Effectiveness of conservation easements in agricultural regions

Conservation easements are a standard technique for preventing habitat loss, particularly in agricultural regions with extensive cropland cultivation, yet little is known about their effectiveness. I developed a spatial econometric approach to propensity‐score matching and used the approach to estimate the amount of habitat loss prevented by a grassland conservation easement program of the U.S. federal government. I used a spatial autoregressive probit model to predict tract enrollment in the easement program as of 2001 based on tract agricultural suitability, habitat quality, and spatial interactions among neighboring tracts. Using the predicted values from the model, I matched enrolled tracts with similar unenrolled tracts to form a treatment group and a control group. To measure the program's impact on subsequent grassland loss, I estimated cropland cultivation rates for both groups in 2014 with a second spatial probit model. Between 2001 and 2014, approximately 14.9% of control tracts were cultivated and 0.3% of treated tracts were cultivated. Therefore, approximately 14.6% of the protected land would have been cultivated in the absence of the program. My results demonstrate that conservation easements can significantly reduce habitat loss in agricultural regions; however, the enrollment of tracts with low cropland suitability may constrain the amount of habitat loss they prevent. My results also show that spatial econometric models can improve the validity of control groups and thereby strengthen causal inferences about program effectiveness in situations when spatial interactions influence conservation decisions.     

Using environmental heterogeneity to plan for sea‐level rise

Environmental heterogeneity is increasingly being used to select conservation areas that will provide for future biodiversity under a variety of climate scenarios. This approach, termed conserving nature's stage (CNS), assumes environmental features respond to climate change more slowly than biological communities, but will CNS be effective if the stage were to change as rapidly as the climate? We tested the effectiveness of using CNS to select sites in salt marshes for conservation in coastal Georgia (U.S.A.), where environmental features will change rapidly as sea level rises. We calculated species diversity based on distributions of 7 bird species with a variety of niches in Georgia salt marshes. Environmental heterogeneity was assessed across six landscape gradients (e.g., elevation, salinity, and patch area). We used 2 approaches to select sites with high environmental heterogeneity: site complementarity (environmental diversity [ED]) and local environmental heterogeneity (environmental richness [ER]). Sites selected based on ER predicted present‐day species diversity better than randomly selected sites (up to an 8.1% improvement), were resilient to areal loss from SLR (1.0% average areal loss by 2050 compared with 0.9% loss of randomly selected sites), and provided habitat to a threatened species (0.63 average occupancy compared with 0.6 average occupancy of randomly selected sites). Sites selected based on ED predicted species diversity no better or worse than random and were not resilient to SLR (2.9% average areal loss by 2050). Despite the discrepancy between the 2 approaches, CNS is a viable strategy for conservation site selection in salt marshes because the ER approach was successful. It has potential for application in other coastal areas where SLR will affect environmental features, but its performance may depend on the magnitude of geological changes caused by SLR. Our results indicate that conservation planners that had heretofore excluded low‐lying coasts from CNS planning could include coastal ecosystems in regional conservation strategies.     

Applying network theory to prioritize multispecies habitat networks that are robust to climate and land‐use change

Designing connected landscapes is among the most widespread strategies for achieving biodiversity conservation targets. The challenge lies in simultaneously satisfying the connectivity needs of multiple species at multiple spatial scales under uncertain climate and land‐use change. To evaluate the contribution of remnant habitat fragments to the connectivity of regional habitat networks, we developed a method to integrate uncertainty in climate and land‐use change projections with the latest developments in network‐connectivity research and spatial, multipurpose conservation prioritization. We used land‐use change simulations to explore robustness of species’ habitat networks to alternative development scenarios. We applied our method to 14 vertebrate focal species of periurban Montreal, Canada. Accounting for connectivity in spatial prioritization strongly modified conservation priorities and the modified priorities were robust to uncertain climate change. Setting conservation priorities based on habitat quality and connectivity maintained a large proportion of the region's connectivity, despite anticipated habitat loss due to climate and land‐use change. The application of connectivity criteria alongside habitat‐quality criteria for protected‐area design was efficient with respect to the amount of area that needs protection and did not necessarily amplify trade‐offs among conservation criteria. Our approach and results are being applied in and around Montreal and are well suited to the design of ecological networks and green infrastructure for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in other regions, in particular regions around large cities, where connectivity is critically low.     

The rise of glyphosate and new opportunities for biosentinel early‐warning studies

Glyphosate has become the most commonly used herbicide worldwide and is reputedly environmentally benign, nontoxic, and safe for use near wildlife and humans. However, studies indicate its toxicity is underestimated and its persistence in the environment is greater than once thought. Its actions as a neurotoxin and endocrine disruptor indicate its potential to act in similar ways to persistent organic pollutants such as the organochlorines dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and dioxin. Exposure to glyphosate and glyphosate‐based herbicides for both wildlife and people is likely to be chronic and at sublethal levels, with multiple and ongoing exposure events occurring in urban and agricultural landscapes. Despite this, there has been little research on the impact of glyphosate on wildlife populations, and existing studies appear in the agricultural, toxicology, and water‐chemistry literature that may have limited visibility among wildlife biologists. These studies clearly demonstrate a link between chronic exposure and neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, cell damage, and immune suppression. There is a strong case for the recognition of glyphosate as an emerging organic contaminant and substantial potential exists for collaborative research among ecologists, toxicologists, and chemists to quantify the impact of glyphosate on wildlife and to evaluate the role of biosentinel species in a preemptive move to mitigate downstream impacts on people. There is scope to develop a decision framework to aid the choice of species to biomonitor and analysis methods based on the target contaminant, spatial and temporal extent of contamination, and perceived risk. Birds in particular offer considerable potential in this role because they span agricultural and urban environments, coastal, inland, and wetland ecosystems where glyphosate residues are known to be present.     

