Nature Articulations in Norwegian Advertising Discourse: A Depoliticized Discourse of Climate Change

This article deals with how nature is articulated in public discourse and more specifically how humans’ relationship to nature is constructed via such articulations. Based on critical cultural analyses of ads presented in a Norwegian context, the article claims articulations of nature serve to a depoliticization of nature, which silence social differences and reduce environmental politics to individual moral action. Several rhetorical patterns of particular relevance to the articulation of nature are discussed, pointing out how disparate, sometimes conflicting, understandings of nature are rhetorically configured and aligned in ways that benefit a global market economy. There is a discursive distancing of nature and everyday life, even as nature remains valorized and very much central to national identity. This constrains citizens’ political engagement and undermines understandings of how to govern nature.     

平衡——生态健康之刁——平衡与生态健康之关系

“平衡”是世间万物之本,而生态健康却与自然、社会、政治以及人体平衡等有着千丝万缕的联系。随着人类社会经济的不断发展和人们生活水平的不断提高,生态健康已成为现代化生活的一个重要标志,它直接关系到人们的健康生活。本文提出了“平衡”是生态健康之本,从一个新颖的视角一“平衡”,简明地论述了平衡在人类的生存发展过程中的重要性,以及它与生态健康之间的密切关系。文章中阐述的观点值得思考,对如何理解和审视“生态健康”有着重要的启示作用。     

卧龙降水稳定同位素与季风活动的关系

2003-07～2004-07在四川卧龙自然保护区对逐次降水事件进行采样,分析了降水的稳定同位素特征及其与降水量、气温和风向风速等气象参数的关系.结果表明.4～8月降水的过量氘(d-excess)值为(8.4±7.4)‰,降水由东亚季风带来的大洋水汽主导;9～10月降水的d-excess值为(-7.4±12.5)‰,降水由南亚季风带来的经过强烈分馏作用的大洋水汽主导;11月～次年3月降水的d-excess值为(12.5±12.1)‰,降水由本地蒸发水汽以及西风环流带来的内陆蒸发水汽主导.季风期降水的δD和δ18O具降水量效应(r分别为-0.389、-0.380,P＜0.05),次一级是气温影响(P≤0.10).季风期降水的δD、δ18O与南风指数呈显著负相关(r分别为-0.354、-0.390,P＜0.05),表明降水中的稳定同位素比率对水汽来源与运输过程指示性很强,特别是南亚季风的暴发带来了稳定同位素比率和d-excess值都极低的降水.     

长江口中华鲟保护区及临近水域大型底栖动物研究

根据2004年5月、8月、11月和2005年2月(Ⅰ年度)及2005年8月、11月和2006年2月、5月(Ⅱ年度)共2个水文年对T长江口中华鲟保护区水域(30°15′～31°45′N、121°30′～122°15′E)15个取样站8个航次的采泥样品和阿氏网样品,对底内动物和底上动物的种类组成、生物量、栖息密度、重要种的优势度、群落多样性和结构及时间空间动态变化进行分析.结果表明,底内动物共出现15种,种类组成贫乏,优势种变化明显,底内动物生物量和栖息密度平均值分别为1.44 g/m2和11.33个/m2,生物量和栖息密度总体呈现下降趋势,物种多样性指数低并有下降趋势,群落结构极不稳定;底上动物底栖动物59种,组成有明显季节和年度变化,底内动物生物量和栖息密度平均值分别为15.58 ×10-2g/m2和6.81×10-2个/m2;底上动物生物量和栖息密度略呈现下降趋势,优势种的种类及优势度年际有较大变化,种类数和生物量北支高于南支.底内动物2个年度生物量平均值季节变化为夏季＞春季＞秋季＞冬季,底上动物2个年度生物量平均值季节变化为春季＞冬季＞秋季＞夏季,底内动物与底上动物的季节变化具有一定的不平衡性.     

景观生态学原理在自然保护区规划中的应用

本文运用景观生态学的有关理论指导自然保护区的规划建设,按照一定的规划原则对自然保护区的本底与基质、斑块、廊道以及景观格局进行规划设计。     

自然保护区生态补偿定量方案研究——基于“虚拟地”计算方法

自然保护区生态补偿的“补给谁”和“补多少”在理论和实践上都是生态补偿中的重点和难点所在。传统的通过计量保护区正外部性以确定生态补偿数量的方法存在两个主要问题：一是违背经济学原理,二是与管理体制不符且法理不足。据此,并考虑到中国相当数量的保护区“没有保护好”的主要因素是保护区社区居民生产生活的干扰,论文认为应通过控制保护区社区的负外部性来达成对保护区的生态补偿。通过生产函数理论分析,发现通常情况下保护区社区的经济产出与土地面积单调正相关,因此在没有生态补偿的情况下,保护区的划建会使周边社区居民经济收入减少,解决周边社区对保护区干扰的根本途径是利用生态补偿资金发展替代产业以提高单位面积土地的经济产出。以此认识为基础,文章提出了“虚拟地”概念并发展了定量方法来确定保护区的生态补偿最低标准,采用武夷山保护区的数据进行了这一方法的案例分析。     

