Decline of traditional rice farming constrains the recovery of the endangered Asian crested ibis (Nipponia nippon)

Traditional agriculture benefits a rich diversity of plants and animals. The winter-flooded rice fields in the Qinling Mountains, China, are the last refuge for the endangered Asian crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), and intensive efforts have been made to protect this anthropogenic habitat. Analyses of multi-temporal satellite data indicate that winter-flooded rice fields have been continuously reduced across the current range of crested ibis during the past two decades. The rate of loss of these fields in the core-protected areas has unexpectedly increased to a higher level than that in non-protected areas in the past decade. The best fit (R² = 0.87) numerical response model of the crested ibis population shows that a reduction of winter-flooded rice fields decreases population growth and predicts that the population growth will be constrained by the decline of traditional winter-flooded rice fields in the coming decades. Our findings suggest that the decline of traditional rice farming is likely to continue to pose a threat to the long-term survival and recovery of the crested ibis population in China.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0649-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

利用卫星遥感评估广西壮族自治区SO_2减排成效

基于2005—2012年OMI卫星遥感PBL SO2柱浓度数据分析了广西壮族自治区SO2污染的时空格局和变化特征,并结合燃煤火电厂SO2排放模型估算与工业经济增长数据,在时间、空间尺度上分析了自治区内不同区域的SO2污染对火电厂烟气脱硫政策的响应以及所呈现出的减排成效。结果表明,广西因火电厂脱硫政策驱动的SO2污染改善具有显著的空间异质性,自治区内高污染区的SO2浓度在2011—2012年出现了显著下降,而低污染区的SO2浓度则在8年中持续增长;排放模型估算结果显示,烟气脱硫驱动的火电厂SO2减排贡献将在2008年后持续下降,而遥感观测结果显示,广西全区SO2半年浓度均值总体呈现波动上升趋势,2005—2012年浓度增加了8.6%、年均增长约0.9%;综合工业经济增长数据发现,近年来其他工业源的增量排放已给广西SO2减排带了新挑战,而这一变化仍未得到相关决策部门关注,存在明显缺陷的SO2统计排放量数据尚未得到修正。针对上述污染变化新特征,政府相关部门应引起足够重视,尽快更新完善污染源信息并启动针对其他污染源的限排措施,以确保环境持续改善。     

基于MERIS数据的太湖悬浮物与叶绿素a遥感估算研究

基于MERIS数据,采用最大叶绿素指数算法,分别建立太湖悬浮物浓度与叶绿素a浓度的估算模型。经误差分析证明,该模型适宜检测悬浮物与叶绿素a质量浓度范围分别为15 g/m3～80 g/m3与10 mg/m3～20 mg/m3的水域,可用于太湖水体悬浮物与叶绿素a的MERIS遥感估算。     

Off-grid: community energy and the pursuit of self-sufficiency in British Columbia's remote and First Nations communities

Remote or off-grid communities in Canada primarily rely on diesel generators for the provision of their electricity. Often surrounded by potential renewable resources, they are characterised as the low-hanging fruit of greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. While much is said about the promises of community energy projects, as well as technologies and policy mechanisms for addressing the needs of these communities, little attention has been paid to what communities, themselves, might want for their energy projects and what the implications of those desires might be for both technology development and community energy policies. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the on-going energy pursuits of a number of remote First Nations communities in British Columbia. It identifies a desire for community self-sufficiency as a primary motivation for engaging with energy projects on the part of the communities and discusses the various meanings and implications of self-sufficiency in the context of community energy projects. These meanings and implications primarily include the two dimensions of material self-sufficiency and political self-determination, the latter of which suggests a view of community energy projects as processes of decolonisation among First Nation communities in British Columbia. It then suggests that the pursuit of this goal is somewhat incongruent with the approach that government and industry have taken in addressing community energy, especially the way in which remote communities are viewed as the low-hanging fruit of various sustainability projects.     

Optimal Reorganization of NASA Earth Science Data for Enhanced Accessibility and Usability for the Hydrology Community

A long‐standing “Digital Divide” in data representation exists between the preferred way of data access by the hydrology community and the common way of data archival by earth science data centers. Typically, in hydrology, earth surface features are expressed as discrete spatial objects (e.g., watersheds), and time‐varying data are contained in associated time series. Data in earth science archives, although stored as discrete values (of satellite swath pixels or geographical grids), represent continuous spatial fields, one file per time step. This Divide has been an obstacle, specifically, between the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. and NASA earth science data systems. In essence, the way data are archived is conceptually orthogonal to the desired method of access. Our recent work has shown an optimal method of bridging the Divide, by enabling operational access to long‐time series (e.g., 36 years of hourly data) of selected NASA datasets. These time series, which we have termed “data rods,” are pre‐generated or generated on‐the‐fly. This optimal solution was arrived at after extensive investigations of various approaches, including one based on “data curtains.” The on‐the‐fly generation of data rods uses “data cubes,” NASA Giovanni, and parallel processing. The optimal reorganization of NASA earth science data has significantly enhanced the access to and use of the data for the hydrology user community.     

