淮河水系淮南段椎实螺类(Lymnaeidae)生态学研究

于2004年春季（4月）和秋季（9月），分别对淮河水系淮南段不同环境条件下的10个站点椎实螺类的种类和分布特征进行了调查，共鉴定出椎实螺类5种，其中萝卜螺属4种，土蜗属1种，耳萝卜螺为优势种；全流域平均密度和生物量，春季为227．7Ind.／m^2。和175．50g／m^2，秋季为100．2Ind．／m^2和88．85g／m^2．工业污染较重的站点（D、F、I）椎实螺类的群落结构趋于简化，而流域底质生境异质性的站点（E、H）螺类种数呈现多样性．图1表2参16     

完善我国流域生态补偿制度的思考——以东江流域为例

上下游对流域生态资源保护做出的贡献与生态利益享有的不平等导致区域间社会经济差距的扩大,需要通过生态补偿制度的建立和完善来实现区域统筹和谐发展,但我国现行生态补偿制度由于行政区界限制、相关法规建设不完善、补偿方式较单一、补偿标准测算困难等原因面临不少问题和困境。以东江流域现行生态补偿措施为视点,分析了当前生态补偿研究实践中存在的问题;进而以此为基点根据流域生态系统的连贯性与人类政治结构分割性之间的矛盾进行反思,提出打破流域行政区界限制,统筹构建流域“生态共同体”的理念;并在此理念指导下,提出采取“政府主导、市场运作”策略。即在明确界定流域范围后,首先由“政府主导”开展全流域综合规划、建立和完善省内流域统管机制、跨省流域生态共享共建统筹协商机制;其次以水质水量、出售许可交易权方式测算“生态共同体”之间核算补偿资金,并结合“市场运作”实施多样化并进补偿方式;同时建立流域生态补偿奖惩制度并将其纳入“生态共同体”干部绩效考核体系,构建流域补偿的长效机制,完善我国流域生态补偿制度。     

全球气候变化背景下祁连山生态问题的地质学探析

祁连山生态问题产生的根源主要在于全球气候变化背景下冰川、冻土、植被、径流等及其水文循环的变化.该文以地球系统科学为指导,在宏观尺度上从系统演化的角度去探讨在全球气候变化条件下祁连山生态问题,认为这些问题的产生与地质过程密不可分,应以生态地质学的理论来研究这些变化的生态地质过程,并指出未来进行祁连山生态问题研究的科学路径,为祁连山的生态保护、河西走廊社会经济的持续健康发展提供科学依据.     

景观生态学在农业景观生态规划中的应用

从景观生态学的基本原理入手 ,阐述景观生态学在农业景观生态规划中的应用。认为农业景观规划设计不仅关注景观的“土地利用”、“土地肥力”以及人类的短期需求 ,更强调景观的生态价值和美学价值及其带给人类的长期效益。农业景观生态规划设计的中心任务就是创建一个可持续发展的整体区域生态系统。以江苏省宝应县为例进行分析     

Environmental solutions sparked by environmental history

Environmental solutions require a decision-making process that is ultimately political, in that they involve decisions with uncertain outcomes and stakeholders with conflicting viewpoints. If this process seeks broad alignment between the government and public, then reconciling conflicting viewpoints is a key to the legitimacy of these decisions. We show that ecological baselines can be particularly powerful tools for creating a common understanding for public support (legitimacy) and conformity to new rules or regulations (legality) that enable the solution. They are powerful because they move the discussion of solutions from the abstract to the concrete by providing a conceptual model for a common expectation (e.g., restoring habitat). They provide narratives of the past (ecological histories) that readjust the future expectations of individuals on how to perceive and respond to new policy. While ecological baselines offer scientists benchmarks for reinstating ecological functions, they also normalize public and government discussion of solutions. This social normalization of public issues may assist government policy and influence social views, practices, and behaviors that adopt the policy. For science to more effectively inform conservation, we encourage interdisciplinary thinking (science- and human-centered) because it can provide public support and government legitimacy for investing in environmental solutions.     

Effects of temperature and precipitation on grassland bird nesting success as mediated by patch size

Grassland birds are declining faster than any other bird guild across North America. Shrinking ranges and population declines are attributed to widespread habitat loss and increasingly fragmented landscapes of agriculture and other land uses that are misaligned with grassland bird conservation. Concurrent with habitat loss and degradation, temperate grasslands have been disproportionally affected by climate change relative to most other terrestrial biomes. Distributions of grassland birds often correlate with gradients in climate, but few researchers have explored the consequences of weather on the demography of grassland birds inhabiting a range of grassland fragments. To do so, we modeled the effects of temperature and precipitation on nesting success rates of 12 grassland bird species inhabiting a range of grassland patches across North America (21,000 nests from 81 individual studies). Higher amounts of precipitation in the preceding year were associated with higher nesting success, but wetter conditions during the active breeding season reduced nesting success. Extremely cold or hot conditions during the early breeding season were associated with lower rates of nesting success. The direct and indirect influence of temperature and precipitation on nesting success was moderated by grassland patch size. The positive effects of precipitation in the preceding year on nesting success were strongest in relatively small grassland patches and had little effect in large patches. Conversely, warm temperatures reduced nesting success in small grassland patches but increased nesting success in large patches. Mechanisms underlying these differences may be patch‐size‐induced variation in microclimates and predator activity. Although the exact cause is unclear, large grassland patches, the most common metric of grassland conservation, appears to moderate the effects of weather on grassland‐bird demography and could be an effective component of climate‐change adaptation.     

