When biologists and engineers collide: Habitat conservation planning in the middle of urbanized development

The City of Austin, Texas, is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. It is also in one of the most biologically diverse terrestrial ecosystems in the world: the Balcones Canyonlands. Five cave invertebrates and two species of birds that inhabit the area are listed as threatened or endangered, two species of plants are candidates for listing, several others are considered rare and of concern, and a species of the salamander has also been proposed for listing. A habitat conservation plan, of national significance according to Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbit (Haurwitz 1996), has been under development for the last several years to conserve those endangered species through a 2400-ha system of preserves and to allow development to continue in more than 162,000 ha of surrounding area. The preserve system, comprising several units ranging in size from less than a hundred to several thousand hectares, would be bordered in many instances by developed areas. Development and maintenance of the infrastructure necessary for new and existing development, both commercial and residential, could have negated the biological value of the preserves (e.g., power-line corridors, water-treatment pipelines and facilities). The challenge of bringing this plan to fruition illustrates the complex biological, technical, and sociological context within which habitat conservation planning may occur. Resolving resource use conflicts of this nature have several commonalities that overarch these contexts. If recognized and addressed, one may move easily and foster positive results. These commonalities can be expressed as principles such as: relying on scientists to recognize, but not solve problems; acting before a scientific consensus is achieved; including human motivation and responses as part of the system to be studied and managed; and confronting uncertainty.     

中国土壤侵蚀影响因素及其危害分析

中国土壤侵蚀面积达492km^2，除土壤，降雨，植物被等自然因素外，超载放牧，陡坡开荒，工程建设等人为因素影响也很大，土壤侵蚀不仅破坏土地资源，而且制约粮食生产，污染水环境，淤积库容湖泊，危害城市安全，必须积极加以防治。     

汽车涂装材料的现状及发展方向

主要介绍了当前汽车涂装材料的现状及其发展方向，指出涂装材料开发的重点是提高材料性能的同时将更注重其环保性能。主要体现在以下几个方面：1．减少有害物质和废水排放是研究开发的方向；2．开发无铅的阴极电泳漆使电泳涂装材料更适应环保要求：3．水性涂料、粉末涂料、以及高固体分涂料，将逐渐取代传统的溶剂型中涂、面漆涂料．成为现代环保型汽车涂料的主流。     

Economics and Land-Use Change in Prioritizing Private Land Conservation

Abstract:  Incentive-based strategies such as conservation easements and short-term management agreements are popular tools for conserving biodiversity on private lands. Billions of dollars are spent by government and private conservation organizations to support land conservation. Although much of conservation biology focuses on reserve design, these methods are often ineffective at optimizing the protection of biological benefits for conservation programs. Our review of the recent literature on protected-area planning identifies some of the reasons why. We analyzed the site-selection process according to three important components: biological benefits, land costs, and likelihood of land-use change. We compared our benefit-loss-cost targeting approach with more conventional strategies that omit or inadequately address either land costs or likelihood of land-use change. Our proposed strategy aims to minimize the expected loss in biological benefit due to future land-use conversion while considering the full or partial costs of land acquisition. The implicit positive correlation between the likelihood of land-use conversion and cost of land protection means high-vulnerability sites with suitable land quality are typically more expensive than low-vulnerability sites with poor land quality. Therefore, land-use change and land costs need to be addressed jointly to improve spatial targeting strategies for land conservation. This approach can be extended effectively to land trusts and other institutions implementing conservation programs.     

Estimating the Effect of Protected Lands on the Development and Conservation of Their Surroundings

Abstract:  The fate of private lands is widely seen as key to the fate of biodiversity in much of the world. Organizations that work to protect biodiversity on private lands often hope that conservation actions on one piece of land will leverage the actions of surrounding landowners. Few researchers have, however, examined whether protected lands do in fact encourage land conservation nearby or how protected lands affect development in the surrounding landscape. Using spatiotemporal data sets on land cover and land protection for three sites (western North Carolina, central Massachusetts, and central Arizona), we examined whether the existence of a protected area correlates with an increased rate of nearby land conservation or a decreased rate of nearby land development. At all sites, newly protected conservation areas tended to cluster close to preexisting protected areas. This may imply that the geography of contemporary conservation actions is influenced by past decisions on land protection, often made for reasons far removed from concerns about biodiversity. On the other hand, we found no evidence that proximity to protected areas correlates with a reduced rate of nearby land development. Indeed, on two of our three sites the development rate was significantly greater in regions with more protected land. This suggests that each conservation action should be justified and valued largely for what is protected on the targeted land, without much hope of broader conservation leverage effects.     

