Paying the Extinction Debt in Southern Wisconsin Forest Understories

Abstract: The lack of long‐term baseline data restricts the ability to measure changes in biological diversity directly and to determine its cause. This hampers conservation efforts and limits testing of basic tenets of ecology and conservation biology. We used a historical baseline survey to track shifts in the abundance and distribution of 296 native understory species across 82 sites over 55 years in the fragmented forests of southern Wisconsin. We resurveyed stands first surveyed in the early 1950s to evaluate the influence of patch size and surrounding land cover on shifts in native plant richness and heterogeneity and to evaluate changes in the relative importance of local site conditions versus the surrounding landscape context as drivers of community composition and structure. Larger forests and those with more surrounding forest cover lost fewer species, were more likely to recruit new species, and had lower rates of homogenization than smaller forests in more fragmented landscapes. Nearby urbanization further reduced both alpha and beta understory diversity. Similarly, understory composition depended strongly on local site conditions in the original survey but only weakly reflected the surrounding landscape composition. By 2005, however, the relative importance of these factors had reversed such that the surrounding landscape structure is now a much better predictor of understory composition than are local site conditions. Collectively, these results strongly support the idea that larger intact habitat patches and landscapes better sustain native species diversity and demonstrate that humans play an increasingly important role in driving patterns of native species diversity and community composition.     

The emergence of stable isotopes in environmental and forensic geochemistry studies: a review

In the past decade, environmental forensics has emerged as a discipline directed toward determining parties liable for causing spills of contaminants into the environment. Such investigations, while geared toward determining the guilty parties in order to recover costs of the cleanup and remediation, require various questions to be addressed. These include determination of the nature of the product; Where did it come from?; Extent of weathering, if any; How long has it been there?; and Is it degrading naturally? Traditionally, these studies have been addressed through utilization of techniques such as gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCMS). However, in recent years, stable isotopes, primarily determined through the use of combined gas chromatography–isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GCIRMS), have emerged as an equally important tool in environmental forensics. For relatively low molecular, volatile compounds such as MTBE, BTEX, or chlorinated solvents, the isotopes, primarily carbon and hydrogen, have been used extensively for evaluating the onset of natural attenuation. For larger molecules such as PCBs or PAHs, in which the effects of biodegradation on the isotope composition of these molecules is minimal, the isotopic fingerprints of the individual compounds can be used for correlation purposes. In this paper, a brief introduction to isotope geochemistry will be given, followed by a review of applications of stable isotopes to a variety of environmental problems. While the review may not necessarily be exhaustive, it will provide a comprehensive overview of areas where isotopes have been used and potential applications for the future. Most of the review is concerned with carbon and hydrogen isotopes, although a brief overview of the emerging area of chlorine isotopes will also be discussed.     

基于RS和GIS的武汉市生态系统服务价值变化研究

以武汉市为例,利用从1996年和2001年TM数据中获取的景观数据,估算了武汉市生态服务价值并分析了景观之间的转化所引起的生态服务价值的变化。结果表明:各景观类型中水域景观的生态服务价值贡献系数最大,达到2.869;研究区域生态服务价值总量变化不大,2001年比1996年只下降了3688.79万元,但各景观生态服务价值变动很大,其中库塘生态服务价值增加了2.38亿元,河流的生态服务价值减少了2.33亿元,其变化率分别达到40.74%和-9.16%;由于河湖被占用所造成的生态服务价值损失达到9891.68万元,城市建设占用其它景观类型所带来的生态服务价值损失达到9908.37万元,这说明建设用地的发展对其他自然景观占用已经影响到了武汉市生态系统服务功能发挥。     

Spatial and temporal patterns of soil erosion in the Tibetan Plateau from 1984 to 2013北大核心CSCD

