浅议西双版纳热带雨林保护中的生态补偿机制

西双版纳热带雨林是地球同一纬度上保存较为完好的大面积热带雨林,生物多样性保护受到国内外的广泛关注. 处理好目前西双版纳在发展和保护中存在的远期与短期利益、局部与全局利益矛盾突出的问题,需要建立科学合理的国家生态补偿机制. 分析了西双版纳热带雨林保护现状和存在的主要问题,结合实际,依据可持续发展的原理,提出了建立生态补偿的对策和建议.     

Mapping and modelling of changes in agricultural intensity in Europe

Spatial maps of agricultural intensity are needed for analyses of environmental issues, including biodiversity changes. We present a method to produce such maps for Europe. While most studies beyond farm level focus on land cover change only, this paper focuses on spatial variation in land use intensity and its dynamics.Our method defines agricultural land use intensity in terms of nitrogen input. For arable land, it combines field observations with administrative-level statistics to assess probability of occurrence for three land use intensity classes. For grassland, it uses maps of livestock density to assess probability of occurrence for two intensity classes. Agricultural land is spatially allocated to intensity classes using an algorithm that downscales intensity changes simulated with an agricultural economic model.Our results are 1 km² resolution maps of classified agricultural land use intensity in the year 2000. We illustrate the method by exploring changes in the spatial pattern of land use intensity for a financial policy reform scenario in the year 2025. Results indicate spatial heterogeneity in land use intensity across European countries, including large differences in intensity between countries, between regions, but also within regions.Our method could be improved with smaller-resolution agricultural statistics and broader intensity indicators.     

Long-term changes of farmland game populations in a post-socialist country (Hungary)

Agricultural intensification presents a major threat to European biodiversity. This generalisation is largely based on studies from western and northern Europe. Here it is shown that the development of agriculture in a post-socialist country (Hungary) was marked by sudden changes, e.g., a 10-fold increase of fertiliser consumption in the late 1960s as a result of decision-making in the socialist command economic structures, and similar decreases after the collapse of socialism in the 1990s. Hungarian populations of two characteristic farmland species, the brown hare (Lepus europaeus) and grey partridge (Perdix perdix) are analysed and their collapse over the past four decades is related to agricultural data on production from FAO statistics. This decline was found to be negatively correlated with most measures of agricultural intensification (cereal and milk yields, number of machinery), and positively with cattle density. Multiple regression analyses of intensification measures indicated a similar pattern, although cattle density was not included into the models. Interestingly, farmland diversity in the models was negative predictor of population sizes. The sudden changes in agriculture were not indicated in the population trends of the two species. Probably, the relationship between agricultural intensification and small game species decline may not be as simple as correlation analyses indicated.     

A tradition of change: the dynamic relationship between biodiversity and society in sector Muyuy,Peru

The theme of biodiversity and society provides an opportunity to look beyond skewed environmental ideologies that impel biodiversity researchers to ignore land “tarnished” by humans in search of “pristine” ecosystems. Data reported and analyzed in this paper test and draw conclusions based on a non-partisan stance that recognizes biodiversity as a product of complex natural and anthropogenic interactions. The data in this paper describes this process in the Amazon floodplain of sector Muyuy, Peru. A smallholder tradition of adaptive change in this highly precarious and unstable landscape provides a dynamic foundation upon which biodiversity is produced, managed and conserved. To examine this tradition of appropriate response to change, data was collected on land-cover dynamics using Landsat images and biodiversity inventories and household surveys of resource use technologies and conservation practices were carried out. Through complex agricultural technologies, sector Muyuy smallholders, known as ribereños, use a highly differentiated and dynamic environment to produce a great diversity of crops while creating habitats for endangered and over-exploited species of fish and river turtles, plants, and other species. Ribereños are smallholder farmers, fishermen and forest managers. They are the descendents of several indigenous groups as well as migrants from Europe, Asia and Africa. Most of the rural inhabitants of Peruvian Amazonia are ribereños. In Muyuy, we found that ribereños manage an average of 76 tree species per ha, including tropical cedar and other over-exploited timber species. We conclude that meaningful attempts at biodiversity conservation must begin at the interface between ecological and social processes and incorporate locally developed knowledge and practice.     

