生态文明建设的关键因素识别

生态文明建设是共创民族伟业、中国圆梦的时代重任,提高生态文明建设水平需要对生态文明建设的关键因素进行分析识别。本文从生态文明意识、生态文明制度和生态文明行为三个方面建立生态文明建设影响因素指标体系,选取全国31个省份2012至2014年的相关数据,运用BP神经网络法降低DEMATEL模型中专家打分建立关联矩阵的主观性,结合摆幅置权法(SW)得出综合重要度,遴选出生态文明建设关键因素。其中,年份最近的2014年计算得出的关键因素按照重要度排序依次为:本级环保能力建设资金使用总额、排污费解缴入库户金额、机动车污染物排放总颗粒物、网站主动公开各类政府环境信息条数和环保系统人员总数。将这些因素按照生态文明的基本内涵划分为三大类,得到3点结论:生态意识虽不起决定性作用,但能强化整个社会的生态文明建设的思想和理念,生态文明意识所占的比例先降后升,不断提高;随着生态文明建设理论和实践经验的丰富,逐渐感受到成熟的制度设计、明确的制度规范才是根本,生态文明制度类别在关键因素中所占的比例越来越高;生态文明行为作为表现形式,随着其他两方面的变化,生态文明行为不断改善,在生态文明建设的关键因素中所占比例下降。本文在生态文明意识方面提出要针对性地帮助和鼓励各级环保部门开展信息公开工作;在生态文明制度方面提出强化环保能力建设资金的监管力度,发挥排污费的真正作用,提升环保系统人员的能力素养,探索新工作思路等举措;在生态文明行为方面提出综合车、油、路等多方面措施防治机动车排放污染等建议。     

Refining the ecological footprint

Ecological footprint measures how much of the biosphere’s annual regenerative capacity is required to renew the natural resources used by a defined population in a given year. Ecological footprint analysis (EFA) compares the footprint with biocapacity. When a population’s footprint is greater than biocapacity it is reported to be engaging in ecological overshoot. Recent estimates show that humanity’s footprint exceeds Earth’s biocapacity by 23%. Despite increasing popularity of EFA, definitional, theoretical, and methodological issues hinder more widespread scientific acceptance and use in policy settings. Of particular concern is how EFA is defined and what it actually measures, exclusion of open oceans and less productive lands from biocapacity accounts, failure to allocate space for other species, use of agricultural productivity potential as the basis for equivalence factors (EQF), how the global carbon budget is allocated, and failure to capture unsustainable use of aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems. This article clarifies the definition of EFA and proposes several methodological and theoretical refinements. Our new approach includes the entire surface of the Earth in biocapacity, allocates space for other species, changes the basis of EQF to net primary productivity (NPP), reallocates the carbon budget, and reports carbon sequestration biocapacity. We apply the new approach to footprint accounts for 138 countries and compare our results with output from the standard model. We find humanity’s global footprint and ecological overshoot to be substantially greater, and suggest the new approach is an important step toward making EFA a more accurate and meaningful sustainability assessment tool.

Improved method of ecological footprint – Funing County ecological economic system assessments

This paper improves the ecological footprint method by regulating cropland area with cropping index. The results calculated by the improved method are the area of cropland that human needed, but not of cropping. This study analyzes the ecological supply/demand of Funing County in China with improved ecological footprint method. It suggested that ecological remainder per thousand U.S. dollar GDP is regarded as the indicator of regional sustainable development ability and pointed out that the stockbreeding is the keystone factor that affects the regional ecological footprint.     

Biomass allocation in boreal plants with different ecological strategies

In the boreal zone of the Middle Urals, biomass structure was studied in 35 species of wild plants with different ecological strategies according to Grime and Ramenskii (competitors, ruderals, and stress-tolerant plants). Plants belonging to these groups proved to differ considerably in the absolute plant weight and the quantitative contributions of the main organs to the total biomass. Discriminant analysis revealed a 97% difference between the species groups; hence, this approach may be used for identifying the ecological strategies of plants in natural habitats.     

