Mowers versus growers: Riparian buffer management in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains,USA

Despite long-standing knowledge of the benefits of riparian buffers for mitigating nonpoint source pollution, many streams are unprotected by buffers. Even landowners who understand ecological values of buffers mow riparian vegetation to the streambank. Do trends in rural riparian conditions reflect the development of riparian forest science? What motivates residential riparian management actions? Using high-resolution orthoimagery, we quantified riparian conditions and trends between 1998 and 2015 in the rural upper Little Tennessee River basin in Macon County, North Carolina and explored how landowners view riparian zone management and riparian restoration programs. Buffer composition in 2015 was as follows: no buffer (32.5%), narrow (19.3%), forested (26.7%), shrub (7.2%), and intermediate (7.0%). Relative to 1998, the greatest decrease occurred in the no buffer class (−17.7%, 46 km) and the largest increases occurred in the shrub (+72.5%, 20 km) and narrow (12.6%, 14 km) classes. Forested buffer marginally increased. Semi-structured interview data suggest that landowners prioritize recreational and scenic aspects of riparian buffers over ecological functions such as filtration and bank stabilization. Riparian restoration programs might be made more enticing to non-adopters if outreach language appealed to landowner priorities, design elements demonstrated intentional management, and program managers highlighted areas where ecological goals and landowner values align.     

Three lessons for gender equity in biodiversity conservation

Amid a growing global agenda, biodiversity conservation has embraced gender equity as a pillar of equitable and effective practice. Gender equity has become enshrined in the global environment and development agenda through global commitments, policy and funding. However, for various reasons, conservation biodiversity often takes a simplistic view of gender as synonymous with women or as a dualism between women and men. This narrow view risks promoting inequitable processes and ineffective outcomes. Deeper engagement with feminist theory, and feminist political ecology in particular, could help advance biodiversity conservation's approach to how gender is understood, framed and integrated. Engaging with lessons from feminist political ecology can help advance gender equity in conservation through attention to power dynamics, intersectionality, and subjectivity.     

Fishing‐gear restrictions and biomass gains for coral reef fishes in marine protected areas

Considerable empirical evidence supports recovery of reef fish populations with fishery closures. In countries where full exclusion of people from fishing may be perceived as inequitable, fishing‐gear restrictions on nonselective and destructive gears may offer socially relevant management alternatives to build recovery of fish biomass. Even so, few researchers have statistically compared the responses of tropical reef fisheries to alternative management strategies. We tested for the effects of fishery closures and fishing gear restrictions on tropical reef fish biomass at the community and family level. We conducted 1,396 underwater surveys at 617 unique sites across a spatial hierarchy within 22 global marine ecoregions that represented 5 realms. We compared total biomass across local fish assemblages and among 20 families of reef fishes inside marine protected areas (MPAs) with different fishing restrictions: no‐take, hook‐and‐line fishing only, several fishing gears allowed, and sites open to all fishing gears. We included a further category representing remote sites, where fishing pressure is low. As expected, full fishery closures, (i.e., no‐take zones) most benefited community‐ and family‐level fish biomass in comparison with restrictions on fishing gears and openly fished sites. Although biomass responses to fishery closures were highly variable across families, some fishery targets (e.g., Carcharhinidae and Lutjanidae) responded positively to multiple restrictions on fishing gears (i.e., where gears other than hook and line were not permitted). Remoteness also positively affected the response of community‐level fish biomass and many fish families. Our findings provide strong support for the role of fishing restrictions in building recovery of fish biomass and indicate important interactions among fishing‐gear types that affect biomass of a diverse set of reef fish families.     

"十三五"国家自然科学基金对能源环境管理领域的资助状况和趋势

能源环境管理是各界关注的热点话题,也是科学研究的重要方向.以国家自然科学基金资助能源环境管理领域的科研项目为基础数据信息,本文重点分析了"十三五"期间国家自然科学基金在该领域资助项目的总体特征、研究主题和热点变化,并结合新时代科学基金资助导向提出了可能的发展趋势.主要结论包括:①能源环境管理领域面上、青年、地区等自由探索类项目的立项绝对数和学科占比均呈上升趋势,并更多向青年学者倾斜,资助强度保持稳定;②碳、能源和环境是自由探索项目中出现频率最高的热词,与之相关的研究主题随着政策等调整具有动态变化特征;③能源环境管理领域重点、重大等引导类项目和优青、杰青、创新研究群体等人才类项目不断实现突破,增速明显,学科占比优势突出;④问题导向与本土情景、理论体系和一般规律、学科交叉融合,以及市场和微观主体作用是研究选题确立与项目申请时可能需要重点关注的方向.     

