Reassessment of the Use of Fire as a Management Tool in Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America

Prescribed burning is increasingly being used in the deciduous forests of eastern North America. Recent work suggests that historical fire frequency has been overestimated east of the prairie–woodland transition zone, and its introduction could potentially reduce forest herb and shrub diversity. Fire‐history recreations derived from sedimentary charcoal, tree fire scars, and estimates of Native American burning suggest point‐return times ranging from 5–10 years to centuries and millennia. Actual return times were probably longer because such records suffer from selective sampling, small sample sizes, and a probable publication bias toward frequent fire. Archeological evidence shows the environmental effect of fire could be severe in the immediate neighborhood of a Native American village. Population density appears to have been low through most of the Holocene, however, and villages were strongly clustered at a regional scale. Thus, it appears that the majority of forests of the eastern United States were little affected by burning before European settlement. Use of prescribed burning assumes that most forest species are tolerant of fire and that burning will have only a minimal effect on diversity. However, common adaptations such as serotiny, epicormic sprouting, resprouting from rhizomes, and smoke‐cued germination are unknown across most of the deciduous region. Experimental studies of burning show vegetation responses similar to other forms of disturbance that remove stems and litter and do not necessarily imply adaptation to fire. The general lack of adaptation could potentially cause a reduction in diversity if burning were introduced. These observations suggest a need for a fine‐grained examination of fire history with systematic sampling in which all subregions, landscape positions, and community types are represented. Responses to burning need to be examined in noncommercial and nonwoody species in rigorous manipulative experiments. Until such information is available, it seems prudent to limit the use of prescribed burning east of the prairie–woodland transition zone. Reevaluación del Uso de Fuego como Herramienta de Manejo en Bosques Deciduos de América del Norte     

COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL IN THE FIELD OF WATER RESOURCES1

The ages-old and ever-growing need for communication and information retrieval among scientists has found expression in the development of indexes, abstracts, reviews and combinations or variations of such. A short review of such efforts is followed by a discussion of efforts along these lines in the new field of water resources science and technology. Such undertakings as the Information Retrieval System of the American Society of Civil Engineers and of the U.S. Water Resources Research Office are compared with that of the American Water Resources Association.     

THE IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTIONS IN THE DETERMINATION OF INDIAN WATER RIGHTS1

ABSTRACT The American Indian occupies a unique place in the federal system of government There are indications that this relationship will continue and that Indian reservations are at the threshold of economic development. As this occurs, the nature and extent of Indian water rights becomes more important to Indian and non-Indian alike. The determination of these rights is a matter of more than judicial decisions. To a large degree the determination of these rights will rest in the non-judicial arena and will be influenced by the perceptions of those rights held by Indians and water allocation officials, both state and federal. If the perceptions of these political actors are not congruent, then political conflict will occur as the rights become more important. To depend solely upon the judicial system to resolve these conflicts entails risks and costs to both Indians and to allocating officials. Indians are taking seriously the federal policy of Indian self-determination, and water allocation officials run decided risks in failure to realize this. An alternative suggested is to include Indians as consulting parties when decisions are being made that affect Indian interests.     

牡蛎生物环境标准样品的研制

文章对我国环境保护系统研制出用于海洋和江河水域环境监测的牡蛎生物环境标准样品的一些情况做了详细介绍;尤其对牡蛎环境标样的制备过程,牡蛎标样的作用,均匀性、稳定性检测和分析定值进行了较为充分的论述。     

Modeling the Influence of Dynamic Zoning of Forest Harvesting on Ecological Succession in a Northern Hardwoods Landscape

Dynamic zoning (systematic alteration in the spatial and temporal allocation of even-aged forest management practices) has been proposed as a means to change the spatial pattern of timber harvest across a landscape to maximize forest interior habitat while holding timber harvest levels constant. Simulation studies have established that dynamic zoning strategies produce larger tracts of interior, closed canopy forest, thus increasing the value of these landscapes for interior-dependent wildlife. We used the simulation model LANDIS to examine how the implementation of a dynamic zoning strategy would change trajectories of ecological succession in the Great Divide Ranger District of the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin over 500 years. The components of dynamic zoning strategies (number of zones in a scenario and the length of the hiatus between successive entries into zones) and their interaction had highly significant impacts on patterns of forest succession. Dynamic zoning scenarios with more zones and shorter hiatus lengths increased the average amount of the forest dominated by early successional aspen (Populus sp.). Dynamic zoning scenarios with two zones produced more late successional mature northern hardwoods than scenarios with four zones. Dynamic zoning scenarios with very short (30 years) or very long (120 years) hiatus lengths resulted in more late successional mature northern hardwoods than scenarios with intermediate hiatus lengths (60 and 90 years). However, none of the dynamic scenarios produced as much late successional mature northern hardwoods as the static alternative. Furthermore, the amounts of all habitat types in all dynamic zoning scenarios fluctuated greatly in time and space relative to static alternatives, which could negatively impact wildlife species that require a stable amount of habitat above some minimum critical threshold. Indeed, implementing dynamic zoning scenarios of different designs would have both positive and negative effects on wildlife species and for other objectives of forest management.     

Environmental public opinion in U.S. states, 1973–2012

Partisan polarization of public opinion is a major trend in American environmental politics. While the national pattern is widely recognized, scholars know much less about the polarization of public opinion over time at the state level. This lack of knowledge is unfortunate because geographic variation in the polarization of opinion is essential for explaining the origins of partisan polarization and evaluating its consequences for policy. To fill the gap, the multilevel regression and poststratification technique is applied to provide credible estimates of state-level environmental public opinion for both Democrats and Republicans, 1973–2012. It appears that the growing partisan gap reflects increased pro-environmental opinion among Democrats across many states, whereas Republican state-level public opinion is converging toward a much lower baseline. Cross-state variation among both parties has decreased over time, contributing to greater partisan polarization in the aggregate. Changes in the sorting of voters in and out of political parties cannot explain these patterns of polarization.     

