Reorienting Systematic Conservation Assessment for Effective Conservation Planning

Abstract: Systematic conservation assessment (an information‐gathering and prioritization process used to select the spatial foci of conservation initiatives) is often considered vital to conservation‐planning efforts, yet published assessments have rarely resulted in conservation action. Conservation assessments may lead more directly to effective conservation action if they are reoriented to inform conservation decisions. Toward this goal, we evaluated the relative priority for conservation of 7 sites proposed for the first forest reserves in the Union of the Comoros, an area with high levels of endemism and rapidly changing land uses in the western Indian Ocean. Through the analysis of 30 indicator variables measured at forest sites and nearby villages, we assessed 3 prioritization criteria at each site: conservation value, threat to loss of biological diversity from human activity, and feasibility of reserve establishment. Our results indicated 2 sites, Yiméré and Hassera‐Ndrengé, were priorities for conservation action. Our approach also informed the development of an implementation strategy and enabled an evaluation of previously unexplored relations among prioritization criteria. Our experience suggests that steps taken to ensure the closer involvement of practitioners, include a broader range of social data, encourage stakeholder participation, and consider the feasibility of conservation action can improve the relevance of assessments for conservation planning, strengthen the scientific basis for conservation decisions, and result in a more realistic evaluation of conservation alternatives.     

AHP-SWOT法在城市圈建设中耕地保护策略分析中的应用——以湖北赤壁为例

在实地调研湖北赤壁的基础上,探讨AHP-SWOT法在城市圈建设过程中的耕地保护策略分析中的应用.结果表明,耕地异地占补平衡是主要优势,耕地数量持续减少是主要劣势,新一轮土地利用总体规划是主要机遇,城市圈建设占用耕地是主要威胁,建议赤壁市在城市圈建设过程中应发挥耕地异地占补平衡优势,回避城市圈建设占用耕地的威胁.     

Assessing the Risk of Ships Striking Large Whales in Marine Spatial Planning

Marine spatial planning provides a comprehensive framework for managing multiple uses of the marine environment and has the potential to minimize environmental impacts and reduce conflicts among users. Spatially explicit assessments of the risks to key marine species from human activities are a requirement of marine spatial planning. We assessed the risk of ships striking humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), blue (Balaenoptera musculus), and fin (Balaenoptera physalus) whales in alternative shipping routes derived from patterns of shipping traffic off Southern California (U.S.A.). Specifically, we developed whale‐habitat models and assumed ship‐strike risk for the alternative shipping routes was proportional to the number of whales predicted by the models to occur within each route. This definition of risk assumes all ships travel within a single route. We also calculated risk assuming ships travel via multiple routes. We estimated the potential for conflict between shipping and other uses (military training and fishing) due to overlap with the routes. We also estimated the overlap between shipping routes and protected areas. The route with the lowest risk for humpback whales had the highest risk for fin whales and vice versa. Risk to both species may be ameliorated by creating a new route south of the northern Channel Islands and spreading traffic between this new route and the existing route in the Santa Barbara Channel. Creating a longer route may reduce the overlap between shipping and other uses by concentrating shipping traffic. Blue whales are distributed more evenly across our study area than humpback and fin whales; thus, risk could not be ameliorated by concentrating shipping traffic in any of the routes we considered. Reducing ship‐strike risk for blue whales may be necessary because our estimate of the potential number of strikes suggests that they are likely to exceed allowable levels of anthropogenic impacts established under U.S. laws. Evaluación del Riesgo de Colisiones de Barcos y Ballenas en la Planificación Marina Espacial     

青岛理工大学安全工程专业实验室建设探讨

安全工程专业的学科建设离不开安全实验室的建设,就青岛理工大学的安全工程专业实验室建设进行了探讨.从实验室建设的重要地位入手,结合安全工程的专业课程设置情况,提出了安全工程实验室应设置的实验内容.     

生物炭与土壤调理剂对滨海荒芜重盐碱地的改良效应

以土壤改良剂对荒芜重盐碱地生物改良和开发利用为研究目标,在华北低平原区滨海荒芜重盐碱地开展了施用生物炭（B）和调理剂（C）种植先锋作物油葵的大田试验.生物炭用量设2个水平（0和1.25 kg ·m^-2）调理剂施用量设3个水平,分别为0、0.83和1.66 kg ·m^-2,共6个处理.油葵收获后按照每30 cm一层采至90 cm搜集土样.结果表明,施用生物炭提高0~30 cm和60~90 cm土层含盐量,而土壤调理剂则显著降低0~30 cm土壤含盐量.没有发现生物炭或调理剂对土壤pH有显著影响.生物炭处理显著抑制土壤硝化作用,导致0~90 cm土层NO₃^--N含量显著下降,NH₄⁺-N含量提高,对有机质（SOM）含量没有显著影响.施用土壤调理剂提高0~30 cm土壤SOM含量,调理剂施用量为1.66 kg ·m^-2时0~90 cm土层的NO₃^--N含量显著增加.单施生物炭与调理剂或者二者组合均显著增加0~90 cm土壤NH₄⁺-N含量、有效磷（Olsen-P）含量和有效钾（K_ex）含量,但生物炭对这3种养分含量的提升效果更显著,土壤调理剂则在增加0~30 cm土壤有机质和降盐方面更有效.施用高量调理剂促进土壤硝化作用,而施用生物炭恰恰起到硝化抑制剂的作用,因此,将生物炭与土壤调理剂结合施用,是滨海荒芜重盐碱地防止NO₃^--N淋失、减少环境污染、增肥降盐并保障耐盐先锋作物高肥低盐生长环境的有效措施.     

