Variations in Newspaper Coverage on Water in the U.S. Intermountain West

Water is a salient issue in the Intermountain West of the United States (U.S.), with concerns ranging from water scarcity and drought to intermittent flooding and water quality risks. This paper investigates coverage of water issues across seven newspapers in the core of the U.S. Intermountain West region. Newspapers have the potential to set agendas and influence perceived salience of issues among consumers. The Intermountain West region shares common concerns about water supply and demand, climate change, and water quality. We investigate whether or not local daily newspaper coverage of water issues provides a more local or regional sensitivity. Findings from this exploratory study reveal differences in water coverage across local daily newspapers. The overall volume of water‐related articles differed across newspapers as did proportion of articles on specific water topics and connecting issues. Coverage of local issues was more dominant than might be expected given mass media trends, but water geography in articles extended across the U.S. and the world in every newspaper studied. Variations in newspaper coverage of water issues suggests more local nuance persists despite the experience of common water issues across the region.     

国家公园建设背景下的公益型保护地研究进展

当前我国自然保护地体系改革正处于关键时期,公益型保护地是一种利用社会公益力量,由政府监督、民间管理并协调保护与发展的新型保护地模式。该模式注重社会公益力量在自然保护地建设中的作用,能够补充已有保护地资金、技术和人力的不足,填补了我国目前保护地体系的空缺。本文论述了国家公园建设背景下的公益保护地的内涵,分析了当前公益保护地的特征,讨论了国内外公益型保护地的运营管理机制,包括土地权利的获得、基于协议保护机制的保护地运营、特许经营在保护地的实施和社区保护模式的成功经验。今后我国公益型保护地的建设应鼓励公益组织与民间力量参与,在管理理念上应坚持保护第一和公益性,促进管理体制转变和科学划定界限,并完善公益组织参与保护地建设的激励和监督机制。     

基于LCOE模型的光伏发电经济效益分析:以宜昌农村地区光伏扶贫电站项目为例

光伏发电是我国重要的清洁能源发展战略,也是资产收益扶贫的重要方式.为了探讨光伏发电项目对政策的依赖性及其在经济上的可持续性,采用平准化度电成本（LCOE）模型开展研究,并开发出平准化度电净现值（LNPVE）模型用于研究光伏发电项目的长期经济效益及其影响因素.将上网电价与补贴作为效益指标引入LCOE模型,即得到LNPVE,LNPVE为折现度电收入和折现度电成本之差.LNPVE模型不仅能将政策因素引入经济效益分析中,同时还能考虑效益变动,从而分析光伏发电项目的经济可持续性.以宜昌市长阳土家族自治县渔峡口镇村级光伏扶贫电站项目为案例的分析表明,从LCOE模型结果来看,案例项目能够实现经济效益;然而从LNPVE模型结果来看,现行补贴上网电价下案例项目的长期经济效益仍存在不确定性,且这种不确定性随着光伏发电上网电价补贴“退坡”政策的出台而有所强化.敏感性分析结果表明,影响案例项目经济效益的首要因素是技术因素,其次是政策因素,再者是经济因素.若案例项目以无补贴标杆电价平价上网,则需将单位造价降低19.3%或者年利用小时数提高14.8%;若要进一步实现以燃煤发电上网电价平价上网,则需将单位造价降低97.0%或者年利用小时数提高182.1%.因此,应当针对光伏发电特别是村级光伏扶贫项目实施必要的电价补贴,将补贴“退坡”与提高光伏发电效率相结合,并将有针对性地提高补贴效率作为光伏电价补贴的重点,同时高度重视技术改进及推广应用和运营维护的成本降低及质量提高,以持续实现光伏发电项目的经济效益.      

