Pharmaceuticals and personal care products found in the Great Lakes above concentrations of environmental concern

The monitoring of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) has focused on the distribution in rivers and small lakes, but data regarding their occurrence and effects in large lake systems, such as the Great Lakes, are sparse. Wastewater treatment processes have not been optimized to remove influent PPCPs and are a major source of PPCPs in the environment. Furthermore, PPCPs are not currently regulated in wastewater effluent. In this experiment we evaluated the concentration, and corresponding risk, of PPCPs from a wastewater effluent source at varying distances in Lake Michigan. Fifty-four PPCPs and hormones were assessed on six different dates over a two-year period from surface water and sediment samples up to 3.2 km from a wastewater treatment plant and at two sites within a harbor. Thirty-two PPCPs were detected in Lake Michigan and 30 were detected in the sediment, with numerous PPCPs being detected up to 3.2 km away from the shoreline. The most frequently detected PPCPs in Lake Michigan were metformin, caffeine, sulfamethoxazole, and triclosan. To determine the ecological risk, the maximum measured environmental concentrations were compared to the predicted no-effect concentration and 14 PPCPs were found to be of medium or high ecological risk. The environmental risk of PPCPs in large lake systems, such as the Great Lakes, has been questioned due to high dilution; however, the concentrations found in this study, and their corresponding risk quotient, indicate a significant threat by PPCPs to the health of the Great Lakes, particularly near shore organisms.     

Effects of an Alien Ant Invasion on Abundance,Behavior, and Reproductive Success of Endemic Island Birds

Abstract: Biological invaders can reconfigure ecological networks in communities, which changes community structure, composition, and ecosystem function. We investigated whether impacts caused by the introduced yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes), a pantropical invader rapidly expanding its range, extend to higher‐order consumers by comparing counts, behaviors, and nesting success of endemic forest birds in ant‐invaded and uninvaded rainforest on Christmas Island (Indian Ocean). Point counts and direct behavioral observations showed that ant invasion altered abundances and behaviors of the bird species we examined: the Island Thrush (Turdus poliocephalus erythropleurus), Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica natalis), and Christmas Island White‐eye (Zosterops natalis). The thrush, which frequents the forest floor, altered its foraging and reproductive behaviors in ant‐invaded forest, where nest‐site location changed, and nest success and juvenile counts were lower. Counts of the dove, which forages exclusively on the forest floor, were 9–14 times lower in ant‐invaded forest. In contrast, counts and foraging success of the white‐eye, a generalist feeder in the understory and canopy, were higher in ant‐invaded forest, where mutualism between the ant and honeydew‐secreting scale insects increased the abundance of scale‐insect prey. These complex outcomes involved the interplay of direct interference by ants and altered resource availability and habitat structure caused indirectly by ant invasion. Ecological meltdown, rapidly unleashed by ant invasion, extended to these endemic forest birds and may affect key ecosystem processes, including seed dispersal.     

The MYSound Project: building an estuary-wide monitoring network for Long Island Sound,USA

A network of five water quality monitoring stations has been established in Long Island Sound, measuring temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen since 1999. The stations are located in areas of extreme water quality degradation (western Long Island Sound) as well as in pristine areas (eastern Long Island Sound). The data from these stations are collected every 15 minutes and posted to the project web site in real time as provisional data. After subsequent quality assurance procedures, the data are archived to the project File Transfer Protocol (FSP) site for downloading by the user community. The network of stations is in part supported logistically by a number of partners, including state and local agencies, schools, and non-governmental organizations. Data from the monitoring programs of some of these partners are also published to the project website providing a more comprehensive and complete picture of the status of the Sound than can be provided independently. This repository of information is used by marine educators, resource managers, scientists, and the general public, each with a different end purpose. We use the data from two of the stations to show that these high frequency time series measurements can be used to complement and enhance other monitoring programs within the Sound, documenting in greater detail the occurrence and duration of hypoxic events.     

