RELATION BETWEEN FISH COMMUNITIES AND RIPARIAN ZONE CONDITIONS AT TWO SPATIAL SCALES1

ABSTRACT: The relation offish community composition to riparian cover at two spatial scales was compared at 18 streams in the agricultural Minnesota River Basin. The two spatial scales were: (1) local riparian zone (a 200 meter wide buffer extending 2 to 3 kilometers upstream of the sampling reach); and (2) the upstream riparian zone (a 200 m wide buffer on the mainstem and all perennial tributaries upstream of the sampling reach). Analysis of variance indicated that streams with wooded‐local riparian zones had greater fish species richness (means = 20 and 15, respectively) and Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) scores (means = 40 and 26, respectively) than streams with open‐local riparian zones. Streams with wooded‐upstream riparian zones tended (were not statistically significant) to have greater numbers of species (means = 19 and 15, respectively) and IBI scores (means = 33 and 28, respectively) than streams with open‐upstream riparian zones. There was no significant interaction between the riparian zone conditions at the two scales. This study suggests that maintenance of wooded riparian cover along streams could be effective in maintaining or improving fish community composition in streams draining heavily agricultural areas.     

A Long-Term Forecast Analysis On Worldwide Land Uses

Abstact More and more lands worldwide are being cultivated for food production while forests are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. This paper aims to make a long-term forecast on land uses worldwide and provide the publics, researchers, and government officials with a clear profile for land uses in the future. Data of land uses since 1961 were used to fit historical trajectories and make the forecast. The results show that trajectories of land areas can be well fitted with univariate linear regressions. The forecasts of land uses during the coming 25 years were given in detail.Areas of agricultural land, arable land, and permanent pasture land worldwide would increase by 6.6%, 7.2%, and 6.3% respectively in the year 2030 as compared to the current areas. Permanent crops land area all over the world is forecasted to increase 0.64% by 2030. By the year 2030 the areas of forests and woodland, nonarable and nonpermanent land worldwide would decrease by 2.4% and 0.9% against the current areas. All other land area in the world would dramatically decline by 6.4% by the year 2030.Overall the land area related to agriculture would tend to decrease in developed countries, industrialized countries, Europe, and North and Central America. The agriculture related land area would considerably increase in developing countries, least developed countries, low-income countries, Asia, Africa, South America, etc.Developing countries hold larger total land area than developed countries. Dramatic and continuous growth in agricultural land area of developing countries would largely contribute to the expected growth of world agricultural land area in the coming years. Population explosion, food shortage and poverty in the world, especially in developing countries, together caused the excessive cultivation of land for agricultural uses in the past years. Increasing agricultural land area exacerbates the climate changes and degradation of environment. How to limit the growth of human population is a key problem for reducing agricultural land expansion. Development and use of high-yielding and high-quality crop and animal varieties, diversification of human food sources, and technical and financial assistance to developing countries from developed countries, should also be implemented and strengthened in the future in order to slow down or even reverse the increase trend of agricultural land area. Sustainable agriculture is the effective way to stabilize the agricultural land area without food shortage. Through various techniques and measures, sustainable agriculture may meet the food production goals with minimum environmental risk. Public awareness and interest in sustainable agriculture will help realize and ease the increasing stress from agricultural land expansion.     

基于信息扩散理论的福建省农业水灾风险评估

利用1978—2008年福建省农业水灾受灾和成灾面积数据,以灾情(受灾和成灾)指数反映水灾的影响范围,以成受比(成灾与受灾指数的比值)指数反映水灾影响强度,基于正态信息扩散计算方法对农业水灾进行风险评估,利用发生频次法对评估结果进行检验。结果表明:农业受水灾影响的风险概率随风险指数提高而下降;在相同风险指数下,成受比风险概率>受灾风险概率>成灾风险概率;受灾、 成灾、 成受比的平均风险概率分别为0.448 7、 0.480 0、 0.651 6,水灾对福建农业的影响比较频繁,影响范围和强度比较严重。风险评估结果与实际情况基本相符。     

Conservation agriculture and climate resilience

Agricultural productivity growth is vital for economic and food security outcomes which are threatened by climate change. In response, governments and development agencies are encouraging the adoption of ‘climate-smart’ agricultural technologies, such as conservation agriculture (CA). However, there is little rigorous evidence that demonstrates the effect of CA on production or climate resilience, and what evidence exists is hampered by selection bias. Using panel data from Zimbabwe, we test how CA performs during extreme rainfall events - both shortfalls and surpluses. We control for the endogenous adoption decision and find that use of CA in years of average rainfall results in no yield gains, and in some cases yield loses. However, CA is effective in mitigating the negative impacts of deviations in rainfall. We conclude that the lower yields during normal rainfall seasons may be a proximate factor in low uptake of CA. Policy should focus promotion of CA on these climate resilience benefits.     

Localising the global food system

Agricultural systems have become increasingly industrialized and mechanized, relying on machinery and chemical inputs, rather than people and natural processes, to increase yields of food. The trend towards an increasingly globalised food system encourages unsustainable transportation of food around the world. Agricultural intensification and the globalisation of the agrofood chain has resulted in adverse environmental, social and economic consequences impeding moves towards sustainability. Organic farming can overcome many of the environmental problems associated with agricultural intensification. However, it does not have the potential to fully address the social and economic problems caused by the globalisation of the food system. Organic farming must be combined with local and regional sourcing of food products, for instance through forms of direct marketing of organic produce. Direct marketing schemes such as farmers' markets, food box delivery schemes and community-supported agriculture are all projects which, if managed with sustainability as the prime objective, have the potential to move towards a more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable agrofood system.     

