万山汞矿区土壤汞污染及其防治研究

万山汞矿区具有600多年采矿历史,当地的生态破坏问题不容忽视.汞具有挥发性,能在水体、大气、土壤等环境介质中迁移转化,增大了汞污染治理难度.同时汞作为人体非必须的有毒重金属元素,对动、植物及人类具有极大的危害性.在此基础上,探讨了贵州万山汞矿区周边土壤的汞污染现状、来源、形态及其迁移转化规律,提出了相应的治理措施,以期能为今后深入开展汞污染治理研究提供理论依据与技术指导.     

大气例行点位常规监测污染物的相关性分析及防控措施研究

根据济南市历下区5个大气例行监测点位2015年上半年PM2.5、PM10、SO2、CO、NO2、O3逐小时浓度的监测数据,通过SPSS软件对各项污染物的相关性进行分析得出:CO与PM2.5、PM10、SO2、NO2强相关性出现次数最多,表明CO排放源是引起颗粒物污染的主要原因之一.对监测点位周边2 km范围内机动车尾气和餐饮燃煤两项污染源进行排放量估算得出:机动车尾气CO、NOx、PM2.5和PM10年排放量分别为388.18吨、111.18吨、4.35吨和4.72吨;餐饮燃煤CO、SO2、NOx年排放量分别为36.0吨、24.0吨和9.6吨.因此,控制CO排放源对改善济南市大气环境质量至关重要.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

论长江经济带大气污染防治的若干问题与防治对策

长江经济带是世界上最大的内河产业带和制造业基地,建设长江经济带是新时期中国三大国家发展战略之一,积极、有效地保护长江经济带生态环境具有非常重要的战略意义。本研究从识别突出的大气污染防治问题入手,深入分析大气污染的主要驱动力产业与能源结构,以问题为靶向,提出长江经济带的大气污染防治策略。研究结果发现,占国土面积21%的长江经济带排放了全国34%的二氧化硫、32%的氮氧化物、28%的烟粉尘、44%的挥发性有机物、43%的氨,单位面积污染物排放强度是全国平均水平的1.3~2.1倍,污染物排放远超环境容量。长江经济带126个城市中,6项主要大气污染物年平均浓度全部达标的城市比例不到1/3。颗粒物是影响城市达标的主要污染物。长江经济带产业结构偏重和能源消费以煤为主,是造成大气污染排放量的主要源头,是大气污染的主要驱动力。以解决突出的大气环境问题为核心,将环境质量作为大气污染防治的底线,持续推进空气质量改善,重点措施上,从大气污染驱动力着手,提出优化产业与能源结构、深化多污染物协同控制、推进区域联防联控等大气污染防治对策建议。     

Quantifying the relative irreplaceability of important bird and biodiversity areas

World governments have committed to increase the global protected areas coverage by 2020, but the effectiveness of this commitment for protecting biodiversity depends on where new protected areas are located. Threshold‐ and complementarity‐based approaches have been independently used to identify important sites for biodiversity. We brought together these approaches by performing a complementarity‐based analysis of irreplaceability in important bird and biodiversity areas (IBAs), which are sites identified using a threshold‐based approach. We determined whether irreplaceability values are higher inside than outside IBAs and whether any observed difference depends on known characteristics of the IBAs. We focused on 3 regions with comprehensive IBA inventories and bird distribution atlases: Australia, southern Africa, and Europe. Irreplaceability values were significantly higher inside than outside IBAs, although differences were much smaller in Europe than elsewhere. Higher irreplaceability values in IBAs were associated with the presence and number of restricted‐range species; number of criteria under which the site was identified; and mean geographic range size of the species for which the site was identified (trigger species). In addition, IBAs were characterized by higher irreplaceability values when using proportional species representation targets, rather than fixed targets. There were broadly comparable results when measuring irreplaceability for trigger species and when considering all bird species, which indicates a good surrogacy effect of the former. Recently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has convened a consultation to consolidate global standards for the identification of key biodiversity areas (KBAs), building from existing approaches such as IBAs. Our results informed this consultation, and in particular a proposed irreplaceability criterion that will allow the new KBA standard to draw on the strengths of both threshold‐ and complementarity‐based approaches.     

Trends in seabird breeding populations across the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is an iconic ecosystem, known globally for its rich marine biodiversity that includes many thousands of tropical breeding seabirds. Despite indications of localized declines in some seabird species from as early as the mid-1990s, trends in seabird populations across the reef have never been quantified. With a long history of human impact and ongoing environmental change, seabirds are likely sentinels in this important ecosystem. Using 4 decades of monitoring data, we estimated site-specific trends for 9 seabird species from 32 islands and cays across the reef. Trends varied markedly among species and sites, but probable declines occurred at 45% of the 86 species-by-site combinations analyzed compared with increases at 14%. For 5 species, we combined site-specific trends into a multisite trend in scaled abundance, which revealed probable declines of Common Noddy (Anous stolidus), Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus), and Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra), but no long-term changes in the 2 most widely distributed species, Greater Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii) and Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster). For Brown Booby, long-term stability largely resulted from increases at a single large colony on East Fairfax Island that offset declines at most other sites. Although growth of the Brown Booby population on East Fairfax points to the likely success of habitat restoration on the island, it also highlights a general vulnerability wherein large numbers of some species are concentrated at a small number of key sites. Identifying drivers of variation in population change across species and sites while ensuring long-term protection of key sites will be essential to securing the future of seabirds on the reef.     

