Climate readiness of recovery plans for threatened Australian species

The rapidly changing climate is posing growing threats for all species, but particularly for those already considered threatened. We reviewed 100 recovery plans for Australian terrestrial threatened species (50 fauna and 50 flora plans) written from 1997 to 2017. We recorded the number of plans that acknowledged climate change as a threat and of these how many proposed specific actions to ameliorate the threat. We classified these actions along a continuum from passive or incremental to active or interventionist. Overall, just under 60% of the sampled recovery plans listed climate change as a current or potential threat to the threatened taxa, and the likelihood of this acknowledgment increased over time. A far smaller proportion of the plans, however, identified specific actions associated with ameliorating climate risk (22%) and even fewer (9%) recommended any interventionist action in response to a climate-change-associated threat. Our results point to a disconnect between the knowledge generated on climate-change-related risk and potential adaptation strategies and the extent to which this knowledge has been incorporated into an important instrument of conservation action.     

The place of nature in conservation conflicts

Conservation conflicts are gaining importance in contemporary conservation scholarship such that conservation may have entered a conflict hype. We attempted to uncover and deconstruct the normative assumptions behind such studies by raising several questions: what are conservation conflicts, what justifies the attention they receive, do conservation-conflict studies limit wildlife conservation, is scientific knowledge stacked against wildlife in conservation conflicts, do conservation-conflict studies adopt a specific view of democracy, can laws be used to force conservation outcomes, why is flexibility needed in managing conservation conflicts, can conservation conflicts be managed by promoting tolerance, and who needs to compromise in conservation conflicts? We suggest that many of the intellectual premises in the field may defang conservation and prevent it from truly addressing the current conservation crisis as it accelerates. By framing conservation conflicts as conflicts between people about wildlife or nature, the field insidiously transfers guilt, whereby human activities are no longer blamed for causing species decline and extinctions but conservation is instead blamed for causing social conflicts. When the focus is on mitigating social conflicts without limiting in any powerful way human activities damaging to nature, conservation-conflict studies risk keeping conservation within the limits of human activities, instead of keeping human activities within the limits of nature. For conservation to successfully stop the biodiversity crisis, we suggest the alternative goal of recognizing nature's right to existence to maintenance of ecological functions and evolutionary processes. Nature being a rights bearer or legal person would imply its needs must be explicitly taken into account in conflict adjudication. If, even in conservation, nature's interests come second to human interests, it may be no surprise that conservation cannot succeed.     

Impact of posture and upper-limb muscle activity on grip strength

Purpose. The current research was carried out to determine grip strength (GS) with change in posture and upper-limb muscle activity of manual workers and investigate the impacts of these changes. Methods. For the current research, 120 male and 80 female participants were selected and GS was assessed using a digital hand grip dynamometer in various conditions. Results. The outcomes showed that male participants had higher GS as compared to female participants. Maximum GS was found in a standing posture with the fixed forward shoulder at 45°, elbow at 90° and a neutral position of the wrist and forearm for all participants. Conclusions. Higher values of GS were attained in standing postures which may result in attainment of higher performance levels by the workers. The outcomes justify the importance of correct postures during manual work in industries employing traditional methods.     

Emerging applications of green coconut: A promising lignocellulosic biomass

Waste accumulation is a grave concern and becoming a transboundary challenge for environment. During Covid-19 pandemic, diverse type of waste were collected due to different practices employed in order to fight back the transmission rate of the virus. Covid-19 was proved to be capricious catastrophe of this 20th century and even not completely eradicated from the world. The havoc created by this imperceptible quick witted, pleomorphic deadly virus can't be ignored. Though a number of vaccines have been developed by the scientists but there is a fear of getting this virus again in our life. Medical studies prove that immunity drinks will help to reduce its reoccurrences. Coconut water is widely used among all drinks available globally. Its massive consumption created an incalculable pile of green coconut shells around the different corners of the world. This practice generating enormous problem of space acquisition for the environment. Both the environment and public health will benefit from an evaluation of quantity of coconut waste that is being thrown and its potential to generate value added products. With this context, present article has been planned to study different aspects like, coconut waste generation, its biological properties and environmental hazards associated with its accumulation. Additionally, this review illustrates, green technologies for production of different value added products from coconut waste.     

