An Overview of Sediment Organic Matter Records of Human Eutrophication in the Laurentian Great Lakes Region

The isotopic and molecular compositions of organic matter buried in lake sediments provide information that helps to reconstruct past environmental conditions and to assess impacts of humans on local ecosystems. This overview of sedimentary records from the North American Great Lakes region describes examples of applications of organic geochemistry to paleolimnological reconstructions. These lakes experienced a succession of human-induced environmental changes that started after completion of the Erie Canal in 1825. Agricultural deforestation in the mid-nineteenth century released soil nutrients that increased algal productivity and caused an associated increase in algal biomarkers in sediment records. Eutrophication that accompanied magnified delivery of municipal nutrients to the lakes in the 1960s and 1970s created excursions to less negative δ¹³C values in sediment organic matter. Increased organic carbon mass accumulation rates mirror the isotopic evidence of eutrophication in the Great Lakes.     

Plains cottonwood's last stand: can it survive invasion of Russian olive onto the Milk River, Montana floodplain?

Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia L.) was introduced in 1950 onto one site on the Milk River floodplain, northern Montana, 10 km downstream from the Canada/United States border. To analyze dispersal of Russian olive from the point source between 1950 and 1999, we compared distribution, numbers, size structure, and mortality of Russian olive and plains cottonwood (Populus deltoides Marsh:) on an unregulated reach of the Milk River floodplain in southeastern Alberta and north-central Montana. Within 50 years, Russian olive in this reach has moved upriver into Alberta and downriver to the Fresno Reservoir. It is now present on 69 of the 74 meander lobes sampled, comprising 34%, 62%, and 61% of all Russian olive and plains cottonwood seedlings, saplings, and trees, respectively. On some meander lobes, Russian olive has colonized similar elevations on the floodplain as plains cottonwood and is oriented in rows paralleling the river channel, suggesting that recruitment may be related to river processes. Breakup ice had killed 400 Russian olive saplings and trees and damaged >1000 others on 30 of the meander lobes in 1996. Nevertheless, Russian olive now outnumbers cottonwood on many sites on the Milk River floodplain because its seeds can be dispersed by wildlife (particularly birds) and probably by flood water and ice rafts; seeds are viable for up to 3 years and germination can take place on bare and well-vegetated soils; and saplings and trees are less palatable to livestock and beaver than plains cottonwood. Without control, Russian olive could be locally dominant on the Milk River floodplain in all age classes within 10 years and replace plains cottonwood within this century.     

西部大开发面临的环境挑战及其对策

西部大开发面临的环境挑战主要是生态脆弱性的加重和环境污染西迁速度的加快。面对挑战,需要采取的对策及措施主要有:认真开 展对生态环境的科学研究;加强与拓展环境影响评价工作;切实加强环境管理能力建设;努力加大生态保护与建设的力度;坚决遏制环境污染 的西迁;制定与实施“西部蓝天计划”;大力加强水资源的保护与有效利用等。      

西部大开发中的四川猕猴桃资源优势

通过对四川省猕猴桃资源现状的分析,阐述了四川猕猴桃的资源优势及其人工栽培现状,提出了在西部大开发中发展四川猕猴桃产业化的道路。     

Use of structured expert judgment to forecast invasions by bighead and silver carp in Lake Erie

Identifying which nonindigenous species will become invasive and forecasting the damage they will cause is difficult and presents a significant problem for natural resource management. Often, the data or resources necessary for ecological risk assessment are incomplete or absent, leaving environmental decision makers ill equipped to effectively manage valuable natural resources. Structured expert judgment (SEJ) is a mathematical and performance‐based method of eliciting, weighting, and aggregating expert judgments. In contrast to other methods of eliciting and aggregating expert judgments (where, for example, equal weights may be assigned to experts), SEJ weights each expert on the basis of his or her statistical accuracy and informativeness through performance measurement on a set of calibration variables. We used SEJ to forecast impacts of nonindigenous Asian carp (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) in Lake Erie, where it is believed not to be established. Experts quantified Asian carp biomass, production, and consumption and their impact on 4 fish species if Asian carp were to become established. According to experts, in Lake Erie Asian carp have the potential to achieve biomass levels that are similar to the sum of biomasses for several fishes that are harvested commercially or recreationally. However, the impact of Asian carp on the biomass of these fishes was estimated by experts to be small, relative to long term average biomasses, with little uncertainty. Impacts of Asian carp in tributaries and on recreational activities, water quality, or other species were not addressed. SEJ can be used to quantify key uncertainties of invasion biology and also provide a decision‐support tool when the necessary information for natural resource management and policy is not available. El Uso de Juicio Experto Estructurado para Predecir Invasiones de Carpas Asiáticas en el Lago Erie     