Is climate-smart conservation feasible in Europe? Spatial relations of protected areas,soil carbon,and land values

The expectations on protected areas to deliver not only biodiversity conservation but also to provide an array of different ecosystem services rise. Sequestration and storage of carbon are promising services that protected areas may provide. This study integrates spatially explicit data on terrestrial Natura 2000 sites, soil organic carbon, and agricultural land values to estimate the potential for climate-smart conservation planning in the European Union. The objectives of this study are to analyse spatial relations between protected areas soil carbon content, and land values on the European Union's land area as well as to locate and quantify the proportion of land with high carbon and low economic value within and outside protected areas. We apply a unique interdisciplinary framework with methods ranging from analyses based on geographical information systems, agricultural economics to statistics. Findings indicate that there is a significant overlap between Natura 2000 sites and regions with high carbon content across Europe. Statistical analyses show that carbon-rich regions have significantly lower land values than other areas. Our results suggest that biodiversity protection and mitigation of climate change through conservation of soil carbon could be simultaneously achieved in Europe's protected areas and beyond. We conclude that there is a notable potential for climate-smart conservation in Europe that needs further investigation.     

Complementarity,biodiversity viability analysis,and policy-based algorithms for conservation

Biodiversity conservation “area-selection” strategies include not only trade-offs among society’s needs in land-use allocation, but also allocation of economic instruments such as incentives, levies, and biodiversity credits. For these applications, the key property of an area is its “complementarity”—the context-dependent, marginal gain in biodiversity provided by the area. Given that there has been little implementation of whole-sets of areas generated by the popular computer-based selection methods, we suggest that analogous “policy-based algorithms” would be a more effective real-world application of complementarity. Areas would be “selected” for conservation over time as a consequence of policies in which dynamic complementarity values influence application of economic instruments. These integrated biodiversity/economic strategies can use an extended form of complementarity reflecting marginal changes in regional probability of persistence of biodiversity. While probabilistic measures of biodiversity viability have been explored in area-selection for some time, it remains difficult to make viability statements about “all of biodiversity.” New approaches that use biodiversity surrogate information for “biodiversity viability analysis” (BVA) can take advantage of a general quantitative biodiversity framework in which pattern-based relationships among areas allow predictions at the species level. A standard assumption of “unimodal” species responses to environmental gradients yields an expected distribution of species in an ordination pattern, and allows sampling of inferred species. Based on environmental correlates, inferred species can be mapped in geographic space, forming distribution fragments. This information, when linked to species persistence models, may allow ongoing calculation of areas’ complementarity values. An example illustrates application of these ordination models to museum collection data for lizards from New South Wales (NSW), Australia.     

Feeding the world's increasing population while limiting climate change impacts: linking N2O and CH4 emissions from agriculture to population growth

The global demand for agricultural products, including food, is rapidly increasing due to population growth and shifts in consumption patterns. The required increase in agricultural production is predominantly to be achieved in countries with relatively low agricultural production levels at present. These are mainly developing countries and countries in transition, the so-called non-Annex I countries of the UNFCCC. However, intensification of agricultural production systems is currently closely linked to high emissions of greenhouse gases notably nitrous oxide (N₂O) and methane (CH₄). In this paper the relations between population growth, agricultural development and emissions of N₂O and CH₄ were assessed for 10 non-Annex I countries, viz. China, India, Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa. We combined FAO data on agricultural production levels, CENSUS data on population statistics and EDGAR data on N₂O and CH₄ emissions. The projected trends in agricultural production indicate that emissions of N₂O and CH₄ are expected to increase rapidly in the coming years and will level off from 2040 onwards. The results confirm the positive relation between population increase and increased emissions from agricultural activities for most countries. However, for some countries (South Africa, China and Mexico) this relation was weak or absent. Although numerous factors (e.g. changes in international trade) may have scattered the relation and we were unable to explain this decoupling, it suggests that population growth can be possible without additional emissions. The variation between the different countries and farming systems is however large and mitigation measures at farm-level should be tailored to the wide diversity in environmental conditions, regional customs and farming systems.     

