A climate-change vulnerability and adaptation assessment for Brazil's protected areas

Brazil hosts the largest expanse of tropical ecosystems within protected areas (PAs), which shelter biodiversity and support traditional human populations. We assessed the vulnerability to climate change of 993 terrestrial and coastal-marine Brazilian PAs by combining indicators of climatic-change hazard with indicators of PA resilience (size, native vegetation cover, and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition). This combination of indicators allows the identification of broad climate-change adaptation pathways. Seventeen PAs (20,611 km²) were highly vulnerable and located mainly in the Atlantic Forest (7 PAs), Cerrado (6), and the Amazon (4). Two hundred fifty-eight PAs (756,569 km²), located primarily in Amazonia, had a medium vulnerability. In the Amazon and western Cerrado, the projected severe climatic change and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition drove vulnerability up, despite the generally good conservation status of PAs. Over 80% of PAs of high or moderate vulnerability are managed by indigenous populations. Hence, besides the potential risks to biodiversity, the traditional knowledge and livelihoods of the people inhabiting these PAs may be threatened. In at least 870 PAs, primarily in the Atlantic Forest and Amazon, adaptation could happen with little or no intervention due to low climate-change hazard, high resilience status, or both. At least 20 PAs in the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Amazonia should be targeted for stronger interventions (e.g., improvement of ecological connectivity), given their low resilience status. Despite being a first attempt to link vulnerability and adaptation in Brazilian PAs, we suggest that some of the PAs identified as highly or moderately vulnerable should be prioritized for testing potential adaptation strategies in the near future.     

Fishing‐gear restrictions and biomass gains for coral reef fishes in marine protected areas

Considerable empirical evidence supports recovery of reef fish populations with fishery closures. In countries where full exclusion of people from fishing may be perceived as inequitable, fishing‐gear restrictions on nonselective and destructive gears may offer socially relevant management alternatives to build recovery of fish biomass. Even so, few researchers have statistically compared the responses of tropical reef fisheries to alternative management strategies. We tested for the effects of fishery closures and fishing gear restrictions on tropical reef fish biomass at the community and family level. We conducted 1,396 underwater surveys at 617 unique sites across a spatial hierarchy within 22 global marine ecoregions that represented 5 realms. We compared total biomass across local fish assemblages and among 20 families of reef fishes inside marine protected areas (MPAs) with different fishing restrictions: no‐take, hook‐and‐line fishing only, several fishing gears allowed, and sites open to all fishing gears. We included a further category representing remote sites, where fishing pressure is low. As expected, full fishery closures, (i.e., no‐take zones) most benefited community‐ and family‐level fish biomass in comparison with restrictions on fishing gears and openly fished sites. Although biomass responses to fishery closures were highly variable across families, some fishery targets (e.g., Carcharhinidae and Lutjanidae) responded positively to multiple restrictions on fishing gears (i.e., where gears other than hook and line were not permitted). Remoteness also positively affected the response of community‐level fish biomass and many fish families. Our findings provide strong support for the role of fishing restrictions in building recovery of fish biomass and indicate important interactions among fishing‐gear types that affect biomass of a diverse set of reef fish families.     

Quantifying the impact of vegetation-based metrics on species persistence when choosing offsets for habitat destruction

Developers are often required by law to offset environmental impacts through targeted conservation actions. Most offset policies specify metrics for calculating offset requirements, usually by assessing vegetation condition. Despite widespread use, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of vegetation-based metrics for ensuring biodiversity persistence. We compared long-term impacts of biodiversity offsetting based on area only; vegetation condition only; area × habitat suitability; and condition × habitat suitability in development and restoration simulations for the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. We simulated development and subsequent offsetting through restoration within a virtual landscape, linking simulations to population viability models for 3 species. Habitat gains did not ensure species persistence. No net loss was achieved when performance of offsetting was assessed in terms of amount of habitat restored, but not when outcomes were assessed in terms of persistence. Maintenance of persistence occurred more often when impacts were avoided, giving further support to better enforce the avoidance stage of the mitigation hierarchy. When development affected areas of high habitat quality for species, persistence could not be guaranteed. Therefore, species must be more explicitly accounted for in offsets, rather than just vegetation or habitat alone. Declines due to a failure to account directly for species population dynamics and connectivity overshadowed the benefits delivered by producing large areas of high-quality habitat. Our modeling framework showed that the benefits delivered by offsets are species specific and that simple vegetation-based metrics can give misguided impressions on how well biodiversity offsets achieve no net loss.     

