Colonization and extinction of land planarians (Platyhelminthes,Tricladida) in a Brazilian Atlantic Forest regrowth remnant

Long-term assessments of species assemblages are valuable tools for detecting species ecological preferences and their dispersal tracks, as well as for assessing the possible effects of alien species on native communities. Here we report a 50-year-long study on population dynamics of the four species of land flatworms (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Terricola) that have colonized or become extinct in a 70-year-old Atlantic Forest regrowth remnant through the period 1955–2006. On the one hand, the two initially most abundant species, which are native to the study site, Notogynaphallia ernesti and Geoplana multicolor have declined over decades and at present do not exist in the forest remnant. The extinction of these species is most likely related with their preference for open vegetation areas, which presently do not exist in the forest remnant. On the other hand, the neotropical Geoplaninae 1 and the exotic Endeavouria septemlineata were detected in the forest only very recently. The long-term study allowed us to conclude that Geoplaninae 1 was introduced into the study area, although it is only known from the study site. Endeavouria septemlineata, an active predator of the exotic giant African snail, is originally known from Hawaii. This land flatworm species was observed repeatedly in Brazilian anthropogenic areas, and this is the first report of the species in relatively well preserved native forest, which may be evidence of an ongoing adaptive process. Monitoring of its geographic spread and its ecological role would be a good practice for preventing potential damaging effects, since it also feeds on native mollusk fauna, as we observed in lab conditions. Júlio Pedroni: Granted by CNPQ–Brazil.     

Palynological and palaeobotanical investigations in the area of the post-medieval Helsinki Old Town

Pollen, phytolith, and plant macrofossil analyses were carried out on the cultural layers of Helsinki Old Town excavated by the Helsinki City Museum and dated to the 15–17th centuries. Cultural mineral soil layers, a former ditch, a well, one waste pit, one waste heap and three house areas were investigated. The results show that-within certain limits-pollen in the mineral soil reflects the cultural changes of the local settlement from rural to urban. Among the main anthropogenic indicators, the high NAP (non-arboreal pollen) frequencies, the low pollen concentration values, and especially the high frequencies of Cichoriaceae (Liguliflorae) pollen should be emphasized. The macrofossil data were used to determine the species list of the herb pollen and to make a more detailed reconstruction of the local vegetation at Helsinki Old Town.     

The Trophic Diatom Index: a new index for monitoring eutrophication in rivers

A index for monitoring the trophic status of rivers based on diatom composition (‚trophic diatom index’, TDI) has been developed, in response to the National Rivers Authority (England & Wales)'s needs under the terms of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive of the European Community. The index is based on a suite of 86 taxa selected both for their indicator value and ease of identification. When tested on a dataset from 70 sites free of significant organic pollution, this index was more highly correlated with aqueous P concentrations than previous diatom indices. However, where there was heavy organic pollution, it was difficult to separate the effects of eutrophication from other effects. For this reason, the value of TDI is supplemented by an indication of the proportion of the sample that is composed of taxa tolerant to organic pollution. The index was tested on the R. Browney, N-E. England, above and below a major sewage discharge. TDI values indicated that the effect of inorganic nutrients on the river downstream of the discharge was slight as the river was already nutrient-rich, but there was a large increase in the proportion of organic pollution-tolerant taxa. This indicates that the river was already so eutrophic upstream of the discharge that tertiary treatment to remove P would not be effective unless other aspects of the discharge were also improved.     

Growth of rural and urban children in the Valley of Oaxaca,Mexico

Weight, stature, arm circumference, and the triceps skinfold were measured in 1,410 school children, 6 through 14 years of age, from two urban colonias in the city of Oaxaca de Juarez (n = 479), and from two rural Ladino (n = 467) and two rural Zapotec (n = 464) communities in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Children from rural Ladino communities and urban colonias are significantly taller, heavier, and more muscular than children in rural Zapotec communities. The differences between rural Ladino and urban colonia children favor the former, particularly for weight and stature. These observations thus suggest (1) that children in the rural, indigenous communities in the Valley of Oaxaca are relatively undernourished compared to children in Ladinoized and urban communities, and (2) that rural-to-urban migration does not necessarily result in improved growth status.     

