The Environmental Impact of Shrimp Aquaculture: Causes, Effects, and Mitigating Alternatives

Attracted by the demand for shrimp in the developed countries, shrimp aquaculture has expanded rapidly, mainly in the subtropical and tropical lowlands of America and Asia. This work provides a global review and viewpoint on the environmental impacts of shrimp aquaculture, considering the causes and effects of the siting and operation of shrimp ponds and abandonment of farm facilities. Additionally, mitigating alternatives are discussed. To date, approximately 1–1.5 million ha of coastal lowlands have been converted into shrimp ponds, comprising mainly salt flats, mangrove areas, marshes, and agricultural lands. The impact of shrimp farming of most concern is the destruction of mangroves and salt marshes for pond construction. Compatibility with other users, the presence of buffer zones, maintaining an acceptable balance between mangroves and shrimp pond area, improved pond design, reduction of water exchange, and an improved residence time of water, size and capacity to assimilate effluents of the water body, are examples of ways to mitigate the adverse effects. The use of mangroves and halophytes as biofilters of shrimp pond effluents offers an attractive tool for reducing the impact in those regions where mangrove wetlands and appropriate conditions for halophyte plantations exist. Healthy seed supply, good feed with the use of prophylactic agents (including probiotics), good water quality, and lower stocking densities are examples of actions suggested to control disease in shrimp farming. Finally, in the context of integrated management, research priorities are suggested.     

张家口坝上地区环境与经济协调发展浅析

张家口坝上地区自然条件较差,是河北省及全国范围内经济发展为落后的地区,,发展经济与改善环境是本区所面临的两大难题。本文对其经济与环境间的相互影响进行了分析,并以可持续发展为理论基础,提出了开发水资源,发展灌溉农业,实现粮食稳定自给和退耕还牧,改善生态环境的发展对策。     

Analytical Solutions to Trade‐Offs between Size of Protected Areas and Land‐Use Intensity

Abstract: Land‐use change is affecting Earth's capacity to support both wild species and a growing human population. The question is how best to manage landscapes for both species conservation and economic output. If large areas are protected to conserve species richness, then the unprotected areas must be used more intensively. Likewise, low‐intensity use leaves less area protected but may allow wild species to persist in areas that are used for market purposes. This dilemma is present in policy debates on agriculture, housing, and forestry. Our goal was to develop a theoretical model to evaluate which land‐use strategy maximizes economic output while maintaining species richness. Our theoretical model extends previous analytical models by allowing land‐use intensity on unprotected land to influence species richness in protected areas. We devised general models in which species richness (with modified species‐area curves) and economic output (a Cobb–Douglas production function) are a function of land‐use intensity and the proportion of land protected. Economic output increased as land‐use intensity and extent increased, and species richness responded to increased intensity either negatively or following the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. We solved the model analytically to identify the combination of land‐use intensity and protected area that provided the maximum amount of economic output, given a target level of species richness. The land‐use strategy that maximized economic output while maintaining species richness depended jointly on the response of species richness to land‐use intensity and protection and the effect of land use outside protected areas on species richness within protected areas. Regardless of the land‐use strategy, species richness tended to respond to changing land‐use intensity and extent in a highly nonlinear fashion.     

Study on Sustainable Development in Vulnerable Eco-areas

Abstract

The vulnerable eco-area is one of the important research targets in the field of sustainable development. It is the requirement of building a well-off society in an all-round way that we should study more on the vulnerable eco-areas, deal with the relationship between environmental protection and economic development, speed up the economic development in these areas and increase the living standard of the local people. This paper puts forward the countermeasures of environment—economy coordination, on the basis of the recognition of eco- environment features and social economic conditions in the vulnerable eco-areas of China, in view of the progress in sustainable development studies of the vulnerable ones, taking the transitional areas of farming and pasturing in northeast China as an example to study the regional environment vulnerability.     

Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing: Using Geoinformatics to Inform Resource Policy in the Gulf of California,Mexico

In this issue of Environmental Management, Glenn and others posit that a previous study had analytical and interpretive errors in analysis of shrimp fishing in the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico. Unfortunately, much of their evidence is too indirect and of insufficient scale to address the central question of salinity in the Upper Gulf. Also, many of their suppositions did not include direct interviews with local officials or a robust understanding of remote sensing literature. This response to their rebuttal presents a set of figures and analysis demonstrating that the Colorado River flows into a closed evaporative basin known as the Laguna Salada and thus cannot flow into the Gulf of California. Readers are asked to examine the images and interpret their meaning for themselves.     

