Simple Spatial Modeling Tool for Prioritizing Prescribed Burning Activities at the Landscape Scale

Abstract:   Resources for prescribed fire are frequently insufficient to manage public lands for all conservation and resource management objectives, necessitating prioritization of the application of fire across the landscape within any given year. Defining tradeoffs when applying prescribed fire to large landscapes is problematic not only because of the complexity of weighing competing management objectives at the landscape scale, but also because of the difficult nature of independently applying need-to-burn criteria to large areas. We present a case study of a simple modeling process implemented at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle (U.S.A.) to prioritize the application of prescribed fire. In a workshop setting, managers and biologists identified key conservation criteria and landscape management objectives that drive the application of prescribed fire. Remote sensing and other spatial data were developed to directly or indirectly represent all these criteria. Using geographic information system software, managers and biologists weighted each criterion according to its relative contribution to overall burn prioritization, and individual values for the criterion were scored according to how they influence the need to burn. Subsequently, this process has been validated and modified through ecological monitoring. This modeling process has also been applied to the 77,400-ha Blackwater River State Forest, public land adjacent to Eglin Air Force Base, demonstrating its applicability to lands with varying management priorities. The advantages of this model-based approach for prioritizing prescribed fire include the reliance on accessible, inexpensive software, the development of spatially explicit management objectives, the ease of transferability, and clearly stated assumptions about management that may be tested and reviewed through monitoring and public comment.     

DROUGHT INDICATED IN CARBON-13/CARBON-12 RATIOS OF SOUTHWESTERN TREE RINGS1

ABSTRACT: Stomatal closure during periods of moisture deficiency should theoretically lead to elevated ¹³C/¹²C ratios as reduction of available CO₂ leads to diminished photosynthetic discrimination against ¹³C in favor of ¹²C. Stable-carbon isotope ratio chronologies developed from 5-yr tree-ring groups at 17 sites in six southwestern states were tested for a drought relationship by first fitting a spline curve to each chronology to remove the long-term trend and calculating indices as the ratio of actual to spline curve value. The time series of “Del Indices” so developed are significantly correlated with 5-yr mean Palmer Hydrological Drought Indices (post-1930 period) and reconstructed July Palmer Drought Severity Indices from respective areas. Overall, in the period since 1790, the driest pentads were 1900–04 and 1960–64, whereas the wettest were 1980–84 and 1915–19. Maps of drought represented for two pentads seem to be reasonable representations, although spatial correlations of Del Indices with PHDI were generally not significant. These Del Index drought reconstructions may provide a useful measure of past physiological response to drought (stomatal closure), although the present cost of analysis would prevent this from being a routine method.     

Made in conflict. Local residents' construction of a local environmental problem

The aim of this paper is to understand how local residents participate in the construction of local environmental problems and to evaluate a particular analytical approach in environmental sociology to study this phenomenon. The paper is based on an interview study with a sample of local residents. The analysis demonstrates how the local residents attempt to construct a local environmental problem. In particular, the study focuses on how involved actors are positioned, how different sorts of knowledge claims are used, and how the neglect the residents perceive from the authorities affects the attempt to construct a local environmental problem. The study shows that the local residents play a central role in the construction of the situation and that the evaluated model could be very helpful as an analytical tool in the investigation of local residents' participation in the construction of environmental problems.     

中亚热带马尾松林凋落物分解过程中的微生物与酶活性动态

采用凋落物原位分解法,研究了中亚热带马尾松林中马尾松、槲栎凋落叶单独及混合(自然质量比8∶2)分解过程中的微生物数量与酶活性动态.结果表明:①3类凋落物的年分解常数K的大小为:混合凋落物(0.94)>槲栎凋落物(0.86)>马尾松凋落物(0.67);②3类凋落物真菌数量和微生物数量均在夏季(135 d时)达到最大值,而此时细菌和放线菌数量最低;③3类凋落物纤维素酶活性、酸性磷酸酶活性均与凋落物干重剩余率呈显著正相关(P<0.05),而马尾松与混合型凋落物中的多酚氧化酶活性同凋落物干重剩余率呈极显著负相关(P<0.01);④微生物数量和多酚氧化酶活性均总体表现为槲栎凋落物>混合凋落物>马尾松凋落物,酸性磷酸酶活性多表现为槲栎凋落物最低,与分解常数K排列有一定的差异,说明凋落物分解是微生物和多种酶共同作用的结果.整体研究表明,凋落物质量和季节气候的差异显著影响微生物群落及其调控的生态过程,与纯马尾松凋落叶相比,针阔混合使微生物数量和多酚氧化酶活性显著提高,这可能是导致分解加快的重要原因.     

Combining a generic process-based productivity model and a statistical classification method to predict the presence and absence of tree species in the Pacific Northwest,U.S.A.

Although long-lived tree species experience considerable environmental variation over their life spans, their geographical distributions reflect sensitivity mainly to mean monthly climatic conditions. We introduce an approach that incorporates a physiologically based growth model to illustrate how a half-dozen tree species differ in their responses to monthly variation in four climatic-related variables: water availability, deviations from an optimum temperature, atmospheric humidity deficits, and the frequency of frost. Rather than use climatic data directly to correlate with a species’ distribution, we assess the relative constraints of each of the four variables as they affect predicted monthly photosynthesis for Douglas-fir, the most widely distributed species in the region. We apply an automated regression-tree analysis to create a suite of rules, which differentially rank the relative importance of the four climatic modifiers for each species, and provide a basis for predicting a species’ presence or absence on 3737 uniformly distributed U.S. Forest Services’ Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) field survey plots. Results of this generalized rule-based approach were encouraging, with weighted accuracy, which combines the correct prediction of both presence and absence on FIA survey plots, averaging 87%. A wider sampling of climatic conditions throughout the full range of a species’ distribution should improve the basis for creating rules and the possibility of predicting future shifts in the geographic distribution of species.     

