The progress and challenges in sustainable forestry development in China

Forestry development in China has undergone a series of reforms over the past six decades. This article examines temporal changes in forest resources and policies, the current status of forestry, and future challenges toward sustainable forest management in China. Excessive logging in the 1950s to 1980s badly damaged the nation’s forests, but the adoption of enlightened forest policies in the late 1990s has led to increases in China’s total forest area and growing stock. Forest degradation was ecologically and economically costly, and rehabilitation processes have become increasingly more expensive. The low quality and young age of forest resources, loss of natural forests, and more difficulties in afforestation and reforestation pose severe challenges for China’s sustainable forestry. It is critically important for China to enhance forest productivity through intensive management, strengthen enforcement, and educational programs for protecting and restoring natural forests, narrow the gap between domestic timber supply and rapidly expanding consumption, improve coordinating networks for management, finance, and technology transfer, and accelerate efforts to clarify and stabilize tenure arrangements for non-state forests. China’s experience and lessons in forestry may be helpful for other developing countries that are seeking to achieve the goal of sustainable forest management.     

海洋大气环境下桥梁钢构件连接螺栓防腐技术研究

基于桥梁全寿命周期考虑,通过对包覆防腐、涂层防腐、密封胶与涂层联合防腐等常用防腐技术的防腐材料、施工工艺和防腐时效等进行了综合经济对比分析,得出氧化聚合型包覆防腐蚀技术具备防腐蚀材料先进性、施工质量可控性等优点,是桥梁钢构件连接螺栓的最优腐蚀防护方案。     

Recognizing Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in the post-2020 Biodiversity Agenda

The Convention on Biological Diversity is defining the goals that will frame future global biodiversity policy in a context of rapid biodiversity decline and under pressure to make transformative change. Drawing on the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, we argue that transformative change requires the foregrounding of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in biodiversity policy. We support this argument with four key points. First, Indigenous peoples and local communities hold knowledge essential for setting realistic and effective biodiversity targets that simultaneously improve local livelihoods. Second, Indigenous peoples’ conceptualizations of nature sustain and manifest CBD’s 2050 vision of “Living in harmony with nature.” Third, Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ participation in biodiversity policy contributes to the recognition of human and Indigenous peoples’ rights. And fourth, engagement in biodiversity policy is essential for Indigenous peoples and local communities to be able to exercise their recognized rights to territories and resources.     

“十三五”时期哈尔滨空气质量变化特征及影响因素分析

对"十三五"期间哈尔滨市空气质量状况、变化特征及影响因素进行分析,为哈尔滨市打赢蓝天保卫战提供科学参考。以哈尔滨市为研究区域,基于哈尔滨市12个国控监测点位监测结果,对"十三五"期间哈尔滨市环境空气质量优良天数及6项污染物进行分析,总结了环境空气质量变化特征及影响因素。结果表明:"十三五"期间,哈尔滨市环境空气质量呈现波动向好趋势,较"十二五"期间大幅改善,除细颗粒物外,其他指标已稳定达二级标准,臭氧成为仅次于细颗粒物的首要污染物,冬季燃煤污染是环境空气最主要的污染来源,秋季秸秆焚烧及春季清除秸秆根茬也会产生一定影响。     

Interactive effects of multiscale diversification practices on farmland bird stress

Farmland diversification practices (i.e., methods used to produce food sustainably by enhancing biodiversity in cropping systems) are sometimes considered beneficial to both agriculture and biodiversity, but most studies of these practices rely on species richness, diversity, or abundance as a proxy for habitat quality. Biodiversity assessments may miss early clues that populations are imperiled when species presence does not imply persistence. Physiological stress indicators may help identify low-quality habitats before population declines occur. We explored how avian stress indicators respond to on-farm management practices and surrounding seminatural area (1-km radius) across 21 California strawberry farms. We examined whether commonly used biodiversity metrics correlate with stress responses in wild birds. We used ∼1000 blood and feather samples and body mass and wing chord measurements, mostly from passerines, to test the effects of diversification practices on four physiological stress indicators: heterophil to lymphocyte ratios (H:L), body condition, hematocrit values, and feather growth rates of individual birds. We then tested the relationship between physiological stress indicators and species richness, abundance, occurrence, and diversity derived from 285 bird point count surveys. After accounting for other biological drivers, landscape context mediated the effect of local farm management on H:L and body condition. Local diversification practices were associated with reduced individual stress in intensive agricultural landscapes but increased it in landscapes surrounded by relatively more seminatural area. Feathers grew more slowly in landscapes dominated by strawberry production, suggesting that nutritional condition was lower here than in landscapes with more crop types and seminatural areas. We found scant evidence that species richness, abundance, occurrence, or diversity metrics were correlated with the individual's physiological stress, suggesting that reliance on these metrics may obscure the impacts of management on species persistence. Our findings underscore the importance of considering landscape context when designing local management strategies to promote wildlife conservation.     

西安城北地区秋季PM_(2.5)中的矿尘颗粒污染特征

采用单颗粒气溶胶飞行时间质谱仪(Single Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer,SPAMS)对西安市大气矿尘颗粒物进行连续12 d在线分析,共采集到107 425个同时含有正负质谱信息的矿尘颗粒,矿尘颗粒物占PM_(2.5)样本数的8.44%。结果表明,矿尘颗粒物的正离子碎片成分以Na~+、K~+、Al~+、Ca~+、CaO~+、Fe~+为主,同时还含有Pb~+等,负离子碎片成分以NO~-_2和NO~-_3为主,另外还含有HSO~-_4、SiO~-_3、HSiO~-_3、H(NO_3)~-_2等。在西安市大气细颗粒物中,矿尘颗粒物中贡献较大的几类(如含钙、含铁、铁氧颗粒物等)大多是老化的成分。将观测阶段采集到的矿尘颗粒纳入本地污染源谱进行来源分析,其主要来源为扬尘源、工业源、燃煤源和汽车尾气源等。     

Age and spatial distribution of the world's oldest trees

Extremely old trees have important roles in providing insights about historical climatic events and supporting cultural values, yet there has been limited work on their global distribution and conservation. We extracted information on 197,855 tree cores from 4854 sites and combined it with other tree age (e.g., the OLDLIST) data from a further 156 sites to determine the age of the world's oldest trees and quantify the factors influencing their global distribution. We found that extremely old trees >1000 years were rare. Among 30 individual trees that exceeded 2000 years old, 27 occurred in high mountains. We modeled maximum tree age with climatic, soil topographic, and anthropogenic variables, and our regression models demonstrated that elevation, human population density, soil carbon content, and mean annual temperature were key determinants of the distribution of the world's oldest trees. Specifically, our model predicted that many of the oldest trees will occur in high-elevation, cold, and arid mountains with limited human disturbance. This pattern was markedly different from that of the tallest trees, which were more likely to occur in relatively more mesic and productive locations. Global warming and expansion of human activities may induce rapid population declines of extremely old trees. New strategies, including targeted establishment of conservation reserves in remote regions, especially those in western parts of China and the United States, are required to protect these trees.