DIVERSITYOFECOSYSTEMS EditedbyMahamaneAli Diversity of Ecosystems Edited by Mahamane Ali Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Jana Sertic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team First published April, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechopen.com Diversity of Ecosystems, Edited by Mahamane Ali p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0572-5 Contents Preface IX Chapter 1 Macrofaunistic Diversity in Vallisneria americana Michx. in a Tropical Wetland, Southern Gulf of Mexico 1 Alberto J. Sánchez, Rosa Florido, Miguel Ángel Salcedo, Violeta Ruiz-Carrera, Hugo Montalvo-Urgel and Andrea Raz-Guzman Chapter 2 Impacts of Carbon Dioxide Gas Leaks from Geological Storage Sites on Soil Ecology and Above-Ground Vegetation 27 Raveendra H. Patil Chapter 3 How to Keep Deep-Sea Animals 51 Hiroshi Miyake, Mitsugu Kitada, Dhugal J. Lindsay, Toshishige Itoh, Suguru Nemoto and Tetsuya Miwa Chapter 4 An Introduced Polychaete in South America – Ecologic Affinities of Manayunkia speciosa (Polychaeta, Sabellidae) and the Oligochaetes of Uruguay River, Argentina 73 Laura Armendáriz, Fernando Spaccesi and Alberto Rodrigues Capítulo Chapter 5 Evaluation of Aquatic Ecosystem Health Using the Potential Non Point Pollution Index (PNPI) Tool 95 Camilla Puccinelli, Stefania Marcheggiani, Michele Munafò, Paolo Andreani and Laura Mancini Chapter 6 Long Term Changes in Abundance and Spatial Distribution of Pelagic Agonidae, Ammodytidae, Liparidae, Cottidae, Myctophidae and Stichaeidae in the Barents Sea 109 Elena Eriksen, Tatyana Prokhorova and Edda Johannesen Chapter 7 Rangelands in Arid Ecosystem 127 Selim Zedan Heneidy VI Contents Chapter 8 Desertification-Climate Change Interactions – Mexico's Battle Against Desertification 167 Carlos Arturo Aguirre-Salado, Eduardo Javier Treviño-Garza, Oscar Alberto Aguirre-Calderón, Javier Jiménez-Pérez, Marco Aurelio González-Tagle and José René Valdez-Lazalde Chapter 9 Envisioning Ecosystems – Biodiversity, Infirmity and Affectivity 183 Diana Domingues, Cristiano Miosso, Lourdes Brasil, Rafael Morgado and Adson Rocha Chapter 10 Ecological Research of Arctic Restricted Exchange Environments (Kandalaksha Bay, White Sea, Russian Arctic) 199 Sofia Koukina, Alexander Vetrov and Nikolai Belyaev Chapter 11 Two Species and Three Species Ecological Modeling – Homotopy Analysis 221 Venkata Sundaranand Putcha Chapter 12 Stable Isotope Research in Southern African Birds 251 Craig T. Symes Chapter 13 The Impact of Shelterbelts on Mulch Decomposition and Colonization by Fauna in Adjacent Fields 289 M. Szanser Chapter 14 New Technologies for Ecosystem Analysis Planning and Management 299 Pietro Picuno, Alfonso Tortora, Carmela Sica and Rocco Capobianco Chapter 15 Extreme Climatic Events as Drivers of Ecosystem Change 339 Robert C. Godfree Chapter 16 Primary Producers of the Barents Sea 367 Pavel Makarevich, Elena Druzhkova and Viktor Larionov Chapter 17 Protecting Ecosystems from Underground Invasions – Seed Bank Dynamics in a Semi-Arid Shrub-Steppe 393 David R. Clements and Lynne B. Atwood Chapter 18 Changes to Marine Trophic Networks Caused by Fishing 417 Andrés F. Navia, Enric Cortés, Ferenc Jordán, Víctor H. Cruz-Escalona and Paola A. Mejía-Falla Contents VII Chapter 19 Diversity and Dynamics of Plant Communities in Niger River Valley (W Regional Park) 453 A. Mahamane, M. Zaman Allah, M. Saadou and J. Lejoly Chapter 20 Ecological Flexibility of the Top Predator in an Island Ecosystem – Food Habit of the Iriomote Cat 465 Shinichi Watanabe Preface Ifweunanimouslyagreethatthesurvivalofeach livingorganismdependsonthenature and ecological services rendered by ecosystems, we mu st equ a lly agree unanimously that these ecosystems do not always benefit the required attention. Hence they are subjectedtomanytreats.Indeed,theecosystemsaresu bjectedtomanypressingus ages at unknown tole r able levels. It generally results to equilibrium breaks leading ineluctably to their degradation. This tend en cy has engendered many international initiativestopreventecosystemsdegradation.Forinstance,theBiodiversityConvention, UnitedNationsConventiontoCombactDesertification(UNCCD),etc. Regardingtothemagnitudeandmodificationconsequencesofecosystems,theUnited Nationshavecommend edthestudyonMillenniumEcosystemsAssessment(MA).In order to better conserve the ecosystems and their services, it will be better to understand these ecosystems in all their complexity. It is to this aim that this book suggestssomecasestudiesundertakingallcontinents. Indeed we try to fill the gap on th e knowledge on ecosystems diversity and functioning. Since we have started the book project, we were invaded by many chaptersoncurrentenvironmentalissuesfromreputableinternationalresearchteams and laboratories. This shows that this book has aroused many interests from internationalscientificcommunitygiventheimportantnumberofchapte rssubmitted form the beginning. Consequently, we