During a 7-year field study on a population in a semi-urban habitat near Vienna, Austria, we monitored a 5.9-fold decrease in ground-squirrel abundance, with high densities having been maintained by immigration.
By comparing sap flow measurements to the ERI data, we find that periods of high sap flow within the diel cycle are aligned with decreases in ground electrical conductivity and soil moisture due to drying of the soil during moisture uptake.
In addition, seed-eating birds decreased in numbers, which the scientists attributed to an increase in vegetation and a decrease in bare ground, conditions that make it more difficult for birds to harvest seeds.
In contrast, forest degradation is a more poorly understood process which involves partial canopy loss with no clear reduction in forest area, but a reduction in ecosystem services, more often described by a decrease in above ground biomass [15 19], and is the definition applied in this study.
There was a decrease in above ground plant biomass of 45% as irrigation frequency decreased but the treatment effect was not significant at P = 0.419 (Table 1).
A sigmoidal logistical model successfully described the decrease in above-ground mass with depth for P. tenax, whereas below-ground biomass decreased linearly with depth; the overall depth response for total biomass was also logistic.
The main aim of this work was to assess the actual performance of several site-condition proxies, namely V S30, slope, f 0 (H/V) and H 800 SCP, by analysing the relative decrease in the ground-motion aleatory variability each of them allow to achieve and by investigating the benefits of considering simultaneously multiple site proxies.
The upper Damodar watershed is highly urbanized leading to increase in impervious surface, which causes increase in storm water runoff and decrease in infiltration and ground water recharge.
Thus, even though the salinity decrease in the aquaculture ground alone may not have been sufficiently severe to kill the blood cockles, we should consider the possibility that the spawning season made these organisms particularly susceptible.
