A new policy‐related measure of population dispersal and sparsity using GIS

Policy indicators applied at a national scale can have considerable financial impact for resource allocations to individual counties, especially if there are extreme local factors. This article develops arid explores a new measure of population dispersal and sparsity and discusses the impact of this indicator in a variety of locations, by using GIS techniques.     

A pest is a pest is a pest? The dilemma of neotropical leaf-cutting ants: Keystone taxa of natural ecosystems

Leaf-cutting ants of the generaAcromyrmex andAtta are considered the principal polyphagous pests of the Neotropics Although some members of these genera are of economic importance, have a broad geographic distribution, and are extremely good colonizers, others are endemic and closely interact with native ecosystems. Control is generally practiced against any colony, irrespective of its taxonomic status. Indiscriminate control coupled with habitat destruction threatens endemic species with extinction, and, through habitat simplification, favors other pest species. As nests ofAtta are large, having several square meters of nest surface, the endemic taxa can be easily used as environmental indicators for natural ecosystems Likewise, the pest species can be used to detect environmental disturbance As these ants are keystone species and easily identified by nonspecialists, efforts should be made to integrate these into viable conservation programs     

夏季环境空气中臭氧和氮氧化物变化关系

分析了宜昌市夏季高温日照天气下环境空气中臭氧和氮氧化物之间的变化趋势,研究了环境空气中光化学反应的时间和程度,提出了重视光化学反应污染和控制氮氧化物的一些建议。     

均相/异相催化剂光降解垃圾渗滤液效果的研究

垃圾渗滤液是一种复杂有毒的、生化降解性差的高浓度有机废水,高级氧化技术具有氧化能力强和无二次污染等特点,被认为是处理难降解有机污染物最有应用前景的方法.本研究在500 W汞灯、25℃、2.5 h反应条件下,对比了TiO_2、K2S2O_8、K2S2O_8/Fe2+、施氏矿物、施氏矿物/H2O_2、Fe2+/H2O_26种催化剂组合光化学处理垃圾渗滤液的效果.结果表明,施氏矿物/H2O_2和Fe2+/H2O_2光催化降解垃圾渗滤液中有机污染物的效果优于其它催化剂组合,渗滤液中CO_D去除率分别为41.6%和46.5%,TO_C去除率分别为76.0%和78.1%.然而,Fe2+/H2O_2组合在光催化处理垃圾渗滤液后会产生大量难以沉降的Fe(O_H)3絮状物,且渗滤液色度明显增加,由初始的40倍上升到175倍.而施氏矿物/H2O_2组合则避免了上述问题,色度去除率达100%,被认为是一种具有应用前景的光化学降解垃圾渗滤液的催化剂组合.     

华北农村夏季大气甲醛浓度变化特征

为研究华北农村大气污染状况,于2013年夏季和2014年夏季先后在华北两个农村站点——固城站、饶阳站,采用基于汉栖(Hantzsch)反应的在线甲醛荧光分析仪开展大气甲醛在线观测,结合同期φ(O₃)、φ(PAN)(PAN为过氧乙酰硝酸酯)、φ(CO)和光解速率系数等数据,分析φ(甲醛)日变化及其光解速率等特征. 结果表明:华北农村夏季大气甲醛污染较重. 固城站和饶阳站φ(甲醛)分钟均值范围分别为0.05×10-9 ~59.18 ×10-9和1.66×10-9 ~ 46.83×10-9,平均值分别为12.82×10-9±7.59×10-9和13.73×10-9±5.82×10-9,高于文献报道的国内外其他地区的观测值,与同期观测的φ(NO_x)相当. 两个站点φ(甲醛)具有典型的日变化特征,φ(甲醛)小时均值峰值(固城站为17.43×10-9,饶阳站为17.57×10-9)均出现在上午10:00左右,与φ(O₃)和φ(PAN)的日变化趋势相似,但峰值早1 h出现. 光解速率系数观测结果表明,两个站点甲醛光解过程主要发生在06:00—18:00,固城站甲醛小时光解量峰值(2.59×10-9)出现在11:00,饶阳站甲醛小时光解量于正午12:00达到峰值(3.00×10-9),甲醛光解成稳定分子的速率是光解成自由基速率的1.2~1.7倍. 研究表明,两个站点φ(甲醛)的变化主要受局地过程的影响,光化学生成是甲醛的重要来源.      