Assessment of Management to Mitigate Anthropogenic Effects on Large Whales

United States and Canadian governments have responded to legal requirements to reduce human‐induced whale mortality via vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear by implementing a suite of regulatory actions. We analyzed the spatial and temporal patterns of mortality of large whales in the Northwest Atlantic (23.5°N to 48.0°N), 1970 through 2009, in the context of management changes. We used a multinomial logistic model fitted by maximum likelihood to detect trends in cause‐specific mortalities with time. We compared the number of human‐caused mortalities with U.S. federally established levels of potential biological removal (i.e., species‐specific sustainable human‐caused mortality). From 1970 through 2009, 1762 mortalities (all known) and serious injuries (likely fatal) involved 8 species of large whales. We determined cause of death for 43% of all mortalities; of those, 67% (502) resulted from human interactions. Entanglement in fishing gear was the primary cause of death across all species (n = 323), followed by natural causes (n = 248) and vessel strikes (n = 171). Established sustainable levels of mortality were consistently exceeded in 2 species by up to 650%. Probabilities of entanglement and vessel‐strike mortality increased significantly from 1990 through 2009. There was no significant change in the local intensity of all or vessel‐strike mortalities before and after 2003, the year after which numerous mitigation efforts were enacted. So far, regulatory efforts have not reduced the lethal effects of human activities to large whales on a population‐range basis, although we do not exclude the possibility of success of targeted measures for specific local habitats that were not within the resolution of our analyses. It is unclear how shortfalls in management design or compliance relate to our findings. Analyses such as the one we conducted are crucial in critically evaluating wildlife‐management decisions. The results of these analyses can provide managers with direction for modifying regulated measures and can be applied globally to mortality‐driven conservation issues. Evaluación del Manejo para Mitigar Efectos Antropogénicos sobre Ballenas Mayores     

Use of Community‐Composition Data to Predict the Fecundity and Abundance of Species

Abstract: Species distribution models are critical tools for the prediction of invasive species spread and conservation of biodiversity. The majority of species distribution models have been built with environmental data. Community ecology theory suggests that species co‐occurrence data could also be used to predict current and potential distributions of species. Species assemblages are the products of biotic and environmental constraints on the distribution of individual species and as a result may contain valuable information for niche modeling. We compared the predictive ability of distribution models of annual grassland plants derived from either environmental or community‐composition data. Composition‐based models were built with the presence or absence of species at a site as predictors of site quality, whereas environment‐based models were built with soil chemistry, moisture content, above‐ground biomass, and solar radiation as predictors. The reproductive output of experimentally seeded individuals of 4 species and the abundance of 100 species were used to evaluate the resulting models. Community‐composition data were the best predictors of both the site‐specific reproductive output of sown individuals and the site‐specific abundance of existing populations. Successful community‐based models were robust to omission of data on the occurrence of rare species, which suggests that even very basic survey data on the occurrence of common species may be adequate for generating such models. Our results highlight the need for increased public availability of ecological survey data to facilitate community‐based modeling at scales relevant to conservation.     

宁夏生态移民社区生活空间融合与重构的影响因素及机理——以宁夏闽宁镇为例

生态移民的空间位移引致了迁入区多因素的相互作用及长期演化,成为多学科深入探究的重要问题之一。以闽宁镇生态移民社区为例,采用主成分分析法和地理探测器分析法,对生态移民社区生活空间融合的影响因素和机理进行了研究,结果发现：（1）生态移民社区生活空间融合与重构受多种因素影响,生活基础设施、经济收入增长、移民社区环境、邻里关系、政府政策、民族生活六个主成分对生态移民社区生活空间融合的影响可以起到解释作用。（2）影响生态移民社区生活空间的因子解释力由强到弱依次排序为：X₁生活基础设施>X₂经济收入增长>X₃邻里关系>X₄政府政策>X₅民族生活>X₆移民社区环境;交互探测结果表明社区各要素因子交互后因子解释力呈双线性增强,即任意两个因子交互作用对于生态移民社区生活空间融合的影响强度都大于单个因子的独自作用强度。（3）各影响因素之间的互动影响,共同促进生态移民社区固有的生活方式、文化习惯、社会交往关系的演化,进而形成了生活空间的融合与重构。     

黄河包头段不同粒径沉积物分形校正下重金属的吸附研究

推导了分粒级的表面分形维数计算公式,根据推导公式计算了分粒级沉积物的分维值.应用已有的表面分形分维计算公式分别计算了黄河包头段沉积物整体的表面分形分维(1.91)及＜63 μm粒级的分维值(1.36),揭示出黄河水环境的磨蚀和分选2个原因引起黄河包头段沉积物低的分维值.用分形校正吸附模型、Freundlich和Langmuir吸附模型对黄河包头段重金属分粒级沉积物吸附进行了拟合,表明分形校正吸附模型具有较好的适用性,同时揭示分形校正吸附模型与MEA理论结合能更好的对热力学吸附结果进行描述;由吸附结果分析得出4种重金属因粒径引起的吸附量变化程度序列为Cu＞Pb＞Zn≈Cd,初始浓度高的吸附量曲线变化较初始浓度低的曲线变化明显,同时指出Cu、Pb的吸附主要与矿物组成有关,而Zn、Cd的吸附则与吸附剂沉积物空间几何性质(或沉积物表面物理特征)有关.