缙云山马尾松林和柑橘林土壤微生物PLFA沿海拔梯度的变化

土壤微生物群落是土壤生态系统的重要组成部分,对环境变化敏感.本文运用磷脂脂肪酸法(PLFA)研究缙云山马尾松林和柑橘林土壤微生物群落结构沿海拔梯度的变化特征.结果表明,从6个海拔土壤中共检测到48种PLFA,其中i16:0、10Me17:0、10Me18:0 TBSA在6个海拔中含量均最高,且柑橘林土壤PLFA种类和含量明显高于马尾松林.随着海拔升高马尾松林土壤微生物种类和含量逐渐增加,柑橘林则逐渐降低,各海拔间细菌、真菌、放线菌、革兰氏阴性菌(G~-)及革兰氏阳性菌(G~+)含量差异显著.土壤微生物群落多样性研究结果表明,马尾松林低海拔丰富度指数(R),多样性指数(H')、均匀度指数(J)均显著高于高海拔,而柑橘林R在低海拔最高,H'、J则在高海拔最高.不同海拔土壤细菌、放线菌、G~-及G~+与土壤酶和环境因子之间存在相关性,细菌、放线菌、G~-及G~+与脲酶(Ure)、转化酶(Ive)、过氧化氢酶(CAT)、林分类型均呈极显著正相关,真菌与Ure、Ive、CAT呈显著正相关;而细菌、真菌、放线菌、G~-及G~+与海拔呈极显著或显著负相关.Ure、Ive、CAT、林分及海拔是影响土壤微生物PLFA变化的重要因子.     

模拟氮沉降对重庆缙云山马尾松林土壤呼吸和酶活性的季节性影响

土壤酶参与土壤碳氮转化,同时土壤碳氮状况又是土壤酶活性的基础,而大气氮沉降通过影响土壤酶活性进而影响土壤CO_2释放.通过野外模拟试验,探讨不同氮沉降量对马尾松土壤呼吸和酶活性的影响,探索该区域马尾松土壤呼吸(Rs)与土壤温度(T)、土壤湿度(W)、Ure(脲酶)、Ive(转化酶)、CAT(过氧化氢酶)及ACP(酸性磷酸酶)的关系,为深入研究氮沉降对马尾松林森林生态系统的影响提供参考.2014年5月~2015年7月在缙云山马尾松林设置3个氮添加水平和一个无氮添加的对照处理:低氮[N_5,20 g·(m~2·a)~(-1)],中氮[N_(10),40 g·(m~2·a)~(-1)]、高氮[N_(15),60 g·(m~2·a)~(-1)]和对照[N0,0g·(m~2·a)~(-1)],每个处理量分4次,在每个季度开始各施1次,每个处理各9次重复,采用ACE(automated soil CO_2exchange station,UK)自动土壤呼吸监测系统分别对土壤呼吸、土壤温度和土壤湿度进行分析测定.结果表明:1土壤酶和土壤呼吸均具有明显的季节变化规律,各处理土壤呼吸均表现为夏季最高,其次是春季和秋季,最低为冬季,而各处理土壤酶活性则无一致的变化规律.2总体而言,氮沉降对土壤呼吸和酶活性均有抑制作用,且抑制程度随氮浓度增加而加强,但冬季氮沉降对马尾松林土壤呼吸有促进作用,春、夏、秋这3个季节氮沉降对Ure、Ive、CAT及ACP有抑制作用,而冬季氮沉降对4种土壤酶活性影响则存在差异.3逐步回归表明,无氮和低氮处理时,T、Ure和Ive对Rs的贡献较大,且随着T、Ure和Ive的增加,Rs也急剧增加;中氮处理时,T、Ure和CAT对Rs的贡献较大,Rs随着T、Ure和Ive的增加而增加;高氮处理时,Rs随着Ure的增加而降低,随着CAT和W的增加而增加.     

大气臭氧浓度增加对湿地松幼苗的影响

采用开顶式气室(open top chambers,OTCs)装置,研究O<,3>浓度增加(E-O<,3>约150 nL·L<'-1>)对湿地松幼苗的影响,包括伤害症状、植株生长、针叶光合色素含量、气体交换速率与叶绿素荧光、丙二醛(MDA)以及主要抗氧化剂含量变化.经过E-O<,3>处理一个生长季后(AOT40值为38...     

The use of ecological scales for indication of the current state of forest communities

A method for estimating the current state of plant communities based on the ecological amplitudes of constituent species is proposed. An original program, Fitoindikatsiya, has been developed to compute the indices of disturbance and homogeneity of plant communities from species ecological scale values. The current state of pine forests in the part of Novosibirsk oblast east of the Ob River has been analyzed; slightly, moderately, and severely disturbed zones have been distinguished.     

On the Formal and Informal Estimates of Floristic Diversity: An Example of Pine Forests of the Southern Urals

Advantages of the informal assessment of biodiversity based on the phytosociological spectrum (the ratio of species associated with different higher units of ecological-floristic classification in the cenoflora) are demonstrated in a study of pine forests of the Southern Urals (classes Vaccinio-Piceetea, Brachypodio-Betuletea, and Querco-Fagetea). The phytosociological spectrum reflects environmental conditions better than formal estimations of , , and -diversity.