Progress and challenges in consolidating the management of Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories

Effective management refers to the ability of a protected area or indigenous territory to meet its objectives, particularly as they relate to the protection of biodiversity and forest cover. Effective management is achieved through a process of consolidation, which among other things requires legally protecting sites, integrating sites into land‐use planning, developing and implementing management and resource‐use plans, and securing long‐term funding to pay for recurrent costs. Effectively managing all protected areas and indigenous territories in the Amazon may be needed to avoid a deforestation tipping point beyond which regional climatic feedbacks and global climate change interact to catalyze irreversible drying and savannization of large areas. At present, protected areas and indigenous territories cover 45.5% (3.55 million km²) of the Amazon, most of the 60–70% forest cover required to maintain hydrologic and climatic function. Three independent evaluations of a long‐term large‐scale philanthropic initiative in the Amazon yielded insights into the challenges and advances toward achieving effective management of protected areas and indigenous territories. Over the life of the initiative, management of sites has improved considerably, particularly with respect to management planning and capacity building, but few sites are effectively managed and many lack sufficient long‐term financing, adequate governance, support of nongovernmental organizations, and the means to withstand economic pressures. The time and money required to complete consolidation is still poorly understood, but it is clear that philanthropic funding is critical so long as essential funding needs are not met by governments and other sources, which could be on the order of decades. Despite challenges, it is encouraging that legal protection has expanded greatly and management of sites is improving steadily. Management of protected areas in other developing countries could be informed by improvements that have occurred in Amazonian countries.     

Understanding implications of consumer behavior for wildlife farming and sustainable wildlife trade

Unsustainable wildlife trade affects biodiversity and the livelihoods of communities dependent upon those resources. Wildlife farming has been proposed to promote sustainable trade, but characterizing markets and understanding consumer behavior remain neglected but essential steps in the design and evaluation of such operations. We used sea turtle trade in the Cayman Islands, where turtles have been farm raised for human consumption for almost 50 years, as a case study to explore consumer preferences toward wild‐sourced (illegal) and farmed (legal) products and potential conservation implications. Combining methods innovatively (including indirect questioning and choice experiments), we conducted a nationwide trade assessment through in‐person interviews from September to December 2014. Households were randomly selected using disproportionate stratified sampling, and responses were weighted based on district population size. We approached 597 individuals, of which 37 (6.2%) refused to participate. Although 30% of households had consumed turtle in the previous 12 months, the purchase and consumption of wild products was rare (e.g., 64–742 resident households consumed wild turtle meat [i.e., 0.3–3.5% of households] but represented a large threat to wild turtles in the area due to their reduced populations). Differences among groups of consumers were marked, as identified through choice experiments, and price and source of product played important roles in their decisions. Despite the long‐term practice of farming turtles, 13.5% of consumers showed a strong preference for wild products, which demonstrates the limitations of wildlife farming as a single tool for sustainable wildlife trade. By using a combination of indirect questioning, choice experiments, and sales data to investigate demand for wildlife products, we obtained insights about consumer behavior that can be used to develop conservation‐demand‐focused initiatives. Lack of data from long‐term social–ecological assessments hinders the evaluation of and learning from wildlife farming. This information is key to understanding under which conditions different interventions (e.g., bans, wildlife farming, social marketing) are likely to succeed.     

Male-biassed response of garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola L., to leaf alcohol and attraction of both sexes to floral plant volatiles

Summary. Field tests were performed to evaluate the response of the garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) to known scarab attractants and to investigate the influence of trap colour and height on the number of captured beetles. Both sexes were attracted by a lure mixture composed of geraniol, eugenol, and 2-phenylethyl propionate (PEP) (ratio 3:7:3). When testing floral volatiles individually, only geraniol, eugenol and methyl anthranilate but not PEP was attractive. Response of garden chafer to (Z)- 3-hexen-1-ol was strongly male-biassed. Both the response to floral volatiles and (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol was increased by using funnel traps with yellow instead of grey vanes. Traps positioned at 50 and 125 cm above ground captured significantly more garden chafers than those at 200 cm. The strongly male-biassed response to (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol suggests that in P. horticola (subfamily Rutelinae) orientation towards plant volatiles emitted upon mechanical damage of plants is part of the male mate finding strategy as recently demonstrated for cockchafers of the genus Melolontha (subfamily Melolonthinae). Possible application of plant volatiles for control of P. horticola is discussed.     

