An experimental test of alternative population augmentation scenarios

Human land use is fragmenting habitats worldwide and inhibiting dispersal among previously connected populations of organisms, often leading to inbreeding depression and reduced evolutionary potential in the face of rapid environmental change. To combat this augmentation of isolated populations with immigrants is sometimes used to facilitate demographic and genetic rescue. Augmentation with immigrants that are genetically and adaptively similar to the target population effectively increases population fitness, but if immigrants are very genetically or adaptively divergent, augmentation can lead to outbreeding depression. Despite well‐cited guidelines for the best practice selection of immigrant sources, often only highly divergent populations remain, and experimental tests of these riskier augmentation scenarios are essentially nonexistent. We conducted a mesocosm experiment with Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) to test the multigenerational demographic and genetic effects of augmenting 2 target populations with 3 types of divergent immigrants. We found no evidence of demographic rescue, but we did observe genetic rescue in one population. Divergent immigrant treatments tended to maintain greater genetic diversity, abundance, and hybrid fitness than controls that received immigrants from the source used to seed the mesocosms. In the second population, divergent immigrants had a slightly negative effect in one treatment, and the benefits of augmentation were less apparent overall, likely because this population started with higher genetic diversity and a lower reproductive rate that limited genetic admixture. Our results add to a growing consensus that gene flow can increase population fitness even when immigrants are more highly divergent and may help reduce uncertainty about the use of augmentation in conservation.     

Limits of monetization in protecting ecosystem services

The monetary valuation of ecosystem services is gaining traction in policy and business communities. Several tools and decision‐making processes have been proposed, including criteria to assess the appropriateness of using monetary valuation for biodiversity conservation outcomes. These criteria include measures such as scale, uniqueness, and threat. We used case studies of monetization projects for which the outcomes were measured to explore the limitations and application of these criteria. There was limited evidence of the effectiveness of such schemes. The majority of the schemes were established in areas where the criteria specifically excluded their use in isolation. Thus, although some aspects of monetization may be beneficial for biodiversity conservation, these schemes were not being used appropriately and require some quantitative minimum (or maximum) measurements to be applied through additional policy or governance measures to ensure biodiversity conservation outcomes.     

Assessment of the Conservation Measures Partnership's effort to improve conservation outcomes through adaptive management

Conservation practice has demonstrated an increasing desire for accountability of actions, particularly with respect to effectiveness, efficiency, and impact to clearly identified objectives. This has been accompanied by increased attention to achieving adaptive management. In 2002, practitioners representing several prominent conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) launched a community of practice called the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP). The partnership CMP has worked to establish standards of conservation practice to improve accountability of conservation actions through adaptive management. The focal organizing framework for CMP has been the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (OS). We evaluated, through an online survey and personal interviews, the first decade of CMP and the OS. The CMP has garnered a positive reputation among agencies, NGOs, and funders and has succeeded in developing a large user base of the OS. However, CMP has not fully achieved its goal of making the OS standard operating procedure for the largest NGOs (e.g., The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund), despite it being widely used within these organizations. This lack of institutionalization is attributable to multiple causes, including an increase in the number of partially overlapping decision‐support frameworks and challenges achieving full‐cycle adaptive management. Users strongly believed the OS fosters better conservation practice and highly valued the OS for improving their practice. A primary objective of the OS is to assist practitioners to achieve full‐cycle adaptive management to better integrate learning into improving the effectiveness and efficiency of actions. However, most practitioners had not yet achieved cycle completion for their projects. To improve the effectiveness of CMP, OS, and conservation practice in general, we recommend collaborative efforts among the proponents of multiple decision‐support frameworks to foster strong institutional adoption of a common set of adaptive‐management standards for conservation accountability.     

