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.     

利用3S技术动态监测天山草地农业产量及其成因分析

在新疆阜康县大量“天地”资料观测基础上，利用3S(RS、GIS和GPS)技术和生态系统分析方法，对新疆天山草地农业资源进行了系统的动态监测和大面积估产研究。结果表明，该县草地和森林面积1998年比1988年分别下降了17．5％和51．o％，而农业用地面积和沙漠危害面积却分别增加了57．8％和21．2％，实现了利用3s技术系统准确监测新疆阜康县草地农业资源动态变化，其大面积草地遥感估产精度达到75．8％以上。最后，建立了新型PPR估产模型，其估产精度达到81．76％以上，并给出了理论生态成因解释与定量分析结果等。     

Exploring Chemical Variables in Ligustrum lucidum Ait. F. Tricolor (Rehd.) Rehd. in Relation to Air Pollutants and Environmental Conditions

Ligustrum lucidum Ait. f. tricolor (Rehd.) Rehd. in relation to atmospheric pollutants in Córdoba city, Argentina. The study area receives regional pollutants and was categorized taking into account traffic level, industrial density, type of industry, location of the sample point in relation to the street corner, treeless condition, and topographic level. Dried weight/fresh weight ratio (DW/FW) and specific leaf area (SLA) were calculated, and concentrations of chlorophylls, carotenoids, total sulfur, soluble proteins, malondialdehyde (MDA), and hydroperoxy conjugated dienes (HPCD) were determined in leaf samples. Sulfur content correlates positively with traffic density and SLA correlates negatively with some combinations of the categorical variables; MDA correlates positively with topographic level and total protein concentration correlates negatively with treeless condition. On the basis of our results, traffic, location of trees, type of industry, situation of a tree with respect to others, and topographic level are the environmental variables to bear in mind when selecting analogous sampling points in a passive monitoring program. An approximation to predict tree injury may be obtained by measuring DW/FW ratio, proteins, pigments, HPCD, and MDA as they are responsible for the major variability of data.     

Perceptions toward stewardship among residents living near U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Facilities

Although stewardship has been widely defined and used in environmental management and planning, there is a dearth of studies that describe how the lay public perceives this concept. A national sample of residents in 14 states who live near DOE nuclear facilities were interviewed to delineate public understanding and awareness of the stewardship program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This study discusses the findings of the survey and discusses how institutional trust influences public participation and resident’s choices of potential stewards. Almost 40% of the respondents could not define stewardship; those who did, believed that ‘responsibility,’ ‘management,’ and ‘accountability’ are key elements of stewardship. In addition, about a third of the respondents identified Federal groups and the DOE as potential stewards. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

草原旅游发展中旅游管理部门环境意识的调查研究

根据环境意识结构．设计了旅游管理部门环境意识调查问卷。其主要的指标体系包括：旅游环境知识水平、旅游环境态度、旅游环境评价和旅游环境行为四个方面。对指标体系各部分之间以及每一指标部分的每一题目之间的相对重要性进行权重的确定．而且对各部分的每道题目的各个选项予以赋分。基于权重和赋分．结合调查问卷的实际情况，设计了指标体系各部分评价模型和环境意识总体评价模型。以此来计算草原旅游发展中旅游管理部门环境意识水平的综合得分。经过分析得知，旅游管理部门环境意识模式是“环境知识制约型”模式。     

三江平原地貌因子及其主要环境地质问题

地貌因子有其不可替代的作用和功能,是决定环境的主要因子,是生态地质环境中最积极最活跃的主导支力条件;是生态平衡的重中之重;是生态地质环境的基础,并影响其它因子或成份.如地貌因子或成份发生了变化,其它因子或成份就会发生一系列连锁反应;地貌因子发生变化或失去平衡,其它因子也会发生变化或失去平衡.文本论述了三江平原地貌特征,详细地分析了地貌的作用,阐明了有关地貌的主要环境地质问题.     

The evolution of sustainability

Six separate but related strains of thought have emerged prominently since 1950 in discussions of such phenomena as the interrelationships among rates of population growth, resource use, and pressure on the environment. They are the ecological/carrying capacity root, the resources/environment root, the biosphere root, the critique of technology root, the no growth/slow growth root, and the ecodevelopment root.Each of these strains of thought was fully developed before the word sustainable itself was used. Many of the roots are based on fundamentally opposing assessments of the future of mankind. Many of the roots, such as the ecology/carrying capacity root, are based on physical concepts, and they exclude normative values. Others, such as the ecodevelopment root, include such values as equity, broad participation in governance, and decentralized government.When the word sustainability was first used in 1972 in the context of man's future, in a British book,Blueprint for Survival, normative concepts were prominent. This continued to be the case when the word was first used in 1974 in the United States to justify a no growth economy.Sustainability was first used in a United Nations document in 1978. Normative concepts, encapsulated in the term ecodevelopment, were prominent in the United Nations publications.After about 1978, the term sustainability began to be used not only in technological articles and reports but also in policy documents culminating in the use of the term in the report of the summit meeting of the Group of Seven in 1989.The roots of the term sustainability are so deeply embedded in fundamentally different concepts, each of which has valid claims to validity, that a search for a single definition seems futile. The existence of multiple meaning is tolerable if each analyst describes clearly what he means by sustainability.     

