Assessing the current state of ecological connectivity in a large marine protected area system

The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) is a critical step in ensuring the continued persistence of marine biodiversity. Although the area protected in MPAs is growing, the movement of individuals (or larvae) among MPAs, termed connectivity, has only recently been included as an objective of many MPAs. As such, assessing connectivity is often neglected or oversimplified in the planning process. For promoting population persistence, it is important to ensure that protected areas in a system are functionally connected through dispersal or adult movement. We devised a multi-species model of larval dispersal for the Australian marine environment to evaluate how much local scale connectivity is protected in MPAs and determine whether the extensive system of MPAs truly functions as a network. We focused on non-migratory species with simplified larval behaviors (i.e., passive larval dispersal) (e.g., no explicit vertical migration) as an illustration. Of all the MPAs analyzed (approximately 2.7 million km²), outside the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef, <50% of MPAs (46-80% of total MPA area depending on the species considered) were functionally connected. Our results suggest that Australia's MPA system cannot be referred to as a single network, but rather a collection of numerous smaller networks delineated by natural breaks in the connectivity of reef habitat. Depending on the dispersal capacity of the taxa of interest, there may be between 25 and 47 individual ecological networks distributed across the Australian marine environment. The need to first assess the underlying natural connectivity of a study system prior to implementing new MPAs represents a key research priority for strategically enlarging MPA networks. Our findings highlight the benefits of integrating multi-species connectivity into conservation planning to identify opportunities to better incorporate connectivity into the design of MPA systems and thus to increase their capacity to support long-term, sustainable biodiversity outcomes.     

黄河三角洲垦利县可持续土地利用评价及对策研究

选取34个自然、环境和社会经济指标,采用相关分析和模糊数学原理对研究区的可持续土地利用进行了评价.结果表明,研究区可持续土地利用性在1986-2003年期间逐渐提高.通过计算障碍度详细分析了研究区可持续土地利用的障碍因素.人均农业总产值、粮食单产、芦苇地占地率、农业用地率是可持续土地利用的主要障碍因素.芦苇地占地率在1996年以后始终是第一障碍因素.人均农业总产值的限制主要出现在1998年之前,之后对可持续土地利用未构成障碍.粮食单产和农业用地率的影响主要出现在1996年以后.林草覆盖率、公顷耕地农机总动力和农村电气化水平在一半以上的年份对可持续土地利用构成障碍.在1994年之前,农民人均收入障碍度较大,是主要的障碍因素.最后根据障碍因素的分析提出了可持续土地利用的对策.     

Practical application of sustainable development in decision-making processes in the Great Lakes Basin

SUMMARY

Sustainable development has become the conceptual framework within which societal, economic and environmental issues are addressed at every level around the world. In 1993, a United States-Canada assembly of more than 250 Great Lakes leaders was convened to evaluate the efficacy of creative processes under way in the Great Lakes Basin relative to sustainable development and to identify key success factors and process characteristics which are consistent with principles of sustainable development. A combination of eight criteria for effective project management (i.e. stakeholder involvement; leadership; information and interpretation; planning; human resource development; results and indicators; review and feedback; stakeholder satisfaction) and six principles of sustainable development (i.e. long-range planning and intergenerational responsibility; carrying capacity; anticipation and prevention; full cost accounting; integration of economic, social and environmental factors; efficiency, innovation and continuous improvement) were developed to evaluate and help improve decision-making processes. Such criteria and principles may be useful in improving decision-making processes in other parts of the world.     

加拿大海盆与楚科奇海柱状沉积物中硫酸盐还原菌的分布状况

对取自北极楚科奇海及加拿大海盆的10个沉积物岩芯分别在4℃、25℃培养温度下进行硫酸盐还原菌(SRB)分析,结合首次北极科考海洋沉积物SRB的研究成果,探讨了研究区SRB的分布特点.研究结果表明,4℃与25℃温度培养的SRB含量均为0～2.4 ×106个·g-1(湿样);4℃时SRB的检出率与平均含量分别为45.5%和2.06×104个·g-1(湿样),25℃培养条件下分别为73.7%和4.70×104个·g-1(湿样);柱状沉积物中SRB的检出率、含量范围、平均含量都明显高于表层沉积物中SRB的相关指标;岩芯中SRB含量分布与采样点的纬度、深度有一定关系,但这种关系不如表层沉积物中SRB分布表现的那么明显;4℃培养时,各层位SRB含量的平均值范围为51～1.2×106个·g-1(湿样),25℃时为2.04×102～2.47×105个·g-1(湿样);在所研究的深度范围内,4℃时培养SRB的垂直变化较为明显,而25℃时SRB的垂直变化相对缓和;根据4℃、25℃2个不同培养温度时SRB的检出率、含量对比看,似乎25℃时更有利于某些SRB的繁衍.     