Addressing transboundary conservation challenges through marine spatial prioritization

The Adriatic and Ionian Region is an important area for both strategic maritime development and biodiversity conservation in the European Union (EU). However, given that both EU and non‐EU countries border the sea, multiple legal and regulatory frameworks operate at different scales, which can hinder the coordinated long‐term sustainable development of the region. Transboundary marine spatial planning can help overcome these challenges by building consensus on planning objectives and making the trade‐offs between biodiversity conservation and its influence on economically important sectors more explicit. We address this challenge by developing and testing 4 spatial prioritization strategies with the decision‐support tool Marxan, which meets targets for biodiversity conservation while minimizing impacts to users. We evaluated these strategies in terms of how priority areas shift under different scales of target setting (e.g., regional vs. country level). We also examined the trade‐off between cost‐efficiency and how equally solutions represent countries and maritime industries (n = 14) operating in the region with the protection‐equality metric. We found negligible differences in where priority conservation areas were located when we set targets for biodiversity at the regional versus country scale. Conversely, the prospective impacts on industries, when considered as costs to be minimized, were highly divergent across scenarios and biased the placement of protection toward industries located in isolation or where there were few other industries. We recommend underpinning future marine spatial planning efforts in the region through identification of areas of national significance, transboundary areas requiring cooperation between countries, and areas where impacts on maritime industries require careful consideration of the trade‐off between biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic objectives.     

Exposing ecological and economic costs of the research‐implementation gap and compromises in decision making

The frequently discussed gap between conservation science and practice is manifest in the gap between spatial conservation prioritization plans and their implementation. We analyzed the research‐implementation gap of one zoning case by comparing results of a spatial prioritization analysis aimed at avoiding ecological impact of peat mining in a regional zoning process with the final zoning plan. We examined the relatively complex planning process to determine the gaps among research, zoning, and decision making. We quantified the ecological costs of the differing trade‐offs between ecological and socioeconomic factors included in the different zoning suggestions by comparing the landscape‐level loss of ecological features (species occurrences, habitat area, etc.) between the different solutions for spatial allocation of peat mining. We also discussed with the scientists and planners the reasons for differing zoning suggestions. The implemented plan differed from the scientists suggestion in that its focus was individual ecological features rather than all the ecological features for which there were data; planners and decision makers considered effects of peat mining on areas not included in the prioritization analysis; zoning was not truly seen as a resource‐allocation process and not emphasized in general minimizing ecological losses while satisfying economic needs (peat‐mining potential); and decision makers based their prioritization of sites on site‐level information showing high ecological value and on single legislative factors instead of finding a cost‐effective landscape‐level solution. We believe that if the zoning and decision‐making processes are very complex, then the usefulness of science‐based prioritization tools is likely to be reduced. Nevertheless, we found that high‐end tools were useful in clearly exposing trade‐offs between conservation and resource utilization.     

A multispecies test of source–sink indicators to prioritize habitat for declining populations

For species at risk of decline or extinction in source–sink systems, sources are an obvious target for habitat protection actions. However, the way in which source habitats are identified and prioritized can reduce the effectiveness of conservation actions. Although sources and sinks are conceptually defined using both demographic and movement criteria, simplifications are often required in systems with limited data. To assess the conservation outcomes of alternative source metrics and resulting prioritizations, we simulated population dynamics and extinction risk for 3 endangered species. Using empirically based habitat population models, we linked habitat maps with measured site‐ or habitat‐specific demographic conditions, movement abilities, and behaviors. We calculated source–sink metrics over a range of periods of data collection and prioritized consistently high‐output sources for conservation. We then tested whether prioritized patches identified the habitats that most affected persistence by removing them and measuring the population response. Conservation decisions based on different source–sink metrics and durations of data collection affected species persistence. Shorter time series obscured the ability of metrics to identify influential habitats, particularly in temporally variable and slowly declining populations. Data‐rich source–sink metrics that included both demography and movement information did not always identify the habitats with the greatest influence on extinction risk. In some declining populations, patch abundance better predicted influential habitats for short‐term regional persistence. Because source–sink metrics (i.e., births minus deaths; births and immigrations minus deaths and emigration) describe net population conditions and cancel out gross population counts, they may not adequately identify influential habitats in declining populations. For many nonequilibrium populations, new metrics that maintain the counts of individual births, deaths, and movement may provide additional insight into habitats that most influence persistence.     

