私人领域环境行为的影响因素分析研究

基于2010年中国综合社会调查数据,探讨了人口与社会特征变量、主观因素及客观因素与私人领域环境行为的相关关系。结果表明：人口与社会特征变量中,随着年龄增长,越是表现出积极的个人环境行为;城镇地区比农村地区的人更具有积极的个人环境行为。主观因素中的环境态度、环境责任感、环境关注度和环境常识都与私人领域环境行为呈显著正相关性。客观因素中,收入水平越高,越是表现出积极个人环境行为;随着教育程度的增高,越是表现出积极的个人环境行为。     

Knowledge,attitude and behavior of farmers in farmland conservation in China: an application of the structural equation model

We analyzed the relationship between the conservation behavior of farmers and their environmental attitude and knowledge, whilst controlling for exogenous socio-economic factors. We employed the structural equation model with cross-sectional data from 442 farmers from the Guanzhong Plain of China. Results showed that local farmers generally possessed a positive environmental attitude and undertook considerable conservation action. Conservation behavior was directly affected by environmental attitude and indirectly by environmental knowledge (via attitude). Social networks, farm size, land rights, age and incentives were significant exogenous explanatory variables. Thus, understanding the importance of socio-behavioral characteristics, including the environmental attitude and knowledge of farmers, is important for the development of farmland conservation policies. Specifically, farmers in this area were found to significantly depend on each other for information on farmland conservation practices. Thus, role model farmer discussions, dissemination of environmentally friendly techniques via social networks and the rewarding of environmentally friendly behavior among farmers should be used to encourage ongoing restoration endeavors, and thereby help mitigate environmental degradation.     

Butterfly community shifts over two centuries

Environmental changes strongly impact the distribution of species and subsequently the composition of species assemblages. Although most community ecology studies represent temporal snap shots, long‐term observations are rather rare. However, only such time series allow the identification of species composition shifts over several decades or even centuries. We analyzed changes in the species composition of a southeastern German butterfly and burnet moth community over nearly 2 centuries (1840–2013). We classified all species observed over this period according to their ecological tolerance, thereby assessing their degree of habitat specialisation. This classification was based on traits of the butterfly and burnet moth species and on their larval host plants. We collected data on temperature and precipitation for our study area over the same period. The number of species declined substantially from 1840 (117 species) to 2013 (71 species). The proportion of habitat specialists decreased, and most of these are currently endangered. In contrast, the proportion of habitat generalists increased. Species with restricted dispersal behavior and species in need of areas poor in soil nutrients had severe losses. Furthermore, our data indicated a decrease in species composition similarity between different decades over time. These data on species composition changes and the general trends of modifications may reflect effects from climate change and atmospheric nitrogen loads, as indicated by the ecological characteristics of host plant species and local changes in habitat configuration with increasing fragmentation. Our observation of major declines over time of currently threatened and protected species shows the importance of efficient conservation strategies.     

Community motivations to engage in conservation behavior to conserve the Sumatran orangutan

Community‐based conservation programs in developing countries are often based on the assumption that heteronomous motivation (e.g., extrinsic incentives such as economic rewards and pressure or coercion to act) will incite local communities to adopt conservation behaviors. However, this may not be as effective or sustainable as autonomous motivations (e.g., an intrinsic desire to act due to inherent enjoyment or self‐identification with a behavior and through freedom of choice). We analyzed the comparative effectiveness of heteronomous versus autonomous approaches to community‐based conservation programs through a case study of Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) conservation in 3 villages in Indonesia. Each village had a different conservation program design. We surveyed people (n = 240) to determine their motivations for and behavior changes relative to orangutan and orangutan habitat (forest) protection. Heteronomous motivations (e.g., income from tourism) led to greater self‐reporting of behavior change toward orangutan protection. However, they did not change self‐reported behavior toward forest (i.e., orangutan habitat) protection. The most effective approach to creating self‐reported behavior change throughout the community was a combination of autonomous and heteronomous motivations. Individuals who were heteronomously motivated to protect the orangutan were more likely to have changed attitudes than to have changed their self‐reported behavior. These findings demonstrate that the current paradigm of motivating communities in developing countries to adopt conservation behaviors primarily through monetary incentives and rewards should consider integrating autonomous motivational techniques that promote the intrinsic values of conservation. Such a combination has a greater potential to achieve sustainable and cost‐effective conservation outcomes. Our results highlight the importance of using in‐depth sociopsychological analyses to inform the design and implementation of community‐based conservation programs.     