The status of beaches and shoreline development options on the French Riviera: a perspective and a prognosis

Beach conservation and management on the high-value French Riviera in southeastern France have had mixed fortunes in shoreline economic development strategies over the past half century. Prior to 1965, socio-economic growth related to immigration and tourism resulted in considerable pressure on the coastal zone, leading in particular to beach erosion and degradation of beach environmental quality. Between 1965 and 1980, over 20% of the 132 km-long French Riviera was permanently altered through the implantation of yachting harbours and reclamation fill structures, while beach-based recreation had a rather low ranking as a development choice, except in the two major resorts of Cannes and Nice which exhibit a densely urbanized seafront. On this preponderantly boldrocky coast, the mediocre recreational value inherited by many of the beaches from the regional geologic setting, and from development pressures and earlier errors in coastal management, left them vulnerable to appropriation and so-called ‘valorization’ by yachting harbour and estate developers. Over the last decade, artificial shoreline development has virtually ceased, in response to several more or less interrelated factors. These include relative stagnation of socio-economic growth, increasing development and maintenance costs of yachting harbours, saturation of the yachting harbour market as a result of the burgeoning of new, often cheaper, resorts and of reconversion of commercial and shipbuilding ports to leisure ports in the Mediterranean, more stringent legislation, since 1986, on the implantation of residential and major engineering structures on the coastline, pressure for conservation of the cultural and environmental heritage, and greater demand for beach recreational space. This situation has forced a diversification of shore-based activities, as it has been realised that better managed beaches may balance economic aspirations while contributing to enhanced environmental quality and sensible shoreline conservation. This change in strategy has entailed considerable efforts and money on the improvement of coastal water quality, the provision of amenities for beach-goers, and especially the nourishment of eroding beaches and the creation of several artificial beaches. The extent to which beaches will continue to play a role in the sustainable development of French Riviera resorts will depend largely on the capacity of local authorities to maintain environmental quality in the face of inherited and persistent handicaps such as beach erosion.     

STATE WATER CONSERVATION STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES1

States have the potential to play a major role in moving water conservation from conferences and reports that identify its advantages to actual practice. The research identifies four generic “strategies” that categorize the states' approaches toward conservation and reports on the states' current conservation activities. The four strategies are: reliance on agricultural advisors, leverage incentives, performance standards, and mandatory actions. Four levels of state conservation activity exist. California and Florida maintain the most extensive programs; Arizona, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Oklahoma also have numerous programs but significantly lower staff commitments; eight additional states maintain more modest conservation effotts. Elsewhere, state directed conservation actions remain minimal and limited to those provided as agricultural advice. The study found support for water conservation the norm among water supply planners.     

天津芦苇湿地影响碳储量关键参数的模拟优化

采用室内模拟试验的方法,研究了水位、氮沉降、电导率等单因素对土壤呼吸的影响,以及三因素对土壤碳储量交互影响的响应面优化,并得到了土壤碳储量最大的最优方案。结果表明:对于单因素试验而言,过高或过低的水位及氮沉降梯度均会对土壤呼吸造成不利影响,而电导率的增加对土壤呼吸呈显著抑制作用,当水位、氮沉降、电导率分别为-9 cm、20 g/m2、0.3 d S/m时,土壤90 d累积呼吸总量最大,分别为84.95μmol/(m2·s)、92.88μmol/(m2·s)和85.70μmol/(m2·s);响应面优化分析中,北大港芦苇湿地碳储量的最优方案为水位-5.49 cm,电导率3.52 ds/m,氮沉降13.40 g/m2,在此条件下预测的理论碳储量最大值为8.62 g/kg。该优化方案可为天津滨海湿地资源的合理开发利用及湿地保育政策的制定等提供参考。     

Why dual leaders will drive innovation: Resolving the exploration and exploitation dilemma with a conservation of resources solution

Using conservation of resources theory, we challenge traditional unity of command models of leadership and propose that a dual‐leadership framework can serve as a potential solution to the inherent challenges of innovation. Leading for innovation demands are depicted as uniquely disparate from other forms of leadership, resulting in several types of conflict and resource depletion for individual leaders. We contend that this exploration–exploitation role conflict and the resulting need to manage incongruent role identities produce stress, strain, and resource depletion that in turn hamper innovative goal achievement for both a single leader directly and via subordinates more indirectly. We propose, however, that as an extension of the resource investment tenet of the conservation of resources theory, a dual‐leadership approach may alleviate many of these challenges for innovation. Specifically, the addition of a second leader can add resources to innovation and in turn decrease the role conflict inherent in managing the generation and implementation of creative ideas. Limitations and areas for future research are offered.