Atmospheric phenanthrene pollution modulates carbon allocation in red clover (Trifolium pratense L.)

The influence of atmospheric phenanthrene (PHE) exposure (160 μg m⁻³) during one month on carbon allocation in clover was investigated by integrative (plant growth analysis) and instantaneous ¹³CO₂ pulse-labelling approaches. PHE exposure diminished plant growth parameters (relative growth rate and net assimilation rate) and disturbed photosynthesis (carbon assimilation rate and chlorophyll content), leading to a 25% decrease in clover biomass. The root-shoot ratio was significantly enhanced (from 0.32 to 0.44). Photosynthates were identically allocated to leaves while less allocated to stems and roots. PHE exposure had a significant overall effect on the ¹³C partitioning among clover organs as more carbon was retained in leaves at the expense of roots and stems. The findings indicate that PHE decreases root exudation or transfer to symbionts and in leaves, retains carbon in a non-structural form diverting photosynthates away from growth and respiration (emergence of an additional C loss process).     

Outdoor and indoor cadmium distributions near an abandoned smelting works and their relations to human exposure

The relationship of measured or modelled Cd concentrations in soil, house dust and available to plants with human urinary Cd concentrations were assessed in a population living around a Cd/Pb/Zn smelter in the UK. Modelled air concentrations explained 35% of soil Cd variation indicating the smelter contributed to soil Cd loads. Multi-variate analysis confirmed a significant role of biological and life-style factors in determining urinary Cd levels. Significant correlations of urinary Cd with soil, house dust and modelled plant available Cd concentrations were not, however, found. Potential reasons for the absence of clear relationships include limited environmental contact in urban populations; the role of undefined factors in determining exposure; and the limited spatial scope of the survey which did not sample from the full pollution gradient. Further, the absence of any significant relationship indicates that environmental measures provide limited advantage over atmospheric model outputs for first stage human exposure assessment.     

长江上游干流春季禁渔前后三年渔获物结构和生物多样性分析

根据2000~2005年长江上游干流宜宾、巴南和万州3个江段三层流刺网的监测资料,分析了春禁前后3年渔获物结构和鱼类生物多样性的变化,对长江上游春禁效果进行了初步评价。春禁前后3年共监测到鱼类51种,隶属于3目18科（亚科）36属,以鲤科鱼类为主,占608%。春禁后,渔获物主要种类优势度有所下降,部分江段单位捕捞努力量渔获量表现出一定上升趋势,3个江段Margalef指数、Pielou指数和Wilhm改进指数有一定升高,表明种类丰富度有所提高,群落结构趋于复杂,春季禁渔有一定效果。春禁前后渔获物种类的波动,可能与这些种类种群数量少,难以采到有关;春禁后主要种类平均体长、体重仍表现出下降趋势,可能与过度捕捞及资源在短期内难以恢复有关。建议延长禁渔期、严格控制禁渔结束后的捕捞强度等措施来提高禁渔效果,并采取恢复江湖联系、保护重要渔业水域水质、实施水利工程生态调度等措施来配合春禁制度的实施。长江渔业资源的恢复和保护是一个长期而复杂的过程,对长江禁渔效果的准确评估还需要长期监测和深入研究。     

Effects of Clear-Cutting and Plant Competition Control Methods on Carabid (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Assemblages in Northwestern Ontario

Total captures, species richness, diversity, and assemblages of adult carabids (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in a boreal mixed-wood ecosystem study were compared among unharvested, and clear-cut plots untreated or treated with herbicides (Vision® and Release®), mechanical treatments (brush saw and Silvana Selective). Carabids were sampled using unbaited pitfall traps for one growing season 7 and 9 years after clear-cutting, in the second growing season after competition control was applied. A total of 5032 individuals representing 30 species were collected between June 1 and September 25, 1995. Total catches were not affected by the harvest or the conifer release alternatives applied. Species richness and diversity increased following conifer release alternatives. Ten species showed habitat preferences after treatment whereas the remaining 20 species were not significantly affected by treatment.     

植物酯酶片快速测定蔬菜上有机磷农药

介绍了一种能简便快速测定蔬菜表面有机磷农药的植物酯酶片。它具有价格低,易获取,稳定性好等特点,适用于田间、农贸市场和家庭无仪器设备条件下检测有机磷农药的危险水平。对常用几种有机磷农药,其检测限在０．０６ｍｇ／ｋｇ￣１０．０ｍｇ／ｋｇ范围。     

