Fishing‐gear restrictions and biomass gains for coral reef fishes in marine protected areas

Considerable empirical evidence supports recovery of reef fish populations with fishery closures. In countries where full exclusion of people from fishing may be perceived as inequitable, fishing‐gear restrictions on nonselective and destructive gears may offer socially relevant management alternatives to build recovery of fish biomass. Even so, few researchers have statistically compared the responses of tropical reef fisheries to alternative management strategies. We tested for the effects of fishery closures and fishing gear restrictions on tropical reef fish biomass at the community and family level. We conducted 1,396 underwater surveys at 617 unique sites across a spatial hierarchy within 22 global marine ecoregions that represented 5 realms. We compared total biomass across local fish assemblages and among 20 families of reef fishes inside marine protected areas (MPAs) with different fishing restrictions: no‐take, hook‐and‐line fishing only, several fishing gears allowed, and sites open to all fishing gears. We included a further category representing remote sites, where fishing pressure is low. As expected, full fishery closures, (i.e., no‐take zones) most benefited community‐ and family‐level fish biomass in comparison with restrictions on fishing gears and openly fished sites. Although biomass responses to fishery closures were highly variable across families, some fishery targets (e.g., Carcharhinidae and Lutjanidae) responded positively to multiple restrictions on fishing gears (i.e., where gears other than hook and line were not permitted). Remoteness also positively affected the response of community‐level fish biomass and many fish families. Our findings provide strong support for the role of fishing restrictions in building recovery of fish biomass and indicate important interactions among fishing‐gear types that affect biomass of a diverse set of reef fish families.     

Difference in the net value of ecological services between natural and artificial forests in China

Land degradation is a global problem that seriously threatens human society. However, in China and elsewhere, ecological restoration still largely relies on a traditional approach that focuses only on ecological factors and ignores socioeconomic factors. To improve the effectiveness of ecological restoration and maximize its economic and ecological benefits, a more efficient approach is needed that provides support for policy development and land management and thereby promotes environmental conservation. We devised a framework for assessing the value of ecosystem services that remain after subtracting costs, such as the opportunity costs, costs of forest protection, and costs for the people who are affected by the program; that is, the net value of ecosystem services (NVES). To understand the difference between the value of a resource and the net value of the ecosystem service it provides, we used data on VES, timber sales, and afforestation costs from China's massive national afforestation programs to calculate the net value of forest ecosystem services in China. Accounting for the abovementioned costs revealed an NVES of ¥6.1 × 10¹² for forests in 2014, which was 35.9% less than the value calculated without accounting for costs. As a result, the NVES associated with afforestation was 55.9% less than the NVES of natural forests. In some regions, NVES was negative because of the huge costs of human-made plantations, high evapotranspiration rates (thus, high water opportunity costs), and low forest survival rates. To maximize the ecological benefits of conservation, it is necessary to account for as many costs as possible so that management decisions can be based on NVES, thereby helping managers choose projects that maximize both economic and ecological benefits.     

论生态园林及其建设的基本原则

生态园林是城市绿地建设的新思维,也是生态学具体应用的实践.生态园林建设应遵循生态优先、物种多样性保护和重建、因地制宜、处理好种间关系、建立群落自维持机制、重视生态文化内涵等六要素.     

Exoautometabolic regulation of transgenes in microorganisms

Data on the existence of a specific system regulating the growth, size, and structure of enterobacterial populations are first summarized in terms of the chemical ecology concept formulated by S.S. Shvarts. The role of this system in transgene functioning is described using the example of the lux operon integrated into Escherichia coli. A relatively simple test for estimating such interactions is proposed.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 2, 2005, pp. 91–96.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Pshenichnov, Maslennikova, Nikitina.     

The Use of Remote Sensing and GIS in the Sustainable Management of Tropical Coastal Ecosystems

The sustainable use and management of important tropical coastal ecosystems (mangrove forests, seagrass beds and coral reefs) cannot be done without understanding the direct and indirect impacts of man. The ecosystem's resilience and recovery capacity following such impacts must be determined. The efficacy of mitigation measures must also be considered. Remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) are excellent tools to use in such studies. This paper reviews the state of the art and application of these tools in tropical coastal zones, and illustrates their relevance in sustainable development. It highlights a selected number of remote sensing case-studies on land cover patterns, population structure and dynamics, and stand characteristics from South-East Asia, Africa and South-America, with a particular emphasis on mangroves. It further shows how remote sensing technology and other scientific tools can be integrated in long-term studies, both retrospective and predictive, in order to anticipate degradation and to take mitigating measures at an early stage. The paper also highlights the guidelines for sustainable management that can result from remote sensing and GIS studies, and identifies existent gaps and research priorities.There is a need for more comprehensive approaches that deal with new remote sensing technologies and analysis in a GIS-environment, and that integrate findings collected over longer periods with the aim of prediction. It is also imperative to collect and integrate data from different disciplines. These are essential in the spirit of sustainable development and management, particularly in developing countries, which are often more vulnerable to environmental degradation.     

