Opportunities and challenges for Common Agricultural Policy reform to support the European Green Deal

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the European Union's main instrument for agricultural planning, with a new reform approved for 2023–2027. The CAP intends to align with the European Green Deal (EGD), a set of policy initiatives underpinning sustainable development and climate neutrality in the European Union (EU), but several flaws cast doubts about the compatibility of the objectives of these 2 policies. We reviewed recent literature on the potential of CAP environmental objectives for integration with the EGD: protection of biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable management of natural resources. The CAP lacks appropriate planning measures, furthering instead risks to biodiversity and ecosystem services driven by landscape and biotic homogenization. Funding allocation mechanisms are not tailored to mitigate agricultural emissions, decreasing the efficiency of climate mitigation actions. The legislation subsidies farmers making extensive use of synthetic inputs without adequately supporting organic production, hindering the transition toward sustainable practices. We recommend proper control mechanisms be introduced in CAP Strategic Plans from each member state to ensure the EU is set on a sustainable production and consumption path. These include proportional assignment of funds to each CAP objective, quantitative targets to set goals and evidence-based interventions, and relevant indicators to facilitate effective monitoring of environmental performance. Both the CAP and the EGD should maintain ambitious environmental commitments in the face of crisis to avoid further degradation of the natural resources on which production systems stand.     

Retaining natural vegetation to safeguard biodiversity and humanity

Global efforts to deliver internationally agreed goals to reduce carbon emissions, halt biodiversity loss, and retain essential ecosystem services have been poorly integrated. These goals rely in part on preserving natural (e.g., native, largely unmodified) and seminatural (e.g., low intensity or sustainable human use) forests, woodlands, and grasslands. To show how to unify these goals, we empirically derived spatially explicit, quantitative, area-based targets for the retention of natural and seminatural (e.g., native) terrestrial vegetation worldwide. We used a 250-m-resolution map of natural and seminatural vegetation cover and, from this, selected areas identified under different international agreements as being important for achieving global biodiversity, carbon, soil, and water targets. At least 67 million km² of Earth's terrestrial vegetation (∼79% of the area of vegetation remaining) required retention to contribute to biodiversity, climate, soil, and freshwater conservation objectives under 4 United Nations’ resolutions. This equates to retaining natural and seminatural vegetation across at least 50% of the total terrestrial (excluding Antarctica) surface of Earth. Retention efforts could contribute to multiple goals simultaneously, especially where natural and seminatural vegetation can be managed to achieve cobenefits for biodiversity, carbon storage, and ecosystem service provision. Such management can and should co-occur and be driven by people who live in and rely on places where natural and sustainably managed vegetation remains in situ and must be complemented by restoration and appropriate management of more human-modified environments if global goals are to be realized.     

Evaluating the conservation impact of Antarctica's protected areas

Antarctic specially protected areas (ASPAs) are a key regulatory mechanism for protecting Antarctic environmental values. Previous evaluations of the effectiveness of the ASPA system focused on its representativeness and design characteristics, presenting a compelling rationale for its systematic revision. Upgrading the system could increase the representation of values within ASPAs, but representation alone does not guarantee the avoided loss or improvement of those values. Identifying factors that influence the effectiveness of ASPAs would inform the design and management of an ASPA system with the greatest capacity to deliver its intended conservation outcomes. To facilitate evaluations of ASPA effectiveness, we devised a research and policy agenda that includes articulating a theory of change for what outcomes ASPAs generate and how; building evaluation principles into ASPA design and designation processes; employing complementary approaches to evaluate multiple dimensions of effectiveness; and extending evaluation findings to identify and exploit drivers of positive conservation impact. Implementing these approaches will enhance the efficacy of ASPAs as a management tool, potentially leading to improved outcomes for Antarctic natural values in an era of rapid global change. Evaluación del impacto de conservación de las áreas protegidas de la Antártida     

Basic Principles and Ecological Consequences of Altered Flow Regimes for Aquatic Biodiversity

The flow regime is regarded by many aquatic ecologists to be the key driver of river and floodplain wetland ecosystems. We have focused this literature review around four key principles to highlight the important mechanisms that link hydrology and aquatic biodiversity and to illustrate the consequent impacts of altered flow regimes: Firstly, flow is a major determinant of physical habitat in streams, which in turn is a major determinant of biotic composition; Secondly, aquatic species have evolved life history strategies primarily in direct response to the natural flow regimes; Thirdly, maintenance of natural patterns of longitudinal and lateral connectivity is essential to the viability of populations of many riverine species; Finally, the invasion and success of exotic and introduced species in rivers is facilitated by the alteration of flow regimes. The impacts of flow change are manifest across broad taxonomic groups including riverine plants, invertebrates, and fish. Despite growing recognition of these relationships, ecologists still struggle to predict and quantify biotic responses to altered flow regimes. One obvious difficulty is the ability to distinguish the direct effects of modified flow regimes from impacts associated with land-use change that often accompanies water resource development. Currently, evidence about how rivers function in relation to flow regime and the flows that aquatic organisms need exists largely as a series of untested hypotheses. To overcome these problems, aquatic science needs to move quickly into a manipulative or experimental phase, preferably with the aims of restoration and measuring ecosystem response.     

