Human appropriation of net primary production as determinant of avifauna diversity in Austria

The relationship between land-use induced changes in production ecology and avifauna diversity was analysed using a GIS land cover dataset on a 0.25 km × 0.25 km grid covering Austria's national territory. Considering only aboveground processes, the “human appropriation of net primary production” (HANPP = potential NPP − NPP_t), actual NPP (NPP_act), harvest (NPP_h) and NPP_t (= NPP_act − harvest) were recalculated based on existing datasets. Elevation as well as indicators of land cover heterogeneity and landscape heterogeneity were also considered. Correlation analyses were performed between these potential determinants of avifauna diversity and breeding bird species richness data as well as the percentage of endangered breeding birds included in the Austrian red list. Four spatial scales—0.25 km × 0.25 km, 1 km × 1 km, 4 km × 4 km and 16 × 16 km, were analysed. It was shown that breeding bird species richness was more strongly correlated with production ecological indicators and elevation than with heterogeneity indicators. A residual analysis in which the effect of elevation (a proxy for climate) on species richness and its potential determinants was removed confirmed the importance of the availability of trophic energy (NPP) for bird diversity patterns. The results support the species-energy hypothesis, thus confirming the notion that HANPP could be a useful pressure indicator for biodiversity loss.     

Effects of Short- and Long-Term Disturbance Resulting from Military Maneuvers on Vegetation and Soils in a Mixed Prairie Area

Loss of grassland species resulting from activities such as off-road vehicle use increases the need for models that predict effects of anthropogenic disturbance. The relationship of disturbance by military training to plant species richness and composition on two soils (Foard and Lawton) in a mixed prairie area was investigated. Track cover (cover of vehicle disturbance to the soil) and soil organic carbon were selected as measures of short- and long-term disturbance, respectively. Soil and vegetation data, collected in 1-m² quadrats, were analyzed at three spatial scales (60, 10, and 1 m²). Plant species richness peaked at intermediate levels of soil organic carbon at the 10-m² and 1-m² spatial scales on both the Lawton and Foard soils, and at intermediate levels of track cover at all three spatial scales on the Foard soil. Species composition differed across the disturbance gradient on the Foard soil but not on the Lawton soil. Disturbance increased total plant species richness on the Foard soil. The authors conclude that disturbance up to intermediate levels can be used to maintain biodiversity by enriching the plant species pool.     

中国区域环境绩效及波特假说的再检验

以二氧化碳为非期望产出,基于序列DEA的方向性距离函数、环境规制强度指数、Malmqulist-Luenberger指数,测度了1999~2010年中国30个省、市、自治区及东、中、西、东北四大区域的环境技术效率、环境规制成本及全要素生产率,并对四大区域的全要素生产率进行了波特假说的再检验.研究结果表明:区域间的环境技术效率呈现东-东北-中-西依次递减的演变格局;东北老工业基地的环境规制成本最高、西部地区最低;环境规制强度与全国及四大区域全要素生产率有显著的正相关性,这支持了波特假说的存在;技术进步效应的检验结果显示,只有中部区域支持波特假说的存在,西部区域检验结果表明碳排放的规制过高会对技术进步带来消极影响;环境技术效率变化效应的检验结果显示,全国及四大区域均支持波特假说的存在,碳排放规制强度的加强,会推动各地区在不同时期追赶最优生产前沿面的程度.     

Carbon trading thickness and market efficiency in a socialist market economy

Unlike the European Union emission trade system (EU ETS), China’s pilot ETSs implemented diversified policy designs instead of using a uniform framework. Variance ratio test is used to evaluate the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) in China’s carbon trading markets. The results of two versions of variance ratio tests indicate that the carbon trading market in Hubei is considered weak form efficient, and the socialist market economy does not necessarily lead to market inefficiency in carbon trading markets. Thin trading activities generate market frictions and bias the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) tests.     

