Impacts of snow disaster on meat production and adaptation: an empirical analysis in the yellow river source region

The Yellow River source region is located in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and has a sensitive response to global change due to its unique cryosphere processes. Any slight changes in natural elements and human activity can have a magnified effect on grassland ecosystem, animal husbandry, and pastoral livelihoods since its economy is exclusively dominated by grassland animal husbandry. Because snow disaster has been one of the major natural disasters in the source region, it is crucial to explore the economic impact of snow disaster on animal husbandry and identify effective adaptation measures. A nonlinear model of meat production was established in relation to snow disaster, grassland productivity, and disaster prevention by introducing a snow level index, and selecting three key indicators of grassland productivity and disaster prevention, including grass growing season precipitation concentration, sown grassland area, and warm barn area. This is an inverse of negative correlation, less meat when there is more snow. Per unit increase in snow level in the source region led to a decrease of 0.213 units in meat production. However, production losses caused by the snow disaster could be effectively suppressed by the increase in scale and intensity of sown grassland and warm barn construction. Per unit increase in sown grassland and warm barn area led to an increase of 0.240 and 0.610 units in meat production, respectively. The effects of sown grassland and warm barn area in reducing snow damage at different snow levels were analyzed. Snow disaster adaptation in the source region should include acceleration of the construction of meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation system, to ensure balanced forage supply between winter and spring, to prioritize the development of warm barn, and reduce the proportion of self-financed construction warm barn to encourage active participation of pastoralists, and to develop insurance mechanism for livestock.     

Effect of snow depth and snow duration on soil N dynamics and microbial activity in the alpine areas of the eastern Tibetan Plateau

The effects of snow regimes (including the depth and duration of snow cover) on soil N dynamics and microbial activity in situ were explored in the alpine belt of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Deeper snow-cover reduced NH ₄ ⁺ -N content, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, fungi count, and enzyme activities, whereas did not change net N mineralization. No differences in N pools in the soil, microbial biomass, microbial counts, and enzyme activity were found under the different duration of snow cover, showing that accumulation and release in soil N pools did not be significantly changed by earlier continuous snow cover.     

Population crash: prospects for famine in the twenty-first century

For centuries famine arose as a seemingly endless series of acute, regional and unanticipated events; it has transformed into a phenomenon, global in scale and continuous in nature. Half the world’s human population perpetually suffers some form of malnourishment, from either a scarcity of calories, protein or micronutrients or from a combination of these. Sheer population size has rendered the scale of suffering unprecedented. Perpetual famine has emerged during an era of abundant and relatively inexpensive soil, water and energy resources, improving crop yields, and a benign climate. However, the twentieth century trends of resource degradation, diminishing growth in crop yields and a warming atmosphere will likely continue, latently and perhaps synergistically impacting agricultural production, and therefore, threatening food security in the twenty-first century. Assuming some proportional relationship between food security and these resources, famine is here projected to greatly increase in the coming decades, severely impacting billions of people.     

Linking health and ecology in the medical curriculum

Human health vulnerabilities to ecosystem degradation are well documented. Destabilization of natural ecosystems and the biosphere have posed an entirely new set of risks to human health and preclude any simple extrapolations from the past. Newly emerging diseases, increasing prevalence of many vector borne diseases, increased exposure to harmful UV radiation and a number of other transformations in the natural environment, have decidedly negative implications for the sustainability of human health. Curricula in medical schools are responding to these new realities by exposing the connections between health and ecology. The program in Ecosystem Health at the University of Western Ontario serves as one model for connecting these disciplines. This program has resulted in a perceptible shift in values and professional responsibilities of emerging physicians.     

Reconciliation of development and ecosystems: the ecology of governance in the International Columbia River Basin

Regional Environmental Change - This article explores the emergence of formal and informal bridging organizations to facilitate solutions to water conflict at the scale of the water resource. This...     

SWOT analysis of renewable energy sector in Mazowieckie Voivodeship (Poland): current progress,prospects and policy implications

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Renewable energy (RE) plays an increasingly important role in the economy of almost every country in the world. In order to examine the state of...     

The ecology of quaternary mammals in the Urals

Special aspects of solving certain key problems in the ecology of Quaternary mammals using materials from the Ural region are considered. Possibilities and limitations accounted for by specific features of the region are analyzed. The nature of “mixed” (mammoth, tundra-steppe, hyperborean) faunas and their diversity are considered in the context of questions related to trends in the dynamics of range boundaries and relative abundance of different mammal species during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.     

