Academic literature on the topic 'Neoecology'

As paleoecologists we often claim that our science is relevant to conservation, but relatively few management plans are steered by paleoecological insights. One of our common justifications that paleoecology should feature in conservation is to determine what is ‘natural’. Intergenerational perceptions of naturalness are shaped by our experiences of ecosystems continuously and progressively influenced by human-induced stresses – the concept of shifting baselines. Those stresses have been present since the last ice-age in the tropical Andes, when fire regimes and megafaunal extinctions pre-dated the onset of the Holocene. Whereas human-induced ecological change is only evident for 200 years on the Galapagos Islands. But both instances are consistent that they show that low numbers of people, probably not even living in permanent settlements wrought lasting ecological changes and extinctions. Cascading effects of tortoise loss were seen on Galapagos vegetation that directly or indirectly led to extinctions among endemic plants. Making paleoecology relevant to conservation requires finding levels of taxonomic and temporal resolution that are relevant to land managers and providing concrete recommendations for restoration.

The great bulk of the angiosperm fossil record consists of isolated fossil leaves that preserve abundant shape and venation (leaf architectural) information but are difficult to identify because they are not attached to other plant organs. Thus, poor taxonomic knowledge has tempered the tremendous potential of fossil leaves for constructing finely resolved records of biodiversity through time, extinction and recovery, past climate change and biotic response, paleoecology, and plant-animal associations. Moreover, paleoecological and paleoclimatic interpretations of fossil leaves are in great need of new approaches. Recent work is rapidly increasing the scientific value of fossil angiosperm leaves through advances in traditional paleobotanical reconstruction, phylogenetic understanding of both leaf architecture and the response of leaf shape to climate, quantitative plant ecology using measurable, correlatable leaf traits, and improved understanding of insect leaf-feeding damage. These emerging areas offer many novel opportunities to link paleoecology and neoecology. Increased collaboration across traditionally separate research areas is critical to continued success.

The specialization of agriculture, which has long been regarded as an economic category, is today gaining a new meaning - environmental content, becoming a link between human nutritional needs and the ability of natural ecosystems to address these problems. Purpose. To substantiate the scientific need to "fit in" the specialization of agriculture in the dynamics of natural ecosystems on the complex path of their transformation into agroecosystems. Results. The process of interaction between nature and society (movement) in planetary space-time is represented as two of its main components - nature and society. One of the main causes of the environmental problem lies in the different speeds of development of nature and society. The result of this difference is necessarily "delayed" in the geographical space. Such "prints" were found in the Kharkiv region, where the dynamics of agroecosystems were studied. Because the boundaries of agro-ecosystems are constructive, that is, they are constantly changing, they form their spatial entities, different from administrative boundaries. But in natural ecosystems, adaptation mechanisms are much more sophisticated, primarily because of the multilevel nature of natural communities as opposed to the monoculture practiced in agroecosystems. Adaptive agroecosystems are widely used to solve the environmental problems of modern agriculture, in which widespread consideration, full steam crop rotation, biodiversity increases, manure is completely utilized, biomethods are applied. Actually, adaptation is the search for such forms of agriculture that would meet the natural capabilities of a certain area. Conclusions. In the course of noospherogenesis, the species "Homo Sapiens" has formed its own, no less natural, ecosystem - an agroecosystem that has undergone a complex evolution. Given that agriculture is the closest in terms of material-energy relations to the natural ecosystems of the industry, the search for such forms of management (specialization) that would meet the natural capabilities of a particular area is probably the main task, the solution of which will promote a balanced use of the agro-sphere. From the point of view of the theory and methodology of environmental science, noospheric ecosystems, among which the closest to the natural ones are agroecosystems, have already been formed and can become the object of research that will bring neo-ecology known to domestic ecologists, but not generally observed.

Dans une période de changements climatiques et de destructions des zones humides, l'étude des tourbières apparaît cruciale du fait de la riche biodiversité qu’elles hébergent et des archives sédimentaires et biologiques qu’elles constituent. La dynamique des tourbières peut s'étudier à travers plusieurs disciplines et sur des échelles de temps variées. Afin de traiter cette complexité, les qualités bioindicatrices de la végétation et des arthropodes ont été comparées. En néoécologie, nous avons étudié les effets paysagers en appliquant une approche multimétrique sur les araignées et les plantes. Nous avons observé, à travers la diversité taxonomique et fonctionnelle, alpha et bêta ainsi que les ordres de diversité de Hill, les reponses de la diversité des tourbières. Une grande complémentarité des taxons et des métriques a été mise en évidence. En paléoécologie, le potentiel des Acariens Oribatides comme indicateurs de reconstruction climatique a été étudié. Cela a été réalisé en croisant les assemblages actuels d'oribates avec le climat actuel afin d’évaluer les erreurs de reconstruction. Cela a permit de souligner le manque de données disponibles sur les oribates pour ce genre de methode. Enfin, nous avons étudié la dynamique des habitats et du climat au cours des deux derniers millénaires à travers l’analyse paléoécologique d’une tourbière de Saint-Pierre en croisant les oribates, les macrofossiles végétaux et le pollen. Une dynamique de variation hydrologique et climatique conformes aux spécificités régionales a été observée. Cette approche pluridisciplinaire a permis d'accroître les connaissances sur la dynamique des tourbières et d’évaluer et renforcer les indicateurs utilisés, métriques comme taxons, en fonction des hypothèses testées
At a time of climatic change and destruction of wetlands , studying peatbogs is essential given the rich biodiversity they harbor and the sedimentary and biological archives they constitute. Peat bog dynamics can be studied through various disciplines and time scales. To address this complexity, the bioindication quality of spiders and plants was compared. In neoecology we investigated the effects of landscape through spiders and plants comparison in a multimetrics approach. We observed through taxonomic and functional diversity, alpha and beta as well as Hill’s diversity orders, the specific responses of peat bogs’ diversity. A high degree of complementarity between taxa and metrics was highlighted. In paleoecology, we investigated the oribatid mites potential as potential indicators for climate reconstruction. This was achieved by crossing current oribatid assemblages with current climate to assess the reconstruction errors, and eventually higlighted how the limited available oribatid data was a for such a method. Lastly we investigated the habitat and climate dynamics over the last two millennia through multitaxa paleoecological analysis of a peat bog in Saint-Pierre crossing oribatid mites, vegetation macrofossils and pollen. This highlighted a hydrologic and climatic dynamic that match regional specificities. This pluridisplinary approach has allowed to increase the knowledge of peat bog dynamics and to evaluate and strengthen the indicators used to this end, both taxa and metrics according to the tested hypotheses