Understanding implications of consumer behavior for wildlife farming and sustainable wildlife trade

Unsustainable wildlife trade affects biodiversity and the livelihoods of communities dependent upon those resources. Wildlife farming has been proposed to promote sustainable trade, but characterizing markets and understanding consumer behavior remain neglected but essential steps in the design and evaluation of such operations. We used sea turtle trade in the Cayman Islands, where turtles have been farm raised for human consumption for almost 50 years, as a case study to explore consumer preferences toward wild‐sourced (illegal) and farmed (legal) products and potential conservation implications. Combining methods innovatively (including indirect questioning and choice experiments), we conducted a nationwide trade assessment through in‐person interviews from September to December 2014. Households were randomly selected using disproportionate stratified sampling, and responses were weighted based on district population size. We approached 597 individuals, of which 37 (6.2%) refused to participate. Although 30% of households had consumed turtle in the previous 12 months, the purchase and consumption of wild products was rare (e.g., 64–742 resident households consumed wild turtle meat [i.e., 0.3–3.5% of households] but represented a large threat to wild turtles in the area due to their reduced populations). Differences among groups of consumers were marked, as identified through choice experiments, and price and source of product played important roles in their decisions. Despite the long‐term practice of farming turtles, 13.5% of consumers showed a strong preference for wild products, which demonstrates the limitations of wildlife farming as a single tool for sustainable wildlife trade. By using a combination of indirect questioning, choice experiments, and sales data to investigate demand for wildlife products, we obtained insights about consumer behavior that can be used to develop conservation‐demand‐focused initiatives. Lack of data from long‐term social–ecological assessments hinders the evaluation of and learning from wildlife farming. This information is key to understanding under which conditions different interventions (e.g., bans, wildlife farming, social marketing) are likely to succeed.     

Phosphate recovery with granular acid-activated neutralized red mud: Fixed-bed column performance and breakthrough curve modelling

Granular acid-activated neutralized red mud (AaN-RM) has been successfully prepared with good chemical stability and physical strength. However, its potential for industrial application remains unknown. Therefore, the performance of granular AaN-RM for phosphate recovery in a fixed-bed column was investigated. The results demonstrated that the phosphate adsorption performance of granular AaN-RM in a fixed-bed column was affected by various operational parameters, such as the bed depth, flow rate, initial solution pH and initial phosphate concentration. With the optimal empty-bed contact time (EBCT) of 24.27 min, the number of processed bed volumes and the phosphate adsorption capacity reached 496.95 and 84.80 mg/g, respectively. Then, the saturated fixed-bed column could be effectively regenerated with a 0.5 mol/L HCl solution. The desorption efficiency remained as high as 83.45% with a low weight loss of 3.57% in the fifth regeneration cycle. In addition, breakthrough curve modelling showed that a 5-9-1 feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) could be effectively applied for the optimization of the fixed-bed adsorption system; the coefficient of determination (R²) and the root mean square error (RMSE) evaluated on the validation-testing data were 0.9987 and 0.0183, respectively. Therefore, granular AaN-RM fixed-bed adsorption exhibits promising potential for phosphate removal and recovery from polluted water.     

Bioindicator organisms: Heavy metal pollution evaluation in the Ionian Sea (Mediterranean Sea—Italy)

Trace metal concentrations of mercury, cadmium, lead and chromium in Patella caerulea, and Mullus barbatus were investigated to provide information on pollution of Ionian Sea, since these metals have the highest toxic potential. High chromium levels (0.47–0.97 g g^–1 ww) were registered in limpet samples collected from two station near the Gulf of Taranto, while elevated concentration of mercury (0.31–1.50 g g^–1 ww) were found in mullet specimens from Sicily. The metal concentrations recorded at the clean stations may be considered as useful background levels to which to refer for comparison within the Mediterranean area. On the contrary, the high levels of chromium and mercury found respectively in the areas near the Gulf of Taranto and at Capo Passero being of concern in terms of environmental health need frequent monitoring.     

