Conservation implications of anthropogenic impacts on visual communication and camouflage

Anthropogenic environmental impacts can disrupt the sensory environment of animals and affect important processes from mate choice to predator avoidance. Currently, these effects are best understood for auditory and chemosensory modalities, and recent reviews highlight their importance for conservation. We examined how anthropogenic changes to the visual environment (ambient light, transmission, and backgrounds) affect visual communication and camouflage and considered the implications of these effects for conservation. Human changes to the visual environment can increase predation risk by affecting camouflage effectiveness, lead to maladaptive patterns of mate choice, and disrupt mutualistic interactions between pollinators and plants. Implications for conservation are particularly evident for disrupted camouflage due to its tight links with survival. The conservation importance of impaired visual communication is less documented. The effects of anthropogenic changes on visual communication and camouflage may be severe when they affect critical processes such as pollination or species recognition. However, when impaired mate choice does not lead to hybridization, the conservation consequences are less clear. We suggest that the demographic effects of human impacts on visual communication and camouflage will be particularly strong when human‐induced modifications to the visual environment are evolutionarily novel (i.e., very different from natural variation); affected species and populations have low levels of intraspecific (genotypic and phenotypic) variation and behavioral, sensory, or physiological plasticity; and the processes affected are directly related to survival (camouflage), species recognition, or number of offspring produced, rather than offspring quality or attractiveness. Our findings suggest that anthropogenic effects on the visual environment may be of similar importance relative to conservation as anthropogenic effects on other sensory modalities.     

Mowers versus growers: Riparian buffer management in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains,USA

Despite long-standing knowledge of the benefits of riparian buffers for mitigating nonpoint source pollution, many streams are unprotected by buffers. Even landowners who understand ecological values of buffers mow riparian vegetation to the streambank. Do trends in rural riparian conditions reflect the development of riparian forest science? What motivates residential riparian management actions? Using high-resolution orthoimagery, we quantified riparian conditions and trends between 1998 and 2015 in the rural upper Little Tennessee River basin in Macon County, North Carolina and explored how landowners view riparian zone management and riparian restoration programs. Buffer composition in 2015 was as follows: no buffer (32.5%), narrow (19.3%), forested (26.7%), shrub (7.2%), and intermediate (7.0%). Relative to 1998, the greatest decrease occurred in the no buffer class (−17.7%, 46 km) and the largest increases occurred in the shrub (+72.5%, 20 km) and narrow (12.6%, 14 km) classes. Forested buffer marginally increased. Semi-structured interview data suggest that landowners prioritize recreational and scenic aspects of riparian buffers over ecological functions such as filtration and bank stabilization. Riparian restoration programs might be made more enticing to non-adopters if outreach language appealed to landowner priorities, design elements demonstrated intentional management, and program managers highlighted areas where ecological goals and landowner values align.     

我国城镇化进程中碳排放影响因素的实证研究

利用1980—2013年间的城镇人口与碳排放数据,选取城镇化进程中影响碳排放的城镇化水平、城镇建设用地面积、第三产业增加值、人均可支配收入、城镇人均绿化面积等因素,实证分析了城镇化对我国碳排放的影响程度,并利用格兰杰夫因果关系与误差修正模型分析了二者的因果关系与时间效应。最后,从降低工业碳排放、加快低碳城镇化试点建设、推进低碳社区发展,促进新能源发展等方面提出了相关建议。     

郑州市城市生态环境变化研究

随着城市化的发展,城市生态环境变化较大.基于遥感技术,利用遥感生态指数对郑州市城市生态环境变化进行评价与检测,以对城市规划建设提供科学依据,从而促进城市健康可持续发展.结果表明:2006年-2017年,郑州市生态环境质量呈下降趋势,其中绿度指标与干度指标对城市生态环境的影响最大;郑州市生态环境变好的区域占18.43%,生态环境变差的区域占42.54%,变差的区域主要为新建成区,这些区域应是今后生态环境改善的重点区域.     

