An economic experiment reveals that humans prefer pool punishment to maintain the commons

Punishment can stabilize costly cooperation and ensure the success of a common project that is threatened by free-riders. Punishment mechanisms can be classified into pool punishment, where the punishment act is carried out by a paid third party, (e.g. a police system or a sheriff), and peer punishment, where the punishment act is carried out by peers. Which punishment mechanism is preferred when both are concurrently available within a society? In an economic experiment, we show that the majority of subjects choose pool punishment, despite being costly even in the absence of defectors, when second-order free-riders, cooperators that do not punish, are also punished. Pool punishers are mutually enforcing their support for the punishment organization, stably trapping each other. Our experimental results show how organized punishment could have displaced individual punishment in human societies.     

Indirect reciprocity can overcome free-rider problems on costly moral assessment

Indirect reciprocity is one of the major mechanisms of the evolution of cooperation. Because constant monitoring and accurate evaluation in moral assessments tend to be costly, indirect reciprocity can be exploited by cost evaders. A recent study crucially showed that a cooperative state achieved by indirect reciprocators is easily destabilized by cost evaders in the case with no supportive mechanism. Here, we present a simple and widely applicable solution that considers pre-assessment of cost evaders. In the pre-assessment, those who fail to pay for costly assessment systems are assigned a nasty image that leads to them being rejected by discriminators. We demonstrate that considering the pre-assessment can crucially stabilize reciprocal cooperation for a broad range of indirect reciprocity models. In particular for the most leading social norms, we analyse the conditions under which a prosocial state becomes locally stable.     

锦界生态工业园水资源系统动力学仿真与调控

如何合理开发利用水资源,保护区域生态环境,实现人与自然的和谐发展,是当今世界所面临的共同问题.以陕北锦界生态工业园水资源系统为例,在分析系统结构的基础上,构建了水资源系统动力学模型,确定水技术进步因子、水资源循环利用率、污水处理投资率、万元产值年耗水量、日人均用水量为调控参数,进行仿真模拟.结果表明,当水技术进步因子由1提高到1.6,水资源循环利用率由0.45提高到0.85,污水处理投资率由0.18提高到0.25,万元产值年耗水量由236.8 t·a-1降为175.4 t·a-1,日人均用水量由0.18 t·d-1降为0.12 t·d-1时,园区工业总产值增长率5年可达到44.4%,水资源存量年均增幅为0.03%,水资源供需比为2.25,系统达到相对最优状态.     

Lattice models in ecology and social sciences

Random matching between individuals, or the complete-mixing model, is often assumed in analyzing evolutionary or population dynamics in ecology and game theory or other models in social sciences. Making and analyzing a model is not difficult under this simple assumption. However spatial- or network-structured populations, including the lattice model and the power-law network, are more realistic for many ecological and social phenomena than the complete-mixing model. In this review, I will show first that a lattice model can be useful in investigating the effect of neighborhood interactions on the dynamics, not only of plants and forests, but also of animal and human societies. Second, the lattice model promotes the evolution of spiteful behavior, even though it is well-known that the lattice model promotes the evolution of cooperation. Finally, different social networks result in traits, such as social norms, spreading at different speeds.     

Fish and fisheries in hot water: What is happening and how do we adapt?

Rapid climate changes are currently driving substantial reorganizations of marine ecosystems around the world. A key question is how these changes will alter the provision of ecosystem services from the ocean, particularly from fisheries. To answer this question, we need to understand not only the ecological dynamics of marine systems, but also human adaptation and feedbacks between humans and the rest of the natural world. In this review, we outline what we have learned from research primarily in continental shelf ecosystems and fishing communities of North America. Key findings are that marine animals are highly sensitive to warming and are responding quickly to changes in water temperature, and that such changes are often happening faster than similar processes on land. Changes in species distributions and productivity are having substantial impacts on fisheries, including through changing catch compositions and longer distances traveled for fishing trips. Conflicts over access to fisheries have also emerged as species distributions are no longer aligned with regulations or catch allocations. These changes in the coupled natural-human system have reduced the value of ecosystem services from some fisheries and risk doing so even more in the future. Going forward, substantial opportunities for more effective fisheries management and operations, marine conservation, and marine spatial planning are likely possible through greater consideration of climate information over time-scales from years to decades.     

Preservation or degradation? Communal management and ecological change in a southeast Michigan forest

Local communities play an increasingly important role in the management and conservation of forests at local and global scales. Conventional analyses of community forest management tend to view the outcomes of these efforts, as with common pool resources (CPRs) more generally, as contingent on the ability of local institutions to control collective levels of extractive use and enforce group rules. This paper provides a case study of a community forest in southern Michigan, in the Midwestern United States, that challenges these assumptions about community-based forest management. The factors driving change in this forest are not tied to excessive extraction or disturbance by human agents but rather the proliferation of shade-tolerant invasive species. The community institutions and values that made it possible for the forest to grow and mature now threaten its very existence. By discouraging any form of active management, the forest has become susceptible to the growing pressures of human-induced environmental change such as the introduction of exotic plant species. Biodiversity conservation in such contexts consequently relies not only on restraining local forest utilization practices or the preservation of land from development, but on active management interventions by local forest users. Understanding the impact of community management on CPRs in human-dominated ecosystems will require broadening the scope of analysis to account for the importance of active management and the potentially deleterious effects of preservationist approaches on native biota.