The aggregation pheromone ofIps duplicatus and its role in competitive interactions withI. typographus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

Summary Ips duplicatus withI. typographus co-inhabiting Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) would benefit from a pheromone blend distinct from that of the larger competitorI. typographus. GC-MS analysis showed thatI. duplicatus males feeding in the host produced ipsdienol (Id),cis-verbenol (cV),trans-verbenol (tV), myrtenol (Mt), andE-myrcenol (EM) and traces of 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MB).I. duplicatus produced Id in approximately racemic form (48.9-54.5% (+)-(S)-isomer). The amounts of Id and EM released over a 9 day period had a maximum of 250 and 5 ng/h/male, respectively, on day 2. Exposure ofI. duplicatus males to myrcene and -pinene resulted in the production of small amounts of Id, cV, tV, Mt, andtrans-pinocarveol, but not of EM. In laboratory bioassays with walking beetles, the pheromone component Id alone was weakly attractive while EM was inactive, but in binary combination with Id strongly synergized attraction. A combination of EM and Id at a release rate equivalent to 100–200 males was more attractive in the field than 70 unmated males in a spruce log. The addition of myrcene ( a suggested pheromone precursor of Id) to Id did not enhance trap caches, while addition of EM increased catches > 10-fold. Subtracting EM from a blend of Id, EM, cV and MB drastically reduced trap catches while subtraction of cV or MB or both had no significant effect. Addition of EM over a wide concentration range to the synthetic pheromone ofI. typographus did not reduce the attraction of females of this species in the laboratory. A two-species pheromone interaction field test releasingI. typographus pheromone components (MB + cV) at 10–1000 male equivalents (ME) andI. duplicatus pheromone (Id + EM) at 0, 10–1000 ME in all possible combinations showed both positive intraspecific dose-response effects and an interspecific inhibition. Higher release rates of EM appeared to inhibitI. typographus, especially males. In a tree colonization model, the response of the two competing species to their respective pheromones show a good separation during the mass-attack with a small initial cross-attraction. It remains to be shown whether either of the two pheromone systems have in fact evolved in the present sympatry, or if they are an incidental effect of ancestry of these phylogenetically distantIps.     

MnO2/Al2O3催化剂-微气泡臭氧体系催化降解喹啉及其机理

制备了纳米MnO₂,并以Al₂O₃为载体制备了掺杂型MnO₂/Al₂O₃颗粒催化剂.催化剂焙烧温度和时间分别为500℃和4 h、MnO₂质量分数为8%时,催化剂具有最高的臭氧催化氧化活性.SEM分析表明,纳米MnO₂均匀分布于Al₂O₃载体表面.MnO₂/Al₂O₃催化剂的比表面积（BET）为183.22 m²·g^-1,平均孔容为0.27 cm³·g^-1,平均孔径为4.87 nm.建立了MnO₂/Al₂O₃催化剂-微气泡臭氧催化反应体系,研究了该体系对喹啉的降解去除效果及其机理.臭氧微气泡的平均粒径为61.7 μm.微气泡臭氧投量为30 mg·L^-1时,反应60 min后喹啉去除率能达到95%以上;反应20 min后,MnO₂/Al₂O₃催化剂-微气泡臭氧体系对实际煤化工废水二级出水的TOC去除率可达到55%以上.以叔丁醇作为分子探针,证明了羟基自由基（·OH）氧化作用在臭氧微气泡催化氧化体系中对喹啉的降解起到主导作用.     

农闲期城郊农田灌溉水中典型污染物含量与评价——以西北江三角洲为例

摸查了农田灌溉系统水环境经农（夏）闲期降水等外部强干预调理后的环境污染物含量——该值理论上是环境自净作用之后的最不利值,对农田灌溉系统水环境进行水质评价,探究其对农田土壤质量的潜在污染风险.于2019年6月中旬—7月下旬（降雨集中期）,分别在西北江三角洲城市（清远市、佛山市和江门市）实验基地周边筛选研究区,并在雨后对有覆水的水源区域、灌渠、蓄水池和田间水等采集上覆水,共采得水样27×2份,对其pH值、悬浮物（SS）、矿化度、总磷（TP）、氨氮（NH₄⁺-N）、Cd、As、Pb、Cu和Zn的含量进行检测;对各研究区pH值、SS的成因和影响,矿化度的等级,重金属均值分布等进行分析;对全样品TP、NH₄⁺-N、重金属含量进行Pearson相关性分析和描述性特征分析;通过单因子水质标识指数P_i和综合水质标识指数P分别对各采样点、各构成项目和各研究区进行水质评价.研究发现雨后农田灌溉系统水环境构成复杂,物质呈无显著性差异的迁移,灌溉沿程上覆水中大部分物质可能处于动态平衡,受局部环境影响变小,TP、NH₄⁺-N和重金属等迁移物质主要还是灌溉水体中原有的,受外力驱动扰动后在水动力作用下可能以氮磷结合形态沿灌溉系统发生远距离迁移;使用河流水质标识指数法评价农田灌溉系统水环境,发现该法可以刻画局部灌溉的水质态势,对农田灌溉系统水环境的含量特征评价做出科学、合理的解释,也可以做出综合性定量评价.虽然灌溉水系统结构差异较大,但是从整体上可以初步得出农闲期西北江三角洲农田灌溉水的灌溉风险不高的结论,总体综合水质评价级别为Ⅰ类~Ⅱ类,达到水环境功能区的使用要求.