The Quagga Mussel Crisis at Lake Mead National Recreation Area,Nevada (U.S.A.)

Abstract: Parks are cornerstones of conservation; and non‐native invasive species drive extensive changes to biological diversity in parks. Knowing this, national park staff at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in the southwestern United States had a program in place for early detection of the non‐native, invasive quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis). Upon finding the mussel in January 2007, managers moved quickly to access funding and the best available science to implement a response. Managers considered four options—doing nothing, closing the park, restricting movement on the lakes, and educating and enforcing park visitors—and decided to focus on education and enforcing existing laws. Nonetheless, quagga spread throughout the park and soon began to appear throughout the western United States. I examined why efforts to control the expansion failed and determined the general lessons to be learned from this case. Concentrating human visitation on the lakes through land‐use zoning opened a pathway for invasion, reduced management options, and led to the rapid spread of quagga. To reconcile competing mandates to protect nature and provide recreation, zoning in parks has become a common practice worldwide. It reduces stress on some areas of a park by restricting and thus concentrating human activity in particular areas. Concentrating the human activity in one area does three things: cements pathways that repeatedly import and export vectors of non‐native invasive species; creates the disturbed area necessary to enable non‐native invasive species to gain a foothold; and, establishes a source of invasions that, without appropriate controls, can quickly spread to a park's wilderness areas.     

Quantifying population declines based on presence‐only records for red‐list assessments

Accurate trend estimates are necessary for understanding which species are declining and which are most in need of conservation action. Imperfect species detection may result in unreliable trend estimates because this may lead to the overestimation of declines. Because many management decisions are based on population trend estimates, such biases could have severe consequences for conservation policy. We used an occupancy‐modeling framework to estimate detectability and calculate nationwide population trends for 14 Swiss amphibian species both accounting for and ignoring imperfect detection. Through the application of International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List criteria to the different trend estimates, we assessed whether ignoring imperfect detection could affect conservation policy. Imperfect detection occurred for all species and detection varied substantially among species, which led to the overestimation of population declines when detectability was ignored. Consequently, accounting for imperfect detection lowered the red‐list risk category for 5 of the 14 species assessed. We demonstrate that failing to consider species detectability can have serious consequences for species management and that occupancy modeling provides a flexible framework to account for observation bias and improve assessments of conservation status. A problem inherent to most historical records is that they contain presence‐only data from which only relative declines can be estimated. A move toward the routine recording of nonobservation and absence data is essential if conservation practitioners are to move beyond this toward accurate population trend estimation.     

The role of digital data entry in participatory environmental monitoring

Many argue that monitoring conducted exclusively by scientists is insufficient to address ongoing environmental challenges. One solution entails the use of mobile digital devices in participatory monitoring (PM) programs. But how digital data entry affects programs with varying levels of stakeholder participation, from nonscientists collecting field data to nonscientists administering every step of a monitoring program, remains unclear. We reviewed the successes, in terms of management interventions and sustainability, of 107 monitoring programs described in the literature (hereafter programs) and compared these with case studies from our PM experiences in Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Greenland, and Vietnam (hereafter cases). Our literature review showed that participatory programs were less likely to use digital devices, and 2 of our 3 more participatory cases were also slow to adopt digital data entry. Programs that were participatory and used digital devices were more likely to report management actions, which was consistent with cases in Ethiopia, Greenland, and Australia. Programs engaging volunteers were more frequently reported as ongoing, but those involving digital data entry were less often sustained when data collectors were volunteers. For the Vietnamese and Canadian cases, sustainability was undermined by a mismatch in stakeholder objectives. In the Ghanaian case, complex field protocols diminished monitoring sustainability. Innovative technologies attract interest, but the foundation of effective participatory adaptive monitoring depends more on collaboratively defined questions, objectives, conceptual models, and monitoring approaches. When this foundation is built through effective partnerships, digital data entry can enable the collection of more data of higher quality. Without this foundation, or when implemented ineffectively or unnecessarily, digital data entry can be an additional expense that distracts from core monitoring objectives and undermines project sustainability. The appropriate role of digital data entry in PM likely depends more on the context in which it is used and less on the technology itself.     

Assessing Sustainability at Multiple Scales in a Rotational Bushmeat Hunting System

Abstract: Results of many studies show unsustainable levels of bushmeat hunting across West/Central Africa. Nevertheless, these results are usually derived from snapshot sustainability indices in which critical parameters are often taken from the literature. Simple, more informative tools for assessing sustainability are needed. We evaluated the impact of bushmeat hunting across a range of temporal, spatial, and taxonomic scales in a comparison of different measures of sustainability. Over 15 months in 2002–2004 in and around a village close to Equatorial Guinea's Monte Alén National Park, we collected data via a village offtake survey, hunter‐camp bushmeat‐consumption diaries, hunter interviews, and following hunters during hunts. We compared 2003 data with a previous offtake survey (1998–1999) and interview reports back to 1990. In the past 14 years, average distance from the village at which hunters operated remained constant, with hunters switching back and forth between long‐established camps, although trapping effort increased. In the past 5 years, overall offtake and number of active hunters did not change substantially, although catch per unit effort (CPUE) decreased slightly. Although the proportion of the two most commonly trapped species (Cephalophus monticola and Atherurus africanus) and gun‐hunted primates increased in the offtake, species presumably less robust to trapping decreased slightly. Apparent sustainability in economic terms may be masking gradual local extirpation of more vulnerable species before and during this study. Our results suggest that changes in prey profiles and CPUE may be the most accurate indicators of actual sustainability; these indices can be monitored with simple village‐based offtake surveys and hunter interviews to improve community management of bushmeat hunting.     

Effectiveness of Scat‐Detection Dogs in Determining Species Presence in a Tropical Savanna Landscape

Abstract: Most protected areas are too small to sustain populations of wide‐ranging mammals; thus, identification and conservation of high‐quality habitat for those animals outside parks is often a high priority, particularly for regions where extensive land conversion is occurring. This is the case in the vicinity of Emas National Park, a small protected area in the Brazilian Cerrado. Over the last 40 years the native vegetation surrounding the park has been converted to agriculture, but the region still supports virtually all of the animals native to the area. We determined the effectiveness of scat‐detection dogs in detecting presence of five species of mammals threatened with extinction by habitat loss: maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), puma (Puma concolor), jaguar (Panthera onca), giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), and giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus). The probability of scat detection varied among the five species and among survey quadrats of different size, but was consistent across team, season, and year. The probability of occurrence, determined from the presence of scat, in a randomly selected site within the study area ranged from 0.14 for jaguars, which occur primarily in the forested areas of the park, to 0.91 for maned wolves, the most widely distributed species in our study area. Most occurrences of giant armadillos in the park were in open grasslands, but in the agricultural matrix they tended to occur in riparian woodlands. At least one target species occurred in every survey quadrat, and giant armadillos, jaguars, and maned wolves were more likely to be present in quadrats located inside than outside the park. The effort required for detection of scats was highest for the two felids. We were able to detect the presence for each of five wide‐ranging species inside and outside the park and to assign occurrence probabilities to specific survey sites. Thus, scat dogs provide an effective survey tool for rare species even when accurate detection likelihoods are required. We believe the way we used scat‐detection dogs to determine the presence of species can be applied to the detection of other mammalian species in other ecosystems.     

城市公园环境科学规划设计与生态保护研究

针对城市公园环境科学规划设计与生态保护探讨问题,文中介绍了城市公园环境科学规划设计与生态保护意义,探讨了城市公园生态环境保护的功效,并提出了城市公园生态环境保护的规划设计,主要包括城市公园生态保护的选址和城市公园生态保护的设计规划,在这个规划中主要提出了生态保护的优先设计系统、生物种类的多样性、要尊重生态保护的自然发展、要尊重生态保护的植物配置设计和要尊重生态保护的因地制宜设计,为城市公园环境科学规划设计与生态保护提出了建议.     

水专项"十三五"时期辽河流域水环境管理研究思路初探

以水专项在辽河流域实施的阶段性成果及辽河流域水环境管理现状为基础,分析"十三五"时期辽河流域水环境管理的需求,提出构建成套流域水环境管理技术体系和管理大平台、全面建设并优化水生态环境监测网络、实行水环境管理的动态调节机制和建立健全流域水环境管理长效机制的水环境管理研究思路,并指出研究应密切结合地方管理,充分发挥地方环境管理的责任主体地位,为水专项第三阶段"综合调控"战略目标的实现提供有力支撑.     

"十三五"期间地方社会发展领域科技发展思路研究

"十三五"时期,围绕安徽省资源环境领域科技创新紧迫需求.安徽省应重点在矿产资源绿色高效开发利用、水资源高效利用、地理信息产业、水污染防治、大气污染防治、土壤污染防治、生态环境治理、再生资源综合利用、环保装备等领域实施科技攻关.通过完善普惠性创新支持政策、增加多元化科技创新投入、加大公共产品供给、加强适应新常态的社会发展科技治理体系建设等途径,切实增强社会发展领域自主创新能力.     

零价铁去除废水中的汞

研究了零价铁(zero-valent iron,ZVI)去除废水中Hg2+的动力学特征及其影响因素,初步探讨了ZVI与Hg2+的作用机制.结果表明,ZVI对废水中Hg2+的最佳去除条件:Hg2+的初始浓度为0.10 mg·L-1、pH为5、ZVI用量为0.050 g、温度为25℃,获得Hg2+的去除率为94.5%.ZVI对废水中Hg2+有一个快速的去除过程,可用准一级反应动力学方程描述,速率常数为0.010 min-1.ZVI去除废水中Hg2+的机制主要是氧化还原反应、铁氧化物和氢氧化物的吸附和共沉淀作用,ZVI表面钝化是降低Hg2+去除率的主要原因,其钝化成分主要是FeOOH和Fe2O3-Fe3O4.胡敏酸可与ZVI还原产生的Fe2+、Fe3+结合形成Fe-HA复合物,增加可溶性铁的比例,缓解ZVI的钝化,对细铁氧化物和铁氢氧化物胶体具有稳定作用,增强对废水中Hg2+的吸附作用.     

佛山市创建生态市差距分析与策略研究

生态市建设是探索区域生态文明的准备阶段,亦是区域可持续发展道路的重要阶段。成功的生态市创建策略是在充分认识本区域发展现状及创建差距的基础上,抓住重点任务作出科学、合理、可操作的政策措施。佛山市提出了在2015年建成国家生态市的奋斗目标,时间紧任务重,必须尽快制定行之有效的策略。本文重点分析佛山市目前经济、生态环境与社会进步等方面与生态市考核指标要求之间的差异,在此基础上识别佛山市创建生态市的重点任务,进一步研究相应的配套政策需求。