Growth of rural and urban children in the valley of Oaxaca,Mexico

Weight, stature, arm circumference, and the triceps skinfold were measured in 1,410 school children, 6 through 14 years of age, from two urban colonias in the city of Oaxaca de Juarez (n = 479), and from two rural Ladino (n = 467) and two rural Zapotec (n = 464) communities in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Children from rural Ladino communities and urban colonias are significantly taller, heavier, and more muscular than children in rural Zapotec communities. The differences between rural Ladino and urban colonia children favor the former, particularly for weight and stature. These observations thus suggest (1) that children in the rural, indigenous communities in the Valley of Oaxaca are relatively undernourished compared to children in Ladinoized and urban communities, and (2) that rural-to-urban migration does not necessarily result in improved growth status.     

Regulating Ecosystem Services of forests in ten Italian Metropolitan Cities: Air quality improvement by PM10 and O3 removal

Urban and periurban forests, which are integrated within the concept of Green Infrastructure, provide important Ecosystem Services, including air purification. In this study, we quantified the Ecosystem Service of particulate matter (PM₁₀) and Ozone (O₃) removal from urban and periurban forests in ten metropolitan cities in Italy, and its total monetary value. In order to gain a better understanding of how Ecosystem Services can be regulated on a wider scale, the vegetation ecosystem types were grouped into Physiognomic-Structural Categories of Vegetation according to morphofunctional criteria. The pollution removal was mapped using a remote sensing and GIS approach, by applying a deposition model and a stomatal flux model. We estimated, for the ten metropolitan cities, an overall pollution abatement of 7150 Mg of PM₁₀ and 30,014 Mg of O₃ in the year 2003, which was an extremely hot year. Our findings indicate that structural characteristics (i.e. Leaf Area Index) and functional diversity, linked to stomatal conductance, exert a marked influence on the provision of the regulating Ecosystem Services, whose total monetary value was estimated to be equal to 47 and 297 million USD for PM₁₀ and O₃ removal, respectively. This study represent the first national-scale assessment of the Ecosystem Services of air pollution removal in Europe, thus providing information that may be useful to stakeholders to manage Green Infrastructure more efficiently.     

Amphibian diversity in Polish cities: Taxonomic diversity,functional diversity and evolutionary distinctiveness

As a process affecting animal communities, urbanization has been the subject of numerous studies. However, amphibians are still among the least studied vertebrate groups in urbanized landscapes. Generally, it has been found that the process of loss of amphibian diversity is nonrandom, with species from older evolutionary lines at greater risk. Regional data on amphibian assemblages in urban areas is a very useful tool for assessing how these assemblages react to changes.The aim of the present paper is to assess the diversity of amphibians in Polish cities based on data in the relevant literature, exploring different metrics (e.g., taxonomic, functional, and evolutionary diversity) calculated in amphibian species assemblages. We used data from 18 articles (including grey literature), characterized by comparable research methods and published between 1999 and 2017.Overall, amphibian species richness (ASR) amounted to an average of 9 species, ranging from 5 to 11 species per city. The higher species richness occurred in Białystok in North-west of Poland. Functional evenness (FEve), evolutionary distinctiveness (ED sum), and functional richness (FRic) were strongly positively correlated with ASR. However, ED mean was not significantly correlated with the total number of species in the community. Three taxa, the hybridogenetic water frogs Pelophylax esculentus complex, the common toad Bufo bufo, and the common frog Rana temporaria, occurred in all analyzed amphibian assemblages. Our study is one of the first attempts to compare urban amphibian assemblages, using different and complementary diversity metrics on a large spatial scale. In conclusion, we highlight that urban areas play an important role for conservation of amphibians, because they support amphibian assemblages characterized by a high level of overall diversity.     