The problem of estimating recent genetic connectivity in a changing world

Accurate understanding of population connectivity is important to conservation because dispersal can play an important role in population dynamics, microevolution, and assessments of extirpation risk and population rescue. Genetic methods are increasingly used to infer population connectivity because advances in technology have made them more advantageous (e.g., cost effective) relative to ecological methods. Given the reductions in wildlife population connectivity since the Industrial Revolution and more recent drastic reductions from habitat loss, it is important to know the accuracy of and biases in genetic connectivity estimators when connectivity has declined recently. Using simulated data, we investigated the accuracy and bias of 2 common estimators of migration (movement of individuals among populations) rate. We focused on the timing of the connectivity change and the magnitude of that change on the estimates of migration by using a coalescent‐based method (Migrate‐n) and a disequilibrium‐based method (BayesAss). Contrary to expectations, when historically high connectivity had declined recently: (i) both methods over‐estimated recent migration rates; (ii) the coalescent‐based method (Migrate‐n) provided better estimates of recent migration rate than the disequilibrium‐based method (BayesAss); (iii) the coalescent‐based method did not accurately reflect long‐term genetic connectivity. Overall, our results highlight the problems with comparing coalescent and disequilibrium estimates to make inferences about the effects of recent landscape change on genetic connectivity among populations. We found that contrasting these 2 estimates to make inferences about genetic‐connectivity changes over time could lead to inaccurate conclusions.     

7B04铝合金和30CrMnSiA钢短期腐蚀的电化学行为研究

目的研究7B04铝合金和30CrMnSiA合金钢试样的电化学性能。方法采用电化学实验、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、腐蚀坑深度测试分别对7B04铝合金和30CrMnSiA合金钢试样在是否经过天然海水浸泡的情况下进行测试分析,得到微观腐蚀形貌和腐蚀坑深度以及试样表面不带锈和带锈时的电化学性能。结果随着Na Cl浓度增大,7B04铝合金和30CrMnSiA钢的自腐蚀电流变大,两者之间存在明显的电位差,接触后会发生电偶腐蚀。电偶电流与阴阳极面积比和Na Cl浓度有关,阴阳极面积比增大或Na Cl浓度升高均会导致电偶效应增强。经过海水短期浸泡后,7B04铝合金表面的锈层不仅没有起到抑制腐蚀的作用,反而使自腐蚀加重,但电偶效应确实有所减弱。结论沿海设备在使用过程中应竭力避免铝合金在锈层下工作。     

Cu／A1-Ce-PILC在丙烯选择性催化还原NO反应中的失活研究

采用聚合羟基复合阳离子合成交联黏土A1-Ce-PILC，经SO4^2-改性后，以浸渍法制备了铜基交联黏土催化剂Cu／A1-Ce-PILC，并将其应用于C3H6选择性催化还原NO的反应，350℃时NO转化率达到最大值56％，700℃时下降至22％．为探究催化剂高温失活的原因，采用XPS、TPR、TGA、Py-IR和DSC对反应前后催化剂的物化性能进行了表征．结果表明，经过H2预处理活化后活性组分Cu物种以Cu^＋形式存在，而高温反应后Cu物种除以Cu^＋和Cu^2＋ 2种形式存在外，还出现了少量CuO物种；高温反应过程中A1-Ce-PILC上结构羟基和SO4^2-流失导致催化剂表面酸性减弱；此外，还存在表面积炭覆盖了部分活性中心并堵塞了催化剂孔道的现象．这三者的共同影响促进了C3H6深度氧化，抑制了NO还原，从而导致催化剂的失活．     

Zr/TiO2纳米颗粒的制备及其光催化活性

以钛酸丁酯,乙醇为原料,用固相合成法制备了Zr/TiO2纳米颗粒,用XRD、TEM对其组成、颗粒大小、形貌进行了表征.通过对罗丹明B的降解反应,考察了Zr/TiO2的光催化活性.结果表明,Zr/TiO2为纳米颗粒,平均粒径为12.7 nm左右,且颗粒均匀;掺杂金属离子Zr提高了TiO2光催化效率,掺杂2.0%Zr的催化剂活性最高.Zr/TiO2的光催化反应,首先是反应物在Zr/TiO2表面发生吸附作用,然后进一步发生光催化降解.     

强磁场影响下菌株B1对染料的脱色作用

从校园土壤中筛选出一株对人工合成染料酸性红B有一定脱色能力的菌株B1(芽孢杆菌属),经过6.0、8.0、8.0T的强磁场分别作用30、15、30 min后进行了脱色试验;根据实验数据,得到染料脱色模型.结果表明,强磁场对B1具有诱变作用,能使其脱色能力得到强化.     

纳米复合GeO2/TiO2的制备及光催化性能研究

采用改进的Sol-gel方法,制备了一种新型的单分散椭球形微孔结构的纳米GeO2/TiO2复合光催化剂,并用TG-DTA、XRD、XPS、UV-vis、FT-IR、TEM、BET等手段进行了表征.以难生化降解的染料罗丹明B为目标降解物,采用HPLC测定不同光照时间下催化剂对染料降解的情况,考察了催化剂的光催化活性结果表明,改进的Sol-gel法制得的复合光催化剂具有明显的孔结构,而且比表面积大、粒径小、粒径分布窄、分散性好;与适量GeO2复合后能够有效提高TiO2纳米粒子的光催化活性;复合光催化剂的最佳制备条件为GeO2摩尔含量为0.1%,煅烧温度为400℃,所制得的GeO2/TiO2光催化活性比纯TiO2有显著提高.