The taxonomic concept of species has received continuous attention. A microbial species as a discrete box contains a limited number of highly similar microorganisms assigned to that taxon, following a polyphasic approach. In the 21st Century, with the advancements of sequencing technologies and genomics, the existence of a huge prokaryotic diversity has become well known. At present, the prokaryotic species might no longer have to be understood as discrete values ; rather, it is expected that some microorganisms could be potentially distributed (according to their genome features and phenotypes) in between others . We propose a continuous species concept for microorganisms, which adapts to the current knowledge on the huge diversity, variability and heterogeneity existing among bacteria and archaea. Likely, this concept could be extended to eukaryotic microorganisms. The continuous species concept considers a species to be delimited by the distance between a range of variable features following a Gaussian-type distribution around a reference organism . Some potential pros and cons of a continuous concept are commented on, offering novel perspectives on our understanding of the highly diversified prokaryotic world, thus promoting discussion and further investigation in the field. Naming and classifying all living creatures is a requirement for science and humanity. Aristotle approached this around 2400 years ago . Since tEscherichia coli, with nearly 20,000 strains with their genome sequenced , which includes a previously reported variability reaching up to 50% of their genomes [Escherichia, Shigella, Salmonella), which remain difficult to differentiate. For other large prokaryotic genera, such as Streptomyces, Clostridium, Bacillus, etc., the differentiation among their species and strains often represents a compromising challenge [In the microbial world, the current concept of species fails to adapt to the requirements for the appropriate and unambiguous description of similar groups and clades of microorganisms ,7,8,9,10 genomes . Some othallenge ,24,25.The incorporation of genomics as novel variables in taxonomy, even overcoming the limitation of prokaryotic culturability for species delineation ,15, willm [Escherichia and Shigella, which present high similarity among them. Similar problematics have been mentioned in some eukaryotes  when morphological features and genetic markers are limited to species delineation [On top of that complexity generated by the huge diversity existing among the prokaryotes, the current taxonomical methodologies have incorporated scarce statistical approaches in defining the limits and the variability of a prokaryotic species. This should be considered, and it is essential to objectively classify a newly isolated strain, clone or cultivated prokaryotic cell line within a species, or as a newly proposed species or taxon. Prokaryotic taxonomists accept a 70% DNA–DNA hybridization threshold for species classification . Other rm , and Mulm . This ham ,31 of coineation .From the above, one could start envisioning the complexity of a proper system for prokaryote description and classification, which is under debate in taxonomic forums ,10. ThusThe existence of a huge prokaryotic diversity suggests that different microorganisms might present similar phenotypic features, and some of them can even show high genomic similarity. Previous publications have suggested the potential for a continuous prokaryotic species concept. Some examples, without the aim of presenting a full listing of contributions, can be mentioned. Gevers et al.  suggesteThe vision of a prokaryotic world formed by discrete species might be a result of the bias introduced as a result of limited sampling of the actual diversity existing in nature. Atypical or rare isolates are often discarded, which negatively influences our full understanding of the continuity of diversity among prokaryotes . WhereasThe discrete and continuous concepts of prokaryotic species are not contradictory. The continuous concept is just a product of a more detailed knowledge acquired in the last years. This is leading to re-definitions as a result of the observed huge diversity of prokaryotes, the impressive advancement of genome sequencing platforms and the exponentially increasing genome information available. We understand that the concept of prokaryotic species should adapt to the current knowledge in the field, incorporating novel procedures for the unambiguous classification of bacteria and archaea, and with provisions for the future to be able to incorporate the increasing diversity (cultured and uncultured) that will soon be discovered and the enormous amounts of phenotypic and genomic information that we are becoming able to access.One should understand the continuous concept of prokaryotic species as a cluster of phenotypic and/or genomic features, or information that groups together a number of strains, varieties or isolates due to their similarity. This is not much different from the classic, discrete concept, but incorporates a range of limits for the species, as well as a variability within, and a high diversity in and out of, those limits. The provision of statistical limits for a species and the acceptance of the potential existence of similar cells or strains out of the statistically delimited boundaries are key concepts that, up to today, have been mostly left aside in prokaryotic taxonomy, in spite of their known existence, the increasingly understood large diversity among the prokaryotes ,18, and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/browse#!/prokaryotes/). For each species, its type strain was selected as the reference organism except if noted otherwise. Within a species, the genomes were pairwise compared to the reference strain and the genomic distance (% dissimilarity) was calculated based on the average nucleotide identity (ANI) as described by Richter and Rosselló-Móra [The method used to analyze the example species shown in this study is as follows. The genome sequences available for the analyzed species were retrieved from the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Microbial Genomes database  are difficult to sustain. The continuity concept does not interfere with setting limits or boundaries for the classification of the members of a species. Mathematicians constantly define sets and subsets within the real numbers. It is expected that a species represents a cluster of cells, strains or variants (representing the intraspecific variability) within some established limits (range of confidence) than can be classified to belong to that species because all the other cells (those off boundaries) are placed  in the continuum spectrum beyond those limits. There is no reason to limit our understanding to discrete units, such as natural numbers  in mathematics. Considering a continuum, one can better understand the actual reality in the microbial world , such as the case of real numbers in mathematics, which reveals the existence of a continuum of endless possibilities  in between two counting numbers. Microbiologists should face the challenge and adapt to the current knowledge and scenarios among prokaryotes.Difficulty does not imply prohibition. Advances in the delineation of prokaryotic taxa must pick concepts from other sciences following the true purpose of multidisciplinary science. Mathematicians have been developing the study of distributions for centuries, and today there is a well-established theory of distributions , variability and limits of significance  that canShigella flexneri and Escherichia coli. Shigella sonnei) and a multi-modal curve (corresponding to Shigella boydii), showing three clusters within the species. Some other examples of multi-modal curves can be observed in S. sonnei represents a uni-modal curve  so that the statistics are able to provide significant data, thus minimizing biases due to limited sampling. The current limitations on strain availability or number of isolates negatively affect the understanding of microbiology and the description of species. Today, there is a strong initiative to fully incorporate genomics into species delineation . It is rNevertheless, independently of the analyzed features, similar trends should be applied to construct a set of bell-shaped curves that will define a cluster corresponding to a species. Ideally, the polyphasic approach ,8 shouldOne of the major goals of taxonomy should be to determine the variation allowed within a species or taxa. This should be performed based on a statistical procedure that considers descriptive statistics, such as average and variance (deviation from the mean), mode, and median, which would assist in defining the range of distances (or dissimilarities) from a reference strain  within a prokaryotic species.The different consequences of these analyses can be observed in A major advantage of large data sets representative of the actual diversity and heterogeneity within a species is that future estimates over time-series or spatial scales can provide evidence of the potential shifts or trends in a species’ features. The detection of novel diversity and putative speciation processes could lead to species differentiation and the extinction or preservation of the representatives of a species or taxa. Currently, long-term preservation in public culture collections has revealed strain biases ,45. ThisIncreasing efforts in the detection, isolation and culturing of microorganisms, and the exponential advances in next-generation sequencing platforms, are allowing us to reach a much deeper knowledge of the actual prokaryotic diversity and its spectrum of variability. Besides the new and exciting potential research trends mentioned above, the future initiatives in this field should be focused on the development of novel and unified comparative approaches to determine phenotypic and genomic distances (leading to the description of polyphasic distance metrics). Although the use of genomic information is a must in species comparison, past taxonomic experience continues to highlight the importance of the phenotype in determining species differentiation. Future research should, as well, be able to discriminate the taxonomic interest and the limitations of the phenotype versus the importance of epigenetic heterogeneity in prokaryotes. These novel research trends need to be evaluated so as to select the relevant information related to phenotypes, genomes and their intrinsic intra-specific heterogeneity. Again, the role of statistical methods would significantly contribute to delineating species, including the range of variability introduced by the members of a species. Microbial taxonomy and the concept of species must incorporate the recently acquired information and knowledge from current research trends, and adapt to the new changes and challenges that are about to come in the near future, which will certainly restructure the way microbiology has been understood so far.


