This thesis deals with city ecosystem services and how are these services perceived by the visitors of the city nature areas. Specifically, the thesis deals with ecosystem services provided in the city Carlsbad. As the city Carlsbad is the spa city, great deal of visitors of the city nature areas are tourists and that is why are included in the research both city residents and also temporary visitors of the city. From the point of view of the usual division of the ecosystem services, as it was defined by Millennium ecosystem assessment (provisioning services, regulating services, cultural and supporting services), this thesis focuses mainly on the cultural and supporting ecosystem services, because this spectrum of services is presented in the greatest measure in cities in general and these services are overall the most appreciated in the urban areas. As a methodology was chosen a quantitative research, which was conducted by standardized questionnaire consisting of 19 questions. The survey was carried out in electronical form and it took part from November to December 2016. In total, 206 questionnaires were collected. Through the survey was found out, that people are aware of the services provided by nature environment in city as well as the respondents agree, that city nature areas influence the...

In the Circum-Caribbean, long timescale paleoenvironmental records, which are used to establish important baseline data for climatological phenomena such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes, are rare. This project uses geological and geochemical proxies (X-Ray fluorescence core scanning data, grain-size analysis, loss on ignition) from a nine-meter-long sediment core from a coastal karst basin near Haiti’s southwestern peninsula to reconstruct Holocene environmental and climatic changes in a region that is both understudied and highly sensitive to the effects of storms, sea level change, tectonics, and anthropogenic impacts. The chronology of the core is established with 4 AMS dates from terrestrial organic matter and shows continuous sedimentation from ~8500 cal BP to the present, with an abrupt increase in sedimentation rate at ~2900 cal BP. High values of Ti and Ti/Ca are associated with finer sediments in the core and indicate relatively humid conditions at ~6500 cal BP, followed by a gradual drying trend. This is consistent with data from elsewhere in the Caribbean that reflects a southward migration of the ITCZ during the early Holocene. After 2500 cal BP, a series of large and abrupt increases in Ti and Ti/Ca are associated with an influx of finer, terrestrially-derived sediment into the bay due to enhanced discharge from the nearby Baradères River, possibly as a result of short-duration shifts to wetter climate conditions, hurricane-induced precipitation, and/or prehistoric-era human settlement. Variations in silicate input (e.g., K/Ti), marine productivity (e.g., Ca/Ti), and redox conditions (e.g., Mn/Fe) are linked to local climate changes and resulting changes in the depositional environment, while peaks in Rb/Sr and Ti/Ca could be signals for erosion related to events such as hurricanes and/or land use changes. Finally, high values of silt and clay, in conjunction with enhanced organics, Ti, Fe, K and P over the last couple centuries reflect historic-era deforestation and erosion. This study presents an excellent opportunity to further our understanding of the diverse relationships between ecosystem dymanics, climate, and anthropogenic forcings and adds to the growing inventory of paleoclimatological records in the Caribbean, improving the spatial distribution of such studies, and ultimately improving our understanding of the driving forces of both short- and long-term climate variability.

Researchers have learned much about the biological assemblages that form around hydrothermal vents. However, identities of species in these assemblages and their basic ecological features are often lacking. In 2015, the first leg of the Hydrothermal Hunt expedition identified likely new vent sites in the Mariana Back-arc Spreading Center (BASC). In 2016, the second leg of the expedition used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to confirm and sample two new sites and two previously known sites. My first objective is to identify the animals collected from these four vent sites. In these samples, I identify 42 animal taxa, including the discovery of four new vent-associated species, five potentially new species and six taxa not previously reported in the Mariana BASC vents. My second objective is to combine these new data with previous studies and examine the species distributions among all known vent sites in the Mariana BASC using the α-, β-, and γ-diversity framework. I present updated species absence-presence lists for all eight Mariana BASC vent sites, which begin to resolve some of the issues with species identification. In this thesis, my approach to assessing β-diversity is novel in the field of hydrothermal vent ecology. My work also provides the first intra-regional scale assessments of β-diversity that include all sites known in a vent system. My third objective is to explore environmental factors driving these species distribution patterns. The α-diversity of BASC vent sites gradually increases with latitude, and the β-diversity calculated using the Raup-Crick index correlates with distance to nearby vent sites. Stochastic assembly processes likely shape the diversity patterns throughout the Mariana BASC as few environmental variables are known to correlate with these patterns. My fourth objective is to compare the β-diversity patterns between the Mariana BASC vent sites and those in two other vent systems: the Mariana Arc and the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The γ- and average α-diversity values for the BASC vents are relatively low compared to the other two systems. The Jaccard index revealed that the average number of shared species among the Arc vent sites is much lower than those of the BASC and the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The Raup-Crick index indicates that stochastic processes explain the average β-diversity of the Mariana BASC vents better than those of the Mariana Arc and Juan de Fuca Ridge. / Graduate / 2021-04-17

