The Role of Metallic Mineral Resources for Countries of the Third World

Metallic and other mineral resources can contribute powerfully to development. They have to be surveyed and assessed in a systematic way to provide the basis for decisions. Development is seen as a complex network of interrelating factors, which at best can cross-fertilize each other but more often tend to slow down one another. Economics, and especially the availability and cost of energy, are crucial for developing mineral resources.
Les ressources métalliques et autres ressources minières peuvent contribuer d'une manière significative au développement d'un pays. On doit procéder à leur inventaire et leur évaluation d'une façon systématique afin qu'elles fournissent une base sur laquelle peuvent être fondées des décisions. Le développement est perçu comme un réseau complexe de facteurs interdépendants qui au mieux peuvent se renforcer mais qui, le plus souvent, tendent à se ralentir. En particulier, la disponibilitè et le coût de l'énergie représentent des facteurs décisifs dans le développement des ressources minières.
Los recursos minerales metélicos y no metálicos constituyen un factor que pueden tener una gran contribución al desarrollo económico. Este desarrollo es el resultado de un sistema complejo de factores interrelacionados que en el mejor de los casos pueden influir positivamente los unos en los otros pero que a menudo tienden a anularse mutuamente. El costo y disponibilidad de la energía es importante para el desarrollo de recursos naturales. Es también importante la sistemática exploración y evaluación de estos recursos     

Introduced Species and Management of a <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nothofagus/Austrocedrus</Emphasis> Forest

Isla Victoria (Nahuel Huapi National Park, Argentina), a large island dominated by native Nothofagus and Austrocedrus forest, has old plantations of many introduced tree species, some of which are famed invaders of native ecosystems elsewhere. There are also large populations of introduced deer and shrubs that may interact in a complex way with the introduced trees, as well as a recently arrived population of wild boar. Long-standing concern that the introduced trees will invade and transform native forest may be unwarranted, as there is little evidence of progressive invasion, even close to the plantations, despite over 50 years of opportunity. Introduced and native shrubs allow scattered introduced trees to achieve substantial size in abandoned pastures, but in almost all areas neither the trees nor the shrubs appear to be spreading beyond these sites. These shrub communities may be stable rather than successional, but the technology for restoring them to native forest is uncertain and probably currently impractical. Any attempt to remove the exotic tree seedlings and saplings from native forest would probably create the very conditions that would favor colonization by exotic plants rather than native trees, while simply clear-cutting the plantations would be unlikely to lead to regeneration of Nothofagus or Austrocedrus. The key to maintaining native forest is preventing catastrophic fire, as several introduced trees and shrubs would be favored over native dominant trees in recolonization. Deer undoubtedly interact with both native and introduced trees and shrubs, but their net effect on native forest is not yet clear, and specific management of deer beyond the current hunting by staff is unwarranted, at least if preventing tree invasion is the goal. The steep terrain and shallow soil make the recently arrived boar a grave threat to the native forest. Eradication is probably feasible and should be attempted quickly.     

桑沟湾和胶州湾夏季的沉积物-水界面营养盐通量研究

1999年8月通过原样培养研究了黄海的桑沟湾和胶州湾潮下带沉积物-海水界面的营养盐通量.结果表明,两个湾的沉积物均向水层释放NH4-N,通量为0.76(桑沟湾)和0.67 mmol/m2·d(胶州湾),对水层初级生产所需无机氮的贡献为14%(桑沟湾)和12%(胶州湾);桑沟湾的沉积物对PO4-P有净吸收,通量为-1.17mmol/m2·d,而胶州湾的沉积物释放PO4-P,通量为0.01 mmol/m2·d.与其他近岸浅海环境相比,桑沟湾和胶州湾的沉积物-水界面营养盐通量及对水层初级生产的贡献率均处于较低水平.回归统计分析表明,桑沟湾和胶州湾沉积物-水界面的NH4-N通量与沉积物表层的C、N含量正相关,PO4-P通量与沉积物耗氧率和上覆水PO4-P浓度相关.     

