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Daisyworld is a reduced-order ecological model that establishes biological homeostasis of the global biota and environment. This work proposes a novel adaptive Daisyworld by considering the classical environment–life interactions, incorporating devastation, greenhouse gas effects and mutations. Climate variability is described by means of the external stimuli that represent Sun’s luminosity. Different mutation mechanisms are investigated considering the temperature-induced changes that define the gray daisies. Either deterministic or random aspects are of concern while incorporating chance on the biota interactions. Numerical simulations are performed using a nonlinear dynamics perspective. Distinct scenarios are of concern while evaluating the different mutation mechanisms and conditions. Complex dynamics are investigated showing the chance and chaos related to the Daisyworld behavior.

The ecological suitability evaluation of low-carbon urban planning is affected by the irregular distribution of ground buildings, resulting in low evaluation accuracy. Therefore, the ecological suitability evaluation method of low-carbon urban planning based on big data technology is proposed. The joint feature detection method of building and block data is used to realize visual remote sensing detection of low-carbon urban spatial planning. The collected remote sensing images of low-carbon urban spatial planning are vertically connected, spatially embedded, vertically stacked, and spatial planning parameters are extracted. The edge contour detection and feature clustering analysis of the remote sensing images of low-carbon urban spatial planning are carried out. It realizes the irregular point marking of the low-carbon city ecological adaptability spatial image and the fusion processing of the multi-spectral image and the full-color image, so as to generate the change detection map of the low-carbon city planning ecological suitability evaluation, and realize the optimization evaluation of the low-carbon city ecological adaptability space through the distribution of the detection map. The experiment shows that the accuracy of ecological suitability evaluation of low-carbon city planning using this method is high, and the model parameter detection effect of urban building space matching is good, which improves the evaluation ability of ecological suitability space of low-carbon city.

Ecologists have been studying different computational models in the classification of ecological species. In this paper, we intend to take advantages of variant deep-learning models, including LeNet, AlexNet, VGG models, residual neural network, and inception models, to classify ecological datasets, such as bee wing and butterfly. Since the datasets contain relatively small data samples and unbalanced samples in each class, we apply data augmentation and transfer learning techniques. Furthermore, newly designed inception residual and inception modules are developed to enhance feature extraction and increase classification rates. As comparing against currently available deep-learning models, experimental results show that the proposed inception residual block can avoid the vanishing gradient problem and achieve a high accuracy rate of 92%.

The study focuses on two aspects of the symmetry in plants. The first one concerns the morphology of pine leaves, which could be, from the point of view of symmetry, left (L), right (D) and symmetrical (S). The second one concerns phyllotaxis, perceived as an arrangement of structures. Subject of analysis are the changes in the stereomorphism of leaves, occurring in population of Pinus mugo in relation to the changes in altitude and solar activity. The results revealed that these changes express cyclical patterns. Also, some characteristics of the phyllotaxis in twigs of P. mugo were analyzed in relation to the changes in ecological conditions in different years and altitudes. The changes in the phyllotaxis express cyclical patterns too. It is concluded that the changes in the stereomorphism of leaves and in the structure of phyllotaxis in P. mugo are ecologically determined.

The features of 1/f-noise processes offer important new insights into the field of population biology, greatly helping our quest for understanding and for prediction of ecological processes. 1/f-noises account quite satisfactorily for the observed nature of ecological fluctuations. This article reviews the application of 1/f-noise processes to ecology. After a discussion of the basic problems of population ecology that makes such an innovation necessary, we review the features of 1/f-noises concentrating especially on those aspects that make these processes attractive as a solution. We also present a discussion of the analysis of real ecological data, which confirms that there are good empirical as well as good theoretical reasons to establish a leading role for pink 1/f noise. We then discuss the consequences of such a model for our understanding of ecology. The article finishes with a number of observations about some aspects of ecological data and applications that are likely to drive research in a different direction from that associated with engineering and the physical sciences.

In this paper, we report on the theoretical foundations, empirical context and technical implementation of an agent-based modeling (ABM) framework, that uses a high-performance computing (HPC) approach to investigate human population dynamics on a global scale, and on evolutionary time scales. The ABM-HPC framework provides an in silico testbed to explore how short-term/small-scale patterns of individual human behavior and long-term/large-scale patterns of environmental change act together to influence human dispersal, survival and extinction scenarios. These topics are currently at the center of the Neanderthal debate, i.e., the question why Neanderthals died out during the Late Pleistocene, while modern humans dispersed over the entire globe. To tackle this and similar questions, simulations typically adopt one of two opposing approaches, top-down (equation-based) and bottom-up (agent-based) models of population dynamics. We propose HPC technology as an essential computational tool to bridge the gap between these approaches. Using the numerical simulation of worldwide human dispersals as an example, we show that integrating different levels of model hierarchy into an ABM-HPC simulation framework provides new insights into emergent properties of the model, and into the potential and limitations of agent-based versus continuum models.

