Response of a Fuzzy INdex of Ecosystem integrity (FINE) to water and sedimentary chemical data in two northern Adriatic lagoons

The European WFD (2000/60/EC) requires the assessment of the ecological quality status of water bodies, and gives great importance to the biological components of the ecosystem. A multimetric, fuzzy-based index for the evaluation of environmental quality (FINE: Fuzzy INdex of Ecosystem integrity) has been developed. The FINE index was calculated at 7 sites in the Sacca di Goro and the Valli di Comacchio (Adriatic Sea), where water and sedimentary chemical data were available for the years 2004 and 2005. A significant positive correlation was found between FINE values and dissolved oxygen, while significant negative correlations were observed between FINE values and transparency, nitrogen and phosphorous in the water column, and heavy metals and PCB in the sediments.     

Response of a Fuzzy INdex of Ecosystem integrity (FINE) to water and sedimentary chemical data in two northern Adriatic lagoons

The European WFD (2000/60/EC) requires the assessment of the ecological quality status of water bodies, and gives great importance to the biological components of the ecosystem. A multimetric, fuzzy-based index for the evaluation of environmental quality (FINE: Fuzzy INdex of Ecosystem integrity) has been developed. The FINE index was calculated at 7 sites in the Sacca di Goro and the Valli di Comacchio (Adriatic Sea), where water and sedimentary chemical data were available for the years 2004 and 2005. A significant positive correlation was found between FINE values and dissolved oxygen, while significant negative correlations were observed between FINE values and transparency, nitrogen and phosphorous in the water column, and heavy metals and PCB in the sediments.     

江苏省不同营养状况湖泊底栖动物群落结构与多样性比较

为了解江苏省湖泊底栖动物群落结构和多样性并研究其对水环境质量变化的响应,于2012年春秋两季对江苏省16个湖泊51个采样点湖泊底栖动物群落结构与多样性以及湖泊综合营养状态指数进行调查,分析水质指标与底栖动物指数间Pearson相关关系。结果表明,江苏省16个湖泊营养状态指数范围为35.5~66.4,其中约81.2%的湖泊处于轻度-中度富营养状态,表明水质从好到中度污染;湖泊底栖动物优势种为寡毛类的霍甫水丝蚓(Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri),优势度为13.0%;香浓多样性指数(Shannon-Wiener diversity index)范围为0.00~2.20,级别范围由极贫乏到较丰富状态,表明水质污染程度从重度到轻度污染。从全省尺度看,水质评价结果与生物学(香浓多样性指数、Pielou均匀度指数和Biotic Index(BI)指数)评价结果存在一定差异。与历史数据相比,江苏省湖泊底栖动物清洁敏感物种减少甚至消失,总体群落结构趋于小型化。16个湖泊水体总氮和总磷与底栖动物密度呈显著负相关,而综合营养状态指数与底栖动物指数(香浓多样性指数、Pielou均匀度指数和BI指数)间关系不显著。上述研究结果表明综合营养状态指数无法完全客观反映湖泊水生态健康状况,因此需要综合水质、水文、水生生物、生境状况等因素发展新的评价指标体系。     

RIVPACS models for predicting the expected macroinvertebrate fauna and assessing the ecological quality of rivers

The European Union Water Framework Directive recognises the need for and value of biological monitoring. This paper reviews the modelling approach known as River Invertebrate Prediction and Classification System (RIVPACS for assessing the ecological quality of river sites using macroinvertebrate sampling. The RIVPACS philosophy is to develop statistical relationships between the fauna and the environmental characteristics of a large set of high quality reference sites which can be used to predict the macroinvertebrate fauna to be expected at any site in the absence of pollution or other environmental stress. The observed fauna at new test sites can then be compared with their site-specific expected fauna to derive indices of ecological quality. All methodological decisions in any such model development have implications for the reliability, precision and robustness of any resulting indices for assessing the ecological quality and ecological grade (‘status’) of individual river stretches. The choice of reference sites and environmental predictor variables, the site classification and discrimination methods, the estimation of the expected fauna, and indices for comparing the agreement, or lack of it, between the observed and expected fauna, are all discussed. The indices are assessed on the reference sites and on a separate test set of 340 sites, which are subject to a wide range of types and degrees of impairment.     

