Spreading of Antarctic Bottom Water in the Atlantic Ocean

This paper describes the transport of bottom water from its source region in the Weddell Sea through the abyssal channels of the Atlantic Ocean. The research brings together the recent observations and historical data. A strong flow of Antarctic Bottom Water through the Vema Channel is analyzed. The mean speed of the flow is 30 cm/s. A temperature increase was found in the deep Vema Channel, which has been observed for 30 years already. The flow of bottom water in the northern part of the Brazil Basin splits. Part of the water flows through the Romanche and Chain fracture zones. The other part flows to the North American Basin. Part of the latter flow propagates through the Vema Fracture Zone into the Northeast Atlantic. The properties of bottom water in the Kane Gap and Discovery Gap are also analyzed

The crown pearl: a draft genome assembly of the European freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758)

Since historical times, the inherent human fascination with pearls turned the freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758) into a highly valuable cultural and economic resource. Although pearl harvesting in M. margaritifera is nowadays residual, other human threats have aggravated the species conservation status, especially in Europe. This mussel presents a myriad of rare biological features, e.g. high longevity coupled with low senescence and Doubly Uniparental Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA, for which the underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly known. Here, the first draft genome assembly of M. margaritifera was produced using a combination of Illumina Paired-end and Mate-pair approaches. The genome assembly was 2.4 Gb long, possessing 105,185 scaffolds and a scaffold N50 length of 288,726 bp. The ab initio gene prediction allowed the identification of 35,119 protein-coding genes. This genome represents an essential resource for studying this species' unique biological and evolutionary features and ultimately will help to develop new tools to promote its conservation.A.G.-d.-S. was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the grants SFRH/BD/137935/2018, EF (CEECIND/00627/2017) and MLL (2020.03608.CEECIND). This research was developed under ConBiomics: the missing approach for the Conservation of freshwater Bivalves Project No. NORTE-01-0145-FEDER- 030286, co-financed by COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Union through the ERDF, and by FCT through national funds. Additional strategic funding was provided by FCT UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020. Authors’ interaction and writing of the article was promoted and facilitated by the COST Action CA18239: CONFREMU—Conservation of freshwater mussels: a pan- European approach.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Meeting places and social capital supporting rural landscape stewardship : A Pan-European horizon scanning

Achieving sustainable development as an inclusive societal process in rural landscapes, and sustainability in terms of functional green infrastructures for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services, are wicked challenges. Competing claims from various sectors call for evidence-based adaptive collaborative governance. Leveraging such approaches requires maintenance of several forms of social interactions and capitals. Focusing on Pan-European regions with different environmental histories and cultures, we estimate the state and trends of two groups of factors underpinning rural landscape stewardship, namely, (1) traditional rural landscape and novel face-to-face as well as virtual fora for social interaction, and (2) bonding, bridging, and linking forms of social capital. We applied horizon scanning to 16 local landscapes located in 18 countries, representing Pan-European social-ecological and cultural gradients. The resulting narratives, and rapid appraisal knowledge, were used to estimate portfolios of different fora for social interactions and forms of social capital supporting landscape stewardship. The portfolios of fora for social interactions were linked to societal cultures across the European continent: “self-expression and secular-rational values” in the northwest, “Catholic” in the south, and “survival and traditional authority values” in the East. This was explained by the role of traditional secular and religious local meeting places. Virtual internet-based fora were most widespread. Bonding social capitals were the strongest across the case study landscapes, and linking social capitals were the weakest. This applied to all three groups of fora. Pan-European social-ecological contexts can be divided into distinct clusters with respect to the portfolios of different fora supporting landscape stewardship, which draw mostly on bonding and bridging forms of social capital. This emphasizes the need for regionally and culturally adapted approaches to landscape stewardship, which are underpinned by evidence-based knowledge about how to sustain green infrastructures based on both forest naturalness and cultural landscape values. Sharing knowledge from comparative studies can strengthen linking social capital

BIOTIC DIVERSITY OF KARELIA: CONDITIONS OF FORMATION, COMMUNITIES AND SPECIES

The monograph generalises vast data characterising the diversity of the biota in Russian Karelia. The data pool includes both materials of long-term studies, and new data collected in 1997–2000 within the Russian-Finnish project “Inventory and studies of biological diversity in Republic of Karelia”. The volume is composed of four interrelated chapters. Chapter one provides a detailed account of the climatic, geological, geomorphological, hydrological and soil conditions in which the regional biota has been forming. Chapter two describes and evaluates the diversity of forest, mire and meadow communities, and the third chapter details the terrestrial biota at the species level (vascular plants, mosses, aphyllophoroid fungi, lichens, mammals, birds, insects). A special section is devoted to the flora and fauna of aquatic ecosystems (algae, zooplankton, periphyton, macrozoobenthos, fishes). Wide use is made of various zoning approaches based on biodiversity-related criteria. Current status of the regional biota, including its diversity in protected areas, is analysed with elements of the human impact assessment. A concise glossary of the terms used is annexed. This is an unprecedentally multi-faceted review, at least for the taiga zone of European Russia. The volume offers extensive reference materials for researchers in a widest range of ecological and biological fields, including graduate and post-graduate students. The monograph is also available in Russian

Blue Economy and Resilient Development: Natural Resources, Shipping, People, and Environment