With the emergence of online communities, more and more people are participating in online technology communities to meet personalized learning needs. This study aims to investigate whether and how male and female users behave differently in online technology communities. Using text data from the Python Technology Community, through the LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) model, sentiment analysis, and regression analysis, this paper reveals the different topics of male and female users in the online technology community, their sentimental tendencies and activity under different topics, and their correlation and mutual influence. The results show the following: (1) Male users tend to provide information help, while female users prefer to participate in the topic of making friends and advertising. (2) When communicating in the technology community, male and female users mostly express positive emotions, but female users express positive emotions more frequently. (3) Different emotional tendencies of male and female users under different topics have different effects on their activity in the community. The activity of female users is more susceptible to emotional orientation. The rapid development of modern information technology has affected people’s learning, work, and lifestyle. It is urgent for societal members to make full use of information technology to explore the digital learning mode and meet the growing diversified and personalized learning needs . The IntAn online technology community can aggregate distributed information and knowledge; its existence meets people’s personalized demand for knowledge and social demand for interpersonal relationships . UnderstGathering people with similar interests into a group and studying the behavioral differences among different groups is helpful to have a deeper understanding of the interests of each group and provide guidance for understanding the information needs, emotional needs, and relationship needs of different groups . The WHOA traditional limitation of gender difference research is the large sample size required to reach broad conclusions. Today, the emergence of user-generated content solves this problem because the Internet can provide many texts on various topics . The secIn recent years, online community posting text has been used by some scholars to study the use behavior of community users, the role of knowledge dissemination, and other issues . An onliFor a long time, the difference of language use and emotion between men and women has been the interest of gender difference research. Previous studies on gender differences in language use have shown that men are more likely to use language to convey information, while women are more likely to use language to communicate for social purposes . Women aThe emergence of the Internet and Web2.0 provides new opportunities for the study of gender differences. The scale and number of computer-mediated support groups have been increasing; their relatively unique feature is the lack of social and physical cues, which gives participants the opportunity to remain fully anonymous . HoweverThe emergence of user-generated content and online communities has broadened the scope of gender research . Teso etOne of the reasons why the research on gender differences of computer-mediated online support groups has contradictory conclusions may be that the sampling strategies of the research are quite different, that is, the number of messages and the time period of analysis . Using aIn 1995, Feldman first proposed the concept of text mining; it is a process of discovering and extracting hidden and previously unknown knowledge from a large amount of text data by combining machine learning and information retrieval technology, and ultimately forming valuable knowledge . Text miA topic model is used to find the probability distribution of hidden topics in text. The Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model is the most popular topic model. Sentiment analysis refers to the detection and classification of the sentiments expressed by opinion holders . The purExisting research mainly focuses on sentiment recognition, without further consideration of the impact of shared information on user activity . The resThe Python community is one of the most active online technology communities in China. It is a non-profit online technology exchange that aims to help users to learn technology, share learning experiences, and make friends with like-minded technology learners. In addition, considering that the Python community is not gender specific, this paper chooses the post text of the Python community to explore the information behavior of men and women.The study was approved by Python community managers. Before the study began, we fully explained the study purpose and methods to the community managers, to ensure that personal information would safe and protected and to ensure that the community managers could withdraw from the study at any time without damage. After informed consent of community managers, all data were properly obtained.We designed a multi-threaded crawler code, collected all posts of the Python community from January 2006 to April 2018, and obtained a total of 302,914 posts. Through data cleaning and sorting, in the end, a total of 225,875 valid posts about the Python community were obtained, of which 172,487 were from male users and 53,388 were from female users.Latent Dirichlet Allocation is a three-layer Bayesian theme model proposed by Blei in 2003. The unsupervised learning method is used to discover the subject information implicit in text. The purpose is to have no guidance of learning from the implied semantic dimension found in the text, namely “topic” or “concept.” The essence of the LDA topic model is to discover the topic structure of the text by using the co-occurrence feature of the word in the text. This method does not require any background knowledge about the text. The implicit semantic representation of the text can be used to model the linguistic phenomena of “one word polysemy” and “one meaning polysemy,” which makes the search results obtained by the search engine system match the users’ query on the semantic level, rather than just the intersection on the lexical level . This moK = 4, and the number of keywords is 10, the similarity of each topic is small, and the topics are well clustered. The words of each topic are most easily summarized, and the probability of each topic word is high, which indicates that the topic classification effect is the best at this time.First, we performed data preprocessing on the post text. In this method, we first split the complaints into words using Jieba, a Chinese Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool. Meanwhile, we also filtered the stop words using a Chinese stop words list, which, in total, includes 1,893 words. This Chinese linguistic list is often used in Chinese natural language processing. After that, we used the LDA model for analysis. To overcome this limitation of LDA, the Gibbs sampling algorithm was used to estimate model parameters. The parameter estimation method of The topic information of male and female users is shown in In this paper, based on the Python language, sentiment analysis is performed on the effective posts of male users and female users under different topics. The distribution of sentiment tendency between male and female users under each topic is shown in p-value is lower than 0.05, the null hypothesis can be rejected, so it can be determined that there are significant differences between gender and emotion under the four topics.Furthermore, a chi-square test was carried out for the four different topics to study the relationship between male and female users and emotion. The results are shown in After topic-oriented sentiment analysis, we want to explore the differential influence of gender in emotional tendency on user activity, that is, to analyze the regulatory effect of gender in emotional tendency on user activity. Therefore, this paper establishes a group regression model to further analyze the relationship between the activity of male users and female users under each topic and their emotional tendencies. At the same time, a seemingly unrelated regression test (SUEST) is performed on the differences in regression coefficients between groups. The analysis results are shown in The purpose of this study was to broaden the understanding of online technology communities by comparing the differences between male and female users in topics, emotions, and the impact of emotions on activity. This paper discusses the different topics of male and female users through the LDA model. Then, the sentiment analysis method is used to compare the emotional tendency of male and female users. Finally, multiple linear regression analysis is used to discuss the different influences of user emotions on activity under different topics. The results show the following: (1) Online technology community posts are divided into four topics: seeking information help, providing information help, technical exchange, and making friends and advertising. Male users tend to provide information help, while female users prefer to participate in the topic of making friends and advertising. (2) When communicating in the technology community, most of the male and female users express positive emotions, but the frequency of female users expressing positive emotions is higher. (3) The emotion of male and female users under different topics in the community has a significant impact on their activity, but the impact is different. In comparison, the activity of female users is more susceptible to emotional tendencies.Through the analysis of the LDA model, we found that the topics of male and female users in the Python community are the same, which shows that the goals and ideas of male and female users participating in the community are generally consistent. In addition, we found that male and female users are most involved in two kinds of topics: seeking information help and providing information help. The reason is that as a computer language, Python has a high technical threshold, so most users in the Python community are beginners. Their needs in the community are mainly some introductory video tutorials, learning materials, and complete code. A surprising finding of this study is that the distribution of posts of male users and female users under different topics also presents certain differences. Under the topic of providing information help, male users in the technology community will be more proactive in providing information help to other users. This finding differs from research by Sentiment analysis shows that users of different genders express more positive emotions in the technology community. In contrast, female users convey positive emotions more frequently, while male users convey negative emotions more frequently. The gender belief system model states that people’s perceptions of men and women are constrained