When and how to use Q methodology to understand perspectives in conservation research

Understanding human perspectives is critical in a range of conservation contexts, for example, in overcoming conflicts or developing projects that are acceptable to relevant stakeholders. The Q methodology is a unique semiquantitative technique used to explore human perspectives. It has been applied for decades in other disciplines and recently gained traction in conservation. This paper helps researchers assess when Q is useful for a given conservation question and what its use involves. To do so, we explained the steps necessary to conduct a Q study, from the research design to the interpretation of results. We provided recommendations to minimize biases in conducting a Q study, which can affect mostly when designing the study and collecting the data. We conducted a structured literature review of 52 studies to examine in what empirical conservation contexts Q has been used. Most studies were subnational or national cases, but some also address multinational or global questions. We found that Q has been applied to 4 broad types of conservation goals: addressing conflict, devising management alternatives, understanding policy acceptability, and critically reflecting on the values that implicitly influence research and practice. Through these applications, researchers found hidden views, understood opinions in depth and discovered points of consensus that facilitated unlocking difficult disagreements. The Q methodology has a clear procedure but is also flexible, allowing researchers explore long‐term views, or views about items other than statements, such as landscape images. We also found some inconsistencies in applying and, mainly, in reporting Q studies, whereby it was not possible to fully understand how the research was conducted or why some atypical research decisions had been taken in some studies. Accordingly, we suggest a reporting checklist.     

Effectiveness of biodiversity-conservation marketing

Conservation marketing holds potential as a means to engage audiences with biodiversity conservation and help to address the human dimensions of biodiversity loss. Empirical evaluations of conservation marketing indicatives are growing, so we reviewed the literature on this research to inform future directions in the field. We used a systematic search strategy to identify studies that evaluated the effects of conservation marketing interventions (techniques and campaigns) on psychosocial outcomes, categorized as cognitive, affective, or behavioral. Six academic databases (Business Source Complete, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Greenfile, Proquest, Scopus, and Web of Science Core Collections), 3 gray-literature databases (BASE, Zenodo, and Google Scholar), and 2 websites (Rare and WildAid) were searched. Articles were subjected to critical appraisal to assess their methodological quality, and data were extracted from each article and analyzed using narrative synthesis. Altogether 28 studies from 26 articles were included in the review. Twenty-five studies were conducted from 2014 through 2016. Methodological quality of most studies was weak (n = 16, 57%) (moderate quality n = 8, 29%; high quality n = 4, 14%). The proportion of studies that evaluated a conservation-marketing technique (e.g., variants of texts, images, or videos) versus a campaign (e.g., community-based campaigns targeting locally relevant issues, such as unsustainable palm oil agriculture, light pollution, or wood fuel fire use) was relatively balanced. Although many studies reported statistically significant results in the intended direction, the utility of findings was limited by persistent methodological limitations, such as a lack of a comparator group, use of non-validated assessment tools, and a focus on self-reported data and subjective outcomes. Conservation marketing is clearly a nascent field of scientific enquiry that warrants further, high-quality research investigations.     

Human milk contamination by nine organochlorine pesticide residues (OCPs)

Abstract

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are widely used around the world as insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, nematicides, and rodenticides. Despite banned in Brazil, the usage remains occurring in many countries. The persistence and extreme mobility of OCPs contribute to the contamination of the environment and the human body. The OCPs bioaccumulation in adipose tissue triggers the excretion into human milk during breastfeeding. Hence, the present study determined eighteen OCPs residues in the breast milk of mothers from the Western Region of Bahia State, Brazil. Nine different residue species were found, including beta-Hexachlorocyclohexane (9.24?±?0.00?ng g^?1 fat), delta- Hexachlorocyclohexane (22.15?±?10.48?ng g^?1 fat), Heptachlor (58.08?±?74.13?ng g^?1 fat), Aldrin (142.65?±?50.65?ng g^?1 fat), Dieldrin (774.62?±?472.68?ng g^?1 fat), Endosulfan I (408.44?±?245.51?ng g^?1 fat), Dichloro-diphenyl-dichloro-ethylene (29.17?±?22.42?ng g^?1 fat), Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane (28.87?±?0.00?ng g^?1 fat) and Methoxychlor (1699.67?±?797.43?ng g^?1 fat). The Methoxychlor presence in all samples may reveal a recent exposure, while Dieldrin and Endosulfan I analyses can point to distant past exposure.     

