Books on the topic 'Port ecosystem'

This book illustrates the main results deriving from fourteen studies, dealing with the impact of climate change on different agricultural and natural ecosystems, carried out within the Impact of Climate change On agricultural and Natural Ecosystems (ICONE) project funded by the ALFA Programme of the European Commission. During this project, a common methodology on several Global Change-related matters was developed and shared among members of scientific communities coming from Latin America and Europe. In order to facilitate this interdisciplinary approach, specific mobility programmes, addressed to post-graduate, Master and PhD students, have been organized. The research, led by the research groups, was focused on the study of the impact of climate change on various environmental features (i.e. runoff in hydrological basins, soil erosion and moisture, forest canopy, sugarcane crop, land use, drought, precipitation, etc). Integrated and shared methodologies of atmospheric physics, remote sensing, eco-physiology and modelling have been applied.

Post-glacial aquatic ecosystems in Eurasia and North America, such as the Baltic Sea, evolved in the freshwater, brackish, and marine environments that fringed the melting glaciers. Warming of the climate initiated sea level and land rise and subsequent changes in aquatic ecosystems. Seminal ideas on ancient developing ecosystems were based on findings in Swedish large lakes of species that had arrived there from adjacent glacial freshwater or marine environments and established populations which have survived up to the present day. An ecosystem of the first freshwater stage, the Baltic Ice Lake initially consisted of ice-associated biota. Subsequent aquatic environments, the Yoldia Sea, the Ancylus Lake, the Litorina Sea, and the Mya Sea, are all named after mollusc trace fossils. These often convey information on the geologic period in question and indicate some physical and chemical characteristics of their environment. The ecosystems of various Baltic Sea stages are regulated primarily by temperature and freshwater runoff (which affects directly and indirectly both salinity and nutrient concentrations). Key ecological environmental factors, such as temperature, salinity, and nutrient levels, not only change seasonally but are also subject to long-term changes (due to astronomical factors) and shorter disturbances, for example, a warm period that essentially formed the Yoldia Sea, and more recently the “Little Ice Age” (which terminated the Viking settlement in Iceland).There is no direct way to study the post-Holocene Baltic Sea stages, but findings in geological samples of ecological keystone species (which may form a physical environment for other species to dwell in and/or largely determine the function of an ecosystem) can indicate ancient large-scale ecosystem features and changes. Such changes have included, for example, development of an initially turbid glacial meltwater to clearer water with increasing primary production (enhanced also by warmer temperatures), eventually leading to self-shading and other consequences of anthropogenic eutrophication (nutrient-rich conditions). Furthermore, the development in the last century from oligotrophic (nutrient-poor) to eutrophic conditions also included shifts between the grazing chain (which include large predators, e.g., piscivorous fish, mammals, and birds at the top of the food chain) and the microbial loop (filtering top predators such as jellyfish). Another large-scale change has been a succession from low (freshwater glacier lake) biodiversity to increased (brackish and marine) biodiversity. The present-day Baltic Sea ecosystem is a direct descendant of the more marine Litorina Sea, which marks the beginning of the transition from a primeval ecosystem to one regulated by humans. The recent Baltic Sea is characterized by high concentrations of pollutants and nutrients, a shift from perennial to annual macrophytes (and more rapid nutrient cycling), and an increasing rate of invasion by non-native species. Thus, an increasing pace of anthropogenic ecological change has been a prominent trend in the Baltic Sea ecosystem since the Ancylus Lake.Future development is in the first place dependent on regional factors, such as salinity, which is regulated by sea and land level changes and the climate, and runoff, which controls both salinity and the leaching of nutrients to the sea. However, uncertainties abound, for example the future development of the Gulf Stream and its associated westerly winds, which support the sub-boreal ecosystems, both terrestrial and aquatic, in the Baltic Sea area. Thus, extensive sophisticated, cross-disciplinary modeling is needed to foresee whether the Baltic Sea will develop toward a freshwater or marine ecosystem, set in a sub-boreal, boreal, or arctic climate.

