Use of Long‐Distance Migration Patterns of an Endangered Species to Inform Conservation Planning for the World's Largest Marine Protected Area

Large marine protected areas (MPAs), each hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, have been set up by governments around the world over the last decade as part of efforts to reduce ocean biodiversity declines, yet their efficacy is hotly debated. The Chagos Archipelago MPA (640,000 km²) (Indian Ocean) lies at the heart of this debate. We conducted the first satellite tracking of a migratory species, the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), within the MPA and assessed the species’ use of protected versus unprotected areas. We developed an approach to estimate length of residence within the MPA that may have utility across migratory taxa including tuna and sharks. We recorded the longest ever published migration for an adult cheloniid turtle (3979 km). Seven of 8 tracked individuals migrated to distant foraging grounds, often ≥1000 km outside the MPA. One turtle traveled to foraging grounds within the MPA. Thus, networks of small MPAs, developed synergistically with larger MPAs, may increase the amount of time migrating species spend within protected areas. The MPA will protect turtles during the breeding season and will protect some turtles on their foraging grounds within the MPA and others during the first part of their long‐distance postbreeding oceanic migrations. International cooperation will be needed to develop the network of small MPAs needed to supplement the Chagos Archipelago MPA. Uso de los Patrones de Migración a Larga Distancia de una Especie en Peligro de Extinción para Informar a la Planeación de la Conservación del Área Marina Protegida más Grande     

特高压输电线路经自然保护区的生态保护措施体系研究

在仔细分析高压电网工程的环境影响因素和环境影响特点的基础上，结合工程的现场调查结果，针对工程实施的各环节，分别提出了对自然保护区的生态环境保护措施，总结出适用于每一阶段的原则，同时强调了环境监理的重要性，给出了建立示范工程的建议。     

海门市蛎岈山牡蛎礁海洋特别保护区生态系统健康评价

在分析海门市蛎岈山牡蛎礁海洋特别保护区海域生态系统现状及特点基础上,构建了包含环境、结构、稳定性3个方面24个指标的海洋特别保护区生态系统健康评价指标体系,并采用熵权综合指数模型和模糊综合评价模型对保护区的生态系统健康状况进行评价及对比分析。熵权综合指数法评价结果表明,保护区生态系统处于健康趋向亚健康的状态;熵权模糊综合模型评价结果表明,保护区生态系统处于健康状态。由于模糊综合评价模型能反映保护区各生态要素的健康状况,其评价结论更趋近于保护区客观现状,更适用于海洋保护区健康评价。     

天然林土壤有机碳及矿化特征研究

通过野外调查和室内分析培养,研究了马尾松林、常绿阔叶林、落叶阔叶林、针阔混交林、红松林和油松林这6种天然林林下土壤有机碳含量及有机碳矿化特征.结果表明,林下土壤有机碳含量都表现出随土壤深度增加而逐渐降低的趋势;双指数方程可以很好拟合出天然林土壤有机碳的矿化过程,准确反映出各天然林土壤的矿化反应特征.天然林各层土壤矿化反应趋势相同,但强度各异.其中,红松林0~10 cm土壤反应强度最为强烈,其下各层土壤的矿化反应强度也显著高于其他天然林的同层土壤;对落叶阔叶林和针阔混交林土壤矿化特征比较发现,凋落物种类差异对土壤活性有机碳含量产生较强烈影响,因此呈现出不同的矿化反应特征.     

天然气管道穿越湿地的生态影响评价研究——穿越草本沼泽湿地自然保护区

文章介绍了天然气管道工程建设内容,论述了天然气管道工程穿越草本沼泽湿地自然保护区的生态环境影响评价内容,主要包括评价等级、评价范围、施工期生态环境影响评价及运行期生态环境影响评价.重点论述了天然气管道工程施工期对湿地植物、湿地动物、湿地生态系统、土壤环境、湿地生态景观的影响,以及工程运行期发生管道事故时的生态环境影响.最后,对目前建设项目生态影响评价中存在的问题提出了建议.     