by social expectations . Belief Specifically, under the topic of seeking information help, although most users express positive and neutral emotions, male users relatively show more negative emotions, which shows that male users are more likely to express impatience and dissatisfaction in the process of technical learning. A possible explanation for this finding is that with negative emotions, male and female users treat information differently. In contrast, men are more likely to be emotionally depressed . Men useThrough multiple linear regression analysis, we also found that the influence of user sentiment on user activity is different under different topics. Generally speaking, positive sentiment can promote the user’s activity under each topic, while negative sentiment can inhibit it. In comparison to male users, the activity of female users is more susceptible to sentiment. This supports the gender role theory, which states that the assessment of events varies by gender . That isSpecifically, under seeking information help, the activity of male and female users is positively correlated with their positive emotions and negatively correlated with their negative emotions. This indicates that positive emotions promote the technical learning enthusiasm of technical community users, while negative emotions will inhibit their knowledge-seeking behavior. At the same time, we found that negative emotions have more influence on female users than male users. The potential explanation for this finding may be that, as women are more cautious, they show greater sensitivity and responsiveness to stimuli that may have a negative impact than men . This isUnder the topic of providing information help, the correlation between male user activity and their emotional tendency is not significant, while female users are just the opposite. Their activity is significantly positively correlated with positive emotion and negatively correlated with negative emotion, and the absolute value of the positive emotion correlation coefficient is greater than negative emotion; this result also shows that male users are more rational when providing information help to others and are not affected by emotional tendency, while female users are more emotional, and negative emotions will hinder their information support behavior. This again supports Under the topic of technology exchange, the activity of male and female users is positively correlated with their positive emotions, while the negative emotions are not significant. This result shows that users in the community are mainly driven by their motivation of information demand. When exchanging knowledge, positive emotions will make them willing to communicate on technical issues, while negative emotions will not significantly affect technology exchange activities. This can be explained by the theory of immersion. People are interested in an activity and a transaction and fully participate in it. After the experience of enjoyment is formed, users will maintain the experience through repeated behaviors, that is, immersion experience . The humUnder the topic of making friends and advertising, positive emotions do not affect making friends and advertising behavior, but negative emotions can significantly inhibit the social and promotional behavior of male and female users in the community. As The contributions of this paper are as follows: firstly, this paper studies the gender differences of users in an online technology community starting from the topic classification of the content of the posts, which makes up for the lack of understanding of gender differences in online technology communities in previous studies. Secondly, different from the commonly used questionnaires and field interviews, this paper uses a large number of post texts as data sources, using the LDA topic model, machine learning, and other methods for topic classification and correlation analysis, providing new data sources and research approaches for relevant research on gender differences. Finally, the empirical results of emotion and user activity under different topics should reveal the aggregation behavior of users under different topics in the community and enrich the research field of emotion analysis.Our research results have much practical significance, which can promote the interaction of community users and the construction of an online technology community information system. In our research on male and female users, these differences help to better understand their needs and clarify how to better serve these users. First of all, we use the LDA model to identify online technology community topics, which is beneficial for community managers to guide different-gender users. An online technology community information system can provide male and female users with recommendations and requests to reply to posts with different topics. In the aspect of ergonomics realization, it is beneficial for both respondents and questioners to provide information topics of interest to target users. Secondly, through sentiment analysis of community posts, it provides the basis for users to provide refined management. In the process of technical communication, community managers and users can better interact with each other and maintain a positive attitude in a more effective and personalized way; it can help community managers to divide community users into groups and help the community realize the refined management of users. Thirdly, the research results provide important management implications for community development. Through regression analysis, this paper studies the relationship between sentimental tendency and user activity of different-gender users under different topics, which is beneficial for community managers to monitor and adjust user activity under different topics of the community through the change of sentimental tendency, so as to realize the sustainable development of the community. Finally, this study provides strategies for negative sentiment management. Community managers should pay more attention to the discussion of female users to alleviate the spread of negative sentiments. These designs will help optimize human–computer interaction and improve the service of the online technology community.Due to the limitations of conditions and technologies, this paper only crawled the text data in the Python community. Although the size of the data is large, there are still some limitations in the selection of the technical community. In future research, the author will consider obtaining the text data from other online technology communities and analyze related contents to further test the research methods and results of this paper. At the same time, in the future, the method of time series analysis can be considered to study the changes in the activity and emotion of users of different genders under various topics and then explore the rules of user role evolution, so as to realize the dynamic expansion of this study.The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.BS, HM, and CY contributed the conception and design of the study. CY organized the database. HM performed the statistical analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. BS, HM, and CY wrote sections of the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision and read and approved the submitted version.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


A decline in soil biodiversity is generally considered to be the reduction of forms of life living in soils, both in terms of quantity and variety. Where soil biodiversity decline occurs, it can significantly affect the soils’ ability to function, respond to perturbations and recover from a disturbance. Several soil threats have been identified as having negative effects on soil biodiversity, including human intensive exploitation, land-use change and soil organic matter decline. In this review we consider what we mean by soil biodiversity, and why it is important to monitor. After a thorough review of the literature identified on a Web of Science search concerning threats to soil biodiversity (topic search: threat* “soil biodiversity”), we compiled a table of biodiversity threats considered in each paper including climate change, land use change, intensive human exploitation, decline in soil health or plastic; followed by detailed listings of threats studied. This we compared to a previously published expert assessment of threats to soil biodiversity. In addition, we identified emerging threats, particularly microplastics, in the 10 years following these knowledge based rankings. We found that many soil biodiversity studies do not focus on biodiversity sensu stricto, rather these studies examined either changes in abundance and/or diversity of individual groups of soil biota, instead of soil biodiversity as a whole, encompassing all levels of the soil food web. This highlights the complexity of soil biodiversity which is often impractical to assess in all but the largest studies. Published global scientific activity was only partially related to the threats identified by the expert panel assessment. The number of threats and the priority given to the threats (by number of publications) were quite different, indicating a disparity between research actions versus perceived threats. The lack of research effort in key areas of high priority in the threats to soil biodiversity are a concerning finding and requires some consideration and debate in the research community. Soils are a globally important reservoir of biodiversity, hosting at least one quarter of all living organisms on the planet . Soil prThe decline in soil biodiversity is generally considered to be the reduction of forms of life living in soils, both in terms of quantity and variety . WherevePredictive maps describing the state of soil biodiversity, both in general and geographical terms, exist in atlases of soil biodiversity  and at sWith the use of expert assessment, the authors of these atlases have highlighted 12 potential threats to soil biodiversity, which have subsequently been used to estimate the magnitude and map potential threats to soil biodiversity . These wAfter discussing what we mean by soil biodiversity, and why it is important to monitor, this review will discuss whether emphasis in the literature surrounding threats to soil biodiversity reflects the results of this expert assessment. In addition, we will identify whether there have been any emerging threats in the 10 years following these knowledge based rankings.threat* “soil biodiversity” on 27th November 2019, which returned 72 results. Note the key and specific term soil biodiversity was used rather than the generic term soil biology, nonetheless, some of the references returned  often addresses the effects of certain threats on a single group of organisms or species. Despite this, these studies were still included. The use of threat* will return records that use the term threat, threats or threatened with soil biodiversity in the title, abstract