Rethinking assessment of success of mitigation strategies for elephant-induced crop damage

Crop damage is the most common impact of negative interactions between people and elephants and poses a significant threat to rural livelihoods and conservation efforts. Numerous approaches to mitigate and prevent crop damage have been implemented throughout Africa and Asia. Despite the documented high efficacy of many approaches, losses remain common, and in many areas, damage is intensifying. We examined the literature on effectiveness of crop-damage-mitigation strategies and identified key gaps in evaluations. We determined there is a need to better understand existing solutions within affected communities and to extend evaluations of effectiveness beyond measurement of efficacy to include rates of and barriers to adoption. We devised a conceptual framework for evaluating effectiveness that incorporates the need for increased emphasis on adoption and can be used to inform the design of future crop-damage mitigation assessments for elephants and conflict species more widely. The ability to prevent crop loss in practice is affected by both the efficacy of a given approach and rates of uptake among target users. We identified the primary factors that influence uptake as local attitudes, sustainability, and scalability and examined each of these factors in detail. We argue that even moderately efficacious interventions may make significant progress in preventing damage if widely employed and recommend that wherever possible scientists and practitioners engage with communities to build on and strengthen existing solutions and expertise. When new approaches are required, they should align with local attitudes and fit within limitations on labor, financial requirements, and technical capacity.     

垃圾焚烧烟气中HCl与消石灰的反应机理研究

测试了两种消石灰与垃圾焚烧烟气中HCl的反应率,得出了消石灰的反应率与反应时间的反应曲线,分析了消石灰与HCl的反应机理及影响消石灰最终反应率的因素。试验结果表明,消石灰与HCl反应初期按灰层扩散控制进行,两种消石灰的最终反应率分别为16％和36％。     

Male-biassed response of garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola L., to leaf alcohol and attraction of both sexes to floral plant volatiles

Summary. Field tests were performed to evaluate the response of the garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) to known scarab attractants and to investigate the influence of trap colour and height on the number of captured beetles. Both sexes were attracted by a lure mixture composed of geraniol, eugenol, and 2-phenylethyl propionate (PEP) (ratio 3:7:3). When testing floral volatiles individually, only geraniol, eugenol and methyl anthranilate but not PEP was attractive. Response of garden chafer to (Z)- 3-hexen-1-ol was strongly male-biassed. Both the response to floral volatiles and (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol was increased by using funnel traps with yellow instead of grey vanes. Traps positioned at 50 and 125 cm above ground captured significantly more garden chafers than those at 200 cm. The strongly male-biassed response to (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol suggests that in P. horticola (subfamily Rutelinae) orientation towards plant volatiles emitted upon mechanical damage of plants is part of the male mate finding strategy as recently demonstrated for cockchafers of the genus Melolontha (subfamily Melolonthinae). Possible application of plant volatiles for control of P. horticola is discussed.     

Hunting Increases Dispersal Limitation in the Tree Carapa procera, a Nontimber Forest Product

Abstract:  The sustainability of seed extraction from natural populations has been questioned recently. Increased recruitment failure under intense seed harvesting suggests that seed extraction intensifies source limitation. Nevertheless, areas where more seeds are collected tend to also have more intense hunting of seed-dispersing animals. We studied whether such hunting, by limiting disperser activity, could cause quantitative dispersal limitation, especially for large crops and for crops in years of high seed abundance. In each of four Carapa procera (Meliaceae) populations in French Guiana and Surinam, two with hunting and two without, we compared seed fate for individual trees varying in crop size in years of high and low population-level seed abundance. Carapa seeds are a nontimber forest product and depend on dispersal by scatter-hoarding rodents for survival and seedling establishment. Hunting negatively affected the proportion of seeds dispersed and caused greater numbers of seeds to germinate or be infested by moths below parent trees, where they would likely die. Hunting of seed-dispersing animals disproportionally affected large seed crops, but we found no additional effect of population-level seed abundance on dispersal rates. Consistently lower rates of seed dispersal, especially for large seed crops, may translate to lower levels of seedling recruitment under hunting. Our results therefore suggest that the subsistence hunting that usually accompanies seed collection is at the cost of seed dispersal and may contribute to recruitment failure of these nontimber forest products. Seed extraction from natural populations may affect seedling recruitment less if accompanied by measures adequately incorporating and protecting seed dispersers.     

电感耦合等离子体质谱法在环境监测中的应用

针对ICP-MS技术的使用特点及其近年来在环境监测领域的应用进行综合阐述，并对ICP-MS技术的发展前景作出简单的评述。     

基于腔衰减相移光谱法的二氧化氮分析仪的设计与应用

基于腔衰减相移光谱法设计了一套二氧化氮在线分析仪,通过优化测量参数,该仪器可长期稳定运行,其时间分辨率为60 s,检出限为0.191 ppb,在0~300 ppb范围内,NO₂气体浓度与相位正切信号值具有较好的二次拟合关系,R²为0.9995.另外,该仪器在泰安站进行了长期外场观测,并与改装后的进口商品化仪器PKU-Thermo 42i-TL进行比对实验,结果表明,两者的测量结果一致性较好,R²=0.9811,表明其具有良好的运行稳定性和测定结果准确性,适用于环境大气二氧化氮浓度的在线监测.外场观测结果表明,春季泰安站二氧化氮浓度均值为12.39 ppb,有明显日变化规律.     