Defining the Impact of Non‐Native Species

Non‐native species cause changes in the ecosystems to which they are introduced. These changes, or some of them, are usually termed impacts; they can be manifold and potentially damaging to ecosystems and biodiversity. However, the impacts of most non‐native species are poorly understood, and a synthesis of available information is being hindered because authors often do not clearly define impact. We argue that explicitly defining the impact of non‐native species will promote progress toward a better understanding of the implications of changes to biodiversity and ecosystems caused by non‐native species; help disentangle which aspects of scientific debates about non‐native species are due to disparate definitions and which represent true scientific discord; and improve communication between scientists from different research disciplines and between scientists, managers, and policy makers. For these reasons and based on examples from the literature, we devised seven key questions that fall into 4 categories: directionality, classification and measurement, ecological or socio‐economic changes, and scale. These questions should help in formulating clear and practical definitions of impact to suit specific scientific, stakeholder, or legislative contexts. Definiendo el Impacto de las Especies No‐Nativas     

Plant blindness and the implications for plant conservation

Plant conservation initiatives lag behind and receive considerably less funding than animal conservation projects. We explored a potential reason for this bias: a tendency among humans to neither notice nor value plants in the environment. Experimental research and surveys have demonstrated higher preference for, superior recall of, and better visual detection of animals compared with plants. This bias has been attributed to perceptual factors such as lack of motion by plants and the tendency of plants to visually blend together but also to cultural factors such as a greater focus on animals in formal biological education. In contrast, ethnographic research reveals that many social groups have strong bonds with plants, including nonhierarchical kinship relationships. We argue that plant blindness is common, but not inevitable. If immersed in a plant‐affiliated culture, the individual will experience language and practices that enhance capacity to detect, recall, and value plants, something less likely to occur in zoocentric societies. Therefore, conservation programs can contribute to reducing this bias. We considered strategies that might reduce this bias and encourage plant conservation behavior. Psychological research demonstrates that people are more likely to support conservation of species that have human‐like characteristics and that support for conservation can be increased by encouraging people to practice empathy and anthropomorphism of nonhuman species. We argue that support for plant conservation may be garnered through strategies that promote identification and empathy with plants.     

城市分散式粪便颗粒化有机肥用作叶菜肥的肥力及环境影响

城市分散式粪便的处理已经成为现代化城市管理的一个难题.本研究在将城市分散式粪便经收集、除渣、絮凝脱水后制成颗粒肥;通过盆栽小青菜试验,评价了不同施肥量对小青菜的增产效果以及对土壤、淋溶水性质的影响,探讨了颗粒肥用于叶菜施肥的可行性.结果表明,施用颗粒肥可显著提高小青菜产量,试验条件下未对小青菜叶片造成大肠杆菌、大肠菌群等病原菌污染;在适当比例的施肥水平下,颗粒肥施用后淋溶水中的病原菌浓度低于对照组.施用颗粒肥能显著提高土壤氮、磷、钾、有机质等营养物质含量,提高土壤孔隙度水平,降低土壤容重,改善土壤理化性质;同时颗粒肥施用不会对土壤和淋溶水造成重金属离子污染,且能有效降低土壤氮、钾的淋溶.     