The purpose of this book is based on the principles of precaution and solidarity. Its main objective is to contribute to the activities of prevention, preparedness and response to environmental accidents in port areas, from the ecosystem point of view. Studies on risk perception surveys, on causes and consequences of accidents, and about people´s behavior during these accidents, are useful to enrich risk management programs, and emergency plans. This content was elaborated based on the postgraduate studies in Environmental Sciences at USP/SP, and the post-doctorate in Psychology at PUC/SP. All of them involved analysis of environmental accidents in port areas of São Sebastião and Santos (SP), and risk perception surveys. Adds to this the author's 30-year experience at the environmental agency of São Paulo state (1988/2018). This book comments on 60 accidents, technological and/or influenced by natural phenomena, in the Brazilian ports and abroad, from 1900/2019. There were highlighted topics such as: people´s reactions in dangerous situations, social and environmental consequences, risk perception of effects on human health, and oily fauna, among others. The work concludes that people which are very curious, opportunistic and reckless can amplify the consequences of these episodes. It highlights that cautious, supportive and altruistic people help to minimize them, when they act with knowledge, discernment and goodwill. The investments in prevention and preparedness have helped to reduce the number of accidents and it´s severity, so they should have continuity, in an effort that catastrophic situations do not repeat.

Sea otters are the only fully marine-living mustelid and the smallest extant marine mammal. They have the highest mass-specific metabolic rate of any marine mammal, which coupled with the lack of blubber for insulator and energy storage, relegates them to operating as an extreme income strategist, and appears to have led to a life history tactic in which pregnancy rate is fixed while reproductive success varies with the mother’s body condition at the time of birth, which triggers a decision immediately post-partum to care for or abandon her pup. When resources are limiting, sea otters assume highly individualized diets, which are inherited matrilineally. Sea otters exert strong limiting influences on their macroinvertebrate prey, leading to far reaching indirect effects on the structure and function of coastal marine ecosystems. This chapter reviews and synthesizes the interplay between sea otter energetics and life histories, diet and foraging behaviour, and ecosystem influences.

Chapter 7 reviews the legal framework for the regulation of fishing in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and explains how States have developed additional rules and standards for the conservation of marine living resources at global and regional levels. In particular, the analysis considers the extent to which States have implemented a precautionary and ecosystems approach to fisheries, as well as how they have sought to adopt law-making techniques that overcome the challenges of regulating the open-access resources of the high seas. The chapter covers major developments in the international law of fisheries, including the Code of Conduct on Responsible Fisheries, the Fish Stocks Agreement, the Port State Measures Agreement, and the International Guidelines on Deep-Sea Fisheries. The role of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) in implementing these instruments is considered a key feature of the law-making process. The chapter also addresses the specific regimes that apply to anadromous species, catadromous species, and marine mammals.

The United Nations Compensation Commission (‘UNCC’) is a unique model for liability and compensation of environmental damage in an international context, influencing both jus in bello and jus post bellum. The UNCC provided a legal process that catalogued, assessed, and awarded money to pay to clean and repair the damaged soil, water, coastal ecosystems, and other harms resulting from the 1990–1 Gulf War. Its contributions include integration of environmental law principles into the reparations process; use of advanced techniques for assessment of environmental damage; and use of a multilateral process in a way that balanced confidentiality and transparency. The UNCC environmental programme, viewed as an innovative approach to justice after war, highlights the contribution that the environmental integrity norm can make.

Mountain Ash draws together exciting new findings on the effects of fire and on post-fire ecological dynamics following the 2009 wildfires in the Mountain Ash forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria. The book integrates data on forests, carbon, fire dynamics and other factors, building on 6 years of high-quality, multi-faceted research coupled with 25 years of pre-fire insights. Topics include: the unexpected effects of fires of varying severity on populations of large old trees and their implications for the dynamics of forest ecosystems; relationships between forest structure, condition and age and their impacts on fire severity; relationships between logging and fire severity; the unexpectedly low level of carbon stock losses from burned forests, including those burned at very high severity; impacts of fire at the site and landscape levels on arboreal marsupials; persistence of small mammals and birds on burned sites, including areas subject to high-severity fire, and its implications for understanding how species in this group exhibit post-fire recovery patterns. With spectacular images of the post-fire environment, Mountain Ash will be an important reference for scientists and students with interests in biodiversity, forests and fire.

