Effects of experimental nitrogen additions on plant diversity in tropical forests of contrasting disturbance regimes in southern China

Responses of understory plant diversity to nitrogen (N) additions were investigated in reforested forests of contrasting disturbance regimes in southern China from 2003 to 2008: disturbed forest (with harvesting of understory vegetation and litter) and rehabilitated forest (without harvesting). Experimental additions of N were administered as the following treatments: Control, 50 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, and 100 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Nitrogen additions did not significantly affect understory plant richness, density, and cover in the disturbed forest. Similarly, no significant response was found for canopy closure in this forest. In the rehabilitated forest, species richness and density showed no significant response to N additions; however, understory cover decreased significantly in the N-treated plots, largely a function of a significant increase in canopy closure. Our results suggest that responses of plant diversity to N deposition may vary with different land-use history, and rehabilitated forests may be more sensitive to N deposition.     

太阳能热发电系统中的水消耗问题研究

以明置于室内地面上的大型直流电压发生器塔架结构的抗震计算为例,分别计算结构在正弦共振调幅5波、正弦共振3波、El Centro地震波、Taft地震波和云南澜沧地震波5种激励下的响应,讨论了输入不同地震波对结构地震反应的影响及不同Rayleigh阻尼模型下的动力响应特性,最后对这类结构的输入地震动及Rayleigh阻尼模型的选择提出建议。     

大跨度斜拉拱桥地震响应分析

以湘潭市在建的一种新颖钢管混凝土拱桥——斜拉钢管混凝土拱组合桥梁为研究对象,通过大型有限元软件建立空间结构有限元模型,利用子空间迭代法对其进行了模态求解,得到并分析了结构的动力特性。在此基础上分别运用反应谱法和时程反应法分析了该桥的纵向、横向和竖向地震响应,采用了5条实际记录地震波,讨论其主要结构形式、不同的地震波、各种场地以及各参数对地震反应的影响和规律。研究结果表明,大跨度斜拉钢管混凝土拱桥横向稳定性突出,整体抗震性能较好,这为大跨度斜拉拱桥的抗震设计和研究提供了理论依据。     

国内外液化砂砾土土性对比分析

砂土液化问题的研究特别是砂土液化的判别目前已经取得了较大的进展,并在国内外现行的规范中充分反映,而砂砾土由于颗粒大、透水性好,普遍认为地震时孔压不至于上升至液化的程度,往往将其划分为非液化土类。通过调查汶川地震砂砾土液化情况以及勘察试验获取其土性资料,对比分析了国内外液化砂砾土的地质背景及土性特征。主要认识为:①以往国内外砂砾土液化实例虽然有限,但已经表明松散-稍密的砂砾土在一定的地震强度下仍有可能发生液化,而2008年汶川地震中的大量砂砾土液化的事实,说明笼统地将砂砾土划归为非液化土类的做法有误;②汶川地震液化砂砾土的颗粒级配范围涵盖了国内外其他地震的颗粒级配,研究汶川地震的砂砾土液化问题具有代表性和普遍性,以此建立的砂砾土液化评价方法在国际上应具有通用性。     

吉林省西部农牧交错区不同土地利用方式对土壤线虫群落特征的影响

对吉林省西部农牧交错区典型生境土壤线虫群落进行调查,共捕获线虫23属、1 264只,优势属为真滑刃属和短体属。研究结果显示,土地利用方式对土壤线虫群落特征有一定影响,不同生境间土壤线虫群落共有属不多,农业生产活动促使土壤线虫向土壤下层移动;不同农业生产活动对土壤线虫群落多样性影响不同, 4种生境中,居民点园地土壤线虫群落多样性最高,而玉米田最低;不同土地利用方式下土壤线虫功能类群差异显著,玉米田不利于捕食类群/杂食类群的存在。     

Integrating functional connectivity and fire management for better conservation outcomes

Globally, the mean abundance of terrestrial animals has fallen by 50% since 1970, and populations face ongoing threats associated with habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change, and disturbance. Climate change can influence the quality of remaining habitat directly and indirectly by precipitating increases in the extent, frequency, and severity of natural disturbances, such as fire. Species face the combined threats of habitat clearance, changing climates, and altered disturbance regimes, each of which may interact and have cascading impacts on animal populations. Typically, conservation agencies are limited in their capacity to mitigate rates of habitat clearance, habitat fragmentation, or climate change, yet fire management is increasingly used worldwide to reduce wildfire risk and achieve conservation outcomes. A popular approach to ecological fire management involves the creation of fire mosaics to promote animal diversity. However, this strategy has 2 fundamental limitations: the effect of fire on animal movement within or among habitat patches is not considered and the implications of the current fire regime for long-term population persistence are overlooked. Spatial and temporal patterns in fire history can influence animal movement, which is essential to the survival of individual animals, maintenance of genetic diversity, and persistence of populations, species, and ecosystems. We argue that there is rich potential for fire managers to manipulate animal movement patterns; enhance functional connectivity, gene flow, and genetic diversity; and increase the capacity of populations to persist under shifting environmental conditions. Recent methodological advances, such as spatiotemporal connectivity modeling, spatially explicit individual-based simulation, and fire-regime modeling can be integrated to achieve better outcomes for biodiversity in human-modified, fire-prone landscapes. Article impact statement: Land managers may conserve populations by using fire to sustain or enhance functional connectivity.     

