Value Plurality among Conservation Professionals

Abstract: Debate on the values that underpin conservation science is rarely based on empirical analysis of the values conservation professionals actually hold. We used Q methodology to investigate the values held by international conservation professionals who attended the annual Student Conference in Conservation Science at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) in 2008 and 2009. The methodology offers a quantitative means of examining human subjectivity. It differs from standard opinion surveys in that individual respondents record the way they feel about statements relative to other statements, which forces them to focus their attention on the issues they believe are most important. The analysis extracts the diverse viewpoints of the respondents, and factor analysis is used to reduce the viewpoints to a smaller set of factors that reflect shared ways of thinking. The junior conservation professionals attending the conference did not share a unifying set of core values; rather, they held a complex series of ideas and a plurality of opinions about conservation and how it should be pursued. This diversity of values empirically challenges recent proposals for conservation professionals to unite behind a single philosophy. Attempts to forge an artificial consensus may be counterproductive to the overall goals conservation professionals are pursuing.     

Protected‐Area Boundaries as Filters of Plant Invasions

Abstract: Human land uses surrounding protected areas provide propagules for colonization of these areas by non‐native species, and corridors between protected‐area networks and drainage systems of rivers provide pathways for long‐distance dispersal of non‐native species. Nevertheless, the influence of protected‐area boundaries on colonization of protected areas by invasive non‐native species is unknown. We drew on a spatially explicit data set of more than 27,000 non‐native plant presence records for South Africa's Kruger National Park to examine the role of boundaries in preventing colonization of protected areas by non‐native species. The number of records of non‐native invasive plants declined rapidly beyond 1500 m inside the park; thus, we believe that the park boundary limited the spread of non‐native plants. The number of non‐native invasive plants inside the park was a function of the amount of water runoff, density of major roads, and the presence of natural vegetation outside the park. Of the types of human‐induced disturbance, only the density of major roads outside the protected area significantly increased the number of non‐native plant records. Our findings suggest that the probability of incursion of invasive plants into protected areas can be quantified reliably.     

Lead forms in urban turfgrass and forest soils as related to organic matter content and pH

Identification of reference streams and human disturbance gradients are crucial steps in assessing the effects of human disturbances on stream health. We describe a process for identifying reference stream reaches and assessing disturbance gradients using readily available, geo-referenced stream and human disturbance databases. We demonstrate the utility of this process by applying it to wadeable streams in Michigan, USA, and use it to identify which human disturbances have the greatest impact on streams. Approximately 38% of cold-water and 16% of warm-water streams in Michigan were identified as being in least-disturbed condition. Conversely, approximately 3% of cold-water and 4% of warm-water streams were moderately to severely disturbed by landscape human disturbances. Anthropogenic disturbances that had the greatest impact on moderately to severely disturbed streams were nutrient loading and percent urban land use within network watersheds. Our process for assessing stream health represents a significant advantage over other routinely used methods. It uses inter-confluence stream reaches as an assessment unit, permits the evaluation of stream health across large regions, and yields an overall disturbance index that is a weighted sum of multiple disturbance factors. The robustness of our approach is linked to the scale of disturbances that affect a stream; it will be less robust for identifying less degraded or reference streams with localized human disturbances. With improved availability of high-resolution disturbance datasets, this approach will provide a more complete picture of reference stream reaches and factors contributing to degradation of stream health.     

克州退耕还林工作的现状、问题及对策

干旱区的生态环境,特别是绿洲的开发,改变了地-气系统的能量交换。几年来对绿洲气候的研究、气候资料的分析和实地考察表明,新疆南部干旱区最近几年的戈壁绿洲开发已改变了整个地州的气候变化,使其变为有利于人类的生存和发展。在戈壁绿洲的开发利用与环境变化之间,存在着2种截然相反的反馈作用：环境变好→绿洲发展→环境更好→绿洲再发展;环境恶化→绿洲退化→环境更坏→绿洲再退化,甚至消失。决定这2种反馈作用的是大环境的变迁和绿洲开发利用中是否合理利用资源和按自然规律办事。本文针对此问题进行了论述。     

影响静电放电试验结果的因素和试验分析

静电放电测试是很多产品标准中常见的电磁兼容检测项目,本文叙述了静电放电测试中一些容易被测试人员忽视的细节,同时分析影响静电放电测试结果的因素,为EMC实验室和企业人员正确开展静电放电测试,和加强实验室管理提供帮助。     

