A climate-change vulnerability and adaptation assessment for Brazil's protected areas

Brazil hosts the largest expanse of tropical ecosystems within protected areas (PAs), which shelter biodiversity and support traditional human populations. We assessed the vulnerability to climate change of 993 terrestrial and coastal-marine Brazilian PAs by combining indicators of climatic-change hazard with indicators of PA resilience (size, native vegetation cover, and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition). This combination of indicators allows the identification of broad climate-change adaptation pathways. Seventeen PAs (20,611 km²) were highly vulnerable and located mainly in the Atlantic Forest (7 PAs), Cerrado (6), and the Amazon (4). Two hundred fifty-eight PAs (756,569 km²), located primarily in Amazonia, had a medium vulnerability. In the Amazon and western Cerrado, the projected severe climatic change and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition drove vulnerability up, despite the generally good conservation status of PAs. Over 80% of PAs of high or moderate vulnerability are managed by indigenous populations. Hence, besides the potential risks to biodiversity, the traditional knowledge and livelihoods of the people inhabiting these PAs may be threatened. In at least 870 PAs, primarily in the Atlantic Forest and Amazon, adaptation could happen with little or no intervention due to low climate-change hazard, high resilience status, or both. At least 20 PAs in the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Amazonia should be targeted for stronger interventions (e.g., improvement of ecological connectivity), given their low resilience status. Despite being a first attempt to link vulnerability and adaptation in Brazilian PAs, we suggest that some of the PAs identified as highly or moderately vulnerable should be prioritized for testing potential adaptation strategies in the near future.     

Using culturomics and social media data to characterize wildlife consumption

Wildlife provides food, medicine, clothing, and other necessities for humans, but overexploitation can disrupt the sustainability of wildlife resources and severely threaten global biodiversity. Understanding the characteristics of consumer behavior is helpful for wildlife managers and policy makers, but the traditional survey methods are laborious and time-consuming. In contrast, culturomics may more efficiently identify the features of wildlife consumption. As a case study of the culturomics approach, we examined tiger bone wine consumption in China based on social media and Baidu search engine data. Tiger bone wine is one of the most purchased tiger products; its consumption is closely related to tiger poaching, which greatly threatens wild tiger survival. We searched a popular social media website for the term “tiger bone wine” and focused on posts that were originally created from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2018. We filtered and classified posts related to the purchase, sale, or consumption of tiger bone wine and extracted information on providers, consumption motivations, year of production, and place of origin of the tiger bone wines based on the texts and photos of these posts. We found 756 posts related to tiger bone wine consumption, 113 of which mentioned providers of tiger bone wine, including friends (53%), elder relatives (37%), peer relatives (7%), and others (3%). Out of the 756 posts, 266 indicated the motivations of tiger bone wine consumption. Tiger bone wines were consumed as a tonic (34%), medicine (23%), game product (30%), and a symbol of wealth (28%). Some posts indicated ≥2 consumption motivations. These findings were consistent with the search queries from Baidu index. Such information could help develop targeted strategies for tiger conservation. The culturomics approach illustrated by our study is a rapid and cost-efficient way to characterize wildlife consumption.     

Sustainability: a Dissent

Abstract:  Broadly conceived and considered in its many usages, sustainability has grave defects as a planning goal, particularly when used by conservationists: it confuses means and ends; it is vague about what is being sustained and who or what is doing the sustaining; it is uninspiring; it is little more than Pinchot-era conservation (and thus ignores the many lessons learned since then); it need not be linked to land, to the land's functioning, or to any ecological science; it need not include a moral component; it is consistent with the view of humans as all-powerful manipulators of the planet; and, in general, it is such a malleable term that its popularity provides only a facade of consensus. When sustainability is defined broadly to include the full range of economic and social aspirations, it poses the particular risk that ecological and biodiversity concerns will be cast aside in favor of more pressing human wants. Given these many defects, the conservation movement should discard the term in favor of a more alluring goal, attentive to nature and its ecological functioning. A sound goal would incorporate and distill the considerable ecological and moral wisdom accumulated since Pinchot's day while giving conservationists the rhetorical tools needed to defend the land against competing pressures. In our view, conservation would be well served by an updated variant of "land health," Aldo Leopold's ecologically grounded goal from the 1940s. Land health as an independent understanding should set the essential terms of how we live and enjoy the earth, providing the framework within which we pursue our many social and economic aims.     

