城市化对生物多样性的影响

城市化正在全球范围内迅速发展，它对生物多样性的不利影响是明显的，但彼此之间的矛盾也不是不能协调解决。现代化与自然共存、经济建设与生物多样性共存，是人类追求的目标。本文从城市化的发展趋势、城市的生境特点、城市化对生物多样性的影响等方面，来探讨实现现代化与自然共存的途径。     

人类活动对上海市生物多样性空间格局的影响

为了揭示人类活动对城市化地区生物多样性空间格局的影响及其景观生态学机制,文章将上海市作为研究对象,选择3个人类活动指标、3个主要类型生态系统的4个景观特征指标与8个生物多样性指标,探讨人类活动强度、野生动植物生境景观特征及生物多样性三者之间的相互关系。结果显示,人口增长和城市扩张对上海市生物多样性的空间格局产生了显著影响。在上海地区,人口密度较高、交通较为发达的区域,湿地和农田的景观连续性较低,生物多样性也较低,外来入侵物种丰度较高。这表明在快速城市化过程中,人类活动通过改变野生动植物栖息地景观质量来对区域生物多样性产生影响。本研究还显示,经济发展并非一定对生物多样性具有负面影响。因此,在保持经济发展的同时,通过优化产业结构与加强生物多样性管理,可实现对生物多样性有效保护。     

气候变化对生物多样性的影响:脆弱性和适应

气候变化对生物多样性影响及其适应直接关系着未来生物多样性的保护.气候变化对生物多样性影响、生物多样性在气候变化影响下的脆弱性、生物多样性适应气候变化方面进行了总结分析,对存在的问题进行了讨论,对今后研究提出了一些建议.过去的气候变化已使物种物候、分布和丰富度等改变,使一些物种灭绝、部分有害生物危害强度和频率增加,使一些生物入侵范围扩大、生态系统结构与功能改变等.未来的气候变化仍将使物种物候和行为、分布和丰富度等改变,使一些物种灭绝、使有害生物爆发频率和强度增加,并将可能使生态系统结构与功能发生改变等.生物多样性适应气候变化包括了自然适应和人为适应两个方面,自然适应体现在物种适应性进化、迁移、生态系统稳定性和弹性等,人为适应体现在种质基因保存、物种异地保护、自然保护区规划设计、生态系统适应性管理、生态恢复和气候灾害防御等.目前,生物多样性对气候变化影响的脆弱性、生物多样性自然适应和人为适应气候变化方面的研究都还不系统深入,需要加强生物多样性自然适应和人为适应气候变化方面的研究.     

论生物多样性的保护问题

当前，任何地区的生物多样性都是自然和社会因素长期综合作用所造成。生物多样性最丰富的地区不一定全部由顶极植被所覆盖，而常常是一些包括所有演替类型的地方。本文通过讨论自然环境的变化和人类生产活动对不同区域景观的影响，探讨有关生物多样性的保护问题。     

论生物多样性的保护问题

当前，任何地区的生物多样性都是自然和因素长期综合作用所造成。生物多亲性最丰富的地区不一定人武部由顶极植被所覆盖，而常常是一些包括所有演替类型的地方。本文通过讨论自然环境的变化和人类生产活动对不同区域景观的影响，探讨了有关生物多样性的保护问题。     

城郊集约化农业景观不同生境类型下植物时空多样性变化

分别于1996和2013年调查了湖北省潜江市郊区农业景观,研究不同农作生境和半自然生境中植被物种组成和丰富度,以揭示农业集约化和城市化发展背景下农业景观中植物多样性的时空分布变化趋势。分析显示,1996到2013年间研究区植物多样性总体呈现下降趋势,其中,农作生境中物种丰富度下降较多,物种组成趋于单一化;各生境优势物种都有明显变化,但相对于农作生境,半自然生境优势物种变化更大;农作生境和半自然生境农田耐受种种数差异不大;半自然生境物种丰富度和植被组成变化不显著,但城市化导致部分半自然生境丧失,可能对物种多样性的维持构成威胁。这说明近十多年农业集约化对城郊农业景观植物多样性影响显著,但半自然生境中植物多样性相对于农作生境受到的影响较小,可对农业景观中植物多样性的保护发挥重要作用。因此,城郊农业景观植物多样性的保护,不但需要降低农业集约化,采取环境更加友好型措施,而且需要在城市化进程中加强对半自然生境的保护。     

