Dryland characteristics and its optimized eco‐productive paradigms for sustainable development in China

Dryland area occupies 37% of the national territory in China. Desertification and other disasters have limited dryland sustainable development. Here we overview the dryland characteristics and desertification status and introduce four regionally optimized eco‐productive paradigms for dryland sustainable development, i.e., the mountain‐oasis paradigm in arid desert; the small watershed‐based paradigm on the Loess Plateau; the integrated animal husbandry paradigm on the Inner Mongolia Steppe and the agro‐pastoral transitional region; and three circle paradigm on the Ordos Plateau. These paradigms are established on the basis of regional landscape patterns and their underlying material and energy flow rules, and different functional belts are determined and capitalized upon with the integrated consideration of regional biogeophysical processes, biogeochemical cycles and biogeosocial relations. These paradigms cannot cover all complex landscape types, but provide theoretical frameworks and practicable models for dryland sustainable development in China.     

Comparison of 85Kr and 3H Apparent Ground‐Water Ages for Source Water Vulnerability in the Collyer River Catchment,Maine1

Abstract: Apparent ground‐water ages as determined by the noble gas isotope ⁸⁵Kr and the water isotope ³H are compared. Refined gas extraction methodology at the wellhead permits efficient collection of Kr for ⁸⁵Kr isotope enrichment. ⁸⁵Kr isochrones elucidate areas of much younger ground‐water ages than ³H. Declining ³H activities in the catchment prevent its correlation with the youngest measured ⁸⁵Kr ages. Source water for most drinking water supplies in the Collyer River catchment is recharged within 40 years BP (2004). Mean‐age (τ) transport modeling suggests uncertainty of ground‐water ages is greatest in the central basin area.     

Efficient and Practical Approaches to Ground‐Water Right Transfers Under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine and the Snake River Example1

Abstract: Water right transfers are one of the basic means of implementing changes in water use in the highly appropriated water resource systems of the western United States. Many of these systems are governed by the Prior Appropriation Doctrine, which was not originally intended for application to ground‐water pumping and the conjunctive management of ground water and surface water, and thus creates an administrative challenge. That challenge results from the fact that ground‐water pumping can affect all interconnected surface‐water bodies and the effects may be immeasurably small relative to surface water discharge and greatly attenuated in time. Although we may have the ability to calculate the effects of ground‐water pumping and transfers of pumping location on surface‐water bodies, mitigating for all the impacts of each individual transfer is sufficiently inefficient that it impedes the transfer process, frustrates water users, and consequently inhibits economic development. A more holistic approach to ground‐water right transfers, such as a ground‐water accounting or banking scheme, may adequately control transfer third‐party effects while reducing mitigation requirements on individual transfers. Acceptance of an accounting scheme can accelerate the transfer process, and possibly reduce the administrative burden.     

2013年春夏季莱州湾海水环境要素特征和富营养化评估

根据2013年5（春季）、8月（夏季）莱州湾海水环境要素的调查资料,采用富营养化指数、潜在性富营养化评价模式和灰色聚类分析方法研究环境要素特征和评估海水富营养化状况。结果表明,无机氮是莱州湾水质的主要污染要素,春夏季的N/P平均值分别为100.76、117.84,潜在性富营养化评价模式结果表明,春夏季各站位的营养级均只包括Ⅳ_P、Ⅵ_P两类,磷限制为莱州湾的营养盐结构特征;富营养化指数评价结果表明,春季和夏季E>1站位比例分别为65%、20%;灰色聚类分析结果表明,春季Ⅱ级、Ⅲ级的站位比例分别为95%、5%,夏季Ⅱ、Ⅲ级的站位比例分别为70%、25%,Ⅱ级中的部分站位具有较大潜在富营养化风险。     

