Ecological and Economic Services Provided by Birds on Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Farms

Abstract: Coffee farms can support significant biodiversity, yet intensification of farming practices is degrading agricultural habitats and compromising ecosystem services such as biological pest control. The coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) is the world's primary coffee pest. Researchers have demonstrated that birds reduce insect abundance on coffee farms but have not documented avian control of the berry borer or quantified avian benefits to crop yield or farm income. We conducted a bird‐exclosure experiment on coffee farms in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica, to measure avian pest control of berry borers, identify potential predator species, associate predator abundance and borer reductions with vegetation complexity, and quantify resulting increases in coffee yield. Coffee plants excluded from foraging birds had significantly higher borer infestation, more borer broods, and greater berry damage than control plants. We identified 17 potential predator species (73% were wintering Neotropical migrants), and 3 primary species composed 67% of migrant detections. Average relative bird abundance and diversity and relative resident predator abundance increased with greater shade‐tree cover. Although migrant predators overall did not respond to vegetation complexity variables, the 3 primary species increased with proximity to noncoffee habitat patches. Lower infestation on control plants was correlated with higher total bird abundance, but not with predator abundance or vegetation complexity. Infestation of fruit was 1–14% lower on control plants, resulting in a greater quantity of saleable fruits that had a market value of US$44–$105/ha in 2005/2006. Landscape heterogeneity in this region may allow mobile predators to provide pest control broadly, despite localized farming intensities. These results provide the first evidence that birds control coffee berry borers and thus increase coffee yield and farm income, a potentially important conservation incentive for producers.     

Sustainability: a Dissent

Abstract:  Broadly conceived and considered in its many usages, sustainability has grave defects as a planning goal, particularly when used by conservationists: it confuses means and ends; it is vague about what is being sustained and who or what is doing the sustaining; it is uninspiring; it is little more than Pinchot-era conservation (and thus ignores the many lessons learned since then); it need not be linked to land, to the land's functioning, or to any ecological science; it need not include a moral component; it is consistent with the view of humans as all-powerful manipulators of the planet; and, in general, it is such a malleable term that its popularity provides only a facade of consensus. When sustainability is defined broadly to include the full range of economic and social aspirations, it poses the particular risk that ecological and biodiversity concerns will be cast aside in favor of more pressing human wants. Given these many defects, the conservation movement should discard the term in favor of a more alluring goal, attentive to nature and its ecological functioning. A sound goal would incorporate and distill the considerable ecological and moral wisdom accumulated since Pinchot's day while giving conservationists the rhetorical tools needed to defend the land against competing pressures. In our view, conservation would be well served by an updated variant of "land health," Aldo Leopold's ecologically grounded goal from the 1940s. Land health as an independent understanding should set the essential terms of how we live and enjoy the earth, providing the framework within which we pursue our many social and economic aims.     

湛江市土地资源的可持续利用

湛江市位于祖国大陆的最南端，地形以平原、台地为主，土地资源利用受台风、干早等自然因素的影响。作者对湛江市土地资源可持续利用的限制因子进行了分析，提出了滋江市土地资源可持续利用的对策和措施。     

SIMULATION OF TEMPORAL CHANGES IN RAINFALL-RUNOFF CHARACTERISTICS,COON CREEK BASIN,WISCONSIN1

ABSTRACT: Streamflow for 67 years was simulated for Coon Creek at Coon Valley, Wisconsin, for three conditions in the drainage basin: (1) conditions in the 1930s; (2) conditions in the 1970s, excluding flood-detention reservoirs; and (3) conditions in the 1970s, including flood-detention reservoirs. These simulations showed that the changes in agricultural practices over 40 years (1940–80) reduced the 100-year flood by 53 percent (from 38,900 to 18,300 cubic feet per second). The flood-detention reservoirs reduced the 100-year flood by an additional 17 percent (to 15,100 cubic feet per second). The simulation was accomplished by calibrating a precipitation-runoff model to observed rainfall and runoff during two separate periods (1934–40 and 1978–81). Comparisons of model simulations showed that differences between the model calibrations for the two periods were statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level.     

