Salvage Logging, Ecosystem Processes, and Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract:  We summarize the documented and potential impacts of salvage logging—a form of logging that removes trees and other biological material from sites after natural disturbance. Such operations may reduce or eliminate biological legacies, modify rare postdisturbance habitats, influence populations, alter community composition, impair natural vegetation recovery, facilitate the colonization of invasive species, alter soil properties and nutrient levels, increase erosion, modify hydrological regimes and aquatic ecosystems, and alter patterns of landscape heterogeneity. These impacts can be assigned to three broad and interrelated effects: (1) altered stand structural complexity; (2) altered ecosystem processes and functions; and (3) altered populations of species and community composition. Some impacts may be different from or additional to the effects of traditional logging that is not preceded by a large natural disturbance because the conditions before, during, and after salvage logging may differ from those that characterize traditional timber harvesting. The potential impacts of salvage logging often have been overlooked, partly because the processes of ecosystem recovery after natural disturbance are still poorly understood and partly because potential cumulative effects of natural and human disturbance have not been well documented. Ecologically informed policies regarding salvage logging are needed prior to major natural disturbances so that when they occur ad hoc and crisis-mode decision making can be avoided. These policies should lead to salvage-exemption zones and limits on the amounts of disturbance-derived biological legacies (e.g., burned trees, logs) that are removed where salvage logging takes place. Finally, we believe new terminology is needed. The word salvage implies that something is being saved or recovered, whereas from an ecological perspective this is rarely the case.     

户外端子箱操作人因可靠性及其风险评价*

为正确评价人为因素对户外端子箱失效的影响,利用CREAM(Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method)模型的共同绩效条件分析端子箱操作过程中人的行为机理以及行为可靠性因素;应用SLIM(Success Likelihood Index Method)模型计算人为失误概率,并采用比例故障模型计算户外端子箱自身的故障率;以某断路器端子箱为例进行验证。结果表明:研究案例的人为失误概率为1.56%,设备故障率为0.84%,系统的风险值为10.7%,系统的风险等级为3;从概率的角度说明事故发生原因中人为因素的影响更大。因此,从行为可靠性影响因素层面对人为失误概率进行调控,可使户外端子箱操作人因可靠性得到提高,系统的风险等级随之降低。     

Molecular characterization of bacterial community in aerobic granular sludge stressed by pentachlorophenol

To characterize the effects of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on the performance and microbial community of aerobic granular sludge in sequencing batch reactor (SBR), the web-based terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and real-time PCR (RT- PCR) techniques were used to explore the bacterial community structure. When PCP increased from 0 to 50 mg/L, the COD removal rate changed little, while the ammonia removal rate dropped from 100% to 64.9%. The results of molecular characterization showed t...     

废水脉冲电解处理节能高效的原因分析

将脉冲电源和直流电源分别作为废水电解处理的电源,试验探明其对废水电解处理的电能消耗和COD去除率的影响,并分析废水脉冲电解处理节能高效的原因。试验结果表明,脉冲电流相对直流电流能够更加有效减缓电极的极化,降低电极过电位,使电能消耗降低15%-35%;在脉冲电解处理废水过程中电流效率稳定、Fe^2＋能够有效扩散到废水中,使去污效果增强5%-7%。     

Use of landscape and land use parameters for classification and characterization of watersheds in the mid-Atlantic across five physiographic provinces

The Atlantic Slope Consortium (ASC) is a project designed to develop and test a set of indicators in coastal systems that are ecologically appropriate, economically reasonable, and relevant to society. The suite of indicators will produce integrated assessments of the condition, health and sustainability of aquatic ecosystems based on ecological and socioeconomic information compiled at the scale of estuarine segments and small watersheds. The research mandate of the ASC project is the following:

Using a universe of watersheds, covering a range of social choices, we ask two questions:

• ? How “good” can the environment be, given those social choices?
• ? What is the intellectual model of condition within those choices, i.e., what are the causes of condition and what are the steps for improvement?

