Evolving patterns of agricultural frontier expansion in Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert: a political ecology approach

ABSTRACT

This study sought to understand why and how the area of irrigated agriculture in Janos County, in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico, has tripled since 1987. Expansion of agricultural frontiers has often been attributed to state policies and programs or von Thünian land-rent dynamics. Here, a political ecology approach relying on qualitative interviews with landowners was used to understand the drivers and patterns of conversion from native rangeland to crops. Results show that socioeconomic patterns of agricultural frontier expansion evolved over time, with different drivers at different phases. State policies, especially the land reform, were initially important for settling the agriculture frontier in small farms. Subsequently, economic differentiation, intensification, and growth of existing farms drove expansion. Since 2010, expansion has been driven by investment-oriented land purchases by absentee owners and larger-than-family farms. The Janos case details what may be common but underappreciated temporal dynamics at agricultural frontiers.     

A Bayesian network approach to modelling land-use decisions under environmental policy incentives in the Brazilian Amazon

ABSTRACT

Deforestation driven by agricultural expansion is a major threat to the biodiversity of the Amazon Basin. Modelling how deforestation responds to environmental policy implementation has thus become a policy relevant scientific undertaking. However, empirical parameterization of land-use/cover change (LUCC) models is challenging due to the high complexity and uncertainty of land-use decisions. Bayesian Network (BN) modelling provides an effective framework to integrate various data sources including expert knowledge. In this study, we integrate remote sensing products with data from farm-household surveys and a decision game to model LUCC at the BR-163, in Brazil. Our ‘business as usual’ scenario indicates cumulative forest cover loss in the study region of 8,000 km² between 2014 and 2030, whereas ‘intensified law-enforcement’ would reduce cumulative deforestation to 1,600 km² over the same time interval. Our findings underline the importance of conservation law enforcement in modulating the impact of agricultural market incentives on land cover change.     

森林土地利用变化及其对碳循环的影响

由于人口剧增，人类活动的影响不断加大，在过去100年全球土地利用／土地覆被发生了巨大的变化。最常见的土地利用变化是由森林转变为农业用地。森林砍伐使森林生态系统地上部生物量大大减少，砍伐后作农业用地，降低了植被生产力，减少了土壤有机质的输入，增强了腐殖质的矿化作用，有机质分解速率增加，有机碳贮量随之降低，从而影响到森林生态系统的碳循环，使大量碳元素释放到大气中，引起温室效应，导致全球变暖。另一个常见的土地利用变化是植树造林和森林恢复，这一过程可以增加森林生态系统的碳储量，从而减缓大气CO2体积分数的上升。     

徐州市景观生态调控途径

从全新的角度提出了城市景观生态调控的概念。在分析了徐州市景观现状和问题的基础上,根据调控理念和调控目标,从空间、技术、政策3个方面提出了4个调控途径10个调控措施,从而可以在一定程度上缓解徐州可持续发展中的景观生态瓶颈问题,并为其它城市解决景观问题提供借鉴。     

Climatic Change, Wildfire, and Conservation

Abstract:  Climatic variability is a dominant factor affecting large wildfires in the western United States, an observation supported by palaeoecological data on charcoal in lake sediments and reconstructions from fire-scarred trees. Although current fire management focuses on fuel reductions to bring fuel loadings back to their historical ranges, at the regional scale extreme fire weather is still the dominant influence on area burned and fire severity. Current forecasting tools are limited to short-term predictions of fire weather, but increased understanding of large-scale oceanic and atmospheric patterns in the Pacific Ocean (e.g., El Niño Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation) may improve our ability to predict climatic variability at seasonal to annual leads. Associations between these quasi-periodic patterns and fire occurrence, though evident in some regions, have been difficult to establish in others. Increased temperature in the future will likely extend fire seasons throughout the western United States, with more fires occurring earlier and later than is currently typical, and will increase the total area burned in some regions. If climatic change increases the amplitude and duration of extreme fire weather, we can expect significant changes in the distribution and abundance of dominant plant species in some ecosystems, which would thus affect habitat of some sensitive plant and animal species. Some species that are sensitive to fire may decline, whereas the distribution and abundance of species favored by fire may be enhanced. The effects of climatic change will partially depend on the extent to which resource management modifies vegetation structure and fuels.     

