Inferring chemical effects on carbon flows in aquatic food webs: Methodology and case study

The majority of ecotoxicological enclosure experiments monitor species abundances at different chemical concentrations. Here, we present a new modelling approach that estimates changes in food web flows from such data and show that population- and food web level effects are revealed that are not apparent from abundance data alone. For the case of cypermethrin in freshwater enclosures, photosynthesis and excretion (d⁻¹) of phytoplankton at 3.643 μg L⁻¹ cypermethrin were 30% lower and 100% higher than in the control, respectively. The ingestion rate of mesozooplankton (d⁻¹) was 6 times higher in the treated enclosures than in the control as food concentration increased with insecticide exposure. With increasing cypermethrin concentrations, nanoflagellates progressively relied on phytoplankton as their main food source, which rendered the food web less stable. We conclude that this tool has excellent potential to analyse the wealth of enclosure data as it only needs species abundance and general constraints.     

Ecologically Functional Floodplains: Connectivity,Flow Regime,and Scale1

Opperman, Jeffrey J., Ryan Luster, Bruce A. McKenney, Michael Roberts, and Amanda Wrona Meadows, 2010. Ecologically Functional Floodplains: Connectivity, Flow Regime, and Scale. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(2):211-226. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00426.x Abstract: This paper proposes a conceptual model that captures key attributes of ecologically functional floodplains, encompassing three basic elements: (1) hydrologic connectivity between the river and the floodplain, (2) a variable hydrograph that reflects seasonal precipitation patterns and retains a range of both high and low flow events, and (3) sufficient spatial scale to encompass dynamic processes and for floodplain benefits to accrue to a meaningful level. Although floodplains support high levels of biodiversity and some of the most productive ecosystems on Earth, they are also among the most converted and threatened ecosystems and therefore have recently become the focus of conservation and restoration programs across the United States and globally. These efforts seek to conserve or restore complex, highly variable ecosystems and often must simultaneously address both land and water management. Thus, such efforts must overcome considerable scientific, technical, and socioeconomic challenges. In addition to proposing a scientific conceptual model, this paper also includes three case studies that illustrate methods for addressing these technical and socioeconomic challenges within projects that seek to promote ecologically functional floodplains through river-floodplain reconnection and/or restoration of key components of hydrological variability.     

太湖湿地生态系统服务功能价值评估

随着生物资源价值估算方法的日益成熟,生态系统的服务评估成为生态系统研究的热点。运用市场价值、影子工程、碳税法等方法对太湖湿地生态系统的物质生产功能、环境调节功能和文化社会功能等直接与间接价值进行评估。结果表明：太湖湿地生态系统具有巨大和多重服务价值,总价值为112.39×10⁸元。其中,生态环境调节与维护功能价值最大,占总服务价值的48.98%;其次是物质生产与供给功能,占29.1%;文化社会功能最小,占21.91%。通过对9项子功能进行评估得出,调蓄洪水的功能价值最大,约占26.23%,供水功能其次,约占24.56%,气候调节功能,约占18.23%,科研教育价值约占13.16%,植被资源生产功能价值最小,约占0.09%。此项研究首次定量评估了太湖湿地生态系统的服务功能价值,研究成果对于认识太湖湿地的价值,有针对性地保护太湖湿地具有现实意义。     

Linking Salmon Aquaculture Synergies and Trade-Offs on Ecosystem Services to Human Wellbeing Constituents

Salmon aquaculture has emerged as a successful economic industry generating high economic revenues to invest in the development of Chiloe region, Southern Chile. However, salmon aquaculture also consumes a substantial amount of ecosystem services, and the direct and indirect impacts on human wellbeing are still unknown and unexplored. This paper identifies the synergies and trade-offs caused by the salmon industry on a range of ecosystem services. The results show that large economic benefits due to the increase of provisioning ecosystem services are also causing a reduction on regulating and cultural services. Despite the improvement on average income and poverty levels experienced in communities closely associated with the sector, this progress is not large enough and social welfare did not improve substantially over the last decade. The rest of human wellbeing constituents in Chiloe region have not changed significantly compared to the development in the rest of the country.     

Paying for International Environmental Public Goods

Supply of international environmental public goods must meet certain conditions to be socially efficient, and several reasons explain why they are currently undersupplied. Diagnosis of the public goods failure associated with particular ecosystem services is critical to the development of the appropriate international response. There are two categories of international environmental public goods that are most likely to be undersupplied. One has an additive supply technology and the other has a weakest link supply technology. The degree to which the collective response should be targeted depends on the importance of supply from any one country. In principle, the solution for the undersupply lies in payments designed to compensate local providers for the additional costs they incur in meeting global demand. Targeted support may take the form of direct investment in supply (the Global Environment Facility model) or of payments for the benefits of supply (the Payments for Ecosystem Services model).     

