Managing the Three-Rivers Headwater Region, China: From Ecological Engineering to Social Engineering

The three-rivers headwater region (THRHR) of Qinghai province, China plays a key role as source of fresh water and ecosystem services for central and eastern China. Global warming and human activities in the THRHR have threatened the ecosystem since the 1980s. Therefore, the Chinese government has included managing of the THRHR in the national strategy since 2003. The State Integrated Test and Demonstration Region of the THRHR highlights the connection with social engineering (focus on improving people’s livelihood and well-being) in managing nature reserves. Based on this program, this perspective attempts a holistic analysis of the strategic role of the THRHR, requirements for change, indices of change, and approaches to change. Long-term success of managing nature reserves requires effective combination of ecological conservation, economic development, and social progress. Thus, the philosophy of social engineering should be employed as a strategy to manage the THRHR.     

Novel Organisms: Comparing Invasive Species, GMOs, and Emerging Pathogens

Invasive species, range-expanding species, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), synthetic organisms, and emerging pathogens increasingly affect the human environment. We propose a framework that allows comparison of consecutive stages that such novel organisms go through. The framework provides a common terminology for novel organisms, facilitating knowledge exchange among researchers, managers, and policy makers that work on, or have to make effective decisions about, novel organisms. The framework also indicates that knowledge about the causes and consequences of stage transitions for the better studied novel organisms, such as invasive species, can be transferred to more poorly studied ones, such as GMOs and emerging pathogens. Finally, the framework advances understanding of how climate change can affect the establishment, spread, and impacts of novel organisms, and how biodiversity affects, and is affected by, novel organisms.     

Beyond selectivity: Are behavioral avoidance and hormesis likely causes of pyrethroid-induced outbreaks of the southern red mite Oligonychus ilicis?

Secondary pest outbreak is a counterintuitive ecological backlash of pesticide use in agriculture that takes place with the increase in abundance of a non-targeted pest species after pesticide application against a targeted pest species. Although the phenomenon was well recognized, its alternative causes are seldom considered. Outbreaks of the southern red mite Oligonychus ilicis are frequently reported in Brazilian coffee farms after the application of pyrethroid insecticides against the coffee leaf miner Leucoptera coffeella. Selectivity favoring the red mite against its main predatory mites is generally assumed as the outbreak cause, but this theory has never been tested. Here, we assessed the toxicity (and thus the selectivity) of deltamethrin against both mite species: the southern red mite and its phytoseid predator Amblyseius herbicolus. Additionally, behavioral avoidance and deltamethrin-induced hormesis were also tested as potential causes of red mite outbreak using free-choice behavioral walking bioassays with the predatory mite and life-table experiments with both mite species, respectively. Lethal toxicity bioassays indicated that the predatory mite was slightly more susceptible than its prey (1.5×), but in more robust demographic bioassays, the predator was three times more tolerant to deltamethrin than its prey, indicating that predator susceptibility to deltamethrin is not a cause of the reported outbreaks. The predator did not exhibit behavioral avoidance to deltamethrin; however insecticide-induced hormesis in the red mite led to its high population increase under low doses, which was not observed for the predatory mite. Therefore, deltamethrin-induced hormesis is a likely cause of the reported red mite outbreaks.     

基于WebGIS三峡干流水质模拟平台研究

三峡蓄水成库后仍属于典型的河道型水库,其总体水流、水质运动特性符合一维水流水质运动规律。针对三峡库区总体水流、水质运动特性,采用一维水流水质模型对三峡库区水流和水质进行了模拟。以该模型为核心,利用Web Services技术开发并在互联网上发布了模型服务,在此基础上采用成熟的WebGIS和富客户端Flex等技术构建了适用于三峡库区的干流水质模拟平台;能够实现包括各计算断面流速、流量、水位以及污染物浓度时空过程在内的三峡库区干流流速场和浓度场的数值模拟。以库区干流清溪场至十里铺断面内的江段作为模拟实例,利用该平台模拟计算江段内水流和水质状况,并以水文水质同步观测数据对模拟结果进行验证,结果表明其具有较好的模拟效果;为三峡库区污染物总体输移扩散特性研究提供了有利工具,同时也为国家和地方政府进行库区水环境决策提供了技术支持     

