Prioritizing species conservation programs based on IUCN Green Status and estimates of cost-sharing potential

Over 1 million species around the world are at risk of extinction, and conservation organizations have to decide where to invest their limited resources. Cost-effectiveness can be increased by leveraging funding opportunities and increasing collaborative partnerships to achieve shared conservation goals. We devised a structured decision-making framework to prioritize species’ conservation programs based on a cost–benefit analysis that takes collaborative opportunities into account in an examination of national and global conservation return on investment. Conservation benefit is determined by modifying the novel International Union for the Conservation of Nature Green Status for Species to provide an efficient, high-level measure that is comparable among species, even with limited information and time constraints. We applied this prioritization approach to the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, Canada, a nonprofit organization seeking to increase the number of species it assists with conservation translocations. We sought to identify and prioritize additional species’ programs for which conservation translocation expertise and actions could make the most impact. Estimating the likelihood of cost-sharing potential enabled total program cost to be distinguished from costs specific to the organization. Comparing a benefit-to-cost ratio on different geographic scales allowed decision makers to weigh alternative options for investing in new species’ programs in a transparent and effective manner. Our innovative analysis aligns with general conservation planning frameworks and can be adapted for any organization.     

Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

In group-living animals, dominants may suppress subordinate reproduction directly and indirectly, thereby skewing reproduction in their favour. In this study, we show experimentally that this ability (‘power’) is influenced by resource distribution and the body size difference between unrelated dominants and subordinates in the cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher. Reproduction was strongly skewed towards the dominant female, due to these females producing more and larger clutches and those clutches surviving egg eating better than those of subordinate females, but was not so when subordinates defended a patch. If breeding shelters were provided in two patches, subordinate females were more likely to exclusively defend a patch against the dominant female and breed, compared to when the same breeding resource was provided in one patch. Relatively large subordinate females were more likely to defend a patch and reproduce. Females also directly interfered with each other’s reproduction by eating the competitors’ eggs, at which dominants were more successful. Although dominant females benefited from subordinate females due to alloparental care and an increase in egg mass, they also showed costs due to reduced growth in the presence of subordinates. The results support the view that the dominant’s power to control subordinate reproduction determines reproductive partitioning, in agreement with the predictions from tug-of-war models of reproductive skew.     

豫东黄河故道湿地鸟类自然保护区现状调查及生态保护规划

对豫东黄河故道湿地鸟类自然保护区现状进行了调查,并提出了生态保护规划。     

Female territoriality and the function of scent-marking in a monogamous antelope (Oreotragus oreotragus)

In monogamous species, females often choose between males according to the quality of the territories they defend, but the extent to which females themselves contribute to territory defence is frequently underestimated. Here we test for differences in male and female roles during paired scent-marking bouts, a key component of territorial defence, in a monogamous antelope. In two populations (Kenya, Zimbabwe) of klipspringer, Oreotragus oreotragus, both males and females usually scent-marked at the same site, but there were significant differences between sexes in terms of investment within bouts. Females initiated most bouts, thus dictating the marking strategy of the pair. Males initiated relatively few bouts, but deposited more scent marks per bout than females and were usually the last to scent-mark before leaving the site; they marked on the same branches as the female and thus overmarked her scent. Both sexes deposited more marks during paired than solo visits. Immediately preceding and following scent-marking bouts, males approached females and females left males more often than expected. Female scent-marking rates were higher when they were receptive than at other times, and this increase was matched by elevated marking rates of males. Females may increase marking rates when they are receptive in order to test the quality of their mate or to incite male competition. However, these ideas are unlikely to explain female scent-marking behaviour outside the mating season, which appears to be related primarily to territorial defence. We suggest that these differences in investment in scent-marking bouts are consistent with predictions that females may be autonomously territorial and that overmarking of female scent by males is a form of mate-guarding. Received: 17 November 1999 / Received in revised form: 24 February 2000 / Accepted: 13 March 2000     

A methodology of characterizing status and trend of land changes in oases: a case study of Sangong River watershed, Xinjiang, China

Land change is often studied with Markov models to develop a probability transition matrix. The existing methods dependent on such matrixes cannot effectively characterize some important aspects associated with land change such as status, direction, trend and regional variations. This study presents mathematical models to quantify these elements, defining unbalanced, quasi-balanced and balanced status, one- and two-way transitions and the rising or falling trends. Using these models and remote-sensing imageries, the landscape was studied for a case area, the oasis of Sangong River in Xinjiang, Northwest China where typical arid conditions prevail. Land expansion and contraction among various land types and for the entire oasis were analyzed for the periods of 1978-1987, 1978-1998 and 1987-1998. The changes were closely related to a strong economic growth after the land-reform campaign and adoption of the market economy in China in the 1980s to early 1990s, a process not strictly Markovian that requires stationarity and randomness. Information on land-change status and trend is important for a better understanding of the underlying driving processes but also for land-use planning and decision-making.     