were subjected to make selection.We use this opportunity to thank the Publisher for publishing this book to the benefit of the internationalscientificcommunity. This book is educational and useful to students, researchers and all those are interestedinenv ironmentalissues. Thisvolumeoffersacompilationof20chaptersonthesamplingmethodsofterrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the algorithms meant for phytoplankton evaluation using satellites data, the biodiversity of arid regions ecosystems, the dynamics of grazed ecosystems in arid regions, the primary production of oceanic and terrestrial ecosystems,thedevelopm entofnewtechniquesonecosystemsanalysis,thedynamics of carbon on forestry ecosystems, the prey‐predator relationship within ecosystems, thedynamicsofanimalpopulationbasedonmanyenvironmentalgradients,etc. X Preface Weareinvitingstudents,researchers,teachersandpeopleinterestedinenvironmental issuestoreadthisbookwhichiseducationalconsideringthedifferentmethodswhich arepresented. Dr.MahamaneAli DeputyViceChancellorandDeanofFacultyofSciencesandTechnics(FST), UniversityofMaradi,Maradi Niger [...]... the aquatic substrate (Sánchez et al., 2007) For this reason, in vitro micropropagation of V americana has been carried out (Ruiz-Carrera & Sánchez, 2008) considering the possibility of: 1) testing hypotheses through experimental designs focused on phytodiagnosis, and 2) generating a germoplasm bank for future repopulation programmes (Ruiz-Carrera & Sánchez, 2012) Notwithstanding that the BRPC and... 1849) Rangia cuneata a, 6 (Sowerby I, 1831) Cyrtonaias tampicoensis a, 6 (Lea, 1838) Crustaceans Discapseudes sp a, b, 3 Hyalella azteca a, b, 2 Saussure, 1857 Litopenaeus setiferus 2 (Linnaeus, 1767) Potimirim mexicana 3 (Saussure, 1857) Macrobrachium acanthurus a, b, 2 (Wiegmann, 1836) Macrobrachium hobbsi a, 2 Nates and Villalobos, 1990 Macrobrachium olfersii 2 (Wiegmann, 1836) Procambarus (Austrocambarus)... primary production in shallow aquatic ecosystems (Ni, 2001; Schallenberg & Burns, 2004; Ahearn et al., 2006) The obstacle that the TSS present to light penetration has been considered one of the main hypotheses to explain the drastic decrease and disappearance of SAV in coastal wetlands (Boustany et al., 2010) However, V americana has a competitive advantage over other aquatic angiosperms in conditions... presents a direct relationship between the growth in length of the leaves and the depth of the water column, which implies growth occurs in a short time, as depth increases from 0.2-0.4 to 2.5-5 m The hypotheses to explain this growth of more than 1 m in a short time have not been solved, although it is believed that phototropism and gas accumulation in the system may play a part The variation in the... pulses in the ecological regulation in the BRPC emphasize the necessity to review: 1) the programmes for the construction of flood control structures that alter the natural flood cycles, and 2) the hypotheses concerning the wide spatial and temporal variations and the local disappearance of the SAV patches that shelter the greatest biodiversity and occupy less than 1% of the substrate of the aquatic... Experimental Marine and Biology and Ecology , Vol 344, No 2, (June 2007), pp 193-205, ISSN 0022-0981 Best, E.P.H., Teeter, A.M., Landwehr, K.J., James, W.F., & Nair, S.K (2008) Restoration options for potential persistence of submersed aquatic vegetation: combining ecological, hydrodynamic and sediment transport modelling Freshwater Biology, Vol 53, No 4, (April 2008), pp 814-826, ISSN 1365-2427 Bogut,... Biology of Fishes, Vol 85, No 2, (February 2009), pp 99–108, ISSN 1573-5133 Fisher, B., & Christopher, T (2007) Poverty and biodiversity: Measuring the overlap of human poverty and the biodiversity hotspots Ecologycal Economics, Vol 62, No 1, (April 2007), pp 93-101, ISSN 0921-8009 Florido, R., & Sánchez, A.J (2010) Effect of the habitat complexity, mobility and density of prey by predation of the blue... Anales del Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Serie Zoología, Vol 61, (1990), pp 1-11, ISSN 0368-8720 Ni, L (2001) Effects of Water Column Nutrient Enrichment on the Growth of Potamogeton maackianus A Been Journal of Aquatic Plant Management, Vol 39, (January 2001), pp 83-87, ISSN 0146-6623 Orth, R.J., Scott, R.M., Kenneth, A.M., & David, J.W (2010) Eelgrass (Zostera marina . Spaccesi and Alberto Rodrigues Capítulo Chapter 5 Evaluation of Aquatic Ecosystem Health Using the Potential Non Point Pollution Index (PNPI) Tool 95 Camilla Puccinelli, Stefania Marcheggiani, Michele. been carried out (Ruiz-Carrera & Sánchez, 2008) considering the possibility of: 1) testing hypotheses through experimental designs focused on phytodiagnosis, and 2) generating a germoplasm. (Regan, 1905) Litopenaeus setiferus 2 (Linnaeus, 1767) Rocio octofasciata a, 2 (Regan, 1903) Potimirim mexicana 3 (Saussure, 1857) Cichlasoma pearsei a, 4 (Hubbs, 1936) Macrobrachium acanthurus