富氧空位/梯次结构CeO2的制备及光催化CO2还原

采用Ce-BTC(均苯三甲酸)为模板,通过尿素溶液浸渍合成了具有富氧空位/梯次结构的CeO₂催化剂,并用X射线衍射(XRD)、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、透射电子显微镜(TEM)、拉曼光谱(Raman)和紫外可见漫反射(DRS)等手段对其进行了表征.结果表明,与金属有机框架(MOFs)浸渍尿素高温煅烧可以获得金属氧化物/g-C₃N₄复合材料不同,Ce-BTC/尿素体系煅烧后产品中未检测到g-C₃N₄,这可能与CeO₂的存在抑制了尿素分解产物的热缩聚过程,影响了g-C₃N₄的生成有关,但尿素的引入改变了Ce-BTC煅烧产物CeO₂的氧空位浓度,且获得梯次结构.将具有富氧空位/梯次结构的CeO₂-5用于光催化CO₂还原,催化结果表明:反应4h的CO产率可达2.06μmol/g,CH₄产率可达1.42μmol/g,性能是Ce-BTC未...     

Application of Agriculture‐Developed Demographic Analysis for the Conservation of the Hawaiian Alpine Wekiu Bug

Insects that should be considered for conservation attention are often overlooked because of a lack of data. The detailed information necessary to assess population growth, decline, and maximum range is particularly difficult to acquire for rare and cryptic species. Many of these difficulties can be overcome with the use of life table analyses and heat energy accumulation models common in agriculture. The wekiu bug (Nysius wekiuicola), endemic to the summit of one volcanic mountain in Hawaii, is a rare insect living in an environmentally sensitive alpine stone desert, where field‐based population assessments would be inefficient or potentially detrimental to natural and cultural resources. We conducted laboratory experiments with the insects by manipulating rearing temperatures of laboratory colonies and made detailed observations of habitat conditions to develop life tables representing population growth parameters and environmental models for wekiu bug phenology and demographic change. Wekiu bugs developed at temperatures only found in its environment on sunny days and required the thermal buffer found on cinder cones for growth and population increase. Wekiu bugs required approximately 3.5 months to complete one generation. The bug developed optimally from 26 to 30 °C, temperatures that are much higher than the air temperature attains in its elevational range. The developmental temperature range of the species confirmed a physiological reason why the wekiu bug is only found on cinder cones. This physiology information can help guide population monitoring and inform habitat restoration and conservation. The wekiu bug was a candidate for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and the developmental parameters we quantified were used to determine the species would not be listed as endangered or threatened. The use of developmental threshold experiments, life table analyses, and degree day modeling can directly inform otherwise unobservable habitat needs and demographic characteristics of extremely rare insects. Aplicación de Análisis Demográfico de Desarrollo Agrícola para la Conservación del Insecto Weiku Alpino Hawaiano     

A Contemporary,Sex‐Limited Change in Body Size of an Estuarine Turtle in Response to Commercial Fishing

Abstract: Juvenile growth rate and adult body size are important components of life‐history strategies because of their direct impact on fitness. The diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) is a sexually dimorphic, long‐lived turtle inhabiting brackish waters throughout the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. In parts of its range, terrapins face anthropogenically imposed mortality: juveniles of both sexes inadvertently enter commercial crab traps and drown. For adult females, the carapace eventually grows large enough that they cannot enter traps, whereas males almost never reach that critical size. We compared age structure, carapace dimensions, growth curves, and indices of sexual dimorphism for a Chesapeake Bay population of terrapins (where mortality of turtles is high due to crab traps) with contemporary terrapins from Long Island Sound and museum specimens from Chesapeake Bay (neither group subject to commercial crab traps). We also calculated the allochronic and synchronic rates of evolutionary change (haldanes) for males and females to measure the rate of trait change in a population or between populations, respectively. We found a dramatic shift to a younger male age structure, a decrease in the length of time to terminal female carapace size, a 15% increase in female carapace width, and an increase in sexual dimorphism in Chesapeake Bay. In a new twist, our results implicate a fishery in the selective increase in size of a reptilian bycatch species. These sex‐specific changes in life history and demography have implications for population viability that need to be considered when addressing conservation of this threatened turtle.     