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For years considered pristine, glacial ecosystems are attracting more attention of biologists from various branches in last decades. Moreover, they are currently considered to be ecosystems forming the coldest biome on the Earth. The life on glaciers ranges from viruses and bacteria to highest consumers such as few groups of microinvertebrates. The most common are tardigrades (phylum Tardigrada) and rotifers (phylum Rotifera) which inhabit cryoconite holes on the glacial surface. Several studies highlight the importance of the role of these consumers. However, due to the dominance of prokaryotes on the glacial surface, these microinvertebrates are usually out of the major scope of most studies aiming at biological processes. The present study shows pioneering results on the isotopic composition of tardigrades and rotifers, which are the top consumers in cryoconite ecosystems, and is a foundation for the exploration of trophic pathways and interactions within cryoconite holes using elemental and stable isotopic analyses. It also presents information about the species composition of tardigrades and rotifers on different glaciers and in different parts of the ablation zone. We identified 5 species of tardigrades (Hypsibius sp., Hypsibius cf. dujardini, Pilatobius sp., Isohypsibius sp. and Cryoconicus...

An examination of the effectiveness of seeding, burning, and mowing in the reestablishment of tallgrass prairie species on overgrazed and abandoned pastureland. The study site is a 20 acre tract on U.S. Corps of Engineers land below Lake Lewisville in Denton County, Texas. The site was partitioned into thirty-nine 40 by 40 meter plots with seeding (carried out in 1996) and management treatment (burning, mowing, and no maintenance carried out in 1998) randomly applied following a two level design. For each plot, nine stratified-random 0.1 m2 subplots were examined and shoot counts for each species recorded. The effects of the treatments on individual species and species richness were analyzed with a two-way ANOVA followed by a SNK multiple range test, both on ranked data. Community level analysis was conducted with both a MANOVA on ranked data and a Canonical Correspondence Analysis on raw data. Results indicate that seeding positively affected species richness, particularly when combined with either burning or mowing in the early spring. Mowing also significantly increased species richness in areas that were not seeded, while burning negatively affected species richness on unseeded plots. Treatments significantly affected community composition with treatments having the most clear effect on spring and summer forbs.

Microbial communities inhabiting upper soil horizons represent an important component of forest ecosystems. However, despite the evidence that yeasts represent an integral part of topsoil fungal communities, their role in forest ecosystems received so far little attention. The aims of my PhD thesis were to describe yeast communities in soil and litter of a temperate forest using high- throughput sequencing of environmental DNA, identify dominant yeast species and to explore how the composition of yeast communities reflects the biotic and abiotic factors of the environment. I also aimed to isolate yeasts from forest topsoil, describe novel yeast taxa abundant according to the environmental DNA survey and screen representative isolates for the traits relevant to their involvement in organic matter transformation. I have demonstrated that in forest topsoil, yeasts represent a substantial proportion of fungal communities with higher relative abundance in soil than in litter. In litter, yeast communities differ significantly among beech, oak and spruce-dominated stands. Drivers of community assembly are probably more complex in soils and comprise the effects of soil chemistry and vegetation. Even though there are similarities in the response of the communities of yeasts and filamentous fungi to...

<p>Tropical ecosystems play a key role in regulating the global climate and the carbon cycle thanks to the large amounts of water and carbon exchanged with the atmosphere. These biogeochemical fluxes are largely the result of high photosynthetic rates. Photosynthetic activity is highly dependent on climate and vegetation, and therefore can be easily modified along with changes in those two factors. A better understanding of what drives or alters photosynthetic activity in the tropics will lead to more accurate predictions of climate and subsequent effects on ecosystems. The seasonal pattern of photosynthetic activity is one of the main uncertainties that we still have about tropical ecosystems. However, this seasonality of tropical vegetation and its relationship to climate change and land cover is key to understanding how these ecosystems could be affected and have an effect on climate.</p><p>In this dissertation, I present three projects to improve our understanding about tropical ecosystems and how their photosynthetic activity is affected by climate and land cover change. The lack of field-based data has been one of the main limiting factors in our study of tropical ecosystems. Therefore, in these projects I extensively use remote sensing-derived data to analyze large scale and long term patterns. In the first study, I looked at the seasonal relationship between photosynthetic activity and climate, and how model simulations represent it. Vegetation in most of the tropics is either positively correlated with both water and light, or positively correlated with one of them and negatively with the other. Ecosystem models largely underestimate positive correlations with light and overestimate positive correlations with water. In the second study, I focus on the effect of land cover change in photosynthetic activity and transpiration in a highly deforested region in the Amazon. I find that land cover change decreases tropical forests photosynthetic activity and transpiration during the dry season. Also, land cover change increases the range of photosynthetic activity and transpiration in forests and shrublands. These effects are intensified with increasing land cover change. In the last project, I quantify the amount of change in evapotranspiration due to land cover change in the entire Amazon basin. Our remote sensing-derived estimates are well aligned with model predictions published in the past three decades. These results increase our confidence in climate models representation of evapotranspiration in the Amazon.</p><p>Findings from this dissertation highlight (1) the importance of the close relationship between climate and photosynthetic activity and (2) how land cover change is altering that relationship. We hope our results can build on our knowledge about tropical ecosystems and how they could change in the future. We also expect our analysis to be used for model benchmarking and tropical ecosystem monitoring.</p>

