Rapidly assessing cobenefits to advance threat-management alliances

Conservation strategies aimed at reducing threats to biodiversity can have significant implications for multiple sectors in a socioeconomic system, but these cobenefits are often poorly understood. For example, many of the threats to native species also impede agricultural production, yet agriculture is typically perceived as in competition with conservation objectives. Although a comprehensive, multiobjective decision analysis is usually beyond the scope and capacity of conservation decision makers, failing to incorporate key socioeconomic costs and benefits into conservation decision-making processes can result in missed opportunities for diversifying outcomes and creating cost-sharing multisectoral partnerships. We devised a straightforward and readily interpretable approach to incorporate cobenefits into a threat-management prioritization approach. We used it to analyze the agricultural cobenefits of implementing 9 invasive animal management strategies designed to ensure the persistence of 148 threatened species across Australia's Lake Eyre Basin over 50 years. A structured elicitation process with 24 participants (scientists, land managers, agriculturalists, and other stakeholders) was used to collect information on each strategy, including costs, technical and social feasibility, benefits to native threatened species, and cobenefits to agricultural production systems. The costs of targeted invasive animal management to save threatened species across the basin (AU$33 million/year) outweighed the overall benefits to the agricultural industry (estimated AU$226 million/year). The return on investment for these management strategies varied substantially when agricultural cobenefits were considered alongside threatened species benefits and showed synergies and challenges. Our approach demonstrates the value of incorporating cobenefits of conservation actions into cost-effectiveness analyses to guide potential investment and partnerships and to diversify implementation pathways.     

A critical appraisal of population viability analysis

Population viability analysis (PVA) is useful in management of imperiled species. Applications range from research design, threat assessment, and development of management frameworks. Given the importance of PVAs, it is essential that they be rigorous and adhere to widely accepted guidelines; however, the quality of published PVAs is rarely assessed. We evaluated the quality of 160 PVAs of 144 species of birds and mammals published in peer-reviewed journals from 1990 to 2017. We hypothesized that PVA quality would be lower with generic programs than with custom-built programs; be higher for those developed for imperiled species; change over time; and be higher for those published in journals with high impact factors (IFs). Each included study was evaluated based on answers to an evaluation framework containing 32 questions reflecting whether and to what extent the PVA study adhered to published PVA guidelines or contained important PVA components. All measures of PVA quality were generally lower for studies based on generic programs. Conservation status of the species did not affect any measure of PVA quality, but PVAs published in high IF journals were of higher quality. Quality generally declined over time, suggesting the quantitative literacy of PVA practitioners has not increased over time or that PVAs developed by unskilled users are being published in peer-reviewed journals. Only 18.1% of studies were of high quality (score >75%), which is troubling because poor-quality PVAs could misinform conservation decisions. We call for increased scrutiny of PVAs by journal editors and reviewers. Our evaluation framework can be used for this purpose. Because poor-quality PVAs continue to be published, we recommend caution while using PVA results in conservation decision making without thoroughly assessing the PVA quality.     

Ecological features of species range formation in the Altai snowcock

Ecological conditions for the Altai snowcock and the history of formation of its range in the Altai-Sayan mountain region are discussed. The range of this species extends mainly over mountain massifs surrounding the Great Lakes Basin in western Mongolia and the Tuva Basin. These regions are characterized by broken relief with steep slopes. Snowcocks populate both humid high-mountain areas of the Alpine type and dry-steppe areas in middle and low mountains. Expansion of this species to the Altai-Sayan region is attributed to Miocene-Pliocene aridization well manifested in central Asia. The recent distribution of the Altai snowcock over different altitudinal belts is explained by alternation of glaciations and interglacial periods in the Pleistocene and anthropogenic impact in the Holocene. The total abundance of this rare species is estimated at 10000–12000 individuals.     

Zooplankton as an Indicator of the State of Lake Ecosystems Polluted with Mining Wastewater in the Kola Peninsula

The most informative characteristics of the zooplankton-community response to the effect of industrial wastewater from mines have been determined using water bodies of the Kola Peninsula as an example. It has been demonstrated that qualitative and quantitative characteristics of zooplankton depend on the degree of industrial pollution of a water body and adequately reflect differences in the conditions of zooplankton growth between the whole water bodies and their individual parts. The role of zooplankton as an indicator has been assessed and the possibility of including it in the system of monitoring of water objects has been substantiated.     

神农架野生珍稀濒危植物及其保护对策研究

本文研究表明神农架共有国家保护的野生珍稀濒危植物21科26属28种(包括变种)。保护植物之生活型以高位芽植物占绝对优势,花期主要集中于4～5月,果期主要集中于9～11月。本文还从就地保护和迁地保存两方面阐述了珍稀濒危植物的保护对策。     

Fundamental Species Niche: Mechanism of Formation and Ecological Significance

Evolutionary stasis, or the long-term (over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years) existence of species in a phenotypically unchanging state, is conditioned by a counterbalance of directional selection vectors acting in opposition to one another. Fluctuations of living conditions for a species, leading to partial and often reversible disturbances of the counterbalance, lead to the development of redundant functional capacities of organisms. This redundancy determines the boundaries of the fundamental species niche and allows the realized niches of populations to change their spatiotemporal location within these boundaries without disturbing the counterbalance.     

一个适用于区域性大气环境模拟的大气光化学模式

根据“计数物种”法对光化学反应机制的分析,建立了一个适用于区域性光化学反应模拟的模式,该模式能较好地模拟出NO_x、O_3及H_2O_2等大气光化学污染物的变化,在保证模拟准确性的同时,该模式形式简单,有利于在实际大气环境质量模拟中应用.