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Basic Chemical Hazards to Wildlife
Published in Jack Daugherty, Assessment of Chemical Exposures, 2020
Forests, dominated by trees and other woody vegetation, occupy an extensive area of the earth’s surface. Left alone, forests are self-regulated, remaining relatively fixed ecosystems over long periods of time. Climate, soil, and the topography determine the dominant trees of a forest, and associated shrubs and herbs. Forest floor vegetation is influenced by the larger and taller plants, but the low vegetation affects the organic composition of the soil. Disturbances, such as forest fires or timber harvesting, force a shift to another forest type. Left undisturbed, ecological succession eventually results in a climax forest community. Eight general types of forest are classified on the basis of leaf characteristics and climate: temperate deciduous, deciduous monsoon, tropical savanna, northern coniferous, tropical rain, temperate evergreen, temperate rain, and tropical scrub forests.
Water Ecology
Published in Frank R. Spellman, Handbook of Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Operations, 2020
time. Succession usually occurs in an orderly, predictable manner. It involves the entire system. The science of ecology has developed to such a point that ecologists are now able to predict several years in advance what will occur in a given ecosystem. For example, scientists know that if a burned-out forest region receives light, water, nutrients, and an influx or immigration of animals and seeds, it will eventually develop into another forest through a sequence of steps or stages. Ecologists recognize two types of ecological succession: primary and secondary. The particular type that takes place depends on the condition at a particular site at the beginning of the process.
The Restoration of the Caledonian Forest and the Rights of Nature
Published in Cameron La Follette, Chris Maser, Sustainability and the Rights of Nature in Practice, 2019
The planting of a tree,22 or the protection of a naturally occurring seedling so that it can grow, may seem like a simple and basic act, but it has profound and long-lasting consequences. It is a key step in stimulating the re-establishment of natural habitats, which many other species benefit from, and in reinstating crucial ecological processes, which have not been functioning in Scotland for at least the past two centuries. Those processes include: nutrient cycling and soil enrichment (e.g. through nitrogen fixation), ecological succession, predator-prey dynamics and natural disturbance regimes.
Protecting human health and the environment against siloxanes: The role and effectiveness of wastewater treatment technologies
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2023
Andres E. Ortiz-Ardila, Juan D. Restrepo, Largus T. Angenent, Joseph G. Usack, Rodrigo A. Labatut
The belief that biological approaches are ineffective in treating PDMS and VOSiCs is currently being challenged (Abatzoglou & Boivin, 2009; Gao et al., 2017; Muñoz et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2019). Those against biological approaches for VOSiC removal typically cite these constraints: (1) mass transfer limitations between gas/liquid phases (Popat & Deshusses, 2008); (2) insurmountable recalcitrance due to steric hindrances (Gatidou et al., 2016); and (3) high activation energy required for bond cleavage (Soreanu et al., 2011). Another drawback in the case of open-culture biological systems is the long startup period needed to establish a suitable and stable microbial consortium (microbiome). These microbiomes are also susceptible to dynamic changes that are triggered by environmental perturbations, ecological succession, species adaptation, or evolutionary drift. This dynamic and unpredictable behavior has contributed to the perception that biological approaches are less reliable than physicochemical approaches. Others consider microbial diversity and dynamics their greatest features because they allow the microbiome to adapt to various applications and environmental conditions (Baud-Grasset & Palla, 2000; Werner et al., 2011).
Native plants facilitate vegetation succession on amended and unamended mine tailings
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2022
Kimber E. Munford, Asma Asemaninejad, Nathan Basiliko, Nadia C. S. Mykytczuk, Susan Glasauer, Samantha McGarry, Shaun A. Watmough
The growth of a diverse array of plants at all sites in the present study suggests that minimal treatment (ex. lime only) might be required to speed up colonization of plants in acidic nutrient poor tailings. Tree planting at high stem densities is labor-intensive, costly, and may require long-term maintenance. Given that for many legacy sites, intensive planting is not possible due to remoteness or lack of resources, and that there are hundreds of legacy tailings sites across the world, many of which are acidic, it is imperative to find effective means of facilitating revegetation on these sites with minimal need for maintenance or intervention after planting. In countries where remediation budgets are constrained or there are legacy impacts of large-scale industrialization efforts, such as China, studies like ours show that the processes of colonization in acidic tailings can occur naturally, facilitated by pioneer species tolerant to site conditions. While amendments may accelerate tailings amelioration processes, planting coniferous trees does not appear to promote succession on these sites. Further field studies are necessary to investigate species that may be able to facilitate ecological succession at mine tailings sites.
Role of uncertainties in protecting ecological resources during remediation and restoration
Published in Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 2021
Joanna Burger, Michael Gochfeld, Amoret Bunn, Brian Looney, Christian Jeitner
Protection of human and ecological health during remediation and restoration requires planning, management, and conceptualization of the overall cleanup process. Understanding the uncertainties might contribute to determinations of the timing of particular remediation actions. Data suggest that it is critical to consider ecological and physical uncertainties that shift throughout the cleanup process and support an end state for the action. A variety of uncertainties have typically been addressed in ecological risk assessment (Suter 1993), but basically fall into two categories: variability and “knowability” (FAO/WHO 1995). Biological systems are inherently subject to variation over time, and from place to place, due to the organisms themselves including age, gender, and genetics, as well as the variations surrounding populations and communities within ecosystems, such as temporal, spatial, or individual. In many cases, this variability may be measured or estimated and parameters used in quantitative risk assessments (Morgan et al. 1985). Other uncertainties arise from determining which variables are important when, and how these may interact, leading to uncertainties, many of which cannot be identified or modeled, and lead to noise in trying to predict outcomes such as predicting the end state. Even the classical process of ecological succession, by which species colonize a barren area, first with pioneer species that prepare the landscape for more rooted species, and eventually maturing into what ecologists would identify as the climax vegetation, given the local climate and geomorphology is not predictable (Moore et al. 2009). Disturbance and change are widespread normal features of ecosystems, leading to additional uncertainties or variability in the climax vegetation (Moore et al. 2009).