Mapping fires and American Red Cross aid using demographic indicators of vulnerability

Social vulnerability indicators can assist with informing disaster relief preparation. Certain demographic segments of a population may suffer disproportionately during disaster events, and a geographical understanding of them can help to determine where to place strategically logistical assets and to target disaster‐awareness outreach endeavours. Records of house fire events and American Red Cross aid provision over a five‐year period were mapped for the County of Los Angeles, California, United States, to examine the congruence between actual events and expectations of risk based on vulnerability theory. The geographical context provided by the data was compared with spatially‐explicit indicators of vulnerability, such as age, race, and wealth. Fire events were found to occur more frequently in more vulnerable areas, and Red Cross aid was found to have an even stronger relationship to those places. The findings suggest that these indicators speak beyond vulnerability and relate to patterns of fire risk.     

Benthic Impacts of Intertidal Oyster Culture, with Consideration of Taxonomic Sufficiency

An investigation of the impacts from elevated intertidal Pacific oyster culture in a New Zealand estuary showed enhanced sedimentation beneath culture racks compared with other sites. Seabed elevation beneath racks was generally lower than between them, suggesting that topographic patterns more likely result from a local effect of rack structures on hydrodynamic processes than from enhanced deposition. Compared with control sites, seabed sediments within the farm had a greater silt/clay and organic content, and a lower redox potential and shear strength. While a marked trend in macrofaunal species richness was not evident, species composition and dominance patterns were consistent with a disturbance gradient, with farm effects not evident 35 m from the perimeter of the racks. Of the environmental variables measured, sediment shear strength was most closely associated with the distribution and density of macrofauna, suggesting that human-induced disturbance from farming operations may have contributed to the biological patterns. To evaluate the taxonomic sufficiency needed to document impacts, aggregation to the family level based on Linnean classification was compared with an aggregation scheme based on `general groups' identifiable with limited taxonomic expertise. Compared with species-level analyses, spatial patterns of impact were equally discernible at both aggregation levels used, provided density rather than presence/absence data were used. Once baseline conditions are established and the efficacy of taxonomic aggregation demonstrated, a `general group' scheme provides an appropriate and increasingly relevant tool for routine monitoring.     

Latin American busways: moving people rather than cars

The rapid growth of Latin American urban centres beginning in the 1970s placed a heavy strain upon urban transport service providers. Facing high population growth from a citizenry dependent upon public transport and having limited financial resources to develop car‐based infrastructure, Latin American municipal planners were challenged to create a new transport paradigm. One ingenious response to this dilemma was the busway, a surface metro system that utilizes exclusive right‐of‐way bus lanes. The developers of the Latin American busways astutely observed that the ultimate objective was to swiftly, efficiently and cost‐effectively move people rather than cars. Examples of innovative busway systems are presented from Curitiba, Bogota, Porto Alegre, Quito and Sao Paulo. The low cost, flexibility and speed of the exclusive busways all contribute to extremely high levels of customer satisfaction. Innovative approaches to the design of busway loading stations and simplified ticketing have also helped to reduce operating costs and improve customer flows. Additionally, clear system maps, colour‐coded routing, system safety and cleanliness and superior customer service have helped direct consumer preference towards the busway. The success of busways has also proved that costly subway systems or uncontrolled sprawl are not the only options available to municipal planners. The Latin American busway corridors provide high peak capacities that permit busway corridors to serve the transit requirements of most medium‐ to large‐sized cities. When integrated with progressive land‐use policies, busways can also form the basis of more sustainable urban design by encouraging development corridors with high‐density, mixed‐use land use. The environmental benefits and calming influences afforded cities by busway systems have translated into dramatically improved levels of quality of life indicators, including improvements in health, crime reduction and poverty alleviation. The user‐friendliness and cost‐effectiveness of busway systems have convinced municipal leaders in North America, Europe and Australia to develop similar systems of their own. Latin American busways thus provide a unique example of South to North technology transfer.     

近江牡蛎等7种养殖鱼虾贝类参照基因β-肌动蛋白cDNA序列的克隆与比较分析

为进一步研究水产养殖动物功能基因的表达调控,采用RT-PCR及RACE法,分离、克隆了近江牡蛎(Crassostrea ariakensis)肝脏β-肌动蛋白基因cDNA全序列.结果表明,近江牡蛎β-肌动蛋白基因cDNA全长1343bp,其中5′、3′非翻译区(UTR)分别长68bp、144bp,开放阅读框(ORF)为1131bp,编码376个氨基酸.实验同时成功获得了中华圆田螺(Cipangopaludina cahayensis)、日本沼虾(Macrobrachium nipponensis)、斑鳢(Channa maculata)、胡子鲶(Clarias fuscus)、鳙鱼(Aristichthys nobilis)、鲮鱼(Cirrhinus molitorella)6种重要淡水养殖动物肝脏β-肌动蛋白基因cDNA的核心序列及氨基酸序列.所获基因与其它动物类群的β-肌动蛋白基因氨基酸同源性高达96%以上,表明软体类、节肢类、鱼类、两栖类、鸟类和哺乳类等不同类群动物β-肌动蛋白基因在生物进化过程中高度保守.系统发育分析显示软体类、节肢类、鱼类、两栖类、鸟类和哺乳类脊椎动物β-肌动蛋白分类与传统的分类基本一致.