Past and Present Effectiveness of Protected Areas for Conservation of Naturally and Anthropogenically Rare Plant Species

Abstract:  The Global Strategy of Plant Conservation states that at least 60% of threatened plant species should be within protected areas. This goal has been met in some regions with long traditions of plant protection. We used gap analysis to explore how particular groups of species of conservation interest, representing different types of natural or anthropogenic rarity, have been covered by protected areas on a national scale in Estonia during the last 100 years. Species-accumulation curves indicated that plant species that are naturally rare (restricted global or local distribution, always small populations, or very rare habitat requirements) needed almost twice as many protected areas to reach the 60% target as plant species that are rare owing to lack of suitable management (species depending on grassland management, moderate forest disturbances, extensive traditional agriculture, or species potentially threatened by collecting). Temporal analysis of the establishment of protected areas suggested that grouping plant species according to the predominant cause of rarity accurately reflected the history of conservation decision making. Species found in very rare habitats have previously received special conservation attention; species dependent on traditional extensive agriculture have been largely ignored until recently. Legislative initiative and new nature-protection schemes (e.g., Natura 2000, network of protected areas in the European Union) have had a positive influence on all species groups. Consequently, the species groups needing similar action for their conservation are sensitive indicators of the effectiveness of protected-area networks. Different species groups, however, may not be uniformly conserved within protected areas, and all species groups should fulfill the target of 60% coverage within protected areas.     

Effects of Customary Marine Closures on Fish Behavior,Spear‐Fishing Success,and Underwater Visual Surveys

Abstract: Customary management systems (i.e., management systems that limit the use of marine resources), such as rotational fisheries closures, can limit harvest of resources. Nevertheless, the explicit goals of customary management are often to influence fish behavior (in particular flight distance, i.e., distance at which an organism begins to flee an approaching threat), rather than fish abundance. We explored whether the flight distance of reef fishes targeted by local artisanal fishers differed between a customary closure and fished reefs. We also examined whether flight distance of these species affected fishing success and accuracy of underwater visual census (UVC) between customary closed areas and areas open to fishing. Several species demonstrated significant differences in flight distance between areas, indicating that fishing activity may increase flight distance. These relatively long flight distances mean that in fished areas most target species may stay out of the range of spear fishers. In addition, mean flight distances for all species both inside and outside the customary‐closure area were substantially smaller than the observation distance of an observer conducting a belt‐transect UVC (mean [SE]= 8.8 m [0.48]). For targeted species that showed little ability to evade spear fishers, customary closures may be a vital management technique. Our results show that customary closures can have a substantial, positive effect on resource availability and that conventional UVC techniques may be insensitive to changes in flight behavior of fishes associated with fishing. We argue that short, periodic openings of customary closures may allow the health of the fish community to be maintained and local fishers to effectively harvest fishes.     

Effectiveness of terrestrial protected areas for conservation of lake fish communities

Freshwater protected areas are rare even though freshwater ecosystems are among the most imperiled in the world. Conservation actions within terrestrial protected areas (TPAs) such as development or resource extraction regulations may spill over to benefit freshwater ecosystems within their boundaries. Using data from 175 lakes across Ontario, Canada, we compared common indicators of fish‐assemblage status (i.e., species richness, Shannon diversity index, catch per unit effort, and normalized‐length size spectrum slopes) to evaluate whether TPAs benefit lake fish assemblages. Nearest neighbor cluster analysis was used to generate pairs of lakes: inside versus outside, inside versus bordering, and bordering versus outside TPAs based on lake characteristics. The diversity and abundance indicators did not differ significantly across comparisons, but normalized‐length size spectrum slopes (NLSS) were significantly steeper in lakes outside parks. The latter indicated assemblage differences (greater abundances of small‐bodied species) and less‐efficient energy transfer through the trophic levels of assemblages outside parks. Although not significantly different, pollution‐ and turbidity‐tolerant species were more abundant outside parks, whereas 3 of the 4 pollution‐intolerant species were more abundant within parks. Twenty‐one percent of the difference in slopes was related to higher total dissolved solids concentrations and angling pressure. Our results support the hypothesis that TPAs benefit lake fish assemblages and suggest that NLSS slopes are informative indicators for aquatic protected area evaluations because they represent compositional and functional aspects of communities.     