发展乡村旅游对乡村生态环境影响研究

针对发展乡村旅游对乡村生态环境的影响,介绍了乡村旅游的发展现状,探讨了乡村旅游发展对乡村环境的影响,主要包括乡村旅游带来的环境问题分析和环境问题的原因分析,乡村旅游作为旅游行业一支新生力量,异军突起,在中国已形成很大的发展趋势.发展乡村旅游可以提高农民收入、合理利用乡村资源,提出对策建议,主要是充分发挥政府职能,建立健全乡村环境保护体系,制定合理的乡村旅游发展规划,加强乡村旅游的环境管理,为乡村旅游发展提出了对策建议.     

农家乐发展带来的环境问题及其对策

根据国内农家乐发展的类型和特征,对农家乐发展带来的水污染、垃圾污染、交通拥堵及噪声和农田污染等环境问题进行有针对性的分析,并提出各种污染的防治措施,大力发展沼气、太阳能等清洁能源,提倡绿色交通,发展生态养殖和种植。结合农家乐地区的发展需求,提出基于沼气利用和污水资源化处置的农家乐旅游循环经济发展模式,在有效处置污染的同时,实现各种资源的合理配置和循环利用,保障农家乐的健康发展。     

贵州省湄潭县生态旅游发展规划研究

湄潭县旅游资源丰富,本文介绍了湄潭旅游资源的现状,从缺乏旅游精品、资源整合不足、文化挖掘不深、旅游宣传不力、旅游设施滞后、旅游人才匮乏等方面分析了旅游产业存在的不足,提出了发展生态旅游的思路,从茶文化、乡村休闲度假和浙大西迁文化和湄江山水四方面设计了生态旅游产品;从低碳旅游设施建设规划和体验式生态旅游规划两方面规划了绿色服务产品,并提出从旅游者、从业者和政府三个层面构建管理型生态旅游;最后对湄潭生态旅游发展提出了展望。     

丽江市九子海村生态旅游运营保障对策研究

针对丽江市九子海生态旅游开发过程中可能出现的野生生物生存受到威胁、自然环境可能被破坏的情况,根据该地区的自然生境现状,结合未来生态旅游发展的预期,提出九子海生态旅游运营的保障措施,包括：九子海村主体功能区划分、旅游合作社运营与管理机制、运用生态补偿政策、每日最大旅游人数限制（≤200人）、提高本地村民环保意识、草句核心区放牧限制和核心区外围农田农作物种植引导等措施。     

重点旅游城市旅游生态足迹研究——以桂林市为例

旅游生态足迹分析可定量反映旅游业对自然生态环境产生的压力和影响程度,为旅游业可持续发展研究提供新的思路和研究方向。研究表明：2009年桂林市人均生态旅游足迹为367.823m2,旅游生态足迹结构中旅游交通高达268.461m2,占72.99%;6种生物生产性土地中所占比例最大的是化石能源地,为270.65m2,占73.58%。通过桂林市的旅游生态足迹和旅游承载力的对比,发现桂林市旅游业的生态需求大于供给,人均旅游生态赤字达84.326m2。为实现当地旅游业的可持续发展,应有效降低能源消耗,倡导节能出行方式,发展低碳旅游。     

中国旅游业空间集聚与集群化发展研究

旅游产业集聚与集群是联系密切而又有明显区别的一组概念,旅游产业集聚是集群形成的前提,但旅游产业集聚不一定形成集群,影响旅游产业空间集聚和集群发展的因素较多。选择行业集中度、基尼系数、赫芬代尔系数等指标,以相关数据为依据,探讨了中国旅游业的空间集聚问题,指出中国旅游业具有明显的空间集中分布与分散相结合的集聚特征。分析了中国旅游业集群发展现状与存在的问题并提出了相应对策,认为我国旅游业集群化发展是非常必要而且有可能的。