Understanding the External Pressure and Behavior of Commercial Banks’ Environmental Risk Management: An Empirical Study Undertaken in the Yangtze River Delta of China

The present study employed a quantitative survey to ascertain whether the external pressure of environmental risk management (ERM) on commercial banks was a contributing factor to their ERM behavior. Data was obtained using questionnaires from 204 branches of commercial banks located in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The relationship between external pressure and behavior was tested using a linear structural relations model through path analysis. The results revealed that external pressure of ERM was significantly and positively related to the behavior and that pressure from governmental regulations was the most important contributing factor in the passive feedback behavior and preventive behavior of commercial banks. The pressure from markets was the most important contributing factor in banks’ active participation behavior; the pressure from community and NGOs was the most important contributing factor in their enthusiastic behavior.     

家庭食品处理风险行为特征与食源性疾病间相关性研究

借鉴国内外研究成果,结合中国实际界定了引发食源性疾病的家庭食品处理风险行为,并基于10省(区)2 163户家庭的横断面抽样调查数据,以实践理论为指导,运用因子分析和聚类分析方法,实证测度家庭食品处理风险行为特征。以食源性腹泻为研究病例,利用有序多分类Logit回归模型分析了家庭食品处理风险行为特征与食源性疾病之间的关系,确定家庭食品处理的关键风险行为特征与人群特征。结果表明,对应于食品处理安全行为,家庭食品处理风险行为特征主要为食品运输、食品冷藏与剩菜处理不当,厨房清洁用品交叉污染,生熟食品交叉污染,清洁卫生风险,烹调不彻底等七种类型,且生熟食品交叉污染与剩菜处理不当是引发家庭食源性腹泻的最主要风险行为特征,尤其是男性、已婚、年龄较大、家庭人口数较少、受教育程度和职业稳定度较低、以及个人和家庭年收入水平较低的家庭人群。家庭是预防食源性疾病的最后一道防线,政府应致力于与消费者进行风险沟通,提升消费者的责任认知,采用差异化策略改善风险消费者的家庭食品处理习惯,实施抗击食源性疾病战略。     

Black Sea beaches vulnerability to sea level rise

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) aims to promote sustainable management of coastal zones based on ecosystem and holistic management approaches. In this context, policies have to consider the complex interactions that influence the fragile equilibrium of coastal ecosystems. Beaches represent both valuable and vulnerable natural resources because of the various ecosystem services they provide and their sensitivity to climate change and sea level rise.We present the first comprehensive digital record of all Black Sea beaches and provide a rapid assessment of their erosion risk under different scenarios of sea level rise. Through the digitisation of freely available remote-sensed images on the web, we provide broad information on the spatial characteristics and other attributes of all Black Sea beaches (e.g. photo-based visual estimation of the sediment type, presence of coastal defences, urban development). These data have been assembled and stored in full Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) – allowing spatial queries, visualisation and data sharing – and are therefore particularly interesting to feed/supply web-GIS portals (coastal atlases) for visualisation purpose, spatial queries or spatial indicators calculations.The resulting Black Sea beaches database contains 1228 beaches, with a total coastline length of 2042 km with an area of 224 km². The majority of the Black Sea beaches have been found to have small widths (61% have maximum widths less than 50 m), whereas 47% of all beaches presented coastal defence schemes, suggesting an already serious beach erosion problem.The erosion risk of the Black Sea beaches was assessed through the comparison of their maximum widths with estimations of the sea level rise-induced retreat by an ensemble of six 1-D analytical and numerical morphodynamic models. Following more than 17,000 experiments using different combinations of wave conditions, beach sediment textures and slopes and 11 scenarios of sea level rise (up to 2 m), the means (best fits) of the lowest and highest projections by the model ensemble were estimated; these were then compared to the maximum widths of the Black Sea beaches. The analysis showed that sea level rise will have highly significant impacts on the Black Sea beaches, as for a 0.5 m sea level rise 56% of all beaches are projected to retreat by 50% of their maximum width. For a 0.82 m sea level rise (the high IPCC estimate for the period 2081–2100) about 41% are projected to retreat by their entire maximum width, whereas for 1 m sea level rise about 51% of all Black Sea beaches are projected to retreat by (drowned or shifted landward by) their entire maximum width, if the high mean of the model ensemble projections is used.Results substantiate the risk of beach erosion as a major environmental problem along the Black Sea coast, which therefore needs to be taken into account in any future coastal management plans, as a matter of urgency. As these scenarios consider only sea level rise, they are considered to be conservative. Although the present results cannot replace detailed studies, the database and projections may assist Black Sea coastal managers and policy makers to rapidly identify beaches with increased risk of erosion, valuate accordingly coastal assets and infrastructure, estimate beach capacity for touristic development purposes, and rapidly assess direct and indirect costs and benefits of beach protection options. They also provide the necessary inputs to advance discussions relevant to the Black Sea ICZM.     