黄河三角洲自然保护区生物多样性及其保护

介绍了黄河三角洲自然保护区内物种多样性和生态系统的多样性,分析了破坏和威胁生物多样性的因素,提出了自然保护区生物多样性保护措施。     

Persistence and Distribution of Endosulfan under Field Condition

Rapid increase in industrialization and agricultural activities to meet the population need has led to environmental pollution. The major revolution in agricultural production is mainly due to increased use of pesticides and fertilizers. Soil act as a major sink for majority of pesticides applied on agricultural crops. Among the organochlorines, endosulfan is the most commonly used pesticide, hence this study concentrates on the persistence and distribution behaviour of endosulfan under field conditions. The result showed that the alpha endosulfan concentrations were very minimum (0.98 mg/kg of soil) in all the four fields under study (Nazarath, Othikadu, Ekkadu and Ekkadukandigai of Thiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu). Where as beta endosulfan concentration at the time of application was 6.39 mg/kg and declined to 0.8 mg/kg on soil at 150th day. The endosulfan sulfate concentration was 11.8 mg/kg in soil at 15th day and then concentration declined to 2.2 mg/kg at 150th day. Field run-off samples showed maximum residue levels (0.024 mg/l) at the early irrigation period. While plant foliar parts showed maximum concentrations of α-endosulfan (43.4 mg/kg), β-endosulfan (40.6 mg/kg) and endosulfan sulfate (20.1 mg/kg). At harvest stage, rice grain and husk also had lower concentrations of endosulfan sulfate (2.2 and 0.09 mg/kg), respectively.     

中国淡水大型底栖无脊椎动物条形码数据库构建

大型底栖无脊椎动物是得到广泛应用的水质生物监测和评价指示生物,但在实际应用过程中,受类群多样性高、形态鉴定专业性强、鉴定资料不全等影响,难以将其精确鉴定到种。新兴的DNA条形码技术能够快速、精确地鉴定物种,在生物多样性调查和监测等领域被寄予厚望。该方法的有效性与准确性依赖于完整、全面的参考数据库,然而现有公共数据库无法满足底栖动物鉴定的需求。鉴于此,南京农业大学等10余所高校及科研院所携手构建了中国淡水大型底栖无脊椎动物条形码数据库。基于该数据库网络平台,用户可以在线进行底栖动物条形码和环境DNA-宏条形码比对,完成对物种的精准注释。该数据库的建成为我国应用环境DNA-宏条形码技术开展底栖动物多样性调查、水质生物监测与评价提供了重要的数据资源。     

Gaps and opportunities for the World Heritage Convention to contribute to global wilderness conservation

Wilderness areas are ecologically intact landscapes predominantly free of human uses, especially industrial‐scale activities that result in substantial biophysical disturbance. This definition does not exclude land and resource use by local communities who depend on such areas for subsistence and bio‐cultural connections. Wilderness areas are important for biodiversity conservation and sustain key ecological processes and ecosystem services that underpin planetary life‐support systems. Despite these widely recognized benefits and values of wilderness, they are insufficiently protected and are consequently being rapidly eroded. There are increasing calls for multilateral environmental agreements to make a greater and more systematic contribution to wilderness conservation before it is too late. We created a global map of remaining terrestrial wilderness following the established last‐of‐the‐wild method, which identifies the 10% of areas with the lowest human pressure within each of Earth's 62 biogeographic realms and identifies the 10 largest contiguous areas and all contiguous areas >10,000 km². We used our map to assess wilderness coverage by the World Heritage Convention and to identify gaps in coverage. We then identified large nationally designated protected areas with good wilderness coverage within these gaps. One‐quarter of natural and mixed (i.e., sites of both natural and cultural value) World Heritage Sites (WHS) contained wilderness (total of 545,307 km²), which is approximately 1.8% of the world's wilderness extent. Many WHS had excellent wilderness coverage, for example, the Okavango Delta in Botswana (11,914 km²) and the Central Suriname Nature Reserve (16,029 km²). However, 22 (35%) of the world's terrestrial biorealms had no wilderness representation within WHS. We identified 840 protected areas of >500 km² that were predominantly wilderness (>50% of their area) and represented 18 of the 22 missing biorealms. These areas offer a starting point for assessing the potential for the designation of new WHSs that could help increase wilderness representation on the World Heritage list. We urge the World Heritage Convention to ensure that the ecological integrity and outstanding universal value of existing WHS with wilderness values are preserved.     

Need for a global map of forest naturalness for a sustainable future

There is a growing need to assess and monitor forest cover and its conservation status over global scales to determine human impact on ecosystems and to develop sustainability plans. Recent approaches to measure regional and global forest status and dynamics are based on remotely sensed estimates of tree cover. We argue that tree cover should not be used to assess the area of forest ecosystems because tree cover is an undefined subset of forest cover. For example, tree cover can indicate a positive trend even in the presence of deforestation, as in the case of plantations. We believe a global map of forest naturalness that accounts for the bio-ecological integrity of forest ecosystems, for example, intact forests, old-growth forest patches, rewilding forests (exploited forest landscapes undergoing long-term natural succession), and managed forests is needed for global forest assessment.