the paper is concerning preliminary survey of qaradaq region of eastern azerbaijan in view of ecological, archaeological and ethnographic perspectives. the region under study is poor in fertile soil, underpopulated settlements and nomadic ubas being its dominant landscape. indeed, archaeological investigations show the lack of considerable archaeological records up to the iron age. the main sub...

Tropical delta regions are at risk of multiple threats including relative sea level rise and human alterations, making them more and more vulnerable to extreme floods, storms, surges, salinity intrusion, and other hazards which could also increase in magnitude and frequency with a changing climate. Given the environmental vulnerability of tropical deltas, understanding the interlinkages between...

Growing concerns over the potential for unintended, adverse consequences of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in the environment have generated new research initiatives focused on understanding the ecological effects of ENPs. Almost nothing is currently known about the fate and transport of ENPs in environmental waters, soils, and sediments or about the biological impacts of ENPs in natural envir...

This study aims to assess the effect of grazing intensity on vegetation structure, soil nutrient concentrations and soil physical properties. The study was carried out in steppe rangelands of Saveh, Markazi province, Iran. Four sites with four grazing intensities including very high, high, moderate and non-grazed with the same ecological conditions were selected. To study various vegetation and...

The impacts of introduced or overabundant large herbivores are a concern for the conservation of forest plant communities and the sustainability of ecosystem function. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are considered ecologically overabundant in much of North America. Previous work suggests that impacts of deer overabundance are broadly negative and are consequently degrading forests a...

Climate change is already producing ecological, social, and economic impacts on fisheries, and these effects are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude in the future. Fisheries governance and regulations can alter socio-ecological resilience to climate change impacts via harvest control rules and incentives driving fisher behavior, yet there are no syntheses or conceptual frameworks fo...

Recently, Borja et al. (2008b) published an overview of integrationing and status of the ecosystem, and have been widely pertive tools and methods for assessing ecological integrity in estuarine and coastal systems worldwide. This contribution collates the presentations and ideas debated among the attendees of the special session on ‘Integrative tools and methods in assessing ecological integri...

Roads are pervasive features of modern landscapes and have major impacts on air, land, and water quality. The United States has >6.2 million km of public roads used by >200 million vehicles (National Research Council [NRC]1997). Road corridors (road plus maintained parallel strips) cover 1% of the United States (NRC 1997) but their direct environmental impacts extend to 20% of the land surface ...