Utilization and degradation of imazaquin by a naturally occurring isolate of Arthrobacter crystallopoietes

A species of bacteria that is capable of utilizing imazaquin as the sole carbon source was isolated from soil with repeated imazaquin applications, and was identified as Arthrobacter crystallopoietes (designated as strain “WWX-1”). This isolate degrades imazaquin as high as 200 μg ml⁻¹, and the estimated dissipation half-lives increased from 1.51 d for the treatment at 50 μg ml⁻¹ to 4.75 d for 200 μg ml⁻¹. Optimal growth of WWX-1 in mineral salt medium with 50 μg ml⁻¹ imazaquin was obtained at 35 °C and a pH of 5.0. Growth of WWX-1 was also observed in mineral salt medium with the addition of other imidazolinone herbicides such as imazethapyr and imazapyr, but not with different classes of herbicides such as metsulfuron-methyl. Two imazaquin metabolites were detected, and spectral analysis with HPLC–MS, ¹H NMR, and IR revealed one metabolite with a molecular weight (MW) of 199 as quinoline-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride. We propose that A. crystallopoietes (WWX-1) could serve as an efficient biodegradation system for remediation of water and soils that are heavily contaminated with imazaquin or other structurally similar chemicals.     

Isotope tracing of submarine groundwater discharge offshore Ubatuba, Brazil: results of the IAEA–UNESCO SGD project

Results of groundwater and seawater analyses for radioactive (³H, ²²²Rn, ²²³Ra, ²²⁴Ra, ²²⁶Ra, and ²²⁸Ra) and stable (D and ¹⁸O) isotopes are presented together with in situ spatial mapping and time series ²²²Rn measurements in seawater, direct seepage measurements using manual and automated seepage meters, pore water investigations using different tracers and piezometric techniques, and geoelectric surveys probing the coast. This study represents first time that such a new complex arsenal of radioactive and non-radioactive tracer techniques and geophysical methods have been used for simultaneous submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) investigations. Large fluctuations of SGD fluxes were observed at sites situated only a few meters apart (from 0 cm d⁻¹ to 360 cm d⁻¹; the unit represents cm³/cm²/day), as well as during a few hours (from 0 cm d⁻¹ to 110 cm d⁻¹), strongly depending on the tidal fluctuations. The average SGD flux estimated from continuous ²²²Rn measurements is 17 ± 10 cm d⁻¹. Integrated coastal SGD flux estimated for the Ubatuba coast using radium isotopes is about 7 × 10³ m³ d⁻¹ per km of the coast. The isotopic composition (δD and δ¹⁸O) of submarine waters was characterised by significant variability and heavy isotope enrichment, indicating that the contribution of groundwater in submarine waters varied from a small percentage to 20%. However, this contribution with increasing offshore distance became negligible. Automated seepage meters and time series measurements of ²²²Rn activity concentration showed a negative correlation between the SGD rates and tidal stage. This is likely caused by sea level changes as tidal effects induce variations of hydraulic gradients. The geoelectric probing and piezometric measurements contributed to better understanding of the spatial distribution of different water masses present along the coast. The radium isotope data showed scattered distributions with offshore distance, which imply that seawater in a complex coast with many small bays and islands was influenced by local currents and groundwater/seawater mixing. This has also been confirmed by a relatively short residence time of 1–2 weeks for water within 25 km offshore, as obtained by short-lived radium isotopes. The irregular distribution of SGD seen at Ubatuba is a characteristic of fractured rock aquifers, fed by coastal groundwater and recirculated seawater with small admixtures of groundwater, which is of potential environmental concern and has implications on the management of freshwater resources in the region.     

Horizontal mergers in the iron ore industry—An application of PCAIDS

The purpose of this paper is to estimate and analyse the price effects of the iron ore mergers between Rio Tinto and North Ltd in 2000, and CVRD and Caemi in 2001. The analyses are conducted using a merger simulation model that, based on the pre-merger situation, estimates the post-merger outcome. This paper applies the so-called proportionality-calibrated almost ideal demand system (PCAIDS) model, which assumes that the product is differentiated and that the strategic variable is price. The results from the merger simulations show that in the case of the merger between Rio Tinto and North Ltd, the merged firm has a combined market share of almost 20%. However, the estimated market weighted average price effect is only 2.6%. Regarding the merger between CVRD and Caemi, the merged firm's market share is about 29%, and the estimated market weighted average price effect is 4.6%. When removing Caemi's Canadian asset, which was the Commission decision in order to allow the merger, the market price effect decreases to 3.1%. Overall the results in this study support the Commission's decisions regarding both merger cases, and shows that merger simulations of price effects can be valuable tools in merger assessments.     