Sri Lanka: a political ecology of socio-environmental conflicts and development projects

By analyzing 26 cases in the EJ Atlas for Sri Lanka, their causes, the impacts, the social actors involved, the forms of mobilization, and the main outcomes of the conflicts, this article examines in what ways activities aiming at economic growth produce socio-environmental conflicts. Such activities increase the social metabolism causing changes that translate into environmental, social, and health impacts which due to inequality of power are unequally distributed. As a result, those who are negatively impacted sometimes mobilize claiming environmental justice. The mining of construction materials to support the boom in the building sector and the expansion of intensive plantations into ‘extraction frontiers’ in new territories, cause deforestation, biodiversity loss, and hurt the local communities. Tourism and industries and new infrastructures are causing displacement, pollution, land degradation, and water shortage, affecting communities of farmers and fishermen that mobilize against the adverse impacts. Those with power to appropriate the natural resources are mostly the state together with international finance institutions and international actors who are able to implement the construction of infrastructures, plantations, and mass tourism. Mobilizations are mostly geared to the protection of livelihoods threatened by loss of access to land, pollution, deforestation, diseases, water scarcity, and new uncertain risks. The protection of the environment demanded by the mobilized groups in Sri Lanka does not aim just to protect nature itself but belongs to a wider movement of an “environmentalism of the poor”.     

On the population ecology of the gray plover in the northern Yamal Peninsula

The demography of the gray plover was studied using color banding at a stationary control plot in the northern Yamal tundra for seven years. Data on the dynamics of nesting density, fertility, breeding success, and site tenacity are presented. Cases of polygyny and the absence of nesting are described. Factors affecting population dynamics are discussed.     

Shifting role of ecology in solving global environmental problems: selected practical tools

As environmental issues changed its focus from pollution and endangered species to fulfilling basic human needs, such as health, education, shelter, sanitation, hygiene, on the one hand and social justice on the other hand, it widened in its scope. People questioned about adequacy of ecological knowledge in solving daily questions in their life, and also contribution of their values, objective life situations and idea of quality of life for ecological well-being. Two core and complimentary values strongly emerged from the concept of sustainable development; namely environmental protection and justice. Unfortunately, there is lack of awareness on dimensions of human life and its linkages with the wider environment. To combine the values, dimensions of human life and its linkages with external environment, fundamental changes in human behaviour for human development is required. Present article reflects on dimensions of life, essential skills and practical tools for environmental protection and human development.     

黄河流域经济增长-产业发展-生态环境的耦合协同关系

黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展已成为重大国家战略,流域内的经济增长、产业发展与生态环境协同发展问题正逐渐成为研究热点。文章分析了黄河流域经济增长、产业发展与生态环境三者的耦合协同机理。在此基础上构建耦合协同综合评价指标体系,运用耦合协调度模型、空间自相关模型、灰色关联模型分析了2012—2018年黄河流域62个地级市经济增长、产业发展与生态环境各系统的综合水平及三者耦合协调度的时空差异及其驱动因素。运用GM(1,1)灰色预测模型预测了短期内三者耦合协调度的变化趋势。研究表明:①黄河流域经济增长、产业发展与生态环境各系统综合水平总体上呈现平稳态势,三者发展速度差异不明显,但耦合协同严重失调,黄河流域整体尚未达到三者协同发展状态。②黄河流域经济增长、产业发展与生态环境三者的耦合协调度呈现出显著的空间自相关性,全局空间自相关为正,局部空间自相关呈现出聚集趋同特征。③预测结果表明黄河流域经济增长、产业发展与生态环境三者的耦合协同发展在短期内保持平稳。在预测期内黄河流域经济增长、产业发展与生态环境仍未达到协同发展状态,部分地区的耦合协调度有所提高,但总体提升与演进的速度较缓慢。最后,基于黄河流域经济发展与生态环境保护分析,为黄河流域经济增长、产业发展与生态环境耦合协同构建了包含组织保障、空间治理、政策保障以及体制机制等支撑体系,以期为实现黄河流域高质量发展奠定科学决策基础。     

Methods and results of studying the geographical trends in the structure of single-tree biomass of larches and two-needled pines in Eurasia

First transcontinental changes in fractional composition of sample tree biomass of larches (Larix Mill.) and two-needled pines (subgenus Pinus) are reported, taking into account their regional differences by age, tree height, stem diameter, and volume, as well as tree density. All components of the tree biomass of larches and pines monotonically increases from the North to the South. Dynamics of pine biomass in the direction from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to the continentality pole in Siberia is characterized by monotonous decrease of all components, including the roots. The latter is in contradiction with the change of the larch root biomass across the same gradient of climate continentality, which, unlike the mass of pine roots, is not reduced, but increased. The system of the transcontinental dependencies obtained allows its use in estimating forest biomass based on the local data of a tree enumeration per ha.     

生态补偿理论研究进展及争论——基于生态与社会关系的思考

生态补偿的概念自提出便受到学界和政府决策者的广泛关注,并迅速成为近20年来生态保护的主要政策手段。虽然基于生态补偿的政策手段被大范围使用,但是生态补偿的相关理论却处于发展与争论的阶段,该理论的适用性及对现实问题的剖析在实践过程中备受质疑。本文梳理了生态补偿理论发展及构建的过程,将其总结为生态系统服务概念的提出、生态系统服务价值评估方法的建立、以及生态系统服务市场机制的构建三个主要阶段。已有研究更多集中在生态补偿的具体实施层面,如补偿标准、补偿方式、效果评估等方面,但是对基础理论探讨不足。本文从生态补偿理论发展及构建的三个过程,综述了目前对生态补偿理论的讨论及争议,认为在处理"社会—生态"关系的核心问题上,尤其在一些长期依赖并利用自然资源的传统地区或者民族地区,目前学术界和政策决策者均对此问题缺乏深入的理解,这也是实践中生态补偿政策未达到理想效果的主要原因之一。最后,本文提出用"社会生态系统服务"一词代替目前所使用的"生态系统服务",这一概念有助于在理论上避免忽视社会系统及社会与生态系统二者之间的关系,减少不当外部政策干预。     

