Explore the vast range of titles available.

Microplastics   ( <5 mm), which are classified based on primary or secondary sources, are widely distributed in the environment and exert significant effects on aquatic life forms; however, evidence regarding the ecotoxicological effects of microplastics on aquatic organisms is still limited. This research aims at filling a knowledge gap regarding generation sources, distribution, physicochemical properties, and biological behavior of microplastics (MP) in aquatic environments and their interaction with aquatic organisms. The literature indicates that concentrations of MPs observed in such environments are higher than the threshold for safe concentration (6650 buoyant particles/m 3 ). MPs having large specific surface area, low polarity, and hydrophobic properties have been shown to absorb dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), bisphenol A (BPA), polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), antibiotics, and heavy metals. MPs adsorb large amounts of toxic organic chemicals (18,700 ng/g PCBs; 24,000 ng/g PAHs) and heavy metals (0.21–430 μg/g Cr; 0.0029–930 μg/g Cd; 0.35–2.89 μg/g As; 0.26–698,000 μg/g Pb). MPs originating from polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), and polyvinylchloride (PVC) show greater toxicity toward aquatic organisms, with effects on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system, and endocrine system. Thus, elucidating the cumulative toxic expression of MPs in different polluted environments is critical.

A literature survey identified 403 primary research publications that investigated the ecological effects of invasive alien insects and/or the mechanisms underlying these effects. The majority of these studies were published in the last 8 years and nearly two-thirds were carried out in North America.These publications concerned 72 invasive insect species, of which two ant species, Solenopsis invicta and Linepithema humile, accounted for 18% and 14% of the studies, respectively.Most publications investigated effects on native biodiversity at population or community level. Genetic effects and, to a lesser extent, effects on ecosystem services and processes were rarely explored. We review the effects caused by different insect invaders according to: their ecosystem roles, i.e. herbivores, predators, parasites,parasitoids and pollinators; the level of biological organisation at which they occur; and the direct and indirect mechanisms underlying these effects. The best documented effects occur in invasive ants,Eurasian forest herbivores invasive in North America,and honeybees. Impacts may occur through simple trophic interactions such as herbivory, predation or parasitism. Alien species may also affect native species and communities through more complex mechanisms such as competition for resources,disease transmission, apparent competition, or pollination disruption, among others. Finally, some invasive insects, particularly forest herbivores and ants, are known to affect ecosystem processes through cascading effects. We identify biases and gaps in our knowledge of ecological effects of invasive insects and suggest further opportunities for research.

Sexual conflict is a pervasive evolutionary force that can reduce female fitness. Experimental evolution studies in the laboratory might overestimate the importance of sexual conflict because the ecological conditions in such settings typically include only a single species. Here, we experimentally manipulated conspecific male density (high or low) and species composition (sympatric or allopatric) to investigate how ecological conditions affect female survival in a sexually dimorphic insect, the banded demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens). Female survival was strongly influenced by an interaction between male density and species composition. Specifically, at low conspecific male density, female survival increased in the presence of heterospecific males (C. virgo). Behavioral mating experiments showed that interspecific interference competition reduced conspecific male mating success with large females. These findings suggest that reproductive interference competition between con-and heterospecific males might indirectly facilitate female survival by reducing mating harassment from conspecific males. Hence, interspecific competitors can show contrasting effects on the two sexes thereby influencing sexual conflict dynamics. Our results call for incorporation of more ecological realism in sexual conflict research, particularly how local community context and reproductive interference competition between heterospecific males can affect female fitness.

BackgroundThree-North Afforestation Program (TNAP) in China is the largest ecological restoration project on Earth (ongoing from 1978 to 2050), harboring a huge area of newly planted forests, which provides a wealth of goods and ecosystem services that benefit society at levels ranging from region to East Asia. This project-induced carbon (C) sink has been expected to be large, but its size and location remain uncertain.ResultsIn this study, we investigated the changes in the C stocks of biomass, soil C and the C accumulation benefited from the ecological effects in the project areas from 1978 to 2017 within the Three-North regions (4.069 × 106 km2), and evaluated its project-induced C sequestration. Using a combination of remote sensing images, field observations and national forest inventory data, we estimated a total ecosystem sink of 47.06 Tg C per year (1 Tg = 1012 g) increased by the TNAP implementation. Importantly, we first found that the C sink via the ecological effects of this project could contribute to a high proportion up to 15.94%, indicating a critical role of ecological effects in shaping the distribution of C stocks in the protective forests. This finding suggests that it is necessary to explicitly consider carbon sequestration benefited from the ecological effects when estimating C sink and parameterizing C models of the restoration projects in China and globally.ConclusionsOur results update the estimates of C pools in the world's largest ecological restoration project area, demonstrating that this project has substantially contributed to mitigating the climate change.

Wetland vegetation plays a crucial role in wetland conservation policy formulation and global climate change research. This study analyzed remotely sensed images of West Dongting Lake (DTL) Wetland from 1994 to 2020. This wetland is one of the most important wetlands in the world. At the pixel scale, we applied the histogram comparison approach, the range variability analysis (RVA) method, and the structural equation model (SEM) to quantify spatial changes in the hydrological conditions of wetland lakes and the ecological effects of environmental factors (precipitation, temperature, nutrients, water coverage) on vegetation. We propose a climate (C) — hydrological status (S) — vegetation response (R) (CSR) framework to elucidate the propagation relationships between climate, hydrology, and wetland vegetation conditions. The study found that the hydrological degradation promotes the succession of vegetation into the lake, and the distribution is concentrated in the northern Yangtze River inflow area. And the extent of hydrological changes in the West DTL region reached 34.5% during the flood period. In addition, the post-dam period showed a high degree of hydro-ecological failure, accounting for 65% of the total. Within the wetland area, there was a significant negative correlation between water coverage nutrient levels and bare vegetation within the lake area. Nutrient levels were also significantly negatively correlated with wetland vegetation conditions. Rainfall and temperature influence wetland vegetation by affecting the condition of the water body. This research provides valuable insights into managing wetland water resources and ecological restoration under the influence of climate change and human activities and provides a basis for decision-making.

