Medieval Agroecosystems (9th–13th Centuries) in the Region of the Present-Day City of Glazov (Udmurt Republic)

Paleoethnobotanical materials and buried soils from the site of the ancient settlement of Idnakar and neighboring archaeological monuments were analyzed to reconstruct the agroecosystems of the 9th through the 13th centuries AD near the present-day city of Glazov. The results provided data on the main features of the agroecosystem structure and composition, climate, and agriculture in the Middle Ages.     

Extinction risk of the endemic vascular flora of Kauai,Hawaii, based on IUCN assessments

The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Red List) is the world's most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of species. Governmental agencies and conservation organizations increasingly rely on IUCN Red List assessments to develop conservation policies and priorities. Funding agencies use the assessments as evaluation criteria, and researchers use meta-analysis of red-list data to address fundamental and applied conservation science questions. However, the circa 143,000 IUCN assessments represent a fraction of the world's biodiversity and are biased in regional and organismal coverage. These biases may affect conservation priorities, funding, and uses of these data to understand global patterns. Isolated oceanic islands are characterized by high endemicity, but the unique biodiversity of many islands is experiencing high extinction rates. The archipelago of Hawaii has one of the highest levels of endemism of any floristic region; 90% of its 1367 native vascular plant taxa are classified as endemic. We used the IUCN's assessment of the complete single-island endemic (SIE) vascular plant flora of Kauai, Hawaii, to assess the proportion and drivers of decline of threatened plants in an oceanic island setting. We compared the IUCN assessments with federal, state, and other local assessments of Kauai species or taxa of conservation concern. Finally, we conducted a preliminary assessment for all 1044 native vascular plants of Hawaii based on IUCN criterion B by estimating area of occupancy, extent of occurrence, and number of locations to determine whether the pattern found for the SIE vascular flora of Kauai is comparable to the native vascular flora of the Hawaiian Islands. We compared our results with patterns observed for assessments of other floras. According to IUCN, 256 SIE vascular plant taxa are threatened with extinction and 5% are already extinct. This is the highest extinction risk reported for any flora to date. The preliminary assessment of the native vascular flora of Hawaii showed that 72% (753 taxa) is threatened. The flora of Hawaii may be one of the world's most threatened; thus, increased and novel conservation measures in the state and on other remote oceanic islands are urgently needed.     

三峡库区陆生植物迁地保存初报

三峡植物物种多样性保护,重点在珍稀濒危植物,但对建群种和有实用价值的种也进行收集保存。7年来试验站保存三峡库区植物200余种,迁移成活率93%,有8种未成功。（1）到2002年已有30余种植物正常开花结实（其中木本植物24种）,可以选择繁殖试验,以达到保存的目的;（2）选择了8种植物,进行生长观测,在人为控制下,生长速度满意;（3）进行了部份种类的扦插繁殖和孢子繁殖,获得了相关结果;（4）少数种类收集遇到极大困难,需要继续努力。三峡库区生物多样性研究与保护,存在一些问题与困难,如漏项问题、库区物种问题、外来种问题、隔离对生物多样性的影响问题、生物多样性的功能问题等需要进一步研讨,从而使库区物种得以保存,环境得以优化,生物资源得到持续利用。     

Application of the Red List Index for conservation assessment of Spanish vascular plants

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Index (RLI) is used to measure trends in extinction risk of species over time. The development of 2 red lists for Spanish vascular flora during the past decade allowed us to apply the IUCN RLI to vascular plants in an area belonging to a global biodiversity hotspot. We used the Spanish Red Lists from 2000 and 2010 to assess changes in level of threat at a national scale and at the subnational scales of Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, and peninsular Spain. We assigned retrospective IUCN categories of threat to 98 species included in the Spanish Red List of 2010 but absent in the Spanish Red List of 2000. In addition, we tested the effect of different random and taxonomic and spatial Spanish samples on the overall RLI value. From 2000 to 2010, the IUCN categories of 768 species changed (10% of Spanish flora), mainly due to improved knowledge (63%), modifications in IUCN criteria (14%), and changes in threat status (12%). All measured national and subnational RLI values decreased during this period, indicating a general decline in the conservation status of the Spanish vascular flora. The Canarian RLI value (0.84) was the lowest, although the fastest deterioration in conservation status occurred on peninsular Spain (from 0.93 in 2000 to 0.92 in 2010). The RLI values based on subsamples of the Spanish Red List were not representative of RLI values for the entire country, which would discourage the use of small areas or small taxonomic samples to assess general trends in the endangerment of national biotas. The role of the RLI in monitoring of changes in biodiversity at the global and regional scales needs further reassessment because additional areas and taxa are necessary to determine whether the index is sufficiently sensitive for use in assessing temporal changes in species’ risk of extinction.     