Abstract Background The major mobile infrastructure incumbent vendors form an oligopoly of mobile technology leaders that have not changed their business models significantly as new mobile technology generations have been introduced since 1980. The introduction of 5G and research in 6G have created uncertainty calling for openness, disaggregation of software from hardware, and variety of industrial customers. The incumbent vendors need to innovate technology and business model (BM) to increase their chances of survival. Objectives This thesis aims to investigate how mobile network infrastructure incumbent vendors use business model innovation (BMI) in context of uncertainties related to 5G &amp; 6G disruptive innovation. The purpose of the thesis is to refine the extant theory of BMI and to provide practitioners with recommendations on how to use BMI in the nascent phase of disruptive innovation. Methodology The grounded theory research process based on an exploratory qualitative single-case holistic study is used. The primary data is collected from thirteen semi-structured interviews while supportive secondary data is publicly available and collected via the Internet. Using inductive reasoning the study data analysis process produced first-order concepts, second-order themes and aggregate dimensions used to refine and extend the initial theoretical framework for BMI process usage. Findings When faced with uncertainty of disruptive innovation, the industry incumbents use the scenario-driven thinking to simultaneously develop a portfolio of BMs both by in-house diversification and by mergers and acquisitions. The management of BMI process leads to foreseeing and leveraging of both the internal resources and external resources. The internal resources are developed using BM ambidexterity, double ambidexterity, and intra-organizational learning, The external resources are developed via business ecosystems development and open BM innovation. Development of the resources creates unique managerial challenges related to ambidexterity, coopetition, and cultural transformation. Conclusions Our study provides the empirical grounds for a model of BMI usage by industry incumbents. Our model extends the scope of the extant theoretical discussions and provides details supported with rich empirical evidence from the nascent phase of technological disruption. The emphasis is on the firm’s dynamics that deal with multiple BMs and their innovation. We argue that while studying the process of single BMI is beneficial, the full understanding of BMI can be achieved only by covering the management of interactions and interdependencies among multiple simultaneous BMIs. Recommendations for future research Multiple-case studies to cover other industries would be beneficial to achieve generalization. Also, the longitudinal approach should be used in future studies to understand the impact of the BMI process management choices in the nascent phase on the survival and performance of the incumbents.

Purpose - As energy demand increases in tandem with an increasing climate crisis, the world runs towards renewable energy generation. Within the area of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) there are a multitude of opportunities that should be capitalized on, but this requires an integration of the connected systems of Information Technology (IT) and the governing systems of Operational Technology (OT). In the utility sector, this has proven very complex. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges between utility companies, IT providers, and OT providers in the ecosystem to identify activities to combat these challenges by developing a contingency framework. Thus, contributing to the development of Smart Grids (SG) within renewable energy generation. Method – To fulfill the purpose of this study, the partnership between the Swedish branch of a global technology company and a sizeable Swedish energy producer has been investigated. A qualitative single case study has been conducted with an inductive, explorative approach. Empirical data were collected from 22 interviews and 4 workshops from six different companies across five countries. The interviews and workshops were conducted in three different waves: 1) Explorative, 2) Investigatory, and 3) Validatory. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings – Findings from our data analysis have identified challenges and key activities in four main categories: 1) IT/OT Collaborative Challenges, 2) IT/OT Technical Challenges, 3) IT/OT Collaborative Activities, and 4) IT/OT Technical Activities. These findings are combined to form a contingency framework that emphasizes the activities to overcome industry challenges. Theoretical and Practical Implications – Our findings and framework expand on current literature in IIoT, SGs, and Innovation Ecosystems development by investigating the collaborative challenges and activities within IT/OT collaboration rather than specific technologies or ecosystem structures. It also expands the literature on IT/OT convergence by taking a broader ecosystem perspective than only IT and OT companies. Our framework provides practical contributions for managers by identifying key challenges and activities and how these relate to each other. Limitations and Future Research – Our study is limited to a single case study on wind power generation in northern Europe. Therefore, future studies are recommended to investigate if our findings apply to other companies, industry sectors, and geographical areas.