苏南志留—第三系岩石力学性质及节理形成机制探讨

对苏南地区志留—第三系进行了系统的岩石力学性质测试,包括岩石抗压强度、抗张强度、抗剪切强度、弹性模量和泊松比值。测试结果表明,苏南存在多个岩石力学突变层;影响岩石力学性质的因素主要为岩石类型、组构、结晶程度和受力方向等。本文还讨论了在区域应力场作用下,节理形成机制和应力转化过程。节理形成通常与岩石中各种缺陷有关,在缺陷处应力易于集中。节理具有多种成因机制。     

傀儡湖沉积物-水界面硝酸盐异养还原过程研究

反硝化（DNF）和硝酸盐异养还原为氨（DNRA）是水域生态系统中硝酸盐异养还原的2个主要过程.DNF和DNRA之间的竞争控制着硝酸盐在水域生态系统中的异养还原方式和最终归趋.选取太湖流域的傀儡湖为研究对象,采用室内培养实验和稳定氮同位素示踪技术,考察傀儡湖沉积物-水界面的DNF和DNRA速率及其对硝酸盐异养还原过程的贡献.结果显示,沉积物表现为NH₄⁺-N的源和NO₃^--N的汇,潜在DNF速率为18.89~54.00μmol/（kg·h）[均值（36.39±3.86）μmol/（kg·h）],DNRA反应速率为1.02~5.89μmol/（kg·h）[均值（3.21±1.15）μmol/（kg·h）].DNF与沉积物有机质含量和含水率存在显著的正相关关系,DNRA与沉积物需氧量（SOD）之间存在相关性.反硝化是傀儡湖中硝酸盐异养还原的主导过程,贡献率为84.23%~96.90%,而DNRA过程只占3.10%~15.77%.与海洋河口区域相比,淡水湖泊生态系统中DNRA速率和DNRA在硝酸盐异养还原中所占的比重均较小.     

Growth, photosynthesis and antioxidant responses of two microalgal species, Chlorella vulgaris and Selenastrum capricornutum, to nonylphenol stress

The effect of nonylphenol (NP) on growth, photochemistry and biochemistry of two green microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris and Selenanstrum capricornutum, and their ability to degrade NP were compared. The 96 h EC₅₀ of C. vulgaris and S. capricornutum were greater than 4.0 and 1.0 mg L⁻¹ NP, respectively, suggesting that the former species was more tolerant to NP. Both microalgae acclimated to NP stress through down-regulating their photosynthetic activities, including antenna size (chlorophyll a content), maximal photochemistry (Fv/Fm) and the light absorbed by PSII (ABS/CS₀), but the dissipation of energy from reaction centres (DI₀/RC) increased with the increase of NP concentrations. In C. vulgaris, the changes of these parameters were more significant than in S. capricornutum and recovered completely after a 96 h exposure. The antioxidant responses, such as GSH content, CAT and POD activities in C. vulgaris increased with the increase of NP concentrations after a 24 h exposure, but these changes disappeared with exposure time and recovered to the control levels after 96 h. In S. capricornutum, although GSH content, CAT and POD activities also increased when exposed to low- to moderate-NP concentrations, these values were significantly reduced at a high concentration (4 mg L⁻¹) even after a 96 h exposure, indicating its antioxidant responses were significantly delayed. It is clear that the more NP-tolerant species, C. vulgaris, acclimated better with a faster recovery of its photosynthetic activity from the NP-induced damage, and exhibited more efficient and rapid responses to NP-induced oxidative stress. C. vulgaris also had a higher NP degradation ability than S. capricornutum.     

The Avoidance Responses of Daphnia magna to the Exposure of Organophosphorus Pesticides in an On-Line Biomonitoring System

In this study, avoidance behavior of the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia magna Straus was used as indicator to assess the early stress of accidental organophosphorus pesticide (OP) contamination. The movement behavior was detected by a multi-species biomonitoring system. There was obvious concentration–response relationship between the OP stress and the behavioral response even at sublethal exposure. A rising OP stress resulted in a significant decrease of response time to escape (RTE; p<0.05). In comparison of different OPs, it was found that there was a power regression between RTE and the toxic unit of OPs. Therefore, the avoidance behavior of D. magna was a sensitive indicator of sublethal OP stress, and the power relationship could be used to predict the early warning thresholds of more OPs in the on-line biomonitoring system.     

浑浊度对总氮测定影响的探讨

依据国家标准方法：碱性过硫酸钾-紫外分光光度法（GB1189—89）检测地表水中的总氮,通过实验分析发现,水样的浑浊度对波长在275nm处的吸光度值有严重影响,消解降低水样的浑浊度后,会使275nm处的吸光度值下降。