspects. (2) The landscape experience scores can be used to understand the reasons for the differences in participants' experiences of different landscapes. The architectural heritage landscape of the Yi'an Fortress scored highest in the experience evaluation due to its superior performance in terms of 'landscape form' factors. The cultural decorative landscape scored next, while the garden greening landscape scored the lowest, due to their poorer performance in terms of 'landscape form' and 'landscape aesthetics'. (3) The eye-tracking data was consistent with the results of the subjective evaluation, validating the "subjective + objective" cognitive evaluation and visual perception framework, employing the SBE–SD method and eye-tracking analysis is a scientific and effective method for assessing the visual experience of heritage landscapes. These results provide a scientific basis for the heritage planners and managers of the Yi'an fortress to improve the landscape environment, better meet public needs, and preserve the unique character of this vital cultural resource. Furthermore, this study offers a new research method and approach for the protection of other heritage landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we trace differing normative values, and especially in alternative imaginaries of environmentally sustainable futures? To address this issue, this article extends the sociotechnical imaginaries framework by providing conceptual tools to understand the underlying rationale of alternative environmental imaginaries—through an envirotechnical analysis. I analyse an urban river restoration project called the Isar-Plan in Munich, Germany, where the notion of 'renaturation' was at the centre a controversy over designs for the project. By positing the river as an envirotechnical landscape, the normative dimensions of nature, science and technology within environmental transformations can be constructively integrated within co-productionist analyses in science and technology studies. The article shows how existing societal values are shaped by prior systems and regimes, constructing local imaginaries of desirable environmental futures. Envirotechnical analyses also increase our ability to identify differing normative values, and could thus be further applied in cases where the normative assumptions behind opaque notions otherwise would be left underexplored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to provide a preliminary investigation into the religious profile of a Malla-era Newar king, namely Jitāmitramalla (r. 1673–1696), by examining his scribal and compositional output. It does this by engaging with largely unstudied sources, chiefly (i) an unpublished poem written by King Jitāmitra known as the Siddhilakṣmīmantrayantroddhārastotra in which the monarch extols the goddess Siddhilakṣmī and lays out methods for her worship and (ii) the colophons of seven liturgical paddhatis copied by this king, which to my knowledge, are still undiscussed and untranslated in secondary literature. In doing so, we gain an insight into the King's understanding of various aspects of his own religious identity, including his role as a tāntrika and his relationship with his chosen deities. The material studied will also uncover new information on the religious affiliations of the royal Bhaktapuri court and the medieval religious landscape of the Kathmandu Valley generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dispersal is a complex series of movements before an individual establishes a home range. Animals must travel and forage in unfamiliar landscapes that include anthropogenic risks such as road crossings, harvest, and urban landscapes. We compare dispersal behavior of juvenile mountain lions (Puma concolor) from two geographically distinct populations in California and Nevada, USA. These two sites are ecologically similar but have different management practices; hunting is permitted in Nevada, whereas mountain lions are protected in California. We used GPS‐collar data and net‐squared displacement analysis to identify three dispersal states: exploratory, departure, and transient home range. We then compared each dispersal state of the two mountain lion populations using an integrated step selection analysis (iSSA). The model included explanatory variables hypothesized to influence one or more dispersal states, including distance to forest, shrub, water, hay and crop, developed lands, and four‐wheel drive roads, as well as elevation and terrain ruggedness. Results revealed consistent habitat selection between sites across most landscape variables, with one notable exception: anthropogenic covariates, including distance to developed land, distance to hay and crop, and distance to four‐wheeled drive roads, were only statistically significant on modeled habitat selection during dispersal in the population subject to hunting (i.e., Nevada). Results suggest that hunting (pursuit with hounds resulting in harvest) and non‐lethal pursuit (pursuit with hounds but no harvest allowed) increase avoidance of anthropogenic landscapes during dispersal for juvenile mountain lions. By comparing populations, we provided valuable insights into the role of management in shaping dispersal behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The factors that influence the diversity of Yungas Andean forest remain unexplored. Our study seeks to investigate the impact of key isolating factors on the genetic structure of multiple taxa, testing for four hypotheses: isolation by distance (IBD), isolation by resistance due to topography (IBRtopo), isolation by resistance due to habitat suitability (IBRsuit) and isolation by environmental dissimilarity (IBE). Location: Yungas Andean forest. Taxon: Tetrapoda. Methods: We analysed a dataset consisting of 477 Cyt‐b sequences from 138 localities, encompassing 13 species. Through multiple matrix regression, Moran Spectral Randomization of Mantel and GDM analyses, we tested the impact of each extrinsic predictor on observed genetic variation and determined the effect size of environmental variation