Bidens pilosa is less widespread than the other composites commonly found in Singapore as it is animal-dispersed, as opposed to wind-dispersed like most of the Asteraceae. However, this species has been observed to spread over a large area within a year in suitable habitats of sandy or rocky moist substrate with adequate sunlight, such as Jalan Chichau and Jalan Lam Sam. Judging by its invasive success in other tropical and subtropical countries, it should do well in Singapore. More studies can be done on this species, and the populations in the abovementioned localities should be closely monitored to determine the success, and the spread of the species.

Leucaena leucaena ssp. leucocephala has become the fourth-most-rampant tree weed in Singapore, after Acacia auriculiformis, Falcataria mollucana, and Spathodea campanulata. The spread of the species around the island in recent times is believed to have been established from seed-contaminated soil, brought in from Malaysia or Indonesia for land reclamation and soil works. However, the species is more easily controlled because of its smaller size. It may be a potential candidate for use in reforestation projects in Singapore's nature reserves, to improve impoverished soils on exposed sites as well as to provide shade for seedling or saplings of forest species planted. More research should be done to ascertain the full potential of this species before categorizing it as another nuisance weed species.

Sustainable communities are seen as offering the opportunity to manage growth in plan-led and environmentally friendly patterns of settlement. This paper examines the settlement model put forward for the development of sustainable communities in the United Kingdom and shows that while in Scotland, the growth management strategy is clearly plan-led, the degree to which the design solution can be seen to be environmentally friendly is questionable. The paper suggests this is because in its current form, the model is not able to show whether the design solution advanced is ecologically sound. Whether, in particular, the solution is ecologically sound and because of this, not only efficient in greening economic development, but in also making it financially viable for plan-led experiments of this kind to produce environmentally friendly patterns of settlement.

Depleting terrestrial deposits and rising demand for metals in this time of climate change are stimulating interest in the deep sea — the area of the ocean below 200m — with commercial mining of mineral deposits imminent. Environmental impact assessments, effective regulation and mitigation strategies are needed to limit the impacts of deep-sea mining. This is a potential catastrophe for marine biodiversity, and use of Big Data will be needed to follow mining activities as well as chart impacts on known and unknown marine species and their habitats.

With climate change and the opportunity to exploit oil and gas reserves, the Arctic has been the subject of numerous analyses in former years. At the same time, International Maritime Organization (IMO) and Arctic coastal states are creating a more constrained framework to protect the environment, to limit the impact of human activities upon the flora and fauna, and to better integrate local communities. From an analysis of 239 articles, we assessed how sustainability has been considered within the literature over the past 30 years. Our result highlighted that, if there are numerous sustainable approaches depending on the country, the subject is still under-represented.

The chapter focuses on the problems of administrative liability of legal entities in cases of administrative offenses in the field of transport. The authors explore the trend of increasing the number of principles of administrative responsibility and its individual institutions in the context of globalization and convergence of administrative law. The principles that are not fixed by law but exist due to doctrine and judicial practice are studied. The issue of the implementation of state policy in the field of passenger transportation in the context of the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is revealed. In this chapter, the constitutional right to judicial protection is considered through the prism of cases of administrative offenses. The aspect of providing high-quality passenger transportation services and fully meeting the population’s needs in this direction is investigated.

The morphological development of washover systems on the West Frisian barrier islands was studied over a period of almost a century. Inundation overwash still regularly occurs and the hydrodynamic processes such as mean flows and low-frequency waves are capable of transporting sufficient amounts of sediment However, the actual transport on the barrier island of Schiermonnikoog appears to be limited and is reduced by local factors such as extreme wave dissipation, the presence of vegetation and algal mats.

Rice is one of the most widely consumed foodstuffs all over the world and 63% of all the rice produced in Brazil is grown in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of irrigated rice on the microbiotic composition of the soil, in view of the fact that this plays an important part in the maintenance of the land and thus has an effect on the production of the rice plantations. Soil bacteria were isolated in four cultivation systems and three species were identified by the morfocytochemical method: Bacillus thuringiensis, B. cereus and Lysinibacillus sphaericus. The results obtained demonstrate the predominance of Gram-positive spore-forming bacteria in the four cultivation systems. The frequencies of the species differed according to the phenological phases of the plants. The two chemical/physical parameters related to the bacterial groups were: H+Al, which influenced positively the spore-forming bacteria and the Mg which positively influenced the B.thuringiensis species. This data shows that that the rice plantation ecosystems are complex and that other abiotic factors also can be evaluated in studies of bacterial species in agroecosystems.

In today's world of global warming, hole in ozone layer, deforestation, drying of river, ecological crisis, two main problems brought by science and civilization appear very catastrophic: the damages of pollution done to human health and environment and the high carbon emissions which leads to global warming. The raise of biological washing may provide a contribution to solve these global problems. Environmental superiority of biological detergent may become a main competitive advantage in future development of detergent industry. The development strategy of biological washing industry, pioneered by a Shanghai company, challenges the first generation petrochemical cleaners and the second generation plant detergents, and as such constitutes a disruptive technology. This paper explores detergent development strategy new trend in today's world of more stringent environment requirements and increasingly tense resources, environmental protection, health, low-carbon, green and sustainable development.