Increasing collaboration between China and India in the environmental sciences to foster global sustainability

As the two largest countries by population, China and India have pervasive effects on the ecosphere. Because of their human population size and long international boundary, they share biodiversity and the threats to it, as well as crops, pests and diseases. We ranked the two countries on a variety of environmental challenges and solutions, illustrating quantitatively their environmental footprint and the parallels between them regarding the threats to their human populations and biodiversity. Yet we show that China and India continue to have few co-authorships in environmental publications, even as their major funding for scientific research has expanded. An agenda for collaboration between China and India can start with the shared Himalaya, linking the countries’ scientists and institutions. A broader agenda can then be framed around environmental challenges that have regional patterns. Coordinated and collaborative research has the potential to improve the two countries’ environmental performance, with implications for global sustainability.     

Modeling the dynamic habitat and breeding population of Southwestern Willow Flycatcher

To aid in the management and conservation of Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus, hereafter “Flycatcher”), we developed numerous models of flycatcher breeding habitat at Roosevelt Lake, AZ. For model development and testing, we compiled 10 years of flycatcher territory data that were obtained from intensive fieldwork between 1996 and 2005. We identified riparian vegetation annually in the project area from Landsat Thematic Mapper images, and extracted floodplain features from a digital elevation model. We created a novel class of temporal (i.e., multiyear) variables by characterizing the stability and variability in breeding habitat over a 6-year time interval. We used logistic regression to determine associations between environmental variables and flycatcher territory occurrence, and to test specific hypotheses. We mapped the probability of territory occurrence with a GIS and determined model accuracies with a classification table and a 10-year population database. Environmental features that were associated with breeding flycatchers included floodplain size, proximity to water, and the density, heterogeneity, age and stability of riparian vegetation. Our best model explained 79% of the variability in the flycatcher breeding population at Roosevelt Lake. The majority of predicted flycatcher habitat formed between 1996 and 2004 on an exposed lakebed ～3 years after water levels receded during a prolonged drought. A high correlation between annual reservoir levels and predicted breeding habitat (r = ?0.82) indicates that we can create and manage habitat for conservation purposes. Our predictive models quantify and assess the relative quality of flycatcher breeding habitat remotely, and can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of habitat restoration activities. Numerous techniques we developed can be used to characterize riparian vegetation and patch dynamics directly off of satellite imagery, thereby increasing its utility for conservation purposes.     

Open-path tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy for acquisition of fugitive emission flux data

Air pollutant emission from unconfined sources is an increasingly important environmental issue. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a ground-based optical remote-sensing method that enables direct measurement of fugitive emission flux from large area sources. Open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR) has been the primary technique for acquisition of pollutant concentration data used in this emission measurement method. For a number of environmentally important compounds, such as ammonia and methane, open-path tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (OP-TDLAS) is shown to be a viable alternative to Fourier transform spectroscopy for pollutant concentration measurements. Near-IR diode laser spectroscopy systems offer significant operational and cost advantages over Fourier transform instruments enabling more efficient implementation of the measurement strategy. This article reviews the EPA's fugitive emission measurement method and describes its multipath tunable diode laser instrument. Validation testing of the system is discussed. OP-TDLAS versus OP-FTIR correlation testing results for ammonia (R2 = 0.980) and methane (R2 = 0.991) are reported. Two example applications of tunable diode laser-based fugitive emission measurements are presented.     

城市污水污泥对环境的污染及其防治

本文论述了城市污水污泥对水源和土壤的污染,并对其污泥特性作了分析,指出在我国的现有条件下污泥的处置主要为农业上的利用.     