漓江流域δD和δ18O对蒸发的指示作用

以漓江流域为例查明不同水体之间氢氧稳定同位素组成特征,并探讨氢氧稳定同位素对漓江流域的蒸发过程指示作用.结果表明：流域内不同水体之间,氢氧稳定同位素表现出不同的组成特征,地表水和地下水,在丰水期δD值和δ¹⁸O值要比枯水期更容易富集,地下水的δD值和δ¹⁸O值分布范围较地表水小;随着水温的升高,δ¹⁸O的变化趋势比d-excess明显.从漓江上游到下游高程逐渐下降,河水线的斜率和截距也在逐渐减小,其中漓江下游河水线的斜率和截距要低于当地大气降水线,表明下游受到蒸发作用较强烈;地下河水线、地表河水线在一定程度上偏离当地大气降水线,但偏离程度较小,表明三者之间有很好的水力联系.受温度和湿度的共同影响,漓江干流丰水期河水的蒸发量占最初水体总量的0.7%~9.1%,枯水期河水的蒸发量占最初水体总量的2.6%~9.7%,丰水期的蒸发比例低于枯水期,从上游到下游蒸发比例在逐渐上升.研究区蒸发量估算值为959.40mm,与多年实测值少43.11mm,相对误差4.70%.氢氧稳定同位素对研究区降水、地表水、地下水之间的转换规律具有重要的实际意义,在今后的漓江流域水文研究中有着更加广阔的空间.     

基于空间适宜性评价和人口承载力的贵溪市中心城区城市开发边界的划定

城市开发边界的划定能够合理引导城市空间的有序发展,控制其无序蔓延。论文以典型的资源型城市贵溪市为研究区,从空间适宜性评价、人口承载力、城市规模以及城市总体规划和土地利用总体规划（简称“两规”）衔接等方面探索有效的城市开发边界划定方法。空间适宜性评价综合考虑自然、空间可达性和生态条件,运用聚类分析法确定区域内不宜作为开发建设的生态底线区域和适宜建设开发区域的高低等级,以此确定城市开发边界的发展方向。通过灰色预测GM(1,1)模型预测研究区2020年人口总量,并基于土地资源和水资源承载力验证当地所能容纳的最大人口总量,同时确定城市规模和划定城市开发边界。以空间适宜性评价、人口承载力、城市规模预测、两规衔接和空间形态控制等方法倒逼缩减建设用地,从而划定城市发展的刚性和弹性增长边界。     

基于高分1号影像的森林植被信息提取

实时最新森林植被信息的提取是林业航空植保作业的必要前提。论文以安徽省蚌埠市为研究区域,探讨了基于高分1号卫星遥感数据在亚热带农林植被混合地区的森林植被信息提取。根据植被物候信息差异选择了提取森林植被信息的5个关键时期高分影像,采用分区决策树方法监测森林植被的空间分布和面积信息,并与未分区决策树法的提取结果进行比较。结果表明：采用分区决策树法和未分区决策树法对于大中尺度森林植被信息提取的总体精度均优于85%。但分区决策树森林植被提取总体精度达到90.72%,较未分区决策树法提高3.80%、4.65%,Kappa系数达到0.81,较未分区决策树法提高约0.07~0.10,结合植被物候信息的分区决策树森林植被提取法好于未分区决策树法,能够满足林业航空植保作业的精度需求。具有较高空间分辨率、宽覆盖、短重访周期的高分1号影像,对于大区域的林业航空植保当年最新森林植被信息的提取表现出较大的潜力。     

“天舟一号”货运飞船在轨污染探测数据分析

目的分析"天舟一号"(TZ-1)货运飞船的空间污染探测器的在轨探测数据。方法 TZ-1货运飞船上的污染探测器采用石英晶体微量天平(QCM),利用污染物沉积在QCM探测器传感晶片表面引起的振荡频率变化情况来分析航天器在轨空间污染环境。根据其探测原理,通过分析下传的原始数据,得到航天器在轨的污染累积量结果。结果航天器在轨飞行过程中,污染累积已达到会导致污染敏感器件光学性能明显退化的程度,并且污染源温度是影响航天器污染累积量的一个重要因素,可以将其作为航天器在轨污染控制的重要措施。结论该研究结果可以为航天器污染设计、控制提供参考,为提高航天器可靠性设计提供数据支持。