上海市生态福利绩效评价研究

生态福利绩效是指自然消耗转化为福利水平的效率。随着全球生态约束时代的到来,自然资本变得绝对稀缺,如何在生态极限内提高人类的福利水平是可持续发展的终极目标。本文基于DEA方法,从投入产出角度构建了城市生态福利绩效评价指标体系,并结合主成分分析法(PCA),运用改进的基于非径向非角度的超效率DEA模型(Super-SBM模型)对上海市2006—2014年的生态福利绩效水平进行综合测评,并与2014年我国35个主要城市(省级和副省级城市)进行横向对比研究。结果表明:12006—2014年期间,上海的总体生态福利绩效水平不高,并未处于DEA有效的前沿面,其中仅3个年份为DEA有效,其余6个年份均为DEA无效,DEA有效年份数占样本总数的33.33%,但从整个发展态势来看,近几年来有逐步改善和提高的趋势。22014年,我国35个主要城市的生态福利绩效整体水平不高,深圳、海口排名前两位,而上海仅排名第30位,资源环境消耗过高是生态福利绩效值偏低的主要原因。从投入冗余情况来看,上海市在水资源和土地两方面消耗过高,存在过度冗余,环境污染排放也具有较大的优化空间,资源环境问题成为制约上海建设生态宜居城市的主要瓶颈。3PCA-DEA组合模型比DEA模型下所测算出来的绩效值更精确,且考虑松弛变量的非径向Super-SBM模型比基于径向的DEA模型精确度更高,对于相关领域的资源环境绩效或生态效率评价具有较好的适用性和借鉴价值。最后根据实证分析结果可知,上海应淘汰过剩产能并转变生产和生活消费方式、发展绿色低碳的共享经济,同时构建紧凑型城市,实现城市"精明增长"。     

Problems of sustainable development and ecological indication in radioactively contaminated areas

Lands that have become unusable because of contamination with long-lived artificial radionuclides require special measures aimed at their monitoring and rehabilitation. In such areas, specific processes in the biota are associated with the direct effect of ionizing radiation on some species, secondary changes depending on the ecology of organisms trophically connected with these species, and side effects explained by the regime of isolation established in radiation reserves. The dynamics of floras and faunas in radiation reserves are determined by successional changes in plant communities, migration of radionuclides, and the protective status of these territories.     

The concept of ecological debt: some steps towards an enriched sustainability paradigm

In this paper, we elaborate on the concept of ecological debt. Starting from the enriching environmental justice perspectives, this grass-roots concept has to offer to sustainability discourse, a broad conceptual discussion is presented resulting in a working definition for ecological debt. In elaborating on this definition, we try both to accommodate these enriching perspectives and to offer a more robust conceptualisation that is applicable in international sustainability discourse. Also, a scientifically sound methodology is presented which allows quantifying different aspects of ecological debt. Finally, both the conceptual analysis as well as the quantification method is applied to the case of climate change.     

Adaptive features of leaf structure in plants of different ecological groups

It is well known that the structure of leaves plays an important role in adaptation, but there are still no accurate structural criteria to indicate ecological characteristics of the species. We have studied parameters of leaves in 100 herbaceous plant species growing in the southern taiga subzone that belong to different ecological groups in relation to irradiance and moisture supply. The results show that leaf area, thickness, and anatomical type are less correlated with ecological characteristics of the species than structural parameters of photosynthetic tissues. In the series shade-loving mesophytes—light-loving hygromesophytes—mesophytes—xeromesophytes—mesoxerophytes, the concentration of cells and chloroplasts in the leaf gradually increases by a factor of up to 7–10, their size decreases two-to threefold, and the ratio of mesophyll surface area to leaf surface area increases fourto fivefold. It is concluded that characteristics of mesophyll are of adaptive significance. A system of characters is proposed for identification of ecological groups of plants growing in the boreal zone.     

Cacao in Eastern Guatemala––a sacred tree with ecological significance

Since at least 600 BC, cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) has occupied a place of cultural importance in Mesoamerica. In many Maya groups its importance as a ritual food plant is second only to maize (Zea mays L.). The Ch’orti’ Maya and their culturally non-indigenous Ladino neighbours in Eastern Guatemala continue to use cacao for culinary and ceremonial purposes. Of particular importance are cacao uses in Ch’orti’ rain ceremonies, which are strongly connected to local environmental knowledge. The protection of cacao as a sacred tree may help to limit slash-and-burn maize agriculture to sustainable levels.     