Ozone,sulfur dioxide,and nitrogen dioxide trends at rural sites located in the united states

We have investigated the existence of trends for ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide at rural sites in the U.S. For the ozone analysis, at 54 of the 77 sites (70%) for the 10-year analysis (1979–1988) and at 118 of 147 sites (80%), with at least 4 years of data for the 5-year analysis (1984–1988), there was no indication of trends, either positive or negative. For the 10-year analysis, ozone sites in the Southern and Midwest forestry regions showed more positive than negative signiicant slope estimates. For the 5-year analysis, similar results were obtained, except that the mid-Atlantic region also experienced more positive than negative significant slope estimates. In most of the agricultural regions, there were not many significant trends in either the 10- or 5-year analysis. However, for the agricultural Appalachian region, 50% and 34% of the trends, respectively, were significant and there were more positive than negative significant ozone trends for both the 10- and 5-year periods. For sulfur dioxide, there was an indication of trends at 37 of 64 sites (58%) for the 10-year analysis (1978–1987). For the 5-year analysis (1983–1987), with at least 4 years of data, there was no indication of trends at 115 of 137 sites (84%). For sites in some regions of the U.S., there is an indication that sulfur dioxide concentrations have declined for both the 5- and 10-year periods, but the rate of decline on an aggregate basis has slowed in the 5-year period. There is a strong indication that the sulfur dioxide level decreased at many sites in the Midwest forestry and the Corn belt agricultural regions for the 10-year period. In the Southern forestry and Appalachian agricultural regions, many sites showed a decrease in the index for the 10-year, but not the 5-year, period. The lack of monitoring data for nitrogen dioxide made any conclusion extremely tenuous.     

The Satoyama Index: A biodiversity indicator for agricultural landscapes

Agricultural development to meet rapidly growing demands for food and biofuel and the abandonment of traditional land use have had major impacts on biodiversity. Habitat diversity is one of the most important factors influencing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. In this study we propose an ecological index of ecosystem or habitat diversity in agricultural landscapes – the Satoyama Index (SI) – that is discernible under appropriate spatial units (e.g., 6 km × 6 km) from 1 km × 1 km gridded land-cover data available from an open-access web site. A high SI value is an indicator of high habitat diversity, which is characteristic of traditional agricultural systems, including Japanese satoyama landscapes, while a low value indicates a monotonic habitat condition typical of extensive monoculture landscapes. The index correlated well with the spatial patterns of occurrence of a bird of prey (Butastur indicus) and species richness of amphibians and damselflies in Japan. The values of the SI also corresponded well to the spatial patterns of typical traditional agricultural landscapes with high conservation value in other countries, for example, the dehesas of the Iberian Peninsula and shade coffee landscapes in Central America. Globally, the pattern of East/South-East Asian paddy belts with their high index values contrasts markedly with the low values of the Eurasian, American, and Australian wheat or corn belts. The SI, which correlates landscapes with biodiversity through potential habitat availability, is highly promising for assessing and monitoring the status of biodiversity irrespective of scale.     