Implications of Macroalgal Isolation by Distance for Networks of Marine Protected Areas

The global extent of macroalgal forests is declining, greatly affecting marine biodiversity at broad scales through the effects macroalgae have on ecosystem processes, habitat provision, and food web support. Networks of marine protected areas comprise one potential tool that may safeguard gene flow among macroalgal populations in the face of increasing population fragmentation caused by pollution, habitat modification, climate change, algal harvesting, trophic cascades, and other anthropogenic stressors. Optimal design of protected area networks requires knowledge of effective dispersal distances for a range of macroalgae. We conducted a global meta‐analysis based on data in the published literature to determine the generality of relation between genetic differentiation and geographic distance among macroalgal populations. We also examined whether spatial genetic variation differed significantly with respect to higher taxon, life history, and habitat characteristics. We found clear evidence of population isolation by distance across a multitude of macroalgal species. Genetic and geographic distance were positively correlated across 49 studies; a modal distance of 50–100 km maintained F_ST < 0.2. This relation was consistent for all algal divisions, life cycles, habitats, and molecular marker classes investigated. Incorporating knowledge of the spatial scales of gene flow into the design of marine protected area networks will help moderate anthropogenic increases in population isolation and inbreeding and contribute to the resilience of macroalgal forests. Implicaciones del Aislamiento por Distancia de Macroalgas para Redes de Áreas Marinas Protegidas     

Quantifying the erosion of natural darkness in the global protected area system

The nighttime light environment of much of the earth has been transformed by the introduction of electric lighting. This impact continues to spread with growth in the human population and extent of urbanization. This has profound consequences for organismal physiology and behavior and affects abundances and distributions of species, community structure, and likely ecosystem functions and processes. Protected areas play key roles in buffering biodiversity from a wide range of anthropogenic pressures. We used a calibration of a global satellite data set of nighttime lights to determine how well they are fulfilling this role with regard to artificial nighttime lighting. Globally, areas that are protected tend to be darker at night than those that are not, and, with the exception of Europe, recent regional declines in the proportion of the area that is protected and remains dark have been small. However, much of these effects result from the major contribution to overall protected area coverage by the small proportion of individual protected areas that are very large. Thus, in Europe and North America high proportions of individual protected areas (>17%) have exhibited high levels of nighttime lighting in all recent years, and in several regions (Europe, Asia, South and Central America) high proportions of protected areas (32–42%) have had recent significant increases in nighttime lighting. Limiting and reversing the erosion of nighttime darkness in protected areas will require routine consideration of nighttime conditions when designating and establishing new protected areas; establishment of appropriate buffer zones around protected areas where lighting is prohibited; and landscape level reductions in artificial nighttime lighting, which is being called for in general to reduce energy use and economic costs.     

Enhanced science–stakeholder communication to improve ecosystem model performances for climate change impact assessments

In recent years, climate impact assessments of relevance to the agricultural and forestry sectors have received considerable attention. Current ecosystem models commonly capture the effect of a warmer climate on biomass production, but they rarely sufficiently capture potential losses caused by pests, pathogens and extreme weather events. In addition, alternative management regimes may not be integrated in the models. A way to improve the quality of climate impact assessments is to increase the science–stakeholder collaboration, and in a two-way dialog link empirical experience and impact modelling with policy and strategies for sustainable management. In this paper we give a brief overview of different ecosystem modelling methods, discuss how to include ecological and management aspects, and highlight the importance of science–stakeholder communication. By this, we hope to stimulate a discussion among the science–stakeholder communities on how to quantify the potential for climate change adaptation by improving the realism in the models.     

Effects of payments for ecosystem services on wildlife habitat recovery

Conflicts between local people's livelihoods and conservation have led to many unsuccessful conservation efforts and have stimulated debates on policies that might simultaneously promote sustainable management of protected areas and improve the living conditions of local people. Many government‐sponsored payments‐for‐ecosystem‐services (PES) schemes have been implemented around the world. However, few empirical assessments of their effectiveness have been conducted, and even fewer assessments have directly measured their effects on ecosystem services. We conducted an empirical and spatially explicit assessment of the conservation effectiveness of one of the world's largest PES programs through the use of a long‐term empirical data set, a satellite‐based habitat model, and spatial autoregressive analyses on direct measures of change in an ecosystem service (i.e., the provision of wildlife species habitat). Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) habitat improved in Wolong Nature Reserve of China after the implementation of the Natural Forest Conservation Program. The improvement was more pronounced in areas monitored by local residents than those monitored by the local government, but only when a higher payment was provided. Our results suggest that the effectiveness of a PES program depends on who receives the payment and on whether the payment provides sufficient incentives. As engagement of local residents has not been incorporated in many conservation strategies elsewhere in China or around the world, our results also suggest that using an incentive‐based strategy as a complement to command‐and‐control, community‐ and norm‐based strategies may help achieve greater conservation effectiveness and provide a potential solution for the park versus people conflict.