The book includes materials of young scientists from Russia and the Republic of Abkhazia, revealing various aspects of modern marine and freshwater biology. Abstracts highlight the results of scientific research in the field of population dynamics and genetic differentiation of aquatic organisms, the features of their life cycle. The book present works on the influence of abiotic and anthropogenic environmental factors on the physiological status of aquaculture species. A number of works describes the capabilities of modern research methods applied in marine and freshwater biological studies, such as metabarcoding, "frame" and "rake method" for detecting beach debris, NGS sequencing, and satellite monitoring. In addition, the book reveals the features of the functioning of coastal ecosystems. The book is valuable for young scientists in the field of marine and freshwater biology, water ecology, biotechnology, aquaculture, marine ecology and zoology

Both animal and plant species exhibit adaptive traits related to features of mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs). For plants, the seasonality of the MTC has been an important factor in the evolution of plant phenological traits. Root adaptive traits that improve nutrient extraction from impoverished soils are present within MTC regions, including cluster roots, root nodules, and mycorrhizal symbioses. Fire has been an important driver of plant traits, such as smoke, charate, or heat-induced seed germination or seed release (i.e. serotiny), and post-fire flowering. Adaptive traits in animals include both physiological and behavioural traits. MTC regions have been used in the study of many ecological and evolutionary patterns, particularly as related to organismal adaptations to unique soil and substrates (edaphic communities) and interactions between plants and animals, such as plant–herbivore interactions, plant–pollinator interactions, and plant–seed disperser interactions. These interactions shape many plant and animal characters within MTC regions.

Lizards and snakes (squamate reptiles) are the most diverse vertebrate group in Australia, with approximately 1000 described species, representing about 10% of the global squamate diversity. Squamates are a vital part of the Australian ecosystem, but their conservation has been hindered by a lack of knowledge of their diversity, distribution, biology and key threats. The Action Plan for Australian Lizards and Snakes 2017 provides the first comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of Australian squamates in 25 years. Conservation assessments are provided for 986 species of Australian lizards and snakes (including sea snakes). Over the past 25 years there has been a substantial increase in the number of species and families recognised within Australia. There has also been an increase in the range and magnitude of threatening processes with the potential to impact squamates. This has resulted in an increase in the proportion of the Australian squamate fauna that is considered Threatened. Notably over this period, the first known extinction (post-European settlement) of an Australian reptile species occurred – an indication of the increasingly urgent need for better knowledge and management of this fauna. Six key recommendations are presented to improve the conservation management and plight of Australian squamates. This Action Plan represents an essential resource for research scientists, conservation biologists, conservation managers, environmental consultants, policy makers from Commonwealth and State/Territory governments, and the herpetological community.

Digital nomads are knowledge workers who actively seek a lifestyle of freedom, using technology to perform their work remotely, traveling far and wide, and moving as often as they like. They have left their local coffee shops behind and now proudly post their “office of the day” photos from exotic locales, but what do their lives really look like? This book takes readers into an expatriate digital nomad community in Bali, Indonesia, and presents new manifestations of classic questions about community, creativity, and the role of place in the modern human ecosystem. It explains why digital nomads leave their creative class cities behind, arguing that creative class workers, though successful, often feel that their “world class cities” and desirable jobs are anything but paradise. This book follows nomads’ work transitions into freelancing, entrepreneurship, and remote jobs. Then, it explains how digital nomads create a fluid but intimate place-based community abroad in the company of like-minded others. It shows why and how individuals blend in-person and online activity in their pursuit of community and freedom. This book provides insights into individuals’ efforts to live lives and create work identities that balance freedom, community, and creative fulfillment in the digital age, and it provides insights into a larger cultural discourse about the future of cities, work, and community.

For a work written more than two thousand years ago, in a society in many ways quite alien to our own, Lucretius' De Rerum Natura contains much of striking, even startling, contemporary relevance. This is true, above all, of the fifth book, which begins by putting a strong case against what it has recently become fashionable to call 'intelligent design', and ends with an account of human evolution and the development of society in which the limitations of technological progress form a strong and occasionally explicit subtext. Along the way, the poet touches on many themes which may strike a chord with the twenty-first century reader: the fragility of our ecosystem, the corruption of political life, the futility of consumerism and the desirability of limiting our acquisitive instincts are all highly topical issues for us, as for the poem's original audience. Book V also offers a fascinating introduction to the world-view of the upper-class Roman of the first century BC. This edition (which complements existing Aris and Phillips commentaries on books 3, 4 and 6) will help to make Lucretius' urgent and impassioned argument, and something of his remarkable poetic style, accessible to a wider audience, including those with little or no knowledge of Latin. Both the translation and commentary aim to explain the scientific argument of the book as clearly as possible; and to convey at least some impression of the poetic texture of Lucretius' Latin.