Biodiversity of the ground-dwelling spider fauna of afforestation habitats

The aim of this study was to assess spider diversity among habitats that are typically used for afforestation in Ireland, and to identify habitat parameters which could potentially be used as indicators of their biodiversity value. Ground-dwelling spiders were surveyed in 24 sites across Ireland, with eight sites of each of the following habitat types: improved grassland, wet grassland and peatland. The spiders were sampled using pitfall traps which were located within the major vegetation types present in each site as well as within supplementary habitat features which may add to biodiversity value of the whole site such as hedgerows, flushes and the edges of ditches and streams.Each habitat supported distinct spider assemblages that reflect major differences in both environmental conditions and management regime. The improved grasslands had low spider species richness and low variation in assemblage structure which is probably related to the intensive management of this habitat. In this case hedgerows maybe an important aspect of the spider diversity within agricultural landscapes. The peatlands, and to a lesser extent wet grasslands, supported a diverse and specialist spider fauna, including a number of rare species; this may be due to differences in soil moisture and plant architecture. Indicators of biodiversity value identified included wet flushes in the peatlands and low grazing pressure in the wet grasslands. This study suggests that in terms of biodiversity value improved grassland is the preferable habitat for afforestation, because of the poor baseline spider diversity. However, it may be unrealistic to expect land owners to afforest their most productive agricultural land, so the management and habitat indicators identified in this study may be of use for assessing habitat quality among the wet grassland and peatlands to allow sites with lower biodiversity value to be identified.     

Early succession arthropod community changes on experimental passion fruit plant patches along a land-use gradient in Ecuador

Many tropical landscapes are today characterized by small forest patches embedded in an agricultural mosaic matrix. In such highly fragmented landscapes, agroforests have already been recognized as refuges for biodiversity but few studies have investigated the potential of non-forested land-use types to contribute to overall biodiversity of functionally important taxa in the tropics. This study experimentally investigated species richness, abundance, and community similarity of arthropods on Yellow Passion fruit plants, planted in standardized patches in 30 sites along a land-use intensity gradient. The gradient comprised all major land-use types of the area: forest fragments, abandoned coffee agroforests, coffee agroforests managed under shade trees, pastures, and rice fields in Coastal Ecuador. We found a total of 2123 individuals belonging to 242 species. Overall arthropod species richness increased with light intensity and leaf-surface area and decreased with land-use intensity: forest fragments and abandoned coffee agroforests harboured significantly more species than rice or pastures. Overall diversity in managed coffee agroforests was intermediate between the intensively managed and more natural habitats. However, the three most abundant taxa of arthropods (ants, spiders, and beetles) had the highest number of species in managed coffee agroforests, while ant abundance was highest in abandoned coffee agroforests and spider abundance highest in managed coffee agroforests. Analyses of community similarity revealed that open (pasture, and rice) and shaded (forest, abandoned and managed coffee agroforests) land-use types had distinct arthropod communities. In conclusion, although open agricultural land-use types tend to have fewer species in lower numbers, all land-use types contribute to overall biodiversity of the agricultural matrix because of distinct communities in shaded vs. non-shaded land-use types.     

Relevance for decision making of spatially explicit,participatory scenarios for ecosystem services in an area of a high current demand

Participatory ecosystem services scenarios can be used to inform decision making on the sustainable or wise use of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). To establish the plausibility and coherency of the recently constructed Biscay participatory scenarios, and to analyze policy options for improving sustainability of land use and the supply of ecosystem services, a spatially explicit analysis of land cover change was carried out. The modelling used an innovative methodology which included feedback from key stakeholders. Our study showed that scenario mapping can be a way of testing the credibility and internal consistency of scenarios, and a methodology for making them more coherent; it was also useful for highlighting land use trade-offs. The sustainability analysis for the ES supply side showed the benefits of promoting two land use/cover trends in the Biscay region: (i) an increase of sustainable arable land in the valley zones to reinforce biocapacity and self-provisioning while preserving agroecosystems’ ES flow; and (ii) natural forest regeneration in mountainous and other zones to increase carbon storage and sequestration while enhancing biodiversity and other ES flows. We argue that even if already protected public agro-forest lands may be the best places to start promoting these changes, additional measures are needed to involve private landowners and guarantee changes at a landscape level. Finally, we reflect on the need to make complementary analyses of ES supply and demand as a way of contributing to a broad sustainability agenda.     