湖北省湿地的保护与利用

湿地是地球上具有多功能的、独特的生态系统，是人类最重要的生存环境之一。湖北省地处长江中游，湿地类型多，面积较大，河、湖湿地系统是主要的湿地类型。湖北湿地具有较大的资源潜力和环境调节功能，是自然界生物多样性丰富的生态景观。近年来，湖北省湿地保护面临人口增长的压力，围垦、污染和过度开发等对湿地保护构成了严重威胁，湿地环境遭到干扰和破坏。加强湿地科学的研究，保护管理好湖北湿地及其生态环境，实现湿地资源的持续利用，是湖北省2l世纪环保工作所面临的一项重要而紧迫的任务。     

Sustainability: a Dissent

Abstract:  Broadly conceived and considered in its many usages, sustainability has grave defects as a planning goal, particularly when used by conservationists: it confuses means and ends; it is vague about what is being sustained and who or what is doing the sustaining; it is uninspiring; it is little more than Pinchot-era conservation (and thus ignores the many lessons learned since then); it need not be linked to land, to the land's functioning, or to any ecological science; it need not include a moral component; it is consistent with the view of humans as all-powerful manipulators of the planet; and, in general, it is such a malleable term that its popularity provides only a facade of consensus. When sustainability is defined broadly to include the full range of economic and social aspirations, it poses the particular risk that ecological and biodiversity concerns will be cast aside in favor of more pressing human wants. Given these many defects, the conservation movement should discard the term in favor of a more alluring goal, attentive to nature and its ecological functioning. A sound goal would incorporate and distill the considerable ecological and moral wisdom accumulated since Pinchot's day while giving conservationists the rhetorical tools needed to defend the land against competing pressures. In our view, conservation would be well served by an updated variant of "land health," Aldo Leopold's ecologically grounded goal from the 1940s. Land health as an independent understanding should set the essential terms of how we live and enjoy the earth, providing the framework within which we pursue our many social and economic aims.     

喜凉作物生长期对全球变暖停滞响应的时空差异——以中国绿洲为例

基于中国绿洲喜凉作物（chimonophilous crop）分布区39个站点1960~2016年逐日平均气温资料,运用线性趋势法、反距离加权插值（IDW）、Morlet小波、Mann-Kendall检验等方法,研究中国绿洲喜凉作物气候生长期的时空变化对变暖停滞的响应.结果表明：①变暖停滞期,中国绿洲喜凉作物气候生长期起、止日及生长期日数以-0.2d/10a、0.33d/10a、0.53d/10a的趋势变化,较1960~2016年起始日提前趋势减缓1.01d/10a,终止日推迟减缓1.28d/10a,生长期日数延长减缓2.3d/10a,对变暖停滞有响应.②中国绿洲喜凉作物气候生长期起始日对变暖停滞响应的站点有44%,终止日和生长期日数均为49%,主要分布在南疆、柴达木盆地和河西绿洲,其中河西绿洲对变暖停滞响应最明显,南疆次之,柴达木最小,而北疆绿洲不存在滞缓现象,显然空间差异明显.③M-K检验显示,中国绿洲喜凉作物气候生长期起、止日及生长期日数分别在2001年、1990年和1997年发生突变,起始日晚于变暖停滞起始年份,终止日和生长期日数早于变暖停滞起始年,且分绿洲生长期日数突变年与变暖停滞起始年相接近.④Morlet小波得出变暖停滞期其变化稳定存在2.4~4.3a的震荡周期,表明未来几年中国绿洲喜凉作物气候生长期仍持续延长.     

