Article
Environmental Sciences
Ana Clara Sampaio Franco, Emili Garcia-Berthou, Luciano Neves dos Santos
Summary: The study investigated predictors of peacock bass abundance in South America and evaluated its impact on fish assemblages using random forests and regression models. The results showed that maximum depth, introduced status, and ecosystem type were the best predictors of peacock bass abundance, with invasive reservoirs having the highest abundance. Introduction time accounted for a small portion of variation in species composition and diversity.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Emily C. Farrer, Christina Birnbaum, Susannah R. Halbrook, Monica Brady, Caitlin R. Bumby, Helena Candaele, Nelle K. Kulick, Sean F. H. Lee, Carolyn S. Schroeder, McKenzie K. H. Smith, William Wilber, Brajesh Singh
Summary: The study found that the impact of Phragmites invasion varied slightly across the salinity gradient, with an increase in stem densities and above-ground litter accumulation in fresh and saline areas. The responses of both plant and microbial communities to invasion differed with salinity, with Phragmites significantly reducing native plant density and plant species richness decreasing consistently across the gradient. However, fungal and bacterial richness increased sharply only in brackish sites. Moreover, the effect of Phragmites on plant and microbial community composition strengthened as salinity increased.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Martin Jung
Summary: Most knowledge about species and habitats is not evenly distributed and biased in space, time, and taxonomic and functional knowledge. However, there is a large amount of biodiversity data available. The challenge is to effectively integrate the various sources of data, especially for species distribution models, in order to accurately address global challenges. This paper presents a modeling framework that integrates different data sources and introduces innovative concepts for creating more realistic and constrained spatial predictions. The ibis.iSDM R-package provides convenience functions and supports parameter transformations, data preparation, spatial-temporal projections, and ecological constraints.
ECOLOGICAL INFORMATICS
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Steven Kuba Nuhu, Zainuddin Abdul Manan, Sharifah Rafidah Wan Alwi, Mohd Nadzri Md Reba
Summary: Inconsistencies in criteria weight assessment of single multi-criteria decision making methods have led to incorrect siting of industrial parks. Integrated multi-criteria decision making methods address these weaknesses and provide consistent criteria weights.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2022)
Article
Environmental Studies
Yonko Dodev, Miglena Zhiyanski, Maria Glushkova, Bilyana Borisova, Lidiya Semerdzhieva, Ivo Ihtimanski, Stelian Dimitrov, Stoyan Nedkov, Mariyana Nikolova, Won-Sop Shin
Summary: The study developed and tested an integrated approach for assessing and mapping forest areas with the potential to provide conditions for forest therapy services. By combining traditional forest inventory data with other open databases, the method rates 22 indicators on a 5-point scale and identifies territorial hot spots for forest therapy through overlay analysis and spatial statistics tools. The approach is cost-effective and informative, supporting forest owners and managers in diversifying forest welfare services.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Giri Bhavan Sreekanth, Sajiya Mujawar, Dhanya Mohan Lal, Trivesh Mayekar, Johnson Stephen, Rajeev Raghavan, Appukuttannair Biju Kumar, Baban Shravan Ingole
Summary: Invasive alien species have significant impacts on the trophic organisation and food web structure in ecosystems. Using the Ecopath with Ecosim modelling platform, this study examined the effects of three invasive fish species on a tropical freshwater pond ecosystem in India. The study found that these invasive species competed with native fish species and had negative impacts on other functional groups in the ecosystem.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Flavius Balacenoiu, Constantin Netoiu, Romica Tomescu, Dieter Carol Simon, Andrei Buzatu, Dragos Toma, Ion Catilin Petritan
Summary: The invasive alien insect species oak lace bug is rapidly spreading in Europe, where aerial chemical treatments have been found to significantly reduce nymph populations. However, residual populations still lead to re-infestations, with quicker re-infestations and more severe attacks observed after contact insecticide sprays.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Joao Rocha, Andre Duarte, Sergio Fabres, Ana Quintela, Dalila Serpa
Summary: Terracing is an effective method for soil and water conservation in sloped terrains. The resolution of the digital elevation model (DEM) used in hydrological models can influence the accuracy of terrain representation and model performance. This study found that DEMs derived from LiDAR data improved the accuracy of terrain representation and increased the accuracy of the SWAT hydrological model in simulating streamflow. Comparing simulations with and without terraces, it was found that the presence of terraces reduced streamflow by 28% to 36%, demonstrating the effectiveness of terraces in water conservation.
