Climate Change Discourses and Citizen Participation: A Case Study of the Discursive Construction of Citizenship in Two Public Events

Citizen participation is a recurrent and democratically important issue in the ongoing debate about climate change. However, different meanings are ascribed to citizen participation in different contexts, ranging from top-down involvement to bottom-up engagement, thus creating tension between conflicting ideals. Focusing on public engagement and its construal in different situational contexts, we explore how citizens are discursively included or excluded from participation, as various climate change discourses unfold in two forums where local needs and global concerns interact. Furthermore, we address some opportunities and barriers regarding citizen participation in climate change issues.     

长荡湖生态环境现状及防治对策

长荡湖是太湖流域的重要湖泊之一，分析了引起该湖生态环境恶化的主要原因，提出控制污染源，减少污染物进入湖体的关键措施，采取压缩网网养殖规模，推广轮牧式养殖工艺，实施全年封草并培植沉水植物，防止长荡湖由草型湖泊向藻型湖泊的转变，逐步恢复长荡湖的生态环境。     

崇明生态岛建设解析

崇明岛是位于长江口、世界上面积最大的河口冲积岛。笔者构建了科学性与可操作性、现实性与前瞻性、针对性与示范性相结合的生态岛建设指标体系,并在崇明世界级生态岛建设中发挥了“引领生态岛建设方向,规范建设行为,调控建设进程”的作用,崇明生态岛建设成效初显。为了进一步发挥崇明生态岛建设的示范作用,笔者还提出了建设生态文明特区等建议。     

Indirect Effects in Aquatic Ecotoxicology: Implications for Ecological Risk Assessment

Understanding toxicant effects at higher levels of biological organization continues to be a challenge in ecotoxicology and ecological risk assessment. This is due in part to a tradition in ecotoxicology of considering the direct effects of toxicants on a limited number of model test species. However, the indirect effects of toxicity may be a significant factor influencing the manner in which ecosystem structure and function respond to anthropogenic stressors. Subsequently, failure to incorporate indirect effects into risk assessment paradigms may be a significant source of uncertainty in risk estimates. The current paper addresses the importance of indirect effects in an ecotoxicological context. Laboratory, mesocosm, and whole ecosystem research into indirect effects is reviewed. The implications of indirect effects for ecological risk assessment and potential areas of profitable future research are also discussed.     

Restoration,stewardship, environmental health,and policy: understanding stakeholders' perceptions

In recent years there has been considerable interest in the health of humans and the environment, restoration of contaminated or otherwise degraded lands, and in long-term stewardship of public lands. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether governmental agencies and the public hold similar views about the meanings of these concepts, making policy decisions about restoration and stewardship difficult. In this paper, I explore how the public conceptualizes restoration and stewardship by examining the relative rating of several attributes of restoration, stewardship, environmental health, ecological health, environmental restoration, and ecological restoration. People were interviewed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, near the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory. The ratings of attributes of environmental health and ecological health reported in this paper can be used to understand how the public understands these concepts. The attributes rated most highly by the subjects were more similar to definitions in the scientific literature for these terms than they were to those used by the Department of Energy. For environmental health, the highest rating related to human sanitation, while for ecological health the highest rating was for maintaining functioning ecosystems. Reduction of exposure to hazardous substances was rated the second highest for both environmental and ecological health. The wise use of natural resources, preservation of natural resources, and hazardous waste site cleanup were rated the highest attributes of stewardship. These data suggest that both expert and nonexpert perceptions about restoration and stewardship should be incorporated into environmental management decisions.     