基于“自然未来框架”的中国生物多样性保护目标情景研究初探

遏制生物多样性丧失,确保基于科学证据的生物多样性保护目标得到充分确立和有效实施,评估和检验未来人类发展和政策选择的不同途径对自然和自然对人类贡献的影响,情景是不可或缺的重要工具。联合国生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学-政策平台(Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES)情景和模型工作组通过开展与不同利益相关方的未来愿景规划活动,采用迭代、参与式的情景设计方法开发了"自然未来框架"(Nature Futures Framework,简称"NFF框架")。"NFF框架"将人与自然关系置于核心地位,旨在审视自然的复杂、多重价值,探索扭转生物多样性下降和自然对人类贡献的有效途径。为确保该框架下未来情景的多样性和包容性,迫切需要开展多层次(如区域、国家)的案例研究。为此,该研究系统综述了基于"NFF框架"发展情景叙述的方法流程,确立了基于"NFF框架"的中国生物多样性保护目标情景开发要点,探索构建了"美丽中国""和谐中国"和"智慧中国"3套积极的未来情景。     

农区土地利用强度变化对生物多样性的影响

农业集约化引起的景观变化是导致农业景观生物多样性丧失的重要原因,为评估农业景观结构变化对物种多样性的影响,探索生物多样性未来的变化趋势,研究基于Meta分析(Meta-Analysis)构建我国农区不同土地利用强度的生物多样性数据库,收集了来自全国298个农业景观样地的15 042条物种记录。依据线性混合效应模型构建我国农区土地利用强度-生物多样性关系模型,并以浙江省为例,结合浙江省退耕还林、生态农业发展等土地利用政策和规划,基于Dyna-CLUE模型模拟不同情景下土地利用的空间分布,将土地利用空间分布模拟和土地利用强度-生物多样性关系模型结果输入Flus-Biodiversity模型,从而模拟典型农区生物多样性的空间分布格局,提出浙江省农田生物多样性保护目标优化方案。Meta分析显示,无论在景观尺度还是局部管理尺度上,随着农田土地利用强度的增加,生物多样性均呈显著下降趋势。情景模拟发现,在所有情景中生物多样性都呈下降趋势,其中生态保育情景下降幅度最小,将常规农田转换为生态农田时生物多样性有所提高。因此,为进一步保护多样性、提升生态系统服务、改善生态环境,一方面应尽量保护农田周围的自然和半自然生境,以减少土地利用改变对农业生物多样性的破坏;其次,适当增加农业景观中的半自然生境,如人工林等,构建合理的农业景观格局;第三,适度推动有机管理或生态管理,合理化减少化肥和农药的施用,有利于区域生物多样性的保护;第四,在保证耕地红线的前提下,应深入推进退耕还林政策,严格限制生态功能区的土地开发,同时注重生物多样性完整性损失严重区域的保护。     

运用NbS推进应对气候变化与保护生物多样性协同治理

应对气候变化与保护生物多样性协同治理这一全球关注的热点问题,自然的解决方案(NbS)提供了新思路.NbS在应对气候变化和保护生物多样性方面发挥重要作用,且在应对气候变化与保护生物多样性协同治理方面具有较大潜力.我国在二者协同治理方面取得了一定成效,其中实施生态保护红线制度,构建以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系,确立生物...     

草地生态系统生物和功能多样性及其优化管理

草地生态系统作为陆地生态系统的主要类型之一,能够为人类提供丰富多样的生产和服务功能,在维持和保护生物多样性、提供生产力、土壤碳库、养分循环、防风固沙、保持水土、涵养水源、调节气候等方面发挥着重要功能。然而,随着城市化和工业化进程的加快,人类对自然界进行了高强度掠夺式开发利用,为谋求经济发展而不惜以牺牲环境与自然资源为代价,致使社会经济的发展同资源与环境保护之间的矛盾日益突出,如越来越多的生物面临灭绝、生态系统服务功能下降、全球气候变化等,而这些问题反过来又影响了社会经济的可持续发展。在人类活动附加于自然草地生态系统后,草地的利用与经营管理方式以依赖实践和经验为主导,而关于草地生态系统结构和功能的理论研究一直处于探索积累阶段而不能很好地指导实践,致使草地利用与发展经历了缺乏科学指导和合理调控的盲目发展模式。随着数学方法和信息技术等在生态学中的广泛应用,对生态系统结构、组分之间机理联系的深入认识,生态学家正试图利用信息科学、系统科学和网络分析技术,准确模拟生物多样性、多元生态功能网络,分析多功能之间的权衡关系,优化生态系统服务,实现对草地发展趋势的科学预警,加强草地良性发展的人为调控,以最终实现生物多样性保护、优化生态功能和可持续发展的科学管理系统。文章综述了生物多样性和草地生态系统功能与管理的重要研究进展,提出了促进草地生态系统可持续发展的建议与研究展望。     