Os discursos sobre a crise do jornalismo não datam de ontem, nem irromperam na era digital. Não deixa de ser significativo que a crítica acima reproduzida tenha sido formulada há mais de 130 anos pelo jornalista e romancista Emile Zola, que viria a assinar “J’accuse” (L’Aurore, 13 de janeiro de 1898), um dos mais célebres textos da história do periodismo. Nos finais do séc. XIX e inícios do séc. XX, a imprensa escrita francesa vai de vento em popa, contabilizando cerca de 600 diários, dos quais nove dezenas sediados em Paris (Kalifa, 2011). Já há algumas décadas que o jornalismo se tornara um negócio lucrativo. Artigos de opinião e debates de cariz político cedem progressivamente lugar a conteúdos suscetíveis de atraírem um maior número de leitores, incluindo os menos escolarizados, potenciando um aumento de receitas publicitárias. Por seu turno, nos Estados Unidos, o periodismo de informação impusera-se como paradigma dominante a partir dos anos 1880-1910, através da dissociação entre os factos e a interpretação dos mesmos (Brin et al., 2004). De um lado, uma ética da objetividade, consolidada por meio de géneros como a entrevista e a reportagem. Do outro, a busca do lucro por intermédio de virulentas controvérsias, alimentadas por “um fluxo vertiginoso de informação superabundante”, segundo a expressão de Zola. Entre muitas outras mudanças, o último século foi marcado por dois conflitos mundiais, a segmentação do globo em campos ideológicos e reconfigurações identitárias, o recurso à propaganda e à desinformação em doses massivas, a transformação dos media (jornal, radio, cinema, televisão, internet) em indústrias culturais intrinsecamente vinculadas à cultura de massas ou ainda a afirmação de uma “mitologia da felicidade individual” (Morin, 1962), num mundo cada vez mais desinstitucionalizado e dessocializado (Dubet & Martuccelli, 1998). Desde então, a produção académica tem vindo a debruçar-se – a partir de abordagens concetuais diferenciadas – sobre a influência dos discursos mediáticos na “construção social da realidade” (Berger & Luckmann, 1966) ou na consolidação dos “imaginários” (Castoriadis, 1975), no âmbito das esferas pública e privada, mas também sobre os contextos socioculturais em que esses mesmos discursos emergem (Hall, 1973; Goffman, 1974) e os eventuais efeitos suscitados junto de audiências e/ou públicos mais ou menos (in)conscientes e (in)ativos (Lazarsfeld & Katz, 1955; Klapper, 1960; Adorno, 1963; Morley, 1980). Como aconteceu com os seus predecessores, o recurso cada vez mais generalizado a um novo media – a partir da última década do século XX – deu origem a um conjunto de profecias apocalíticas e outras tantas utopias comunicacionais. Destarte, coloca-se a seguinte questão: “de que modo a Internet afeta o jeito de nos relacionarmos uns com os outros, de debatermos, trabalharmos, nos movermos, nos cultivarmos, sermos militantes, consumirmos, cuidarmos de nós, nos divertirmos, etc.?” (Beuscart et al, 2019: 8). As mudanças experienciadas nos derradeiros vinte anos replicam alguns dos desafios que, invariavelmente, caraterizaram os tempos áureos da imprensa, do cinema, da rádio e da televisão – embora hoje com uma intensidade inédita –, não deixando ainda de suscitar novos questionamentos. Em virtude da eclosão de um singular ecossistema mediático, o modelo tradicional de produção, difusão e receção do jornalismo impresso tem vindo a experimentar um complexo processo de reconfiguração de contornos ainda imprecisos, do ponto de vista profissional, sociopolítico, cultural, económico, técnico, ético e jurídico. Da reflexão sobre estas temáticas, levada a cabo no Centro de Estudos Filosófico-Humanísticos (UCP) e junto dos estudantes de Licenciatura em Ciências da Comunicação e do Mestrado em Comunicação Digital, nasceu o congresso internacional Repensar a imprensa no ecossistema digital, que teve lugar na Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Sociais (UCP), em Braga, de 3 a 5 de Julho de 2019, com a participação de meia centena de académicos oriundos da Europa, América e Ásia. O título inspira-se do relatório Presse et numérique. L’invention d’un nouvel ecosystème, encomendado pelo Ministério francês da Cultura e da Comunicação ao investigador Jean-Marie Charon. A noção de ecossistema aponta para uma configuração de cariz horizontal, para um sistema de atores – plurais na sua história e organização, nos conteúdos das suas atividades e da sua produção – e a sua relação (in)direta com o(s) público(s). Alude ainda à complexidade das interações em jogo, num contexto tantas vezes de competição, outras de solidariedade, e de tempos e espaços colaborativos. Há muito que um tal ecossistema deixou de ser de âmbito meramente nacional, fomentando desafios de natureza transnacional, transdisciplinar e transmediática (Charon, 2015).

