Journal of Environmental Sciences Juniper Publishers

  Abstract The notion of systemic risks denominates the danger of destruction of a whole system by the mechanisms of nonlinear interactions between its agents in combination with circular causality between the system´s elementary dynamic processes and the macroscopic structures generated by them. An extensive body of empirical evidence demonstrates a fundamental homomorphism among systemic risks in all domains, from the systems of nature over those of technology up to society. This homomorphism, based on complexity science, allows to formulate cornerstones of a scientific theory resulting in several governance strategies, associated with policy implications, be it to protect ecosystems, technical infrastructure or, last not least, avoid undesired transformation processes in societies. The approach is exemplified here for the systemic risks associated with modern migration phenomena that has direct impact on sustainable development. Read More about this Article: htt...

  Abstract Influences from tidal flooding and freshwater inundation from upland watersheds create an environmentally important ecosystem along coastlines, namely salt marshes. Salt marshes have been recognized as effective sinks for organic carbon and heavy metal contaminants. A detailed understanding of the specific binding agents in the soils on the storage of contaminants is investigated herein using two modern machine learning algorithms: extreme gradient boosting (XGboost) and random forest (RF). Results of the current work indicate that Fe is the most important binding agent for As, Cd, Cr and Zn while Mn and organic matter are the most important binding agents for Cu and Pb. Noting the fact that an increase in salinity not only causes heavy metal release into aquatic systems but also leads to a decrease in floral growth and organic matter production, the findings of this study help to formulate proper remediation strategies to contain heavy metals in tidal ma...