河道生态环境保护与治理工作

现阶段,随着社会经济的不断发展,国家越来越重视河道整治工作。目前,依然存在着部分河道污染严重的问题。本文将对河道生态环境保护与治理工作进行分析研究,希望为相关工作人员提供参考。     

海洋生态经济协调发展研究综述

随着海洋资源开发的规模化推进,海洋经济快速增长,海洋自然生态系统急剧衰退,海洋生态经济矛盾日益尖锐,海洋生态经济协调发展研究已成为近年来海洋生态学、海洋经济学以及生态经济学研究领域的热点和难点问题。本文从海洋生态经济的价值贡献、问题危机、安全评估、关系模型、综合管理等5个方面回顾分析了国内外有关海洋生态经济协调发展研究的进展情况,发现与陆域生态经济协调发展研究相比,海洋生态经济协调发展研究无论在理论构建还是方法创新上都存在滞后性。     

发展低碳经济建设生态环保城市

生态环保城市的建设,必须走低碳经济之路。要大力发展生态环保产业,调整高碳产业结构,提高城市生态环保的意识。     

东江干流河岸带植物群落类型分布格局研究

对东江干流河滨带植物群落类型进行详细调查,并对其空间分异情况进行了系统研究。根据野外调查所获90个样地数据资料,结合应用了TWINSPAN、DCA、CCA等数量分析方法。调查中共发现样内植物56科187属271种;TWINSPAN分类将该90个样地归并划分为15个群丛;DCA排序的第一轴的累积变异量为9.3%,前两轴的累积变异量为15.8%;CCA排序前两轴对物种-环境关系的解释量为62.6%;DCA、CCA排序分析揭示了群落在上、中、下游的分布情况,以及这些群落的分布格局与温度、人类干扰强度、土壤含水量等因子之间的相互关系。     

推行清洁生产 促进黑龙江省循环经济发展

当前,黑龙江省＂高污染、高消耗、低产出＂的传统经济发展模式越来越受到资源瓶颈和生态环境的制约,提高资源利用率,减少废弃物的产生成为当前迫切解决的问题。因此寻找促进发展循环经济的方法成为黑龙江省转变经济增长方式的必然选择。清洁生产,就是在确保产品满足人类物质文化需要的前提下,通过不断改进管理和推进技术进步等措施,达到提高资源利用率、减少乃至消除污染物的产生,使其生产过程和产品对人类和环境危害最小的目的。清洁生产是解决经济发展与环境矛盾的重要手段,是生态产业发展的基础,更是实现黑龙江省循环经济发展的重要途径。     

Bacteria on housefly eggs, Musca domestica, suppress fungal growth in chicken manure through nutrient depletion or antifungal metabolites

Female houseflies, Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae), lay their eggs in ephemeral resources such as animal manure. Hatching larvae compete for essential nutrients with fungi that also colonize such resources. Both the well-known antagonistic relationship between bacteria and fungi and the consistent presence of the bacterium Klebsiella oxytoca on housefly eggs led us to hypothesize (1) that K. oxytoca, and possibly other bacteria on housefly eggs, help curtail the growth of fungal resource competitors and (2) that such fungi indeed adversely affect the development of housefly larvae. Bacteria washed from housefly eggs significantly reduced the growth of fungi in chicken manure. Nineteen bacterial strains and ten fungal strains were isolated from housefly eggs or chicken manure, respectively. Co-culturing each of all the possible bacterium–fungus pairs revealed that the bacteria as a group, but no single bacterium, significantly suppressed the growth of all fungal strains tested. The bacteria's adverse effect on fungi is due to resource nutrient depletion and/or the release of antifungal chemicals. Well-established fungi in resources significantly reduced the number of larval offspring that completed development to adult flies. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.