Aerobiological,ecological, and health linkages

Aerobiology is an interdisciplinary science representing the presence and movement of biological particles in the earth's atmosphere. As an important component of air quality, the impact of these particles on human populations and agriculture were discussed in terms of the ecology of the landscape targets involved. The role of aerobiology in air quality studies was considered.     

Minimizing the ecological impacts of oil spills

Oil spill response, whether planned by government agencies, oil spill cooperatives or individual companies, can be planned and carried out with the goal of minimizing ecological impacts, not merely removing visible oil. Two oil spill cooperatives on the west coast are implementing such planning. First, a coastal survey was conducted in the cooperative's area of responsibility. Physical processes and habitat types were examined. Oil spill cleanup guidelines were written for each habitat type. Biologically sensitive areas, those sites most vulnerable to oil spill impacts, were identified. Strategies were developed to protect most sensitive areas, i.e., prevent spilled oil from reaching them. Protection is the preferred option because it prevents both the impact of the oil and subsequent cleanup activities. Protected areas can often serve as repopulation centers for surrounding sites that may have been impacted. If minimizing ecological impact is to be a prime focus of oil spill response, ecologists should be involved in both the planning before and the field efforts during such spill events.     

Atmospheric change: health/ecological linkages

Human health studies emphasize the link between the human body and the immediate influences upon it. Ecosystem health studies (defined by David Rapport et al., this volume) has, as its primary objective, the relationships and system characteristics of viable ecosystems. As a practical application, ecosystem health studies describe the mechanisms and assesses the potential to threaten or enhance human health.     

Quantifying carbon footprint for ecological river restoration

Environment, Development and Sustainability - RIVER restoration is a popular technique to rehabilitate degraded river habitat. Given the nature of these types of engineering projects, using...     

Practices and opportunities of ecosystem service studies for ecological restoration in China

New approaches have emerged in integrating ecosystem services, their structure and function for ecological restoration. As the concept relating with ecosystem services has become widely accepted in last decade in China, its linking with ecological restoration will provide good opportunities and make substantial progress towards sustainable development. By analyzing the traditional ecological restoration procedure in China, we developed a framework of ecological restoration based on ecosystem services valuation. Relevant researches of ecological restoration based on ecosystem services are also carefully reviewed. China’s ecosystem services studies and payments for ecosystem services (PES) experiences were extensively discussed to show the ecological restoration strategy and its change. Two case studies in China were presented to show the framework for ecological restoration based on PES. We suggested that despite the limitations of valuation uncertainties at present, PES could be an opportunity for ecological restoration by evaluating the trade-offs of different stakeholders. In current state in China, challenges and opportunities coexist and scientists should work together in the integrated research of sustainable ecological management and economic development policies.     

Comparison of different ecological scales with respect to efficiency in assessing ecological conditions in forests of the Southern Ural region

Ecological scales proposed by H. Ellenberg, E. Landolt, and D.N. Tsyganov have been used to evaluate the roles of three ecological factors—elevation above sea level, soil moisture, and soil nitrogen—in determining the composition of forest communities in the Southern Ural region. The results obtained with all these scales are similar, which indicates that any of them can serve the purpose.     

Principles and issues in radiological ecological risk assessment

This paper provides a bridge between the fields of ecological risk assessment (ERA) and radioecology by presenting key biota dose assessment issues identified in the US Department of Energy's Graded Approach for Evaluating Radiation Doses to Aquatic and Terrestrial Biota in a manner consistent with the US Environmental Protection Agency's framework for ERA. Current radiological ERA methods and data are intended for use in protecting natural populations of biota, rather than individual members of a population. Potentially susceptible receptors include vertebrates and terrestrial plants. One must ensure that all media, radionuclides (including short-lived radioactive decay products), types of radiations (i.e., alpha particles, electrons, and photons), and pathways (i.e., internal and external contamination) are combined in each exposure scenario. The relative biological effectiveness of alpha particles with respect to deterministic effects must also be considered. Expected safe levels of exposure are available for the protection of natural populations of aquatic biota (10 mGy d(-1)) and terrestrial plants (10 mGy d(-1)) and animals (1 mGy d(-1)) and are appropriate for use in all radiological ERA tiers, provided that appropriate exposure assumptions are used. Caution must be exercised (and a thorough justification provided) if more restrictive limits are selected, to ensure that the supporting data are of high quality, reproducible, and clearly relevant to the protection of natural populations.