or keywords. We recognise that papers discussing negative effects may not all be returned using the term “threat”. However, when the work considers sufficient damage or harm is likely to be caused to soil biodiversity then the term “threat” will almost inevitably be used. After datasets, duplicates, and references that were not relevant were omitted , 46 papers were left for review. Each reference was studied in detail, and the potential threats to soil biodiversity that each paper identified was compiled into a compressive table describing the type of study  and the threat(s) to biodiversity considered in the work.Using Web of Science a basic literature search was conducted with the ‘topic’ field. A topic field search will examine the title, abstract and keywords of every record. This review used the search term: the variety of life. Soil biodiversity is generally defined as the variability of living organisms in soil and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems  species diversity where the variety and abundance of different types of organisms inhabiting a soil (akin to taxonomic diversity), (3) genetic diversity as the combination of different genes found within a population of a single species, and the pattern of variation found within different populations of the same species , (4) phenotypic diversity based on any and/or all of the morphological, biochemical or physiological aspects of the organism in the soil and is a result of genes and environmental factors, and (5) functional diversity as the variety of functions performed by the soil biota . On review of the 46 papers returned in our Web of Science search, only species, functional and ecosystem diversity were discussed. With the vast majority of the literature focussed on species diversity, although functional diversity in the context of ecosystems was also addressed in c. 20% of the papers.Biodiversity itself is a relatively recent concept first used in 1988  and has osystems . For theosystems  as: (1) At its simplest, the vast biodiversity of the soil can be divided into five major groups . These aThe microbes are the smallest group in physical dimension yet the most abundant and, despite their size, may comprise the largest biomass. The microbial community is the most diverse group of organisms, not only in the soil but arguably on the planet. The major taxa comprise bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and viruses . The biospecies richness which is simply the number of species present in the soil, or more accurately in the sample(s) of soil taken. The problem with this metric is that common species are found with little sampling effort and more with greater sampling effort. Therefore, this is no longer recognised as a comprehensive measure of biodiversity. In order to avoid this potential misinterpretation of diversity, numerous indices have been developed that suit a variety of environmental and community circumstances (see pi) of each species (i) within the total number of individuals. Simpson’s Index: There are several commonly used ways of assessing species diversity that are based on calculated metrics or indices . The mosD equals diversity. For any number of species in a sample (S), the value of D can range from 1 to S. As D increases diversity decreases so this index is usually expressed as 1–D or 1/D. In contrast, the Shannon-Weaver Index (H) is a logarithmic measure of diversity: where H, the greater the diversity. Because H is roughly proportional to the logarithm of the number of species, it is sometimes preferable to present data as eH, which is proportional to the actual number of species.The higher Alpha-diversity, or within-habitat diversity, refers to a group of organisms interacting and competing for the same resources or sharing the same environment or soil. This is measured as the number of species within a given area. Beta-diversity, or between-habitat diversity, refers to the response of organisms to spatial heterogeneity. High beta-diversity implies low similarity between species composition of different soils or habitats. It is usually expressed in terms of similarity index between communities between different habitats in same geographical area. Gamma diversity, or landscape diversity, refers to the total biodiversity over a large area or region. It is the total of α and β diversity.The scale at which biodiversity is considered is also important, and the type of biodiversity measured is dependent on whether comparisons are made with or between soils (habitats). Loss of species diversity can often be hard to quantify especially at smaller scales as it is likely that some species could be extinct before they are recorded or described . It is aSoils are remarkably complex and dynamic environments and hence typically comprise a wide range of habitat types for organisms over a range of dimensions from micrometre to the landscape scale . It is tAs described by Functional diversity considers the variety and number of taxa that undertake contrasting functional roles in the soil. Measuring diversity in this way allows an emphasis on the function of biodiversity within an ecosystem, rather than the specific species that comprise the diversity. Species diversity is thought to be important because it is synonymous with ecosystem health, leading to ecosystem supporting functions, and ultimately ecosystem services. However, there is often considerable functional redundancy in soil , primariA review of soil biodiversity relationships with C cycling by Several reviews have outlined the importance of soil biodiversity and their contribution to ecosystem services in recent years for soil management , the dynDeveloping a generic framework to assess the functions and services provided by soils has been challenging, especially given the heterogeneity of soil and gaps in data . The comIn order to identify a complete register of the potential threats to soil biodiversity published in the journal literature a comprehensive search was completed on the Web of Science. The 46 papers returned by Web of Science can be found in The 12 identified threats to soil biodiversity, and the weightings given in the expert assessment in However, it is important to note that there have been other potential threats to soil biodiversity that are not included in the Intensive human exploitation, including intensive agriculture using tillage, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, liming and GMOs; (ii) Land use change, including deforestation, conversion to agriculture, soil sealing and habitat fragmentation and disruption; (iii) Soil degradation resulting in a decline in soil health/ quality, such as organic matter decline, contamination, compaction, erosion, salinization and loss of available nutrients; (iv) Climate change, particularly the effects of a change in soil temperature and moisture; and (v) Plastics.The threats identified in the literature  can be c“plastic*” & “soil biodiversity”. Climate change returned the most papers, followed by (in descending order): land use change; intensive human exploitation; soil health decline; and plastics  were quite different, indicating a disparity between research actions versus perceived threats. The lack of research effort in key areas of high priority in the threats to soil biodiversity are a concerning finding and requires some consideration and debate in the research community.


Blockchain-based loan system can be summed up as: information exchange between various government departments; information exchange between enterprises and various financial institutions; detection of the actual use of loans in the form of encrypted currency. This technology is supposed to reduce a lot of financing costs for SMEs on average. Therefore, this research extends complexity theory to discover the factors that affect the use of Blockchain loan systems by SMEs. Complexity, perceived risk, perceived fairness and reward sensitivity prove to have significant effects on usage intention. Complexity proves to have moderating effects on other relationships. This research may contribute to the system performance improvement and provide opportunities for SMEs to share information with financial institutions or individuals around the world, thereby providing investors with equal opportunities for competition. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employ various forms of employment, and their mechanisms are relatively flexible, which can meet the needs of diverse forms of employment. Since the operating information of SMEs is not as transparent as that of listed companies, it brings great difficulties to financial institutions in pre-lending investigations, loan approvals, and post-lending management. The vast majority of loan work relies on manual investigation, judgment, review, and accumulation of years of work experience. Therefore, the labor cost in the entire loan process is too high. For some SMEs, in order to obtain loans faster, they may deliberately hide debts or business risks, which will lead to the failure of financial institutions’ investments. For financial institutions, since it takes a lot of time and manpower to do due diligence, they will increase loan interest rates as compensation. The above reasons create an illusion that SMEs are unwilling to borrow from financial institutions, and financial institutions are unwilling to lend to SMEs.Blockchain-based loan system is designed to solve the problem of difficult, expensive and slow financing for SMEs. This system integrates various data and information related to SMEs such as supervision, taxation, transaction, customs, legal affairs, social security fee, and water and electricity charges. In the Blockchain-based loan system, financial institutions can query various business data of SMEs after legal authorization, and form a corporate profile, so as to judge the business status of the business before and after the loan. This system is provided and supervised by the government. SMEs who want to obtain loans quickly at low cost can voluntarily join the Blockchain-based loan system. After obtaining the consent of SMEs, relevant financial institutions can obtain their business data from the system. Moreover, since loans are issued in digital currency, the flow of funds is supervised by the financial institutions that issue loans to ensure that loans are used in actual business activities or designated purpose. The functions of this system can be summed up as: information exchange between various government departments; information exchange between enterprises and various financial institutions; detection of the actual use of loans in the form of encrypted currency. This technology is supposed to reduce a lot of financing costs for enterprises on average.Although financial institutions vigorously promote the Blockchain-based loan system to support SMEs in financing, some SMEs hide the truly important data in the depths of the company and are unwilling to share it with financial institutions because it involves shareholder