湿地农田低产土壤改良利用研究

系统地阐述了四湖地区湿地农田低产土壤的分布、成因、类型、特性及障碍因素，并着重对采取“三沟”配套排水、增肥调养、使用释氧化物、选手抗逆良种及轮作养地等综合改良利用技术的试验研究对果作了系统分析。     

长江上游陡坡耕地退耕的难点与对策

长江上游属于 2 5°以上的陡坡退耕还林地面积达 170万hm2 ,是长江上游水土流失的重要策源地 ,严重制约了该区域社会经济的可持续发展。因此 ,实行陡坡耕地退耕还林是建设长江上游生态屏障的重要组成部分 ,也是生态建设的主要内容之一。本文较为系统地论述了陡坡耕地的形成原因与危害 ,以及退耕的难点与有利时机 ,并探讨了详细分析了主要对策     

Evaluating internalization of multifunctionality by farm diversification: evidence from educational dairy farms in Japan

Farm diversification by farmers' open-door policy generates opportunities for farmers to internalize externalities of multifunctionality. Although the educational function of agriculture is an example of such an open-door policy and is attracting growing attention, this function has been little explored. To promote farm diversification in this direction, this paper examined how and to what degree farmers internalize externalities of multifunctionality by focusing on the educational function provided by dairy farming, i.e., farming experience services, in Japan. The main findings were as follows. First, we can say that the educational function is determined by ordinary technical jointness as well as institutional jointness, which is represented by food culture and the agrarian heritage. Both the technical and institutional jointness enhanced the externality. Because of these two working factors, there is a U-shaped relationship between farm diversification and provision of farming experience services. Second, however, an empirical evaluation indicated that farmers only partially internalize educational externalities by treating them as supplementary services combined with processed milk products. Therefore, appropriate integrated management of these newly emerging educational services to become a viable market should be fully addressed in the future, especially for family farms.     

Killing Tigers to Save Them: Fallacies of the Farming Argument

Abstract: The lucrative, illegal trade in tigers (Panthera tigris) remains a major conservation problem. Tiger farming has been proposed as a potential solution, with farmed tigers substituting for wild tigers. At first glance, this argument's logic seems simple: farming will increase the supply of tigers, prices will fall, and poaching will no longer be profitable. We contend, however, that this supply‐side argument relies on mistaken assumptions. First, tiger markets are imperfect, meaning they are dominated by a few producers who control price. Second, consumers prefer wild tigers to farmed tigers and therefore the two are not pure substitutes. In economic terms, products from wild tigers are luxury goods, commanding a price premium. Third, there is no evidence that farmed tigers can be produced or sold more cheaply than wild tigers. In sum, it is unlikely that farming will drive down the price of wild‐caught tigers or decrease profitability for tiger poachers. Rather, tiger farming is more likely to increase aggregate demand for tiger products and stimulate higher levels of poaching.     

黄土高原丘陵沟壑区农业生态系统碳循环模拟研究

利用甘肃农业大学定西旱农综合试验站的2001—2008年长期定位试验数据对DNDC模型进行了验证,结果表明：模型可以用于安定区县域尺度农田土壤有机碳储量及其变化的模拟。模拟不同处理间碳的循环结果显示,秸秆还田或覆盖可提高作物秸秆与根系残留的外源碳携入量,也能提高土壤异氧呼吸对内源碳的消耗。利用DNDC模型以及区域气象、土壤和作物资料,对该区域表层（0～20 cm）农田土壤碳循环进行模拟研究的结果表明,2008年农田土壤（面积为1.2×109 m2）表层（0～20 cm）有机碳总储量为2.8×109 kg,平均土壤有机碳密度为2.33 kg.m-2。通过对该区域农田土壤模拟不同碳投入的情景,分析预测2008年至2037年土壤有机碳储量,得出增加有机肥能够显著增加土壤有机碳的积累,其次为免耕同时增加秸秆还田率50%,而单独实施这两种措施,土壤有机碳的积累速度较慢。