Ethical considerations when conservation research involves people

Social science is becoming increasingly important in conservation, with more studies involving methodologies that collect data from and about people. Conservation science is a normative and applied discipline designed to support and inform management and practice. Poor research practice risks harming participants and, researchers, and can leave negative legacies. Often, those at the forefront of field-based research are early-career researchers, many of whom enter their first research experience ill-prepared for the ethical conundrums they may face. We draw on our own experiences as early-career researchers to illuminate how ethical challenges arise during conservation research that involves human participants. Specifically, we considered ethical review procedures, conflicts of values, and power relations, and devised broad recommendations on how to navigate ethical challenges when they arise during research. In particular, we recommend researchers apply reflexivity (i.e., thinking that allows researchers to recognize the effect researchers have on the research) to help navigate ethical challenges and encourage greater engagement with ethical review processes and the development of ethical guidelines for conservation research that involves human participants. Such guidelines must be accompanied by the integration of rigorous ethical training into conservation education. We believe our experiences are not uncommon and can be avoided and hope to spark discussion to contribute to a more socially just conservation.     

四川省土地承载力研究的系统动力学仿真模型

本文利用系统动力学理论,建立了四川省土地承载能力的动态仿真模型,模型中包括土地利用、人口、种植业、畜牧业、渔业等子系统,文中阐述了土地承载力模型的建立过程和方法,模拟了四川未来45年土地承载力系统的动态变化轨迹,提出了两种方案,并对其仿真结果进行了分析。     

Economic and Ecological Consequences of the Disappearance of Traditional Practices Related to Chestnut Groves

Based on an interdisciplinary study of nine localities, the authors analyse the role of human and local factors involved in the disappearance of chestnut groves. This analysis enables us to understand the significant elements involved, causes, restricting factors, potentialities which explain today's situation, and to hypothesise upon the evolution of the chestnut groves and the Southern Cevennes in the years to come. These hypotheses emphasise the necessary changes in attitudes and the extra research required to lead a positive future action in order to manage this territory in a rational way.     

Emission Inventories of Carbon-containing Greenhouse Gases in China and Technological Measures for Their Abatement

The report summarizes surveys on carbon inventories and initiatives on sustainable carbon cycling taken by the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, where the authors work/worked. The first part of the report, which appeared in the preceding issue of this journal, deals with the concept of sustainable carbon cycling, the historic evolution of carbon cycling processes in China, carbon pool enhancement, value addition, carbon sequestration and carbon balance. This very paper, as the second part of the report, covers the results of carbon dynamics modeling, emission inventories of various carbon-containing greenhouse gases and their potential abatement measures.     

Forest Monitoring in Urbanized Areas

Long-term stationary investigations in permanent plots have been performed in forests of different types growing in Greater Moscow. Their results have made it possible to reveal the trends essential to the dynamics of these forests and make a prognosis of their condition in the near future. Moreover, they suggest that it is necessary to review some long-standing concepts concerning the processes of forest formation, relationships between the main forest species, etc.     

Stability of Isolated Populations of Terrestrial Mammals Inhabiting the Islands of the Peter the Great Bay,Sea of Japan

A comparative analysis of the dynamics of insular populations of terrestrial animals was performed. The stability of insular populations and the relationship between their viability and the type of dynamics are discussed.     

Field-scale modelling of carbon and nitrogen dynamics in soils amended with urban waste composts

Composting has emerged as a valuable route for the disposal of urban waste, with the prospect of applying composts on arable fields as organic amendments. Proper management of urban waste composts (UWC) requires a capacity to predict their impacts on carbon and nitrogen dynamics in the field, an issue in which simulation models are expected to play a prominent role.Here, we used a deterministic soil-crop model to simulate C–N dynamics in an arable field amended with three types of UWC (green waste and sludge, biodegradable waste, and solid waste), and a reference amendment (farmyard manure). The model is a version of CERES in which the soil C–N module was substituted with the NCSOIL model, whose microbiological parameters were determined from either laboratory incubation data or biochemical fractionation in a previous paper. CERES was tested against data from a field trial set up in 1998 in the Paris area, and managed as a maize (Zea mays L.)–wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) rotation. Comparison of observed and simulated data over the first 4 years of the field trial showed that CERES predicted the soil moisture and inorganic N dynamics reasonably well, as well as the variations in soil organic C. In particular, the parameterization of UWC organic matter from biochemical fractions achieved a similar fit as the parameterization based on incubation data. Wheat yields were also correctly predicted, but a systematic under-estimation of maize yields pointed at an under-estimation of spring and summer mineralization of N by CERES.Simulated N fluxes showed that the organic amendments induced an additional leaching ranging from 1 to 8 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, which can be related to the initial mineral N content of the amendments. After 4 years, the composts had mineralized 3–8% of their initial organic N content, depending on their stability. Composts with slower N release had higher N availability for the crops. CERES could thus be used to aid in selecting the timing of compost application, in relation to its stability, based on both environmental and agronomical criteria.     

Population dynamics of Piscicola geometra (Hirudinea: Rhynchobdellida) on Oreochromis niloticus (Cichlidae) cultured in a rainforest fish pond,south eastern Nigeria

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Community richness and stability in agricultural landscapes: The importance of surrounding habitats

In this paper, the role played by habitat diversity in the landscape on species richness and on the stability of farmland bird communities was investigated. Species richness was estimated on 374 samples monitored in farmland by the French breeding bird survey during the 2001–2005 period. A capture–recapture approach was used to estimate species richness accounting for the variation in detection probability among species of the 100 most common species detected in farmland. Landscape structure and composition were measured both in farmland and in adjacent habitats. The independent effect of each variable on community richness and stability was further assessed using hierarchical variance partitioning and taking spatial autocorrelation into account. A strong matrix effect was detected: non-cropped land deeply influenced richness and stability of bird assemblages.     

增温快速测定BOD的动力学研究

应用ＢＯＤ反应动力学原理，从理论上建立了ＢＯＤ测定培养时间ｔ（ｄ）随培养温度Ｔ（℃）变化的数学模型，并导出通用增温培养时间，用通用增温培养时间２７℃下３天和３２℃下２天测得ＢＯＤ与标准法ＢＯＤ相一致，两者回归分析相关系数均大于０．９９９。