Social values and biodiversity conservation in a dynamic world

Understanding what shape values (which ultimately shape human behavior) will help improve the effectiveness of conservation solutions that depend on public support. To contribute to this understanding, we investigated the influence of societal‐level changes, such as modernization, on values in a multilevel framework. We collected survey responses (n = 4183) to questionnaires mailed to a random selection of households within each county in Washington (U.S.A.) (response rate 32%). We used multilevel modeling to determine the relationship between modernization (e.g., county‐level urbanization, wealth, and education) and wildlife value orientations (values that shape thought about wildlife) while controlling for individual‐level sociodemographics. We then explored how values influence conservation support at different levels (e.g., individual and county) and how values explain conservation support in a case study of public responses to wolf (Canis lupis) recovery. We found positive associations between county‐level examples of modernization and mutualism (a wildlife value orientation that prioritizes the perceived needs of wildlife) independent of a respondent's sociodemographics, and negative associations between modernization and domination (a wildlife value orientation that prioritizes human needs). Our results suggest that context has an additive impact on one's values; certain locations exhibited domination values, whereas others exhibited a mix of value types. This finding is important because actions that restrict human interests to promote biodiversity were negatively associated with domination and positively associated with mutualism. In the wolf case study, mutualism was strongly correlated with less social conflict over wolf recovery in many, but not all, counties (e.g., Pearson's r correlation = 0.59 in one county and a nonsignificant correlation in another). Our findings suggest that modernization operates on values within a state with implications for biodiversity, but other factors in addition to values must be investigated to fully understand what leads to proconservation behavior.     

Geography of conservation spending,biodiversity, and culture

We used linear and multivariate models to examine the associations between geography, biodiversity, per capita economic output, national spending on conservation, governance, and cultural traits in 55 countries. Cultural traits and social metrics of modernization correlated positively with national spending on conservation. The global distribution of this spending culture was poorly aligned with the distribution of biodiversity. Specifically, biodiversity was greater in the tropics where cultures tended to spend relatively less on conservation and tended to have higher collectivism, formalized and hierarchical leadership, and weaker governance. Consequently, nations lacking social traits frequently associated with modernization, environmentalism, and conservation spending have the largest component of Earth's biodiversity. This has significant implications for setting policies and priorities for resource management given that biological diversity is rapidly disappearing and cultural traits change slowly. Therefore, we suggest natural resource management adapt to and use characteristics of existing social organization rather than wait for or promote social values associated with conservation spending. Supporting biocultural traditions, engaging leaders to increase conservation commitments, cross‐national efforts that complement attributes of cultures, and avoiding interference with nature may work best to conserve nature in collective and hierarchical societies. Spending in modernized nations may be a symbolic response to a symptom of economic development and environmental degradation, and here conservation actions need to ensure that biodiversity is not being lost.     

Economic Growth and Marine Biodiversity: Influence of Human Social Structure on Decline of Marine Trophic Levels

Abstract:  We assessed the effects of economic growth, urbanization, and human population size on marine biodiversity. We used the mean trophic level (MTL) of marine catch as an indicator of marine biodiversity and conducted cross-national time-series analyses (1960–2003) of 102 nations to investigate human social influences on fish catch and trends in MTL. We constructed path models to examine direct and indirect effects relating to marine catch and MTL. Nations' MTLs declined with increased economic growth, increased urbanization, and increased population size, in part because of associated increased catch. These findings contradict the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis, which claims that economic modernization will reduce human impact on the environment. To make informed decisions on issues of marine resource management, policy makers, nonprofit entities, and professional societies must recognize the need to include social analyses in overall conservation-research strategies. The challenge is to utilize the socioeconomic and ecological research in the service of a comprehensive marine-conservation movement.     

