• Energy Research

This paper provides an overview of the last 40 years of use, and in many cases abuse, of the natural resources in Catalonia, a country that is representative of European countries in general, and especially those in the Mediterranean region. It analyses the use of natural resources made by mining, agriculture, livestock, logging, fishing, nature tourism, and energy production and consumption. This use results in an ecological footprint, i.e., the productive land and sea surface required to generate the consumed resources and absorb the resulting waste, which is about seven times the amount available, a very high number but very similar to other European countries. This overexploitation of natural resources has a huge impact on land and its different forms of cover, air, and water. For the last 25 years, forests and urban areas have each gained almost 3% more of the territory at the expense of agricultural land; those municipalities bordering the sea have increased their number of inhabitants and activity, and although they only occupy 6.7% of the total surface area, they account for 43.3% of the population; air quality has stabilized since the turn of the century, and there has been some improvement in the state of aquatic ecosystems, but still only 36% are in good condition, while the remainder have suffered morphological changes and different forms of nonpoint source pollution; meanwhile the biodiversity of flora and fauna remains still under threat. Environmental policies do not go far enough so there is a need for revision of the legislation related to environmental impact and the protection of natural areas, flora, and fauna. The promotion of environmental research must be accompanied by environmental education to foster a society which is more knowledgeable, has more control and influence over the decisions that deeply affect it. Indeed, nature conservation goes hand in hand with other social and economic challenges that require a more sustainable vision. Today’s problems with nature derive from the current economic model, which is environmentally unsustainable in that it does not take into account environmental impacts. Lastly, we propose a series of reasonable and feasible priority measures and actions related to each use made of the country’s natural resources, to the impacts they have had, and to their management, in the hope that these can contribute to improving the conservation and management of the environment and biodiversity and move towards sustainability.

All of the environmental conditions in nature act on an organism simultaneously. However, in experimental studies of the factors influencing metamorphosis, each factor needs to be examined individually in order to disentangle its specific effects. However, it is challenging to then build properly integrated models which include data on all of the different factors evaluated in different experiments. This study set out to develop a predictive model which could synthesize the results of several experiments on survival, development and growth of Natterjack toad (Epidalea calamita) tadpole guilds. The proposed Population Dynamic P System (PDP) model enables estimates of growth and development during the larval phase, under different environmental conditions, weather conditions, predator density, and pond characteristics and management. The architecture of the model allows the inclusion of an indefinite number of parameters and interactions, with all inputs interacting in parallel, and enables solutions to complex modeling approaches. Using the model with a range of field data, we found that the importance of predation pressure on Natterjack toad tadpole guilds exceeds the potential effects of variations in temperature and precipitation. The impact of introduced invasive predators therefore arguably poses the greatest threat to this species. This type of model holds promise as a reliable management and conservation tool for this and other species, especially where interactions between environmental factors make the impacts of individual factors difficult to predict. Peer reviewed