中国南方主要防火树种的防火特性及开发利用研究

本文采用多目标决策法对我国南方的主要防火树种进行初步筛选。在此基础上,以易燃的杉木（Ｃｕｎｎｉｎｇｈａｍｉａｌａｎｃｅｏｌａｔａ）、马尾松（Ｐｉｎｕｓｍａｓｓｏｎｉａｎａ）为对照,对其代表性树种---木荷（Ｓｃｈｉｍａｓｕｐｅｒｂａ）、火力楠（Ｍｉｃｈｅｌｉａｍａｃｃｌｕｒｅｉ）、细柄阿丁枫（Ａｌｔｉｎｇｉａｇｒａｃｉｌｉｐｅｓ）等的防火特性进行比较研究。结果表明,防火树种具有着火温度高、水分含量高,且析出速率快、活化能高、挥发分发热量低等特点。主成分分析表明,树叶的着火温度、含水率、水分析出速率、活化能及挥发分发热量等可作为判断树种防火性能优劣的主要指标,而苯-乙醇抽取物和粗灰分含量等可作为辅助性判断指标。文章最后提出了主要防火树种的开发利用途径和对策。     

煤热解过程中无机有害元素的变迁规律

在自行设计的加压密闭快速热解反应器中研究了神华和义马煤中Na、K、Pb和Mn等无机有害元素在氮气条件下随温度（300℃-700℃)的变化规律,进一步考察了热解气氛（氮气、氢气和二氧化碳）、压力对神华煤中这4种元素逸出规律的影响。结果表明：Na、K、Pb和Mn等元素在半焦中的残留量随温度的升高而减少,减少量随煤种而异,如在700℃时,神华煤中Na、K、Pb和Mn的析出率分别是义马煤的3、4．2、1．4和2．4倍;低压快速加氢热解有利于这4种元素的逸出。Pb是挥发性最强的元素,与热力学计算结果一致。     

斑马鱼基因组随机扩增DNA多态性研究

采用随机扩增DNA多态性（RAPD）技术，对毒性试验的模式生物斑马鱼（Danio rerio）基因组进行了分析。结果显示，在Amersham Pharmacia公司随机扩增引物系列中，分别在01号引物的829bp、534bp，02号引物的572bp，及06号引物的495pb，各出现1条稳定条带，而环磷酰胺作用后的斑马鱼基因组DAN随机扩增产物中，缺少了部分稳定条带。这可以明确判定受试斑马鱼的基因发生了改变，为水环境遗传毒性效尖的研究提供了初步的数据基础。     

ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS AND POLLUTION EFFECTS IN AN OZARK CAVE STREAM1

ABSTRACT: Subterranean ecosystems harbor globally rare fauna and important water resources, but ecological processes are poorly understood and are threatened by anthropogenic stresses. Ecosystem analyses were conducted from 1997 to 2000 in Cave Springs Cave, Arkansas, situated in a region of intensive land use, to determine the degree of habitat degradation and viability of endangered fauna. Organic matter budgeting quantified energy flux and documented the dominant input as dissolved organic matter and not gray bat guano (Myotis grisescens). Carbon/nitrogen stable isotope analyses described a trophic web of Ozark cavefish (Amblyopsis rosae) that primarily consumed cave isopods (Caecidotea stiladactyla), which in turn appeared to consume benthic matter originating from a complex mixture of soil, leaf litter, and anthropogenic wastes. Septic leachate, sewage sludge, and cow manure were suspected to augment the food web and were implicated in environmental degradation. Water, sediment, and animal tissue analyses detected excess nutrients, fecal bacteria, and toxic concentrations of metals. Community assemblage may have been altered: sensitive species‐grotto salamanders (Typhlotriton spelaeus) and stygobro‐mid amphipods—were not detected, while more resilient isopods flourished. Reduction of septic and agricultural waste inputs may be necessary to restore ecosystem dynamics in this cave ecosystem to its former undisturbed condition.     

长江铜陵段表层水中重金属含量及存在形态分布研究

通过测定长江铜陵段枯、丰水期江水中cu、Pb、Zn和cd不同形态的含量,分析了4种金属在江水中的存在形态分布,不同水期含量变化,水中悬浮物对金属吸附能力大小,以及近20年来含量的变化情况。结果表明,长江铜陵段江水中各重金属总量丰水期时大于枯水期,重金属各形态含量之间均有差异:丰水期时,各金属会被悬浮物以不同的方式携带进入水体中,cu、zn、Pb以活跃态和稳定态为主,Cd以活跃态为主;枯水期时,Zn主要以溶解态和稳定态为主,Pb以稳定态方式被携带,而80％的Cu、Cd是以溶解态形式存于水中。悬浮物(丰水期)对重金属的吸附能力大小顺序为Pb>Cu>Zn>Cd。与近20年江水中的重金属背景值比较,长江铜陵段重金属含量有普遍升高的趋势。     

ECONOMIC COSTS AND BENEFITS OF INSTREAM FLOW PROTECTION FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES IN AN INTERNATIONAL BASIN1

