The article sheds light on the national climate policies under the influence of the EU “green” agenda towards a new wave of deglobalization. We address issues related to the main provisions of the carbon dioxide (СО₂) emission trading system implemented by the EU and posit that European climate policy can enhance the process of reducing interdependence and integration between EU member states and non-EU countries. We suggest that the EU’s global climate leadership, increased use of environmental taxes and stimulation of economic growth based on low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen, energy storage and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) can lead to deglobalization. Based on a case study of Finland as an EU member and China as a BRICS representative, we observe the effect of the applied carbon tax on the development of national economies and propose that similar policies across the EU and around the world minimize the risks of deglobalization.

The Far East of Russia is a region where boreal and tropical faunas mix; it is also a zone of cladoceran endemism. The present study aimed to compare a set of microcrustacean (Cladocera and Copepoda) associations in three large lakes of the Russian Far East: Khanka, Bolon, and Chukchagir. The associations of the microcrustaceans were identified based on the function of the discrete hypergeometric distribution. Many of the 108 taxa found here were unaffiliated with an association. Interestingly, the portion of taxa involved and “not involved” in species associations differed among geographic faunistic complexes. The rate of endemism was significantly higher among the taxa incorporated into the associations as compared to the “not involved” taxa. In all the lakes, there were large clusters of phytophilous species characteristic of the macrophyte zone (and its margins) and clusters characteristic of pelagic and sublittoral plankton. We found that in the three lakes, the microcrustaceans formed a set of functionally similar associations, but the taxonomic composition of each functional association was specific to each lake. We hypothesize that the composition of functional clusters reflects the history of colonization for each water body. That is, the founder effects and subsequent “monopolization” of habitats have affected species associations.

The aim of this paper is to study the species composition, structure and seasonal dynamics of the cladoceran fauna and species associations in inland water bodies of Jeju Island (Republic of Korea). Only 47 taxa were found in 199 samples. Such faunal paucity could be explained by the existence of only a few types of aquatic environments on Jeju Island as compared to continental China and the Far East of Russia, with their great diversity of water types. We have demonstrated a high significance of the tropical species on Jeju. Our data confirm seasonal faunistic changes in the continental waters of Jeju Island. The rate of tropical taxa is highest in September, after the monsoon season, while the Far Eastern endemic taxa are more common in winter. At the same time, the contribution of Boreal taxa to the fauna of the island is low even in winter. Species associations have been revealed based on binominal distribution; they change significantly from summer to winter. However, a contribution of Boreal taxa to the species associations also is minimal (even in winter), whereas tropical taxa contribute to them greatly (including in winter). We can propose a rough scheme of faunal formation exploring the whole set of obtained information. Initially, at the earlier stages of the island formation, its fauna was consisted of some pre-Pleistocene taxa. Then, during the Pleistocene time, Jeju Island was secondarily interconnected with more southern territories, and tropical species have colonized it. Recent Boreal cladoceran invaders arrived at the island water bodies later when they were already inhabited by formed associations, and for this reason only few of them were able to settle down there. Such a scheme is a hypothesis which needs to be checked by the future phylogeographic studies.

The Mekong River is the 10^th largest river in the world. It is recognised as the most productive river in Southeast Asia and economically essential to the region, with an estimated 60-65 million people living in the lower Mekong Basin. The Mekong Delta within Vietnam is considered a highly vulnerable ecosystem under threat from increasing anthropogenic pressure, such as dam construction and, as a consequence, the Delta is sinking and altering the natural hydrological cycle. Dams also lead to eutrophication and pollution of downstream water from regulated water flux and water stagnation. Another threat is climate change coupled with the lower rainfall, which could lead to an increased risk of drought in the Mekong Delta Basin. Thus, these project data represent an important baseline reference. The ecological health of the Mekong Delta’s environment, as indicated by the quality and availability of its water and biological resources, largely determines the economic and social development of the region, which produces about half of the agriculture and aquaculture products of Vietnam. This paper reports quantitative data on the biodiversity of six groups of aquatic organisms: bottom and pelagic fish, macrozoobenthos, microorganisms, phyto- and zooplankton in the Mekong Delta within Vietnam, as well as data on the physicochemical parameters of water and bottom sediments. The data were collected during 2018-2022 as part of the Ecolan E-3.4 programme within the framework of the research plan of the Joint Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Research and Technological Center. All presented datasets are published for the first time.

Interannual variations in species richness and quantitative parameters of macrozoobenthos in floodplain lakes of the Khoper Nature Reserve have been studied to reveal their dependence on flood regime...