The Water Quality of Kingston Harbour: Evaluating the Use of the Planktonic Community and Traditional Water Quality Indices

Abstract

Kingston Harbour has been experiencing increased levels of organic pollution since initial ecological assessments in 1971. to develop a new baseline of eutrophication in the Harbour 20 years later, and determine the most appropriate indices to be used in the continued monitoring the area, the water quality of Kingston Harbour was reassessed between December 1992 and 1993, by contemporaneous sampling of traditional water column parameters and planktonic communities at 28 stations within the Harbour. Indices used for water quality assessment were temperature, salinity, light penetration, dissolved oxygen, BOD and nutrients (nitrates-N, phosphate-P and ammonia-N). Results indicated that the planktonic community provided the most reliable index of increased eutrophication and changes in water quality. While physical variables indicated little change in Harbour waters and chemical variables indicated significant but erratic changes, the planktonic community displayed the classic characteristics of eutrophication. Phytoplankton biomass (a maximum of 148 mg m^?3 chlorophyll a) was 5 to 10 times greater than in 1971 while zooplankton abundances (maximum of 80,000 animals m^?3) were 4 times greater. in both cases the community composition had altered and there were fewer taxa than previously found.     

Implementation of ecological modeling as an effective management and investigation tool: Lake Kinneret as a case study

The need for scientifically based management of lakes, as key water resources, requires the establishment of quantitative relationships between in-lake processes responsible for water quality (WQ) and the intensity of major management measures (MM, e.g. nutrient loading). In this paper, we estimate the impact of potential changes in nutrient loading on the Lake Kinneret ecosystem. Following validation of the model against a comprehensive dataset, we applied an approach that goes beyond scenario testing by linking the lake ecosystem model DYRESM–CAEDYM with a set of ecosystem variables included in a pre-assessed system of water quality indices. The emergent properties of the ecosystem predicted from the model simulations were also compared with lake data as a form of indirect validation of the model. Model output, in good agreement with lake data, indicated differential effects of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrient loading on concentrations, and major in-lake fluxes, of TN and TP, and dynamics and algal community structure. Both model output and lake data indicated a strong relationship between nitrogen loading and in-lake TN values. This relationship is not apparent for phosphorus and only a weak relationship exists between phosphorus loading and in-lake TP. The modeling results, expressed in terms of water quality, allowed establishment of critical/threshold values for the nutrient loads. Implementation of the ecological modeling supplemented with the quantified set of WQ indices allowed us to take a step towards establishment of the association between permissible ranges for water quality and major management measures, i.e. towards sustainable management.     

Use of thermodynamic indices as ecological indicators of the development state of lake ecosystems: 2. Exergy and specific exergy indices

The effectiveness of exergy and specific exergy indices as ecological indicators of the trophic state of lake ecosystems is here tested on a small homogeneous set of shallow lakes which, in spite of their similar nutrient concentrations, morphology and hydrology, show a different trophic state and structure, species composition and abundance. The findings reveal that exergy and specific exergy indices have good negative correlation with phytoplankton biomass and Carlson's trophic state index (TSI) and strong positive correlation to water transparency (the relationship between exergy and eutrophication is clearer if the exergy refers to surface units, rather than volume units) and, hence, that they may be used as ecological indicators of the trophic state of lake ecosystems. The relationship between the responses of the thermodynamic approach and other conventional trophic classification methods (Vollenweider's eutrophication model based on phosphorus loading, the Hillbrich-Ilkowska method and the Vollenweider–OECD classification criterion) previously applied to Lake Trasimeno, was also investigated. The decreasing trend of exergy and specific exergy indices with eutrophication increase appears to be essentially due to the change in species composition and trophic structure, rather than to a different trophic potentiality of the ecosystems investigated. Concerning the identification of the environmental factors responsible for exergy and specific exergy trends, the coherence of the correlation structure between water depth, TSI, exergy and specific exergy indices, suggests that the lake's mean water depth plays a significant role in determining the changes in trophic structure and state (and consequently in exergetic indices) within the set of lakes examined and emphasises the importance of lake morphology in the development and ageing of lake ecosystems.     

松花江水质因子分析及动态变化

松花江的水质一直受到各方的关注,尤其是在80年代末到90年代初.大多数的研究都关注重金属、有机有毒污染物等主要污染物的源、汇、归宿以及生态效应.然而,这些研究通常只考虑一个或几个独立的水质指标,多个指标的联合效应则很少研究.文章在监测数据的基础上,对松花江水质运用因子分析方法进行了研究.利用因子分析方法可以综合地考虑每个监测断面上的各个监测指标在不同水文期的变化.分析结果表明,松花江的主要污染物是来自非点源的氮源污染物,且其水质在不同的水文期是不同的.这一结果也表明,因子分析方法在分析水质动态变化上是综合有效的.     

