Anuran Development, Density and Diversity in Relation to Agricultural Activity in the Holland River Watershed, Ontario, Canada (1990–1992)

Significantly lower anuran species diversity and density was recorded in a vegetable growing area relative to upstream and downstream sites in the Holland River watershed, Ontario, Canada. Egg hatching success and tadpole deformity rates of American toads (Bufo americanus americanus), green frogs (Rana clamitans melanota) and northern leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) eggs in water from field sites and control water were assessed. Compared to the control and the upstream site, the total abnormality rate (unhatched eggs plus deformed tadpoles) was higher for American toads in water from the agricultural and downstream sites. Total abnormality was higher in green frog eggs in water from the agricultural site and a downstream site. Trace concentrations of organophosphorus pesticides were detected most often in agricultural zone water and sediments than in upstream and downstream sites. Organochlorine pesticide residues, especially in agricultural zone samples, exceeded the no effect level guidelines for the protection of aquatic life. Ammonia, phosphorus, particulates, BOD and TKN were highest in the agricultural zone. Significant correlations between these parameters and anuran development suggest nutrient run-off as a causal or contributing factor in lower anuran diversity, density and reproductive success of American toads and green frogs in the site dominated by agriculture.     

石油污染地下水中细菌多样性研究

采集了某废弃炼油厂的石油污染地下水样品,提取水中微生物总DNA,构建细菌16S rDNA克隆文库,并通过16S rDNA序列的系统发育分析,对样品中的细菌种群多样性以及群落结构进行了研究.结果表明,文库中阳性克隆的16S rDNA序列分属10个细菌类群,分别为γ-Proteobacteria(49.1%)、α-Proteobacteria(12.9%)、β-Proteobacteria(11.1%)、Bacteroidetes(9.2%)、Verrucomicrobia(6.7%)、Acidobacteria(2.5%)、δ-Proteobacteria(1.2%)、Actinobacteria(1.2%)、Planctomycetes(0.6%)、Unidentifiedbacteria(5.5%).在这一生态系统中,γ-Proteobacteria类细菌占据主导地位,接近50%,尤其是假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas)微生物在文库中的比例达35.6%.该石油污染地下水样品中细菌与许多其它已知的降解菌亲缘关系较近,如鞘胺醇单胞菌(Sphingomonas)、红球菌(Rhodococcus)和短波单胞菌(B...     

生计多样性对农户参与农田生态补偿政策响应状态的影响——以上海闵行区、苏州张家港市发达地区为例

农田生态补偿政策是采用经济手段激励农户对农田生态系统服务功能进行保育和维护,解决因市场失灵造成生态效益外溢的一种有效方式,对于改善农田生态环境、提升农地开敞空间、增加农户收益具有积极作用。论文从发达地区农户生计多样性角度入手,利用结构方程模型分析农户生计多样性对农户参与补偿政策的支持意愿、政策实施效果响应的影响。结果表明:①农户基本特征、家庭特征、生计多样性特征、村庄发展特征在5%的水平下对农户在农田生态补偿政策上的支持意愿具有正向影响;②农户基本特征、家庭特征、生计多样性特征在5%的水平下对农户在补偿政策实施效果上的响应具有正向影响,农户村庄发展特征在5%的水平下对其具有负向影响;③农户生计多样性特征是影响农户补偿政策支持意愿最主要的因素,是影响补偿政策实施效果响应的次要因素。这表明补偿政策实施后,农户生计多样性特征对于提高农户对补偿政策支持意愿与政策实施效果响应方面具有积极的作用。把握三者之间的关系有利于政府制定和完善现有农田生态补偿政策,为引导农户生计多样性发展提供参考。     