ABSTRACT: The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) restricts federal agencies from carrying out actions that jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species. The U.S. Supreme Court has emphasized that the language of the ESA and its amendments permits few exceptions to the requirement to give endangered species the highest priority. This paper estimates economic costs associated with one measure for increasing instream flows to meet critical habitat requirements of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Impacts are derived from an integrated regional model of the hydrology, economics, and institutions of the upper Rio Grande Basin in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. One proposal for providing minimum streamflows to protect the silvery minnow from extinction would provide guaranteed year round streamflows of at least 50 cubic feet per second in the San Acacia reach of the upper Rio Grande. These added flows can be accomplished through reduced surface diversions by New Mexico water users in dry years when flows would otherwise be reduced below the critical level required by the minnow. Based on a 44‐year simulation of future inflows to the basin, we find that some agricultural users suffer damages, but New Mexico water users as a whole do not incur damages from a policy that reduces stream depletions sufficiently to provide habitat for the minnow. The same policy actually benefits downstream users, producing average annual benefits of over $200,000 per year for west Texas agriculture, and over $1 million for El Paso municipal and industrial water users, respectively. Economic impacts of instream flow deliveries for the minnow are highest in drought years.     

Non-native Species <Emphasis Type="Italic">DO</Emphasis> Threaten the Natural Environment!

Sagoff [Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 18 (2005), 215–236] argues, against growing empirical evidence, that major environmental impacts of non-native species are unproven. However, many such impacts, including extinctions of both island and continental species, have both been demonstrated and judged by the public to be harmful. Although more public attention has been focused on non-native animals than non-native plants, the latter more often cause ecosystem-wide impacts. Increased regulation of introduction of non-native species is, therefore, warranted, and, contra Sagoff’s assertions, invasion biologists have recently developed methods that greatly aid prediction of which introduced species will harm the environment and thus enable more efficient regulation. The fact that introduced species may increase local biodiversity in certain instances has not been shown to result in desired changes in ecosystem function. In other locales, they decrease biodiversity, as they do globally.     

Trait space of rare plants in a fire‐dependent ecosystem

The causes of species rarity are of critical concern because of the high extinction risk associated with rarity. Studies examining individual rare species have limited generality, whereas trait‐based approaches offer a means to identify functional causes of rarity that can be applied to communities with disparate species pools. Differences in functional traits between rare and common species may be indicative of the functional causes of species rarity and may therefore be useful in crafting species conservation strategies. However, there is a conspicuous lack of studies comparing the functional traits of rare species and co‐occurring common species. We measured 18 important functional traits for 19 rare and 134 common understory plant species from North Carolina's Sandhills region and compared their trait distributions to determine whether there are significant functional differences that may explain species rarity. Flowering, fire, and tissue‐chemistry traits differed significantly between rare and common, co‐occurring species. Differences in specific traits suggest that fire suppression has driven rarity in this system and that changes to the timing and severity of prescribed fire may improve conservation success. Our method provides a useful tool to prioritize conservation efforts in other systems based on the likelihood that rare species are functionally capable of persisting.     

Effects of productivity on biodiversity in forest ecosystems across the United States and China

In the global campaign against biodiversity loss in forest ecosystems, land managers need to know the status of forest biodiversity, but practical guidelines for conserving biodiversity in forest management are lacking. A major obstacle is the incomplete understanding of the relationship between site primary productivity and plant diversity, due to insufficient ecosystem‐wide data, especially for taxonomically and structurally diverse forest ecosystems. We investigated the effects of site productivity (the site's inherent capacity to grow timber) on tree species richness across 19 types of forest ecosystems in North America and China through 3 ground‐sourced forest inventory data sets (U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis, Cooperative Alaska Forest Inventory, and Chinese Forest Management Planning Inventory). All forest types conformed to a consistent and highly significant (P < 0.001) hump‐shaped unimodal relationship, of which the generalized coefficients of determination averaged 20.5% over all the forest types. That is, tree species richness first increased as productivity increased at a progressively slower rate, and, after reaching a maximum, richness started to decline. Our consistent findings suggest that forests of high productivity would sustain few species because they consist mostly of flat homogeneous areas lacking an environmental gradient along which a diversity of species with different habitats can coexist. The consistency of the productivity–biodiversity relationship among the 3 data sets we examined makes it possible to quantify the expected tree species richness that a forest stand is capable of sustaining, and a comparison between the actual species richness and the sustainable values can be useful in prioritizing conservation efforts.     

Defining and Evaluating the Umbrella Species Concept for Conserving and Restoring Landscape Connectivity

Conserving or restoring landscape connectivity between patches of breeding habitat is a common strategy to protect threatened species from habitat fragmentation. By managing connectivity for some species, usually charismatic vertebrates, it is often assumed that these species will serve as conservation umbrellas for other species. We tested this assumption by developing a quantitative method to measure overlap in dispersal habitat of 3 threatened species—a bird (the umbrella), a butterfly, and a frog—inhabiting the same fragmented landscape. Dispersal habitat was determined with Circuitscape, which was parameterized with movement data collected for each species. Despite differences in natural history and breeding habitat, we found substantial overlap in the spatial distributions of areas important for dispersal of this suite of taxa. However, the intuitive umbrella species (the bird) did not have the highest overlap with other species in terms of the areas that supported connectivity. Nevertheless, we contend that when there are no irreconcilable differences between the dispersal habitats of species that cohabitate on the landscape, managing for umbrella species can help conserve or restore connectivity simultaneously for multiple threatened species with different habitat requirements. Definición y Evaluación del Concepto de Especie Paraguas para Conservar y Restaurar la Conectividad de Paisajes