当前我国农业发展中存在的深层次问题及对策

农业现代化是保障国家粮食安全、农民持续增收、缩小城乡发展差距的重要举措之一。文章结合我国农业发展的现状,分析了当前农业发展中暴露出的一些深层次的问题,如土地流转不规范、耕地污染日益突显、盐碱地增产潜力不够、种子创新能力较弱、农业科技投入较少、农业发展理念有待革新等,并针对性地提出了相应的对策建议,为进一步推动我国农业转型发展和提高农村社会生产力提供决策依据。     

福建省农业源甲烷排放估算及其特征分析

农业领域的稻田和畜禽养殖是温室气体甲烷（CH4）的重要排放源,估算省级农业源甲烷的排放量,并分析其排放特征,对进一步提出符合福建省实际情况、在技术经济上可行的减排措施有重要意义。本研究基于福建省农业活动水平数据,根据IPCC国家温室气体排放清单编制指南,估算了1991-2010年福建省农业源CH4排放量。结果表明：（1）1991-1995、1996-2000、2001-2005、2006-2010年间福建省农业源CH4年平均排放量分别为46.50×104、44.38×104、37.87×104、33.12×104 t,呈降低趋势。其中,稻田CH4排放的贡献较大,4个时期年平均排放量分别为31.11×104、29.49×104、22.16×104、18.80×104 t,占全省农业源CH4排放总量的56.76%~66.90%;而反刍动物肠道发酵和畜禽粪便管理的CH4排放量在20年间的变化不明显,分别为6.27×104~10.31×104 t和4.95×104~7.20×104 t。（2）2010年,福建省农业源CH4排放高值区主要分布在龙岩市、南平市和三明市,占全省农业源CH4排放总量的51%;稻田CH4排放的高值区主要分布在南平市、三明市和龙岩市,占全省稻田CH4排放总量的56%,应优先考虑削减这些地区的稻田CH4排放;畜禽CH4排放的高值区主要分布在龙岩市、漳州市和泉州市,占全省畜禽CH4排放总量的52%,应优先考虑削减这些地区的畜禽CH4排放。近20年福建省农业源CH4排放量呈下降趋势,主要是由于水稻播种面积的逐年减少,未来农业源 CH4排放下降速度可能会放慢,因此控制水稻 CH4排放的重点应放在灌溉管理、施肥管理、稻谷品种选择等方面;而控制畜禽 CH4排放的关键是优化畜牧业结构,大力推进规模养殖,使畜禽品种、饲养技术和畜禽排泄物处理设施得到改进,提升单位畜禽饲养量的畜产品产出量,进而减少温室气体排放。研究结果可为决策者有针对性地制定福建农业CH4排放控制政策和对策措施,降低农业源CH4排放量提供基础资料。     

Resource- and eco-effectiveness as a new paradigm of development to prevent resource depletion and environmental imbalance

SUMMARY

The increase in the number of golf courses around the world has been phenomenal, particularly since the 1990s where an estimated 350 new courses were added annually to the more than 25 000 existing ones. In terms of recreational sports spaces, golf arguably uses the greatest amount of land. Using the case study of Singapore, it is argued that the continual expansion of golf courses runs counter to the broad ideal of urban sustainability. The arguments that support golf course expansion viz. reducing the issue to a matter of supply and demand and extolling golfs economic benefits pay scant attention to principles of equity and sustainability. Although existing green spaces risk being converted into golf courses, golf course maintenance itself can be ecologically benign. However, the elitist nature of golf in Singapore ultimately imposes greater and unnecessary demands on resources in general. Given Singapore's land scarcity, golf course expansion is opposed not so much because of its ecological impacts but because of how it compromises spatial equity.     

Agricultural production and sustainable development in a Brazilian region (Southwest,São Paulo State): motivations and barriers to adopting sustainable and ecologically friendly practices

The objective of this study is to identify the adoption level of practices associated with more sustainable agriculture and environmentally friendly practices. Additionally, the motivations for and barriers to the adoption of these practices by farmers are investigated. Data were collected through closed questionnaires taken by a random sample of farmers in the Southwest, São Paulo, Brazil, during the second half of 2013. Overall, sustainable agricultural practices recommended in the literature and analysed in this study are being not fully adopted by farmers of the studied area. The results showed that financial motivation is associated with farmers adopting new, more sustainable technology, whereas the lack of information on and lack of technical support for these technologies are significant barriers. Other results, research implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are presented.     

陕西省发展低碳农业的路径选择

陕西是我国西部地区文化、科技的强省。虽然能源资源相对丰富,但是生态环境脆弱。农业经济发展受地理环境和发展理念的制约,发展水平较之东部发达地区存在很大的差距。低碳农业随着低碳经济的发展应运而生,发展低碳农业不仅是统筹城乡发展、实现社会循环经济发展一体化的切入点,而且是保护生态环境"双赢"的重要途径,同时也是转变陕西农业发展方式的必然选择。试析在建设陕西新农村背景下如何选择符合陕西省低碳农业发展的新模式和如何选择促进陕西区域经济又好又快发展的有效对策。