基于不同废污泥源的短程反硝化快速启动及稳定性

为探究不同废污泥源快速启动短程反硝化和实现稳定NO_2~--N积累的可行性,在3个完全相同的SBR反应器(S1、S2和S3)分别接种:实验室城市污水反硝化除磷系统排泥、城市污水厂剩余污泥及河涌底泥,比较其短程反硝化启动快慢和NO_2~--N积累特性,考察系统短程反硝化活性和NO_3~--N→NO_2~--N转化性能,并从微生物学角度分析反应器功能菌群特征.结果表明,在乙酸钠为唯一碳源、高碱度和适宜COD/NO_3~--N比进水条件下,3个SBR短程反硝化反应器在短时间内均能够成功启动,系统平均NO_3~--N→NO_2~--N转化率为S1 S2 S3(75. 92% 73. 36% 69. 90%).同时发现持续低温条件下S1和S2呈现不同程度的短程反硝化性能恶化趋势,但S3能够稳定维持良好NO_2~--N积累性能.微生物高通量测序表明,变形菌门和拟杆菌门居PD系统主导地位,3个短程反硝化反应器NO_2~--N积累关键功能菌属Thauera属丰度差异明显:S3 S1 S2(25. 09% 4. 71% 3. 60%),表明S3具备稳定高效的NO_2~--N积累性能,同时高丰度Thauera属可能是维持低温短程反硝化活性的重要原因.     

核壳结构KNbO3@Co(OH)2的制备及其活化过一硫酸盐降解帕珠沙星的研究

制备了以KNbO₃为载体材料的Co（OH）₂复合材料并对其进行了详细的表征,分析了材料的组成成分、组成形态进而确定了其为核壳结构形貌的KNbO₃@Co（OH）₂.利用合成的样品作为催化剂活化过一硫酸盐（peroxymonosulfate,PMS）来降解帕珠沙星（pazufloxacin,PZF）,结果表明制备的催化剂对PZF的去除效率显著增加.讨论了不同初始PMS剂量对降解效率的影响,发现随着PMS增加可活化生成更多的硫酸根自由基（sulfate radicals,SO₄^·-）和羟基自由基（hydroxyl radicals,HO^·）来降解PZF,但继续增大PMS用量降解效率未见明显提升.酸性和中性pH值条件下利于反应活化PMS降解PZF,而碱性体系减缓反应,甚至强碱体系更易形成Co（OH）₂沉淀不利于反应体系中活性组分CoOH⁺的形成,大大抑制了催化性能.此外,在体系中加入淬灭剂叔丁醇（tert-Butanol,TBA）或者乙醇（ethanol,ETOH）进行自由基的淬灭实验,结果表明SO₄^·-自由基为体系降解PZF过程中主要贡献的自由基,而HO^·自由基的贡献较少.催化剂具有较好的稳定性5次循环之后仍能在10 min之内完全去除PZF.本研究提出了新的思路为制备其他载体的Co（OH）₂核壳结构提供参考依据,同时将该催化剂结合高级氧化技术应用到水体新兴有机污染物净化领域具有很好的应用前景.     

