Modelling interactions between scavenger behaviour and farming practices: Impacts on scavenger population and ecosystem service efficiency

Long term conservation of ecosystem services requires a deep understanding of their basic processes and the development of tools to assess the effects of human practices on their efficiency. As an example of recycling service, we focus on the consumption of livestock carcasses by obligate scavengers, taking the case of vultures which face a dramatic decline worldwide. We investigate whether maintaining this recycling service through individual feeding stations called light feeding stations in contrast to aggregated resource on heavy feeding stations can meet the double objectives of vulture conservation and service efficiency. We built a spatially explicit multi-agent model to investigate the long term effects of livestock farmers practices on both the recycling service efficiency for farmers and vulture population carrying capacity including: (i) carcass disposal practices that drive the quantity and spatial distribution of resources for vultures and (ii) temporal distribution of livestock mortality due to economic choices that drive the dynamics of resources for vultures. In addition, we examine various scenarios related to vulture feeding behaviour - i.e. central place vs. random foraging and contest vs. scramble intraspecific competition - that may play a role in the vulture carrying capacity and recycling service efficiency. When accounting for vulture central place foraging, we found that favouring the use of light feeding stations instead of heavy feeding station does not affect vulture population carrying capacity and increases the number of farmer for which vulture service is optimal. The increase of light feeding station users poorly affects the number of farmers for which vulture service is optimal in contrast to results obtained with a vulture random foraging behaviour. Both of the recycling service efficiency and the vulture carrying capacity vary with the kind of intraspecific competition and with the seasonal distribution of livestock mortality. Livestock mortality distributions with a seasonal peak of mortality result in a mismatch between vulture food requirement and farmers needs for carcass removal. Finally we raise several points on the relevance of light feeding stations as a sustainable management for vulture conservation and for the recycling service and discuss the potential implications of seasonal scarcity of resources due to farming economic constraints.     

Biodiversity Conservation in Swedish Forests: Ways Forward for a 30-Year-Old Multi-Scaled Approach

A multi-scaled model for biodiversity conservation in forests was introduced in Sweden 30 years ago, which makes it a pioneer example of an integrated ecosystem approach. Trees are set aside for biodiversity purposes at multiple scale levels varying from individual trees to areas of thousands of hectares, with landowner responsibility at the lowest level and with increasing state involvement at higher levels. Ecological theory supports the multi-scaled approach, and retention efforts at every harvest occasion stimulate landowners’ interest in conservation. We argue that the model has large advantages but that in a future with intensified forestry and global warming, development based on more progressive thinking is necessary to maintain and increase biodiversity. Suggestions for the future include joint planning for several forest owners, consideration of cost-effectiveness, accepting opportunistic work models, adjusting retention levels to stand and landscape composition, introduction of temporary reserves, creation of “receiver habitats” for species escaping climate change, and protection of young forests.     

Whale Wars and the Axiomatization of Image Events on the Public Screen

The essay interrogates Animal Planet's television show Whale Wars, and the use of footage from that show in a commercial for one of the network's other shows, How Stuff Works, to examine the way these texts interact within the public screen. I argue that the (re)presentation of whale kill footage further instantiates an image event as a commodity and rhetorically reconciles the image event into a capitalist ideology counter to the social movement message constructed on Whale Wars—and by proxy allows the image event to play out only via a profit-motive tied to the death of the whale.     

Multi-level discrepancies with sharing data on protected areas: what we have and what we need for the global village

Protected areas present a global heritage. Assessing conservation achievements in protected areas is of crucial importance with respect to the on-time delivery of international biodiversity conservation targets. However, monitoring data from publicly accessible databases for comparative studies of conservation achievements in the protected areas of the world are very scarce, if not non-existent. At first glance this is surprising because, with regards to protected areas, at least according to well established protected area management guidelines and widely accepted public mandates, a great deal of monitoring work and data gathering is to be conducted. This would imply that data on changes of biodiversity in protected areas could be expected to exist, and the constant progress in information technologies and Web tools engenders hope that some of it might even be available online for the global public. This review article presents the results of an extensive online search and review of existing monitoring data from freely accessible online databases for its use in an assessment of conservation achievements in a larger sample of protected areas. Results show two contrary sides to the status quo of accessible data from the World Wide Web for conservation science: data overkill and data scarcity with poor metadata provision. While ever more research is, in fact, based on open-access online data, such as extrapolations of species ranges used in conservation management and planning, it remains almost impossible to obtain a basic set of information for an assessment of conservation achievements within a larger number of protected areas. This awareness has triggered a detailed discussion about the discrepancies in sharing data at the level of protected areas; mismatching relationships between expected activities in protected areas and the capacity for delivering these requirements are certainly among the main challenges. In addition, the fear of data misuse potentially resulting in harm for nature, careers, and competencies still seems to be a critical barrier strictly controlling the willingness to share data. Various initiatives aimed at tackling technical and cultural obstacles are introduced and discussed to reach the goal of a modern resource management based on adaptive management using digital opportunities of the new millennium for a sustainable global village.     