基于不同价值构成的耕地资源价值评估——以湖南省为例

正确认识和科学评估耕地资源的完全价值,对缓解征地补偿标准过低、土地收益分配不合理以及粮食安全和生态环境等问题具有一定指导意义。基于耕地的不同价值构成,选用相应的评估方法对湖南省不同等级耕地的总价值进行了评估,评估结果为：1~5等耕地资源单位面积的总价值分别为547 24813、481 61077、430 74534、385 86049和336 19093元/hm2;不同等级耕地上3种耕地价值的构成不一样,社会保障价值在所有不同等级耕地总价值中所占比重最大。这一研究结论对于显化耕地资源的完全价值以及抑制耕地资源的过度流失具有积极的作用     

Research of the Response of Ecosystem to LUCC in Miyun County, Beijing： Based on Ecosystem Services Valuation

Miyun County,located in the northeast of Chinese capital Beijing,was underwent remarkable variations in land use in recent years.This paper aimed to detect changes in land use of Miyun from 1997 to 2005,and to qualify the response of ecosystem to LUCC based on ecosystem services valuation.With two-periods TM images,we got land use change data,and then ecosystem services values were calculated using ecosystem services valuation coefficients proposed by Chinese scholar Xie Gaodi.Results showed that water area,farm land and unused land decreased while residential land,forest land,grassland and orchard land increased during the study period.The loss of ESV was RMB 206 million and the main reason was the decrease of water area and farm land area.As for spatial variation,there were most dramatically land use change and ESV decline in reservoir ecological protection region.The coefficient sensitivity analysis indicates that valuation coefficients used in the study are suitable and results are reasonable.The driving forces of ESV loss were rapid population growth and economic development.More work should be done to make eco-environment stay healthy.     

Comprehensive Assessment and Promotion Policy of Producer Services’ Competitiveness in Beijing City:A Comparative Analysis among Beijing,Tianjin,Shanghai,Guangzhou and Shenzhen

The five central cities-Beijing,Tianjin,Shanghai,Guangzhou and Shenzhen-of the three most important strategic regions in China,namely Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan region,the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta,are taken as a comparative analysis on urban producer services’ competitiveness,especially focusing on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of producer services in Beijing.Firstly,based on an integrated indicator system including one objective hierarchy,four standard hierarchies and 35 indicator hierarchies,the study applies factor analysis model and analytic hierarchy process model reformed by entropy technology to measure the comprehensive competitiveness of producer services in the above five cities.Secondly,Beijing has comparative advantages of capital resource,industrial base,scientific research resource and market scale,since it takes the first place of the five cities in the comprehensive competitiveness of producer services,the competitiveness of industrial development,business environment and living environment,only inferior to Shanghai in the competitiveness of talent capital.Thirdly,Beijing has comparative disadvantages in the level of producer services development,urban innovation capability and living environment.Finally,five proposals are put forth to enhance the competitiveness of producer services in Beijing,namely perfecting the system of laws and statutes,supporting the development of industry association,implementing scientific development planning,introducing preferential fiscal and taxation policies and strengthening human capital reserve.     

Increasing the impact of collective incentives in payments for ecosystem services

Collective payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs make payments to groups, conditional on specified aggregate land-management outcomes. Such collective contracting may be well suited to settings with communal land tenure or decision-making. Given that collective contracting does not require costly individual-level information on outcomes, it may also facilitate conditioning on additionality (i.e., conditioning payments upon clearly improved outcomes relative to baseline). Yet collective contracting often suffers from free-riding, which undermines group outcomes and may be exacerbated or ameliorated by PES designs. We study impacts of conditioning on additionality within a number of collective PES designs. We use a framed field-laboratory experiment with participants from a new PES program in Mexico. Because social interactions are critical within collective processes, we assess the impacts from conditioning on additionality given: (1) group participation in contract design, and (2) a group coordination mechanism. Conditioning on above-baseline outcomes raised contributions, particularly among initially lower contributors. Group participation in contract design increased impact, as did the coordination mechanism.     

Poaching Risks in Community‐Based Natural Resource Management

Poaching can disrupt wildlife‐management efforts in community‐based natural resource management systems. Monitoring, estimating, and acquiring data on poaching is difficult. We used local‐stakeholder knowledge and poaching records to rank and map the risk of poaching incidents in 2 areas where natural resources are managed by community members in Caprivi, Namibia. We mapped local stakeholder perceptions of the risk of poaching, risk of wildlife damage to livelihoods, and wildlife distribution and compared these maps with spatially explicit records of poaching events. Recorded poaching events and stakeholder perceptions of where poaching occurred were not spatially correlated. However, the locations of documented poaching events were spatially correlated with areas that stakeholders perceived wildlife as a threat to their livelihoods. This result suggests poaching occurred in response to wildlife damage occurred. Local stakeholders thought that wildlife populations were at high risk of being poached and that poaching occurred where there was abundant wildlife. These findings suggest stakeholders were concerned about wildlife resources in their community and indicate a need for integrated and continued monitoring of poaching activities and further interventions at the wildlife‐agricultural interface. Involving stakeholders in the assessment of poaching risks promotes their participation in local conservation efforts, a central tenet of community‐based management. We considered stakeholders poaching informants, rather than suspects, and our technique was spatially explicit. Different strategies to reduce poaching are likely needed in different areas. For example, interventions that reduce human‐wildlife conflict may be required in residential areas, and increased and targeted patrolling may be required in more remote areas. Stakeholder‐generated maps of human‐wildlife interactions may be a valuable enforcement and intervention support tool. Riesgos de Cacería Furtiva en el Manejo de Recursos Naturales Basado en Comunidades