三峡库区汛期极端降水非均匀性特征

利用极端降水量集中度和集中期讨论三峡库区汛期极端降水量的非均匀性分布特征。结果表明: 三峡库区极端降水量空间分布表现为西南部和东北部地区相对较少,中部、东南部相对较多。库区汛期极端降水集中度和集中期的空间差异不大,集中程度总体较差,东北部和西部地区极端降水相对集中,中部相对分散。库区极端降水主要集中在6月底和7月上中旬,东北部和西部偏西地区集中期相对较晚,中部地区集中期相对较早。库区汛期极端降水量的分配状况与同期极端降水量存在较好的关系,即极端降水量越少,则极端降水量越集中、集中期越早;反之极端降水量越多,则极端降水量越分散、集中期越晚,尤其是在库区东北部地区最为显著。三峡库区蓄水后极端降水集中程度在空间上一致性较好,表现为蓄水后更为分散;极端降水量和集中期则在空间上差异显著,大致表现为蓄水后东北部极端降水增加并延迟;西南部极端降水减少并提前     

三峡工程建设前后库区城镇发展与环境变化

利用卫星遥感监测,分析三峡工程建设前后库区城镇发展类型、时空过程,揭示库区城镇变化的驱动力,探索了城镇扩展与人口城镇化关系,研究城镇环境变化特征。三峡库区城镇规模发展不均衡,库尾城市规模庞大,库中、东部区县级城市规模较小,而乡镇的比例占城镇面积24%;在过去15 a中,建城区规模扩大172%,高于全国省会城市发展水平72%;三峡库区城镇规模扩大的同时,东西城镇规模差距逐步缩小,三峡工程建设起着重要的推动作用;城镇发展以侵占了优质耕地资源为代价,耕地占城镇变化83%;城镇用地变化与人口城市化发展不平衡,城镇空间发展快于人口城镇化过程,城镇对农村人口的吸引力不及全国省会城市平均水平,在2007年城市化率低于全国水平13%,差距进一步扩大;城市空间结构发展模式受地形和土地资源的限制,城市分维数和坡度分别增加12%和104°,城市向潜山区扩展或搬迁的同时,城市空间的完整性下降     

基于全过程控制的铁路建设项目生态环境保护发展状况评估

铁路建设项目的生态环境影响在其全生命周期内各时期有不同的表现形式.在阐述不同时期应重点关注的生态环境保护问题的基础上,从全过程控制角度,建立了涵盖前期规划、建设期、运营期3个阶段的铁路建设项目生态环境保护发展状况评估指标体系,运用层次分析法对各指标进行权重评定.根据权重计算结果对铁路建设项目生态环境保护工作中重要时期及...     

Species distribution modelling—Effect of design and sample size of pseudo-absence observations

We explored the effect of varying pseudo-absence data in species distribution modelling using empirical data for four real species and simulated data for two imaginary species. In all analyses we used a fixed study area, a fixed set of environmental predictors and a fixed set of presence observations. Next, we added pseudo-absence data generated by different sampling designs and in different numbers to assess their relative importance for the output from the species distribution model. The sampling design strongly influenced the predictive performance of the models while the number of pseudo-absences had minimal effect on the predictive performance. We attribute much of these results to the relationship between the environmental range of the pseudo-absences (i.e. the extent of the environmental space being considered) and the environmental range of the presence observations (i.e. under which environmental conditions the species occurs). The number of generated pseudo-absences had a direct effect on the predicted probability, which translated to different distribution areas. Pseudo-absence observations that fell within grid cells with presence observations were purposely included in our analyses. We discourage the practice of excluding certain pseudo-absence data because it involves arbitrary assumptions about what are (un)suitable environments for the species being modelled.     

Economic sustainability and the preservation of environmental assets

The core requirement of sustainability is that current economic activities should not result in an excessive burden on future generations. This criterion is general enough to imply different decision rules for the preservation of environmental assets. Neoclassical economics does not have a sustainability criterion for environmental assets independent of the intertemporal efficiency criterion, which allocates environmental and man-made capital based on projected monetary benefits and costs. This criterion is examined in terms of the feasibility of valuing the benefits of environmental assets, the substitution possibilities between natural and man-made capital, and the ethical grounds for using efficiency as the sole determinant of the allocation of environmental assets. An alternative ecological sustainability criterion is the preservation of safe minimum levels of environmental assets in physical terms rather than the dollar value of a composite of natural and man-made capital. Safe minimum standards for environmental assets constrain the efficiency criterion in order to ensure the sustainability of economic systems. It is argued that the ecological approach to sustainability should limit the economic approach for decisions involving the allocation of environmental assets.     

中国生态农业与绿色食品

本文从农业环境问题和食品安全性出发，阐述了中国生态农业的兴起及特点，绿色食品生产的要求，生态农业与绿色食品的关系。介绍了几种可用于开发绿色食品的优化生态模式。