人为干扰对小兴安岭森林湿地土壤碳组分和酶活性的影响

以小兴安岭落叶林沼泽湿地为研究对象,对比研究皆伐地、火烧地和落叶松湿地土壤碳组分和酶活性.结果表明:(1)3种湿地类型土壤SOC含量表现为对照地显著高于皆伐地和火烧地(p0.05),在0~10 cm土层中皆伐地与对照地相比降低了58.38%,火烧地与对照地相比降低了61.96%.皆伐地与火烧地在不同土层的土壤中SOC含量差异不显著(p0.05);DOC含量对照地显著高于皆伐地和火烧地(p0.05).在0~10cm土层中火烧地DOC含量是皆伐地的1.99倍,两者差异不显著(p0.05);不同干扰方式对土壤MBC含量影响的差异主要表现在0~10 cm的土层土壤,对照地分别比皆伐地和火烧地高23.13%和95.79%(p0.05).在不同的土层中皆伐地MBC含量均大于火烧地,与SOC含量的变化趋势一致.(2)与对照地相比,皆伐地与火烧地0~10 cm土层的土壤蔗糖酶活性分别降低了45.59%和36.76%,脲酶活性显著降低了18.22%和55.69%(p0.05),蛋白酶活性降低了19.65%和17.34%,淀粉酶活性降低了6.29%和10.69%.土壤碳组分和酶活性在垂直方向上均表现为随着土层深度增加而减小.皆伐和火烧造成森林湿地土壤碳组分和酶活性降低.     

中国大气中重金属钒的排放特征

化石燃料原油和原煤的燃烧、含钒矿石的开采和冶炼是大气中重金属钒的主要来源。文章利用重金属钒的排放系数分析了中国1978-2010年人为过程释放到大气中重金属钒的总量和行业重金属钒的排放,预测了2020年和2030年中国大气中重金属钒的排放量。结果表明,自1978年以来,中国钒的排放量增加了4倍,中国2010年人类活动向大气排放的重金属钒总量达3.18万吨,约占世界总量的12%。原油燃烧释放到大气中的钒约占总量的85%,煤炭燃烧的排放量占10.5%,其中工业耗油向大气中释放重金属钒的比例从1980的71%下降到2008年的42%,总量从3 721 t增加至9 361 t;交通运输行业从10%上升到36%,总量从547 t增加至7 967 t;其它行业(农林牧渔水利业、批发零售业和住宿餐饮业、生活消费)基本维持在20%左右,总量从986 t增加至5 052 t。因此,应加强大气中钒的监测和管理,预防大气钒污染事件的发生。     

基于析因设计的多种重金属对发光菌联合毒性研究

文章采用析因设计的方法,研究沉积物水浸提液掺杂的多种重金属Cu、Cd、Zn、Pb和Ni对发光菌的联合毒性。通过对试验结果进行方差分析和多元线性回归,建立了重金属浓度和发光菌发光抑制率的关系模型:T=97.983Cu+41.111Cd-27.297Zn+129.869Pb+16.715Ni-5 803.639Cu*Cd+2 270.182Cd*Zn-6 411.870Cd*Pb-675.052Cd*Ni-3 108.544Pb*Ni+15 9552.434Cd*Pb*Ni+274 718.434Zn*Pb*Ni。模型分析结果表明:Zn对联合毒性产生负的影响,Cu、Cd、Pb、Ni对联合毒性具有正的贡献;Cd*Zn二元交互作用和Cd*Pb*Ni、Zn*Pb*Ni三元交互作用表现为协同作用,Cu*Cd、Cd*Pb、Cd*Ni、Pb*Ni二元交互作用表现为拮抗作用,而重金属四元和五元交互作用对联合毒性的贡献不显著。上述重金属联合毒性的作用可为沉积物中重金属复合污染控制提供参考。     

联合执法机制在区域环境利益平衡中的应用

在追求环境效应与经济发展获得＂双赢＂的今天,跨行政区域联合执法已经成为平衡区域环境利益、妥善解决区域间环境纠纷,进而促进环境与经济协调发展的重要手段。本文提出了包括组建联合执法小组、主持联合执法会议、建立信息共享平台和实现联合监测的联合执法机制,并概括地阐述了确立长效性执法主体、先期处理制度、联合执法活动、活动监督、异议处理和惩罚制度的具体执行程序。试图利用联合执法的机制来解决区域间环境利益失衡的难题,以期为决策者提供相应的理论支持或政策参考。