The effect of metal pollution on the population genetic structure of brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) residing in the River Hayle, Cornwall, UK

The River Hayle in south-west England is impacted with metals and can be divided into three regions depending on the copper and zinc concentrations: a low-metal upper section; a highly-contaminated middle section and a moderately contaminated lower section. Hayle river water is toxic to metal-naive brown trout, but brown trout are found in the upper and lower regions. The study aimed to evaluate the population genetic structure of River Hayle brown trout and to determine if the highly-contaminated section acts as a chemical barrier to migration. Population genetic analysis indicated that metals were not a barrier to gene flow within the river, but there was a high level of differentiation observed between fish sampled at two sites in the upper region, despite being separated by only 1 km. The metal tolerance trait exhibited by this brown trout population may represent an important component of the species genetic diversity in this region.     

Salem Revisited: Updating the MTBE Controversy

I am wronged. It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits.* *Statement of Martha Carrier (excerpt), hanged as a witch on 19 August, 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. In all, 20 innocent persons were executed in 1692 as a result of the hysteria attending the Salem witch trials. After the executions, the court was prohibited from "reliance on spectral and intangible evidence". No prosecutions were successful thereafter. See generally, The Salem Witch Trials 1692: A Chronology of Events , at www.salemweb.com/memorial This article provides background information regarding the emerging controversies involving methyl tert -butyl ether (MTBE) and litigation involving leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) in general. It examines (1) the administrative, legislative and litigation history of MTBE in the context of the Clear Air Act and state environmental statues; (2) the importance of applicable RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) deadlines regarding UST compliance in these cases; (3) the question of MTBE toxicity for personal injury claims; and (4) the scope of damages available in cases filed by plaintiffs who are not physically impacted by contamination. The authors conclude that the MTBE controversy does not appear to be a legitimate public health or environmental crisis, but rather is yet another speculative product of the American legal industry.     

Education and advice contribute to increased density of broadleaved conservation trees, but not saplings, in young forest in Sweden

The effectiveness of different conservation policies is debated, but the policies are rarely evaluated quantitatively. A voluntary or 'soft' policy based mainly on education provides information about ecosystems and effects of land use, to encourage conservation action. Swedish forestry relies mainly on soft policy, with substantial resources for education and advice to more than 200,000 forest owners, while legal regulation is weak. Increased retention of broadleaved trees at clear-cutting, with environmental benefits in the conifer-dominated forestry, is important in the policy. We used the Swedish National Forest Inventory to analyse this policy for young forests in southern Sweden. Between 1983-1987 and 1998-2002 the policy had no positive effect on saplings (1.3m tall to 4.9 cm dbh) of birch, oak, beech and other species that mostly decreased in density, due to planting of conifers and browsing by ungulates. However, broadleaved conservation trees (>or=15 cm dbh) increased in density, e.g. to about one oak and six birches per ha in young coniferous forest in 1998-2002. The relative increase in density was higher for large (>or=20 cm dbh) than for small trees (15-20 cm dbh). The density of conservation trees was higher on forestland of high than of low productivity. Thus, the soft conservation policy did not influence regeneration of saplings in this type of forestry system, but large broadleaved trees were increasingly saved at 'clear-cuttings'. Advice and educational programmes probably contributed to this result. A continued increase in conservation trees at harvest may require economical support to forest owners.     

我国湿地状况存在问题及保护对策

本文对我国湿地现状进行了概述,探讨了湿地开发中存在的问题,并针对我国湿地现状提出了保护对策。     

An overview of President Carter's Water Policy (1978)

On June 6, 1978, President Carter presented his Federal Water Policy Initiatives to the Congress. These were based on a year-long and sometimes controversial study by the Water Resources Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Council on Environmental Quality. Reforms were proposed relative to cost sharing, planning procedures, project evaluation, and environmental protection. Omitted from the policy were recommendations on water pollution control, planning coordination, and water resources research.The views expressed are the author's, and not necessarily those of the Library of Congress.     

秦皇岛市水土保持工作存在的问题及对策

自水保法颁布实施以来,秦皇岛市的水土保持工作取得了巨大成效;全市共出台县级以上水土保持规范性文件15个;工程建设力度不断加大,综合治理水土流失面积1 619 km2;宣传教育活动深入开展,人们的水保意识普遍增强。然而,在新形势下还存在着宣传不到位、投入不足、治理思路老化、重治理轻预防、执法队伍素质低等诸多问题。因此,针对我市目前水土保持工作存在的问题,提出六项保证措施,推进水土保持工作健康发展。