Soil erosion has a critical effect on ecological security and socioeconomics, which may deteriorate ecosystem services and common human well-being. The revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) was applied to assess soil erosion from 1984 to 2013 in the Tibetan Plateau and analyzed the temporal and spatial variation of soil erosion intensity. Furthermore, the temporal and spatial variation rates of soil erosion were explored across different ecosystems. The results indicated that the annual soil erosion fuctuated in the Tibetan Plateau, the soil erosion intensity decreased from south to north, and the most serious soil erosion was mainly distributed in the southern Tibetan Plateau (Xigaze and Changdu regions, Lhasa, and north of the Shannan region). The soil erosion intensity was higher in shrub, alpine meadow, and sparse vegetation ecosystems. The highest soil erosion was found in alpine meadow (2.17 × 1010 t), followed by alpine grassland (1.59 × 1010 t) and sparse vegetation (1.30 × 1010 t) ecosystems. Meanwhile, although the most serious soil erosion intensity was found in the regions of 3 000-4 000 m altitude, the soil erosion was mainly observed in the regions of 4 000-5 000 m altitude. In the three most recent decades, annual soil erosion decreased at a rate of-1.78 × 108 t/a. Additionally, soil erosion mainly increased in south of the Qiangtang Plateau and in the periphery of the Qaidam basin. Decreased soil erosion was mainly found along the Hengduan Mountains, central Himalayas. Although the increased annual normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) had positive effects for soil protection, changes in soil erosion was mainly controlled by the change of annual precipitation. Thus, the fragility of ecological systems and increased rainfall erosivity accounted for the obviously increased soil erosion in the alpine grassland ecosystem (1.19 × 10 t/a). However, increased ecosystem stability and decreased rainfall erosivity contributed to the decreased soil erosion in forest and shrub ecosystems, by-0.77 × 10 t/a and-1.65 × 10 t/a, respectively. The slightly decreased rainfall erosivity accounted for a decrease of soil erosion in the sparse vegetation ecosystem (-0.44 × 10 t/a). Meanwhile, soil erosion has decreased in the alpine meadow ecosystem over the past 30 years, which may owing to the relatively higher NDVI that neutralized the increase of rainfall erosivity to some extent. This study revealed serious soil erosion regions and ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau and explored possible reasons for variations in soil erosion in different ecosystems, which may provide a scientific reference for soil erosion conservation and control in the near future. © 2018 Science Press. All rights reserved.     

不同纤维素降解菌对玉米秸秆的降解效果

该研究旨在探索不同纤维素降解菌对玉米秸秆降解效果的差异性,为秸秆资源化利用提供参考。利用筛选自宁夏秸秆堆、畜粪和土壤中的四株纤维素降解菌,分别为黄曲霉(Aspergillusflavus)Z5-3菌株,非洲哈茨木霉(Trichoderma afroharzianum)Z6-4菌株,藤黄单胞菌(Luteimonas sp.)X11-1菌株,施氏假单胞菌(Pseudomonas stutzeri)X3-5-1菌株,通过室内控温秸秆堆肥发酵试验,研究添加不同纤维素降解菌后堆肥温度、pH值、碳损失、氮损失、有效养分含量的变化规律。试验结果表明,与对照(不加菌处理)比较,加菌处理提前1-2 d进入高温期,最高温度提高了0.3-1.3℃,且细菌处理较真菌处理提前1 d进入高温期,最高温度提高了0.5-0.7℃。pH值总体呈先增加后降低的趋势,且在高温期达到最大值。与对照相比,加菌处理NH3和CO2累积释放量具有降低趋势。以全氮含量变化计,细菌X11-1、X3-5-1处理的氮损失分别为26.14%和26.57%,真菌Z5-3、Z6-4处理分别为36.49%和34.19%,表明添加不同纤维素降解菌可不同程度地降低堆肥物料中的碳损失和氮损失,其中细菌处理保氮效果显著优于真菌处理。与对照相比,细菌X11-1、X3-5-1处理、真菌Z5-3、Z6-4处理分别提前腐熟5、2、2、2d,表明添加纤维素降解菌可减少堆肥物腐熟时间,促进物料养分浓缩。综合判断,玉米秸秆堆肥中加入纤维素降解菌,有利于降低物料的碳、氮损失,且细菌的保氮效果优于真菌,其藤黄单胞菌X11-1处理最先达到腐熟,为最佳处理。     

An Index of Risk as a Measure of Biodiversity Conservation Achieved through Land Reform