Using spatially explicit,time-dependent analysis to understand how social factors influence conservation outcomes

Conservation across human-dominated landscapes requires an understanding of the social and ecological factors driving outcomes. Studies that link conservation outcomes to social and ecological factors have examined temporally static patterns. However, there may be different social and ecological processes driving increases and decreases in conservation outcomes that can only be revealed through temporal analyses. Through a case study of the invasion of Falcataria moluccana in Hawaii, we examined the association of social factors with increases and decreases in invader distributions over time and space. Over 7 years, rates of invader decrease varied substantially (66–100%) relative to social factors, such as building value, whether land was privately or publically owned, and primary residence by a homeowner, whereas rates of increase varied only slightly (<0.1–3.6%) relative to such factors. These findings suggest that links between social factors and invasion in the study system may be driven more by landowners controlling existing invasive species, rather than by landowners preventing the spread of invasive species. We suggest that spatially explicit, time-dependent analyses provide a more nuanced understanding of the way social factors influence conservation outcomes. Such an understanding can help managers develop outreach programs and policies targeted at different types of landowners in human-dominated landscapes.     

The relevance of physical forces on land-use change and planning process

This study analysed the importance of physical forces on land-use change, on the planning framework in a Portuguese periurban area. A temporal matrix showing the trajectories of land transformation was obtained. A multivariate redundancy analysis explored the importance of physical parameters on temporal and spatial land-use change. A content analysis on urban or municipal master plans was made framing the importance of physical parameters on the planning process. The results highlighted a consistent trajectory of profound land-use changes with distinctive trajectories, with increasingly complex patterns with a limited dependence on physical variables. The trajectories were more related to the planning framework, where political actors and planning managers seemed to be most important. A theoretical model balancing three main components – physical forces, actors, and land transformation (DFA-C model) is proposed, reflecting the informal relationships between physical parameters and actors during the planning process.     

How decisions about fitting species distribution models affect conservation outcomes

Species distribution models (SDMs) are increasingly used in conservation and land-use planning as inputs to describe biodiversity patterns. These models can be built in different ways, and decisions about data preparation, selection of predictor variables, model fitting, and evaluation all alter the resulting predictions. Commonly, the true distribution of species is unknown and independent data to verify which SDM variant to choose are lacking. Such model uncertainty is of concern to planners. We analyzed how 11 routine decisions about model complexity, predictors, bias treatment, and setting thresholds for predicted values altered conservation priority patterns across 25 species. Models were created with MaxEnt and run through Zonation to determine the priority rank of sites. Although all SDM variants performed well (area under the curve >0.7), they produced spatially different predictions for species and different conservation priority solutions. Priorities were most strongly altered by decisions to not address bias or to apply binary thresholds to predicted values; on average 40% and 35%, respectively, of all grid cells received an opposite priority ranking. Forcing high model complexity altered conservation solutions less than forcing simplicity (14% and 24% of cells with opposite rank values, respectively). Use of fewer species records to build models or choosing alternative bias treatments had intermediate effects (25% and 23%, respectively). Depending on modeling choices, priority areas overlapped as little as 10–20% with the baseline solution, affecting top and bottom priorities differently. Our results demonstrate the extent of model-based uncertainty and quantify the relative impacts of SDM building decisions. When it is uncertain what the best SDM approach and conservation plan is, solving uncertainty or considering alterative options is most important for those decisions that change plans the most.     

The environment as seen through the life of a journal: Ambio 1972–2022

Emerging after World War II “the environment” as a modern concept turned in the years around 1970 into a phase of institutionalization in science, civic society, and politics. Part of this was the foundation of journals. The majority became “environmental specialist journals”, typically based in established disciplines. Some became “environmental generalist journals”, covering broad knowledge areas and often with an ambition to be policy relevant. A significant and early member of the latter category was Ambio, founded 1972. This article presents an overview of the journal’s first 50 years, with a focus on main changes in scientific content, political context, and editorial directions. A key finding is that the journal reflects an increasing pluralization of “the environment” with concepts such as global change, climate change, Earth system science, Anthropocene, resilience, and environmental governance. Another finding is that the journal has also itself influenced developments through publishing work on new concepts and ideas.