Interactions between Carbon Sequestration and Shade Tree Diversity in a Smallholder Coffee Cooperative in El Salvador

Agroforestry systems have substantial potential to conserve native biodiversity and provide ecosystem services. In particular, agroforestry systems have the potential to conserve native tree diversity and sequester carbon for climate change mitigation. However, little research has been conducted on the temporal stability of species diversity and aboveground carbon stocks in these systems or the relation between species diversity and aboveground carbon sequestration. We measured changes in shade‐tree diversity and shade‐tree carbon stocks in 14 plots of a 35‐ha coffee cooperative over 9 years and analyzed relations between species diversity and carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration was positively correlated with initial species richness of shade trees. Species diversity of shade trees did not change significantly over the study period, but carbon stocks increased due to tree growth. Our results show a potential for carbon sequestration and long‐term biodiversity conservation in smallholder coffee agroforestry systems and illustrate the opportunity for synergies between biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. Interacciones entre el Secuestro de Carbono y la Diversidad de Árboles de Sombra en una Cooperativa de Café de Pequeños Agricultores en El Salvador     

The Value of Using Feasibility Models in Systematic Conservation Planning to Predict Landholder Management Uptake

Understanding the social dimensions of conservation opportunity is crucial for conservation planning in multiple‐use landscapes. However, factors that influence the feasibility of implementing conservation actions, such as the history of landscape management, and landholders’ willingness to engage are often difficult or time consuming to quantify and rarely incorporated into planning. We examined how conservation agencies could reduce costs of acquiring such data by developing predictive models of management feasibility parameterized with social and biophysical factors likely to influence landholders’ decisions to engage in management. To test the utility of our best‐supported model, we developed 4 alternative investment scenarios based on different input data for conservation planning: social data only; biological data only; potential conservation opportunity derived from modeled feasibility that incurs no social data collection costs; and existing conservation opportunity derived from feasibility data that incurred collection costs. Using spatially explicit information on biodiversity values, feasibility, and management costs, we prioritized locations in southwest Australia to control an invasive predator that is detrimental to both agriculture and natural ecosystems: the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). When social data collection costs were moderate to high, the most cost‐effective investment scenario resulted from a predictive model of feasibility. Combining empirical feasibility data with biological data was more cost‐effective for prioritizing management when social data collection costs were low (<4% of the total budget). Calls for more data to inform conservation planning should take into account the costs and benefits of collecting and using social data to ensure that limited funding for conservation is spent in the most cost‐efficient and effective manner.     

Quantifying population declines based on presence‐only records for red‐list assessments

Accurate trend estimates are necessary for understanding which species are declining and which are most in need of conservation action. Imperfect species detection may result in unreliable trend estimates because this may lead to the overestimation of declines. Because many management decisions are based on population trend estimates, such biases could have severe consequences for conservation policy. We used an occupancy‐modeling framework to estimate detectability and calculate nationwide population trends for 14 Swiss amphibian species both accounting for and ignoring imperfect detection. Through the application of International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List criteria to the different trend estimates, we assessed whether ignoring imperfect detection could affect conservation policy. Imperfect detection occurred for all species and detection varied substantially among species, which led to the overestimation of population declines when detectability was ignored. Consequently, accounting for imperfect detection lowered the red‐list risk category for 5 of the 14 species assessed. We demonstrate that failing to consider species detectability can have serious consequences for species management and that occupancy modeling provides a flexible framework to account for observation bias and improve assessments of conservation status. A problem inherent to most historical records is that they contain presence‐only data from which only relative declines can be estimated. A move toward the routine recording of nonobservation and absence data is essential if conservation practitioners are to move beyond this toward accurate population trend estimation.     

The role of digital data entry in participatory environmental monitoring

Many argue that monitoring conducted exclusively by scientists is insufficient to address ongoing environmental challenges. One solution entails the use of mobile digital devices in participatory monitoring (PM) programs. But how digital data entry affects programs with varying levels of stakeholder participation, from nonscientists collecting field data to nonscientists administering every step of a monitoring program, remains unclear. We reviewed the successes, in terms of management interventions and sustainability, of 107 monitoring programs described in the literature (hereafter programs) and compared these with case studies from our PM experiences in Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Greenland, and Vietnam (hereafter cases). Our literature review showed that participatory programs were less likely to use digital devices, and 2 of our 3 more participatory cases were also slow to adopt digital data entry. Programs that were participatory and used digital devices were more likely to report management actions, which was consistent with cases in Ethiopia, Greenland, and Australia. Programs engaging volunteers were more frequently reported as ongoing, but those involving digital data entry were less often sustained when data collectors were volunteers. For the Vietnamese and Canadian cases, sustainability was undermined by a mismatch in stakeholder objectives. In the Ghanaian case, complex field protocols diminished monitoring sustainability. Innovative technologies attract interest, but the foundation of effective participatory adaptive monitoring depends more on collaboratively defined questions, objectives, conceptual models, and monitoring approaches. When this foundation is built through effective partnerships, digital data entry can enable the collection of more data of higher quality. Without this foundation, or when implemented ineffectively or unnecessarily, digital data entry can be an additional expense that distracts from core monitoring objectives and undermines project sustainability. The appropriate role of digital data entry in PM likely depends more on the context in which it is used and less on the technology itself.     

