湖南西部民俗旅游资源的开发与保护

湖南西部民俗旅游资源丰富,系统开发和保护民俗旅游资源、有效整合、形成合力、促进旅游业的发展是构筑湖南西部黄金旅游区的基石。分析了民俗、民俗旅游资源与民俗文化的概念和内涵,以及湖南西部民俗旅游资源的结构及其特征,提出了湖南西部民俗旅游开发和保护的原则、模式和措施。     

安徽省民俗文化旅游资源初步研究

民俗文化旅游资源是人文旅游资源的重要组成部分，是旅游从业人员应该掌握的文化知识。安徽省是一个具有悠久传统习俗的省份，文化底蕴深厚。通过对该省民俗旅游区的划分，探讨了安徽民俗文化旅游资源的类型和特点，提出了民俗旅游的开发思路，为安徽旅游业的发展开拓了新的方向。     

区域民俗旅游形象设计——以长吉图区域为例

民俗旅游作为一种高层次的文化旅游,深受国内外旅游者的喜爱,但区域民俗旅游形象往往不够鲜明.长吉图开发开放先导区作为目前唯一一个由国家批准实施的沿边开发开放区域,民俗旅游资源丰富独特,但影响力不强.在文脉分析的基础上,定位其形象,并从人一地感知形象、人一人感知形象两个角度对整个区域民俗旅游形象进行系统设计.     

广州城市旅游吸引方面的建设

广州的地理位置优越，历史悠久，是华南山水商都，有着丰富的旅游资源。文章分析了广州市旅游资源具有北雄南秀的特点，阐述了积极开发广州山水商都文化旅游资源，加强旅游吸引方面的建设，加大文化旅游宣传力度和搞好旅游线路的设计等发展广州山水商都文化旅游的观点；指出发展广州山水商都文化旅游，将对城市建设和环境、经济、社会等方面都具有重要的意义。     

九华山佛茶文化旅游开发研究

九华山佛茶文化旅游既有历史优势,又有区位优势,开发九华山佛茶文化旅游是将九华山的佛教旅游资源与茶文化旅游资源中的寺院茶文化相结合。更新观念、重视特形象设计、丰富完善旅游产品、加大旅游商品开发和不断开拓旅游市场等是九华山佛茶文化旅游开发的重要举措。     

京郊民俗旅游经济发展水平空间格局演化研究

以北京市为例,构建民俗旅游发展水平的综合评价体系,采用主成分分析法计算得出民俗旅游发展水平综合指数,分析了京郊民俗旅游经济发展水平空间格局的演化特征及其影响因素。结果表明:京郊民俗旅游经济发展水平整体在逐步提升,空间差距不断缩小;不同民俗旅游发展水平的区县数量结构由"树棒型"变为"纺锤体"型;高水平及低水平区县均呈现出由"斑块"离散分布发展到"连片"状相对集中分布的特征,且聚集程度越来越强,分别集中于北部和南部。资源禀赋、政策环境和区位条件是影响民俗旅游经济发展水平空间格局演化的重要因素。     

徐州市历史文化资源的开发与利用

徐州市具有特色鲜明的历史文化资源和极其优越的开发条件。作者根据旅游资源可持续发展的相关原则，分析了徐州市在历史文化资源开发中存在的问题，提出了充分，合理开发利用当地历史文化资源的主要对策。     

贵州湄潭茶文化体验旅游产品开发模式研究

贵州湄潭茶文化旅游资源优势突出,但茶文化旅游产品的开发深度却不够。当前旅游产业已由观光、休闲向体验旅游方向发展。体验经济时代旅游者的需求发生了很大变化,趋向于深层参与的体验式旅游,体验旅游产品有着较大的发展市场。本文通过对湄潭茶文化旅游资源现状的调查,基于生态旅游资源保护开发性十大原则,提出体验旅游产品的开发,以及产品可行性开发模式研究。     

西部生态旅游模式的市场研究

西部地区具有丰富的生态旅游资源，中国名山资源的23％都集中在西部地区，西部少数民族文化旅游资源也极为丰富。我国正在西部实施可持续战略，发展生态旅游模式正顺应了这一战略。作者对在西部建立生态旅游的要素市场、国内外游客市场、资金市场进行了考察研究，并结合西部大开发战赂，论证了生态旅游在西部的市场可行性。     

广州人口、资源与环境相互关系的定量研究

人口、资源、环境是城市和谐发展的三大基本支撑要素。通过计算广州适度人口、验证库兹尼茨曲线、计算生态足迹等，分析了广州人口、资源与环境三者之间的关系。通过分析可以看出，支撑广州城市可持续发展的三大基本要素——人口规模、资源承载力和环境容量基本都已接近峰值，城市发展面临着有史以来的最大压力，而且资源支撑经济社会发展的能力在弱化，但环境总体质量趋向于好转，库兹尼茨曲线正在向其倒U形的右半部分过渡。为实现城市的可持续发展，广州要处理好经济社会发展与人口、资源、环境的关系，更加关注自然资本。     