How percentage-protected targets can support positive biodiversity outcomes

Global targets for the percentage area of land protected, such as 30% by 2030, have gained increasing prominence, but both their scientific basis and likely effectiveness have been questioned. As with emissions-reduction targets based on desired climate outcomes, percentage-protected targets combine values and science by estimating the area over which conservation actions are required to help achieve desired biodiversity outcomes. Protected areas are essential for achieving many biodiversity targets, in part because many species are highly sensitive to human-associated disturbance. However, because the contribution of protected areas to biodiversity outcomes is contingent on their location, management, governance, threats, and what occurs across the broader landscape matrix, global percentage-protected targets are unavoidably empirical generalizations of ecological patterns and processes across diverse geographies. Percentage-protected targets are insufficient in isolation but can complement other actions and contribute to biodiversity outcomes within a framework that balances accuracy and pragmatism in a global context characterized by imperfect biodiversity data. Ideally, percentage-protected targets serve as anchors that strengthen comprehensive national biodiversity strategies by communicating the level of ambition necessary to reverse current trends of biodiversity loss. If such targets are to fulfill this role within the complex societal process by which both values and science impel conservation actions, conservation scientists must clearly communicate the nature of the evidence base supporting percentage-protected targets and how protected areas can function within a broader landscape managed for sustainable coexistence between people and nature. A new paradigm for protected and conserved areas recognizes that national coordination, incentives, and monitoring should support rather than undermine diverse locally led conservation initiatives. However, the definition of a conserved area must retain a strong focus on biodiversity to remain consistent with the evidence base from which percentage-protected targets were originally derived.     

Alternatives to biodiversity offsets for mitigating the effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems

Globally, offset schemes have emerged in many statutory frameworks relating to development activities, with the aim of balancing biodiversity conservation and development. Although the theory and use of biodiversity offsets in terrestrial environments is broadly documented, little attention has been paid to offsets in stream ecosystems. Here we examine the application of offset schemes to stream ecosystems and explore whether they suffer similar shortcomings to those of offset schemes focused on terrestrial biodiversity. To challenge the applicability of offsets further, we discuss typical trajectories of urban expansion and their cascading physical, chemical and biological impacts on stream ecosystems. We argue that the highly connected nature of stream ecosystems and urban drainage networks can transfer impacts of urbanization across wide areas, complicating the notion of like‐for‐like exchange and the prospect of effectively mitigating biodiversity loss. Instead, we identify in‐catchment options for stormwater control, which can avoid or minimize the impacts of development on downstream ecosystems, while presenting additional public and private benefits. We describe the underlying principles of these alternatives, some of the challenges associated with their uptake, and policy initiatives being trialed to facilitate adoption. In conclusion, we argue that stronger policies to avoid and minimize the impacts of urbanization provide better prospects for protecting downstream ecosystems, and can additionally, stimulate economic opportunities and improve urban liveability.     

人工封闭对城市土壤功能的影响研究进展

随着全球城市化的快速发展,城市生态系统研究已受到人们的广泛关注。土壤作为城市生态系统的一个重要组成单位与功能载体,其功能与质量已受到城市化的冲击和影响。由人类活动（如房屋建筑、道路建设等）引起的土壤封闭是城市土壤的一个重要特征。与自然土壤封闭相比,人工封闭土壤严重地阻碍了城市土壤与外界环境的物质能量交换,限制了土壤功能的实现,成为导致土壤质量退化的重要因素。研究人工封闭对城市土壤功能的影响有利于更全面认识城市化的生态环境效应。本文介绍了城市土壤人工封闭的概念、主要特点及其与传统自然土壤封闭的异同;综述了人工封闭对城市土壤水分运动、土壤与环境间气体与能量交换、生物多样性与行为以及粮食安全影响等方面取得的研究进展。目前城市封闭土壤研究仍处于起步阶段,仅在个别城市开展过相关研究,且主要围绕人工封闭对城市环境与土壤的表观影响,对封闭后土壤性质的变化及其机制研究仍很缺乏。未来仍需在更多城市开展系统调查以获取基础数据,需着重研究城市封闭土壤中污染物的赋存、迁移、转化,封闭后土壤碳氮固持能力的变化,以及土壤微生物性质的变化,同时要创新研究方式和研究方法,为加强城市生态系统研究、实现城市可持续发展提供科学依据。     

Coexistence of the niche and neutral perspectives in community ecology

The neutral theory for community structure and biodiversity is dependent on the assumption that species are equivalent to each other in all important ecological respects. We explore what this concept of equivalence means in ecological communities, how such species may arise evolutionarily, and how the possibility of ecological equivalents relates to previous ideas about niche differentiation. We also show that the co-occurrence of ecologically similar or equivalent species is not incompatible with niche theory as has been supposed, because niche relations can sometimes favor coexistence of similar species. We argue that both evolutionary and ecological processes operate to promote the introduction and to sustain the persistence of ecologically similar and in many cases nearly equivalent species embedded in highly structured food webs. Future work should focus on synthesizing niche and neutral perspectives rather than dichotomously debating whether neutral or niche models provide better explanations for community structure and biodiversity.     