外源8''-炔基脱落酸强化东南景天吸收重金属的研究

为探究脱落酸类似物8''-炔基脱落酸[8''-（C₂H）ABA]强化东南景天富集重金属的效应,通过水培的方法研究了外源8''-（C₂H）ABA分别对Cd（20 mg·L^-1）、Zn（160 mg·L^-1）单一胁迫下东南景天Cd/Zn积累和生理特性的影响,以及初步探讨了8''-（C₂H）ABA在植物重金属胁迫响应中的作用.实验结果表明：与天然ABA相比,外源8''-（C₂H）ABA能达到与ABA类似的作用效果,且对Cd胁迫下东南景天促进效果好于Zn;在Cd胁迫下,与对照相比,外源8''-（C₂H）ABA能显著增加东南景天根、叶中的Cd含量（44.2%、27.5%）,以及光合色素（10.7%）和叶中过氧化物酶（SOD）活性（52.9%）、超氧化物歧化酶（POD）（24.7%）和过氧化氢酶（CAT）活性（27.9%）抗氧化酶活性,使可溶性糖（SS）（13%）和游离脯氨酸（Pro）（37.4%）含量增加,而叶中丙二醛（MDA）（40%）含量明显降低.上述结果表明,一定浓度的8''-（C₂H）ABA可以提高东南景天抗氧化酶活性来增强其对重金属Cd的抗性及吸收和转运能力,在强化东南景天修复重金属污染方面具有应用潜力.     

NOx存在条件下相对湿度对甲苯氧化产物的影响

利用流动管反应器模拟甲苯与氧化剂×OH在NO_x存在条件下的反应,定量测定了不同相对湿度条件下（17.5%、35%、50%、70%）反应生成的部分气相产物和颗粒相产物,计算了不同相中产物产率,测量了不同相对湿度下的颗粒相有机碳（OC）产率,推导了相对湿度对甲苯氧化反应的影响机制.结果表明,相对湿度不仅对甲苯与×OH反应途径比例有影响,还对产物的产率及氧化程度有影响.     

某垃圾焚烧厂投产前后周边土壤二英类化合物的分布

为研究垃圾焚烧厂运行对周边土壤二英类化合物（PCDD/Fs）含量的影响,采集了珠三角地区某垃圾焚烧厂投产前和投产后周边土壤样品,分析研究了该垃圾焚烧厂运行对周边土壤中PCDD/Fs含量和组分的变化.结果表明:①2012年（投产前）珠三角地区某垃圾焚烧厂周边土壤PCDD/Fs含量较低,范围为163~591 ng/kg（毒性当量范围为0.198~0.863 ng I-TEQ/kg,I-TEQ为国际毒性当量因子折算的毒性当量值）;2017—2019年（投产后）周边土壤PCDD/Fs含量范围为151~1.75×103 ng/kg（毒性当量范围为0.812~3.88 ng I-TEQ/kg）,与其他研究相比处于较低的水平.②投产后,距该垃圾焚烧厂较近（1.5 km）的采样点（S1）土壤PCDD/Fs含量逐年增长,在较远（5.2 km）但人口较密集的采样点（S3）土壤PCDD/Fs含量整体较高,但呈逐年下降趋势.③投产后,土壤中的17种PCDD/Fs单体组分中,毒性当量贡献率最高的单体为八氯二苯并二英（OCDD）和2,3,4,7,8-五氯二苯并呋喃（2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF）,二者毒性当量贡献率范围为15.7%~45.4%.④在同一采样点土壤PCDD/Fs单体组分年间差异不明显,但同一年份不同采样点差异明显.研究显示,目前该垃圾焚烧厂周边土壤PCDD/Fs含量较低,但仍需要长期监测其可能带来的风险.      

温度和含水率对村镇垃圾焚烧烟气中有机物排放的影响

使用管式炉模拟村镇生活垃圾焚烧过程,研究不同焚烧温度和不同垃圾含水率条件下,村镇垃圾焚烧烟气中多环芳烃（PAHs）、氯苯及苯系物的生成和分布特性.结果表明,焚烧温度为550℃时,烟气中多环芳烃和氯苯的释放量最大,当温度小于550℃时,多环芳烃和氯苯的释放量随温度升高而增加,温度大于550℃时,多环芳烃和氯苯的释放量随温度升高而降低.高温焚烧不仅可以抑制烟气中多环芳烃的浓度及减少大分子量PAHs的排放,还能降低氯苯的释放量和氯代数,从而减小村镇垃圾焚烧烟气中的毒性;苯系物随着温度升高,由热解转变为高温合成,释放量也随着增加.水分对多环芳烃和氯苯有较大影响,对苯系物的影响较小.在400℃条件焚烧时,水分含量对多环芳烃总体上是促进的,而在850℃焚烧条件下则表现出抑制作用;而水分对氯苯则均表现出抑制作用,并且可以降低氯苯化合物的氯代数.