1990～2020年黄河流域典型生态区生态环境质量时空格局及驱动力分析

科学评估生态环境质量是实现区域生态可持续发展的前提.基于1990～2020年Landsat遥感影像,采用熵值法构建遥感生态指数(E-RSEI),结合Mann-Kendall趋势检验、Sen倾斜度、Hurst指数和稳定性分析,在多时空尺度下分析黄河流域典型生态区的生态环境质量时空变化格局,并利用地理探测器量化了环境和人为等8个因子对E-RSEI时空分布的影响.结果表明：(1) 31年间E-RSEI均值为67.5%,时间尺度上呈增加趋势,平均增幅为0.066·(10 a)^-1,空间尺度上呈东低西高、南高北低的分布特征;(2)研究区生态环境质量未来变化趋势将以持续性改善为主,但仍有9.33%的区域存在退化的潜在风险.(3)降水是影响该区域E-RSEI空间分布的关键环境因子,人为因子的影响力较低,同单因子相比,因子交互作用对生态环境质量的解释力更强,降水与其他因子的交互作用处于主导地位.研究结果可为黄河流域生态区生态环境质量的可持续发展提供科学参考.     

Effectiveness of Environmental Surrogates for the Selection of Conservation Area Networks

Abstract:  Rapid biodiversity assessment and conservation planning require the use of easily quantified and estimated surrogates for biodiversity. Using data sets from Québec and Queensland, we applied four methods to assess the extent to which environmental surrogates can represent biodiversity components: (1) surrogacy graphs; (2) marginal representation plots; (3) Hamming distance function; and (4) Syrjala statistical test for spatial congruence. For Québec we used 719 faunal and floral species as biodiversity components, and for Queensland we used 2348 plant species. We used four climatic parameter types (annual mean temperature, minimum temperature during the coldest quarter, maximum temperature during the hottest quarter, and annual precipitation), along with slope, elevation, aspect, and soil types, as environmental surrogates. To study the effect of scale, we analyzed the data at seven spatial scales ranging from 0.01° to 0.10° longitude and latitude. At targeted representations of 10% for environmental surrogates and biodiversity components, all four methods indicated that using a full set of environmental surrogates systematically provided better results than selecting areas at random, usually ensuring that ≥90% of the biodiversity components achieved the 10% targets at scales coarser than 0.02°. The performance of surrogates improved with coarser spatial resolutions. Thus, environmental surrogate sets are useful tools for biodiversity conservation planning. A recommended protocol for the use of such surrogates consists of randomly selecting a set of areas for which distributional data are available, identifying an optimal surrogate set based on these areas, and subsequently prioritizing places for conservation based on the optimal surrogate set.     

WSSD 2002, Latin America and Brazil: Biodiversity and Indigenous People

Latin America comprehends notable variations in terms of natural environment, availability of natural resources, living standards, and demographic patterns. Latin America is a mosaic of cultures, post- and pre-Columbian. The rich variety of life forms discovered and described by chroniclers and traveling naturalists in the Neotropics contributed to the proposal, in mid-XVIIIth century, of a new system of classification and a scientific code of nomenclature for all organisms. Biodiversity was, for many centuries, a source of resources to be exploited in natura. In scientific circles, its inventory became the domain of taxonomists. But modern technology showed how important the miriad of life forms really are as sources of chemical molecules to be engineered as drugs and reassembled as novel manufactured products. We are on the brink of a new agricultural and medical revolution, thanks to the techniques of genetic engineering, which will lead eventually to the elimination of hunger and malnutrition.In this essay, the Brazilian environmental and social heterogeneity will serve as an example to illustrate some key points, which have influenced sustainability policies. The Amazon deforestation and indigenous knowledge (IK), subjects often associated with areas of high biodiversity, are usually the focus of environmental debates. The importance of IK in integrating development, reducing poverty and sustainability are considered together with the intellectual property rights of native populations.In the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Implementation Plan, a few paragraphs were dedicated to Latin America, because of the pre-existing Action Platform on the Road to Johannesburg 2002, approved in Rio de Janeiro in October 2001. This paper calls attention to the need to draw up specific environmental policies for a region which shows an extremely high cultural and biological diversity, associated with a high availability of forests and water, among other resources.     

Nature Reserve and Ecotourism Development in China’s Wuzhishan Mountain Region

As the protected areas of land and coastal environment, nature reserves are designed to address how to reconcile the con- servation of biodiversity, the quest for economic and social de- velopment and the maintenance of cultural values. This paper establishes a framework for nature reserve development that seeks to incorporate ecotourism into its strategies. The overall purpose was to identify the information needs required for a comprehen- sive nature reserve that incorporates ecotourism related values. It also illustrates the utility of this framework in the context of the Wuzhishan Mountain Region of China. A literature review, the first phase of a visionary strategy and a subsequent gap analysis for available management information were undertaken in order to achieve this paper’s purpose. Finally, recommendations are pre- sented for integrating ecotourism into nature reserve development in the Wuzhishan Mountain Region