尼洋河流域水环境质量现状评价研究——基于模糊综合评价法

尼洋河流域水资源十分丰富,水能蕴藏量巨大,生态环境良好。随着西藏经济的发展,必将出现大规模开发利用水资源的趋势,探讨流域水资源和环境的现状及可持续发展具有十分重要的现实意义。本文对尼洋河流域基础资料的收集与整理,分析尼洋河流域的特点与现存的问题,根据收集的水质监测资料,分析了流域污染源概况和构成,以未进行水环境功能区划为前提,选择模糊综合评价法对尼洋河流域水环境质量进行现状评价,并对超标断面进行了原因分析,通过对2012年尼洋河流域14个监测断面监测成果的评价,得出尼洋河流域水质现状良好的结论,为以后的水功能区划分、水质目标的确定以及水环境功能区划分提供依据。     

南太湖地区湖州市大气PM_(2.5)中多环芳烃的研究——污染现状和人体暴露健康风险评价

运用智能综合大气采样仪采集了南太湖地区湖州市大气PM 10和PM 2.5样品,采用高效液相色谱检测了该样品中16种多环芳烃化合物,通过苯并(a)芘(Ba P)致癌等效浓度、人群终身超额致癌风险和预期寿命损失等指标,评价湖州市大气PM2.5中多环芳烃的人群健康风险。结果表明:全市大气PM 2.5中多环芳烃全年总平均浓度为11.59 ng/m 3,季平均浓度范围在4.775~23.98 ng/m3之间,季节之间呈现一定的变化,冬季秋季春季夏季;全市大气PM 2.5中多环芳烃的苯并(a)芘总致癌等效浓度(TEQ)年均值为1.138 ng/m3,污染所致的成人和儿童的终身超额致癌风险分别为8.7×10-6和6.0×10-6,成人的预期寿命损失为44.5 min。     

江苏省水环境管理政策法规现状及对策研究

江苏省正在实施的水环境相关政策法规共计40余项,对改善江苏省水环境质量起到直接推动作用.在研究江苏省水环境管理政策法规现状的基础上,分析其在河道管理与水环境区域补偿等方面的经验,同时分析了其在水环境管理体系建设、政策评估以及水生态保护等方面存在的不足.最后,结合发达国家在水环境管理政策法规方面的经验,提出了江苏省水环境管理政策法规的完善建议,以期为江苏省水环境管理提供借鉴和参考.     

CORRELATION OF COPROSTANOL TO ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS IN COASTAL AND ESTUARINE SEDIMENTS OF THE U.S.1

ABSTRACT: Results from the National Status and Trends Program, a nationwide effort to evaluate U.S. coastal and estuarine environmental quality, are analyzed to provide information about regional sources of organic contaminants in the benthic environment. Spearman's rank correlation procedure is applied to measurements of coprostanol, a chemical tracer of sewage, and three classes of organic compounds in sediments. The results suggest that discharges from publicly owned treatment works are responsible for concentrations of the organic compounds encountered in the northeastern coastal region, while other sources may predominate in the other regions of the country.     

Water-Quality Monitoring and Biological Integrity Assessment in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida: Status, Trends, and Loadings (1988–1994)

a production in the central, south central, and the south segments of the lagoon. In a system as large and complex as the lagoon, N and P limitations are potentially subject to significant spatial and temporal variability. Total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TN) was higher in the north (1.25 mg/liter) and lower in the south (0.89 mg/liter). The reverse pattern was observed for total P (TP), i.e., lowest in the north (0.03 mg/liter) and highest at the south (0.14 mg/liter) ends of the IRL. This increased P concentration in the SIRL appears to have a significantly large effect on chlorophyll a production compared with the other segments, as indicated by stepwise regression statistics. This relationship can be expressed as follows: South IRL [chlorophyll a] =−8.52 + 162.41 [orthophosphate] + 7.86 [total nitrogen] + 0.38 [turbidity]; R ²= 0.98**.