Resembling a Viper: Implications of Mimicry for Conservation of the Endangered Smooth Snake

The phenomenon of Batesian mimicry, where a palatable animal gains protection against predation by resembling an unpalatable model, has been a core interest of evolutionary biologists for 150 years. An extensive range of studies has focused on revealing mechanistic aspects of mimicry (shared education and generalization of predators) and the evolutionary dynamics of mimicry systems (co‐operation vs. conflict) and revealed that protective mimicry is widespread and is important for individual fitness. However, according to our knowledge, there are no case studies where mimicry theories have been applied to conservation of mimetic species. Theoretically, mimicry affects, for example, frequency dependency of predator avoidance learning and human induced mortality. We examined the case of the protected, endangered, nonvenomous smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) that mimics the nonprotected venomous adder (Vipera berus), both of which occur in the Åland archipelago, Finland. To quantify the added predation risk on smooth snakes caused by the rarity of vipers, we calculated risk estimates from experimental data. Resemblance of vipers enhances survival of smooth snakes against bird predation because many predators avoid touching venomous vipers. Mimetic resemblance is however disadvantageous against human predators, who kill venomous vipers and accidentally kill endangered, protected smooth snakes. We found that the effective population size of the adders in Åland is very low relative to its smooth snake mimic (28.93 and 41.35, respectively).Because Batesian mimicry is advantageous for the mimic only if model species exist in sufficiently high numbers, it is likely that the conservation program for smooth snakes will fail if adders continue to be destroyed. Understanding the population consequences of mimetic species may be crucial to the success of endangered species conservation. We suggest that when a Batesian mimic requires protection, conservation planners should not ignore the model species (or co‐mimic in Mullerian mimicry rings) even if it is not itself endangered. Implications of mimicry for Conservation of the endangered smooth snake     

不同类型填料的三维电极/Fenton试剂法处理苯酚废水

采用不同类型填料对三维电极/Fenton试剂法处理苯酚模拟废水进行研究.结果表明.不同类型活性炭填料对苯酚去除率有很大影响,粒炭不适合做粒子电极,采用5.0 mm柱炭处理效果较好;采用石英砂与活性炭混合填料的处理效果比单一活性炭填料好,但苯酚去除率提高不明显;电解槽反应器中按比例投加涂膜活性炭和活性炭混合填料能明显提高苯酚去除率;当涂膜活性炭与活性炭体积比为1,2时,苯酚去除率最高,达96.8%.     

“5·12”汶川地震灾区典型区域生态环境状况影响评价

“5·12”汶川特大地震发生后。带来的植被破坏、水土流失、次生地质灾害等,给灾区生态环境造成了极大的影响。本文重点以汶川县作为典型区域,运用“3S”技术,通过对汶川县震前、震后的生态环境状况及其变化情况进行定量评价。分析“5·12”大地震对龙门山区生态环境的影响,以期为区域灾后重建提供参考。     

一株高效脱硫脱氨氮菌的分离、鉴定及系统发育分析

从运行稳定的能同步脱臭的曝气生物滤池中采集样品,富集分离获得一株能高效脱硫脱氨氮的菌株TS-1。对分离菌株进行形态观察、生理生化试验及16S rRNA基因序列分析,结果表明,该菌株TS-1为革兰氏阳性菌,杆状;菌落在营养琼脂培养基上呈圆形,表面光滑,乳白色半透明;V-P试验阴性,能水解淀粉和明胶,利用柠檬酸盐生长;对菌株进行16S rRNA的PCR扩增,扩增产物测序结果表明分离菌株TS-1与巨大芽孢杆菌（Bacillus megaterium）同源性达到99%;以16S rRNA同源性为基础构建了包括24株相关种属细菌在内的系统发育树,在系统发育树中,分离菌株TS1与Bacillus megaterium在同一分支。结合形态观察、生理生化试验及16S rRNA基因序列分析结果,将其初步鉴定为巨大芽孢杆菌（Bacillus megaterium）。在常温（30±2）℃、转速为150 r/min的条件下,处理pH 7、S^2-和NH⁺₄-N分别为80 mg/L和88 mg/L的水样40 h,硫化物和氨氮的脱除率分别为91.8%和96.6%。     

几种试剂对硝酸根光催化脱色甲基橙的影响

以NO^-₃为光催化剂,在紫外灯照射下,对甲基橙溶液进行光催化脱色。结果表明,叔丁醇、甲醇和乙醇对催化脱色反应有抑制作用; KBr和Na₂SO₄对脱色反应均有促进作用;而且KBr的加入量存在最佳值; Na₂SO₄的促进作用随Na₂SO₄的量的增加逐渐增强。Na₂CO₃的存在对甲基橙的脱色反应没有影响。K₂S₃O₈和NO^-₃之间存在较强的协同作用;KIO₃和NO^-₃之间存在相加作用;KBrO₃和NO^-₃之间存在拮抗作用。