The role of life histories and trophic interactions in population recovery

Factors affecting population recovery from depletion are at the focus of wildlife management. Particularly, it has been debated how life‐history characteristics might affect population recovery ability and productivity. Many exploited fish stocks have shown temporal changes towards earlier maturation and reduced adult body size, potentially owing to evolutionary responses to fishing. Whereas such life‐history changes have been widely documented, their potential role on stock's ability to recover from exploitation often remains ignored by traditional fisheries management. We used a marine ecosystem model parameterized for Southeastern Australian ecosystem to explore how changes towards “faster” life histories might affect population per capita growth rate r. We show that for most species changes towards earlier maturation during fishing have a negative effect (3–40% decrease) on r during the recovery phase. Faster juvenile growth and earlier maturation were beneficial early in life, but smaller adult body sizes reduced the lifetime reproductive output and increased adult natural mortality. However, both at intra‐ and inter‐specific level natural mortality and trophic position of the species were as important in determining r as species longevity and age of maturation, suggesting that r cannot be predicted from life‐history traits alone. Our study highlights that factors affecting population recovery ability and productivity should be explored in a multi‐species context, where both age‐specific fecundity and survival schedules are addressed simultaneously. It also suggests that contemporary life‐history changes in harvested species are unlikely to increase their resilience and recovery ability.     

Human Migration,Protected Areas,and Conservation Outreach in Tanzania

A recent discussion debates the extent of human in‐migration around protected areas (PAs) in the tropics. One proposed argument is that rural migrants move to bordering areas to access conservation outreach benefits. A counter proposal maintains that PAs have largely negative effects on local populations and that outreach initiatives even if successful present insufficient benefits to drive in‐migration. Using data from Tanzania, we examined merits of statistical tests and spatial methods used previously to evaluate migration near PAs and applied hierarchical modeling with appropriate controls for demographic and geographic factors to advance the debate. Areas bordering national parks in Tanzania did not have elevated rates of in‐migration. Low baseline population density and high vegetation productivity with low interannual variation rather than conservation outreach explained observed migration patterns. More generally we argue that to produce results of conservation policy significance, analyses must be conducted at appropriate scales, and we caution against use of demographic data without appropriate controls when drawing conclusions about migration dynamics. La Migración Humana, Áreas Protegidas y el Alcance de la Conservación en Tanzania     

Evaluation of a long-range lagrangian dispersion model with ETEX

Performance of a Lagrangian dispersion model was examined in connection with its dependency on the boundary layer modelling and the input data resolution. The European Tracer Experiment (ETEX) data were used as reference. According to the sensitivity analysis of the model performance, the long-range dispersion model with the sparse input data was not noticeably different from that with the finer resolution data. The assumption of the prescribed constant mixing depth did not largely degrade the prediction results as compared with the simulation results with the temporally changing boundary layer. It is, therefore, concluded that the model is practical, considering the limited input data in the operational mode. However, it was also pointed out that the parameterization for the horizontal and vertical diffusion processes used in the present model enhanced the growth of plume. The improvement of input data resolution in time and space caused further dispersion of tracer deterministically. These resulted in the underestimation of the maximum concentration and the unfocussed concentration distribution map although the mean concentration was predicted fairly well.     

Environment-specific elasticity and sensitivity analysis of the stochastic growth rate

For matrix population models, analyses of how sensitive the population growth rate is to changes in vital rates (i.e. perturbations) are important for studies of life history evolution as well as for management and conservation of threatened species. There are two types of sensitivity analyses corresponding to absolute (sensitivity) or relative (elasticity) changes in the vital rates and both types can be applied to both deterministic and stochastic matrix population models. To date, most empirical studies of elasticity and sensitivity of the stochastic growth rate have examined the response to perturbations in the vital rates in a complete set of possible environments. However, it is often of interest to examine the response to perturbations occurring in only a subset of the possible environments. This has been done for periodic time-varying models elsewhere, but here we describe a recently published method for calculating the environment-specific sensitivity and elasticity of the stochastic growth rate and apply this method to data. These environment-specific perturbation analyses provide a logical way of dividing the sensitivity and elasticity among the environments. They give important insight into the selection regime in different environments and can provide valuable information for making management decisions and management evaluations in stochastic environments.     