Effects of seascape connectivity on reserve performance along exposed coastlines

Seascape connectivity (landscape connectivity in the sea) can modify reserve performance in low-energy marine ecosystems (e.g., coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass), but it is not clear whether similar spatial linkages also shape reserve effectiveness on high-energy, exposed coastlines. We used the surf zones of ocean beaches in eastern Australia as a model system to test how seascape connectivity and reserve attributes combine to shape conservation outcomes. Spatial patterns in fish assemblages were measured using baited remote underwater video stations in 12 marine reserves and 15 fished beaches across 2000 km of exposed coastline. Reserve performance was shaped by both the characteristics of reserves and the spatial properties of the coastal seascapes in which reserves were embedded. Number of fish species and abundance of harvested fishes were highest in surf-zone reserves that encompassed >1.5 km of the surf zone; were located < 100 m to rocky headlands; and included pocket beaches in a heterogeneous seascape. Conservation outcomes for exposed coastlines may, therefore, be enhanced by prioritizing sufficiently large areas of seascapes that are strongly linked to abutting complementary habitats. Our findings have broader implications for coastal conservation planning. Empirical data to describe how the ecological features of high-energy shorelines influence conservation outcomes are lacking, and we suggest that seascape connectivity may have similar ecological effects on reserve performance on both sheltered and exposed coastlines.     

Land‐use history as a guide for forest conservation and management

Conservation efforts to protect forested landscapes are challenged by climate projections that suggest substantial restructuring of vegetation and disturbance regimes in the future. In this regard, paleoecological records that describe ecosystem responses to past variations in climate, fire, and human activity offer critical information for assessing present landscape conditions and future landscape vulnerability. We illustrate this point drawing on 8 sites in the northwestern United States, New Zealand, Patagonia, and central and southern Europe that have undergone different levels of climate and land‐use change. These sites fall along a gradient of landscape conditions that range from nearly pristine (i.e., vegetation and disturbance shaped primarily by past climate and biophysical constraints) to highly altered (i.e., landscapes that have been intensely modified by past human activity). Position on this gradient has implications for understanding the role of natural and anthropogenic disturbance in shaping ecosystem dynamics and assessments of present biodiversity, including recognizing missing or overrepresented species. Dramatic vegetation reorganization occurred at all study sites as a result of postglacial climate variations. In nearly pristine landscapes, such as those in Yellowstone National Park, climate has remained the primary driver of ecosystem change up to the present day. In Europe, natural vegetation–climate–fire linkages were broken 6000–8000 years ago with the onset of Neolithic farming, and in New Zealand, natural linkages were first lost about 700 years ago with arrival of the Maori people. In the U.S. Northwest and Patagonia, the greatest landscape alteration occurred in the last 150 years with Euro‐American settlement. Paleoecology is sometimes the best and only tool for evaluating the degree of landscape alteration and the extent to which landscapes retain natural components. Information on landscape‐level history thus helps assess current ecological change, clarify management objectives, and define conservation strategies that seek to protect both natural and cultural elements.     

Buying green: the crucial role of public authorities

Abstract

A strategic approach to local sustainability assessment requires that sustainability implications of proposed policies, plans and programmes are evaluated. These evaluations need to critically consider organizational structures, processes and outcomes. The establishment of ‘communities of practice’, groups or networks of practitioners with shared interests, is a helpful mechanism for facilitating change in a wide range of organizations. This paper analyses the potential for communities of practice to contribute to the implementation of sustainability assessments by local government. Focusing on Sutherland Shire Council in Sydney, Australia, this paper presents the findings of a project that engaged practitioners in the design of a sustainability assessment system. The establishment of communities of practice helped to break down the ‘silos’ created by institutional divides within local government, but this approach also raises challenges in maintaining momentum and overcoming political agendas.     

In their words: How Detroit residents perceive the effects of their physical environment

Abstract

This article examines results from in-depth interviews conducted with parents of children with asthma living in an urban environment. We examine themes from the in-depth interviews related to participants' perceptions of the influence of their physical environment on their mental and physical health, and the actions that they take in an effort to protect their health within this context. The findings from this study suggest several implications for understanding the interface between the physical environment of urban communities and residents' health, as well as for the policy and practice of risk assessment strategies.