Population Growth,Available Resources,and Quality of Life:China’s Post-Reform Economic Development

Two opposing intellectual traditions and their contem-porary developments regarding the relations among population, available resources, and quality of life as reflected in economic growth are reviewed. What is at issue is whether population growth is detrimental to or beneficial for economic development. Neither of the extreme views gives a complete picture of the interplay among population, resources, and quality of life. Following previous literature on the topic, this paper establishes a more balanced approach that considers the function linking population and quality of life not constant but variable and regards the limitedness of resources as not absolute but relative to regions and societies. The proposed approach is more flexible in better explaining the relation between population and economic growth. China is examined as a case in point to shed light on the interaction of population growth, economic development, and available resources, and its recent post-economic reform experiences showcase the appropriateness of the synthetic approach.     

A Framework to Integrate Habitat Monitoring and Restoration with Endangered Insect Recovery

Monitoring is essential to track the long-term recovery of endangered species. Greater emphasis on habitat monitoring is especially important for taxa whose populations may be difficult to quantify (e.g., insects) or when true recovery (delisting) requires continuous species-specific habitat management. In this paper, we outline and implement a standardized framework to facilitate the integration of habitat monitoring with species recovery efforts. The framework has five parts: (1) identify appropriate sample units, (2) select measurable indicators of habitat requirements, (3) determine rating categories for these indicators, (4) design and implement appropriate data collection protocols, and (5) synthesize the ratings into an overall measure of habitat potential. Following these steps, we developed a set of recovery criteria to estimate habitat potential and initially assess restoration activities in the context of recovering an endangered insect, the Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis). We recommend basing the habitat potential grading scheme on recovery plan criteria, the latest information on species biology, and working hypotheses as needed. The habitat-based assessment framework helps to identify which recovery areas and habitat patches are worth investing in and what type of site-specific restoration work is needed. We propose that the transparency and decision-making process in endangered insect recovery efforts could be improved through adaptive management that explicitly identifies and tracks progress toward habitat objectives and ultimate population recovery.     

Congo Basin peatlands: threats and conservation priorities

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change - The recent publication of the first spatially explicit map of peatlands in the Cuvette Centrale, central Congo Basin, reveals it to be the...     

An interactive simulation and visualization tool for flood analysis usable for practitioners

Developing strategies to mitigate or to adapt to the threats of floods is an important topic in the context of climate changes. Many of the world’s cities are endangered due to rising ocean levels and changing precipitation patterns. It is therefore crucial to develop analytical tools that allow us to evaluate the threats of floods and to investigate the influence of mitigation and adaptation measures, such as stronger dikes, adaptive spatial planning, and flood disaster plans. Up until the present, analytical tools have only been accessible to domain experts, as the involved simulation processes are complex and rely on computational and data-intensive models. Outputs of these analytical tools are presented to practitioners (i.e., policy analysts and political decision-makers) on maps or in graphical user interfaces. In practice, this output is only used in limited measure because practitioners often have different information requirements or do not trust the direct outcome. Nonetheless, literature indicates that a closer collaboration between domain experts and practitioners can ensure that the information requirements of practitioners are better aligned with the opportunities and limitations of analytical tools. The objective of our work is to present a step forward in the effort to make analytical tools in flood management accessible for practitioners to support this collaboration between domain experts and practitioners. Our system allows the user to interactively control the simulation process (addition of water sources or influence of rainfall), while a realistic visualization allows the user to mentally map the results onto the real world. We have developed several novel algorithms to present and interact with flood data. We explain the technologies, discuss their necessity alongside test cases, and introduce a user study to analyze the reactions of practitioners to our system. We conclude that, despite the complexity of flood simulation models and the size of the involved data sets, our system is accessible for practitioners of flood management so that they can carry out flood simulations together with domain experts in interactive work sessions. Therefore, this work has the potential to significantly change the decision-making process and may become an important asset in choosing sustainable flood mitigations and adaptation strategies.     

Patterns of body mass senescence and selective disappearance differ among three species of free-living ungulates

Declines in survival and reproduction with age are prevalent in wild vertebrates, but we know little about longitudinal changes in behavioral, morphological, or physiological variables that may explain these demographic declines. We compared age-related variation in body mass of adult females in three free-living ungulate populations that have been the focus of long-term, individual-based research: bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) at Ram Mountain, Canada; roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) at Trois Fontaines, France; and Soay sheep (Ovis aries) on St. Kilda, Scotland. We use two recently proposed approaches to separate contributions to age-dependent variation at the population level from within-individual changes and between-individual selective disappearance. Selective disappearance of light individuals in all three populations was most evident at the youngest and oldest ages. In later adulthood, bighorn sheep and roe deer showed a continuous decline in body mass that accelerated with age while Soay sheep showed a precipitous decrease in mass in the two years preceding death. Our results highlight the importance of mass loss in explaining within-individual demographic declines in later adulthood in natural populations. They also reveal that the pattern of senescence, and potentially also the processes underlying demographic declines in late life, can differ markedly across related species with similar life histories.     

Measurement of agricultural total factor productivity growth incorporating environmental factors: A nutrients balance approach

This article proposes to use nutrient-orientated environmental efficiency (EE) measures to construct a nutrient total factor productivity index (NTFP). Since nutrient-orientated EE measures are consistent with the materials balance principle, NTFP index is superior to other existing TFP indexes. An empirical study on the environmental performance of an agricultural sector in 30 OECD countries from 1990 to 2003 yielded several important findings. First, these countries should be able to produce current outputs with at least 50% less aggregate eutrophying power, implying that they should have been able to substantially reduce the potential for eutrophication. Second, traditional TFP has grown by 1.6% per annum due to technical progress; however, there are lags in the responses of several countries to this technical progress. Third, environmental TFP has grown at a slower rate than traditional TFP growth due to reductions in nutrient-orientated allocative efficiency. Finally, changes in input combinations could have significantly improved environmental efficiency and productivity. These findings favor policy interventions and faster technological transfer to improve environmental performance.     

