Changes in Arthropod Assemblages along a Wide Gradient of Disturbance in Gabon

Abstract: Searching for indicator taxa representative of diverse assemblages, such as arthropods, is an important objective of many conservation studies. We evaluated the impacts of a wide gradient of disturbance in Gabon on a range of arthropod assemblages representing different feeding guilds. We examined 4 × 10⁵ arthropod individuals from which 21 focal taxa were separated into 1534 morphospecies. Replication included the understory of 3 sites in each of 4 different stages of forest succession and land use (i.e., habitats) after logging (old and young forests, savanna, and gardens). We used 3 complementary sampling methods to survey sites throughout the year. Overall differences in arthropod abundance and diversity were greatest between forest and open habitats, and cleared forest invaded by savanna had the lowest abundance and diversity. The magnitude of faunal differences was much smaller between old and young forests. When considered at this local scale, anthropogenic modification of habitats did not result in a monotonous decline of diversity because many herbivore pests and their associated predators and parasitoids were abundant and diverse in gardens, where plant productivity was kept artificially high year‐round through watering and crop rotation. We used a variety of response variables to measure the strength of correlations across survey locations among focal taxa. These could be ranked as follows in terms of decreasing number of significant correlations: species turnover > abundance > observed species richness > estimated species richness > percentage of site‐specific species. The number of significant correlations was generally low and apparently unrelated to taxonomy or guild structure. Our results emphasize the value of reporting species turnover in conservation studies, as opposed to simply measuring species richness, and that the search for indicator taxa is elusive in the tropics. One promising alternative might be to consider “predictor sets” of a small number of taxa representative of different functional groups, as identified in our study.     

上海市杨浦生态城区指标体系建立的研究

生态城市的建设以生态城区为依托,生态城区的创建离不开一套科学的指标体系.从上海市杨浦区创建知识创新型生态城区的指标体系入手,依托频度统计、压力-状态-响应模型、专家咨询等技术方法,提出指标体系的设置程序与构建的具体方法,以指导杨浦区生态城区的建设工作.此方法对生态城区乃至生态城市指标体系的建立具有一定的借鉴意义.     

牡丹江市生态环境质量分析

运用RS/GIS(遥感)技术、GPS技术与实地监测相结合的方法,以环境统计数据为基础,对牡丹江市生态环境质量状况进行评价分析。     

UNCSD可持续林业管理指标评介

详细介绍了联合国可持续发展委员会（ＵＮＣＳＤ）关于可持续林业管理的４个指标：木材采伐强度、森林面积变化、森林管理面积比率和森林保护面积比率的定义、计算方法、数据的可获得性以及它们与其他指标的关系，并对这４个指标的局限性进行了讨论。     

区域环境健康综合风险评价指标体系的构建及应用研究

探讨区域环境健康综合风险评价指标体系建立的原则、思路和方法,估算各省环境健康综合风险,为制定环境健康政策提供科学依据.运用层次分析法,结合主成分分析和独立性分析,按照"风险压力-风险现状-风险应对"的总体思路构建了23个指标的区域环境健康综合风险评价指标体系及其权重系数.运用2012年31个省(自治区、直辖市)的数据进行实证检验,并将评价结果进行聚类分析探讨地区风险的差异和规律.研究表明全国有9个省区域环境健康综合风险指数超过标准,其中特别发达(北京、天津、上海)及不发达地区环境健康综合风险相对较低,较为发达地区环境健康风险较高.区域环境健康综合风险评价指标较为科学合理,具有较好的推广性和实用性.     

CFD modeling and simulation of turbulent fluid flow and dust dispersion in the 20-L explosion vessel equipped with the perforated annular nozzle

A three-dimensional CFD model was developed to simulate the turbulent flow field induced by dust feeding and the associated dust dispersion within the 20-L explosion vessel equipped with the perforated annular nozzle. The model was validated against experimental data for pressure and root mean square velocity.Simulation results have shown that the turbulent kinetic energy is rather uniformly distributed and its values are significantly lower than those attained with the rebound nozzle. Furthermore, the perforated annular nozzle is able to generate a uniform dust/air cloud. However, a consistent fraction of the dust remains trapped inside the nozzle and, thus, it does not contribute to the explosion process.     

Improving safety and availability of complex systems using a risk-based failure assessment approach

This paper presents a structured risk-based failure assessment (RBFA) approach, which provides a complete solution to avoid repeated and potential failures to improve overall plant safety and availability. Technological advancements and high product demand have encouraged designers to design mega-capacity systems to enhance system utilization and improve revenues. However, these benefits make the systems more complex and thus prone to unnoticed failure. It is an overwhelming task to address all the failures due to the limited resources and time constraints. This leads to substandard and poor quality failure assessments, which cause repeated failures. To address this common industry concern, a four phase RBFA framework is proposed which is not limited to the identification of root cause(s) but also includes other actions such as failure monitoring. The four phases include the plan phase, the assessment phase, the analysis phase and the implementation-tracking phase. These phases cover identification of failure, failure analysis, root cause(s) analysis, and failure monitoring. In this paper, the applicability and advantages of the proposed approach are examined through two real case studies pertaining to bearing failure and drive coupling failure. By implementing the proposed approach, significant improvements have been experienced in the system availability in both the cases.     

Lessons learned for process safety management in China

A number of chemical accidents have occurred in China over the past two decades with significant impact on humans and the environment. It is expected that lessons will have been learned from these accidents that will help industries to reduce the risk that catastrophic chemical accidents occur in future. In fact, to some extent there is evidence that lessons have been learned, to the extent that the Chinese government has substantially strengthened legislation and regulatory standards. Nonetheless, there remains a concern that much more still needs to be done to reduce chemical accidents risks in China. Important progress in this area requires not only government support but a commitment across all hazardous industries to learn from past accidents that may in many cases require establishment or considerable improvement of their safety management systems. To assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in this effort, results of an analysis of common causes of the chemical accidents reported in the Major Accident Information (MAI) website of Chinese State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) are presented in this paper In particular, inadequate process hazard analysis (PHA), training and emergency response planning (ERP) were identified as the top three process safety management (PSM) elements that contribute to most of the SMEs accidents in China. Seven recommendations are proposed in order to improve the effectiveness of lesson learning for government agencies and SMEs.     

A structural decomposition-based diagnosis method for dynamic process systems using HAZID information

A novel diagnosis method is proposed in this paper that uses the results of the blended HAZID analysis extended to the dynamic case of process systems controlled by operational procedures. The algorithm is capable of finding fault root causes in process systems using nominal and observed possible faulty operational procedure execution traces. The algorithm uses the structural decomposition of the process system and its component-level dynamic HAZID (P-HAZID) tables and executes the diagnosis component-wise by first decomposing the observed execution traces, and then assembling the diagnosis results. The exact structure of the algorithm is also discussed, followed by two case studies on which its operation is demonstrated.