环境规制对区域技术创新影响的门槛效应

实现环境规制和经济增长之间"双赢"的关键在于环境规制能否促进企业技术创新。本文在环境规制强度和企业技术创新之间构建了数理模型,并基于区域异质性假定检验了我国环境规制与技术创新的非线性关系并确定了环境规制的最优规制水平。研究表明:环境规制强度与技术创新是非线性的。在强度维度上,环境规制强度和企业技术创新之间符合"U"型关系,即随着环境规制强度的由弱变强,对企业技术创新产生先降低后提高的影响。环境规制的创新效应还取决于经济发展水平的变量。经济发展水平则存在双门槛,经济发展水平跨越的门槛值越高,环境规制对技术创新的促进作用越显著。本文政策涵义明显:政府切忌走入盲目提高环境规制强度的误区,应根据各区域现实特点,有针对性地制定差异化的环境规制强度和标准,并注重滚动修订,及时调整至最优水平。     

Addressing climate change: Determinants of consumers' willingness to act and to support policy measures

Consumers influence climate change through their consumption patterns and their support or dismissal of climate mitigation policy measures. Both climate-friendly actions and policy support comprise a broad range of options, which vary in manifold ways and, therefore, might be influenced by different factors. The aims of the study were, therefore, two-fold: first, we intended to find a meaningful way to classify different ways of addressing climate change. Second, we aimed to examine which determinants influence people's willingness to engage in these behaviors. We conducted a large-scale mail survey in Switzerland in which respondents rated, among other items, their willingness to act or support a range of possible actions and mitigations measures. A principal component analysis indicated that a distinction in terms of a behavior's directness as well as a differentiation according to perceived costs seem to be appropriate to classify climate-friendly actions. Multiple regression analyses showed that perceived costs and perceived climate benefit turned out to be the strongest predictors for willingness to act or to support climate policy measures. The strong influence of perceived climate benefit might reflect a strategy of reducing cognitive dissonance. As high-cost behaviors are more difficult to adopt, consumers may reduce dissonance by dismissing high-cost behaviors as not effective in terms of climate mitigation. Political affiliation proved to be another strong determinant of willingness to act or support. Participants on the right wing were less willing to show indirect climate-friendly behaviors, change their mobility behaviors, and to support any type of climate mitigation policy measures. Climate-friendly low-cost behaviors, however, were not influenced by political affiliation.     

REGIONAL DETECTION OF CHANGE IN WATER QUALITY VARIABLES1

ABSTRACT: The detection of change in a hydrologic varaible, particularly water quality, is a current problem. A method is presented for testing whether there has been a shift in the mean of a hydrologic variable based on the well established bivariate normal distribution theory. In this technique, the dependent, or target, and the independent, or control, variables are formed as weighted linear combinations of the mean values at a number of locations in a selected target and control area. The weighting factors are determined based on a mathematical programming technique which minimizes the conditional coefficient of variation thereby minimizing the number of observations required to detect a change of a preselected magnitude in the mean of the target area. The result is a situation where a savings in the number of observations required to detect a change is a consequence of adding more stations: the space-time tradeoff. Two applications of the technique are presented, the first using electrical conductivity (EC) data from two sets of river basins and the second using EC data from a set of basins as the target variable and annual discharge as the control. The results indicate that a significant savings in time can be achieved by using this method.     

Cache and carry: hoarding behavior of arctic fox

Food-hoarding animals are expected to preferentially cache items with lower perishability and/or higher consumption time. We observed arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) foraging in a greater snow goose (Anser caerulescens atlanticus) colony where the main prey of foxes consisted of goose eggs, goslings, and lemmings (Lemmus and Dicrostonyx spp.). We recorded the number of prey consumed and cached and the time that foxes invested in these activities. Foxes took more time to consume a goose egg than a lemming or gosling but cached a greater proportion of eggs than the other prey type. This may be caused by the eggshell, which presumably decreases the perishability and/or pilfering risk of cached eggs, but also increases egg consumption time. Arctic foxes usually recached goose eggs but rarely recached goslings or lemmings. We tested whether the rapid-sequestering hypothesis could explain this recaching behavior. According to this hypothesis, arctic foxes may adopt a two-stage strategy allowing both to maximize egg acquisition rate in an undefended nest and subsequently secure eggs in potentially safer sites. Foxes spent more time carrying an egg and traveled greater distances when establishing a secondary than a primary cache. To gain further information on the location and subsequent fate of cached eggs, we used dummy eggs containing radio transmitters. Lifespan of primary caches increased with distance from the goose nest. Secondary caches were generally located farther from the nest and had a longer lifespan than primary caches. Behavioral observations and the radio-tagged egg technique both gave results supporting the rapid-sequestering hypothesis.     