城市污水厂初沉池的设置方式及运行效果

跟据初沉池在城市污水厂长期的实际运行数据,分析了初沉池去除污水中的悬浮物、有机物、降低能耗、降低水质波动对生化系统的冲击等方面所起的作用,设置初沉池还有利于提高生化系统污泥的活性成份（MLVSS／MLSS）、增强出水效果;同时探讨了初沉池在城市污水处理中的设置方式,通过设置超越管线,在冬、夏季水质波动较大,保持生化系统进水有机负荷的稳定,提出了优化初沉池的处理效果的运行方式。     

关于环境监测队伍组成结构的调查分析

对环境监测站人员年龄结构、岗位结构、学历结构、职称结构等的调查分析结果显示,为满足当前工作要求,监测站人员编制亟待增加、优胜劣汰的技术培训应成为制度。     

Biotesting of water from Peter the Great Bay,Sea of Japan,using the microalga <Emphasis Type="Italic">Dunaliella salina</Emphasis>

Water samples from zones with different levels of anthropogenic pollution in Peter the Great Bay, the Sea of Japan, were subjected to biotesting on the microalga Dunaliella salina. A distinct inhibitory effect on microalgal cultures was revealed in tests of water from Amur Bay. Water samples from stations in the Tumannaya River mouth and off Frugelm Island (in the southwestern part of Peter the Great Bay) and from Gaidamak Bight (Vostok Bay) had little effect on D. salina growth.     

Environmental Communication as Nexus

This essay examines zoos as a site of struggle in the construction of meanings and memories of human–nature relations. Modern zoos are symbols of imperial power and celebrations of the domination of nature. The grafting of “tropic worlds” onto these monuments of modernity renders the meaning of zoos more ambiguous, reflecting discursive struggles over the meaning of nature, questions about the wisdom of development and progress, recognition of the need for conservation and preservation, and nostalgia for a nature that has been lost. Through a close textual reading of “The Rainforest” at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, this essay explores the simulation of nature in zoos and “tropic worlds” in North American cities. These hyperreal spaces contain an extraordinary amount of the history and politics of the culture that constructs them for fascination, edification, conservation, commodification, and salvation. At stake in these simulated natures is not only the constructions of nature as spectacle and animals as commodities, but also the use of knowledge to maintain certain forms of domination and the “writing” of industrial culture's historical memory of nature and human–nature relations.     

Rhetorical Landscapes as Epistemic: Revisiting Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac

This essay examines the rhetorical impetus toward environmental human agency in Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac (SCA). In identifying a foundation for this agency, Leopold relies on the epistemological function of rhetoric in an effort to bring to light the epistemic potential in reading the landscape. In this fashion, Leopold offers a way of knowing the environment through natural observations. The author identifies the unfolding epistemological revelations found in the three primary sections of SCA. Leopold describes these epistemological revelations gleaned from reading the landscape as “shifts.” The first shift, in Part I of SCA, offers the audience lessons through Leopold's own example in reading the text of the landscape. The second shift, described in Part II, describes his epistemological revelations acquired through his reading of the landscape. The final section of the book situates these epistemological revelations in one of the most influential concepts found in environmental ethics, the land ethic. Through these three iterations, Leopold not only instructs his readers in the rhetorical possibilities found in reading landscapes but also offers scholars of environmental rhetoric a unique understanding of analyzing landscapes as epistemological rhetoric.     

Convincing the Public to Kill: Asian Carp and the Proximization of Invasive Species Threat

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the mediation of the threat of Asian carp as an invasive species in American waterways based on analysis of 43 articles published in local and national periodicals from 2009 to 2017. Rhetorical and proximization analysis reveals the consistent establishment of carp as an outsider threat and a continual narrowing of the gap between this threat and the deictic center: the Great Lakes. In addition, the notion of the spectacle of the Asian carp’s physiological and behavioral features (i.e. leaping) was found to fade across time in favor of arguments based upon widespread ecosystem and economic damage. This essay argues that the use of these yoked strategies not only prioritizes the threat of Asian carp over other more insidious invasive species but also displays a potentially harmful anti-immigrant preference through metaphor.