Estimating the extent and structure of trade in horticultural orchids via social media

The wildlife trade is a lucrative industry involving thousands of animal and plant species. The increasing use of the internet for both legal and illegal wildlife trade is well documented, but there is evidence that trade may be emerging on new online technologies such as social media. Using the orchid trade as a case study, we conducted the first systematic survey of wildlife trade on an international social‐media website. We focused on themed forums (groups), where people with similar interests can interact by uploading images or text (posts) that are visible to other group members. We used social‐network analysis to examine the ties between 150 of these orchid‐themed groups to determine the structure of the network. We found 4 communities of closely linked groups based around shared language. Most trade occurred in a community that consisted of English‐speaking and Southeast Asian groups. In addition to the network analysis, we randomly sampled 30 groups from the whole network to assess the prevalence of trade in cultivated and wild plants. Of 55,805 posts recorded over 12 weeks, 8.9% contained plants for sale, and 22–46% of these posts pertained to wild‐collected orchids. Although total numbers of posts about trade were relatively small, the large proportion of posts advertising wild orchids for sale supports calls for better monitoring of social media for trade in wild‐collected plants.     

Changes in bird‐migration patterns associated with human‐induced mortality

Many bird populations have recently changed their migratory behavior in response to alterations of the environment. We collected data over 16 years on male Great Bustards (Otis tarda), a species showing a partial migratory pattern (sedentary and migratory birds coexisting in the same breeding groups). We conducted population counts and radio tracked 180 individuals to examine differences in survival rates between migratory and sedentary individuals and evaluate possible effects of these differences on the migratory pattern of the population. Overall, 65% of individuals migrated and 35% did not. The average distance between breeding and postbreeding areas of migrant individuals was 89.9 km, and the longest average movement of sedentary males was 3.8 km. Breeding group and migration distance had no effect on survival. However, mortality of migrants was 2.4 to 3.5 times higher than mortality of sedentary birds. For marked males, collision with power lines was the main cause of death from unnatural causes (37.6% of all deaths), and migratory birds died in collisions with power lines more frequently than sedentary birds (21.3% vs 6.3%). The percentage of sedentary individuals increased from 17% in 1997 to 45% in 2012. These results were consistent with data collected from radio‐tracked individuals: The proportion of migratory individuals decreased from 86% in 1997–1999 to 44% in 2006–2010. The observed decrease in the migratory tendency was not related to climatic changes (temperatures did not change over the study period) or improvements in habitat quality (dry cereal farmland area decreased in the main study area). Our findings suggest that human‐induced mortality during migration may be an important factor shaping the migration patterns of species inhabiting humanized landscapes.     

The problem of estimating recent genetic connectivity in a changing world

Accurate understanding of population connectivity is important to conservation because dispersal can play an important role in population dynamics, microevolution, and assessments of extirpation risk and population rescue. Genetic methods are increasingly used to infer population connectivity because advances in technology have made them more advantageous (e.g., cost effective) relative to ecological methods. Given the reductions in wildlife population connectivity since the Industrial Revolution and more recent drastic reductions from habitat loss, it is important to know the accuracy of and biases in genetic connectivity estimators when connectivity has declined recently. Using simulated data, we investigated the accuracy and bias of 2 common estimators of migration (movement of individuals among populations) rate. We focused on the timing of the connectivity change and the magnitude of that change on the estimates of migration by using a coalescent‐based method (Migrate‐n) and a disequilibrium‐based method (BayesAss). Contrary to expectations, when historically high connectivity had declined recently: (i) both methods over‐estimated recent migration rates; (ii) the coalescent‐based method (Migrate‐n) provided better estimates of recent migration rate than the disequilibrium‐based method (BayesAss); (iii) the coalescent‐based method did not accurately reflect long‐term genetic connectivity. Overall, our results highlight the problems with comparing coalescent and disequilibrium estimates to make inferences about the effects of recent landscape change on genetic connectivity among populations. We found that contrasting these 2 estimates to make inferences about genetic‐connectivity changes over time could lead to inaccurate conclusions.