As a basis for compiling ecological indicators, a watershed classification system was required for the experimental design. The goal was to develop approximately five categories of watersheds for each physiographic province, utilizing landscape and land use parameters that would be predictive of aquatic resource condition. All 14-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) watersheds in the Mid-Atlantic region would then be classified according to the regime. Five parameters were utilized for the classification: three land cover categories, consisting of forested, agricultural, and urban, median slope or median elevation, and total variance of land covers in 1-km-radius circles positioned on all stream convergence points in a specified 14-digit?HUC watershed. Cluster analysis utilizing these five parameters resulted in approximately five well-defined watershed classes per physiographic province. The distribution of all watersheds in the Mid-Atlantic region across these categories provides a unique report on the probable condition of watersheds in the region.     

人为扰动下河流复氧激增现象及机制分析

为探究河流复氧规律及其机制,研制出改变河道局部水流流速的深控型水平推流曝气装置,并使用该装置在天津市外环河中进行原位试验,探究人为扰动对河流复氧系数的影响.试验结果表明,装置工作时纵向流速提高至40cm/s,最大增幅22倍;水体溶解氧浓度提高0.6~1.7mg/L,约10%.研究发现,经典的Owens等5组河流复氧系数经验公式均低估了扰动下的复氧系数,试验均值约为49.5d^-1,是理论值的10~100倍,即河流复氧在人为扰动下发生激增现象.分析成因表明,湍流动能与河流复氧系数显著正相关,区别于自然流动,人为扰动提升了水体纵向和垂向湍流动能,加速了中下层水体溶解氧扩散,提高了复氧率,进而发生了复氧激增现象.研究成果为提升城市河流水质的水力学方法提供了科学依据.     

供水管网终端消毒副产物分布特征及预测模型

消毒副产物(disinfection by-products, DBPs)是影响饮用水水质的重要指标.以浙江省H市某区域供水点为调查目标,考察终端龙头水及加热器处理后饮用水中DBPs的含量特征,结合水质理化指标,初步确定管网终端DBPs预测模型,评估经口摄入的健康风险.结果表明,H市某供水点龙头水中共检出THMs、HANs和HAAs这3类共计10种DBPs.龙头水中目标DBPs检出率均为100%,THMs、HANs和HAAs质量浓度分别为10.12～28.39、 0.98～5.19和2.65～7.83μg·L~(-1);热水中TBM、TCAN和DBAN的检出率分别为46.43%、 82.14%和92.86%,BCAN未检出,其它DBPs检出率为100%,THMs、HANs和HAAs质量浓度分别为0.60～12.58、 0.02～0.52和2.42～5.86μg·L~(-1).加热处理后THMs和HANs的含量有所降低,总量分别降低84.22%和91.45%,HAAs变化不明显.水质理化指标pH值和SUVA与DBPs呈正相关关系,余氯和氨氮与DBPs呈负相关关系.根据常规指标与DBPs相关性建立THMs多元线性预测模型,相对误差小于10.00%,准确度较高,可用于管网供水终端THMs的预测.基于美国环保署推荐的健康风险评价模型对经口摄取途径时氯消毒副产物的致癌和非致癌风险进行计算,发现H市龙头水和热水中DBPs通过饮水途径的致癌风险分别为(17.24～84.63)×10~(-6)和(25.49～258.82)×10~(-7);非致癌风险分别为(4.17～50.32)×10~(-2)和(6.52～107.74)×10~(-3).龙头水中BDCM对致癌风险的贡献率最大,而热水系统中TCM贡献率最大;龙头水及热水中非致癌风险主要来自于TCM.热水中THMs的削减量最高达到94.38%,致癌风险降低79.00%.     

