Patch Mosaic Burning for Biodiversity Conservation: a Critique of the Pyrodiversity Paradigm

Abstract:  Fire management is increasingly focusing on introducing heterogeneity in burning patterns under the assumption that "pyrodiversity begets biodiversity." This concept has been formalized as patch mosaic burning (PMB), in which fire is manipulated to create a mosaic of patches representative of a range of fire histories to generate heterogeneity across space and time. Although PMB is an intuitively appealing concept, it has received little critical analysis. Thus we examined ecosystems where PMB has received the most attention and has been the most extensively implemented: tropical and subtropical savannas of Australia and Africa. We identified serious shortcomings of PMB: the ecological significance of different burning patterns remains unknown and details of desired fire mosaics remain unspecified. This has led to fire-management plans based on pyrodiversity rhetoric that lacks substance in terms of operational guidelines and capacity for meaningful evaluation. We also suggest that not all fire patterns are ecologically meaningful: this seems particularly true for the highly fire-prone savannas of Australia and South Africa. We argue that biodiversity-needs-pyrodiversity advocacy needs to be replaced with a more critical consideration of the levels of pyrodiversity needed for biodiversity and greater attention to operational guidelines for its implementation.     

Efficient and sustainable management of complex forest ecosystems

A large range of models has been developed for the analysis of optimal forest management strategies, with the well-known Faustmann models dating back to the mid-19th century. To date, however, there has been relatively little attention for the implications of complex ecosystem dynamics for optimal forest management. This paper examines the implications of irreversible ecosystem responses for efficient and sustainable forest management. The paper is built around two forest models that comprise two ecosystem components, forest cover and topsoil, the interactions between these components, and the supply of the ecosystem services ‘wood’ and ‘erosion control’. The first model represents a forest that responds in a reversible way to overharvesting. In the second model, an additional ecological process has been included and the ecosystem irreversibly collapses below certain thresholds in forest cover and topsoil depth. The paper presents a general model, and demonstrates the implications of pursuing efficient as well as sustainable forest management for the two forest ecosystems. Both fixed and variable harvesting cycles are examined. Efficient and sustainable harvesting cycles are compared, and it is shown that irreversible ecosystem behaviour reduces the possibilities to reconcile efficient and sustainable forest management through a variable harvesting cycle.     

城市垃圾管理综合体系改革探讨

以漳州为例，分析我国城市垃圾政策体系，管理体制、资金状况、产业市场调控机制的现状，提出城市垃圾管理改革的方向和目标应以“谁污染谁治理”为原则，以实现城市可持续发展为目标，应用生命周期评价理论，在环境可持续性、经济可负担性、社会可接受性的基础上，以清洁生产、最小量化、资源化、无害化和产业化为指导思想，加强立法和政策制定；按政企分开、政事分开原则，建立适应社会主义市场经济的垃圾管理新体制；依靠市场和政府双重动力，全方位、全过程、开放垃圾产业；建立多元化项目投资机制。     

Non-compliance and the quota price in an ITQ fishery

This paper examines the effects of non-compliance on quota demands and the equilibrium quota price in an ITQ fishery. I show that whereas lower quota prices are implied unambiguously by expected penalties which are a function of the absolute violation size, the expectation of penalties based upon relative violations of quota demands can, under certain conditions, produce higher quota prices than in a compliant quota market. If there are both compliant and non-compliant firms in the fishery, the result would then be a shift in quota demand from compliant to non-compliant firms, rather than the reverse. The findings are generally applicable to quota markets in other industries, including pollution permit markets.     

切断位置对赤子爱胜蚓再生速度的影响

将赤子爱胜蚓从脑、生殖环部位和总体节的 1/ 2和 3/ 4的位置切断 ,得到有头无尾、无头无尾、无头有尾 3种类型 16个处理体段 ,在 (2 0± 1)℃人工气候箱中培养 ,测定其再生速度 .结果表明 ,赤子爱胜蚓切断的位置不同 ,其再生速度不同 .其中 ,脑部的存在与否 ,对再生速度没有显著的影响 .但是生殖环存在的处理比切除生殖环的处理再生速度快 ,且存活率高 .无头无尾体段再生前部和再生后部的比较表明 ,再生前部比再生后部慢 .体节的损失越少 ,再生的速度越快 .图 6表 3参 11     

Managing Individuals' Contributions to Maximize the Allelic Diversity Maintained in Small, Conserved Populations