Social observation increases deontological judgments in moral dilemmas

A concern for positive reputation is one of the core motivations underlying various social behaviors in humans. The present study investigated how experimentally induced reputation concern modulates judgments in moral dilemmas. In a mixed-design experiment, participants were randomly assigned to the observed vs. the control group and responded to a series of trolley-type moral dilemmas either in the presence or absence of observers, respectively. While no significant baseline difference in personality traits and moral decision tendency were found across two groups of participants, our analyses revealed that social observation promoted deontological judgments especially for moral dilemmas involving direct bodily harm (i.e., personal moral dilemmas), yet with an overall decrease in decision confidence and significant prolongation of reaction time. Moreover, participants in the observed group, but not in the control group, showed the increased sensitivities towards warmth vs. competence traits words in the lexical decision task performed after the moral dilemma task. Our findings suggest that reputation concern, once triggered by the presence of potentially judgmental others, could activate a culturally dominant norm of warmth in various social contexts. This could, in turn, induce a series of goal-directed processes for self-presentation of warmth, leading to increased deontological judgments in moral dilemmas. The results of the present study provide insights into the reputational consequences of moral decisions that merit further exploration.     

Remarks on the number of persistent states to a fragmented predator–prey model system

We consider a predator–prey model system for spatially distributed species over patches. Each predator species has a unique preferred patch (shelter and reproduction site) and travel for chasing prey. Its individuals are split into resident from the preferred patch and travelers. Further there is at most one resident predator species per patch. Depending on the availability of local anthropized resources not related to local prey on the preferred patch, one distinguishes between well-fed and starving predators. We assume prey species do not disperse at the predator scale.In this study we are interested in the number of persistent stationary states for the resulting ordinary differential equations model system. There exists at most one persistent predator–prey stationary state when there is exactly one starving resident predators per patch provided all functional responses to predation are Lotka–Volterra like or when a single starving resident predators is available. Else multiple persistent predator–prey stationary state are likely to exist. A specific emphasis is put on toy-model systems with 2 or 3 patches. Slow–fast dynamical methodology is also used for locally asymptotically stable purposes.Numerical experiments suggest that several scalings may govern the dynamics at stabilization.     

普通菜豆种质资源遗传多样性研究进展

普通菜豆于15世纪从美洲直接引入中国,作为重要的食用豆类作物之一,在我国的许多地区广泛种植。本文对普通菜豆的起源、驯化、传播以及遗传多样性研究等方面的进展进行综述,并根据普通菜豆育种和生产中存在的问题及今后的研究方向提出一些建议,旨在为普通菜豆的种质收集保存以及合理利用提供参考。     

丹江口水库鲤肠道寄生蠕虫群落结构与季节动态

2004年2月到2005年11月在丹江口水库库区206尾鲤(Cyprinus carpio)肠道中检获蠕虫11种,其中复殖吸虫3种,线虫5种,棘头虫2种,绦虫1种。总体感染率为45.63%,平均感染丰度为4.23±12.65,平均感染强度为9.29±17.48,其中饭岛盾腹吸虫(Aspidogaster ijimai)的总感染率(25.24%)和平均感染丰度(1.76±6.46)最大,瓣睾鲫吸虫(Carassatrema lamellorchis)的感染强度(25.00±46.68)最大。除部分平均感染丰度较低的线虫如鲤带巾线虫(Cucullanus cyprini)外,其他蠕虫的分布类型均为聚集分布,蠕虫群落多样性指数为4.63,均匀度指数为0.60,对群落多样性的季节动态分析表明,各季节群落多样性和均匀度波动较大,并无明显变化规律。每尾鲤感染蠕虫种数多在1—4种之间,所有感染的11种蠕虫中优势种为饭岛盾腹吸虫;次优势种为日本侧殖吸虫(Asymphylodora japonica)、中华许氏绦虫(Khawia sinensis)、瓣睾棘吸虫和鲤长棘吻虫(Rhadinarhynchus cyprini);非优势种为对盲囊线虫(Contracaecum sp.)、鲤带巾线虫、鲤杆咽吸虫(Rhabdochona cyprini)、黄颡刺盖线虫(Spinitectus gigi)、毛细线虫(Capillaria sp.)和木村小棘吻虫(Micracanthorhynchina motomurai)。在种间协调关系方面,鲤杆咽线虫和瓣睾鲫吸虫、鲤长棘吻虫和饭岛盾腹吸虫、对盲囊线虫和木村小棘吻虫、鲤长棘吻虫和木村小棘吻虫之间分别存在显著正关联。对优势种和次优势种蠕虫中种群的季节动态分析表明,鲤寄生蠕虫各组分的感染率和平均感染丰度存在显著的季节差异,在秋、冬季节的感染水平普遍比较高,而到春夏则急剧下降,但中华许氏绦虫无显著季节变化。     

Climate change – Bad news for montane forest herb layer species?