北部湾南流江流域土地覆盖及生物多样性模拟

以北部湾独流入海河流南流江流域为研究对象,基于研究区2000年和2015年遥感数据解译的土地利用数据以及社会经济等数据,采用CLUE-S模型对未来2030年生态保护情景、自然增长情景以及粮食安全情景的土地利用格局进行了模拟预测,在此基础上采用InVEST模型对流域过去和未来不同情景的生物多样性进行了评估,探讨了流域生物多样性的生境质量和生境退化程度.结果表明：2000~2015年南流江流域建设用地、园地、水域和未利用地呈现出增加趋势,其中建设用地的增幅最大,而耕地和林地减幅最大.流域土地系统中共存在着34种土地网络转移流关系,上游存在24种,中游20种,下游28种,耕地与建设用地、耕地与林地以及林地与园地之间的转换占到流域总土地利用变化的70.74%.CLUE-S模型模拟未来土地利用的Kappa系数达到0.86,表明模型模拟未来情景的土地利用精度满足要求.2000年、2015年、2030年生态保护情景、2030年自然增长情景以及2030年粮食安全情景流域生境质量总得分和平均得分分别为866630,900357,921055,876231,865370和0.7457,0.7747,0.7925,0.7539,0.7466.2030年3种情景的中上游和下游地区生物多样性都呈现出不同程度的改善趋势,而中游地区则表现出退化趋势.     

长江中下游环境DNA宏条形码生物多样性检测技术初步研究

长江生物多样性在人为影响下面临严重威胁,物种监测是生物多样性保护的基础,为完善长江水生态监测体系,实现高效无损伤的物种监测,在长江中下游干流3个江段（新滩、安庆和芜湖）采集水样,建立长江水样环境DNA宏条形码物种检测体系并评估其有效性.结果表明:①长江中下游环境DNA宏条形码检测到32个物种,包括20种鱼类、1种水生哺乳动物（长江江豚）和11种陆生动物,其中鱼类物种包括鲤形目、鲇形目、鲈形目和鲱形目,其种数占鱼类总种数的比例分别为60%、25%、10%和5%.②长江中下游渔获物中资源量居首位的鲤形目在环境DNA调查中序列数最多,占鱼类总序列的96.2%,其次为鲱形目（占比为3.5%）,鲇形目和鲈形目占比较低,分别为0.2%和0.1%,4个类目序列相对丰度与渔获物种资源量组成差异较大.③环境DNA调查次数约占传统渔获物调查次数的几十至几百分之一,采样时间不足努力量最少的渔获物调查的1%,检测到的鱼类种数为传统调查总数的31%~49%.④安庆采样点位于长江中下游长江江豚密度最高的江段,其环境DNA检出率和序列相对丰度在3个采样点中均最高.研究显示:长江水样环境DNA包含水陆复合生态系统的生物多样性信息,利用水样环境DNA宏条形码可检测不同类群的水生和陆生物种;对于鱼类物种检测,环境DNA宏条形码比传统调查方法效率更高,可对传统调查结果进行补充;环境DNA宏条形码生物多样性检测主要受分子标记体系和核酸序列数据库限制,获取全面的物种多样性和资源量信息需要对检测分析方法进行进一步完善.      

淮河干流及主要支流夏季浮游植物群落生物多样性评价

浮游植物是水生态系统的重要组成部分,其群落变化与水体环境条件密切相关,是反映河流健康的主要生物指标.为揭示淮河流域浮游植物群落特征及其与水质的相互关系,于2015年夏季对淮河流域典型水体—淮河干流、沙颍河、涡河和淠河进行系统的水质及浮游植物调查,探明浮游植物群落及其空间分布特征,并结合水体理化指标和生物指数进行水质评价.结果表明,淮河干流及主要支流27个点位中共获得浮游植物8门71属153种,主要隶属于绿藻门(Chlorophyta)、硅藻门(Bacillariophyta)、蓝藻门(Cyanophyta).浮游植物密度为0.019×10~5~131.824×10~5ind·L~(-1),不同河段浮游植物分布表现出较为显著的空间差异性,平均密度大小呈现沙颖河淮河干流涡河淠河的特点.非参数多维尺度分析(Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling,NMDS)表明,淮河干流、淠河和涡河的浮游植物群落组成和结构的相似性较高,而与沙颍河的浮游植物群落存在一定的差异.Shannon多样性指数H'介于0.78~3.21之间,Margalef丰富度指数D介于1.03~4.79之间,Pielou均匀度指数J介于0.12~0.73之间.水质生物评价结果显示,淮河流域大部分水体处于中等污染状况,部分点位处于重污染状况,其结果与水质综合污染指数评价结果具有较好的一致性.研究结果可为淮河水污染防治和水生态修复提供基础依据.