Article
Ecology
Vivek Srivastava, Allan L. Carroll
Summary: Efforts to minimize impacts of highly mobile insect pests in a warming environment are complicated by the dynamicity and uncertainty of their distributions. Tools that aid such management efforts are urgently required for successful outcomes. We modified the traditional static species distribution model (SDM) framework to incorporate dynamic biotic and abiotic predictors and found that dynamic SDMs provided more accurate predictions of the potential distribution of the mountain pine beetle (MPB) compared to static SDMs. The DSDM framework can help researchers understand the distributional dynamics of mobile species in climatically variable regions.
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Manoj Kumar, Naveen Kalra, Hukum Singh, Subrat Sharma, Praveen Singh Rawat, Ram Kumar Singh, Ajay Kumar Gupta, Pavan Kumar, N. H. Ravindranath
Summary: Assessing the vulnerability of forests in the Indian Western Himalayan region involved using six indicators and mapping vulnerability across different grid sizes, with the highest concentration of very high and high vulnerable grids located in Uttarakhand. The study showed that forests at higher elevations were less vulnerable compared to forests at lower altitudes.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Economics
Guohua Feng, Jiti Gao, Bin Peng
Summary: This study proposes an integrated framework that addresses parameter heterogeneity, cross-sectional error dependence, and variable selection in empirical growth analysis. The results support the optimistic conclusion of Sala-I-Martin (1997) and reveal previously unidentified cross-country patterns.
JOURNAL OF ECONOMETRICS
(2022)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Paola Pepe, Antonio Bosco, Federico Capuano, Loredana Baldi, Angela Giordano, Andrea Mancusi, Marialuisa Buonanno, Luigi Morena, Renato Pinto, Paolo Sarnelli, Giuseppe Cringoli, Laura Rinaldi
Summary: Toxoplasmosis is a globally significant zoonotic infection caused by the intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. It poses a major public health risk and has important veterinary implications. A comprehensive monitoring program conducted in southern Italy revealed a very high seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in sheep farms, highlighting potential public health risks in the area.
Article
Economics
Stephan Smeekes, Etienne Wijler
Summary: SPECS is an automated estimation procedure for dynamic single-equation models with a large number of potentially cointegrated variables. It consistently estimates appropriate linear combinations of cointegrating vectors and possesses the same limiting distribution as the OLS oracle procedure. It shows strong selective capabilities and superior predictive performance compared to high-dimensional models that ignore cointegration.
JOURNAL OF ECONOMETRICS
(2021)
Article
Economics
Suleyman Mete, Melih Yucesan, Muhammet Gul, Eren Ozceylan
Summary: This article presents an integrated multi-criteria decision-making approach to reassess the COVID-19 risks of countries based on the INFORM COVID-19 Risk Index. The proposed method prioritizes and ranks countries using the MC-BWM and COPRAS methods, providing novel insights for risk assessment in the field.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC PLANNING SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Ali Alderete Peralta, Nazmiye Balta-Ozkan, Philip Longhurst
Summary: This study investigates the spatio-temporal patterns of solar photovoltaic adoption rates using artificial neural networks as the criteria for decision-making, addressing the limitations of agent-based models. By incorporating spatial and temporal dependencies as well as social dynamics, the model yields a more realistic characterization of decision-making while utilizing ANN's approximation capabilities to generate knowledge and adapt to changing trends. Empirical validation suggests that the model can account for spatio-temporal and social dynamics with superior adaptive abilities and accurately forecast up to five months.
