Quantifying biases in marine-protected-area placement relative to abatable threats

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a critical defense against biodiversity loss in the world's oceans, but to realize near-term conservation benefits, they must be established where major threats to biodiversity occur and can be mitigated. We quantified the degree to which MPA establishment has targeted stoppable threats (i.e., threats that can be abated through effectively managed MPAs alone) by combining spatially explicit marine biodiversity threat data in 2008 and 2013 and information on the location and potential of MPAs to halt threats. We calculated an impact metric to determine whether countries are protecting proportionally more high- or low-threat ecoregions and compared observed values with random protected-area allocation. We found that protection covered <2% of ecoregions in national waters with high levels of abatable threat in 2013, which is ∼59% less protection in high-threat areas than if MPAs had been placed randomly. Relatively low-threat ecoregions had 6.3 times more strict protection (International Union for Conservation of Nature categories I–II) than high-threat ecoregions. Thirty-one ecoregions had high levels of stoppable threat but very low protection, which presents opportunities for MPAs to yield more significant near-term conservation benefits. The extent of the global MPA estate has increased, but the establishment of MPAs where they can reduce threats that are driving biodiversity loss is now urgently needed.     

乌江中上游新建水库水体甲基汞的时空分布

为了弄清新修建的水库是否造成水体甲基汞浓度升高，以贵州省乌江流域2座新建水库洪家渡水库和索风营水库为研究对象，采用蒸馏 乙基化结合（GC CVAFS）法测定了不同季节水库水体中甲基汞的浓度，最低检出限为 0.009 ng/L。探讨了水质参数对甲基汞分布的影响以及水库水体甲基汞的分布特征。结果显示:洪家渡水库总甲基汞浓度夏季平均值为 0.11 ng/L，秋季平均值为 0.08 ng/L，冬季平均值为 0.10 ng/L；索风营水库总甲基汞浓度夏季平均值为 0.11 ng/L，秋季平均值为 0.07 ng/L，冬季平均值为 0.09 ng/L。数据表明2座水库水体甲基汞含量均较低，低于目前我国环境质量标准规定的一类地表水汞含量标准限值，与世界上其他未受污染的水体基本相当。水库水体甲基汞浓度随水体深度的增加没有明显的变化规律，且夏季略高于冬季、秋季，这与夏季降雨量和温度有关，在入库处与大坝前没有明显的变化趋势。这与水库中被淹没土壤有机质含量偏低且流域内基岩为碳酸盐有关，还与其他环境因素有关(如pH值较高，DOC含量偏低等)。通过研究发现目前库区环境汞的甲基化率低，但随着水库生态系统的不断演化，内源和外源营养物的输入及水体在温度分层其间自身甲基汞的形成，导致水体甲基汞含量的逐渐增加，但仍需进一步的研究证实。     

New directions for exploring the consequences of proactive behaviors: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue introduces new directions for exploring the consequences of proactive behaviors. The authors summarize the new scopes of consequences, new social contexts, and new methods in this exploration. They also identify several limitations of the existing literature and call for more future research in this stream.     

南岳衡山风景名胜区景观资源的调查与评价

景观资源是旅游资源的重要组成因素,本文以自然综合体的南岳衡山为考察对象,对其景观资源进行较详尽的调查,并进行定性和定量的评价,为确定南岳衡山风景名胜区性质、规划提供基础资料.     

论生物多样性的保护问题

当前，任何地区的生物多样性都是自然和社会因素长期综合作用所造成。生物多样性最丰富的地区不一定全部由顶极植被所覆盖，而常常是一些包括所有演替类型的地方。本文通过讨论自然环境的变化和人类生产活动对不同区域景观的影响，探讨有关生物多样性的保护问题。     

Power-law behaviour and parametric models for the size-distribution of forest fires

This paper examines the distribution of areas burned in forest fires. Empirical size distributions, derived from extensive fire records, for six regions in North America are presented. While they show some commonalities, it appears that a simple power-law distribution of sizes, as has been suggested by some authors, is too simple to describe the distributions over their full range. A stochastic model for the spread and extinguishment of fires is used to examine conditions for power-law behaviour and deviations from it. The concept of the extinguishment growth rate ratio (EGRR) is developed. A null model with constant EGRR leads to a power-law distribution, but this does not appear to hold empirically for the data sets examined. Some alternative parametric forms for the size distribution are presented, with a four-parameter ‘competing hazards’ model providing the overall best fit.     

世界保护区事业发展的展望

当前,世界130个国家已建立了6500多个保护区,约占地球土地面积4.89％。但是,如何管理好它们,还存在许多问题。本文重点介绍这些问题,并提出一些解决措施,以促进保护区事业的发展。     

海岸带生态恢复技术研究现状及存在问题

气候及其潜在的全球性变化所带来的影响，使海岸带受到严重威胁，人口的增加以及人类活动强度的增大给海岸带环境带来的负面影响越来越严重，对目前国内外海岸带生态恢复技术的现状作了较系统地介绍，并阐述了当前海岸带生态恢复中存在的主要问题。     

天津市土壤元素背景值的地域差异及成因分析

论述了天津土壤中Cu,Pb等13种微量元素背景值在行政区，土壤类型中的差异规律，并分析了引起元素背景值地域差异的原因。     

The Botanist Effect Revisited: Plant Species Richness, County Area, and Human Population Size in the United States

Abstract:  The "botanist effect" is thought to be the reason for higher plant species richness in areas where botanists are disproportionately present as an artefactual consequence of a more thorough sampling. We examined whether this was the case for U.S. counties. We collated the number of species of vascular plants, human population size, and the area of U.S. counties. Controlling for spatial autocorrelation and county area, plant species richness increased with human population size and density in counties with and without universities and/or botanical gardens, with no significant differences in the relation between the two subsets. This is consistent with previous findings and further evidence of a broad-scale positive correlation between species richness and human population presence, which has important consequences for the experience of nature by inhabitants of densely populated regions. Combined with the many reports of a negative correlation between the two variables at a local scale, the positive relation between plant species richness in U.S. counties and human population presence stresses the need for the conservation of seminatural areas in urbanized ecosystems and for the containment of urban and suburban sprawl.