穿山甲利用何时休?

<正>近年来,由于不加节制的利用及非法贸易的威胁,全球的穿山甲已接近灭绝。根据最新的世界自然保护联盟(IUCN)物种红色目录,全球8种穿山甲均被列入濒危级别以上,其中中华穿山甲、马来穿山甲被列为极危,离灭绝仅一步之遥。然而,究竟有多少穿山甲被商业利用,在已公布的信息中,一直是个未知数。中国生物多样性保护与绿色发展基金会濒危物种基金     

像保护大熊猫一样保护禾花雀——广东禾花雀(黄胸鹀)生存纪实

正禾花雀列入濒危物种,等同大熊猫的濒危级别,是一个非常大的遗憾,需要立即展开有效的执法,进行抢救性的保护。前不久,世界自然保护联盟(IUCN)更新物种红色目录时,将广东著名野鸟禾花雀(学名黄胸鹀Emberiza aureola)由"易危"级别提升至与大熊猫同一级别的"濒危"级别。世界自然保护联盟(IUCN)驻华代表朱春全博士表示:"禾花雀列入濒危物种,等同大熊猫的濒危级别,是一个非常大的遗憾,需要立即展开有效的     

贵州山区珍稀观赏植物物种多样性濒危现状及保护

贵州山区是我国一个植物多样性较丰富的地区,仅野生观赏植物(含园林及行道绿化,美化树种)就有300多种,其中120多种属珍稀受危观赏物种。文章着重对36种主要珍稀濒危观赏植物的分布、生境、濒危类型、程度等进行了分析,并从观赏植物本身的生理生态习性、贵州山区生境本底的严酷性(土壤瘠薄,可有效利用的地表水匮乏等)、人类不合理干扰活动(如过渡采收、毁林垦荒等)方面探讨了该地区观赏植物多样性的受危原因。在此基础上,结合目前西部大开发中生态建设的要求,提出了该地区受危观赏植物的保护对策。     

有多少生命可以重来——拯救濒危野生动物

为了野生动物贸易能够持续发展,各国制定了相应的野生动物保护法规,禁止濒危动物的捕杀和贸易,对一些受到绝灭威胁的物种限制其贸易量,以防止因狩猎和贸易对野生动物生存和持续利用造成威胁。国际上于1975年签署了《濒危野生动植物种国际贸易公约(CITES)》,CITES公约的目的是通     

实施最严格的野生动物保护:中国现状与改革方向

随着全球工业化和城市化的快速发展,野生动物及其栖息地保护面临着前所未有的挑战。本文识别了我国的野生动物保护存在的主要问题:(1)现行《野生动物保护法》对野生动物保护范围界定过窄,资源利用主导思维干扰了野生动物保护,缺乏对生态系统与生物安全的足够重视。(2)由于现行野生动物保护立法、执法和管理制度不健全甚至缺失,导致野生动物驯养繁殖交易市场长期混乱,甚至成为非法野生动物交易的"洗白工具"。(3)社会公众群体尊重和保护野生动物意识淡薄,全民参与和监督举报机制不健全。本文认为,我国应该实施最严格的野生动物保护制度,实现人与野生动物平等、文明、和谐相处,建议:(1)树立尊重野生动物物种生存权、人与野生动物文明和谐相处的理念,摒弃野生动物资源利用观,重构人与野生动物平等共存关系。(2)清晰界定野生动物法律定义,扩大野生动物保护范围,围绕捕猎、繁育、运输、储存、转让、食用等环节,全面、科学、精准地构建最严格的野生动物保护制度。(3)立足于全面保护野生动物,严格禁止滥食滥用野生动物和过度商业化利用,实行野生动物保护利用特许制度,并大幅提高标准严格控制交易和利用,建立职责清晰的执法监管和惩治体系。(4)建立最严格的野生动物保护公众参与和司法治理体系,实施野生动物非法贸易、猎杀的行政公益诉讼制度,引导公众建立爱护保护野生动物、不食不用野生动物的文明行为,最终实现人类社会与野生动物的文明和谐共处。     

会讯

中国国际商会举办拒绝海豹产品贸易座谈会2011年3月28日下午,中国国际商会和首都爱护动物协会在国际商会大厦共同举办了一场主题为"关注动物保护,倡导绿色贸易"的座谈会。会上,中国国际商会副会长做了会议致辞,美国国际人道对待动物协会(HSI)加拿大执行     