Conversion of temperate forests into heaths: Role of ecosystem disturbance and ericaceous plants

Fire and logging in nutrient-poor temperate forests with certain ericaceous understory plants may convert the forests into heaths. The process of disturbance-induced heath formation is documented by using examples ofCalluna in western Europe,Kalmia in Newfoundland, andGaultheria (salal) in coastal British Columbia. In a cool, temperate climate, rapid vegetative growth ofCalluna, Kalmia, and salal following disturbance results in increasing organic accumulation (paludification), nutrient sequestration, soil acidification, and allelochemicals. These are thought to be the main reasons to conifer regeneration failure in disturbed habitats. If continuation in forest is a land-use objective, then temperate forests with an ericaceous understory should not be logged unless effective silvicultural methods are devised to control the ericaceous plants and restore forest regeneration. Preharvest vegetation control may be considered as an option. Failure to control the understory plants may lead to a long-term vegetation shift, from forest to heathland, particularly in nutrient-poor sites. Successful methods of controllingKalmia andGaultheria, however, have yet to be developed. While theKalmia- andGaultheria- dominated heathlands are undesirable in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a wide range ofCalluna heathlands of western Europe are being conserved as natural and seminatural vegetation.     

BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTUARINE/COASTAL POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Sustained interest in and concern about the health status of the aquatic environment has resulted in extensive research focused on (1) effects of pollution on survival, growth, and reproduction of resource species at all life stages; (2) diseases of fish and shellfish, as they may be related to pollution and as they may serve as indicators of environmental stress; and (3) contaminant body burdens in fish and shellfish - their effects on the aquatic animals and their potential effects on humans. Effects, lethal and sublethal, of pollutants on life history stages of fish and shellfish have been documented, as have impacts on local stocks in badly degraded habitats, but as yet there has been no adequate quantitative demonstration of effects on entire aquatic species - probably because of the difficulty in sorting out relative effects of the many environmental factors that influence abundance. Sublethal effects, especially those that result in disease, have been examined intensively, and some diseases and disease syndromes have been associated statistically with pollution. Other pollution indicators (biochemical, physiological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological) have also received some attention, as have body burdens of contaminants in aquatic species. Research, especially that conducted during the past decade, has done much to clarify the many pathways and toxic effects of contaminants on aquatic animals, and has also helped to identify mechanisms for survival of fish and shellfish in the presence of environmental changes caused by human activities.     

Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatially extensive metropolitan areas. In addition to reviewing key findings relevant to each state factor, we note the emergence of tentative "urban syndromes" concerning soils, streams, wildlife and plants, and homogenization of certain ecosystem functions, such as soil organic carbon dynamics. We note the utility of the ecosystem approach, the human ecosystem framework, and watersheds as integrative tools to tie information about multiple state factors together. The organismal component of urban complexes includes the social organization of the human population, and we review key modes by which human populations within urban areas are differentiated, and how such differentiation affects environmentally relevant actions. Emerging syntheses in land change science and ecological urban design are also summarized. The multifaceted frameworks and the growing urban knowledge base do however identify some pressing research needs.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

Journalists' views of advertiser pressures on agricultural news

All major journalism ethical codes explicitly state that journalists should protect editorial copy from undue influence by outside sources. However, much of the previous research on agricultural information has concentrated on what information various media communicate (gatekeeping studies) or communication's role in increasing innovation adoption (diffusion studies). Few studies have concentrated specifically on organizational and structural constraints that might adversely affect agricultural journalists' ethical standards; those that have, focus largely on farm magazines. A study of newspaper reporters who cover agricultural news found that the most pressing ethical concern is the effect of advertiser (agri-business) pressure on editorial copy, and that their concerns in general parallel those of farm magazine writers and editors. The majority reported being in situations in which they might be exposed to advertiser pressure, including pressures to change or withhold editorial copy. Large minorities suggested that advertising pressures affect the overall environment in which agricultural journalists work, and more than one in ten said they allow advertiser pressures to influence editorial decisions. The newspaper reporters who cover agricultural beats showed slightly more resistance to advertiser pressure than did farm magazine editors in a parallel study.     