产业园生态效率评价——以九发生态产业园为例

生态产业园区的发展和评价已成为包括我国在内的全球产业可持续发展研究的热点领域。生态效率指标强调以较少资源投入和较低污染排放生产更多较高质量的产品,能同时评价经济效益和环境效益,符合人类可持续发展目标,现已是指导和评价生态工业园可持续发展建设的有效工具。本文应用生态效率理论和方法,对2004年九发生态产业园的运行情况进行了效率评价和生态功能探讨,并与同年全国平均生态效率指标进行了对比,发现九发生态产业园虽然产业链网较完善,但系统实际运行的生态效率高低不一。其中,单位原材料产出率和单位废水排放产出率指标明显低于全国平均水平,表明系统的生态功能发挥不足。因此,需进一步提高九发生态产业园的资源利用效率和能源使用效率,从而增加其经济效益和环境效益、促进其可持续发展。     

Applications of artificial neural networks for patterning and predicting aquatic insect species richness in running waters

Two artificial neural networks (ANNs), unsupervised and supervised learning algorithms, were applied to suggest practical approaches for the analysis of ecological data. Four major aquatic insect orders (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera, and Coleoptera, i.e. EPTC), and four environmental variables (elevation, stream order, distance from the source, and water temperature) were used to implement the models. The data were collected and measured at 155 sampling sites on streams of the Adour–Garonne drainage basin (South-western France). The modelling procedure was carried out following two steps. First, a self-organizing map (SOM), an unsupervised ANN, was applied to classify sampling sites using EPTC richness. Second, a backpropagation algorithm (BP), a supervised ANN, was applied to predict EPTC richness using a set of four environmental variables. The trained SOM classified sampling sites according to a gradient of EPTC richness, and the groups obtained corresponded to geographic regions of the drainage basin and characteristics of their environmental variables. The SOM showed its convenience to analyze relationships among sampling sites, biological attributes, and environmental variables. After accounting for the relationships in data sets, the BP used to predict the EPTC richness with a set of four environmental variables showed a high accuracy (r=0.91 and r=0.61 for training and test data sets respectively). The prediction of EPTC richness is thus a valuable tool to assess disturbances in given areas: by knowing what the EPTC richness should be, we can determine the degree to which disturbances have altered it. The results suggested that methodologies successively using two different neural networks are helpful to understand ecological data through ordination first, and then to predict target variables.     

Measuring ecological stress: Variations on a theme by R.M. Warwick

Two new indices are presented which reflect quantitatively the changes to be expected in an ecological community under stress, as previously described by R. M. Warwick. The indices summarize information which he presented graphically, and permit analyses of trends and inferential tests. We suggest that these indices should be tested with a wide variety of ecological time-series data in order to evaluate the feasibility of inferring ecological stress from static data.     

天津市东疆港区绿化树种适应性评价

筛选适生树种是盐碱地绿化工作的技术关键。天津市东疆港区的土壤是淤泥质盐渍土,在该区域绿化树种现场调查的基础上,依据树种的适生能力、生态效益和实际生长效果建立了综合评价多级指标体系。通过确定各指标因子的权重和评判标准,计算出各树种的综合指数,并依次划分为骨干树种、重要树种、辅助和补充树种以及不适宜树种4个级别,该综合评价多级指标体系为类似盐碱地绿化建设工程提供了实践和理论依据。     

The effect of summer drought on the predictability of local extinctions in a butterfly metapopulation

The ecological impacts of extreme climatic events on population dynamics and community composition are profound and predominantly negative. Using extensive data of an ecological model system, we tested whether predictions from ecological models remain robust when environmental conditions are outside the bounds of observation. We observed a 10-fold demographic decline of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) metapopulation on the Åland islands, Finland in the summer of 2018 and used climatic and satellite data to demonstrate that this year was an anomaly with low climatic water balance values and low vegetation productivity indices across Åland. Population growth rates were strongly associated with spatiotemporal variation in climatic water balance. Covariates shown previously to affect the extinction probability of local populations in this metapopulation were less informative when populations were exposed to severe drought during the summer months. Our results highlight the unpredictable responses of natural populations to extreme climatic events.     

山西生态桑树林建设模式研究

分析了桑树的生态作用,根据山西省不同立地条件,提出了水土保持桑树生态林和绿化观赏桑树生态林两种主要栽植模式.     