Transmission of employment shocks before and after the Oklahoma City tornado

This study examined the economic impact of the May 3, 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak on the labor markets of Oklahoma City (OK), Wichita (KS), and Kansas City (MO). In particular, this article examines the transmission of shocks to employment growth across these different labor markets. Using monthly employment data from January 1990 to December 2004, we provide empirical evidence on the cross-market relationships that existed before and after the Oklahoma City tornado. The results suggest that the impact of the wind event may have altered labor market dynamics in Oklahoma City, as well as Wichita and Kansas City.     

Effects of Harvest of Nontimber Forest Products and Ecological Differences between Sites on the Demography of African Mahogany

Abstract: The demographic impacts of harvesting nontimber forest products (NTFP) have been increasingly studied because of reports of potentially unsustainable harvest. Nevertheless, our understanding of how plant demographic response to harvest is altered by variation in ecological conditions, which is critical for developing realistic sustainable‐use plans, is limited. We built matrix population models to test whether and how variation in ecological conditions affects population responses to harvest. In particular, we examined the effect of bark and foliage harvest on the demography of populations of African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) in two contrasting ecological regions of Benin, West Africa. K. senegalensis bark and foliage harvest significantly reduced its stochastic population growth rates, but ecological differences between regions had a greater effect on population growth rates than did harvest. The effect of harvest on population growth rates (Δλ) was slightly stronger in the moist than in the drier region. Life‐table response experiments revealed that the mechanism by which harvesting reduced λ differed between ecological regions. Lowered stasis (persistence) of larger life stages lead to a reduction in λ in the drier region, whereas lowered growth of all life stages lowered λ in moist region. Potential strategies to increase population growth rates should include decreasing the proportion of individuals harvested, promoting harvester‐owned plantations of African mahogany, and increasing survival and growth by promoting no‐fire zones in gallery forests. Our results show how population responses to harvest of NTFP may be altered by ecological differences across sites and emphasize the importance of monitoring populations over the climatic range in which they occur to develop more realistic recommendations for conservation.     

改革开放30年人的发展:评价与反思

传统的“唯GDP ”的经济发展方式成为中国未来经济可持续发展的桎梏,转变发展方式,提高经济增长质量,倡导共享式、包容性增长成为中国经济发展的新主题,而这种发展模式的基本导向就是促进“人的发展”.基于这样一个视角,本文依据经济增长质量提高的要求,从人的素质、人的福利、人的保障、人的迁移4个方面构建综合评价指标体系,对改革开放30年人的发展程度进行了测度与评价.评价结果显示:随着经济不断发展,30年间中国人的发展状况得到明显提高,但是人的发展指数以及人的素质指数、人的福利指数、人的保障指数、人的迁移指数、经济状况指数、资源环境指数仍需不断改善.未来中国在提高增长质量的过程中要促进人的发展,强调经济发展与人的发展的协调,树立“以人为本”的发展理念,着眼于人性,重视人的存在、人的价值、人的意义,建立促进人的素质和能力提升的机制和体制,确定以“富民”为目标的经济发展道路,实现人的发展与生态环境协调发展的有机统一.     

硝酸镧对铜绿微囊藻生长特性的影响

在实验室内利用BG₁₁培养液培养,研究了不同硝酸镧[La(NO₃)₃]浓度下铜绿微囊藻(Microcystis aeruginosa)FACHB526的生长特性,并在实验后期测定了藻细胞中的藻毒素含量.以藻细胞数和叶绿素a含量所表示的最大比生长率和最大现存量为指标,在一定浓度范围内,La(NO₃)₃可明显刺激铜绿微囊藻FACHB526的生长.但当培养液中La(NO₃)₃浓度很高时(125000g/L),却对铜绿微囊藻FACHB526的生长表现出明显的抑制作用.稀土盐类La(NO₃)₃对藻生长的低浓度刺激和高浓度抑制效应对全面了解水华爆发机制有一定的意义.从FACHB526藻中可分离检测出4种藻毒素变型MC-LR,MC-RR,MC-LW,MC-LF.     

试用可持续发展眼光审视中国持续高涨的水坝建设

水坝建设往往忽略了生态影响,轻视了社会问题,高估了经济效益.介绍了国际上对水坝问题认识的最新进展和主要观点,分析了我国水坝建设的现状和问题--西部建坝热潮不退的原因.从现状来看,中国的已建水坝已使长江流域生态退化,加剧了黄河的断流,加重了淮河水质的恶化等.最后以科学发展观为指导,对中国的水坝建设作了一些深层的思考.