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.     

神农架主峰南坡猕猴桃种质资源调查及保护策略

巴东县北部神农架主峰南坡的送子园原始森林保护区内具有种类繁多的猕猴桃种质资源，经调查发现共分布有中华猕猴桃（A.chiensis)、美味猕猴桃（A.deliciosa)、革叶猕猴桃(A．rubricalis var.coriacea)、葛枣猴桃(A．ploygama)、京梨猕猴桃(A．callosa var．henryi)、软枣猕猴桃(A．arguta)、巴东猕猴桃(A．tetramera var.badongenisis)、紫果猕猴桃(A．arguta var.purpurea)及紫果新变型、绵毛藤山柳(Clematoclthra lanosa)10种(包括变种、变型)。简述了各种类的植物学性状和果实经济性状，种质资源分布的主要特点以及生态环境，指出由于砍伐森林和环境条件的恶化使猕猴桃资源已受到威胁和破坏，提出保护策略的重点是提高全民的生态保护意识；可持续开发利用资源；加大科技对猕猴桃资源保护支撑的力度。其主要保育措施：一是在保护区内就地进一步加强物种全面保护；二是省级以上科研单位分区建立猕猴桃后种质资源圃，对濒危物种或持有物种进行迁地保护；三是开展超低温保存技术的研究，建立种子和花粉基因库。并建立完善与国际接轨的信息数据库平台，便于国际合作与交流。     

Methodological Basis of Ecological Safety Standards for the Technogenic Impact of Mineral Resource Exploitation

A new methodological approach to the development of biological and technological safety standards for the impact of underground mining on the natural biota is proposed.     

北京南部城区PM2.5中碳质组分特征

为了解《大气污染防治行动计划》实施后北京市大气PM_2.5中碳质组分特征,于2017年12月至2018年12月在北京污染较重的南部城区进行了PM_2.5连续采样,对其中的有机碳（OC）和元素碳（EC）进行了全面研究.结果表明,北京大气PM_2.5、OC和EC浓度变化范围分别为4.2~366.3、0.9~74.5和0.0~5.5 μg ·m^-3,平均浓度分别为（77.1±52.1）、（11.2±7.8）和（1.2±0.8）μg ·m^-3,碳质组分（OC和EC）整体占PM_2.5的16.1%.OC质量浓度季节特征表现为：冬季[（13.8±8.7）μg ·m^-3] > 春季[（12.7±9.6）μg ·m^-3] > 秋季[（11.8±6.2）μg ·m^-3] > 夏季[（6.5±2.1）μg ·m^-3],EC四季质量浓度水平均较低,范围为0.8~1.5 μg ·m^-3.二次有机碳（SOC）年均质量浓度为（5.4±5.8）μg ·m^-3,四季贡献比例范围为45.7%~52.3%,年均贡献为48.2%,凸显了二次形成的重要贡献.随污染加重,尽管OC和EC贡献比例均降低,但浓度水平却成倍升高,OC和EC浓度在严重污染天分别是空气质量为优天的6.3和3.2倍.与非供暖时段相比,供暖时段PM_2.5、OC和SOC浓度分别增加了14.4%、47.9%和72.1%,体现了OC对供暖季PM_2.5污染的重要贡献.PSCF分析表明,位于北京西南的山西省和河南省部分区域是PM_2.5和OC的主要潜在源区,且PM_2.5潜在源区更为集中;EC的PSCF高值（>0.7）区域较少,主要位于北京南部,如山东省和河南省部分地区,且北京市及周边地区贡献明显.