A holistic approach for evaluating ecological water allocation in the Yellow River basin of China

The characteristics and sustainable management of water resources on a basin scale require that they should be managed using a holistic approach. In this study, a holistic methodology called the holistic approach in a basin scale (HABS) is proposed to determine the ecological water requirements of a whole basin. There are three principles in HABS. First, ecological water requirements in a basin scale indicate not only the coupling of hydrological and ecological systems, but also the exchange of matter and energy between each ecological type through all kinds of physical geography processes. Second, ecological water requirements can be divided into different types according to their functions, and water requirements of different types are compatible. Third, ecological water requirements are related to a multiple system including water quality, water quantity, and time and space, which interact with each other. The holistic approach in a basin scale was then used in the Yellow River Basin and it suggested that 265.0 × 10⁸ m³ of water, 45% of the total surface water resources, should be allocated to ecological systems, such as rivers, lakes, wetlands and cities, to sustain its function and health. The ecological water requirements of inside river systems and outside river systems were respectively 261.0 × 10⁸ and 3.65 × 10⁸ m³.     

湖泊营养物基准的候选变量和指标

湖泊营养物基准指标变量是可用于衡量水质、评价或预测水体的营养状态或富营养化程度的变量,是构成建立区域和湖泊营养物基准的基础。详细介绍和分析了氮、磷两个营养物变量和有机碳、叶绿素、透明度、溶解氧、大型植物、生物群落结构等生物学指标,以及营养状态指标、自养指数、温度、pH值、电导率以及土地利用等一系列相关变量（度量或指标）,并总结了当前美国各州在湖泊营养物基准指标选取方面的基本情况。归纳出选择营养物基准指标时应遵循的若干原则,即综合考虑富营养化控制关键因子和区域差异性,所选指标应具有相对稳定、早期预警和易于监测等特点。最后针对我国湖泊营养物基准指标的选取提出了几点建议。     

社会经济活动对太湖流域的生态影响分析

采用系统分析的方法,围绕社会经济压力、水体污染负荷以及水体环境状态3个方面,建立社会经济活动对太湖流域生态影响的评价指标体系,利用层次分析法计算各指标因子的权重.根据太湖流域2005和2006年的相关数据,以MATLAB为工具,运用模糊模式识别方法进行流域生态综合评价,分析社会经济活动对太湖流域的生态影响.研究结果表明,太湖流域的社会经济活动对湖泊生态的影响较大,除了点源污染以外,面源污染也是太湖流域生态环境问题的重要根源.     

Aquatic ecological health assessment of Shaying River Basin based on indices of physico-chemistry and aquatic organisms北大核心CSCD

With a variety of ecosystem services, river ecosystem plays an important role in the process of human society development. On the other hand, health condition of most aquatic ecosystems is seriously threatened by human activities. Restoring and maintaining a healthy ecosystem has already become a vital goal of river management. As a basis of river management, river health assessment is therefore particularly important. Based on indices of physics, chemistry and aquatic organisms, this research tried to establish a comprehensive evaluation system of aquatic ecological health suitable for the situation of Shaying River Basin. The system included 6 factors including riparian zone, river morphology, nutrients, oxygen balance, periphyton and benthic macroinvertebrates, which were defined into 19 indices reflecting the aquatic ecological health from different aspects. The assessment results indicated that the health condition of overall basin was normal, varying among different parts of the region, with Shahe River, Lihe River and Beiru River in the upper part sub-healthy, and Jialu River in the same part sub-sick. The middle region was generally in normal or sub-sick level; the health condition of the lower part was comparatively better due to a good condition. Within the indices, the nutrients and benthic macroinvertebrates were the major constraining factors to the health condition of Shaying River Basin for their poor health condition. The health conditions showed significant differences among the rivers (P < 0.01), with Jialu River being the worst. The result indicated that the aquatic ecological health of Shaying River Basin is affected by many factors, with urban and industrial sewage being the main ones, And that different protective measures should be employed for rivers of different conditions. The result can provide theoretical basis for the ecological restoration of Shaying River Basin and reasonable exploitation and conservation of the water resource of the whole Huaihe River Basin.     

Evolutionary Distinctiveness,Threat Status,and Ecological Oddity in Primates

Abstract: The EDGE (evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered) conservation program ( http://www.edgeofexistence.org ) uses a composite measure of threat and phylogenetic isolation to rank species for conservation attention. Using primates as a test case, we examined how species that rank highly with this metric represent the collective from which they are drawn. We considered the ecological and morphological traits, including body mass, diet, terrestriality, and home range size, of all 233 species of primates. Overall, EDGE score and the level of deviance from the mean of 20 different ecological, reproductive, and morphological variables were correlated (mean correlation r =0.14, combined p =1.7 × 10^?14). Although primates with a high EDGE score had characteristics that made them seem odd, they did not seem to express more ancestral characteristics than expected. Sets of primate species with high EDGE scores will, therefore, collectively capture a broader than expected range of the biology of the clade. If similar patterns hold in other groups, the EDGE metric may be useful for prioritizing biodiversity for conservation.