红厚壳在海南岛的分布及其生长习性

红厚壳在海南岛一直是适应性强，分布广泛的珍贵植物资源。调查结果表明，在经济建设，农业土地开发等压力下，海南岛的红厚壳植物资源正日趋减少，目前仅在琼山，文昌等地区还保留较丰富，南部地区已绝迹，西部地区也难以见到。     

New Genetic Approach to Detecting Individuals of Rare and Endangered Species

Abstract: Many rare and endangered species are difficult to locate, observe, and study. Consequently, many individuals, breeding pairs, and even populations of such species could remain undetected. Genetic markers can potentially be used to detect the existence of undiscovered individuals and populations, and we propose a method to do so that requires 3 conditions. First, sampling of the known population(s) of the target species must be comprehensive. Second, the species must display a reasonable level of philopatry and genetic structuring. Third, individuals must be able to be caught outside of breeding locations (e.g., at courtship or feeding areas, in flight), and the level of recapture must be reasonably high. We applied our method to the Chatham Island Taiko (Pterodroma magentae), one of the world's most endangered seabirds. We sequenced the Taiko mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and both copies of a fragment of the duplicated domain I of the control region. Twenty‐one haplotypes were revealed, including 4 (19%) not found in birds at known burrows. These results suggest there are more burrow groups yet to be located. The species is a pelagic gadfly petrel that inhabits land only in the breeding season during which it is nocturnal and nests in burrows. Taiko burrows are situated in dense forest in a remote area of Chatham Island, and are consequently difficult to locate and study. It is important that all Taiko burrows be discovered to enable monitoring and protection of the birds from exotic predators.     

崇明岛种子植物区系及植被资源

崇明岛共有区系植物55科157属198种，区系组成复杂，地理成分多样，涵盖全部15个分布区类型，具有明显的热带-温带过渡性质，落叶树种占木本植物种类的90．5％，属于北亚热带常绿落叶阔叶混交林地带。群落外貌及属的相似性系数分析表明，崇明岛植物区系更接近江苏宜兴，而与临近的大金山岛和佘山差别略大。此外，岛上还有栽培植物和外来植物共235种，其中蔷薇科、菊科、禾本科、豆科、木犀科等科的种类较丰富，以加拿大一枝黄花、臭荠、刺果毛莨、一年蓬、空心莲子草、大米草、互花米草等对当地植被资源和生态系统的影响最大。崇明岛植物群落结构单一，缺乏灌木层，草本层多为广布杂草，其植被资源可以根据功能划分为江防海防林、湿地植被、道路绿化带、庭院景观林、游憩林、大田作物及经济林、水源涵养林等7大类，其中江防海防林及湿地植被是崇明岛植被生态系统的关键成分。提供了崇明岛新纪录野生及外来种子植物名录。     

海岛旅游开发生态影响及保护对策研究

海岛是相对独立的地理单元,生态系统较为脆弱,旅游开发将对海岛带来环境影响.为保护和利用海岛的旅游资源和自然环境,以蜈支洲岛旅游开发为例,采用矩阵法识别海岛开发生态影响因子,建立了水土流失、土壤、沙滩、植被、保护动植物、珊瑚、珊瑚生态、景观等评价指标体系,采用模型预测和类比分析等方法预测、分析和评价旅游开发活动的生态影响,并提出减缓对策,从而避免旅游开发造成岛屿的生态破坏,维护岛屿生态系统的完整性.     

Evaluating weather effects on interannual variation in net ecosystem productivity of a coastal temperate forest landscape: A model intercomparison