Global warming presents a threat to plant species distributed at montane or alpine altitudes if the topography does not allow upward shifts in distribution ranges. Nevertheless, the species might also benefit from increasing temperatures and secondary effects on dominant species (e.g. bark beetle outbreaks or summer drought affecting the canopy species). As a consequence, disturbance frequency in montane forests might increase and light availability for herb layer species will increase. We addressed these interactions in a common garden experiment in Central Germany at different altitudes, representing cold and moist vs. warm and dry conditions. We investigated three montane species with different life forms, including a herb (Trientalis europaea), a grass (Calamagrostis villosa) and a dwarf shrub (Vaccinium myrtillus) under three shading treatments (3%, 28% and 86% of full sunlight). We hypothesized that montane species are at a disadvantage in the lowland, with the dwarf shrub suffering more than the grass. Furthermore, we hypothesized an antagonistic interaction of increased temperature and increased light conditions. While T. europaea and V. myrtillus showed only slightly responses to low altitude conditions, C. villosa displayed a nearly fifteen fold increase in biomass production, despite higher observed herbivory levels in the lowland. We failed to show an antagonistic effect of increased temperature and increased light availability, as all study species suffered from deep shade conditions and grew best under full light conditions at both sites. In conclusion, both improved temperature and light conditions might be principally beneficial for the investigated boreal species, in particular for the grass species C. villosa.     

我国水资源生态足迹分析与预测

生态足迹模型的提出为水资源可持续利用的定量评价提供了新思路.通过构建水资源生态足迹和水资源生态承载力的计算模型,对我国1949～2007年水资源的可持续利用状况作出了客观的评价,并运用ARIMA模型对我国水资源生态足迹变动趋势作出深入的研究.结果表明,1949～2007年,我国人均水资源生态承载力总体上呈下降态势,而人均水资源生态足迹则逐年上升,从而造成人均水资源生态赤字逐渐增大,我国水资源处于一种不安全状态.运用ARIMA(2,1,3)模型的预测结果表明,2008～2012年,我国人均水资源生态足迹将继续呈上升态势,水危机形势将日益严峻.在此基础上,针对我国水资源的可持续利用问题提出了一组政策建议.     

False friends are worse than bitter enemies: “Altruistic” punishment of in-group members

One of the most critical features of human society is the pervasiveness of cooperation in social and economic exchanges. Moreover, social scientists have found overwhelming evidence that such cooperative behavior is likely to be directed toward in-group members. We propose that the group-based nature of cooperation includes punishment behavior. Punishment behavior is used to maintain cooperation within systems of social exchange and, thus, is directed towards members of an exchange system. Because social exchanges often take place within groups, we predict that punishment behavior is used to maintain cooperation in the punisher's group. Specifically, punishment behavior is directed toward in-group members who are found to be noncooperators. To examine this, we conducted a gift-giving game experiment with third-party punishment. The results of the experiment (N=90) support the following hypothesis: Participants who are cooperative in a gift-giving game punish noncooperative in-group members more severely than they punish noncooperative out-group members.     

海洋生态资本理论框架下海洋生物资源的存量评估

海洋生态资本是能够直接或间接作用于人类社会经济生产、提供有用的产品流或服务流的海洋生态资源。海洋生态资源包括海洋生物资源及其生境资源。海洋生态资源的存量价值由海洋生物资源存量价值和海洋生境资源存量价值构成。针对我国海洋生物资源的特征,在海洋生态资本理论框架下,提出了鱼类、贝类、甲壳类、头足类、大型海藻等主要海洋生物资源的存量价值评估技术方法,包括物质量评估和价值量评估。探讨了海洋生物资源单位价格确定、评估价值修正、评估方法的适用性、成本扣除等问题。     

城市水资源生态足迹核算模型及应用——以沈阳市为例

水资源生态足迹可以直接反映区域人类社会经济活动对水资源的压力.本研究在现有的生态足迹模型基础上,充分考虑城市自然生态系统对水资源的需求,建立了包括居民日常生活用水、生产运营用水、公共服务用水和生态需水4类帐户的城市水资源生态足迹核算模型,并结合沈阳市实际情况,确定了模型中的相关参数,对沈阳市水资源生态足迹和生态承载力进行分析.结果表明:2000-2009年,沈阳市人均水资源生态足迹总体呈下降态势,但各年度均为水生态赤字;2005年较2000年水资源生态足迹人均下降0.31 hm2,2006、2007年有小幅回升,2008、2009年趋于平稳,说明沈阳市水资源可持续利用状况有一定改善,但仍处于不可持续状态.