Developing an indicator set for measuring sustainable development in India

The global agenda of sustainable development (SD) will get a major boost from the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries. This requires effective planning and understanding of the SDGs at the national level and developing sound SDG indicators that account for country priorities. Currently, there is no formal SDG indicator set in India, but the process for it is underway. This paper has attempted to propose a unique technique for identifying the most representative indicator set for SD measurement in India based on the SDGs. Considering the needs and preferences of the country, a three‐stage process is proposed to develop the priority indicator set. The application of the approach has been presented for SDG 7, which relates to energy. This is supported with a background on India's SD progress. The proposed technique is simple yet effective, and can be easily replicated by other developing countries.     

Assessing the sustainability of water governance systems: the sustainability wheel

We present and test a conceptual and methodological approach for interdisciplinary sustainability assessments of water governance systems based on what we call the sustainability wheel. The approach combines transparent identification of sustainability principles, their regional contextualization through sub-principles (indicators), and the scoring of these indicators through deliberative dialogue within an interdisciplinary team of researchers, taking into account their various qualitative and quantitative research results. The approach was applied to a sustainability assessment of a complex water governance system in the Swiss Alps. We conclude that the applied approach is advantageous for structuring complex and heterogeneous knowledge, gaining a holistic and comprehensive perspective on water sustainability, and communicating this perspective to stakeholders.     

Text analysis tools for identification of emerging topics and research gaps in conservation science

Keeping track of conceptual and methodological developments is a critical skill for research scientists, but this task is increasingly difficult due to the high rate of academic publication. As a crisis discipline, conservation science is particularly in need of tools that facilitate rapid yet insightful synthesis. We show how a common text‐mining method (latent Dirichlet allocation, or topic modeling) and statistical tests familiar to ecologists (cluster analysis, regression, and network analysis) can be used to investigate trends and identify potential research gaps in the scientific literature. We tested these methods on the literature on ecological surrogates and indicators. Analysis of topic popularity within this corpus showed a strong emphasis on monitoring and management of fragmented ecosystems, while analysis of research gaps suggested a greater role for genetic surrogates and indicators. Our results show that automated text analysis methods need to be used with care, but can provide information that is complementary to that given by systematic reviews and meta‐analyses, increasing scientists’ capacity for research synthesis.     

Restoration of Riparian Buffer Function in Reclaimed Surface Mine Soils

Ecosystem processes such as water infiltration and denitrification largely determine how riparian buffers function to protect surface water quality. Reclaimed mine areas offer a unique opportunity to study the restoration of riparian function without the confounding influence of past land use. Between 1980 and 2000 in southern Illinois, agricultural fields with forest buffers were established along three restored stream reaches in reclaimed mine land. Our research objective was to compare common indicators of soil quality (infiltration, soil C and N, bulk density, and soil moisture) between forest and cultivated riparian zones to determine if riparian function was being restored. Soil bulk density was significantly lower in the forest buffers compared to the agricultural fields. The forest buffers had greater soil total C, total N, and moisture levels than agricultural fields likely due to greater organic matter inputs. Soil total C and N levels in forest buffers were positively related to age of restoration, indicating soil quality is gradually being restored in the buffers. Restoration success of riparian buffers should not be estimated by the return of structure alone; it also includes reestablishment of functions such as nutrient cycling and water retention that largely determine water quality benefits. Watershed planning efforts can expect a lag time on the order of decades between riparian restoration activities and surface water quality improvement.     

Climate Changea Impacts and Adaptation Strategies in Kenya

To determine the climate changes that are due to natural variability and those due to human activities is quite challenging, just like delineating the impacts. Moreover, it is equally difficult to asce...