CODMn重新稀释取样体积的推定

对原CODMn法测地表水二次取样体积进行了推导，建立了实际适用取样体积公式，具有一定的适用性。     

Effects of acid deposition on forests in south China

１ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＷｉｔｈｔｈｅｆａｓｔｇｒｏｗｉｎｇｏｆｍｏｄｅｒｎｉｎｄｕｓｔｒｙａｎｄｓｈａｒｐｌｙｉｎｃｒｅａｓｉｎｇｏｆｅｎｅｒｇｙｃｏｎｓｕｍｐｔｉｏｎｐｒｉｍａｒｉｌｙｃｏａｌ，ａｉｒｐｏｌｕｔｉｏｎａｎｄａｃｉｄｄｅｐｏｓｉｔ...     

陆架浅海沉积物-海水界面溶质通量的计算方法及其应用

陆架浅海沉积物—海水界面上的溶解态生源物质通量的准确估算是海洋生态系统动力学研究中的关键性问题之一。由于底栖生物活动以及海流、海浪及潮波与海底地形地物相互作用的影响 ,使得该通量的准确估算十分困难。本文综合分析讨论了近年来提出的各种计算该类通量的物理模型及参数的确定方法 ,并结合在中国黄、东海等陆架浅海水层—底栖生态动力学耦合模型研究的需要 ,比较深入地讨论了应用过程中应该考虑的几个问题     

辽东湾海冰晶体结构及其内部叶绿素的初步研究

本文介绍了１９９６年冬季首次辽东湾生态环境调查中的海洋背景条件。扼要地阐述了辽东湾海冰一般概况，分析辽东湾冰样晶体结构、存储条件及其与冰内和冰下海水叶绿素之间的关系。辽东湾冰内叶绿素符合其它结冰海区的一般规律。根据辽东湾冰层底部实测盐度变化规律阐明海冰对冰下海水营养盐的贡献。最后对深入开展结冰海区生态环境调查工作的技术、侧重点和意义做了讨论。     

探讨影响赤潮的物理因子及其预报

通过多年对广东沿海港湾赤潮发生机理的探讨 ,归纳出引发赤潮的主要物理因子 ,并深入研究潮汐变化与赤潮形成的关系。作者认为在沿海一些半封闭的海湾 ,在月赤纬偏小期间发生大潮易引发赤潮。大亚湾澳头水域 4～ 5月份大潮后多呈现不正规全日潮 ,易出现赤潮生物高峰期 ,较明显的赤潮从发生至消退的全过程往往跨越一个潮水期。根据实践经验总结 ,作者提出利用潮汐变化规律对大亚湾澳头水域 2 0 0 1年 5月份可能出现的赤潮初始阶段作尝试性预测 ,并在赤潮初始阶段通过对水域的浮游生物优势种和当地天气的变化趋势加强观测、研究 ,希望能对赤潮暴发作出较准确的预报。     

广西近岸海域海水和沉积物及生物体中的重金属

以1998年广西近岸海域环境综合调查的资料，分析了广西近岸海域海水、表层沉积物及海洋生物体中重金属的含量分布，表层沉积物中重金属与有机质含量之间的相关关系，海洋生物对重金属的富集情况。结果表明，广西近岸海域海水中的Pb和表层沉积物中的Cu、Pb和As及生物体中的Cd含量部分超标。     

青岛地区大气气溶胶海洋因子贡献研究

本文对青岛地区大气气溶胶海洋因子的贡献进行了分析研究，得出以下结构：（１）复季受海洋影响要比冬季明显得多；（２）就质量浓度而言，ＩＰ（ｉｎｈａｌａｂｌｅ ｐａｒｔｉｃｌｅ）中的海盐源要高于ＴＳＰ（ｔｏｔａｌ ｓｕｓｐｅｎｄｅｄ ｐａｒｔｉｃｕｌａｔｅｓ）；（３）海洋影响的程度和离海边的距离有关。离海逾远，受海洋影响就逾小；离海连逾近，受其影响就逾大；（４）ＩＰ冬季海盐源为２％－４％，夏季为１０％－