流域水生态系统的生境安全识别理论和方法研究——以太子河次流域本溪段为案例

流域水生态系统具有物质循环、能量流动、群落代谢等服务功能,由于人类活动干扰等因素,水生态系统受到破坏,服务功能的发挥受到抑制。太子河作为中国七大水系之一的辽河支流,其水生态系统健康状况同样由于社会、自然等胁迫驱动力原因受到影响。提出了一套流域水生态系统生境安全识别方法,并以太子河次流域本溪段为案例对方法的可行性进行研讨。采用水文、河道、河岸带和水质4个生境安全指标,分别对研究区的5个评价单元水生态系统生境进行安全评估,做出问题识别,找出水生态系统处于不同健康状态的原因,并确定优先修复项目,便于流域管理。通过研究得到观音阁水库坝区没有优先修复项目,小夹河区、老官砬子-观音阁水库坝区、大峪沟入河口-老官砬子区、兴安市界-大峪沟入河口区优先修复项目分别为河道、河道和河岸带、河道、水质,生境安全识别方法具有一定的可行性。     

从损害控制到风险预防：野生动物保护公益诉讼的优化进路

当前野生动物保护公益诉讼主要呈现损害控制型司法模式的特性,该模式以刑事附带民事公益诉讼为常规渠道,救济对象是既成公益损害,救济方式是损害赔偿、修复及专项整治。诉讼方式谦抑性、因果关系推定规则以及案件线索发现机制事后性,为此模式的合理运行提供了理据。本文运用风险预防原则的理论框架,认为野生动物保护公益诉讼的救济客体不应局限于生态环境损害,公共卫生安全的风险预防等关联性客体也应纳入其中,而损害控制模式这种事后治理方法存在短板。基于此,应将公益诉讼的视角回溯至事前,大力倡导风险预防型司法模式。风险预防模式与损害控制模式属于二元协同关系,前者对后者发挥补强与优化功能。根据风险预防模式的救济观,可探索野生动物保护的预防性行政公益诉讼制度,并全方位构建程序规则,以实现公益诉讼的前瞻性价值。     

Economic Incentives to Conserve Wildlife on Private Lands: Analysis and Policy

Some believe that provision of private property rights in wildlife on private land provides a powerful economic incentive for nature conservation because it enables property owners to market such wildlife or its attributes. If such marketing is profitable, private landholders will conserve the wildlife concerned and its required habitat. But land is not always most profitably used for exploitation of wildlife, and many economic values of wildlife (such as non-use economic values) cannot be marketed. The mobility of some wildlife adds to the limitations of the private-property approach. While some species may be conserved by this approach, it is suboptimal as a single policy approach to nature conservation. Nevertheless, it is being experimented with, in the Northern Territory of Australia where landholders had a possibility of harvesting on their properties a quota of eggs and chicks of red-tailed black cockatoos for commercial sale. This scheme was expected to provide an incentive to private landholders to retain hollow trees essential for the nesting of these birds but failed. This case and others are analysed. Despite private-property failures, the long-term survival of some wildlife species depends on their ability to use private lands without severe harassment, either for their migration or to supplement their available resources, for example, the Asian elephant. Nature conservation on private land is often a useful, if not essential, supplement to conservation on public lands. Community and public incentives for such conservation are outlined.     

上海南汇东滩鸟类栖息地营造工程的生境评价

为应对长江口日益严峻的滨海湿地和鸟类栖息地丧失问题,上海南汇东滩鸟类栖息地营造工程采取地形构建与水位调控技术,营造了适宜鸟类栖息觅食的生态修复示范区。本项研究自2009年8月至2010年6月,跟踪监测了生态修复示范区内的植被生长参数(株高、密度、叶面积指数、地上生物量)、水体质量参数(氮磷营养盐和叶绿素a含量)以及土壤环境参数(电导率、pH值和重金属含量),分析和评价了该工程实施后的生态修复效果。结果表明,生态修复措施有效促进了本地物种芦苇群落的生长,一定程度上明显改善了示范区内的水体质量,维持了土壤重金属的低污染状态,有利于鸟类生物多样性的提高。说明南汇东滩鸟类栖息地营造工程取得了初步成效,呈现出较好的湿地修复效果。同时,应采取刈割与水位调节技术抑制外来物种互花米草,控制生态养殖规模,进一步改善鸟类栖息地生境质量。     