Global Warming, Human Population Pressure, and Viability of the World's Smallest Butterfly

Abstract:  The effects of climate change and habitat destruction and their interaction are likely to be the greatest challenge to animal and plant conservation in the twenty-first century. We used the world's smallest butterfly, the Sinai baton blue ( Pseudophilotes sinaicus ), as an exemplar of how global warming and human population pressures may act together to cause species extinctions. We mapped the entire global range of this butterfly and obtained extensive data on the intensity of livestock grazing. As with an increasing number of species, it is confined to a network of small habitat patches and is threatened both by indirect human-induced factors (global warming) and by the direct activities of humans (in this case, livestock grazing and collection of medicinal plants). In the absence of global warming, grazing, and plant collection, our model suggested that the butterfly will persist for at least 200 years. Above a threshold intensity of global warming, the chance of extinction accelerated rapidly, implying that there may be an annual average temperature, specific to each endangered species, above which extinction becomes very much more likely. By contrast, there was no such threshold of grazing pressure—the chance of extinction increased steadily with increasing grazing. The impact of grazing, however, decreased with higher levels of year-to-year variation in habitat quality. The effect of global warming did not depend on the future level of grazing, suggesting that the impacts of global warming and grazing are additive. If the areas of habitat patches individually fall below certain prescribed levels, the butterfly is likely to go extinct. Two patches were very important for persistence: if either were lost the species would probably go extinct. Our results have implications for the conservation management of all species whose habitats are at risk because of the direct activities of humans and in the longer term because of climate change.     

Conservation Goals and the Relative Importance of Costs and Benefits in Reserve Selection

Abstract: Including both economic costs and biological benefits of sites in systematic reserve selection greatly increases cost‐efficiency. Nevertheless, limited funding generally forces conservation planners to choose which data to focus the most resources on; therefore, the relative importance of different types of data must be carefully assessed. We investigated the relative importance of including information about costs and benefits for 3 different commonly used conservation goals: 2 in which biological benefits were measured per site (species number and conservation value scores) and 1 in which benefits were measured on the basis of site complementarity (total species number in the reserve network). For each goal, we used site‐selection models with data on benefits only, costs only, and benefits and costs together, and we compared the efficiency of each model. Costs were more important to include than benefits for the goals in which benefits were measured per site. By contrast, for the complementarity‐based goal, benefits were more important to include. To understand this pattern, we compared the variability in benefits and in costs for each goal. By comparing the best and the worst possible selection of sites with regard to costs alone and benefits alone for each conservation goal, we introduced a simple and consistent variability measure that is applicable to all kinds of reserve‐selection situations. In our study, benefit variability depended strongly on how the conservation goal was formulated and was largest for the complementarity‐based conservation goal. We argue that from a cost‐efficiency point of view, most resources should be spent on collecting the most variable type of data for the conservation goal at hand.     

Toward Policies and Decision-Making for Dam Removal

Dam removal has emerged as a critical issue in environmental management. Agencies responsible for dams face a drastic increase in the number of potential dam removals in the near future. Given limited resources, these agencies need to develop ways to decide which dams should be removed and in what order. The underlying science of dam removal is relatively undeveloped and most agencies faced with dam removal lack a coherent purpose for removing dams. These shortcomings can be overcome by the implementation of two policies by agencies faced with dam removal: (1) the development and adoption of a prioritization scheme for what constitutes an important dam removal, and (2) the establishment of minimum levels of analysis prior to decision-making about a dam removal. Federal and state agencies and the scientific community must encourage an initial experimental phase of dam removal during which only a few dams are removed, and these are studied intensively. This will allow for the development of the fundamental scientific understanding needed to support effective decision-making in the future and minimize the risk of disasters arising from poorly thought out dam removal decisions.     

Importance of Well-Designed Monitoring Programs for the Conservation of Endangered Species: Case Study of the Snail Kite

Abstract:  Monitoring natural populations is often a necessary step to establish the conservation status of species and to help improve management decisions. Nevertheless, many monitoring programs do not effectively address primary sources of variability in monitoring data, which ultimately may limit the utility of monitoring in identifying declines and improving management. To illustrate the importance of taking into account detectability and spatial variation, we used a recently proposed estimator of abundance (superpopulation estimator) to estimate population size of and number of young produced by the Snail Kite ( Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus ) in Florida. During the last decade, primary recovery targets set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Snail Kite that were based on deficient monitoring programs (i.e., uncorrected counts) were close to being met (by simply increasing search effort during count surveys). During that same period, the Snail Kite population declined dramatically (by 55% from 1997 to 2005) and the number of young decreased by 70% between 1992–1998 and 1999–2005. Our results provide a strong practical case in favor of the argument that investing a sufficient amount of time and resources into designing and implementing monitoring programs that carefully address detectability and spatial variation is critical for the conservation of endangered species.     

Dose-response curve modeling of excess mortality caused by two forms of stress

A method is presented for modeling the effect of two stresses on mortality. The model assumes a multiplicative simple two-parameter dose-response curve relationship between mortality and the two factors as well as for the effect of combining the two factors. The dose-response curve is modified in order to model survival probabilities. It is shown that the model adequately describes mortality data of Folsomia candida (Collembola) in a two-stress factor design.