Definition Procedures Have Little Effect on Performance of Environmental Classifications of Streams and Rivers

Mapped environmental classifications are defined using various procedures, but there has been little evaluation of the differences in their ability to discriminate variation in independent ecological characteristics. We tested the performance of environmental classifications of the streams and rivers of France that had been defined from the same environmental data using geographic regionalization and numerical classification of individual river valley segments. Test data comprised invertebrate assemblages, water chemistry, and hydrological indexes obtained from sites throughout France. Classification performance was measured by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Geometric regions defined by a regular grid and without regard to environmental variables and a posteriori classifications based on clustering the test datasets defined lower and upper bounds of performance for a given number of classes. Differences in classification performances were generally small. The ANOSIM statistics for the a posteriori classifications were around twice that of all environmental classifications, including geometrically defined regions. The hydro-ecoregions performed slightly better for the invertebrate data and the network classification performed slightly better for the chemistry and hydrological data. Our results indicate that environmental classifications that are defined using different procedures can be comparable in terms of their ability to discriminate variation of ecological characteristics and that alleged differences in performance arising from different classification procedures can be small relative to unexplained variation. We conclude that definition procedures might have little effect on the performance of large-scale environmental classifications and decisions over which procedures to use should be based primarily on pragmatic considerations.     

Predicting deer-vehicle collisions in an urban area

Collisions with deer and other large animals are increasing, and the resulting economic costs and risks to public safety have made mitigation measures a priority for both city and wildlife managers. We created landscape models to describe and predict deer-vehicle collision (DVCs) within the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Models based on roadside characteristics revealed that DVCs occurred frequently where roadside vegetation was both denser and more diverse, and that DVCs were more likely to occur when the groomed width of roadside right-of-ways was smaller. No DVCs occurred where the width of the vegetation-free or manicured roadside buffer was greater than 40 m. Landscape-based models showed that DVCs were more likely in more heterogeneous landscapes where road densities were lower and speed limits were higher, and where non-forested vegetation such as farmland was in closer proximity to larger tracts of forest. These models can help wildlife and transportation managers to identify locations of high collision frequency for mitigation. Modifying certain landscape and roadside habitats can be an effective way to reduce deer-vehicle collisions.     

Effect of Light on Biodegradation of Estrone, 17β‐Estradiol,and 17α‐Ethinylestradiol in Stream Sediment

Biodegradation of [A‐ring ¹⁴C] Estrone (E1), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) to ¹⁴CO₂ was investigated under light and dark conditions in microcosms containing epilithon or sediment collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado. Mineralization of the estrogen A‐ring was observed in all sediment treatments, but not epilithon treatments. No difference in net mineralization between light and dark treatments was observed for ¹⁴C‐E2. Net mineralization of ¹⁴C‐E1 and ¹⁴C‐EE2 was enhanced in light treatments. Extents of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were significantly greater for E2 than E1 under dark conditions, but were comparable under light conditions. These results indicate substantial differences in the uptake and metabolism of E1 and E2 in the environment and suggest biorecalcitrance of E1 relative to E2 in light‐limited environments. The extent of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rate of mineralization for EE2 in dark treatments were less than half of that observed for E2 and generally lower than for E1, consistent with previous reports of EE2 biorecalcitrance. However, ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were comparable for EE2, E2, and E1 under light conditions. These results indicate photoactivation and/or phototransformation/photodegradation processes can substantially enhance heterotrophic biodegradation of estrogens in sunlit environments and may play an important role in estrogen transport and attenuation.     

Bioremediation of Soils by Plant–Microbe Systems

Abstract

Sustainable ecosystems can be designed to eliminate environmental toxins and reduce pathogen loads through the direct and indirect consequences of plant and microbial activities. We present an approach to the bioremediation of disturbed environments, focusing on petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) contaminants. Treatment consists of incorporating a plant-based amendment to enhance ecosystem productivity and physiochemical degradation followed by the establishment of plants to serve as oxidizers and foundations for microbial communities. Promising amendments for widespread use are entire plants of the water fern Azolla and seed meal of Brassica napus (rapeseed). An inexpensive byproduct from the manufacture of biodiesel and lubricants, rapeseed meal is high in nitrogen (6% wt/wt), stimulates >100-fold increases in populations of resident Streptomyces species, and suppresses fungal infection of roots subsequently cultivated in the amended soil. Synergistic enzymatic and chemical activities of plant and microbial metabolism in root zones transform and degrade soil contaminants. Emphasis is given to mechanisms that enable PHC functionalization via reactive molecular species.     

Provincial development plans in Zimbabwe: an analysis of their content,structure and methodology

Zimbabwean provincial plans were instituted to help in the achievement of the national goal of the creation of an egalitarian, socialist and integrated society. The national goal itself was adopted as an antithesis to the dualist society characterised by spatial, economic, social, politican and technological inequalities that Zimbabwe inherited from colonialism. This meant that provincial plans had to play both a functional (or growth allocating/distribution) and a territorial (or redistribution) role.

This paper reviews their role in achieving the national goal by examining their functions, content, structure and methodology. The paper concludes that because of their nature, provincial plans are not suitable tools for the achievement of the national goal.