interests, trade secrets, patent privacy, transaction information, peer competition, and other specific requirements, etc. Since SMEs have different acceptance levels or some concerns about using Blockchain-based loan system, it is necessary to study the key factors that affect SMEs to carry out the system. Therefore, the focus of this research is to discover the factors that affect the use of Blockchain-based loan systems by SMEs, with the aim of enhancing usage intention and acceptance of Blockchain-based loan systems by SMEs.In recent years, Blockchain technology has been integrated with governments and enterprises to become a key innovation and has been widely recognized , 2. ApplWalton 2014)  reviews   reviewsComplexity may occur in the use of Blockchain-based loan system by financial institutions and SMEs. For financial institutions, although this system provides sufficient information to analyze the operating status of SMEs, the massive amount of information has brought excess workload to the managers. They need to classify the industry first, and then decide which information is important for loan review, which information is important for post-loan monitoring, and which information is only an auxiliary reference. These tasks have undoubtedly increased the complexity of the work. For SMEs, originally, many of them did not follow the standards of large enterprises to formulate work processes. Their financial process, employment system, sales channels, capital flow, cost control, etc. may not meet the requirements of financial institutions. Therefore, in order to obtain loans, small and medium-sized enterprises must adjust and upgrade their original work processes to make everything formal. And this will definitely increase the complexity of the work of SMEs. In summary, complexity is an important factor in financial institutions and SMEs in accepting Blockchain-based loan system activities.From the perspective of motivation and behavior, SMEs choose a Blockchain-based loan system because of their inherent needs and an interest-driven performance. The decision-making behavior of SMEs is goal-oriented, and their goal is to obtain loans quickly and at low cost. When the Blockchain-based loan system cannot satisfy SMEs in some respects, SMEs will abandon it and look for alternatives instead. Therefore, this research brings together the complexity theory and pull-push-mooring effects to better study the Blockchain-based lending system.Push factors refer to the factors that lead to dissatisfaction with existing products or services . In thisIn order to be eligible to use the Blockchain-based loan system, SMEs must improve their own information records, including but not limited to taxes, bank transfers, utility bills, wages, inventory, operating costs, etc. For SMEs, it is necessary to upgrade the current management system, train or hire specialized employees, especially to complete data that has not been recorded for many years, which brings certain risks to SMEs. Can the cost of improving this information bring the expected satisfactory low-interest loans? Will so much information uploaded to financial institutions be used for tax investigation or employment arbitration? Will senior employees who manage this information sell this information privately to peers for compensation? The most important thing is that if loans are issued in the form of digital currency, the core competitiveness of small and medium enterprises, such as suppliers, accessories and retail information, will be controlled by the government and financial institutions. In this case, the intellectual property rights of SMEs are likely to be copied at low cost. In order to apply the Blockchain-based loan system, the management system of small and medium-sized enterprises also needs to undergo many changes. Whether these changes can actually improve the company’s operating efficiency is still unknown. Perceived risk is a popular factor that has been applied to variety of research fields, such as customer loyalty , disasteH1: Perceived risk negatively affects usage intention of Blockchain-based loan system.Blockchain-based loan system can bring fast and low-cost loans to SMEs, which is the biggest motivation for them to make changes. All small and medium-sized enterprises will conduct serious cost accounting for their investment and the returns they obtain, and strive to obtain the best returns with the lowest cost area. They will be very sensitive to returns, and if they find that companies of similar size and business have obtained loans by upgrading themselves, they will follow suit. The pursuit of rewards will prompt the central enterprise to adopt more sensitive and proactive behaviors to use Blockchain-based loan system, because reward sensitivity is closely related to the high efficiency and better completion of the work to obtain returns , 31 TherH2: Reward sensitivity positively affects usage intention of Blockchain-based loan system.Perceived fairness is the most basic requirement of every industry. However, due to the complexity of financial institutions’ loan data and the difficulty of monitoring the flow of funds, it is difficult to make fair loan decisions based on business information. When various information of SME is uploaded to Blockchain-based system, financial institutions will compare the real capital needs and repayment capabilities of different companies. Commercial bribery, sales volume and cost fraud, which affect fair competition, are eliminated. In fact, because the information of many SMEs is not open and transparent, part of the loans enters the accounts of the company’s shareholders’ affiliated companies and is privately possessed by some major shareholders. In fact, sometimes the senior management of financial institutions is aware of this illegal act, but due to the exchange of benefits, it is rarely known to the outside world. This may lead to regulated business SMEs unable to obtain loans, and a large number of loan resources occupied by enterprises through commercial bribery or drawer agreements. When all relevant corporate information is displayed in the Blockchain-based loan system, managers of financial institutions who are qualified to query information will quickly discover which qualified SMEs have been treated unfairly. They can be rewarded or promoted by reporting suspicious loan behavior. Perceived fairness is so important that it exists in research in all walks of life, such as management decision ; Tax comH3: Perceived fairness positively affects usage intention of Blockchain-based loan system.In plenty of research fields, complexity is always a key factor that affecting the adopting progress, including self-evaluation  and purcH4: Complexity negatively affects usage intention of Blockchain-based loan system.When the complexity increases, SMEs may worry about whether their high-paid staff can transmit operating and financial information to the system on time in accordance with the requirements of financial institutions, thereby increasing their perception of risks. The higher the complexity of routine maintenance and use of the system, the more users feel the increased risk of use, and the less willing to use the system. Therefore:H5: Complexity will negatively moderate the relationship between perceived risk and usage intention.Although the increase in complexity will bring some difficulties, when SMEs work hard to adapt to this complex system, they will look forward to the rewards they will obtain by using the system in the future. This is because the more they pay, the more they expect in return. When some small and medium-sized enterprises overcome the complexity, they may find themselves ahead of their peers in terms of loan efficiency, and obtain more favorable loan interest rates than their peers. Thereby, when users reduce the complexity, they may increase the intention to use the Blockchain-based loan system for more reward. Therefore:H6: Complexity will negatively moderate the relationship between reward sensitivity and usage intention.Accurate and complex operations make information fraud impossible. This is because dynamically updated information will make it easier for falsify data to be tracked and discovered. This is because dynamically updated information will make it easier for some people to falsify data to be tracked and discovered. Overly complex operations will put companies without professional and technical personnel at a disadvantage in the competition, thus feeling that Blockchain technology does not bring fair competition. This prompts those companies that like to pursue fairness to use the system more passively. Therefore:H7: Complexity will negatively moderate the relationship between perceived fairness and usage intention.The proposed model is showed in Questionnaire was designed to take a survey among Blockchain-based loan system users. Most of them are senior executives in finance, management, and operations industries or young heirs to family businesses in SMEs. The participants in the questionnaire are voluntary. They are fully allowed to disclose the contents of the file investigation. Most of them are under 40, have a bachelor degree or above, are willing to accept new things, and have begun to use the system to apply for loans for companies. In order to increase the reliability and validity of the document survey, we first conducted a questionnaire survey with 54 managers. Based on their feedback, we upgraded the old questionnaire and then launched a formal online questionnaire survey in April 2020. A total of 323 questionnaires were received, which is 75.5% response rate. Incomplete and invalid questionnaires were removed, leaving 296 valid questionnaires.Perceived risk has a three items for measurement based on Wu et al. (2011)  study. 1Reward sensitivity has a three items for measurement based on Paola et al., (2015)  study. 1Perceived fairness has a three items for measurement based on Maqsoom et al., (2019)  study. 1Complexity has a three items for measurement based on Lopes et al., (2020)  study. 1Usage intention has a three items for measurement based on Xu et al., (2020)  study. 