Analysis of the relationship between environmental policies and air quality during major social events

Based on an analysis of major recent social events in China, such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, 2010 Shanghai World Expo, 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games, and 2014 Beijing Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference, mandatory, temporary, and indemnificatory quantitative policies aimed at protecting air quality, which were carried out by both central and local governments, made substantial contributions to changes and improvements in air quality. To some extent, the findings show that command and control measures play a significant role in protecting air quality, while the law and economic and voluntary environmental safeguard measures do not during major social events. Therefore, it reminds us the air quality could and will improve not only during major social events but also in the regular days if we implement appropriate environmental policies and safeguard measures.     

Potential Impacts of Global Warming on the Diversity and Distribution of Stream Insects in South Korea

Globally, the East Asian monsoon region is one of the richest environments in terms of biodiversity. The region is undergoing rapid human development, yet its river ecosystems have not been well studied. Global warming represents a major challenge to the survival of species in this region and makes it necessary to assess and reduce the potential consequences of warming on species of conservation concern. We projected the effects of global warming on stream insect (Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera [EOPT]) diversity and predicted the changes of geographical ranges for 121 species throughout South Korea. Plecoptera was the most sensitive (decrease of 71.4% in number of species from the 2000s through the 2080s) order, whereas Odonata benefited (increase of 66.7% in number of species from the 2000s through the 2080s) from the effects of global warming. The impact of global warming on stream insects was predicted to be minimal prior to the 2060s; however, by the 2080s, species extirpation of up to 20% in the highland areas and 2% in the lowland areas were predicted. The projected responses of stream insects under global warming indicated that species occupying specific habitats could undergo major reductions in habitat. Nevertheless, habitat of 33% of EOPT (including two‐thirds of Odonata and one‐third of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera) was predicted to increase due to global warming. The community compositions predicted by generalized additive models varied over this century, and a large difference in community structure in the highland areas was predicted between the 2000s and the 2080s. However, stream insect communities, especially Odonata, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera, were predicted to become more homogenous under global warming. Impacto Potencial del Calentamiento Global sobre la Diversidad y la Distribución de Insectos de Arroyo en Corea del Sur     

A 2.5‐million‐year perspective on coarse‐filter strategies for conserving nature's stage

Climate change will require novel conservation strategies. One such tactic is a coarse‐filter approach that focuses on conserving nature's stage (CNS) rather than the actors (individual species). However, there is a temporal mismatch between the long‐term goals of conservation and the short‐term nature of most ecological studies, which leaves many assumptions untested. Paleoecology provides a valuable perspective on coarse‐filter strategies by marshaling the natural experiments of the past to contextualize extinction risk due to the emerging impacts of climate change and anthropogenic threats. We reviewed examples from the paleoecological record that highlight the strengths, opportunities, and caveats of a CNS approach. We focused on the near‐time geological past of the Quaternary, during which species were subjected to widespread changes in climate and concomitant changes in the physical environment in general. Species experienced a range of individualistic responses to these changes, including community turnover and novel associations, extinction and speciation, range shifts, changes in local richness and evenness, and both equilibrium and disequilibrium responses. Due to the dynamic nature of species responses to Quaternary climate change, a coarse‐filter strategy may be appropriate for many taxa because it can accommodate dynamic processes. However, conservationists should also consider that the persistence of landforms varies across space and time, which could have potential long‐term consequences for geodiversity and thus biodiversity.     

Contributions of paraecologists and parataxonomists to research,conservation, and social development

Citizen science has been gaining momentum in the United States and Europe, where citizens are literate and often interested in science. However, in developing countries, which have a dire need for environmental data, such programs are slow to emerge, despite the large and untapped human resources in close proximity to areas of high biodiversity and poorly known floras and faunas. Thus, we propose that the parataxonomist and paraecologist approach, which originates from citizen‐based science, is well suited to rural areas in developing countries. Being a paraecologist or a parataxonomist is a vocation and entails full‐time employment underpinned by extensive training, whereas citizen science involves the temporary engagement of volunteers. Both approaches have their merits depending on the context and objectives of the research. We examined 4 ongoing paraecologist or parataxonomist programs in Costa Rica, India, Papua New Guinea, and southern Africa and compared their origins, long‐term objectives, implementation strategies, activities, key challenges, achievements, and implications for resident communities. The programs supported ongoing research on biodiversity assessment, monitoring, and management, and participants engaged in non‐academic capacity development in these fields. The programs in Southern Africa related to specific projects, whereas the programs in Costa Rica, India, and Papua New Guinea were designed for the long term, provided sufficient funding was available. The main focus of the paraecologists’ and parataxonomists’ activities ranged from collection and processing of specimens (Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea) or of socioeconomic and natural science data (India and Southern Africa) to communication between scientists and residents (India and Southern Africa). As members of both the local land user and research communities, paraecologists and parataxonomists can greatly improve the flow of biodiversity information to all users, from local stakeholders to international academia.