Focus and social contagion of environmental organization advocacy on Twitter

Agriculture, overexploitation, and urbanization remain the major threats to biodiversity in the Anthropocene. The attention these threats garner among leading environmental nongovernmental organizations (eNGOs) and the wider public is critical in fostering the political will necessary to reverse biodiversity declines worldwide. I analyzed the advocacy of leading eNGOs on Twitter by scraping account timelines, screening content for advocacy relating to biodiversity threats and, for prevalent threats, further screening content for positive and negative emotional language with a sentiment lexicon. Twitter advocacy was dominated by the major threats of climate change and overexploitation and the minor threat of plastic pollution. The major threats of agriculture, urbanization, invasions, and pollution were rarely addressed. Content relating to overexploitation and plastic pollution was more socially contagious than other content. Increasing emotional negativity further increased social contagion, whereas increasing emotional positivity did not. Scientists, policy makers, and eNGOs should consider how narrowly focused advocacy on platforms like Twitter will contribute to effective global biodiversity conservation.     

Effects of Urban Development on Ant Communities: Implications for Ecosystem Services and Management

Abstract:  Research that connects the effects of urbanization on biodiversity and ecosystem services is lacking. Ants perform multifarious ecological functions that stabilize ecosystems and contribute to a number of ecosystem services. We studied responses of ant communities to urbanization in the Lake Tahoe basin by sampling sites along a gradient of urban land development. We sampled ant communities, measured vegetation characteristics, quantified human activities, and evaluated ant-community responses by grouping ants into service-providing units (SPUs), defined as a group of organisms and their populations that perform specific ecosystem services, to provide an understanding of urbanization impacts on biodiversity and their delivery of ecosystem services. Species richness and abundance peaked at intermediate levels of urban development, as did the richness of 3 types of ant SPUs (aerators, decomposers, and compilers). With increasing land development aerator and decomposer ants significantly declined in abundance, whereas compiler ants significantly increased in abundance. Competing models demonstrated that precipitation was frequently among the strongest influences on ant community structure; however, urban development and human activities also had a strong, negative influence on ants, appearing in most models with ΔAIC_c < 2 for species richness and abundance patterns of SPUs and generalists. Response diversity was observed within SPUs, which suggests that the corresponding ecosystem services were maintained until development reached 30–40%. Our data provide evidence that ecosystem functions, such as water infiltration and soil productivity, may be diminished at sites subject to greater levels of urbanization and that conserving ant communities and the ecosystem services they provide could be an important target in land-use planning and conservation efforts.     

Niche and fitness differences relate the maintenance of diversity to ecosystem function

The frequently observed positive correlation between species diversity and community biomass is thought to depend on both the degree of resource partitioning and on competitive dominance between consumers, two properties that are also central to theories of species coexistence. To make an explicit link between theory on the causes and consequences of biodiversity, we define in a precise way two kinds of differences among species: niche differences, which promote coexistence, and relative fitness differences, which promote competitive exclusion. In a classic model of exploitative competition, promoting coexistence by increasing niche differences typically, although not universally, increases the "relative yield total", a measure of diversity's effect on the biomass of competitors. In addition, however, we show that promoting coexistence by decreasing relative fitness differences also increases the relative yield total. Thus, two fundamentally different mechanisms of species coexistence both strengthen the influence of diversity on biomass yield. The model and our analysis also yield insight on the interpretation of experimental diversity manipulations. Specifically, the frequently reported "complementarity effect" appears to give a largely skewed estimate of resource partitioning. Likewise, the "selection effect" does not seem to isolate biomass changes attributable to species composition rather than species richness, as is commonly presumed. We conclude that past inferences about the cause of observed diversity-function relationships may be unreliable, and that new empirical estimates of niche and relative fitness differences are necessary to uncover the ecological mechanisms responsible for diversity-function relationships.