Biochemical characteristics of urban maple trees

The study, which covers the period between 2014 and 2018, was carried out in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. The aim of the study was to examine the biochemical response of maple trees growing in the anthropogenic environments. Leaf samples from 600 trees (Acer platanoides L. and Acer negundo L.) were collected at monthly intervals from June through August. Sampling was performed early in the morning (11 a.m.) in the middle of the month. The study offers statistical data on the tannin content, determined via permanganometry; the ascorbic acid concentration, found via titration with 2.6-dichlorophenolindophenol; the ascorbate oxidase activity determined by absorbance at 265 nm; and the polyphenol oxidase activity, found by the spectrophotometric method. Relatively higher ascorbate oxidase activity was detected in August among ash-leaved Acer platanoides L. and Acer negundo L. in areas with strong anthropogenic impact. Due to increased air pollution, maple trees were found to exhibit an increase of polyphenol oxidase activities. The condensed tannin content in Norway maple trees dropped over time: by 1.24 in July (avenue); by 0.94 (buffer area) and 0.76 (avenue) in August. The condensed tannin content in the ash-leaved maple trees also decreased: by 0.69 (buffer area) and 0.22 (avenue) in July; by 0.37 (buffer area) and 0.61(avenue) in August.     

城市绿地对居民身心福祉的影响

城市绿地是人工与自然耦合的城市景观之一,是改善居民居住环境重要组成部分,更是提高居民身心健康的有效途径。以杭州主城区为研究对象,通过GIS技术对城市绿地遥感图像进行解译得到杭州主城区绿地空间布局图,同时,以人口密度为阻力要素,基于交通路网的500m网络距离可达范围内绿地数量和面积作为分类标准。通过对45个高、中、低不同档次的居民区进行问卷调查得到665份居民感知数据并进行统计整理。利用结构方程模型进行以绿地数量及游玩时间为标准的组间分析,区别不同组别的差异及其原因,分析城市绿地数量、面积,居民认知、动机,绿地吸引力等与居民身心健康福祉及满意度之间的关系。结果显示:城市绿地数量、居民游玩绿地次数时间等与居民福祉有显著的正向关系;居民对绿地作用的认知、去往绿地的动机进一步影响居民身心健康福祉;城市绿地的自身引力会激发居民去往绿地的积极性,从而增加去往绿地频次。另外,不同社会属性的个体对绿地需求不同,所产生的福祉效应及满意度也会有所差异。从增加居民区周围的街头绿地及邻里公园数量、提升绿地吸引力、提升居民对城市绿地作用的认知3个方面对城市绿地今后的发展规划提出建议。     

基于Landsat-8影像的沿海城市公园冷岛效应——以厦门为例

城市公园主要由水体和绿色植被等景观构成,其形成的公园冷岛（Park cool island,PCI）已成为减缓城市热岛效应的重要途径之一。采用景感生态学中的景感营造理念规划设计城市公园或优化公园空间结构有助于增强公园冷岛效应,进一步改善局地城市热环境。选择沿海城市——厦门市为研究对象,基于2013年8月的Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS遥感影像和Google Earth高分影像数据,首先提取了研究区15个公园的土地利用信息,采用改进的地表温度单通道算法,获取了城市公园地表温度数据,并采用缓冲区分析、景观格局指数和多元统计等方法定量分析公园内部平均地表温度、城市公园冷岛强度（即降温幅度）、公园冷岛影响距离（即对周边区域的降温范围）三者的主要影响因子,并利用景感生态学原理初步剖析了城市公园景感营造的原则。结果显示：（1）公园面积和公园建设用地面积是影响公园平均温度的关键因子（R²=0.915）,这两个因子与公园平均温度均呈显著非线性相关;公园面积存在阈值55 hm²左右;（2）公园冷岛PCI强度由公园绿地面积、公园建筑面积和面积-周长形状指数（P/A）三个因子决定（R²=0.911）;公园冷岛PCI强度与公园绿地面积呈显著非线性正相关,与公园建筑面积呈显著非线性负相关,与面积-周长形状指数（P/A）呈显著线性负相关;在确保公园绿地面积达到一定阈值时,应该尽量降低公园建筑面积,增加公园形状复杂度,有利于其PCI强度的增加,缓解城市热岛效应;（3）公园冷岛影响距离由公园面积和公园水体面积比例决定（R²=0.719）,公园冷岛影响距离与两者呈显著正相关;绿地公园中提高公园水体的面积比例,有助于增大公园冷岛的影响距离;（4）城市公园的规划与设计,需要运用景感生态学的原理,从缓解城市热岛效应的角度,充分考虑公园大小、形状、土地利用类型组成比例及空间配置等因素。