This book is a pivotal publication that seeks to address contemporary challenges to the blue economy in view of the growth in exploration and utilization of natural resources, transport connectivity, effects of climate change, sustainable fisheries management, food security, and social and economic issues of human well-being in coastal areas. Coastal territories and water areas are changing at an unprecedented pace in ways that fundamentally affect ecosystems, people, biodiversity, and sustainability. Such changes are driven primarily by rapid social and economic developments, economic disparities between countries, the internationalization of production and value chains, and industrialization. In this context, this publication supplements the existing literature by summoning political, economic, environmental, and social factors that influence various dimensions of the sustainable development of blue economy, as well as translating the findings into workable approaches and policies for the benefit of the economic actors, people, and the environment

Pan-Arctic Report, Gender Equality in the Arctic, Phase 3

Gender equality in the Arctic is highly relevant to the agenda and role of the Arctic Council (the Council) and its Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG), which have emphasised gender equality in previous projects and initiatives. The importance of issues of gender and diversity has become increasingly evident, the latest example being Iceland’s emphasis on gender issues during its Arctic Council Chairmanship. Examples of previous work and valuable input in this field under the Council’s auspices include: the 2002 Taking Wing Conference in Inari that focused on the themes of women and work, gender and self-determination among Indigenous Peoples, and violence against women; the first edition of the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR) in 2004, which included a chapter on gender; and the second edition of the AHDR, published in 2014, in which gender issues were mainstreamed into all chapters as appropriate

The Ethnobiology of Wild Foods

The ethnobiology of wild foods has received increasing attention within the scientific arena in recent years, since many traditional foodways around the world are still based on some local wild plant, fungal, and animal ingredients, as well as their food products and culinary preparations. Moreover, wild foods have often been the subject of valorization processes at local and regional levels, with complex outcomes in terms of socio-economic impact. Wild foods around the globe therefore urgently further need to be in-depth documented and evaluated, not only for their biological, chemical, technological, nutritional, and pharmacological aspects, but especially in their social, cultural, and religious significance. This reprint bridges the gap between the biological and social scientific aspects of wild foods

The 'greening' of Ukraine: An assessment of the political significance of the Ukrainian green movement

This thesis analyses the emergence, development and political significance of the Ukrainian Green Movement - Zelenyi Svit - and the Green Party of Ukraine - Partiia Zelenykh Ukrainy (PZU) - in the Soviet/post-Soviet context of political change. The emergence of the Ukrainian Greens is studied in relation to Soviet eco-culture, rooted in pre-Revolutionary thinking on the environment and which continued to exist as a sub-culture during the Soviet period. It is argued that this eco - culture not only contributed to the emergence of the Ukrainian Green Movement, but that it also provided it with a theoretical framework and with already experienced activists. However, having not only a positive impact on the emergence of the movement, this current of thought also facilitated Zelenyi Svit's split into two groups in December 1994. All the same, this thesis suggests that eco-culture may play a significant role in creating awareness of the environment in Ukraine, as it is not perceived with the same amount of scepticism and suspicion as 'imported' thinking on the environment generated in the West. Besides, there is an enormous interest in Ukraine in the past. The Greens could benefit from this interest by highlighting the environmental traditions of the past, while combining them with contemporary international environmental thought, rather than focusing entirely on the latter. The study of Zelenyi Svit and PZU more generally is combined with an in-depth analysis of the campaign against expansion of the South-Ukrainian Energy Complex, conducted by the Nikolaev oblast Zelenyi Mir starting in 1988 and continuing to this day. This thesis covers the period 1988 to 1994. Research on Zelenyi Svit and PZU was conducted through in-depth interviewing, observation, archival research and a survey of several Ukrainian newspapers during three field-trips to Ukraine. A survey was also conducted among district and regional groups of Zelenyi Svit in June 1994. This thesis represents the first attempt at studying the Ukrainian Greens in-depth. Most of the sources and information appearing in Chapters Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven are therefore new. Some attention is also given to the similarities/differences between the Ukrainian Greens and similar movements in the West. It is argued that although in some respects similar to the latter in that they opposed the existing economic and political system of their country (i.e. the USSR) as being anti-environmental from relatively early on in their campaign, there were also similarities with Green Movements in developed countries, which tend to campaign for the livelihood of their local communities and thus the very existence of their people. In Ukraine, the Chernobyl accident, nuclear power and extensive chemical pollution were seen as threats not only to the country's environment but also to the very existence of the people inhabiting this environment. Thus, to the Greens their campaigns were not only aimed at reducing pollution, but were also presented as a struggle for survival. Although the emphasis of this thesis is on the emergence of and internal developments within Zelenyi Svit and PZU, the interaction between the two and on their campaigns, considerable attention is also given to the Ukrainian Communist Party and its changing attitude towards the environment in general and nuclear power in particular. The relationship between the CPU and the Greens is also studied in-depth. By referring extensively to correspondence between the CPU and the CPSU now available in the Ukrainian State Archives for Public Movements and not yet published, it is argued that the CPU relatively shortly after the Chernobyl accident started to voice its concern over and opposition to the CPSU's plans to expand nuclear power in Ukraine, providing a number of arguments for not doing so. It is commonly argued that the Greens successfully pressurised the CPU and the CPSU into making concessions on the nuclear power issue. In reality, the situation was far more complex: although the CPU could not openly side with the Greens and did not want to be seen as 'giving in' to too many of their demands, it was able to exploit widespread support for the Greens to support its requests vis-a-vis 'Moscow'. Thus, it seems more plausible to conclude that the two benefited mutually from one another