基于环境一号卫星的PM2.5浓度遥感反演研究

2014年12月29—30日,青岛市发生了一次空气污染过程,利用环境一号卫星CCD遥感影像数据和实测PM_(2.5)浓度数据,分析了该过程前后5 d的实测PM_(2.5)浓度与环境一号卫星CCD遥感影像的DN值之间的相关性,分别按日期和区域建立了反演模型。结果表明,按日期拟合反演模型相关系数为0.02~0.51,按区域拟合反演模型相关系数为0.01~0.80,总体来说,区域拟合结果较好。     

南方丘陵地区河谷城市用地时空演变与驱动分析——以上饶市城区为例

以揭示中国南方丘陵地区河谷城市的空间演变过程和特征为目的,以上饶市城区为例,在遥感与GIS技术的支持下,对1988~2013年间上饶市城区城市用地的时空演变过程、特征及驱动影响因素进行了研究。结果表明,1988~2013年的25 a间,上饶市城区城市用地呈现出快速增长的态势,城市形态的演变具有明显的时空特征:时间序列上,不论扩展幅度还是扩展速度,2001~2013年间的值均高于1988~2001年间的值,前后两个时段的扩展特征呈现出明显的差异性;空间格局上,上饶市城区以老城区的中心广场为中心向四周扩展,先后经历了放射性扩展、组团式分散扩展两个阶段,同时呈现出明显的方向分异性,西南和西为其主要扩展方向,而其东南方向的扩展速度最为缓慢。自然环境中的地貌对上饶市城区城市用地的扩展起到很大的限制作用,经济社会的发展、政策规划等因素成为城市用地扩张与时空演化的外在驱动因素。     

鄱阳湖水位-淹水面积关系不确定性的分析

湖泊淹水范围的时空变化特征往往决定了湖泊湿地的景观结构和功能。鄱阳湖是我国最大淡水湖,水位和淹水范围的季节变化悬殊,鄱阳湖淹水特征对研究鄱阳湖湿地生态系统的结构与功能都具有显著意义,过去很多研究关注鄱阳湖水位-淹水面积关系,不同的研究者得到的水位-淹水面积关系各有差异,表现出一定的不确定性。利用多时相的卫星遥感影像提取的鄱阳湖水面面积的基础上,结合鄱阳湖长时间序列的水位观测资料,探讨鄱阳湖水位-淹水面积关系不确定的原因。研究结果表明:(1)尽管鄱阳湖水面面积与水位表现分段线性关系,但在相同水位条件下,鄱阳湖水面面积表现出较大的不确定性;(2)鄱阳湖水位表现南高北低的空间异质性格局,随着水位增加,鄱阳湖水位的空间异质性降低,并且水面坡降具有季相性,相同水位下退水期的水面坡降大于涨水期的水面坡降;(3)受洲滩地形和"堑秋湖"渔业方式的影响,相同水位下退水期出露洲滩中子湖泊的水面范围大于涨水期中子湖泊水面范围;(4)此外,鄱阳湖采砂显著改变采沙场的湖盆地形,从而改变低水位下的主要采沙场的淹水范围。综上所述,鄱阳湖水位-淹水面积关系的不确定性除了受湖盆地形、"五河"来水、长江顶托等自然原因,还有采砂和堑秋湖渔业方式等人类活动的原因。     

大气环境无人机监测方法研究

目前地面常规大气监测手段难以对垂直方向污染源监测,也难以应对环境突发事件,采用无人机大气监测与数值模拟结合的方法可以解决该问题。实验开发了基于无人机平台的空气质量监测平台,采用数值模拟方法确定平台搭载方案,再对无人机监测系统得到的监测数据与数值模拟计算结果作对比分析,得到各项污染物浓度。分析了该方法存在的问题,提出了提高数据链路传输能力,开展无人机遥感系统相关环境质量评价方法学研究,开发精度高、质量轻的无人机大气监测吊舱,开展地面静止比对和飞行测量比对实验等建议。     

核电站温排水卫星遥感监测应用研究

选取我国 HJ－1 B卫星红外相机为遥感数据源，在介绍了温排水卫星遥感监测的技术流程和基本原理之后，重点论述了海表温度反演的算法和基准温度提取的基本原则。以2013年1月17日大亚湾核电站和2013年5月22日田湾核电站2景 HJ－1 B红外相机数据为应用实例，说明了卫星遥感监测可作为开展核电站温排水影响监测与热污染评价的首选技术方向和主要监测手段，阐述了其在核电站温排水影响后评估中的作用和意义。