1All the items are measured by seven-likert scale from 1 strongly disagree to 7 strongly agree. Smart-PLS was applied to this test because Blockchain-based loan system is new and PLS technics has advantages in testing new model , 47. In Tables 2 value reflects the proportion of the total variation of the dependent variable that can be explained by the independent variable through the regression relationship. Overall, usage intention is explained by the four independent variables in a large proportion of variance of 27.8%.To better explain complexity’s moderating effect between perceived fairness and usage intention, plot of two levels of complexity is showed in SMEs have shown great enthusiasm for participating in the questionnaire survey, although different companies face different difficulties, they all gave full support in this questionnaire survey. As a disadvantaged group, SMEs have shown through their enthusiastic participation that they are willing to embrace Blockchain-based loan system. All the items were given relatively high scores; even those that were originally thought to have a negative effect especially reward sensitivity and perceived fairness. To a certain extent, this shows that SMEs are looking forward to new financing channels to obtain operating funds, because the difficulty of SMEs loans has now become a widespread phenomenon restricting their development. Due to the global economic recession brought about by the epidemic and the political and economic closure of many countries around the world, the survival and development of SMEs is not optimistic. As a new financial mechanism, Blockchain-based loans may provide SMEs with opportunities for wealth fairness and they look forward to a fair competition environment based on block-chain technology.Complex theory is a theory widely used in various disciplines, plenty of previous researches have proved the users’ responses based on complexity related indicators contribute to adoption in different research fields –57. ThisComplexity is proved to have a significant negative effect on usage intention, which indicates that although SEMs use the system proficiently and have great stickiness to the system , 65, theThese discoveries represent major advancements in technology and finance. On the one hand, this research has contributed to financial innovation by providing proof of the most influential psychological factors related to small and medium-sized enterprises lending directly through the Blockchain network system. In the past, this was a research field that academic researchers rarely paid attention to. On the other hand, this research represents an important step in the research on how SMEs’ beliefs and attitudes towards Blockchain financial technology affect the decision-making process of their use. With the support of the current comprehensive framework (PPM), our research works by incorporating complexity theory into the model and proving that this Social psychology structure plays an important role as a direct antecedent and moderating variable in the formation of system usage intentions.The results of this study show that the promotion of Blockchain-based loan system has a lot to do with the management strategies of financial institutions. It is very important to understand the psychological factors that can explain the intention of using the system, especially the role of complexity of use in this process. Encouraging SMEs to directly use Blockchain-based loan system instead of providing massive amounts of materials and multiple trips between financial institutions are very helpful to improve work efficiency. In this way, financial institutions will not only be able to fully utilize the commercial potential of Blockchain technology, but also reduce the personnel and management costs associated with the loan process.It is important to emphasize the need to reduce the difficulty of system operation and simplify the types and quantities of materials that need to be provided. In this sense, governments and financial institutions must establish effective and friendly system operation procedures to make SMEs perceive that using this loan system is not risky and as simple, safe, fast and convenient as traditional manual channels. The interactive application of the loan system needs to optimize every detail of the loan and constrain the financial institution . The government and financial institutions should set up special teams and programs to train SMEs who are passionate about this system to encourage fair competition for loans.In line with PPM theory, in order to better pull users back instead of pushing them out, financial institutions should also: 1) Improve free education on the use of information systems; 2) Reward those who are proficient and correctly using the system Enterprises, thus making this system the main way for SME loans. 3) In the first few years, if the company caused application errors due to unskilled operations, financial institutions should give understanding and try not to hold the company accountable.The loan system based on Blockchain technology is a breakthrough achievement because it greatly shortens the negotiation time from a few weeks to a few days or hours. The government provides supporting services such as credit enhancement, interest discount, and risk compensation for small and medium enterprises using this system. By Blockchain technology, the government, enterprises and financial institutions have established mechanisms for information sharing, privacy protection and mutual trust, which not only makes corporate information true and unchangeable, but also enables financial institutions to query corporate information in accordance with laws and regulations. This can play a role in solving the financing pain points of three types of SMEs: manufacturing, foreign trade and science and technology innovation. Traditional financial institutions will carry out investment work according to their own less transparent standards, but in the future, Blockchain technology can make everyone a lender. Anyone can use their own standards to carry out small loans and track the flow of funds they have borrowed in real time. One of the main advantages of a Blockchain-based loan system is that it provides the possibility of obtaining funds from various investors and reduces the reliance on traditional financial institution processes. The system also provides opportunities for SMEs not limited to local financial institutions. They can share information with financial institutions or individuals around the world, thereby providing investors with equal opportunities for competition.Despite the contributions of this study, this research has some limitations. First, since the investigation is conducted in China, the administrator of the system, it could be interesting to apply this model in different countries especially in those developed countries to test the model’s consistency. Second, when the borrowers are SMEs, this model is proved to be applicable. Future research should also examine the consistency of the model when the individual acts as a borrower. Finally, most of the participants in this study are traditional companies, and their financial and business information is relatively complete. Future research should join those startups that have just been established with professional technology and patents as their main assets.S1 Appendix(DOCX)Click here for additional data file.S1 Data(CSV)Click here for additional data file.


This article presents the challenges facing reindeer herding as being both a profitable business and part of the traditional culture of the nomadic Indigenous peoples in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia which addresses substantial needs of the local population. Reindeer herding products are used as traditional nutrition, and as effective preventive means and remedies for adapting to the cold and geomagnetic activity in the High North. Export trends of traditional reindeer products have decreased local Indigenous peoples’ access to venison and had a negative impact on their health. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially urgent for the Indigenous peoples to have sufficient access to traditional food and be involved in policy decision-making to maintain this traditional business. We aim to analyze the dependencies of Indigenous peoples on the reindeer produce–exporting “food value chain” and explore how (1) the independence of reindeer herders could be increased in these export chains and (2) how provision of their products to local communities could be secured. The study takes a multidisciplinary approach based on policy and socioeconomic analyses with input from medical research. Primary sources include data collected from interviews and surveys of Indigenous peoples during expeditions to the Nyda settlement, the Nydinskaya tundra, the Tazovsky settlement, the Tazovskaya tundra, the Nakhodka tundra, the Gyda and Gydansky settlements, the Yavai-Salinskaya tundra, the Seyakha settlement, the Seyakhinskaya and Tambeyskaya tundras located along the southern coast of the Ob Bay, the northeast coast of the Yamal Peninsula, the Tazovsky and Gydansky Peninsulas, and the Shuryshkarsky district. Data were collected during the summers and winters of 2014–2020. Reindeer herding is deeply rooted in the traditional food culture of the Indigenous peoples in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia. Strengthening the position of reindeer herders in the food value chain could contribute to securing healthy, accessible, and culturally appropriate food for local communities and reindeer herders, while promoting the desired lifestyle of the given group. Food security for this group of Indigenous peoples cannot be addressed in isolation, but is linked to their economic security and food sovereignty. Therefore, both physical and economic access to reindeer meat in sufficient quantity is connected to their engagement in the export market and their participation in the food value chain. However, due to export trends in reindeer products, the needs and position of Indigenous peoples in the food value chain are jeopardized. Additionally, COVID-19 has brought yet other stressor for this group. As a result, the question of food sovereignty has emerged in evaluating how these people experience challenges to sovereignty over their own food system. Food sovereignty generally refers to a situation where local and Indigenous peoples possess the necessary control over the whole process of a food system. It is about “peoples’ right to define their own policies and strategies for the sustainable production, distribution and consumption of food that guarantees the right to food for the entire population, on the basis of small- and medium-sized production, respecting their own cultures and the diversity of peasant, fishing and indigenous forms of agricultural production, marketing and management of rural areas, in which women play a fundamental role”  [The Six Pillars of Food Sovereignty, developed by Nyéléni, 2007  [The concept of food sovereignty challenges global food markets and empowers local actors . It has Indigenous health and adaptation to the harsh conditions of the Arctic depend on the consumption of traditional products  . ReindeeIn meeting the nutritional needs of the Indigenous peoples in the Russian Arctic, it is vital that a major source of nutrition such as reindeer meat, which is readily available in the community, is well supported by all stakeholders. Reindeer meat offers a rich source of protein, minerals, and essential fatty acids, and is culturally acceptable in these Arctic communities . ReindeeIn this study, we focus on integrating the different aspects of the reindeer food value chain in a multi-disciplinary approach to strengthen the food sovereignty of the Indigenous peoples in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia, and reflect