Philippine protected areas are not meeting the biodiversity coverage and management effectiveness requirements of Aichi Target 11

Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity urges, inter alia, that nations protect at least 17 % of their land, and that protection is effective and targets areas of importance for biodiversity. Five years before reporting on Aichi targets is due, we assessed the Philippines’ current protected area system for biodiversity coverage, appropriateness of management regimes and capacity to deliver protection. Although protected estate already covers 11 % of the Philippines’ land area, 64 % of its key biodiversity areas (KBAs) remain unprotected. Few protected areas have appropriate management and governance infrastructures, funding streams, management plans and capacity, and a serious mismatch exists between protected area land zonation regimes and conservation needs of key species. For the Philippines to meet the biodiversity coverage and management effectiveness elements of Aichi Target 11, protected area and KBA boundaries should be aligned, management systems reformed to pursue biodiversity-led targets and effective management capacity created.     

植物-微生物修复石油烃污染土壤与根际微生态环境变化

石油烃作为一类持久性难降解有机污染物对土壤环境质量产生严重的危害。以天津大港油田原油污染土壤中筛选出的耐低温高效石油烃降解菌为靶细胞,以小麦、紫花苜蓿作为供试植物,利用盆栽试验,对植物-外源菌协同修复体系中的脱氢酶活性和土壤微生物多样性进行研究,分析其变化及其与石油烃降解率的关系。结果表明植物-微生物协同修复对石油烃具有较好的降解能力,其中小麦-固定化外源菌组具有最高的降解率,石油烃含量从最初的30 600 mg獉kg-1下降为24 300 mg獉kg-1,降解率为20.6%,并且其试验后期石油烃的降解率最大,远远高于其他时期,表现出良好的修复潜力。外源菌投加的初始阶段会迅速提高脱氢酶活性,然而这种影响随着降解时间延长而逐渐减弱。初期脱氢酶活性与总石油烃的降解存在较好的相关性,脱氢酶活性可以在一定程度上表征土壤石油烃的降解情况。微生物多样性与总石油烃降解也存在一定的相关性。     

Biodiversity versus emergencies: the impact of restocking on Animal Genetic Resources after disaster

Restocking is a favoured option in supporting livelihoods after a disaster. With the depletion of local livestock populations, the introduction of new species and breeds will clearly affect biodiversity. Nevertheless, the impact of restocking on Animal Genetic Resources has been largely ignored. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to examine the consequences of restocking on biodiversity via a simple model. Utilising a hypothetical project based on cattle, the model demonstrates that more than one-third of the population was related to the original restocked animals after three generations. Under conditions of random breed selection, the figure declined to 20 per cent. The tool was then applied to a donor-led restocking project implemented in Bosnia-Herzegovina. By restocking primarily with Simmental cattle, the model demonstrated that the implementation of a single restocking project is likely to have accelerated the decline of the indigenous Buşa breed by a further nine per cent. Thus, greater awareness of the long-term implications of restocking on biodiversity is required.     

加强国家生物多样性数据管理和信息交流能力建设

我国现已收集整理了覆盖全国的各类生物多样性数据和信息,但生物多样性数据管理的技术水平和质量较低,信息交流的技术手段和机制尚不理想,数据管理和信息交流的整体能力建设还相当薄弱。在评述目前我国生物多样性数据管理和信息交流现状的基础上,提出加强我国生物多样性数据管理和信息交流的具体行动措施,即建立新型的国家生物多样性信息系统组织机构体系,建立电子网络化的生物多样性信息系统,建立信息共享机制,优先协调、完善和开发一批数据库,制定基础数据管理标准。     

Study on Community Diversity of Coastal Shelter Forest in Jiaonan

Evaluating the biodiversity of previous and current species in a forest community is an important task. Some methodological researches and effective applications have been carried out widely in the temperate upland zone. However, they lack related researches in coastal shelter forests. This paper attempts to analyze them for Jiaonan coastal forest communities from the following three aspects, the relationship between plant biodiversity structure and its environment, the nexus between biodivers…     

湖北省湿地冬季水鸟多样性研究

报道了2004年1~4月湖北冬季水鸟调查结果,记录水鸟 66 种,种群数量 59 613 只,分属8目15科,其中列入国家重点保护的一级鸟类 4 种,115 只,国家二级 7 种,2 968 只。分析了冬季水鸟群落结构、分布和种群变动,并用生物多样性指数、物种丰富度与生物量3个不同的测度指标对其中12个湖泊的水鸟群落进行了评价,认为沉湖、梁子湖、龙感湖和网湖是较为成熟稳定的群落;并从沉湖东方白鹳（Ciconia boyciana）、龙感湖白头鹤（Grus monacha）、洪湖鸭科水鸟近40年的种群动态探讨了湿地水鸟现状,认为种群衰退趋势明显、湿地干扰和威胁严重。对此提出了加强湿地保护区的建设,理顺管理体制,合理规划与发展湿地产业和保护湿地资源对策。