Utilitarian framings of biodiversity shape environmental impact assessment in development cooperation

Biodiversity is under threat from anthropogenic pressures, in particular in biodiversity-rich developing countries. Development cooperation actors, who traditionally focus on the improvement of socio-economic conditions in the South, are increasingly acknowledging the linkages between poverty and biodiversity, e.g. by referring to the ecosystem services framework. However, there are many different framings which stress the need for biodiversity integration and which influence how biodiversity and development are and/or should be linked. Moreover, there is a gap between the lip service paid to biodiversity integration and the reality of development cooperation interventions. This study analyses how biodiversity framings are reflected in environmental impact assessment (EIA) practice, and how these framings influence EIA and decision-making. The findings, based on an in-depth qualitative analysis of World Bank EIAs undertaken in West Africa, indicate the incoherent quality but also the dominance of the ‘utilitarian’ and ‘corrective’ framings, which respectively stress human use of nature and mitigation of negative unintended development impacts. Identifying and highlighting these discursive trends leads to increased awareness of the importance of biodiversity among all development actors in North and South. However, some framings may lead to an overly narrow human-centred approach which downplays the intrinsic value of biodiversity. This study proposes recommendations for an improved integration of biodiversity in development cooperation, including the need for more systematic baseline studies in EIAs.     

Biodiversity conservation research challenges in the 21st century: A review of publishing trends in 2000 and 2011

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 recognizes the increasing importance of scientific knowledge to support conservation policies and decision making. In this study, we assessed the tendency of such knowledge in the first decade of the 21st century. We carried out a systematic review of publications in biodiversity conservation, considering the following aspects: type of research, main topic of study, object of study (i.e. biodiversity organizational level, taxonomic groups and ecosystems), pressures and drivers of change, as well as geographical distribution. In total, 966 publications were analyzed within the three journals with higher academic reach in the field under study: Biodiversity & Conservation, Biological Conservation, and Conservation Biology. Our results show that there are several biases in scientific knowledge associated with the object of study, and analyzed drivers of changes, as well as geographical distribution. However, research trends are not uniform along the first decade of 21st century, as there are some differences between 2000 and 2011 regarding the main topic of the study, the spatial scale and geographical region, and the analyzed ecosystems. We finally discuss the implications of current knowledge trends in biodiversity conservation for achieving the targets delineated by the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020.     

The Yellow River in transition

Like many parts of the world, the Yellow River basin has problems associated with water scarcity, pollution, and flood risk. Analyses that focus only on the physical characteristics of these problems miss some of their most important social drivers. In this paper we identify some interlocking changes that have occurred as a consequence of economic reforms begun in China in 1978, and the implications of these changes for the Yellow River. The reforms have caused changes in the organisation of household production, increasing urbanisation and urban affluence, rapid industrialisation, and large scale spatial shifts in agricultural production. Rather than specific decisions it is these gradual changes that have affected the current status of the Yellow River and its basin. Our analysis suggests that at least some solutions to water problems in the Yellow River lie outside the basin, and beyond the realm of science or technology.     

三亚城市景观变化的监测研究

区域生态环境变化的动态监测是自然资源合理利用和区域环境保护中急需解决的问题。本项研究采用了遥感技术,对三亚城市景观中不同景观组分的优势度值和边界形状等空间结构指标,对林木覆盖率和生物量等景观稳定状况指标进行了监测,同时配合了典型采样和勘测等地面工作,提高监测数据的可信度。在此基础上建立了区域生态环境变化监测体系和Sanya－Landscape信息系统,对三亚城市生态环境变化趋势进行了评价,准确地反映了该区域生态环境的现状和特征,为三亚城市生态环境的规划和管理提供了科学依据。结果证明,本研究采用的指标及指标的采集方法是区域生态环境动态监测的有效手段。     