The innate responses of bumble bees to flower patterns: separating the nectar guide from the nectary changes bee movements and search time

Nectar guides can enhance pollinator efficiency and plant fitness by allowing pollinators to more rapidly find and remember the location of floral nectar. We tested if a radiating nectar guide around a nectary would enhance the ability of naïve bumble bee foragers to find nectar. Most experiments that test nectar guide efficacy, specifically radiating linear guides, have used guides positioned around the center of a radially symmetric flower, where nectaries are often found. However, the flower center may be intrinsically attractive. We therefore used an off-center guide and nectary and compared “conjunct” feeders with a nectar guide surrounding the nectary to “disjunct” feeders with a nectar guide separated from the nectary. We focused on the innate response of novice bee foragers that had never previously visited such feeders. We hypothesized that a disjunct nectar guide would conflict with the visual information provided by the nectary and negatively affect foraging. Approximately, equal numbers of bumble bees (Bombus impatiens) found nectar on both feeder types. On disjunct feeders, however, unsuccessful foragers spent significantly more time (on average 1.6-fold longer) searching for nectar than any other forager group. Successful foragers on disjunct feeders approached these feeders from random directions unlike successful foragers on conjunct feeders, which preferentially approached the combined nectary and nectar guide. Thus, the nectary and a surrounding nectar guide can be considered a combination of two signals that attract naïve foragers even when not in the floral center.     

A VIABLE METHODOLOGY TO IMPLEMENT THE PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS1

ABSTRACT: The “principles and standards for planning water and related land resources” were made effective October 25, 1973. The document was noticeably deficient in suggestions for the necessary implementing procedures to ensure its success. Current implementing procedures are based on an incorrect premise of maximizing a single objective subject to non-quantified constraints. A successful implementation of multiple objective planning requires optimizing simultaneously several competitive goals. A system of goal programming has been developed and applied to decisionmaking situations as a test of its usefulness in planning for multiple objective water resources projects. The result is a project planning process which can be replicated for adjustments in expected resource supplies or demands to provide a tradeoff matrix between economic and environmental objectives as well as traditional functional purposes. This procedure, tested on the Cross Florida Barge Canal, is an integrated analysis of economic and environmental values which may be as effective in implementing multiple objective planning as the “Green Book” was in developing the now inappropriate benefit cost analysis.     

唐山市工业区大气污染对小学生肺功能的影响

探讨了工业区大气污染对小学生肺功能的影响。在唐山市工业区和相对清洁区选取452名小学生为研究对象,进行肺功能的测定和问卷调查。用多元回归分析建立模型后,以实测值占预计值的百分比为统计量进行分析。调查结果显示小学生肺功能指标中MVV、V25污染区低于对照区,VC、FEV、V25、V50的异常率高于对照区,且与大气中SO2的浓度有关。     

Strictly protected areas are not necessarily more effective than areas in which multiple human uses are permitted

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies protected areas into six categories, ranging from strict nature reserves to areas where multiple human uses are permitted. In the past, many researchers have questioned the effectiveness of multiple-use areas, fueling an unresolved debate regarding their conservation value. The literature so far has been inconclusive: although several studies have found that strictly protected areas are more effective, others have found the opposite, and yet others that the two types do not differ. To help resolve this debate, we reviewed the literature on protected areas and conducted our own analysis using > 19 000 terrestrial protected areas worldwide. We found that the differences between strictly protected areas and areas in which multiple human uses are permitted are often small and not statistically significant. Although the effectiveness of protected areas worldwide varies, other factors, besides their assigned IUCN category, are likely to be driving this pattern.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01426-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

An agent based model to simulate structural and land use changes in agricultural systems of the argentine pampas

The Argentine Pampas, one of the main agricultural areas in the world, recently has undergone significant changes in land use and structural characteristics of agricultural production systems. Concerns about the environmental and societal impacts of the changes motivated development of an agent-based model (ABM) to gain insight on processes underlying recent observed patterns. The model is described following a standard protocol (ODD). Results are discussed for an initial set of simplified simulations performed to understand the processes that generated and magnified the changes in the Pampas. Changes in the structure of agricultural production and land tenure seem to be driven by differences among farmers’ ability to generate sufficient agricultural income to remain in business. In turn, as no off-farm or credit is modeled, economic sustainability is tied to initial resource endowment (area cropped). Farmers operating small areas are economically unviable and must lease out their farms to farmers operating larger areas. This leads to two patterns: (a) a concentration of production (fewer farmers operating larger areas) and, (b) an increase in the area operated by tenants. The simulations showed an increase of soybean area, linked to the higher profitability of this crop. Despite the stylized nature of initial simulations, all emerging patterns are highly consistent with changes observed in the Pampas.