莽山父女舍命守护“国宝”烙铁头蛇

正2016年5月1日上午,在湖南郴州莽山自然博物馆门口,一群游客争先恐后地与一位穿着迷彩服、头发花白的老人合影,他就是被称为"蛇博士"的湖南莽山野生蛇类保护专家陈远辉——世界上第一个发现莽山烙铁头蛇的人。女承父业报大爱1984年春季,莽山林管局职工医院医生陈远辉在莽山抓到一条没见过的蛇。经过多年研究,他把整理后的相关资料递交给了国家动物保护机构。1990年8月,经中科院院士赵尔宓鉴定,确     

长吻(鱼危)转基因研究简报

为了获得抗性强、生长快的长吻(鱼危)新的种质资源,四川省农科院水产研究所与四川大学生物系合作,进行了导入外源基因培育长吻(鱼危)良种研究,在长吻(鱼危)(Leiocassis longirostris)的人工授精卵出现胚胎之后,注射1～2μl 的外源胡子鲶(Clars cecuther)DNA 于长吻(鱼危)胚盘与卵黄中间的缝隙处,使胡子鲶 DNA 转移到长吻(鱼危)胚胎中,同时创造良好的环境条件使其继续发育孵化出鱼苗。1991年获长吻(鱼危)转基因鱼400余尾。经过1991～1992年的培育表现情况良好,初见成效。     

WTO带来的经济自由化与关税制度

国际贸易发展近50年来，虽然人们普遍认识到自由贸易会给各国的经济带来好处，但是由于世界范围内经济发展的不平衡，很多发展中国家的经济仍然需要一定程度的关税保护。这一点已经被关税与贸易总协定(GATT)和世界贸易组织(WTO)所承认。中国在“复关”、“入世”以后，有必要清醒认识到WTO带来的经济自由化与我国执行的贸易保护性质的关税制度之间的必然联系。经济自由化与贸易保护经济自由化是指在国家完成市场经济的初期建设后，解除和放宽各种不必要的经济管理措施，借助合理的市场机制来降低原有体制造成的经济扭曲，充分发挥市场对…     

罗布泊野骆驼主要分布区域及种群变化

罗布泊野骆驼国家级自然保护区是当今世界残存纯血统野骆驼种群主要分布区域,也是野骆驼模式标本产地。随着自然生态环境变化,特别是受人类活动影响,野骆驼分布区域及数量、生境质量都随之发生了变化。本文分析了野骆驼变化因素影响,提出较合理的野骆驼保护对策,对进一步掌握罗布泊野骆驼活动区域、生活规律,以及改善野骆驼生存环境,实现野骆驼种群数量持续增长,由濒危物种降至易危物种具有积极的促进作用。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Surface applied water treatment residuals affect bioavailable phosphorus losses in Florida sands

Water treatment residuals (WTR) can reduce runoff P loss and surface co-application of P-sources and WTR is a practical way of land applying the residuals. In a rainfall simulation study, we evaluated the effects of surface co-applied P-sources and an Al-WTR on runoff and leacheate bioavailable P (BAP) losses from a Florida sand. Four P-sources, namely poultry manure, Boca Raton biosolids (high water-soluble P), Pompano biosolids (moderate water-soluble P), and triple super phosphate (TSP) were surface applied at 56 and 224kgPha(-1) (by weight) to represent low and high soil P loads typical of P- and N-based amendments rates. The treatments further received surface applied WTR at 0 or 10gWTRkg(-1) soil. BAP loss masses were greater in leachate (16.4-536mg) than in runoff (0.91-46mg), but were reduced in runoff and leachate by surface applied WTR. Masses of total BAP lost in the presence of surface applied WTR were less than approximately 75% of BAP losses in the absence of WTR. Total BAP losses from each of the organic sources applied at N-based rates were not greater than P loss from TSP applied at a P-based rate. The BAP loss at the N-based rate of moderate water-soluble P-source (Pompano biosolids) was not greater than BAP losses at the P-based rates of other organic sources tested. The hazards of excess P from applying organic P-sources at N-based rates are not greater than observed at P-based rates of mineral fertilizer. Results suggest that management of the environmental P hazards associated with N-based rates of organic materials in Florida sands is possible by either applying P-sources with WTR or using a moderate water-soluble P-source.     

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.