海南鹦哥岭的外来植物与生态环境影响评价

通过对鹦哥岭外来植物的调查,以及外来植物区系的种类组成、原产地、生长型、生境和危害程度等的分析,阐明鹦哥岭的外来植物现状及其对当地生态环境的影响。分析表明:共有53种外来植物,约占鹦哥岭种子植物总数的2.73%,主要来自新大陆热带地区(35种)。其中草本(36种)和灌木(13种)占优势,藤本(3种)和小乔木(2种)相对不明显。外来种对鹦哥岭自然生态系统的影响较小,对人为干扰严重的生态系统影响较大。最后对外来植物进行评估,并提出防控措施。     

稀土元素的脑部蓄积性、毒性及其对人群健康的潜在危害

论述了稀土元素在动物脑部的蓄积性、对脑的毒性以及稀土区人群的脑部毒性效应,分析了稀土农业应用和稀土厂“三废”对生态环境和人群健康的潜在危害。     

Relationships between Plant and Animal Species Richness at a Regional Scale in China

Abstract:  Important questions in conservation biology and ecology include whether species diversities of different groups of organisms are correlated and, in particular, whether plant diversity influences animal diversity. I used correlation and partial regression analyses to examine the relationships between species richness of vascular plants and four major groups of terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds) in 28 provinces in China. Species richness data were obtained from the literature. Environmental variables included normalized difference vegetation index, mean January temperature, mean annual temperature, annual precipitation, May through August precipitation, actual evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, and elevation range. Species richness was strongly and positively correlated among the five groups of organisms. Plant richness was correlated with animal richness more strongly than the richness of different animal groups correlated with each other except for reptile richness, which had a slightly higher correlation with amphibian richness than with plant richness. Plant richness uniquely explained 41 times more variance in the species richness of the four vertebrate groups combined than environmental variables uniquely did, suggesting that plant richness influences terrestrial vertebrate richness at the regional scale examined. Because of strong correlations between the diversity of vascular plants and vertebrates, the diversity of vascular plants may be used as a surrogate for the diversity of terrestrial animals in China. My results have implications for selection of areas to be protected at both regional and local scales.     

The Botanist Effect Revisited: Plant Species Richness, County Area, and Human Population Size in the United States

Abstract:  The "botanist effect" is thought to be the reason for higher plant species richness in areas where botanists are disproportionately present as an artefactual consequence of a more thorough sampling. We examined whether this was the case for U.S. counties. We collated the number of species of vascular plants, human population size, and the area of U.S. counties. Controlling for spatial autocorrelation and county area, plant species richness increased with human population size and density in counties with and without universities and/or botanical gardens, with no significant differences in the relation between the two subsets. This is consistent with previous findings and further evidence of a broad-scale positive correlation between species richness and human population presence, which has important consequences for the experience of nature by inhabitants of densely populated regions. Combined with the many reports of a negative correlation between the two variables at a local scale, the positive relation between plant species richness in U.S. counties and human population presence stresses the need for the conservation of seminatural areas in urbanized ecosystems and for the containment of urban and suburban sprawl.     

大气污染指示植物的研究

自50年代以来.为寻找一种经济、实用和灵敏的方法来监测环境变化,开展了大量大气污染指示植物的研究.这些工作包括用植物叶片典型症状、树皮、草本植物、附生植物指示气体污染(O_3、PANs、NO_x、SO_2、HF、乙烯等)、粉尘以及重金属污染.进入80年代以后,有关研究集中到利用植物富集的污染物含量结合计算机等先进技术指示和监测大气环境变化及进行大气质量评价.本文对国内外开展的大气污染指示植物研究的历史及其主要方法作了简要介绍,并就利用植物指示和监测大气污染的若干问题进行了探讨.