Animal agency in wildlife conservation and management

Wildlife conservation and management (WCM) practices have been historically drawn from a wide variety of academic fields, yet practitioners have been slow to engage with emerging conversations about animals as complex beings, whose individuality and sociality influence their relationships with humans. We propose an explicit acknowledgement of wild, nonhuman animals as active participants in WCM. We examined 190 studies of WCM interventions and outcomes to highlight 3 common assumptions that underpin many present approaches to WCM: animal behaviors are rigid and homogeneous; wildlife exhibit idealized wild behavior and prefer pristine habitats; and human–wildlife relationships are of marginal or secondary importance relative to nonhuman interactions. We found that these management interventions insufficiently considered animal learning, decision-making, individuality, sociality, and relationships with humans and led to unanticipated detrimental outcomes. To address these shortcomings, we synthesized theoretical advances in animal behavioral sciences, animal geographies, and animal legal theory that may help conservation professionals reconceptualize animals and their relationships with humans. Based on advances in these fields, we constructed the concept of animal agency, which we define as the ability of animals to actively influence conservation and management outcomes through their adaptive, context-specific, and complex behaviors that are predicated on their sentience, individuality, lived experiences, cognition, sociality, and cultures in ways that shape and reshape shared human–wildlife cultures, spaces, and histories. Conservation practices, such as compassionate conservation, convivial conservation, and ecological justice, incorporate facets of animal agency. Animal agency can be incorporated in conservation problem-solving by assessing the ways in which agency contributes to species’ survival and by encouraging more adaptive and collaborative decision-making among human and nonhuman stakeholders.     

Approaching the upper boundary of driver-response relationships: identifying factors using a novel framework integrating quantile regression with interpretable machine learning

● A novel framework integrating quantile regression with machine learning is proposed. ● It aims to identify factors driving observations to upper boundary of relationship. ● Increasing N:P and TN concentration help fulfill the effect of TP on CHL. ● Wetter and warmer decrease potential and increase eutrophication control difficulty. ● The framework advances applications of quantile regression and machine learning. The identification of factors that may be forcing ecological observations to approach the upper boundary provides insight into potential mechanisms affecting driver-response relationships, and can help inform ecosystem management, but has rarely been explored. In this study, we propose a novel framework integrating quantile regression with interpretable machine learning. In the first stage of the framework, we estimate the upper boundary of a driver-response relationship using quantile regression. Next, we calculate “potentials” of the response variable depending on the driver, which are defined as vertical distances from the estimated upper boundary of the relationship to observations in the driver-response variable scatter plot. Finally, we identify key factors impacting the potential using a machine learning model. We illustrate the necessary steps to implement the framework using the total phosphorus (TP)-Chlorophyll a (CHL) relationship in lakes across the continental US. We found that the nitrogen to phosphorus ratio (N׃P), annual average precipitation, total nitrogen (TN), and summer average air temperature were key factors impacting the potential of CHL depending on TP. We further revealed important implications of our findings for lake eutrophication management. The important role of N׃P and TN on the potential highlights the co-limitation of phosphorus and nitrogen and indicates the need for dual nutrient criteria. Future wetter and/or warmer climate scenarios can decrease the potential which may reduce the efficacy of lake eutrophication management. The novel framework advances the application of quantile regression to identify factors driving observations to approach the upper boundary of driver-response relationships.     

云南曲靖地区铜的暴露与肺癌相关性研究

我国云南省曲靖的宣威和富源等地是全世界肺癌高发区,为了研究环境介质中铜(Cu)等重金属的暴露与体内分布特征,探讨Cu与肺癌的相关性,在当地开展肺癌环境流行病学调查,采集宣威和富源高发区人群饮食、饮水以及人体血浆和肺组织样品,微波消解ICP-MS法测定样品中Cu等元素.结果显示,当地居民使用燃料类型是影响肺癌高发的重要因素.高发区人群Cu的日摄入总量低于我国推荐的每日膳食中营养素供给量(RDA).肺癌组血液中Cu含量显著高于对照组,肺癌组织中Cu含量显著高于癌旁组织和正常组织,且肺癌患者的血浆和肺组织中Cu/Zn比值均升高.Pearson相关性分析结果表明,Cu和Ni、Cu和Pb呈显著正相关,提示在致癌作用上具有协同效应;Cu和Fe、Cu和Zn呈显著负相关,提示具有抑制或拮抗作用.多因素Logistic回归结果表明,Cu是肺癌发生的重要影响因素,人体中Cu含量和Cu/Zn比值可为肺癌的早期预防和诊断提供科学依据.     

施工现场的风险管理应用研究

风险管理理论已广泛应用于项目的设计、采购及施工等各个阶段。在建设项目施工阶段的应用,特别是在施工事故的主动预防领域的应用,国外企业已取得不少成效。通常建设项目的施工现场由一系列的土建、安装、试验等施工活动组成,每一项施工活动又分解为不同的施工步骤,各施工步骤之间又存在多种工艺关系或组织关系,结合这些关系的特点,如果能对每一步骤中存在的危害进行识别、评价并根据评价结果采取相应的控制措施,则整项施工活动的风险可以从"源"上消除或降低到可接受程度,从而实现安全。针对施工现场施工活动多样、人员流动性大等特点,通过对施工现场的风险管理的应用研究,以期为各级从事现场的管理技术人员提供一种便于现场进行施工风险控制的实践方法。     

Carbon dioxide and methane emission from subsurface peatlands and its controlling factors北大核心CSCD