Abstract:  The maintenance of diversity is, from a genetic perspective, one of the key aims in a conservation program. Because the most widely used measure of genetic diversity is the expected heterozygosity of the population, or gene diversity (GD), most research has been devoted to finding optimal strategies for maximizing this parameter. Little attention has been paid, however, to the development of strategies to manage allelic diversity (AD), the number of alleles maintained in the population. Using computer simulations, we show that the strategies that maximize GD, by managing contributions from parents, keep levels of AD as high as strategies maximizing AD itself, for a wide range of situations including different numbers of molecular markers used and the possibility of evaluating a number of offspring per parent to make decisions. Because maximization of GD also minimizes levels of inbreeding, this should be the strategy of choice in any conservationprogram.     

有机氯农药六六六污染土壤的植物修复研究

我国20世纪六七十年代大量施用的有机氯农药,由于其性质极其稳定,在土壤至今仍有残留。植物修复有机农药污染土壤并不多见,但具有广阔的应用前景。此项研究对提高土壤环境质量、保证农产品的安全、实现农业可持续发展等有着重要的理论和现实意义。文章以多花黑麦草(Lolium multiforum Lan.)、紫花苜蓿(Medicago sativa L.)和籽粒苋(Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.)作为供试植物,在有机氯农药六六六(HCH)质量分数为1.09 mg.kg-1的污染土壤中种植3个月,研究了种植不同植物条件下土壤中HCH的消解情况。研究结果表明,与对照相比,种植植物大大提高了土壤中微生物数量和酶的活性,并且微生物的数量和酶的活性与土壤中HCH的消解密切相关。试验结束后,不同处理中HCH及其4种异构体的总含量降低幅度为43.87%~65.79%,其中种植紫花苜蓿和多花黑麦草的处理中HCH消解较快,对HCH污染土壤修复的效果较好。可见,植物修复技术是一种可行的环境友好的修复六六六污染土壤的技术。     

A Global Indicator for Biological Invasion

Abstract:  "Trends in invasive alien species" is one of only two indicators of threat to biodiversity that form part of the Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD) framework for monitoring progress toward its "2010 target" (i.e., the commitment to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss). To date, however, there is no fully developed indicator for invasive alien species (IAS) that combines trends, derived from a standard set of methods, across species groups, ecosystems, and regions. Here we provide a rationale for the form and characteristics of an indicator of trends in IAS that will meet the 2010 framework goal and targets for this indicator. We suggest single and composite indicators that include problem-status and management-status measures that are designed to be flexible, readily disaggregated, and as far as possible draw on existing data. The single indicators at national and global scales are number of IAS and numbers of operational management plans for IAS. Global trends in IAS are measured as the progress of nations toward the targets of stabilizing IAS numbers and the implementation of IAS management plans. The proposed global indicator thus represents a minimum information set that most directly addresses the indicator objective and simultaneously aims to maximize national participation. This global indicator now requires testing to assess its accuracy, sensitivity, and tractability. Although it may not be possible to achieve the desired objective for a global indicator of biological invasion by 2010 as comprehensively as desired, it seems possible to obtain trend estimates for a component of the taxa, ecosystems, and regions involved. Importantly, current indicator development initiatives will also contribute to developing the mechanisms necessary for monitoring global trends in IAS beyond 2010.     

盈余管理的研究

在明析盈余管理概念的基础上，分析了盈余管理产生的内在基础及存在的外部条件．指出应正视盈余管理的客观存在及可能的危害，最后通过对盈余管理的规范化，探讨了其相应的措施与对策．     

丘陵红壤开发的水土资源保护及农业产业化经营模式

以湖南省桃源县为例,针对目前丘陵红壤开发存在的主要问题,在探明季节性干旱成因和发生规律、水资源合理调蓄利用依据的基础上,提出了红壤丘陵区抗御季节性干旱的水分管理对策和主要措施;通过不同经营模式的水土资源动态观测、分析,提出了红壤丘陵区土壤允许流失值应≤200 t·km-2·a-1、相应的降水径流系数<0.25 等水土资源协调发展的关键技术指标,并在丘陵红壤坡地上建立了土壤侵蚀模数<100 t·km-2·a-1 的“土壤-水分-生物”资源互利型的高效利用模式。同时,以市场为导向,优化产业结构为中心,应用上述研究成果,建立了茶叶、苎麻、果业、庭园高效生态农业等四大科技先导型的产业化规模经营体系,为我国红壤丘陵区的农业产业化开发提供实用模式与示范样板。