A climate-change vulnerability and adaptation assessment for Brazil's protected areas

Brazil hosts the largest expanse of tropical ecosystems within protected areas (PAs), which shelter biodiversity and support traditional human populations. We assessed the vulnerability to climate change of 993 terrestrial and coastal-marine Brazilian PAs by combining indicators of climatic-change hazard with indicators of PA resilience (size, native vegetation cover, and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition). This combination of indicators allows the identification of broad climate-change adaptation pathways. Seventeen PAs (20,611 km²) were highly vulnerable and located mainly in the Atlantic Forest (7 PAs), Cerrado (6), and the Amazon (4). Two hundred fifty-eight PAs (756,569 km²), located primarily in Amazonia, had a medium vulnerability. In the Amazon and western Cerrado, the projected severe climatic change and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition drove vulnerability up, despite the generally good conservation status of PAs. Over 80% of PAs of high or moderate vulnerability are managed by indigenous populations. Hence, besides the potential risks to biodiversity, the traditional knowledge and livelihoods of the people inhabiting these PAs may be threatened. In at least 870 PAs, primarily in the Atlantic Forest and Amazon, adaptation could happen with little or no intervention due to low climate-change hazard, high resilience status, or both. At least 20 PAs in the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Amazonia should be targeted for stronger interventions (e.g., improvement of ecological connectivity), given their low resilience status. Despite being a first attempt to link vulnerability and adaptation in Brazilian PAs, we suggest that some of the PAs identified as highly or moderately vulnerable should be prioritized for testing potential adaptation strategies in the near future.     

Effect of Mountain Relief and Industrial Air Pollution on Biometric Characteristics of Pine Stands

The effect of mountain relief and industrial air pollution on biometric parameters of pine stands was studied. The empirical–statistical models of the dependence of biometric characteristics on the parameters of forest sites were developed using raster modeling and multivariate analysis. The possibility of predicting changes in the biometric parameters at any site on the basis of these models is shown.     

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.     

Linking Land Cover and Water Quality in New York City’S Water Supply Watersheds

The Catskill/Delaware reservoirs supply 90% of New York City’s drinking water. The City has implemented a series of watershed protection measures, including land acquisition, aimed at preserving water quality in the Catskill/Delaware watersheds. The objective of this study was to examine how relationships between landscape and surface water measurements change between years. Thirty-two drainage areas delineated from surface water sample points (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria concentrations) were used in step-wise regression analyses to test landscape and surface-water quality relationships. Two measurements of land use, percent agriculture and percent urban development, were positively related to water quality and consistently present in all regression models. Together these two land uses explained 25 to 75% of the regression model variation. However, the contribution of agriculture to water quality condition showed a decreasing trend with time as overall agricultural land cover decreased. Results from this study demonstrate that relationships between land cover and surface water concentrations of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria counts over a large area can be evaluated using a relatively simple geographic information system method. Land managers may find this method useful for targeting resources in relation to a particular water quality concern, focusing best management efforts, and maximizing benefits to water quality with minimal costs.The United States Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and managed the research described here. It has been subjected to Agency’s administrative review and approved for publication as an EPA document.     

我国热带地区胶—茶—鸡农林复合系统物质循环研究

以海南省文昌市典型的胶—茶—鸡农林复合模式为研究对象 ,以单作胶园、胶茶间作园为对照 ,采用定量研究与定性分析相结合的方法 ,研究其物质循环规律。结果表明 ,胶—茶—鸡农林复合系统的氮、磷输入、输出量最大 ,系统外物质投入率比另两系统明显减少 ,系统内养分循环量增加 ,因此 ,该系统具有较合理的物质循环结构。     

高浓度废水预处理

从分析冲击炼油污水处理的原因出发，阐述了高浓度废水预处理的重要性；重点介绍了三种好氧生物法处理技术；其中ＳＢＲ法由于工程技术日趋成熟，可优先推广应用     

石油亚砜萃取巯基醋酸的研究

对石油亚砜(PSO)萃取巯基醋酸的条件和影响进行了实验研究,确定了石油亚砜通过氢键和巯基醋酸形成的萃合物的组成.为从废水中回收巯基醋酸以及石油硫醚的综合利用提供了依据.     

高级氧化技术机理及在水处理中的应用进展

综述了近年来发展迅速的高级氧化技术，主要包括Fenton法、臭氧氧化法、湿式氧化技术、超临界水氧化法、纳米光催化氧化法电化学催化降解法及超声降解法等。介绍了各种高级氧化技术的基本原理及在废水处理中的应用进展，并对其特点进行了评述。     

有效微生物技术在渗滤液处理中的应用与发展

介绍了有效微生物(EM)的组成、特点及其处理废水的机理;通过与传统的生化法处理垃圾渗滤液的比较,指出了利用EM技术处理垃圾渗滤液的优势,认为该技术不仅能够提高污染物的去除效率,降低污泥产量,而且能够缩短反应器的响应时间;并介绍了EM制剂在国内外的生产情况,对今后EM技术的发展前景提出了展望.     

SO2和氟化物对农作物的危害的鉴别与防治

SO2 和氟化物对农作物的危害可通过症状、镜检和受害叶片的化学分析来鉴别 ,并从风向、与污染源距离、障碍物和叶片成熟程度几方面与作物病虫等影响因素相区别。排放浓度、接触时和作物本身抗性是影响危害程度的主要因素。应从治理污染、选种抗性强树木、避开作物敏感生育期、合理种植、加强施肥等方面采取措施加以防治