Regime shifts and resilience in China’s coastal ecosystems

Regime shift often results in large, abrupt, and persistent changes in the provision of ecosystem services and can therefore have significant impacts on human wellbeing. Understanding regime shifts has profound implications for ecosystem recovery and management. China’s coastal ecosystems have experienced substantial deterioration within the past decades, at a scale and speed the world has never seen before. Yet, information about this coastal ecosystem change from a dynamics perspective is quite limited. In this review, I synthesize existing information on coastal ecosystem regime shifts in China and discuss their interactions and cascading effects. The accumulation of regime shifts in China’s coastal ecosystems suggests that the desired system resilience has been profoundly eroded, increasing the potential of abrupt shifts to undesirable states at a larger scale, especially given multiple escalating pressures. Policy and management strategies need to incorporate resilience approaches in order to cope with future challenges and avoid major losses in China’s coastal ecosystem services.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0692-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Reviving wood-pastures for biodiversity and people: A case study from western Estonia

Wood-pastures are associated with high cultural and biodiversity values in Europe. However, due to their relatively low productivity, large areas of wood-pastures have been lost over the last century. In some areas, incentive schemes have been developed to revive wood-pastures. We investigated the effects of one such scheme in western Estonia. We compared the structure of grazed wood-pastures (old and restored) to those of abandoned wood-pastures and ungrazed forest stands to explore the effects of management, and conducted interviews with 24 farmers to investigate their motivations to carry out the management. We found a positive influence of active management on the semi-open structure of wood-pastures. Financial support was vital for management, but personal values related to tradition also played an important role. The interviewees differed widely in their range of motivations, suggesting that other strategies in addition to financial incentives would further improve the management of wood-pastures in the region.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0719-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Ecological citizenship and democracy: Communitarian versus agonistic perspectives

Grassroots environmental movements have recently started to question the focus on sustainable consumption as a main strategy to tackle climate change. They prefer to address individuals as citizens rather than as consumers, and focus on collective rather than individual change. Two prominent movements in this regard are Transition Towns and Climate Justice Action. While both movements criticise conventional approaches, they put forward entirely different strategies for what has to happen instead. Based on extensive qualitative research, this article analyses how these movements manifest themselves in Flanders (Belgium). The focus is on their different accounts of how and why collective practices have to be built, and the place they attribute to ‘the political’ in this. The analysis reveals the existence of two different forms of ecological citizenship: one communitarian, the other agonistic.     

基于GEV干旱指数和DFA方法的苏北地区季节性干旱研究

为分析近年来江苏省苏北地区季节性干旱灾害特征,利用苏北五市1989~2013年的逐月降水量资料,建立月降水量的广义极值分布函数,通过分析广义极值干旱指数(GEVI),研究苏北五市近25a的季节性干旱分布和干旱等级的时空变化特点。在此基础上,利用去趋势波动分析方法(DFA)对苏北五市月平均降水量的周期性规律进行研究。结果表明,苏北五市的月降水量均服从广义极值Fréchet概率分布,且具有从西北(徐州)地区向东南沿海(盐城)地区递增的空间分布特征,整体上属于干旱灾害频发的地区,且以轻旱为主且季节性特征明显。苏北五市的月降水量存在幂律相关性,即降水量具有较强的正长程相关性,因此,未来苏北地区干旱的总体趋势将与过去特征正相关。     

Connotation and principles of ecological compensation in water source reserve areas based on the theory of externality

Understanding the connotation and principles of ecological compensation in water source reserve areas is the basis and guarantee for establishing and improving the ecological compensation mechanism of water source reserve areas. First, this paper reviews the three stages of ecological compensation research progress. Based on the review, using the theory of externality, the ecological environment system of water source reserve areas is then analyzed. This paper argues that the connotation of ecological compensation in water source reserve areas is a kind of institutional arrangement, which is designed to internalize externalities. Finally, based on the understanding of the connotation of ecological compensation in water source reserve areas, five principles for establishing and improving the ecological compensation mechanism are proposed, including the principle of fairness and justice, the principle of equivalence of equality and responsibility, the principle of flexibility and effectiveness, the principle of “earmark funds, and implementation by law,” and the principle of government compensation supplemented with market compensation.     

长江中游城市群经济与生态成本空间演化模式分析

综合运用变异系数、泰尔指数及ESDA-GIS多种方法,在充分考虑传统经济影响因子的基础上,尝试引入经济发展生态成本指标,分析长江中游城市群经济综合发展水平与生态成本的空间匹配及演化模式。研究表明:经济综合发展水平高低聚集特征明显,空间极化现象是导致区域经济发展不平衡的主要原因;生态成本空间集聚现象以高高集聚和低低集聚为主,且呈现出高高集聚减少、低低集聚增多的现象,生态成本消耗有所改善;2001~2012年长江中游城市群市域经济综合发展水平与生态成本表现出越来越显著的差异化空间格局,呈现出由低经济综合发展水平-低生态成本过渡到高经济综合发展水平-高生态成本,进而发展到高经济综合发展水平-低生态成本的空间匹配模式的阶段性特征;高经济综合发展水平-高生态成本的经济发展模式仍在大部分城市中存在,经济与生态空间协调发展的潜力仍然很大。     

复合沸石滤床修复北方景观水体的实验研究

以天然矿物质沸石、细砂及煤渣取代传统滤料构建复合基质生态床,表面种植景观植物,采用下向流-上向流运行方式修复北方景观水体。分别进行静态实验及不同循环速率下的动态实验,考察对水体污染物去除过程。结果表明,2种运行方式下对水体NH⁺₄-N去除率都在85%以上,其中以1 h为循环周期的运行方式去除率达97%,较静态提高12.8%;TN去除率最高为84%;TP去除不稳定,过程缓慢。煤渣层对NH⁺₄-N的去除效果差,硝化作用不彻底与反硝化作用的加强使下层出水NH⁺₄-N 、NO^-₂-N及NO^-₃-N浓度均高于上层。提高循环速率有利于对氮的去除。     

江河水源地突发性水污染事故风险评价

近年来,我国江河饮用水水源地突发性水质污染事故频发,成为我国面临的最严重的环境问题之一.江河水源地突发性水质污染事件的风险评价是确保饮用水源地水质安全的重要手段,对突发性水质污染事故,采取适当的应急处理措施.     

瑞士绿色水电认证对我国水电开发评估的启示

简要介绍了EAWAG"绿色水电认证"的概念、程序和标准要求,分析了我国目前水电站评估中存在的制度上、技术上的缺陷和问题,结合"绿色水电认证"的特点,论证了该认证标准在我国水电站评估中的适宜性:绿色水电认证将管理计划与生态目标有机地结合,为我国水电评估指标体系的构建提供了十分有益的参考;通过绿色电力认证额外增加的发电量作为生态投资,强调电力的生态价值,提供资金改善受影响河道的生态完整性;绿色水电认证标准中关于生态监测的数据要求,能够填补我国目前水电站生态影响评价数据的不足.     

老庄道家思想所蕴含的生态伦理观念

中国古代思想家老子、庄子在生态环境伦理方面就如何协调人与自然的关系提出了许多宝贵的思想,如“天人合一”、“道法自然”、“知止”等。这些观点对我们解决二十一世纪所面临的生态环境问题具有重要的启迪意义。