Dealing with microtopography of an ombrotrophic bog for simulating ecosystem-level CO2 exchanges

Peatlands contain approximately 25% of the global soil carbon (C), despite covering only 3% of the earth's land surface. In order to evaluate the role of peatlands in global C cycling, models of ecosystem biogeochemistry are required, but peatland ecosystems present a number of unique challenges, particularly how to deal with the large variability that occurs at scales of one to several metres. In models, spatial variability is considered either explicitly for each individual unit and the outputs averaged, referred to as flux upscaling, or implicitly by weighting model parameters by the fractional occurrence of the individual units, referred to as parameter upscaling. The advantage of parameter upscaling is that it is much more computationally efficient: a requirement for hemispheric scale simulations. In this study we determined the differences between modelling a raised bog peatland with hummock-hollow microtopography using flux and parameter upscaling. We used the McGill Wetland Model (MWM), a process-based ecosystem C model for peatlands, configured for hummocks and hollows separately and then a weighted mixture of both. The simulated output based on flux and parameter upscaling was compared with eddy-covariance tower measurements. We found that net ecosystem production (NEP) for hollows was much larger than that for hummocks because total ecosystem respiration (TER) for hummocks was greater while gross primary production (GPP) did not differ significantly between the two topographic features. However, despite differences in components of NEP between hummocks and hollows, there was no statistically significant difference between the NEP based on flux and parameter upscaling using the MWM. Both flux and parameter upscaling show equivalent capability to capture the magnitude, direction, seasonality and inter-annual variability. The root-mean-square-errors (RMSE) are 0.66, 0.45, and 0.49 g C m⁻² day⁻¹, respectively for GPP, TER and NEP based on the flux upscaling, while 0.67, 0.44, and 0.48 g C m⁻² day⁻¹, respectively based on the parameter upscaling. The degree of agreement (d*) is 0.96, 0.97, and 0.88, respectively for GPP, TER and NEP based on the flux upscaling, while 0.96, 0.97, and 0.89, respectively based on the parameter upscaling. This result suggests that differences in processes caused by peatland microtopography scale linearly, which means an ecosystem-level model set-up (i.e. parameter upscaling scheme), is sufficient to simulate the C cycling.     

Characterization of the ignition by repetitive streamer discharges using laser diagnostics

Repetitive streamer discharges caused by transients, e.g. due to high frequency overvoltages, can ignite combustible mixtures, which has to be taken into account concerning the safety assessment of electrical apparatus for usage in hazardous areas. Hydrogen/air mixtures were ignited inside a closed vessel using a rod/plane electrode configuration. Alternating voltage with a frequency between 600 and 750 kHz and amplitudes of up to 20 kV was used to produce streamer discharges. The ignition process and the subsequent flame front propagation were examined with respect to mixture composition and several electrical parameters using time-resolved measurements of planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of OH radicals. A multiple pulse laser and detection system was used to assemble four images during one experiment. These measurements have given detailed information about the point of ignition and flame velocities. The experimental results will be used to validate numerical simulations of ignition by streamer discharges, which will yield deep insights into this specific ignition process.     

Determination of the minimum ignition energy on the basis of a statistical approach

Based on existing MIE test results and new measurements, a statistical analysis for the MIE of hydrogen, ethene and propane is made by means of the logistic regression. The conditions necessary to carry out such an approach are discussed. It is shown that MIE values which are connected with a certain ignition probability could be determined adequately and lead to a more sophisticated result, also with regard to measurement uncertainties. This, in turn, leads to a better comparability and a higher informative content. At the same time, the MIEs of hydrogen, ethene and propane are reviewed. In doing so, a useful contribution to the discussion concerning the MIE of propane is made.     

Conservation of the Critically Endangered Eastern Australian Population of the Grey Nurse Shark (Carcharias taurus) Through Cross-Jurisdictional Management of a Network of Marine-Protected Areas

Between 2001 and 2009, 26 marine-protected areas (MPA) were established on the east Australian seaboard, at least in part, to manage human interactions with a critically endangered population of grey nurse shark, Carcharias taurus. This network is spread across six MPA systems and includes all 19 sites outlined in the National Recovery Plan for C. taurus, though five sites remain open to some forms of fishing. The reserve network has complex cross-jurisdictional management, as the sharks occur in waters controlled by the Australian states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, as well as by the Commonwealth (Federal) government. Jurisdiction is further complicated by fisheries and conservation departments both engaging in management activities within each state. This has resulted in protected area types that include IUCN category II equivalent zones in NSW, Queensland, and Commonwealth marine parks that either overlay or complement another large scaled network of protected sites called critical habitats. Across the network, seven and eight rule permutations for diving and fishing, respectively, are applied to this population of sharks. Besides sites identified by the recovery plan, additional sites have been protected as part of the general development of MPA networks. A case study at one of these sites, which historically was known to be occupied by C. taurus but had been abandoned, appears to shows re-establishment of an aggregation of juvenile and sub-adult sharks. Concurrent with the re-establishment of the aggregation, a local dive operator increased seasonal dive visitation rates at the site fourfold. As a precautionary measure, protection of abandoned sites, which includes nursery and gestating female habitats are options that may assist recovery of the east coast population of C. taurus.