Latin America and the Caribbean, unlike other regions, is still quite young demographically: people over age 60 make up around 11% of the total population. However, the region is expected to experience the fastest rate of population aging in the world over the coming decades. This projected growth of the elderly population raises challenges related to pensions, health, and long-term care. At the same time, it opens up numerous business opportunities in different sectorshousing, tourism, care, and transportation, for examplethat could generate millions of new jobs. These opportunities are termed the “silver economy,” which has the potential to be one of the drivers of post-pandemic economic recovery. Importantly, women play key roles in many areas of this market, as noted in the first report published by the IDB on this subject (Okumura et al., 2020). This report maps the actors whose products or services are intended for older people and examines silver economy trends in the region by sector: health, long-term care, finance, housing, transportation, job market, education, entertainment, and digitization. The mapping identified 245 actors whose products or services are intended for older people, and it yielded three main findings. The first is that the majority of the actors (40%) operate in the health and care sectors. The prevalence of these sectors could be due to the fact that they are made up of many small players, and it could also suggest a still limited role of older people in active consumption, investment, and the job market in the region. The second finding is that 90% of the silver economy actors identified by the study operate exclusively in their countries of origin, and that Mexico has the most actors (47), followed by the Southern Cone countriesBrazil, Chile, and Argentinawhich have the regions highest rates of population aging. The third finding is that private investment dominates the silver economy ecosystem, as nearly 3 out of every 4 actors offering services to the elderly population are for-profit enterprises. The sectors and markets of the silver economy differ in size and degree of maturity. For example, the long-term care sector, which includes residential care settings, is the oldest and has the largest number of actors, while sectors like digital, home automation, and cohousing are still emerging. Across all sectors, however, there are innovative initiatives that hold great potential for growth. This report examines the main development trends of the silver economy in the region and presents examples of initiatives that are already underway. The health sector has a wealth of initiatives designed to make managing chronic diseases easier and to prevent and reduce the impact of functional limitations through practices that encourage active aging. In the area of long term careone of the most powerful drivers of job creationinitiatives to train human resources and offer home care services are flourishing. The financial sector is beginning to meet a wide range of demands from older people by offering unique services such as remittances or property management, in addition to more traditional pensions, savings, and investment services. The housing sector is adapting rapidly to the changes resulting from population aging. This shift can be seen, for example, in developments in the area of cohousing or collaborative housing, and in the rise of smart homes, which are emerging as potential solutions. In the area of transportation, specific solutions are being developed to meet the unique mobility needs of older people, whose economic and social participation is on the rise. The job market offers older people opportunities to continue contributing to society, either by sharing their experience or by earning income. The education sector is developing solutions that promote active aging and the ongoing participation of older people in the regions economic and social life. Entertainment services for older people are expanding, with the emergence of multiple online services. Lastly, digitization is a cross-cutting and fundamental challenge for the silver economy, and various initiatives in the region that directly address this issue were identified. Additionally, in several sectors we identified actors with a clear focus on gender, and these primarily provide support to women. Of a total of 245 actors identified by the mapping exercise, we take a closer look at 11 different stories of the development of the silver economy in the region. The featured organizations are RAFAM Internacional (Argentina), TeleDx (Chile), Bonanza Asistencia (Costa Rica), NudaProp (Uruguay), Contraticos (Costa Rica), Maturi (Brazil), Someone Somewhere (Mexico), CONAPE (Dominican Republic), Fundación Saldarriaga Concha (Colombia), Plan Ibirapitá (Uruguay), and Canitas (Mexico). These organizations were chosen based on criteria such as how innovative their business models are, the current size and growth potential of their initiatives, and their impact on society. This study is a first step towards mapping the silver economy in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the hope is to broaden the scope of this mapping exercise through future research and through the creation of a community of actors to promote the regional integration of initiatives in this field.