Grouping Lakes for Water Quality Assessment and Monitoring: The Roles of Regionalization and Spatial Scale

Regionalization frameworks cluster geographic data to create contiguous regions of similar climate, geology and hydrology by delineating land into discrete regions, such as ecoregions or watersheds, often at several spatial scales. Although most regionalization schemes were not originally designed for aquatic ecosystem classification or management, they are often used for such purposes, with surprisingly few explicit tests of the relative ability of different regionalization frameworks to group lakes for water quality monitoring and assessment. We examined which of 11 different lake grouping schemes at two spatial scales best captures the maximum amount of variation in water quality among regions for total nutrients, water clarity, chlorophyll, overall trophic state, and alkalinity in 479 lakes in Michigan (USA). We conducted analyses on two data sets: one that included all lakes and one that included only minimally disturbed lakes. Using hierarchical linear models that partitioned total variance into within-region and among-region components, we found that ecological drainage units and 8-digit hydrologic units most consistently captured among-region heterogeneity at their respective spatial scales using all lakes (variation among lake groups = 3% to 50% and 12% to 52%, respectively). However, regionalization schemes capture less among-region variance for minimally disturbed lakes. Diagnostics of spatial autocorrelation provided insight into the relative performance of regionalization frameworks but also demonstrated that region size is only partly responsible for capturing variation among lakes. These results suggest that regionalization schemes can provide useful frameworks for lake water quality assessment and monitoring but that we must identify the appropriate spatial scale for the questions being asked, the type of management applied, and the metrics being assessed.     

城市河流整治的生态规划要点——以北京市温榆河为例

在城市化进程中人们对城市河流的利用强度日益增大,在饱受污染危害之后,城市的规划和建设者注意到,河流不仅是饮水之源、排污渠道,更是人类生存的重要生态依托,因此,碧水工程已经成为各地城市生态整治的工作重点。但是,河流的生态功能是什么？服务功能又是什么？碧水工程不应只解决水质污染问题,而应保护和恢复河流的生态功能,利用好河流的生态服务功能。本文以北京市温榆河的生态规划为例,充分尊重河流的线性廊道特征,在景观生态学理论和技术的支持下,提出了修复温榆河生态通道功能和恢复天然河流水的运动规律的生态建设要点。     

Describing and Mapping Human-Induced Vegetation Change in the Australian Landscape

Australian reporting requirements for native vegetation require improved spatial and temporal information on the anthropogenic effects on vegetation. This includes better linkage of information on vegetation type (e.g., native vegetation association), extent and change, vegetation condition, or modification. The Vegetation Assets, States and Transitions (VAST) framework is presented as a means for ordering vegetation by degree of anthropogenic modification as a series of condition states, from a residual or base-line condition through to total removal. The VAST framework facilitates mapping and accounting for change and trends in the status and condition of vegetation. The framework makes clear the links between land management and vegetation condition states, provides a mechanism for describing the consequences of land management practices on vegetation condition, and contributes to an understanding of resilience. VAST is a simple communication and reporting tool designed to assist in describing and accounting for anthropogenic modification of vegetation. A benchmark is identified for each vegetation association. Benchmarks are based on structure, composition, and current regenerative capacity. This article describes the application of the VAST framework as a consistent national framework to translate and compile existing mapped information on the modification of native vegetation. We discuss the correspondence between these compiled VAST datasets at national and regional scales and describe their relevance for natural resource policy and planning.     

淮北中湖采煤沉陷区治理前后景观格局变化研究

基于淮北中湖采煤沉陷区2005年、2014年和2018年的遥感影像进行地表景观解译,研究治理前后该区景观格局变化特征及生态效应.结果表明:治理前,该区耕地破碎化加剧、景观优势最大并持续减弱,沉陷积水区水体呈聚集化趋势;治理后,景观基质由耕地变为水体,林地、草地面积显著增加且景观优势上升,人工湖泊水体聚集程度高.区域景观...