Quantifying Plant Population Persistence in Human-Dominated Landscapes

Abstract:  We assessed population performance of rare plants across a gradient from rural to urban landscapes and evaluated 2 hypotheses central to strategic conservation planning: (1) population performance declines with increasing human dominance and (2) small populations perform poorly relative to larger ones. Assessing these hypotheses is critical to strategic conservation planning. The current conservation paradigm adheres to the well-established ecology theory that small isolated populations, particularly those in human-dominated landscapes, are the least likely to succeed over the long term. Consequently, conservation planning has strongly favored large, remote targets for protection. This shift in conservation toward ecosystem-based programs and protection of populations within large, remote systems has been at the expense of protection of the rarest of the rare species, the dominant paradigm for conservation driven by the endangered species act. Yet, avoiding conservation of small populations appears to be based more on theoretical understanding and expert opinion than empiricism. We used Natural Heritage data from California in an assessment of population performance of rare plants across a landscape with an urban-rural gradient. Population performance did not decrease in urban settings or for populations that were initially small. Our results are consistent with a pattern of few species extinctions within these landscapes over the past several decades. We conclude that these populations within compromised landscapes can contribute to overall biodiversity conservation. We further argue that conservation planning for biodiversity preservation should allocate relatively more resources to protecting urban-associated plant taxa because they may provide conservation benefit beyond simply protecting isolated populations; they may be useful in building social interest in conservation.     

Odour transfer in stingless bee marmelada (Frieseomelitta varia) demonstrates that entrance guards use an “undesirable–absent” recognition system

In group-level recognition, discriminators use sensory information to distinguish group members and non-members. For example, entrance guards in eusocial insect colonies discriminate nestmates from intruders by comparing their odour with a template of the colony odour. Despite being a species-rich group of eusocial bees closely related to the honey bees, stingless bee nestmate recognition is a relatively little-studied area. We studied Frieseomelitta varia, a common Brazilian species of stingless bee known as marmelada. By measuring the rejection rates of nestmate and non-nestmate worker bees by guards, we were able to show that guards became significantly less accepting (from 91 to 46%) of nestmates that had acquired odour cues from non-nestmate workers; however, guards did not become significantly more accepting (from 31 to 42%) of non-nestmates that had acquired equivalent amounts of odour cues from the guard’s nestmates. These data strongly suggest that guards use an “undesirable–absent” system in recognition, whereby incoming conspecific workers are only accepted if undesirable cues are absent, despite the presence of desirable cues. We suggest that an undesirable–absent system is adaptive because robbing by conspecifics may be an important selective factor in F. varia, which would lead to selection for a non-permissive acceptance strategy by guards.     

深圳河水污染控制对策探讨

针对深圳河水污染已非常严重、水质达不到地表水Ⅴ类标准的状况,从技术的角度,在分析了深圳河水污染机理的基础上,借鉴国内外成功的河流治理经验,结合深圳河流的特征,对深圳河水污染控制对策进行了初步探讨.结果表明,在对深圳河流域进行全面截污、清淤、补水、支流设闸调蓄等措施后,深圳河水质将得到改善,可满足城市景观用水的要求.      

解决城市污水处理设施发展资金缺口战略

为解决城市污水处理设施建设和运营存在着严重的资金缺口的问题,运用FEASIBLE模型,选择四川省14个位于三峡库区影响地带的市/县,对其污水处理设施建设和运营的资金缺口进行模拟计算和预测.基于模拟结果提出3种不同的融资战略:纳税人付费融资战略、使用者付费融资战略和市场导向融资战略,并对其可行性进行分析.结果表明:任何一种融资战略实施起来都有难度,纳税人付费融资战略并不能确保实现城市污水处理设施的发展目标;而使用者付费融资战略和市场导向融资战略的可行性严重依赖于城市污水处理设施部门的制度和法律的改革及地方政府融资.      

涠洲岛珊瑚礁分布特征与环境保护的初步研究

根据历年来对涠洲岛珊瑚礁所观测的资料,初步研究了该岛珊瑚的种群结构及其分布特征,以及珊瑚礁的形成及发育过程,并提出了涠洲岛珊瑚的保护措施.      

Europe’s energy deficit: a population dilemma

Europe’s growing energy deficit and destabilising climate may lead the EU and its constituent member states to change its attitude to population size and growth.     

广西百色市发展红色旅游的思考

随着"红色旅游"在中国旅游业的异军突起,广西百色市作为一个有着丰富红色旅游资源的革命老区,凭借自有优势,逐渐成为中国南疆红色旅游的一颗耀眼"红星"。分析了百色市近几年来红色旅游的发展现状,并借此探讨了该市红色旅游发展中存在的问题及其解决方法,促使百色市的红色旅游得以更加完善的发展。     

浙东四明山红色旅游目的地的开发与建设

通过四明山红色旅游目的地开发建设的优势、机遇及劣势与挑战的分析,提出了开发与建设四明山红色旅游目的地的六大策略,即政府主导与市场运作相结合的开发策略、社会效益和经济效益兼顾的开发策略、红色旅游目的地品牌策略、"红绿结合"的开发策略、区域合作策略、基于和谐旅游发展的开发策略。     

生态恢复过程中的种群遗传学考虑

生态恢复是生态科学的最终实验,从种群角度看,恢复的目标是使种群（尤其是优势种或建群种）到具有生长、繁殖和适应进化变化的能力。要达到这个目标,种群遗传学知识必不可少。遗传变异是物种适应变化环境的基础,而局部适应则是种群适应局部环境遗传分化的结果,它们在生态恢复中起着重要的作用。分析了生态恢复过程中影响种群遗传变异因素,主要有取样误差和小种群效应（主要是瓶颈或建立者事件及其以后的近交和漂变等）,在进行     

Gradient analysis of the chrogenetic structure of lowland and highland scotch pine populations

Gradients of genetic distances (GGDs) between 26 adjacent cenopopulations of Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) along the transects through the distinct landscape-ecotopic isolation borders were analyzed graphically. The results made it possible to reveal and quantitatively estimate gradients and borders of gene-pool structural patterns in populations of this species in the central part of Northern Eurasia. In lowland areas, the most distinct borders were found between pine populations growing on dry lands and bogs (Pineta sphagnosa) in the forest zone of the Transural region, as well as between the Arakaragaiskii and Amankaragaiskii island pine forests in the steppe zone (Northern Turgai). In highland areas (the Urals and the Carpathians), the greatest GGDs were observed between low-mountain (about 600 m above sea level) and middle-mountain (850–900 m) populations. Analysis of GGDs is a promising gene-geographic method for determining population borders and studying the chorogenetic structure of species.