Conflicts between stakeholder groups affecting the ecology and economy of the Segara Anakan region

This study analyses how the conflict potential between different stakeholder groups is affecting the ecology and economy of the Segara Anakan region, a mangrove-fringed lagoon in central Java, Indonesia. The lagoon’s increasing sedimentation/silting up and the area’s expanding population has led to various interest groups conflicting with one another over how the resources of the lagoon and its surrounding area are to be utilized. Conflicts arise between occupational and ethnic groups in the lagoon’s bordering villages in the context of a transformation from fisheries to wetland agriculture. Land and mangrove use is therefore a cause for conflict between multiple groups, including Javanese fishermen, Sundanese farmers from Central and West Java and external shrimp farm owners. A result of the “Segara Anakan Development Project”—an 8-year undertaking that began in 1996—is that the lagoon was frequently dredged. Due to the dredging and resulting contamination of the land, a regional clash was triggered between Sundanese farmers and Javanese fishers. Our study reveals that the conflict potential between the various interest groups in the Segara Anakan Lagoon area could be reduced if the scarcity of natural resources were alleviated. Religious aspects also play a large role in marine resource utilization. Recognizing that the human utilization of natural resources is strongly symbolic and thereby culturally defined, we unravel the resource conflicts in our study area and offer some strategic approaches towards more sustainable outcomes.     

The impact of global warming on winter tourism and skiing: a regionalised model for Austrian snow conditions

Possible climate change will modify snow-cover depth and change the characteristics of winter tourism and skiing districts. Our model describes seasonal snow-cover depth related to altitude in six Alpine climate regions as the best fit of all snow stations. Data cover 30 winter seasons (November to April values) from 1965 to 1995. We modified the data according to a scenario of temperature and precipitation change (2 °C warming, no precipitation change) and achieve a new simulated snow-cover depth. The indicators MARP (mean altitude of resident population) and MASPSL (mean altitude of starting point of ski lifts) serve as references for “critical altitudes” of Austrian districts. A warming implies a reduction of snow in all districts, but the loss is overproportional in lower altitudes. The direction of economic impacts is clear – income losses and adaptation costs – but magnitude and time frames remain uncertain. Received: 24 February 1999 · Accepted: 15 May 1999     

Empirical and theoretical evidence concerning the response of the earth's ice and snow cover to a global temperature increase

As a guide to the possible effects of a CO₂-induced warming on the cryosphere, we review the effects of three warm periods in the past, and out theoretical understanding of fluctuations in mountain glaciers, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, ground ice, sea ice and seasonal snow cover. Between 1890 and 1940 A.D. the glaciated area in Switzerland was reduced by over 25%. In the Hypsithermal, at about 6000 BP, ground ice in Eurasia retreated northward by several hundred kilometres. In the interglacial Stage 5e, at about 120 000 BP, global sea-level rose by over 6 m. Fluctuations of mountain glaciers depend on mesoscale “weather” and on their mechanical response to it. Any melting of the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be slow in human terms. The West Antarctic ice sheet (its base below sea-level) is susceptible to an ungrounding, and such an event may have been the cause of the sea-level rise above. The East Antarctic ice sheet is susceptible to mechanical “surges”, which might be triggered by a warming at its margin. Both an ungrounding and a surge might occupy less than 100 yr, and are potetially the most important ice changes in human terms. Modelling studies suggest that a 5°C warming would remove the Arctic pack ice in summer, and this may be the most significant effect for further climatic change.     

Microbial ecology of soils surrounding nuclear and thermal power plants in Taiwan

This paper reports a study of the effect of three nuclear and one thermal power plants on the microbial ecology of soils. Populations of bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, cellulolytic microbes, phosphate-solubilizing microbes and nitrogen-fixing microbes in the soil in the vicinity of each plant were studied. Soils were acidic at three sites, and moisture contents of the power plant soils were lower than those of the surrounding areas. Microbial populations of the topsoils (0-20 cm deep) were higher than the subsoils (21-40 cm deep), and only 10-15% of them showed significant difference (P < .05). Thirty-three percent of the samples from the surrounding areas had higher microbial population than those from the power plant areas, but 19% was the reverse. Populations of cellulolytic, phosphate-solubilizing and nitrogen-fixing microbes varied with sampling locations, season and environmental conditions. Ratios of cellulolytic, phosphate-solubilizing and nitrogen-fixing microbes to total viable counts in some samples of the surrounding areas were significantly higher than in the power plant areas. Although the microbial populations of power plant soil and its surrounding area were somewhat different, it cannot be attributed as an effect of power plant operation, as the differences were not consistent.