物种多样性对植物生长与土壤镉污染修复的影响

土壤重金属污染是当今最为突出的环境问题之一,其中,重金属镉(Cd)已成为我国受污染土壤中最主要的无机污染物之一.植物修复法是去除土壤重金属的重要方法,研究表明,植物物种多样性的增加能促进生态系统功能.那么在Cd污染土壤中,植物物种多样性对植物生长和Cd污染修复会有怎样的影响,其内在机理是怎样的并不清楚.基于此,本研究选择6种本地常见草本植物(荆芥、鸡眼草、短叶水蜈蚣、牛筋草、鸭跖草和细风轮菜),通过室内控制实验研究不同植物物种多样性(1-,2-,3-,6-物种)对植物生长与土壤Cd污染修复的影响.结果表明:植物物种多样性的增加显著促进植物地下生物量和总生物量的积累,并对植物根系形态(根总长、根总表面积、根尖总数与根平均直径)和叶绿素荧光参数(PSII最大光能转化效率F_v/F_m和PSII潜在活性F_v/F_0)有显著的促进作用;植物物种多样性的增加能显著提高植物地上、地下及总Cd含量(积累量)和富集系数;植物物种多样性的增加对植物生长、根系形态指标及Cd的富集具有显著的净效应,且以互补效应为主.本研究选取的是对环境条件要求不高、生长周期短的本地草本植物,可为利用本地常见短世代周期植物进行土壤重金属污染修复提供理论依据.     

黄河三角洲贝壳海岛与植物多样性保护

根据1997－1999年调查，查清了黄河三角洲贝壳岛资源状况，研究了其高等植物物种多样性、植被类型、植物区系组成特点，分析了近年来因乱采滥挖贝壳资源对贝壳海岛和植物多样性破坏现状，提出了保护贝壳海岛和和植物多样性的对策与建议。     

Potential Negative Ecological Effects of Corridors

Despite many studies showing that landscape corridors increase dispersal and species richness for disparate taxa, concerns persist that corridors can have unintended negative effects. In particular, some of the same mechanisms that underlie positive effects of corridors on species of conservation interest may also increase the spread and impact of antagonistic species (e.g., predators and pathogens), foster negative effects of edges, increase invasion by exotic species, increase the spread of unwanted disturbances such as fire, or increase population synchrony and thus reduce persistence. We conducted a literature review and meta‐analysis to evaluate the prevalence of each of these negative effects. We found no evidence that corridors increase unwanted disturbance or non‐native species invasion; however, these have not been well‐studied concerns (1 and 6 studies, respectively). Other effects of corridors were more often studied and yielded inconsistent results; mean effect sizes were indistinguishable from zero. The effect of edges on abundances of target species was as likely to be positive as negative. Corridors were as likely to have no effect on antagonists or population synchrony as they were to increase those negative effects. We found 3 deficiencies in the literature. First, despite studies on how corridors affect predators, there are few studies of related consequences for prey population size and persistence. Second, properly designed studies of negative corridor effects are needed in natural corridors at scales larger than those achievable in experimental systems. Third, studies are needed to test more targeted hypotheses about when corridor‐mediated effects on invasive species or disturbance may be negative for species of management concern. Overall, we found no overarching support for concerns that construction and maintenance of habitat corridors may result in unintended negative consequences. Negative edge effects may be mitigated by widening corridors or softening edges between corridors and the matrix. Other negative effects are relatively small and manageable compared with the large positive effects of facilitating dispersal and increasing diversity of native species. Efectos Negativos Potenciales de los Corredores     

蔗渣垫料在零排放发酵床养猪中的应用研究

目前微生物发酵床养猪垫料是选用木屑、谷壳作为原料,来实现零排放养猪。文章选用农业固体废弃物——蔗渣为垫料应用于零排放漏缝发酵床养猪,跟踪了3个月垫料在实际使用中的温度、有机质、氮、磷、钾、微生物指标,对蔗渣的使用效果进行了评价,并建立PCR反应体系来扩增DNA,利用PCR-DGGE技术对垫料中的微生物群落多样性进行研究。结果表明:蔗渣作为垫料,能使垫床温度控制在40⁶5℃之间,保证了良好的发酵效果、且有效活菌数达到0.22×109cfu/g,可以对猪粪便等有机质进行较彻底的消解,因此蔗渣可以作为一种垫料应用于零排放漏缝发酵床;垫料中总养分达到1.371 7%,使用后的垫料可以作为一种原料生产生物有机肥。     