Peatland is an efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) sink on the continent and plays an important role in global carbon cycle. Climate change and human activities, two of the notable global environmental issues, have accelerated the degradation of peatlands during recent years. Global warming will increase the rate of aerobic decomposition in the surface of peatlands. Carbon stored in the subsurface of peatlands will be metabolized if the climatic conditions become favorable for decomposition. This study reviewed the carbon circle of subsurface peatland in natural environment and in environments disturbed by human activity or climate change. Furthermore, the major factors (environmental and human factors) that affect the carbon cycle were also discussed. According to a previous study, subsurface peatland will rapidly participate in the carbon cycle when the peatland is degraded. Water level, vegetation, and temperature were the main natural factors affecting the carbon cycle, whereas drainage, farming, and grazing were the main anthropogenic factors. Further studies should focus on different soil layer carbon dynamics, inorganic carbon content, and conservation and restoration of peatlands. The study methods should be a combination of macro with micro scale and focus on developing deep peat research techniques. Most of the previous studies focused on greenhouse gas emission and their response factors in short-term experiments. Thus, the mechanism and process of subsurface carbon are not clear and needs further study. © 2018 Science Press. All rights reserved.     

Design and use of a time-sorting pitfall trap for predatory arthropods

An electronically-controlled time-sorting pitfall trap was designed which improves upon earlier models in having a 24-h rotation time, and in being capable of running continuously for at least one week without attention. Four prototypes were built, using readily available, inexpensive components, and used from June to October, 1995, to collect carabid beetles and linyphiid spiders in clover-undersown and weeded cabbages. The traps operated without malfunction during the hottest weather ever recorded in Aberdeen, when soil surface temperatures exceeded 40°C, and also during periods of torrential rain. Three spider and two carabid species dominated the catch, their nocturnal and diurnal patterns of activity being in general agreement with other published data. Some predators were apparently able to adapt to the contrasting vegetation in the two treatments, two species of Erigone spiders being nocturnal in weeded cabbages but tending to be diurnal in undersown crops.     

不同曝气方式对人工湿地细菌多样性、代谢活性及功能的影响

细菌在人工湿地去除污染物过程中起着非常关键的作用.基于DNA和RNA高通量测序技术探讨了不同曝气强化方式影响下的人工湿地单元内细菌多样性、代谢活性和功能.结果发现:①养殖废水和人工湿地处理组共检测到细菌4 042个操作分类单元(OTUs),其中α-变形菌、γ-变形菌和拟杆菌为多样性最高的类群,且人工湿地曝气强化方式会在...     

鸭绿江上游细鳞鱼的生境现状及资源退化原因分析

细鳞鱼作为名贵的鲑科陆封型冷水性鱼类,属于国家二级保护动物。近年来我国冷水鱼资源急剧下降,有些种类濒临灭绝。本项研究进行了冷水鱼在鸭绿江上游支流生存繁息的生态环境现状调查和监测,为冷水鱼生存环境提供背景值,同时也为冷水鱼类的人工增养殖和保存冷水鱼物种提供环境方面的科学依据。根据测定结果分析,冷水鱼资源退化的直接原因不是冷水水域水质的恶化,而是人类活动的干扰。     

除草剂硝磺草酮对土壤微生物生态效应研究

采用室内培养试验,研究了硝磺草酮对土壤酶活性和微生物群落功能多样性的影响.结果表明,土壤过氧化氢酶和蔗糖酶活性随硝磺草酮浓度增加呈现先增加后降低的趋势,但比对照处理都有所升高,分别增加了22.6%~41.0%和3.4%~54.2%,且在硝磺草酮浓度为50mg/kg时达到最大.与之相反,尿酶活性则降低了12.0%~18.6%,但差异性不明显(P > 0.05).施用一定浓度的硝磺草酮激活了土壤微生物活性,微生物群落丰富度、均匀性和多样性都呈增长趋势,单孔的平均颜色变化率(AWCD)值和利用速率均随硝磺草酮浓度增加而增大,微生物群落对碳水化合物类、氨基酸类、多聚物类、羧酸类、胺类和酚酸类利用率整体上均有所提高,与对照相比,最大增幅分别达到5.3、1.0、4.4、3.2、0.2和6.8倍,但不同浓度硝磺草酮处理下土壤微生物在利用碳源的类型上是存在一定的差异.     

Monitoring of soil biochemical quality parameters under greenhouse spinach cultivation through animal waste recycling

Under the intensive agricultural system, direct application of animal slurries to soils can provide a sustainable disposal of these wastes by inducing positive changes in soil quality and fertility. However, how animal wastes quantitatively affect the key nutrients (C, N, P and S) transforming soil enzymes is not clearly known. A greenhouse spinach cultivation study demonstrated that pig slurry, either in raw (RS) or processed (aerobically aged) (PS) form, significantly (p?β-glucosidase (23–39%), urease (59–103%), nitrate reductase (73–103%) and dehydrogenase (27–72%)) and microbial growth in soil as compared to the unamended control. However, it did not significantly (p?>?.05) alter the aryl sulphatase enzyme activity. Slurry applications also significantly improved the macro (N, P and K) and micronutrients (Cu, Mn, Zn and Fe) uptake by spinach plant and hence the yield (2.9–3.38 times higher than control). Similarly, compared to chemical fertilisers the application of pig slurries improved soil biological and biochemical parameters as well as plant nutrients uptake. This study demonstrated the closing of global energy and nutrient cycles through land application of animal wastes without compromising the crop yield.