A procedure for incorporating spatial variability in ecological risk assessment of Dutch river floodplains

Floodplain soils along the river Rhine in the Netherlands show a large spatial variability in pollutant concentrations. For an accurate ecological risk characterization of the river floodplains, this heterogeneity has to be included into the ecological risk assessment. In this paper a procedure is presented that incorporates spatial components of exposure into the risk assessment by linking geographical information systems (GIS) with models that estimate exposure for the most sensitive species of a floodplain. The procedure uses readily available site-specific data and is applicable to a wide range of locations and floodplain management scenarios. The procedure is applied to estimate exposure risks to metals for a typical foodweb in the Afferdensche and Deestsche Waarden floodplain along the river Waal, the main branch of the Rhine in the Netherlands. Spatial variability of pollutants is quantified by overlaying appropriate topographic and soil maps resulting in the definition of homogeneous pollution units. Next to that, GIS is used to include foraging behavior of the exposed terrestrial organisms. Risk estimates from a probabilistic exposure model were used to construct site-specific risk maps for the floodplain. Based on these maps, recommendations for future management of the floodplain can be made that aim at both ecological rehabilitation and an optimal flood defense.     

Hydrology or Floristics? Mapping and Classification of Wetlands in Victoria,Australia, and Implications for Conservation Planning

A national approach to the conservation of biodiversity in Australia's freshwater ecosystems is a high priority. This requires a consistent and comprehensive system for the classification, inventory, and assessment of wetland ecosystems. This paper, using the State of Victoria as a case study, compares two classification systems that are commonly utilized to delineate and map wetlands--one based on hydrology (Victorian Wetland Database [VWD]) and one based on indigenous vegetation types and other natural features (Ecological Vegetation Classes [EVC]). We evaluated the extent of EVC mapping of wetlands relative to the VWD classification system using a number of datasets within a geographical information system. There were significant differences in the coverage of extant EVCs across bioregions, different-sized wetlands, and VWD wetland types. Resultant depletion levels were markedly different when examined using the two systems, with depletion levels, and therefore perceived conservation status, of EVCs being significantly higher. Although there is little doubt that many wetland ecosystems in Victoria are in fact threatened, the extent of this threat cannot accurately be determined by relying on the EVC mapping as it currently stands. The study highlighted the significant impact wetland classification methods have in determining the conservation status of freshwater ecosystems.     

Reflecting on stakeholders’ perceptions in an Ecological Risk Assessment workshop: Lessons for practitioners

A new form of Ecological Risk Assessment aims to improve environmental decision-making through strong stakeholder engagement, often in workshop situations. This wider focus increases interaction between workshop practitioners and stakeholders for reflecting on, and learning from, each others perceptions. In this article, we analyse and discuss a one day workshop that was concerned with trialling this method of deriving an Ecological Risk Assessment. We found that stakeholders had issues with some elements of the workshop process. The decision problem was formulated prior to the workshop and without consultation among all the stakeholders. Consequently, the original decision problem was rejected for a mutually derived broader focus and this resulted in a loss of clarity and purpose. Stakeholders did not wholly concur with the prioritising of ecological values over social and economic values and some stakeholders objected to defining assessment endpoints, because it implies a reductionist approach that doesn’t capture significance and understanding of systems. Ecological Risk Assessment workshops are complex and require significant practitioner and stakeholder development to provide useful and mutually derived outcomes.     

城市生态承载力研究

生态安全是生态承载力的“底线” ,超过了这一临界值 ,生态安全问题就会凸显而变得严重 ,甚至出现崩溃。笔者通过对生态足迹需求和生态承载力的计算 ,判断该地区处于生态盈余 /赤字 ,得出该地区自然生态系统所提供的产品和服务的供应量超过了 /不足以该地区人们正常生活的需求量的结论。计算出珠海 2 0 0 2年生态足迹和生态承载力 ,该结果显示出珠海的发展属于地方可持续性的。通过计算珠海从 2 0 0 2～ 2 0 2 0年各指标的时间序列值来追踪各个时点的可持续程度 ,弥补了生态足迹计算法中指标静态性的缺陷。预测了未来 18年珠海的生态足迹需求 ,其结果表明珠海市生态承载力严重不足 ,生态功能水平薄弱。城市生态承载力的研究不仅能指导珠海生态安全和可持续发展 ,而对其他城市的生态规划及发展也具有参考价值。