The Influence of Linear Elements on Plant Species Diversity of Mediterranean Rural Landscapes: Assessment of Different Indices and Statistical Approaches

This paper mainly aims to study the linear element influence on the estimation of vascular plant species diversity in five Mediterranean landscapes modeled as land cover patch mosaics. These landscapes have several core habitats and a different set of linear elements -habitat edges or ecotones, roads or railways, rivers, streams and hedgerows on farm land- whose plant composition were examined. Secondly, it aims to check plant diversity estimation in Mediterranean landscapes using parametric and non-parametric procedures, with two indices: Species richness and Shannon index.Land cover types and landscape linear elements were identified from aerial photographs. Their spatial information was processed using GIS techniques. Field plots were selected using a stratified sampling design according to relieve and tree density of each habitat type. A 50×20 m² multi-scale sampling plot was designed for the core habitats and across the main landscape linear elements. Richness and diversity of plant species were estimated by comparing the observed field data to ICE (Incidence-based Coverage Estimator) and ACE (Abundance-based Coverage Estimator) non-parametric estimators.The species density, percentage of unique species, and alpha diversity per plot were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in linear elements than in core habitats. ICE estimate of number of species was 32% higher than of ACE estimate, which did not differ significantly from the observed values. Accumulated species richness in core habitats together with linear elements, were significantly higher than those recorded only in the core habitats in all the landscapes. Conversely, Shannon diversity index did not show significant differences.     

Are national biodiversity strategies and action plans appropriate for building responsibilities for mainstreaming biodiversity across policy sectors? The case of Finland

The Convention on Biological Diversity's national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) are major mechanisms for mainstreaming biodiversity into national policies. This article examines whether and how the NBSAPs contribute to mainstreaming biodiversity across policy sectors in Finland in order to halt biodiversity loss. We have developed an innovative analytical framework where the concept of responsibility addresses how motivations for mainstreaming can be built, and the concept of social learning outcomes addresses the extent of institutional changes for biodiversity. The Finnish NBSAP processes have been able to build diverse forms of responsibility (liability, accountability, responsiveness and care) in different policy sectors by providing new knowledge, careful process design and developing institutional linkages. Despite pro-biodiversity outcomes in the targeted policy sectors, the responsibilities do not diffuse from the environmental administration to other policy sectors to a sufficient extent. Closing this ‘responsibility gap’ is a key challenge for building effective environmental policies.     

A New Approach to Plant Diversity Assessment Combining HPLC Data, Simplex Mixture Design and Discriminant Analysis

The quantitative assessment of plant diversity and its monitoring with time represent a key environmental issue for management and conservation of natural resources. Assessment of plant diversity could be based on chemical analyses of secondary metabolites (e.g. flavonoids, terpenoids), because of the substantial quantitative and qualitative between-individual variability in such compounds. At a geographical scale, the plant populations become widely dispersed, and their monitoring from numerous routine individual analyses could become restricting. To overcome such constraint, this study develops a multivariate calibration model giving the relative frequency of a particular taxon from a simple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of a plant mixture. The model was built from a complete set of mixtures combining different taxons, according to an experimental design (Scheffé’s matrix). For each mixture, a reference HPLC pattern was simulated by averaging the individual HPLC profiles of the constitutive taxons. The calibration models, based on Bayesian discriminant analysis (BDA), gave statistical relationships between the contributions of each taxon in mixtures and reference HPLC patterns of these mixtures. Finally, these models were validated on new mixtures by using outside plants. This new biodiversity survey approach is illustrated on four chemical taxons (four chemotypes) of Astragalus caprinus (Fabaceae). The more differentiated the taxon, the better predicted its contributions (in mixtures) were by BDA calibration model. This new approach could be very useful for a global routine survey of plant diversity.