on the main challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.YNAO, the geographic focus of our research, is an important region for the Indigenous peoples of Russia and is located in the circumpolar northwest of West Siberia . It has In this paper, we present the results of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of food sovereignty in reindeer herding communities living and practicing nomadism in the remote territories of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. We aimed to analyze the dependencies of Indigenous peoples on the reindeer produce exporting “food value chain” and to explore how the independence of reindeer herders could be increased in these export chains and how the provision of their products to local communities could be secured, while also addressing the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study takes a multidisciplinary approach based on policy and socioeconomic analyses with input from medical research. The primary sources include data collected from interviews and surveys of Indigenous peoples during expeditions to the Nyda settlement, the Nydinskaya tundra, the Tazovsky settlement, the Tazovskaya tundra, the Nakhodka tundra, the Gyda and Gydansky settlements, the Yavai-Salinskaya tundra, the Seyakha settlement, the Seyakhinskaya and Tambeyskaya tundras located along the southern coast of the Ob Bay, the northeast coast of the Yamal Peninsula, the Tazovsky and Gydansky Peninsulas, and the Shuryshkarsky district. Data were collected in the summers and winters of 2014–2020. Fieldwork was conducted by researchers of the YNAO Arctic Scientific Research Centre, the National Medical Research Center for Rehabilitation and Balneology, the Northern Arctic Federal University and the Association of Reindeer Herders in YNAO (two of the researchers were Indigenous). Secondary sources used in the study consist of official information requested from local authorities, public statistical data and official government reports.The methodology of the study is based on FAO’s (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) sustainable food value chain (FVC) framework. The core FVC comprises the value chain actors who produce or procure products from the upstream level, add value to these products and then sell them on to the next level. These actors carry out four functions: production, aggregation, processing, and distribution . FVC actors are linked to each other and their wider operating environment through a governance structure . FollowiWhile collecting the information from local authorities, public statistical data and official government reports, we implemented quantitative methods of analysis to collect data on the number of different producers of reindeer products, the scale of reindeer livestock, and the results of slaughter campaigns and sale to local communities as well as national and international markets.The data received from the semi-structured interviews showed the ways reindeer products are utilized and revealed the key issues of individual reindeer herders as stakeholders in the FVC, as well as the challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.p-value <0.05.Statistical analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel 2016 and SPSS Statistics 23.0 . Significant differences were defined at a The participants in the study were asked to fill out the questionnaire and interviewed while undergoing a medical examination conducted by the YNAO Arctic Scientific Research Centre and the National Medical Research Center for Rehabilitation and Balneology at health care institutions—municipal hospitals and feldsher-midwife medical stations in remote settlements. The participants were also recruited during the fieldwork in summer 2020 to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on reindeer herding activities. The inclusion criteria for the respondents were: aged over 18, of Indigenous origin, Indigenous language speaker, involved in reindeer herding, a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle, and residing in the tundra or in the settlements of the Arctic zone of Western Siberia for over five years. The participants received information about the program both verbally and in writing. They also provided written informed consent. The consent form stated that participation was voluntary and assured the confidentiality of the participants, whose personal data were anonymized, numbered, and added to de-identified databases. The interviews were recorded and also included in the database.The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Arctic Scientific Research Centre of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Salekhard, Russian Federation, on 18 January 2013 .Two hundred and sixty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted based on the interview guide developed and approved by the Northern Arctic Federal University and YNAO Arctic Scientific Research Centre. Two hundred and fifty-two surveys with fixed questions were received. Reindeer husbandry is the leading ethno-forming branch of the agro-industrial complex in the region. YNAO has the highest number of domesticated reindeer herds in the world, which has made it a prosperous reindeer herding area ,25 with In YNAO, the network of stakeholders involved in producing, slaughtering, processing, distributing and consuming reindeer products forms the food value chain that is presented in The producers of reindeer products in YNAO  provide reindeer husbandry and trade food commodities, such as raw reindeer products . In 2020, in YNAO, there were 19 agricultural enterprises, 447 national communities (obschina), 11 peasant farms specializing in reindeer herding and processing reindeer products, and 2839 individual reindeer herders . Collective reindeer herding in YNAO  is an effective organizational form for the Indigenous economy involved in producing, slaughtering and processing reindeer products. It is rooted in both the Soviet period (a state farm or sovkhoz) and traditional forms of Indigenous peoples’ cooperation . So some reindeer herders find transforming a national community into a peasantry farm or an agricultural production cooperative attractive because of access to government support, subsidies and future prospects for developing business. Bogdan O., a reindeer herder from the Laborovskaya tundra, thinks that “The head of a family with a reindeer herd will be able to register a peasant farm as an enterprise in the future if he wants to enlarge and offer new jobs to unite the farms of his relatives or neighbors into a cooperative.” “Joining peasant farms or entering a community to receive grants and subsidies? It is difficult because I cannot make documents and reports for grants well. My family and I are nomads in the tundra with my reindeer far away in the Karskoe Sea. I do not have time to go to the authorities and do not know how to run this business and what papers are needed. I finished seven years of formal schooling and escaped to the tundra. Reindeer herding is my life now.” This reveals that reindeer herding husbandry in Western Siberia is still mostly focused on the subsistence economy combined with commodity production. In extreme climate conditions, societies do not use the revolutionary achievements of the Neolithic period: they do not strive to switch to a productive type of agriculture [However, individual reindeer herders are still the main producers of reindeer products in YNAO (60%) see . They sticulture , since aiculture .In the Arctic, most Indigenous communities belong to a mixed “subsistence-cash” economy . In YNAOReindeer herding is impacted annually by climate change ,40,41,42Reindeer herding in the Russian Arctic is mostly a subsidized business because of high productivity costs and low incomes. This makes the impact of COVID-19 very serious for reindeer herders who perceive the coronavirus, icing and anthrax as evil forces that “were fabricated to reduce the number of people in the tundra” . It has Limited access to vaccines for reindeer during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a sensitive issue for food security. Most vaccination procedures are subsidized by the local government of YNAO to support reindeer herding and control the pandemic. However, in spring (from mid-February to April) only 40% of about 220,000 reindeer that were planned to be vaccinated against anthrax received a vaccine from the veterinary service of YNAO. The summer vaccination period in the Priural’sky, Yamal’sky, Tazovsky and Purovsky districts of YNAO was delayed and started in late June . Timely “On the way, we passed trading posts. Their prices were too high and the shops were almost empty.” Some other reindeer herders asked their relatives and friends in the city to buy and send necessary medications. Anna I., a reindeer herder from Aksarka, recalled: “I asked someone in Salekhard and kind people helped me get medications. Now I order them from Ekaterinburg.” Challenges of delayed vaccination in the spring and summer could negatively impact the results of the slaughter campaign from November 2020 to January 2021 due to the possibility of decreased reindeer health and livestock approved for slaughter, and could make the reindeer herding business even less profitable for individuals.The medication for some other reindeer diseases  is not subsidized by the government. Thus, in summer 2020, during the period of limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most nomadic reindeer herders suffered greatly because they could not get access to pharmacies in the cities and had to buy anti-necrobacillosis medications at the trading posts (faktoria) in remote areas and pay unfair prices. Viktoria Z., a reindeer herder from Aksarka, said: “It was very difficult to get medical supplies for reindeer during the summer period. Because of the coronavirus, it was impossible to buy them in pharmacies, and we were not given the medicine that reindeer really need when they limp—antibiotics. (…) Now we have not received any medications from the veterinary service. It used to be good: first-aid kits were given to us. Now, the veterinary service has only supplied us with a vaccine against gadflies.” Bogdan A., the reindeer herder from the Laborovskaya tundra, noticed: “During the summer quarantine, <…> I had to buy medicines for reindeer that were five times more expensive at the trading post. I paid 20,000 rubles for it.” Moreover, reindeer herders sometimes could not find necessary products at the trade posts. Ilia S., the reindeer herder from the Laborovskaya tundra, recounted: High production costs were also a result of limited access to petroleum stations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most individual reindeer herders had to cooperate and share logistical costs of hiring a taxi to get to petroleum stations close to the city and back to the tundra. However, this still increased their expenses for fuel by almost 50%. Mikhail V., a reindeer herder from the Priural’sky district, explained: “It