Warfare in Biodiversity Hotspots

Abstract:  Conservation efforts are only as sustainable as the social and political context within which they take place. The weakening or collapse of sociopolitical frameworks during wartime can lead to habitat destruction and the erosion of conservation policies, but in some cases, may also confer ecological benefits through altered settlement patterns and reduced resource exploitation. Over 90% of the major armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 occurred within countries containing biodiversity hotspots, and more than 80% took place directly within hotspot areas. Less than one-third of the 34 recognized hotspots escaped significant conflict during this period, and most suffered repeated episodes of violence. This pattern was remarkably consistent over these 5 decades. Evidence from the war-torn Eastern Afromontane hotspot suggests that biodiversity conservation is improved when international nongovernmental organizations support local protected area staff and remain engaged throughout the conflict. With biodiversity hotspots concentrated in politically volatile regions, the conservation community must maintain continuous involvement during periods of war, and biodiversity conservation should be incorporated into military, reconstruction, and humanitarian programs in the world's conflict zones.     

Effects of Oil‐Palm Plantations on Diversity of Tropical Anurans

Agriculturally altered vegetation, especially oil‐palm plantations, is rapidly increasing in Southeast Asia. Low species diversity is associated with this commodity, but data on anuran diversity in oil‐palm plantations are lacking. We investigated how anuran biological diversity differs between forest and oil‐palm plantation, and whether observed differences in biological diversity of these areas is linked to specific environmental factors. We hypothesized that biological diversity is lower in plantations and that plantations support a larger proportion of disturbance‐tolerant species than forest. We compared species richness, abundance, and community composition between plantation and forest areas and between site types within plantation and forest (forest stream vs. plantation stream, forest riparian vs. plantation riparian, forest terrestrial vs. plantation terrestrial). Not all measures of biological diversity differed between oil‐palm plantations and secondary forest sites. Anuran community composition, however, differed greatly between forest and plantation, and communities of anurans in plantations contained species that prosper in disturbed areas. Although plantations supported large numbers of breeding anurans, we concluded the community consisted of common species that were of little conservation concern (commonly found species include Fejervarya limnocharis, Microhyla heymonsi, and Hylarana erythrea). We believe that with a number of management interventions, oil‐palm plantations can provide habitat for species that dwell in secondary forests. Efectos de las Plantaciones de Palma de Aceite sobre la Diversidad de Anuros Tropicales Faruk et al.     

The Capacity of Australia's Protected‐Area System to Represent Threatened Species

Abstract: The acquisition or designation of new protected areas is usually based on criteria for representation of different ecosystems or land‐cover classes, and it is unclear how well‐threatened species are conserved within protected‐area networks. Here, we assessed how Australia's terrestrial protected‐area system (89 million ha, 11.6% of the continent) overlaps with the geographic distributions of threatened species and compared this overlap against a model that randomly placed protected areas across the continent and a spatially efficient model that placed protected areas across the continent to maximize threatened species’ representation within the protected‐area estate. We defined the minimum area needed to conserve each species on the basis of the species’ range size. We found that although the current configuration of protected areas met targets for representation of a given percentage of species’ ranges better than a random selection of areas, 166 (12.6%) threatened species occurred entirely outside protected areas and target levels of protection were met for only 259 (19.6%) species. Critically endangered species were among those with the least protection; 12 (21.1%) species occurred entirely outside protected areas. Reptiles and plants were the most poorly represented taxonomic groups, and amphibians the best represented. Spatial prioritization analyses revealed that an efficient protected‐area system of the same size as the current protected‐area system (11.6% of the area of Australia) could meet representation targets for 1272 (93.3%) threatened species. Moreover, the results of these prioritization analyses showed that by protecting 17.8% of Australia, all threatened species could reach target levels of representation, assuming all current protected areas are retained. Although this amount of area theoretically could be protected, existing land uses and the finite resources available for conservation mean land acquisition may not be possible or even effective for the recovery of threatened species. The optimal use of resources must balance acquisition of new protected areas, where processes that threaten native species are mitigated by the change in ownership or on‐ground management jurisdiction, and management of threatened species inside and outside the existing protected‐area system.