Projecting biodiversity benefits of conservation behavior-change programs

Biodiversity loss is driven by human behavior, but there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of behavior-change programs in delivering benefits to biodiversity. To demonstrate their value, the biodiversity benefits and cost-effectiveness of behavior changes that directly or indirectly affect biodiversity need to be quantified. We adapted a structured decision-making prioritization tool to determine the potential biodiversity benefits of behavior changes. As a case study, we examined two hypothetical behavior-change programs––wildlife gardening and cat containment––by asking experts to consider the behaviors associated with these programs that directly and indirectly affect biodiversity. We assessed benefits to southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) and superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) by eliciting from experts estimates of the probability of each species persisting in the landscape given a range of behavior-change scenarios in which uptake of the behaviors varied. We then compared these estimates to a business-as-usual scenario to determine the relative biodiversity benefit and cost-effectiveness of each scenario. Experts projected that the behavior-change programs would benefit biodiversity and that benefits would rise with increasing uptake of the target behaviors. Biodiversity benefits were also predicted to accrue through indirect behaviors, although experts disagreed about the magnitude of additional benefit provided. Scenarios that combined the two behavior-change programs were estimated to provide the greatest benefits to species and be most cost-effective. Our method could be used in other contexts and potentially at different scales and advances the use of prioritization tools to guide conservation behavior-change programs.     

Complex effects of habitat amount and fragmentation on functional connectivity and inbreeding in a giant panda population

The relationships between habitat amount and fragmentation level and functional connectivity and inbreeding remain unclear. Thus, we used genetic algorithms to optimize the transformation of habitat area and fragmentation variables into resistance surfaces to predict genetic structure and examined habitat area and fragmentation effects on inbreeding through a moving window and spatial autoregressive modeling approach. We applied these approaches to a wild giant panda population. The amount of habitat and its level of fragmentation had nonlinear effects on functional connectivity (gene flow) and inbreeding. Functional connectivity was highest when approximately 80% of the surrounding landscape was habitat. Although the relationship between habitat amount and inbreeding was also nonlinear, inbreeding increased as habitat increased until about 20% of the local landscape contained habitat, after which inbreeding decreased as habitat increased. Because habitat fragmentation also had nonlinear relationships with functional connectivity and inbreeding, we suggest these important responses cannot be effectively managed by minimizing or maximizing habitat or fragmentation. Our work offers insights for prioritization of protected areas.     

Effects of anthropogenic landscapes on population maintenance of waterbirds

Anthropogenic impacts have reduced natural areas but increased the area of anthropogenic landscapes. There is debate about whether anthropogenic landscapes (e.g., farmlands, orchards, and fish ponds) provide alternatives to natural habitat and under what circumstances. We considered whether anthropogenic landscapes can mitigate population declines for waterbirds. We collected data on population trends and biological traits of 1203 populations of 579 species across the planet. Using Bayesian generalized linear mixed models, we tested whether the ability of a species to use an anthropogenic landscape can predict population trends of waterbird globally and of species of conservation concern. Anthropogenic landscapes benefited population maintenance of common but not less-common species. Conversely, the use of anthropogenic landscapes was associated with population declines for threatened species. Our findings delineate some limitations to the ability of anthropogenic landscapes to mitigate population declines, suggesting that the maintenance of global waterbird populations depends on protecting remaining natural areas and improving the habitat quality in anthropogenic landscapes. Article impact statement: Protecting natural areas and improving the quality of anthropogenic landscapes as habitat are both needed to achieve effective conservation.     