Forest productivity is strongly affected by seasonal weather patterns and by natural or anthropogenic disturbances. However weather effects on forest productivity are not currently represented in inventory-based models such as CBM-CFS3 used in national forest C accounting programs. To evaluate different approaches to modelling these effects, a model intercomparison was conducted among CBM-CFS3 and four process models (ecosys, CN-CLASS, Can-IBIS and 3PG) over a 2500 ha landscape in the Oyster River (OR) area of British Columbia, Canada. The process models used local weather data to simulate net primary productivity (NPP), net ecosystem productivity (NEP) and net biome productivity (NBP) from 1920 to 2005. Other inputs used by the process and inventory models were generated from soil, land cover and disturbance records. During a period of intense disturbance from 1928 to 1943, simulated NBP diverged considerably among the models. This divergence was attributed to differences among models in the sizes of detrital and humus C stocks in different soil layers to which a uniform set of soil C transformation coefficients was applied during disturbances. After the disturbance period, divergence in modelled NBP among models was much smaller, and attributed mainly to differences in simulated NPP caused by different approaches to modelling weather effects on productivity. In spite of these differences, age-detrended variation in annual NPP and NEP of closed canopy forest stands was negatively correlated with mean daily maximum air temperature during July-September (T_amax) in all process models (R² = 0.4-0.6), indicating that these correlations were robust. The negative correlation between T_amax and NEP was attributed to different processes in different models, which were tested by comparing CO₂ fluxes from these models with those measured by eddy covariance (EC) under contrasting air temperatures (T_a). The general agreement in sensitivity of annual NPP to T_amax among the process models led to the development of a generalized algorithm for weather effects on NPP of coastal temperate coniferous forests for use in inventory-based models such as CBM-CFS3: NPP′ = NPP − 57.1 (T_amax − 18.6), where NPP and NPP′ are the current and temperature-adjusted annual NPP estimates from the inventory-based model, 18.6 is the long-term mean daily maximum air temperature during July-September, and T_amax is the mean value for the current year. Our analysis indicated that the sensitivity of NPP to T_amax was nonlinear, so that this algorithm should not be extrapolated beyond the conditions of this study. However the process-based methodology to estimate weather effects on NPP and NEP developed in this study is widely applicable to other forest types and may be adopted for other inventory based forest carbon cycle models.     

An island biogeography approach for understanding changes in compositional similarity at present scenario of biotic homogenization

Local extinction of native species and colonization of non-native species are commonly invoked as responsible for changes in species similarity among biotas of different regions. In this study we used a model of species similarity between islands to assess the emergent, and unexplored, effects of changes in colonization by native species, extinction of non-native species, and propagule pressure on species similarity among insular communities. The model predicts that extinction probability of endemic species has a positive but asymptotic effect on species similarity, which is exacerbated by increasing colonization and reducing extinction of non-native species. Species similarity tends to increase with increasing colonization probability by non-native species, however this effect may be reduced, or even reverted, when the islands are exposed to an elevated number of non-native species that are prone to extinction, high levels of endemic species loss, and an initially large number of native species shared between islands. Species similarity was positively affected by the propagule pressure rate of non-native species only when their colonization and extinction probabilities were large and small enough, respectively. A negative effect of propagule pressure rate can be caused by an increase in the pool size of non-native species, which involves the introduction of different species into different islands, promoting biotic differentiation between islands. Our results indicate that the interactions between colonization, extinction and species pool lead to nonlinear responses and unexpected scenarios of biotic change. In order to validate model predictions, future research programs should focus on understanding the dynamics on such complex meta-communities where coexist native, non-native and endemic species.     

基于能值分析的崇明岛“社会-经济-自然”复合生态系统可持续性评估

运用能值分析的理论和方法，以中国第三大岛崇明岛为研究对象，定量分析和评价了1980～2003年岛内“社会-经济-自然”复合生态系统的能值自给率、人均能值用量、能值密度、环境负荷率、人口承载量以及基于能值分析的可持续发展指数等多项指标的变化趋势，并将2003年的数据进行了国内外对比。针对崇明建设生态岛的目标，分析了崇明岛的优势和不足，为其可持续发展提出了对应的建议和措施。研究表明：虽然良好的生态环境提升了人民的生活质量，但由于缺乏经济和科技竞争力，崇明岛的发展水平处于全国平均水平，与所处的长三角地区整体发展水平相差较大。但岛屿系统现状良好，运行稳定、健康、有活力，可持续性高。未来崇明岛的发展应当合理权衡和协调绎济发展和环境保护的关系，维持系统的可持续性。