Changes of Soil Microbiological Properties Caused by Land Use Changing From Rice–Wheat Rotation to Vegetable Cultivation

A survey was done recently in Jiaxing city of Zhejiang Province in the Yangtze River Delta to compare the differences of soil microbiological properties among paddy soils with different land use including continuous open-field vegetable cultivation (OFVC), plastic-greenhouse vegetable cultivation (PGVC) and traditional rice–wheat rotation (RWR). The soil types included are percolating, permeable and waterlogged paddy soils. The results indicate that the microbial flora was markedly changed as the land use changed for all the three soil types. In continuous vegetable cultivation soils, especially in PGVC soils, the bacteria amounts decreased dramatically, but the fungal and actinomyce amounts increased as compared with RWR soils. The dehydrogenase activities decreased significantly in vegetable soils, especially in PGVC soils as compared with RWR soils. The microbial biomass C and the total phospholipid contents (TPL) in vegetable cultivation soil greatly decreased as compared with RWR soils. Biolog analysis indicated that the kinds of carbon sources that could be metabolized by native microbes in PGVC soils greatly decreased as compared with OFVC soils and RWR soils, revealing that microbial diversity had decreased since land use change. The activities of some soil enzymes including urease, invertase and phosphase were all lower in OFVC soils than those in RWR soils, and those in PGVC soils were the lowest. The degradation of microbiological activities in continuous vegetable cultivation soils, especially in PGVC soils, as compared with RWR soils might have been caused by soil acidification and accumulation of salts due to overuse of both organic and inorganic fertilizers in vegetable cultivation.     

区域土地利用变化对土壤磷含量的影响评价研究

研究土壤磷含量的时空演变规律对改善土地管理水平和提高土壤质量具有重要的指导作用。文章选取江苏省原锡山市作为研究区域,以1982年和2005年土壤全磷和速效磷含量作为研究对象,研究探讨土地利用变化对土壤磷含量的影响,进而表明人类活动对生态系统和环境的影响。通过统计分析表明,20年来原锡山市土壤全磷含量降低0.48g·kg-1,土壤速效磷含量升高26.16mg·kg-1。通过变异函数分析,20年来原锡山市全磷和速效磷的变异函数理论模型都是指数型,但块金方差与基台值的比值、自相关阀值发生了较大变化;Kriging插值分析结果表明,1982年全磷和速效磷的分布比较简单;2005年全磷分布较为简单,土壤速效磷分布较为复杂。Kriging插值分析还表明,20年来原锡山市土壤全磷含量降低,空间变异显著;土壤速效磷含量升高,空间变异显著。     

锅炉温控炉拱的设计及燃烧技术性能

论述了将小型链条炉排工业锅炉的炉拱设计成在运行中可以全量调节的结构,以适应燃用多种煤种的需要,并减少与固定拱操作有关的意外伤亡事故。这项技术有创新性,适用性和推广价值     

山东半岛可持续发展的主要问题与综合调控研究

山东半岛在我国沿海经济发达地区的可持续发展问题上具有较强的代表性和典型性,本文以山东半岛为例,分析了山东半岛在区域发展过程中存在的问题以及今后可持续发展能力培养的综合对策。     

历史时期黄河下游河道演变规律与淮河灾害治理

历史时期黄河下游河道演变规律表明,河流从沿程淤积到河口延伸、再到溯源淤积的自适应过程,在1000a、100a、50a、10a等各种时间尺度上均可能发生,这对淮河水系改造的可行性论证、方案设计等有重要指导意义。