稻田NO3-还原耦合As(III)氧化过程及微生物群落特征

以华南稻田土壤为研究对象通过构建微宇宙体系,研究了淹水稻田自养硝酸盐还原耦合As（III）氧化过程及其微生物群落结构组成.结果表明,NO₃^-的添加促进了稻田土壤中As（III）的氧化,在未添加NO₃^-的处理（Soil+As（III））以及灭菌处理（Sterilized soil+As（III）+NO₃^-）中As（III）未发生明显的氧化;在Soil+As（III）+NO₃^-处理中,NO₃^-有少量被还原,而在Soil+NO₃^-处理中,NO₃^-没有被还原.通过16S rRNA高通量分析在NO₃^-还原耦合As（III）氧化体系中微生物群落结构特征,在Soil+As（III）+NO₃^-处理中shannon指数相对较低为8.19,土壤微生物群落多样性降低,其中在门水平上主要优势菌群为变形菌门Proteobacteria（33%）、绿弯菌门Chloroflexi（11%）、浮霉菌门Planctomycetes（12%）;在属水平上主要的优势菌属为Gemmatimonas（7.4%）以及少量的Singulisphaera、Thermomonas、Bacillus.NO₃^-的添加能够促进稻田土壤中自养As（III）氧化,并且影响着稻田土壤中微生物群落组成.     

Treatability studies of naphthalene in soil,water and air with persulfate activated by iron(Ⅱ)

Chemical oxidation was applied to an artificially contaminated soil with naphthalene (NAP). Evaluation of NAP distribution and mass reduction in soil, water and air phases was carried out through mass balance. Evaluation of NAP distribution and mass reduction in soil, water and air phases was carried out through mass balance. The importance of the air phase analysis was emphasized by demonstrating how NAP behaves in a sealed system over a 4 hr reaction period. Design of Experiments method was applied to the following variables: sodium persulfate concentration [SP], ferrous sulfate concentration [FeSO₄], and pH. The system operated with a prefixed solid to liquid ratio of 1:2. The following conditions resulted in optimum NAP removal [SP] = 18.37 g/L, [FeSO₄] = 4.25 g/L and pH = 3.00. At the end of the 4 hr reaction, 62% of NAP was degraded. In the soil phase, the chemical oxidation reduced the NAP concentration thus achieving levels which comply with Brazilian and USA environmental legislations. Besides the NAP partitioning view, the monitoring of each phase allowed the variabilities assessment over the process, refining the knowledge of mass reduction. Based on NAP distribution in the system, this study demonstrates the importance of evaluating the presence of semi-volatile and volatile organic compounds in the air phase during remediation, so that there is greater control of the system as to the distribution and presence of the contaminant in the environment. The results highlight the importance of treating the contaminant in all its phases at the contaminated site.     

Effect of NOx and SO2 on the photooxidation of methylglyoxal: Implications in secondary aerosol formation

Methylglyoxal(CH_3COCHO,MG),which is one of the most abundant α-dicarbonyl compounds in the atmosphere,has been reported as a major source of secondary organic aerosol(SOA).In this work,the reaction of MG with hydroxyl radicals was studied in a 500 L smog chamber at(293±3) K,atmospheric pressure,(18±2)% relative humidity,and under different NOx and SO_2.Particle size distribution was measured by using a scanning mobility particle sizer(SMPS) and the results showed that the addition of SO_2 can promote SOA formation,while different NOx concentrations have different influences on SOA production.High NOx suppressed the SOA formation,whereas the particle mass concentration,particle number concentration and particle geometric mean diameter increased with the increasing NOx concentration at low NOx concentration in the presence of SO_2.In addition,the products of the OH-initiated oxidation of MG and the functional groups of the particle phase in the MG/OH/SO_2 and MG/OH/NOx/SO_2 reaction systems were detected by gas chromatography mass spectrometry(GC-MS) and attenuated total reflection fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy(ATR-FTIR) analysis.Two products,glyoxylic acid and oxalic acid,were detected by GC-MS.The mechanism of the reaction of MG and OH radicals that follows two main pathways,H atom abstraction and hydration,is proposed.Evidence is provided for the formation of organic nitrates and organic sulfate in particle phase from IR spectra.Incorporation of NOx and SO_2 influence suggested that SOA formation from anthropogenic hydrocarbons may be more efficient in polluted environment.