Urban waterfront area planning is a very important part to improve the quality of the urban ecological environment. Research effective planning paths of urban waterfront guided by ecological environment effect can promote landscape diversity index and other indicators are selected as the relevant indicators of the ecological environment which establish comprehensive evaluation index system of urban waterfront public place planning path. Use the fuzzy statistical path to determine the evaluation index weight, establish the waterfront public place planning path evaluation model according to the waterfront public place planning evaluation index weight, and use the model evaluation results to determine the effective planning paths of urban waterfront guided by the ecological environment effect. The experimental results show that the evaluation score of urban waterfront planning path 2 is the highest, which verifies that planning path 2 is an effective planning path of waterfront public places guided by considering the ecological and environmental effects.

ContextSeveral initiatives seek to increase the pace and scale of dry forest restoration and fuels reduction to enhance forest resilience to wildfire and other stressors while improving the quality and reliability of key ecosystem services. Ecological effects models are increasingly used to prioritize these efforts at the landscape-scale based on simulated treatment outcomes.ObjectivesTreatments are often simulated using uniform post-treatment target conditions or proportional changes to baseline forest structure variables, but do not account for the common objective of restoration to mimic the complex forest structure that was present historically which is thought to provide an example of structural conditions that contributed to ecosystem diversity and resilience.MethodsWe simulate spatially homogenous fire hazard reduction treatments along with heterogeneous restoration treatments in dry conifer forests to investigate how spatial complexity affects ecological indicators of (1) forest structural heterogeneity, (2) forest and watershed vulnerability to high-severity fire, and (3) feasibility of future prescribed fire use.ResultsOur results suggest that spatially explicit restoration treatments should produce similar wildfire and prescribed fire outcomes as homogeneous fuels reduction treatments, but with greater forest structural heterogeneity. The lack of strong tradeoffs between ecological objectives suggests the primary benefit of spatially complex treatments is to increase forest structural heterogeneity which may promote biodiversity.ConclusionsWe show that landscape-scale prioritization to maximize ecological benefits can change when spatially complex restoration treatments are modeled. Coupling landscape-scale management simulations and ecological effects models offers flexible decision support for conservation assessment, prioritization, and planning.

Urban morphology significantly affects the ecological effects of urban heat islands, ventilation, and atmospheric pollution. Here, we reveal the mechanisms linking the ecological effects of urban morphology to develop a planning approach for the collaborative optimization of multiple ecological effects. Considering Shenyang, a cold city in northern China, as the study area, a multiple regression model of morphological parameters and ecological effects was established, and the impact of morphological parameters on ecological effects was explored. The results show that the aspect ratio of the streets, building density, and vegetation coverage are sensitive to multiple ecological effects. The inflection point of the ecological effect function curve occurs when the aspect ratio of the building and building density are 0.2 and 0.3, respectively. In addition, for optimal design applications in typical areas of the city, to obtain a Pareto-optimal urban morphology, Grasshopper is used to establish a parametric platform, wherein a genetic algorithm solves the multiple regression equation set. Ultimately, five ecological effect indicators are optimized and show 8.4%, 5.0%, 31.6%, 33.1%, and 12.5% improvement. The study effectively constructs a collaborative optimization planning and design method for multiple ecological effects.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted widespread attention since its implementation, especially the ecological effect. However, the net environmental impact of the BRI on countries along the route has rarely been directly assessed, though nearly 8 years after the BRI was proposed. This study quantitatively estimates the net effect, impact mechanism, and impact heterogeneity of the BRI on the carbon intensity reduction of countries along the route by adopting the difference-in-differences estimator based on propensity score matching, which enables a more convincing causal relationship between the BRI and the countries’ ecological improvement. Research indicates that the BRI has significantly promoted the carbon intensity reduction of countries along the route, which is mainly achieved by boosting the growth of green economy (scale effect), the progress of green technology (technique effect), and the upgrading of industrial structure (composition effect). Moreover, the impact reveals obvious heterogeneity, manifested as the BRI has significantly promoted the carbon intensity reduction of countries with high institutional quality, high-income countries, and countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt, while its impacts on countries with low institutional quality, low-income countries, and countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road are not significant. A series of validity tests further demonstrate the robustness of the estimation.

This paper investigates the relationship between digital finance and carbon emissions and explores the ecological effects of digital finance. Based on a panel data of 256 cities in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of digital finance on carbon emissions and its intrinsic mechanisms. First, digital finance significantly suppresses the intensity of regional carbon emission, and the breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digital support of digital finance together curb regional carbon emissions, with the strongest suppressive effect being the breadth of coverage. In addition, the regression results remain significant after a series of robustness tests. Second, it reveals the potential mechanism of digital finance to curb urban carbon emissions. These mechanisms include the three channels: promoting industrial advancement, green technology innovation, and optimizing labor resource allocation. Third, the heterogeneity test finds that the energy saving and emission reduction effects of digital finance are significantly stronger in non-low-carbon pilot cities with low urbanization rates, confirming the emission reduction utility of digital finance development. Therefore, we should take advantage of digital finance to improve the green development of financial services and adopt diverse policy measures according to local conditions to maximize the ecological effects of digital finance on energy saving and emission reduction. In the context of the development strategy of “carbon peaking and carbon neutral,” this study has some implications for management in developing a regional green development system supported by digital finance.