The habitat saturation hypothesis and sociality in an allodapine bee: cooperative nesting is not “making the best of a bad situation”

Several factors thought to be important for the evolution of cooperative breeding in vertebrates have received little attention in facultatively social insects. One of these, the “habitat saturation hypothesis” of Selander (1964), predicts that colony sizes will be greater in breeding units where dispersal opportunities are limited, suggesting that group living is a secondary option to independent reproduction. The Australian allodapine bee Exoneura bicolor exhibits a number of traits that occur in cooperatively breeding bird species, including long life-span, repeated opportunities for reproduction, and vulnerability to brood predation and parasitism. We experimentally examined the effect of a potentially limiting environmental factor, nesting substrate availability, as an agent influencing sociality in E. bicolor. We manipulated nesting substrate availability in two separate locations during a time when foundress dispersal is common. No significant difference was found between colony sizes in cases where dispersal options were abundant and cases where dispersal options were limited. An increase in opportunities for dispersal did not lead to higher rates of independent nesting, suggesting that cooperative nesting is a preferred strategy regardless of distance-related costs of dispersal. Reproductivity per female and brood survival were examined as factors selecting for group living. Low survival of brood in single-female nests has the potential to select for cooperative nesting in this bee. Received: 29 September 1995/Accepted after revision: 24 June 1996     

Are naked and common mole-rats eusocial and if so, why?

Eusociality in mammals is defined in the present paper by the following criteria: reproductive altruism (which involves reproductive division of labor and cooperative alloparental brood care), overlap of adult generations, and permanent (lifelong) philopatry. We argue that additional criteria such as the existence of castes, colony size, reproductive skew, and social cohesion are not pertinent to the definition of eusociality in mammals. According to our definition of mammalian eusociality, several rodent species of the African family Bathyergidae can be considered eusocial, including the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), Damaraland mole-rat (Cryptomys damarensis), and several additional, if not all, species in the genus Cryptomys. Furthermore, some species of social voles (like Microtus ochrogaster) may also fulfill criteria of mammalian eusociality. Understanding the evolution of eusociality in mole-rats requires answers to two primary questions: (1) What are the preconditions for the development of their eusocial systems? (2) Why do offspring remain in the natal group rather than dispersing and reproducing? Eusociality in mammals is by definition a special case of monogamy (more specifically: monogyny one female breeding), involving prolonged pair bonding for more than one breeding period. We argue that eusociality in mole-rats evolved from a monogamous mating system where cooperative brood care was already established. A tendency for group living is considered to be an ancestral (plesiomorph) trait among African bathyergid mole-rats, linking them to other hystricognath rodents. A solitary lifestyle seen in some genera, such as Bathyergus, Georychus, and Heliophobius, is assumed to be a derived trait that arose independently in different lineages of bathyergids, possibly as a consequence of selective constraints associated with the subterranean environment. In proximate terms, in eusocial mole-rats either puberty is assumed to be developmentally delayed so that under natural conditions most animals die before dispersal is triggered (e.g., in the case of Heterocephalus) or dispersal is induced only by an incidental encounter with an unfamiliar, yet adequate sexual partner (e.g., in the case of Cryptomys). Ultimately, a combination of strategies involving either dispersal and/or philopatry can be beneficial, especially in a highly unpredictable environment. If genetic relatedness among siblings is high (e.g., a coefficient of relatedness of 0.5 or more), then philopatry would not invoke an appreciable loss of fitness, especially if the cost of dispersing is higher than staying within the natal group. High genetic relatedness is more likely in a monogamous mating system or a highly inbred population. In this paper, we argue that the preconditions for eusociality in bathyergid mole-rats were a monogamous mating system and high genetic relatedness among individuals. We argue against the aridity food-distribution hypothesis (AFDH) that suggests a causal relationship between cooperative foraging for patchily distributed resources and the origin of eusociality. The AFDH may explain group size dynamics of social mole-rats as a function of the distribution and availability of resources but it is inadequate to explain the formation of eusocial societies of mole-rats, especially with respect to providing preconditions conducive for the emergence of eusociality.