Wait before running for your life: defensive tactics of spiny mice (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Acomys cahirinus</Emphasis>) in evading barn owl (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Tyto alba</Emphasis>) attack

Raptor–prey encounters were studied to evaluate the strategies and success rate of both predator attack and prey defense. We compared the success of barn owls in catching stationary simulated prey (food item) with that of moving prey (food item that was pulled in various directions). We also tracked real encounters between barn owls and spiny mice in a captive environment. It was found that owls had higher success in attacking stationary prey and that they seemed to attack the prey as soon as it became motionless. When attacked, only a few spiny mice remained immobile (freeze response) whereas most fled and usually avoided capture by the owls. It was also found that spiny mice displayed a preference to escape in those directions in which owls had demonstrated a lower success in catching the simulated prey. Escape initiation dichotomized to a short or long (but rarely intermediate) distance between the spiny mouse and the owl with more successful avoidance at short-distance (last-moment) escapes. The best predictor of escape success was the velocity of the spiny mouse, and the second best predictor was its flight initiation distance (FID). We present an update for Ydenberg and Dill’s model for optimal FID in close encounters, suggesting that fleeing at the last moment is advantageous. However, a last-moment attempt to escape is also more risky with a split second differing between life and death, and is therefore appropriate mainly for agile prey under close-distance attack.     

Linking 3D spatial models of fuels and fire: Effects of spatial heterogeneity on fire behavior

Crown fire endangers fire fighters and can have severe ecological consequences. Prediction of fire behavior in tree crowns is essential to informed decisions in fire management. Current methods used in fire management do not address variability in crown fuels. New mechanistic physics-based fire models address convective heat transfer with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and can be used to model fire in heterogeneous crown fuels. However, the potential impacts of variability in crown fuels on fire behavior have not yet been explored. In this study we describe a new model, FUEL3D, which incorporates the pipe model theory (PMT) and a simple 3D recursive branching approach to model the distribution of fuel within individual tree crowns. FUEL3D uses forest inventory data as inputs, and stochastically retains geometric variability observed in field data. We investigate the effects of crown fuel heterogeneity on fire behavior with a CFD fire model by simulating fire under a homogeneous tree crown and a heterogeneous tree crown modeled with FUEL3D, using two different levels of surface fire intensity. Model output is used to estimate the probability of tree mortality, linking fire behavior and fire effects at the scale of an individual tree. We discovered that variability within a tree crown altered the timing, magnitude and dynamics of how fire burned through the crown; effects varied with surface fire intensity. In the lower surface fire intensity case, the heterogeneous tree crown barely ignited and would likely survive, while the homogeneous tree had nearly 80% fuel consumption and an order of magnitude difference in total net radiative heat transfer. In the higher surface fire intensity case, both cases burned readily. Differences for the homogeneous tree between the two surface fire intensity cases were minimal but were dramatic for the heterogeneous tree. These results suggest that heterogeneity within the crown causes more conditional, threshold-like interactions with fire. We conclude with discussion of implications for fire behavior modeling and fire ecology.     

Collective guilt mediates the effect of beliefs about global warming on willingness to engage in mitigation behavior

The present research examines whether collective guilt for an ingroup's collective greenhouse gas emissions mediates the effects of beliefs about the causes and effects of global warming on willingness to engage in mitigation behavior. In Study 1, we manipulate the causes and effects of global warming and then measure collective guilt. Results demonstrate that collective guilt for Americans' greenhouse gas emissions is stronger when participants believe that global warming is caused by humans and will have minor effects. Study 2 employs the same manipulations and then measures collective guilt and collective anxiety, as well as willingness to conserve energy and pay green taxes. This study replicates the effect from Study 1 and rules out collective anxiety as a plausible alternative mediator. Collective guilt for Americans' greenhouse emissions was the only reliable mediator of the effect of beliefs about global warming on willingness to engage in mitigation behaviors. The importance of collective guilt as a tool for promoting global warming mitigation is discussed.