景观生态学在农业园区规划环评中的应用

根据西南一农业园区规划前后土地利用变化的结果,借助地理信息系统技术,运用景观生态学基本理论分析了农业园区规划前后景观格局变化,主要结果为:规划后区域优势景观类型仍为耕地,但各类生境斑块的生态系统能力有所下降,农村居民点的集中建设有利于景观破碎化程度减轻,但路网的建设又加重了景观破碎化。在农业园区的规划中,须考虑林地和自然保留地这两类土地类型的合理分布,特别是现有生态系统较好的斑块,对评价区生物多样性的保持具有重大意义。     

中国国家公园建设潜在区域识别研究

国家公园是保护具有国家代表性资源的自然生态区域,建设国家公园体制是中国国土生态安全保障和生态文明体制改革的重要内容。论文基于国际经验、国家公园功能和政策内涵,依据国家公园主导定位和生态系统服务理念,构建了包含6个关键指标的综合评价模型,包括生态系统完整性、生态重要性、原真性、生物多样性、自然景观价值与人文遗产价值,分别进行单一要素层评价和多指标空间叠加分析,再结合中国生态地理区划、生态功能区划和省级行政区管理等因素进行比对和范围遴选提取,初步确定了中国国家公园建设的潜在区域。结果表明,生态系统完整性、生态重要性、生物多样性、原真性的高值集聚区域具有趋同性,生态系统完整性较好的区域,承担着重要的生态功能,生物多样性也较高,原真性保存较好。中国三大阶梯与自然地理区域的叠加分布特征明显,东西部潜在区域的面积差异较大,西部地区的空间连续性较强,潜在区域的跨界性较为明显。初步遴选出55处未来可以重点考虑建设的陆地型国家公园潜在区域。研究可为中国国家公园建设合理布局提供方法参考和理论借鉴。     

The social dimension of biodiversity policy in the European Union: Valuing the benefits to vulnerable communities

This paper uses GIS-based mapping tools and economic valuation of ecosystem goods and services to explore the social dimension of biodiversity policy. We investigate the linkages between biodiversity, ecosystem service values, and socio-economic vulnerability indicators in a spatially explicit framework and at different geographic scales. Our focus is on Europe, where biodiversity and ecosystem benefits have been well studied for many ecosystems, such as forests, coastal ecosystems and freshwater wetlands. The analysis focuses in particular on rural agricultural areas and remote mountainous regions accounting for the differences across various income groups, both at national and regional levels. The results of the study provide useful insights for EU policymakers in designing policy instruments that can promote biodiversity conservation and prevent natural resource degradation, on the one hand, while contributing to social stability and human livelihoods, on the other hand.     

Temporal and spatial changes of microbial community in an industrial effluent receiving area in Hangzhou Bay

Anthropogenic activities usually contaminate water environments, and have led to the eutrophication of many estuaries and shifts in microbial communities. In this study, the temporal and spatial changes of the microbial community in an industrial effluent receiving area in Hangzhou Bay were investigated by 454 pyrosequencing. The bacterial community showed higher richness and biodiversity than the archaeal community in all sediments. Proteobacteria dominated in the bacterial communities of all the samples; Marine_Group_Ⅰ and Methanomicrobia were the two dominant archaeal classes in the effluent receiving area. PCoA and AMOVA revealed strong seasonal but minor spatial changes in both bacterial and archaeal communities in the sediments. The seasonal changes of the bacterial community were less significant than those of the archaeal community, which mainly consisted of fluctuations in abundance of a large proportion of longstanding species rather than the appearance and disappearance of major archaeal species. Temperature was found to positively correlate with the dominant bacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and negatively correlate with the dominant archaea,Marine_Group_Ⅰ; and might be the primary driving force for the seasonal variation of the microbial community.