on genetic divergence. Additionally, we investigated the spatial distribution of lineages within the study species. Results: The genetic variation within the Yungas exhibited varied responses that correspond to the regional landscape heterogeneity. We identified different isolating factors as the main predictor for specific species: IBD for Akodon spegazzinii; IBRtopo for certain small mammals' species; IBE for Thylamys cinderella and Oligoryzomys brendae; and IBRsuit for Calomys fecundus, Oreobates barituensis and Melanophryniscus rubriventris with some considerations. Furthermore, our results support the presence of a latitudinal pattern in the distribution of genetic lineages. Main Conclusions: The heterogeneous landscape of the Yungas Andean forest posed varied effects on genetic variation. The effect of topography and continuity of suitable habitats over vertebrate dispersal shapes the genetic diversity, in particular topography acts either as a barrier or as corridor, while habitat suitability resistance mainly shapes endemism genetic structure; local climate represents a strong genetic promoter in transition zones; and the effect of geographic distance is less evident when considering other landscape promoter of genetic divergence. This reinforces the understanding that the complex interplay of environmental and historical factors contributes to the observed patterns of genetic diversity in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eruption of the unique Taketomi side volcano, located on Atlasov Island in the northern part of the Kuril Island arc, began underwater and ended on land. It happened before people's eyes and was, in essence, the formation of a new side volcano. The volcano that formed was studied in 1933–1936 by renowned Japanese scientists, and from 1946 to the present, by Soviet and Russian researchers. The Taketomi side volcano continues to amaze with its landscapes and is actively visited by numerous tourists. Unfortunately, there is still no single publication about people who, to one degree or another, have made a significant contribution to the study of this side volcano. This study is the first attempt to talk about them in lapidary form. In addition, available photographs show the destruction of the Taketomi structure starting in the 1950s until 2020, and for the first time, the existing inconsistencies cited in various publications that describe the eruption of this side volcano are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces Visibilis 433, an audiovisual installation piece inspired by and conceived as an homage to John Cage's legendary 4′33″. The piece utilizes practically inaudible components of the ambient sound in the gallery to present an audible artificial soundscape and an accompanying virtual landscape in real time, aiming to reinterpret Cage's original intentions from a new perspective through signal processing and multimedia programming. In addition to introducing notable features of Visibilis 433, the article discusses its significance as a re-mediated synesthetic variation of 4′33″ that extends the limit of our auditory perceptions and crosses the border between audio and visual senses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors investigate Chinese shanshui (literally, "mountain and water"), ink paintings of the natural landscape, through an interactive art installation entitled Shanshui Journey. By examining shanshui's philosophy, multiple moving perspectives, and creation and appreciation practices, the work emphasizes motion in nature, memories, and interactive appreciation. These concepts are realized in a digitized room, where each participant's motion is captured as a line "sketch" and transformed into an ink painting via a custom neural network. Generated paintings are displayed in real time alongside previous works, collectively termed Shanshui Memories, mimicking handscroll interaction. The authors' approach to shanshui aims to reproduce the Chinese literati art experience, and to raise awareness of this cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay evaluates the historic landscape of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay where Harriet Tubman was born and enslaved. By claiming the Eastern Shore as representative of Tubman's world, tourism boosters minimize the ways that the surroundings have changed. Rather than a landscape of authenticity, these marshlands are what I term a "landscape of evocation," one that evokes historical, cultural, and ecological components not only of Tubman's time, but also of those who have lived among and navigated these wetlands in the two hundred years since her 1822 birth. To create a sense of belonging for visitors and locals alike, land management agencies must collaborate with these populations to meld disparate understandings of a singular place over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians have examined vernacular duplex homes in Milwaukee's north side neighborhoods to write the history of the white working-class immigrants who settled this industrial metropolis during the early years of the twentieth century. African Americans moved into these neighborhoods in the later decades of the twentieth century. This paper explores how current Black residents construe the history of their neighborhood. To examine what such a historical narrative might look like, this paper presents three stories from a single city block: a twentieth century narrative of growth, a more recent story of decline, and a longer aspirational dream of a shared commons. Grounded in the material world that they observe around them, the current inhabitants assemble these diverse memories in anachronic ways, around multiple experiences of time such as nostalgia, a sense of disenfranchisement in the present moment, and an aspirational dream of a yet unrealized future. This ability to craft a complex narrative of place in a precarious world has emerged as a form of collective resistance against realities of racism, segregation, and urban disinvestment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]