was very difficult for us to get the fuel, which reindeer herders need most of all. Our petroleum station in Aksarka was also closed, so we had to go to Salekhard city and hire a taxi for 3000 rubles one way. If two or three people split the cost, then it was possible to buy more barrels of fuel since the cost was less. However, if only one reindeer herder was going, it was a very high price to pay.” In YNAO, reindeer herding as commodity production strongly depends on the price of fuel and localization of logistic centers and slaughter facilities. The interviews of reindeer herders in the Tazovsky district of YNAO (n = 84) showed that the price of the delivery of fuel varied depending on distance from regional centers and petroleum stations. For example, in the Tazovsky settlement, the cost of petroleum AI-92 was 43 rubles per liter, in the trade point (faktoria) of Yuribei Gydansky, 94 rubles, in the Gyda settlement, 109 rubles, and on Oleniy Island, 138 rubles. Thus, the logistical expenses of reindeer herders increased in the remote areas and made them change their nomadic routes to pass by slaughter facilities or collaborate with other types of broker .Processors are supplied with reindeer products directly from the reindeer herding enterprises or via brokers who purchase them from individual reindeer herders or collective reindeer herders’ farms, giving them a choice to sell their products to: (1) slaughterhouses; (2) state farms (sovkhoz); (3) local trade points (faktoria); or (4) local merchants in the tundra. These brokers have to take responsibility for sanitary (veterinary) control, appropriate storage and delivery of reindeer products to processors, and offer different terms of sale for reindeer herders who are also producers. As a result of the slaughter campaign in 2019, 1847 tons of reindeer meat were harvested . In YNAO, there are 13 slaughter complexes and three slaughter points  near log“While slaughtering reindeer at the state farm, there was no need to buy the camuses of our reindeer: the farm just slaughtered reindeer, took the carcasses, and gave us back the other parts. However, now it is more difficult to sell reindeer to a state farm: there are a lot of papers to fill out and we have to wait for our money for six months.”Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, delayed vaccination of reindeer, limited access to the slaughtery at the state farms (sovkhoz) along with complicated bureaucratic procedures and long waiting times for payment (up to six months), the sovkhoz was less attractive for individual reindeer herders (only 9% of our respondents ever sold their products to state farms). Elena O., a reindeer herder, explained: “This year, the trading post bought reindeer meat for very cheap”. The reindeer herder Iakov S. mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic had dropped prices for velvet antlers: “This year, due to the coronavirus in the tundra, merchants bought the velvet antlers of the first sort for 1000 rubles per kg, the second sort for 800 rubles, and the third for 600 rubles.” Venera S. compared current prices for velvet antlers with the previous years: “Last year, the price reached 2,700 rubles.” However, collaboration with local merchants who arrived directly in the tundra was more convenient for reindeer herders and helped solve some COVID-19 related issues with supplies. Reindeer herders accepted the exchange of reindeer products for other goods , and they considered these sales as fair and more convenient, especially during the pandemic period, because they did not slaughter lots of reindeer  and could avoid production losses and the logistical costs associated with going to settlements or cities. The reindeer herder Nikolai S. mentioned: “Antipayuta was not on the way, and we had to nomad with the reindeer herd specifically to the slaughterhouse. This was bad because of weight loss by the reindeer. And it also depended on weather conditions—a lot of snow and ice.” Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic could have an impact on decreasing the number of slaughtered reindeer during the winter due to unfair prices and could create delays until a later period. This could lead to a decline in profit and quality of life, especially for poor individual reindeer herders who are supported by the local government. In 2000, a member of a nomadic family earned 5000 rubles per month. Regarding prices, trading posts (faktoria) and local merchants offered half the price for reindeer meat. For example, Venera S. noticed: When slaughtered, YNAO reindeer products are exported by brokers to both primary and value added processors that process, manufacture, and market reindeer products, which are in high demand in the meat, pharmaceutical and beauty industries. However, processors are limited in the number of reindeer products they can process due to gaps in slaughter procedures. First, the quality of products depends on freezing facilities. If the rules of storage are violated, deterioration takes place several times faster ,51. SecoThe distributors, including wholesalers, market and sell reindeer products in YNAO, and export them to other regions of Russia and abroad. YNAO is the only region in Russia that officially exports reindeer products to the EU. In 2008, four tons of reindeer products from YNAO were exported to Sweden, Finland and Germany . In 2019The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated consumers’ motivation “to protect themselves and their immune system by adopting healthier diets. The availability of bioactive ingredients of food and functional foods may become critical, as the demand for these products may increase” . Due to The COVID-19 pandemic almost completely limited the access of local communities to reindeer products; only 24% of the respondents could supply their relatives with reindeer meat in the settlements. This is because of food safety requirements as “a significant issue in order to avoid the spreading of the virus between producers, retailers, and consumers” . People This systematic research into the reindeer food value chain in YNAO has revealed strong dependence of reindeer herders on other stakeholders—brokers, processors and government institutions,—which makes them a vulnerable group and establishes barriers to entering the global market. Individual reindeer herders are not involved in the complete processing of reindeer products and have to accept the rules imposed by wholesalers and other retailers. However, reindeer herders are keepers of precious traditional knowledge about utilizing reindeer. Strengthening the involvement of reindeer herders in the food value chain can contribute to Arctic Indigenous economies and maintain their traditional lifestyle.The main strength of our study was using the unique data of quantitative and qualitative research collected from the reindeer herders and local authorities during expeditions that took place over seven years (2014–2020). Most similar studies remain fragmentary, and often hard to access. However, our study had several limitations. The studied population was recruited while undergoing a medical examination at health care institutions—municipal hospitals and feldsher-midwife medical stations in remote settlements. Participation was voluntary and did not include all representatives of the reindeer herding business  of the studied territories, which may limit the generalizability of findings. Future research could also benefit from exploring food security in reindeer herding, on utilizing reindeer in commodity production and on the impact of traditional reindeer products on the health and wellbeing of the local communities.In the Arctic zone of Western Siberia, short- and long-term measures are needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle replete with traditional food as part of Indigenous peoples’ food system. The economic position of reindeer herders in the food value chain, who are very dependent on other stakeholders, should be strengthened. This currently creates barriers for integration of reindeer herders into the global market and makes their positions insecure, and the situation is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The strengthening the food sovereignty of reindeer herders  could be reached by improved economic sovereignty. This is also a key factor in solving food security for the local communities since this would mitigate the compulsive export sale of meat to obtain economic resources. Thus, this would improve the food security of the local communities while providing economic security for reindeer herders. Solutions could derive from an equilibrium between regulating and improving private business, state intervention, and cooperative mobilization of reindeer herders or local residents. State intervention is more feasible in some areas, bottom-up mobilization in other areas, while the maintenance of incentives of local private businesses need to be kept in mind. Apart from strengthening economic and food security for reindeer herders it is equally important to strengthen both traditional households and local businesses since they are central to improve the resilience of their communities facing economic, climate and pandemic challenges.Organize a mobile economic and legal consulting service for nomadic and semi-nomadic reindeer herders to support business and establish cooperative reindeer husbandries.Encourage cooperative forms of reindeer husbandry and implement a new government program subsidizing peasant farms for purchase of slaughter, freezing and storage facilities  to contribute to reindeer herding as a traditional family business and increase year-round access of remote local communities to reindeer products.Organize veterinary facilities in the settlements and provide reindeer herders with medications for reindeer.Increase access of reindeer herders to reasonably priced fuel and basic food products near the settlements and trading spots.Organize mobile slaughter and supplemental reindeer feeding facilities in the tundra along the nomadic routes of reindeer herders.Extend the export potential of non-edible parts of reindeer  to support food sovereignty of the Indigenous peoples, while focusing government policies on improving access of the Indigenous communities to the edible and medicinal portions of the carcass.Short-term measures:Train Indigenous peoples to harvest and process reindeer products according to bioproduction standards and increase their involvement in the complete food value chain as producers, brokers, processors and distributors to strengthen food sovereignty among the Indigenous peoples.Subsidize medications for reindeer and fuel for reindeer herders and develop infrastructure to facilitate the economic empowerment of reindeer herders.Monitor the consumption of traditional food, as well as the health and social welfare of the Indigenous population in the Russian Arctic. Explore ways to maintain traditional nutrition in the local communities.Long-term measuresWe propose the following: