Identifying key needs for the integration of social–ecological outcomes in arctic wildlife monitoring

For effective monitoring in social–ecological systems to meet needs for biodiversity, science, and humans, desired outcomes must be clearly defined and routes from direct to derived outcomes understood. The Arctic is undergoing rapid climatic, ecological, social, and economic changes and requires effective wildlife monitoring to meet diverse stakeholder needs. To identify stakeholder priorities concerning desired outcomes of arctic wildlife monitoring, we conducted in-depth interviews with 29 arctic scientists, policy and decision makers, and representatives of indigenous organizations and nongovernmental organizations. Using qualitative content analysis, we identified and defined desired outcomes and documented links between outcomes. Using network analysis, we investigated the structure of perceived links between desired outcomes. We identified 18 desired outcomes from monitoring and classified them as either driven by monitoring information, monitoring process, or a combination of both. Highly cited outcomes were make decisions, conserve, detect change, disseminate, and secure food. These reflect key foci of arctic monitoring. Infrequently cited outcomes (e.g., govern) were emerging themes. Three modules comprised our outcome network. The modularity highlighted the low strength of perceived links between outcomes that were primarily information driven or more derived (e.g., detect change, make decisions, conserve, or secure food) and outcomes that were primarily process driven or more derived (e.g., cooperate, learn, educate). The outcomes expand monitoring community and disseminate created connections between these modules. Key desired outcomes are widely applicable to social–ecological systems within and outside the Arctic, particularly those with wildlife subsistence economies. Attributes and motivations associated with outcomes can guide development of integrated monitoring goals for biodiversity conservation and human needs. Our results demonstrated the disconnect between information- and process-driven goals and how expansion of the monitoring community and improved integration of monitoring stakeholders will help connect information- and process-derived outcomes for effective ecosystem stewardship.     

Environmental impact assessment: The work of the OECD

This report describes the work of an international group that is supported in part by the Dutch Ministry for Environment and is chaired by Frans Evers, the Ministry's Deputy Director-General for Environmental Protection.     

环境因子对南极海洋芳香烃降解微生物生长和降解的影响

以从南极地区分离纯化的具有低温芳香烃降解功能的嗜冷菌Planococcus sp.NJ41为研究对象,模拟低温海洋环境对影响其生长和降解的环境因子进行分析研究,确定其最适的萘降解条件:动球菌Planococcus sp.NJ41可在以萘为唯一碳源的无机盐培养基中生长并在低温(0～10℃)下高效降解萘等芳香烃;其最适生长...     

镧施用下黄潮土酶活性的动态变化

通过模拟试验研究了镧施用下黄潮土酶活性的动态变化。土壤脱氢酶、碱性磷酸酶、脲酶及蔗糖酶活性均随培养时间延长而降低。镧强烈抑制土壤脱氢酶活性 ,在 3 0mg/kg时达到显著水平 (P <0 0 5 ) ,最大抑制率达到 3 9%。镧对土壤碱性磷酸酶活性也有抑制 ,最大抑制率为 1 5 %。镧对土壤脲酶活性影响不明显。镧对土壤蔗糖酶活性表现出不同程度的刺激作用 ,最大刺激率达到 1 5 %。土壤脱氢酶活性是评价稀土元素环境效应的敏感指标。     

Amphibian Encounter Rates on Roads with Different Amounts of Traffic and Urbanization

Abstract: Although amphibians have relatively high rates of road mortality in urban areas, the conditions under which traffic threatens the survival of local amphibian populations remain unclear. In the Sandhills region of North Carolina (U.S.A.), we counted living and dead amphibians along two transects (total length 165 km) established on roads in areas with varying degrees of urbanization. We found 2665 individuals of 15 species, and amphibian encounter rates declined sharply as traffic and urban development increased. Regression‐tree models indicated that 35 amphibians/100 km occurred on roads with <535 vehicles/day, whereas the encounter rate decreased to only 2 amphibians/100 km on roads with >2048 vehicles/day. Although mortality rate peaked at higher traffic levels (47% dead on roads with >5200 vehicles/day), the number of dead amphibians was highest at low levels of traffic. This suggests that areas where amphibian mortality is concentrated may actually contain the largest populations remaining on a given road transect.     

Patterns of Citations of Open Access and Non‐Open Access Conservation Biology Journal Papers and Book Chapters

Abstract: Open access (OA) publishing, whereby authors, their institutions, or their granting bodies pay or provide a repository through which peer‐reviewed work is available online for free, is championed as a model to increase the number of citations per paper and disseminate results widely, especially to researchers in developing countries. We compared the number of citations of OA and non‐OA papers in six journals and four books published since 2000 to test whether OA increases number of citations overall and increases citations made by authors in developing countries. After controlling for type of paper (e.g., review or research paper), length of paper, authors’ citation profiles, number of authors per paper, and whether the author or the publisher released the paper in OA, OA had no statistically significant influence on the overall number of citations per journal paper. Journal papers were cited more frequently if the authors had published highly cited papers previously, were members of large teams of authors, or published relatively long papers, but papers were not cited more frequently if they were published in an OA source. Nevertheless, author‐archived OA book chapters accrued up to eight times more citations than chapters in the same book that were not available through OA, perhaps because there is no online abstracting service for book chapters. There was also little evidence that journal papers or book chapters published in OA received more citations from authors in developing countries relative to those journal papers or book chapters not published in OA. For scholarly publications in conservation biology, only book chapters had an OA citation advantage, and OA did not increase the number of citations papers or chapters received from authors in developing countries.