农业生态与土地退化的土壤微形态研究

简要地介绍了土壤微形态研究方法及其在农业生态与土地退化研究中的应用,并回顾了近20a的国际土壤微形态研究的内容与进展.在过去的20a中,土壤微形态学在概念、现象的解释、分析技术'以及应用上都取得了前所未有的进展.特别在样品脱水方法、荧光分析、图象处理及定量分析技术上得到很大的发展.植物根系与土壤微结构的关系,土壤改良对结构的影响等方面研究取得一定的成就.利用土壤微形态研究农业生态系统中的根系与根际的生态过程,作物对水分和养分的吸收过程,人为活动对土壤退化,熟化的微形态指标,以及利用微形态指标评价人为因素在现代土壤过程中的作用等,是土壤微形态研究的最新动态.     

内蒙古典型草原土壤不同剖面深度CO_2通量格局及其驱动因子

土壤CO2的释放能够显著增加大气牛CO2的浓度,增强温室效应,从而对全球气候和环境变化产生重要影响.但是,不同的土壤层对CO2通量的贡献量有很大的差异.文章通过挖坑法结合红外气体分析法研究了内蒙古草原典犁针茅(Stipa krylovii)群落和羊草(Leymus chinensis)群落不同剖面深度土壤CO2通量格局以及影响CO2通量的驱动因素.结果表明,表层土壤移走后,土壤CO2通量的变化可分为瞬时、短期、长期三种格局.新剖面上最初的0～21 min内释放的CO2通量最均大于初始土壤表层CO2通量,而且两者比值随土壤深度增加而增大,也随土壤CO2生产能力增强而增大.2～4 d后,新剖面CO2通量持续下降至低于初始土壤表层CO2通量的水平.形成短期稳定状态.更长时间后,新剖面则逐渐表现出与初始土壤剖面表层相近的CO2通量特征.我们认为,(1)在新剖面形成时的CO2通量瞬时和短期格局主要受土壤中存留的原始CO2的浓度及其扩散过程控制,(2)长期格局则由资源水平和环境条件共同决定的土壤CO2生产能力主导.文章进一步揭示了建立包含垂直分层的SOC分解和CO2扩散过程的生态系统模型的必要性.     

嘉兴农村不同土地利用方式下沟渠底泥中的氮磷形态分布特征

沟渠是农田氮、磷营养物质排入地表水体的通道. 对嘉兴大田、集约化菜地、集约化果园、集约化养殖场4种土地利用方式下的农村沟渠0～5 cm表层底泥氮、磷的形态分布特征进行了研究. 结果表明:67个沟渠底泥样品的w(全氮)为1 560～7 480 mg/kg,其中w(交换态氮)为31.15～704.38 mg/kg,占w(全氮)的1.29%～10.01%;交换态氮中以铵态氮为主,占w(交换态氮)的62.15%～100%. 沟渠底泥样品的w(全磷)为580～6 420 mg/kg,w(碳酸氢钠溶解磷)为19.53～359.72 mg/kg,占w(全磷)的2.05%～18.96%;w(水溶性磷)为0.29～18.88 mg/kg,占w(碳酸氢钠溶解磷)的1.11%～14.63%. 土地利用方式对沟渠底泥氮、磷的形态分布有显著影响(P<0.01),集约化养殖场沟渠底泥中的w(全氮), w(交换态氮),w(铵态氮), w(硝态氮), w(交换态氮)/w(全氮), w(全磷), w(水溶性磷), w(碳酸氢钠溶解磷)均显著高于其他土地利用方式. 底泥w(全氮), w(交换态氮), w(铵态氮)和w(硝态氮)两两间以及w(全磷), w(水溶性磷), w(碳酸氢钠溶解磷)两两间均在α0.01时显著相关,w(全磷)与w(碳酸氢钠溶解磷)的相关性(r0.81,P<0.01)好于与w(水溶性磷)的相关性(r0.51,P<0.01).      

生态系统结构对太湖有机聚集体理化性质的影响

2007年1~12月对太湖4个不同生态类型湖区水体中有机聚集体(organic aggregates,OA)的丰度、有机质含量和营养盐(N、P)含量及其它水环境因子进行了同步监测.结果表明,①OA是太湖水体中营养盐的一个重要来源,其N、P含量分别占水体中TN、TP的16.5%及43.3%;②水体中OA的丰度与水体的富营养化程度密切相关,随着水体富营养化水平的提高和浮游植物生物量的增加,OA丰度及其中有机质的含量也呈现逐渐上升的趋势;③风浪扰动对太湖水体中OA的理化性质影响较大.OA作为营养盐的一个重要载体,可能是浅水湖泊营养盐循环中的一个关键点.