武汉市湖泊侵占现状分析与洪涝灾害

湖泊是集提供水源、补充地下水、调节径流、抵御洪涝灾害、改善微小气候等功能为一体的重要水域,是湿地的重要组成部分。分析武汉市湖泊侵占与洪涝灾害现状发现,武汉市湖泊侵占现状严重,面积锐减,从而影响了湖泊在防洪排涝体系中的重要作用,是造成了武汉市历年遭受特大洪涝灾害的原因之一。2016年的洪涝灾害应该进一步敲醒警钟,保护武汉市湖泊资源迫在眉睫。为政府决策部门、职能部门、科研机构保护武汉市湖泊资源提供依据。     

Increasing development in the surroundings of U.S. National Park Service holdings jeopardizes park effectiveness

Protected areas are cornerstones of biodiversity conservation, but they are in danger of becoming islands in a sea of human dominated landscapes. Our question was if protected areas may even foster development in their surroundings because they provide amenities that attract development, thus causing the isolation of the ecosystems they were designed to protect. Our study analyzed historic aerial photographs and topographical maps to reconstruct road development and building growth within and around Indiana Dunes and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshores in the U.S. Great Lakes region from 1938 to 2005, and to estimate the effects of park creation in 1966 on changes in landscape patterns. Historic U.S. census housing density data were used as a baseline to compare observed changes to. Our results showed that park establishment was effective in reducing and stopping the fragmenting impact of development within park boundaries. However, increased amenity levels following park establishment led to enhanced development in the surroundings of both parks. In the extreme case of Indiana Dunes, building density outside the park increased from 45 to 200 buildings/km² and road density almost doubled from 3.6 to 6.6 km/km² from 1938 to 2005. Development rates of change were much higher than in the broader landscape, particularly after park establishment. The potential amenity effect was up to 9500 new buildings in the 3.2-km zone around Indiana Dunes between 1966 and 2005. For Pictured Rocks the absolute effect was smaller but up to 70% of the observed building growth was potentially due to amenity effects. Our findings highlight the need for conservation planning at broader scales, incorporating areas beyond the boundaries of protected areas.     

Socioeconomic evaluation of the impact of natural resource stressors on human-use services in the Great Lakes environment: A Lake Michigan case study

The Great Lakes watershed is home to over 40 million people (Canadian and U.S.) who depend on a healthy Great Lakes ecosystem for economic, societal, and personal vitality. The challenge to policymakers and the public is to balance economic benefits with the need to conserve and replenish regional natural resources in a manner that ensures long term prosperity. Nine critical broad-spectrum stressors of ecological services are identified, which include pollution and contamination, agricultural erosion, non-native species, degraded recreational resources, loss of wetlands habitat, climate change, risk of clean water shortage, vanishing sand dunes, and population overcrowding. Many of these stressors overlap. For example, mining activities alone can create stress in at least five of these categories. The focus groups were conducted to examine the public’s awareness of, concern with, and willingness to expend resources on these stressors. This helped generate a grouping of stressors that the public is especially concerned about, those they care little about, and everything else in between. Stressors that the respondents have direct contact with tend to be the most important to them. This approach of using focus groups is a critical first step in helping natural resource managers such as Trustees and NGOs understand what subsequent steps to take and develop policy measures that are of most interest and value to the public. Skipping or glossing over this key first task could lead to difficulties with respect to survey design and model development in a non-market valuation study. The focus group results show that concern related to pollution and contamination is much higher than for any of the others. It is thus clear that outreach programs may be necessary to educate the public about the severity of some low-ranked stressors including climate change.     

近50年来江汉湖群水域演化定量研究

根据江汉平原湖区发育背景、资源环境结构和社会经济功能等方面因素,将研究区界定为湖北省境内以江汉平原为依托、海拔50 m等高线以内的所有地区。其范围在东经 111°36′38.76″~116°7′52.14″、北纬29°25′59.25″~31°27′14.45″之间，按自然界线计算面积4.664万km2，按行政区统计面积为6.475万km2。运用RS/GIS技术，分析得知：近50年来，江汉湖群湖泊总数量和总面积均表现出总体下降、中间年份有波动的趋势，20世纪50年代、60年代、70年代、80年代、90年代和21世纪初(2000年)，0.1 km2以上的湖泊总数量分别是1 309、611、612、838、768、771个，0.1 km2以上的湖泊总面积分别是8 503.7、5 462.5、2 933.8、2 977.3、3 451.4、3 188.1 km2。围湖垦殖是近50多年来江汉湖群演化的主要原因和主导因子。