Using experimental reintroductions to resolve the roles of habitat quality and metapopulation dynamics on patch occupancy in fragmented landscapes

Declines of species in fragmented landscapes can potentially be reversed either by restoring connectivity or restoring local habitat quality. Models fitted to snapshot occupancy data can be used to predict the effectiveness of these actions. However, such inferences can be misleading if the reliability of the habitat and landscape metrics used is unknown. The only way to unambiguously resolve the roles of habitat quality and metapopulation dynamics is to conduct experimental reintroductions to unoccupied patches so that habitat quality can be measured directly from data on vital rates. We, therefore, conducted a 15-year study that involved reintroducing a threatened New Zealand bird to unoccupied forest fragments to obtain reliable data on their habitat quality and reassess initial inferences made by modeling occupancy against habitat and landscape metrics. Although reproductive rates were similar among fragments, subtle differences in adult survival rates resulted in λ (finite rate of increase) estimations of <0.9 for 9 of the 12 fragments that were previously unoccupied. This was the case for only 1 of 14 naturally occupied fragments. This variation in λ largely explained the original occupancy pattern, reversing our original conclusion from occupancy modeling that this occupancy pattern was isolation driven and suggesting that it would be detrimental to increase connectivity without improving local habitat quality. These results illustrate that inferences from snapshot occupancy should be treated with caution and subjected to testing through experimental reintroductions in selected model systems.     

Wild meat trade over the last 45 years in the Peruvian Amazon

The trade in wild meat is an important economic component of rural people's livelihoods, but it has been perceived to be among the main causes of the decline of wildlife species. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light an additional concern of wildlife markets as a major human-health challenge. We analyzed data from the largest longitudinal monitoring (1973–2018) of the most important urban wild-meat markets in Iquitos, Peru, to examine the trends in and impacts of these markets on people's livelihoods. Over the last 45 years, wild meat sales increased at a rate of 6.4 t/year (SD 2.17), paralleling urban population growth. Wild meat sales were highest in 2018 (442 t), contributing US$2.6 million (0.76%) to the regional gross domestic product. Five species of ungulates and rodents accounted for 88.5% of the amount of biomass traded. Vulnerable and Endangered species represented 7.0% and 0.4% of individuals sold, respectively. Despite growth in sales, the contribution of wild meat to overall urban diet was constant: 1–2%/year of total meat consumed. This result was due to greater availability and higher consumption of cheaper meats (e.g., in 2018, poultry was 45.8% cheaper and was the most consumed meat) coupled with the lack of economic incentives to harvest wild meat species in rural areas. Most wild meat was sold salted or smoked, reducing the likelihood of foodborne diseases. Community-based wildlife management plans and the continued trade bans on primates and threatened taxa may avoid biodiversity loss. Considering the recent COVID-19 pandemic, future management plans should include potential viral hosts and regulation and enforcement of hygiene practices in wild-meat markets.     

Identifying and mitigating the impacts on primates of transportation and service corridors

Most primate populations are declining; 60% of species face extinction. The expansion of transportation and service corridors (T&S) (i.e., roads and railways and utility and service lines) poses a significant yet underappreciated threat. With the development of T&S corridors predicted to increase across primates' ranges, it is necessary to understand the current extent of its impacts on primates, the available options to mitigate these effectively, and recognize research and knowledge gaps. By employing a systematic search approach to identify literature that described the relationship between primates and T&S corridors, we extracted information from 327 studies published between 1980 and 2020. Our results revealed that 218 species and subspecies across 62 genera are affected, significantly more than the 92 listed by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The majority of studies took place in Asia (45%), followed by mainland Africa (31%), the Neotropics (22%), and Madagascar (2%). Brazil, Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea, Vietnam, and Madagascar contained the greatest number of affected primate species. Asia featured the highest number of species affected by roads, electrical transmission lines, and pipelines and the only studies addressing the impact of rail and aerial tramways on primates. The impact of seismic lines only emerged in the literature from Africa and the Neotropics. Impacts are diverse and multifaceted, for example, animal–vehicle collisions, electrocutions, habitat loss and fragmentation, impeded movement and genetic exchange, behavioral changes, exposure to pollution, and mortality associated with hunting. Although several mitigation measures were recommended, only 41% of studies focused on their implementation, whereas only 29% evaluated their effectiveness. Finally, there was a clear bias in the species and regions benefiting from research on this topic. We recommend that government and conservation bodies recognize T&S corridors as a serious and mounting threat to primates and that further research in this area is encouraged.