三峡库区消落带农业活动对土壤汞变化的影响

针对三峡库区消落带退水期农业生产是否会对库区环境带来不利影响的问题,以分布面积较大、农业活动较为频繁的重庆市开州区渠口镇消落带为研究区域,选择种植水稻、玉米、蔬菜和未农用的草地4类消落带地块为研究对象,调查了不同利用地块表层土壤汞(Hg)的变化特征.结果表明,研究区域内土壤THg、有效态Hg(Hg-wh)和甲基汞(MeHg)平均含量分别为25.80~68.74、0.44~0.88和0.08~0.85 ng·g-1.未耕作土地表层土壤THg、Hg-wh和MeHg含量均高于耕作土地表层土壤,说明耕作扰动能够加速土壤Hg的流失.未耕作土壤与耕作土地表层土壤MeHg含量随着落干时长的增加均呈现先升高后降低的趋势,峰值大约出现在落干后1~2个月内,约为淹水末期的4倍,之后逐渐降低至相对稳定的水平.MeHg占THg比例(%MeHg)也呈现类似规律,峰值出现在落干后1个月左右,降到稳定水平时与淹水末期含量无显著性差异(P0.05).土壤%MeHg与Hg-wh含量呈显著性正相关关系(r=0.642,P0.01),而与THg含量没有显著相关性(P0.05),说明消落带土壤Hg甲基化主要受生物可利用性Hg形态的影响.     

Effects of Agricultural Cultivation on Demographics of Southern High Plains Amphibians

Abstract:  Anthropogenic disturbance of landscapes surrounding wetlands is considered a factor in local and global amphibian declines. Few data exist on the effects of agricultural cultivation of wetland watersheds on amphibians, and results from previous studies are contradictory. Our objective was to test the effects of general anthropogenic land use (cultivation vs. grassland) on the demographics of seven species and three age classes of amphibians in the Southern High Plains of Texas. We partially enclosed 16 playa wetlands (4 per land use per year) with drift fences and pitfall traps and monitored relative daily abundance and diversity from 16 May to 17 October 1999 and 19 April to 18 August 2000. In general, relative abundance (i.e., average daily capture) of New Mexico and plains spadefoots (  Spea multiplicata, S. bombifrons ) was greater at cropland than grassland playas; the abundance of other species and diversity of the amphibian assemblage was not affected by land use. Also, abundance generally was greater in 1999 than 2000 for metamorph spadefoots and barred tiger salamanders ( Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium ). Differences in spadefoot abundance between land-use types may have been related to low species-specific vagility, resulting in increased nestedness within disturbed landscapes and reduced abundance of a potential keystone intraguild predator in cropland playas. The yearly difference in amphibian abundance was likely related to annual precipitation, which influenced wetland hydroperiod. Agricultural cultivation surrounding wetlands is associated with the increased abundance of some amphibian species, but other demographic and fitness parameters—such as temporal demographics, body size, and diet diversity—may be negatively affected.     

Effects of increased vegetation cover on nesting behavior of sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

To maximize reproductive success, reproductive behaviors have to be adjusted to environmental conditions. The breeding habitats of the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus are presently changing in the Baltic Sea due to eutrophication and enhanced growth of filamentous green algae. Earlier studies show that high algae density reduces mate encounter rate and the intensity of selection on a few sexually selected traits, but the willingness of males to nest under the new conditions, and their investment into reproduction, have not been investigated. Here, we investigated the effect that increased algae growth has on nesting behavior of sticklebacks. We allowed males to build nests in aquaria with either a sparse or a dense vegetation structure and recorded male nest building behavior and nest characters. Males that nested in dense vegetation showed a longer latency before commencing nest building and also completed nest building later since there was no difference in time spent building. There was no effect of vegetation cover on nest characters. These results suggest that males prefer to nest in sparser vegetation, but that they eventually nest in dense vegetation if more open habitats are not available. This may arise from a negative effect of vegetation on visibility and mate encounter rate and thus on expected reproductive success. This implies that human-induced changes in the environment may force sticklebacks to breed in non-preferred habitats. Since the intensity of sexual selection is reduced in these areas, this could influence the further evolution of the population.