Despite differences in regional climates, cities world-wide have developed one common characteristic - the urban heat island (UHI). Its magnitude is related to city size, especially under cloudless ...sky conditions on a regional basis, although individual cities may be impacted by such local factors as proximity to large water bodies or prevailing winds. The UHI pattern in the small city of Ljutomer was examined in order to assess its intensity and morphology and to test the utility of the geographically weighted regression (GWR) method in modeling the regression relationships between mean air temperature and related influence factors in this small-scale urban example. Significant differences in mean air temperature between urban and rural areas were measured. It turned out that built-up areas in Ljutomer are on average 1 °C warmer than the rural surroundings in winter time. The regression analyses confirmed the important role of local non-stationary explanatory variables - distance to urban area, topographic position index and land-cover diversity - and global stationary variables - building volume per area and northness - in explaining spatial variation in mean air temperature. The relationships between mean air temperature and these five explanatory variables produced an overall model fit of 91%, utilizing the semiparametric GWR method, which was tested on the smallest scale so far published.
•The GWR analysis highlighted local variations of some model parameters.•The UHI pattern could be explained with local and global explanatorily variables.•Local regression analysis can be used in UHI studies even in small scale examples.
Woody vegetation landscape features, such as hedges, tree patches, and riparian vegetation, are important elements of landscape and biotic diversity. For the reason that biodiversity loss is one of ...the major ecological problems in the EU, it is necessary to establish efficient workflows for the registration and monitoring of woody vegetation landscape features. In the paper, we propose and evaluate a methodology for automated detection of changes in woody vegetation landscape features from a digital orthophoto (DOP). We demonstrate its ability to capture most of the actual changes in the field and thereby provide valuable support for more efficient maintenance of landscape feature layers, which is important for the shaping of future environmental policies. While the most reliable source for vegetation cover mapping is a combination of LiDAR and high-resolution imagery, it can be prohibitively expensive for continuous updates. The DOP from cyclic aerial photography presents an alternative source of up-to-date information for tracking woody vegetation landscape features in-between LiDAR recordings. The proposed methodology uses a segmentation neural network, which is trained with the latest DOP against the last known ground truth as the target. The output is a layer of detected changes, which are validated by the user before being used to update the woody vegetation landscape feature layer. The methodology was tested using the data of a typical traditional Central European cultural landscape, Goričko, in north-eastern Slovenia. The achieved F1 of per-pixel segmentation was 83.5% and 77.1% for two- and five-year differences between the LiDAR-based reference and the DOP, respectively. The validation of the proposed changes at a minimum area threshold of 100 m2 and a minimum area percentage threshold of 20% showed that the model achieved recall close to 90%.
The authors studied the structure of the coastal fish assemblage in a temperate coral reef within a marine protected area in order to provide a baseline information on the occurrence and temporal ...distribution of fish and to highlight the importance of the coral reef to ichthyofauna. The coastal fish assemblage was investigated at two sites in Veliko jezero (Mljet National Park) in the southern Adriatic Sea with a non-destructive SCUBA visual technique in the period from 2013 to 2021. Altogether, 38 fish taxa were recorded on the right bank (coral reef) and 36 species on the left bank. The presence of the coral reef at a depth range between 9 m to 12 m is the main factor differentiating the fish fauna in these two areas, which are otherwise governed by the same environmental factors. At the coral reef a decrease in fish diversity was discovered with a steady regression from 2013 to 2021.
Despite an improvement in worldwide numbers, road traffic crashes still cause social, psychological, and financial damage and cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product. However, none of ...the current commercial or open-source navigation systems contain spatial information about road traffic crash hot spots. By developing an algorithm that can adequately predict such spatial patterns, we can bridge these still existing gaps in road traffic safety. To that end, geographically weighted regression and regression tree models were fitted with five uncorrelated (environmental and socioeconomic) road traffic crash predictor variables. Significant regional differences in adverse weather conditions were identified; Slovenia lies at the conjunction of different climatic zones characterized by differences in weather phenomena, which further modify traffic safety. Thus, more attention to speed limits, safety distance, and other vehicles entering and leaving the system could be expected. In order to further improve road safety and better implement globally sustainable development goals, studies with applicative solutions are urgently needed. Modern vehicle-to-vehicle communication technologies could soon support drivers with real-time traffic data and thus potentially prevent road network crashes.
Cryptobenthic fishes were often overlooked in the past due to their cryptic lifestyle, so knowledge of their ecology is still incomplete. One of the most poorly studied taxa of fishes in the ...Mediterranean Sea is clingfish. In this paper we examine the habitat preferences of three clingfish species (Lepadogaster lepadogaster, L. candolii, and Apletodon incognitus) occurring in the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic). The results show that all three species have a cryptic lifestyle and are well-segregated based on their depth distribution and macro- and microhabitat preferences. L. lepadogaster inhabits shallow waters of the lower mediolittoral and upper infralittoral, where it occurs on rocky bottoms under stones. L. candolii similarly occurs in the rocky infralittoral under stones, but below the lower distribution limit of L. lepadogaster, and in seagrass meadows, where it occupies empty seashells. Such hiding places in seagrass meadows are also occupied by A. incognitus, which mostly occurs below the lower distribution limit of L. candolii. Despite the overlap of depth and macrohabitat, the probability of individuals of two species encountering each other or competing in the same habitat is low when the depth range is combined with the microhabitat preferences of these species.