蚁群投影寻踪回归在湖泊水质富营养化评价中的应用

根据湖泊富营养化特性,选择总磷(TP)、总氮(TN)、耗氧量(CODMn)、透明度(SD)、生物量等5个评价指标作为评价因子,建立湖泊富营养化评价的投影寻踪分析模型,采用蚁群算法对评价模型进行优化,并将该模型应用于我国8个湖泊富营养化程度的评价。研究表明:投影寻踪回归分析法,避免了传统评价方法由于主观原因造成的误差,评价结果合理可信、方法简单,为湖泊水体营养化状态的评价提供了新途径。     

采用代谢流量分析方法评估二噁英对细胞的代谢干扰

以肝癌细胞HepG2为供试细胞,选用5个不同浓度的二噁英（0、0.001、0.01、0.1和1.0 nmol.L-1）,探讨2,3,7,8-TCDD对HepG2细胞的毒性效应.采用90%甲醇离心法实现蛋白与代谢产物的分离,建立了高效液相色谱-串联三重四极杆质谱（HPLC-MS/MS）分析胞外液中的23种代谢产物（20种氨基酸、乳酸、甘油和尿素）的方法.建立的HPLC-MS/MS分析方法对各化合物的加标回收率可达91%—105%之间,化合物浓度的标准偏差均小于10%.在此基础上,结合代谢流量分析系统研究了2,3,7,8-TCDD对HepG2细胞内代谢流的影响.结果表明,随着浓度的增高,2,3,7,8-TCDD对HepG2细胞代谢的干扰作用呈增强趋势.2,3,7,8-TCDD降低了细胞对葡萄糖的吸收,并进一步抑制了HepG2细胞糖酵解的速率.此外,2,3,7,8-TCDD导致了HepG2细胞乳酸代谢流的明显增加,由此使细胞产生了过量的乳酸.     

铁锰双金属氧化物对过硫酸氢钾降解酸性橙7的催化效果

为了发挥均相体系中过渡金属元素对PMS(过硫酸氢钾)的催化效果,同时解决存在的金属离子污染的问题,以AO7(酸性橙7)为目标污染物,研究了采用溶胶-凝胶法(sol-gel method)制备Fe-MnO_x(铁锰双金属氧化物)催化剂催化PMS的效果及降解机理. 结果表明:ρ(Fe-MnO_x)由50 mg/L升至200 mg/L后,35 min时AO7降解率由53.74%升至96.65%;继续升高ρ(Fe-MnO_x),AO7降解率提升效果不明显. 随着ρ(PMS)₀(PMS初始质量浓度)的升高,AO7的降解率变化趋势与之相同;而随着ρ(AO7)₀(AO7初始质量浓度)的升高,AO7降解率有所下降. 分别投加EA(乙醇)、TBA(叔丁醇)这2种捕获剂来验证体系氧化物种时发现,55 min时AO7降解率分别为79.40%和91.33%,氧化体系的主要氧化物种为·SO₄-(硫酸根自由基)和少量·OH(羟基自由基). XRD(X射线衍射)和XPS(X射线光电子能谱)结果显示,Fe-MnO_x催化剂中的Fe、Mn主要以Fe3+、Mn2+、Mn4+ 3种形式存在,Fe、Mn、O 3种元素中,Fe3+、Mn2+、Mn4+、O2-和表面羟基氧的摩尔比分别为20.49%、26.46%、5.60%、32.51%和14.91%. 研究显示,Fe-MnO_x催化剂具有金属离子溶出量低、催化性能良好等优良性能,能够有效催化PMS生成自由基,对水中的污染物具有良好的降解效果.      

Compliance with recommended protective actions during an H7N9 emergency: a risk perception perspective

This study investigates the factors determining an individual's response to official recommended protective measures, based on the Health Belief Model and the Protective Action Decision Model, to understand the adoption of protective behaviour during an H7N9 (Avian Influenza A) emergency. A public survey involving 1,375 respondents was conducted in Anhui Province, China, during the 2013 H7N9 outbreak to test the research model and hypotheses. The results indicate that protective, stakeholder, and risk perceptions influence positively an individual's willingness to take recommended actions. Protective and stakeholder perceptions also have a positive bearing on lay people's risk perceptions. A stakeholder perception is a vital determinant of a protective perception. More importantly, the effects of protective and stakeholder perceptions on behavioural responses to recommendations are mediated in part by risk perception. These findings can help public health officials to develop messages to encourage members of the population to protect themselves effectively during an influenza crisis.