Abstract:  We measured the net progress of land reform in achieving a national policy goal for biodiversity conservation in the context of ongoing clearing of native vegetation and additions of land to a highly nonrepresentative (residual) reserve network, interior South Island, New Zealand. We used systematic conservation-planning approaches to develop a spatially explicit index of risk of biodiversity loss (RBL). The index incorporated information from national data sets that describe New Zealand's remaining indigenous land cover, legal protection, and land environments and modeled risk to biodiversity on the basis of stated assumptions about the effects of past habitat loss and legal protection. The index identified irreplaceable and vulnerable native habitats in lowland environments as the most at risk of biodiversity loss, and risk was correlated with the density of threatened plant records. To measure achievement, we used changes in the index that reflected gains made and opportunity costs incurred by legal protection and privatization. Application of the index to measure the difference made by land reform showed it had caused a net increase in the risk of biodiversity loss because most land vulnerable to habitat modification and rich in threatened plant species was privatized and land at least risk of biodiversity loss was protected. The application revealed that new high-elevation reserves did little to mitigate biodiversity decline, that privatization of low-elevation land further jeopardized the most vulnerable biodiversity in lowland native habitats, and that outcomes of land reform for biodiversity deteriorated over time. Further development of robust achievement measures is needed to encourage more accountable biodiversity conservation decisions.     

Demographic Limitations of the Ability of Habitat Restoration to Rescue Declining Populations

Abstract:  Habitat restoration is often recommended in conservation without first evaluating whether populations are in fact habitat limited and thus whether declining populations can be stabilized or recovered through habitat restoration. We used a spatially structured demographic model coupled with a dynamic neutral landscape model to evaluate whether habitat restoration could rescue populations of several generic migratory songbirds that differed in their sensitivity to habitat fragmentation (i.e., severity of edge effects on nesting success). Simulating a best-case scenario, landscapes were instantly restored to 100% habitat before, at, or after habitat loss exceeded the species' vulnerability threshold. The vulnerability threshold is a measure of extinction risk, in which the change in population growth rate ( δλ ) scaled to the rate of habitat loss ( δh ) falls below −1% ( δλ/δh ≤ −0.01). Habitat restoration was most effective for species with low-to-moderate edge sensitivities and in landscapes that had not previously experienced extensive fragmentation. To stabilize populations of species that were highly edge sensitive or any species in heavily fragmented landscapes, restoration needed to be initiated long before the vulnerability threshold was reached. In practice, habitat restoration is generally not initiated until a population is at risk of extinction, but our model results demonstrate that some populations cannot be recovered at this point through habitat restoration alone. At this stage, habitat loss and fragmentation have seriously eroded the species' demographic potential such that halting population declines is limited more by demographic factors than the amount of available habitat. Evidence that populations decline in response to habitat loss is thus not sufficient to conclude that habitat restoration will be sufficient to rescue declining populations.     

基于理论化学计算研究探针物质在紫外/氯体系中的反应机理

紫外/氯体系是将氯化消毒与紫外线辐射相结合的一种水处理高级氧化技术. 硝基苯、苯甲酸和对氯苯甲酸常被作为探针化合物,广泛用于研究紫外/氯体系中生成的羟基自由基（·OH）和活性氯自由基（·ClO和·Cl等）. 采用理论化学计算的方法研究了硝基苯、苯甲酸和对氯苯甲酸与紫外/氯体系中生成的3种主要自由基·OH、·ClO和·Cl的反应机理. 在酸性条件下（pH <4.0）,硝基苯、苯甲酸和对氯苯甲酸与·OH、·ClO和·Cl的反应包括抽氢反应、加成反应和单电子转移反应. ·OH与3种探针化合物反应的ΔG^0,≠分别为7.7—20.1 kcal·mol⁻¹、5.6—10.1 kcal·mol⁻¹和5.2—12.4 kcal·mol⁻¹. ·ClO与3种化合物的ΔG^0,≠则相对较高为11.8—25.1 kcal·mol⁻¹. ·Cl 引发的反应中,与硝基苯（10.3—14.1 kcal·mol⁻¹）和对氯苯甲酸反应能垒较高（10.2—12.4 kcal·mol⁻¹）,与苯甲酸则反应能垒较低（5.4—11.9 kcal·mol⁻¹）,其中单电子转移反应起重要作用. 因此在紫外/氯体系中,起主要反应的是·OH,·ClO作用较小,·Cl的贡献则主要体现在抽氢反应和单电子转移反应中,这与在中性条件下的反应机理相吻合. 总体而言,对于探针化合物的不同形态,其反应速率的顺序为负离子态>分子态>正离子态. 本文的研究结果为探究紫外/氯体系当中各种自由基的反应机理提供了数据支撑.