Cystoseira s.l. forests are recognised as important habitats which host diverse coastal fish assemblages. Many fish species use such habitats as feeding, breeding, and nursery grounds. Since the ...coastal fish community depends on the availability of dense macroalgal belts, the decline of these habitats in the Mediterranean Sea also affects the density of coastal fish species. We studied the coastal fish assemblage in Cystoseira s.l. forests in three consecutive years 2019–2021 in the Gulf of Trieste (Adriatic Sea). Data on coastal fish fauna were collected by visual counts conducted by SCUBA diving. Data on algal cover and habitat types were obtained by recording with a video camera. Similarities and differences in the fish community were analysed in terms of habitat and substrate preferences. A total of 34 species were recorded in Cystoseira forests. The results of the present study show that the different algal cover and associated depth gradient have different effects on the fish assemblage in coastal waters, affecting species composition and abundance. For many species, particularly labrids and sea breams, there is a decreasing temporal trend in frequency of occurrence and density. However, fish community trends can be used as a good “proxy” to evaluate the algal belt status. Our results indicate that rapid conservation and restoration actions are needed to stem the decline of Cystoseira s.l. forests.
Natural conditions play an important role as determinants and cocreators of the spatiotemporal road traffic accident Hot Spot footprint; however, none of the modern commercial, or open-source, ...navigation systems currently provides it for the driver. Our findings, based on a spatiotemporal database recording 11 years of traffic accidents in Slovenia, proved that different weather conditions yield distinct spatial patterns of dangerous road segments. All potentially dangerous road segments were identified and incorporated into a mobile spatial decision support system (SLOCrashInfo), which raises awareness among drivers who are entering or leaving the predefined danger zones on the street network. It is expected that such systems could potentially increase road traffic safety in the future.
Marine phanerogams are considered biological sentinels or indicators since any modification in seagrass meadow distribution and coverage signals negative changes in the marine environment. In recent ...decades, seagrass meadows have undergone global losses at accelerating rates, and almost one-third of their coverage has disappeared globally. This study focused on the dynamics of seagrass meadows in the northern Adriatic Sea, which is one of the most anthropogenically affected areas in the Mediterranean Sea. Seagrass distribution data and remote sensing products were utilized to identify the stable and dynamic parts of the seagrass ecosystem. Different seagrass species could not be distinguished with the Sentinel-2 (BOA) satellite image. However, results revealed a generally stable seagrass meadow (283.5 Ha) but, on the other hand, a stochastic behavior in seagrass meadow retraction (90.8 Ha) linked to local environmental processes associated with anthropogenic activities or climate change. If systemized, this proposed approach to monitoring seagrass meadow dynamics could be developed as a spatial decision support system for the entire Mediterranean basin. Such a tool could serve as a key element for decision makers in marine protected areas and would potentially support more effective conservation and management actions in these highly productive and important environments.
The human population is increasing. The ongoing urbanization process, in conjunction with climate change, is causing larger environmental footprints. Consequently, quality of life in urban systems ...worldwide is under immense pressure. Here, the seasonal characteristics of Maribor’s urban thermal environment were studied from the perspectives of surface urban heat island (SUHI) and urban heat island (UHI) A remote sensing thermal imagery time series and in-situ measurements (stationary and mobile) were combined with select geospatial predictor variables to model this atmospheric phenomenon in its most intensive season (summer). Finally, CMIP6 climate change scenarios and models were considered, to predict future UHI intensity. Results indicate that Maribor’s UHI intensity maximum shifted from winter to spring and summer. The implemented generalized additive model (GAM) underestimates UHI intensity in some built-up parts of the study area and overestimates UHI intensity in green vegetated areas. However, by the end of the century, UHI magnitude could increase by more than 60% in the southern industrial part of the city. Such studies are of particular concern, in regards to the increasing frequency of heat waves due to climate change, which further increases the (already present) heat stress in cities across the globe.
The Deliblato Sands Special Nature Reserve (DSSNR; Vojvodina, Serbia) is facing a fast successional process. Open sand steppe habitats, considered as regional biodiversity hotspots, have drastically ...decreased over the last 25 years. This study combines multi-temporal and -spectral remotely sensed data, in-situ sampling techniques and geospatial modelling procedures to estimate and predict the potential development of open habitats and their biota from the perspective of antlions (Neuroptera, Myrmeleontidae). It was confirmed that vegetation density increased in all parts of the study area between 1992 and 2017. Climate change, manifested in the mean annual precipitation amount, significantly contributes to the speed of succession that could be completed within a 50-year period. Open grassland habitats could reach an alarming fragmentation rate by 2075 (covering 50 times less area than today), according to selected global climate models and emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). However, M. trigrammus could probably survive in the DSSNR until the first half of the century, but its subsequent fate is very uncertain. The information provided in this study can serve for effective management of sand steppes, and antlions should be considered important indicators for conservation monitoring and planning.
PDF