长江三峡区间数字流域水系的构建

基于全球陆地一公里基础高程GLOBE数据 ,采用Martz和Garbrecht研制的数字高程流域水系模型自动提取长江三峡万县～宜昌区间的河网水系、各子流域分水线、河网与子流域编码及河网结构拓扑关系 ,从而构成该区域的数字流域和数字水系。结果表明该模型生成的水系是可以接受的 ,与 1:10万地形图上长江三峡万县～宜昌区间的水系一致 ,这为空间分布式模型的建立提供了必备的空间信息数据。最后 ,探讨了数字流域水系在流域生态学中的应用前景 ,构建的数字水系可为中尺度以上流域水体和水生生物的资源保护与合理利用提供决策平台 ,服务于社会经济的可持续发展。     

The evolution of sustainability

Six separate but related strains of thought have emerged prominently since 1950 in discussions of such phenomena as the interrelationships among rates of population growth, resource use, and pressure on the environment. They are the ecological/carrying capacity root, the resources/environment root, the biosphere root, the critique of technology root, the no growth/slow growth root, and the ecodevelopment root.Each of these strains of thought was fully developed before the word sustainable itself was used. Many of the roots are based on fundamentally opposing assessments of the future of mankind. Many of the roots, such as the ecology/carrying capacity root, are based on physical concepts, and they exclude normative values. Others, such as the ecodevelopment root, include such values as equity, broad participation in governance, and decentralized government.When the word sustainability was first used in 1972 in the context of man's future, in a British book,Blueprint for Survival, normative concepts were prominent. This continued to be the case when the word was first used in 1974 in the United States to justify a no growth economy.Sustainability was first used in a United Nations document in 1978. Normative concepts, encapsulated in the term ecodevelopment, were prominent in the United Nations publications.After about 1978, the term sustainability began to be used not only in technological articles and reports but also in policy documents culminating in the use of the term in the report of the summit meeting of the Group of Seven in 1989.The roots of the term sustainability are so deeply embedded in fundamentally different concepts, each of which has valid claims to validity, that a search for a single definition seems futile. The existence of multiple meaning is tolerable if each analyst describes clearly what he means by sustainability.     

基于AIS轨迹修复的船舶排放空间表征改进方法与应用

基于船舶自动识别系统（Automatic Identification System,AIS）数据表征船舶排放是目前船舶排放空间表征的主流方法,但AIS船舶轨迹点缺失会造成船舶排放量低估和船舶空间分布表征错误,进而影响船舶排放控制区的划分.为改进船舶排放空间表征,本研究以2013年广东省AIS船舶数据为例,采用基于时间和经纬度的三次样条方法对AIS船舶轨迹进行修复,结合动力法计算船舶排放,分析对比AIS轨迹修复前后船舶排放表征的差异,并利用空气质量模型和卫星观测评估AIS轨迹修复对船舶排放表征和广东沿海空气质量模拟的改进效果.结果表明：轨迹修复后广东省海域船舶轨迹点总数由4685773个增至5746664个,船舶NO_x排放量增加了0.6%.对于轨迹点与排放缺失集中的粤东海域,轨迹修复后船舶轨迹点数增加了88%,NO_x排放量在广东省船舶排放量的占比提升至22%,特别是在粤东重点修复海域NO_x排放量增加了2.7倍.原始轨迹在广东省海域较为稀疏,在粤东海域有明显轨迹缺失;轨迹修复后广东省海域船舶轨迹更为密集,粤东海域船舶轨迹得以补充,船舶排放空间分布更连贯.对比模拟结果与卫星观测结果,轨迹修复后粤东重点修复海域船舶模拟浓度与观测浓度的偏差由51%减至6%,总体上船舶排放模拟结果更接近卫星观测结果.     

新时代国土整治与生态修复转型思考

针对全球变化影响下的国土空间和生态系统,生态文明建设和国土空间规划是中国在新时代的积极响应,国土整治与生态修复的转型和提升成为必然要求。在介绍国土整治与生态修复概念内涵的基础上,指出中国国土空间生态环境问题的复杂性和生态文明建设的新理念要求决定了国土整治与生态修复的转型。从工作理念、理论基础、技术体系和制度建设等方面,分析了当前国土整治与生态修复工作中存在的不足,主要包括整体综合理念滞后、理论基础体系欠缺、技术支撑相对薄弱、体制机制不尽完善等方面。针对这些不足,提出了新时代国土整治与生态修复转型的路径和策略,主要策略包括强化系统思维、提升理论体系、加强技术支撑、完善机制建设等内容,以期为国土整治与生态修复推进美丽中国建设提供科学依据。     

汶川地震重灾区泥石流灾损土地利用及生态修复模式——以北川县都坝河小流域为例

汶川地震诱发了大量泥石流灾害,灾损土地利用和生态修复是灾区产业重建面临的重要课题。以北川县都坝河小流域为研究对象,通过调查灾损土地禀赋、灾害特征、土地需求,采取多因素耦合和关键因子限制分析法,探讨灾害胁迫条件下的经济活动与生态修复之间的互馈作用,结果表明：（1）流域新增土地供给源主要为泥石流灾损土地,土地资源化利用受灾害、聚落和产业结构控制;（2）灾损土地根据成因划分为沟口堆积型、沟道冲淤型以及岸坡侵蚀型,三者的肥力、安全性及交通条件等特征具有显著差异;（3）基于“因灾分区、耕地优先、产业共建、美居造景”的原则,建立了灾损土地的利用方式和生态修复模式,并选取杨家沟进行验证,沟域灾损土地利用方式为生态林地、产业林地及优质耕地,分别占比28.5%、56.3%、15.2%,生态修复措施主要为提高土地安全度、提升植被覆盖率和增强水保功能。该研究建立的震区土地利用和生态修复模式可有力协调人地矛盾、发展绿色经济和提升人居环境。