Can landscape properties predict occurrence of grey-sided voles?

There has been a long-term decline in spring and fall numbers of Clethrionomys rufocanus in boreal Sweden in 1971–2005. Previous studies on permanent sampling plots in the centre of 2.5 × 2.5 km landscapes suggested that habitat fragmentation (sensu destruction) could have contributed to the decline. Therefore, we tested these findings in a field study and compared trapping results on the central sampling plots of landscapes with a low degree of fragmentation (LDF) and of “hot spot” type with trapping results in managed forest landscapes with a high degree of fragmentation (HDF). We predicted that C. rufocanus would be more common on the LDF plots. We used our permanent plots supplemented with a new sample of plots, mainly of the rare LDF type, inside or just outside the long-term study area. Very few voles were trapped on both plot types, and no difference was found. However, a subsequent pilot study with trapping in a national park with large areas of pristine, unfragmented forest yielded more voles than in the managed, more fragmented, areas. Consequently, the initial field study data and some other recent data were also re-analysed from a “local patch quality” perspective. This alternative approach revealed the positive importance of large focal patches of forest >60 years old and their content of old-growth (pine) forest (>100 years). Interestingly, at the landscape level, the frequency distribution of patches of forest >60 years old, old-growth (>100 years), and especially of old-growth pine forest (>100 years), relative to the properties of plots with C. rufocanus, suggested that there are few forest patches left that are suitable for C. rufocanus. Our current results suggest that habitat fragmentation cannot be excluded as a contributing cause to the long-term decline of C. rufocanus in boreal Sweden.     

利用Ecopath模型评价鲢鳙放养对千岛湖生态系统的影响

“保水渔业”是中国控制"水华"暴发等生态灾变的措施之一，其结果存在较大的不确定性。在浙江省的新安江水库（千岛湖），"保水渔业"的实施带来了水质改善和渔业增产的双重效果。但在生态系统自组织层面，这种人工干预手段引起的生态系统结构化效应的研究，尚未真正展开。基于2008-2010年千岛湖的生态和渔业资源调查数据，应用EwE （V6.6）构建了2010年千岛湖生态系统的Ecopath模型，并将其与2004和2016年的模型进行对照，分析了千岛湖生态系统在鲢、鳙鱼放养下的变化。千岛湖生态系统在3个年份均为4个整合营养级，营养能流分布成典型的金字塔型，且营养流总量中流向碎屑的占比很大，营养级Ⅰ、Ⅱ的能量被利用得不够充分；除鲢、鳙鱼外大部分鱼类的生物量逐渐下降，浮游植物和碎屑的生物量增多；系统的初级生产力和规模得到了一定提升，但总体的能量转换效率有所降低。在一些和系统成熟度、复原力和稳定性密切相关的参数方面，总初级生产量/总呼吸量增加，Finn氏循环指数和Finn氏平均路径长度逐渐降低，3个年份的连接指数（CI）分别为0.223、0.219、0.263，系统杂食指数（SOI）分别为0.087、0.102和0.131。研究分析表明，长期的鲢、鳙鱼放养使千岛湖的食物网结构发生了较大的变动，生态系统的营养交互关系不够复杂，成熟度和稳定性有所下降。千岛湖作为一个由水库发展而来的淡水水体，食物网关系本身就较为简单。因此，未来需要避免过多的人为干扰，并基于生态学原理更系统地进行修复工作。     

Carbon emissions performance of commercial logging in East Kalimantan,Indonesia

Adoption of reduced‐impact logging (RIL) methods could reduce CO₂ emissions by 30–50% across at least 20% of remaining tropical forests. We developed two cost effective and robust indices for comparing the climate benefits (reduced CO₂ emissions) due to RIL. The indices correct for variability in the volume of commercial timber among concessions. We determined that a correction for variability in terrain slope was not needed. We found that concessions certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC, N = 3), when compared with noncertified concessions (N = 6), did not have lower overall CO₂ emissions from logging activity (felling, skidding, and hauling). On the other hand, FSC certified concessions did have lower emissions from one type of logging impact (skidding), and we found evidence of a range of improved practices using other field metrics. One explanation of these results may be that FSC criteria and indicators, and associated RIL practices, were not designed to achieve overall emissions reductions. Also, commonly used field metrics are not reliable proxies for overall logging emissions performance. Furthermore, the simple distinction between certified and noncertified concessions does not fully represent the complex history of investments in improved logging practices. To clarify the relationship between RIL and emissions reductions, we propose the more explicit term ‘RIL‐C’ to refer to the subset of RIL practices that can be defined by quantified thresholds and that result in measurable emissions reductions. If tropical forest certification is to be linked with CO₂ emissions reductions, certification standards need to explicitly require RIL‐C practices.     

Drought and the consequences of El Niño in Borneo: a case study of figs

Borneo has a perhumid climate but occasional severe droughts have an important impact. Droughts may affect the composition and size structure of plant communities through differential mortality or, via their impact on the availability of plant resources, affect plant–animal interactions. From January to April 1998, northern Borneo suffered a very severe drought linked to the El Niño Southern Oscillation event of 1997–1998. In this article, the impacts of this drought on the rain forest at Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, are considered with special reference to a keystone plant group, the figs. Small fires entered the edge of the forest from the roadside, killing saplings, climbers, and understory trees. Community-wide mortality for adult trees was 0–7 times higher than in nondrought years, with larger trees showing a greater proportional increase. In figs, mortality was significantly higher in pioneers, but hemiepiphytes and roadside species were unaffected. Phenology was substantially affected. Leaf and flower/fruit production decreased or ceased during the drought and increased suddenly following renewed rain. Pollinators of dioecious figs became locally extinct during the drought, and other plant–animal interactions may also have been disrupted. The frequency and severity of droughts has increased substantially in the past three decades, and climate models suggest this may be the result of global warming. The impacts of the 1998 drought at Lambir Hills National Park suggest that, should this trend continue, a substantial alteration of habitats and overall loss of biodiversity can be expected in Borneo.     

A Molecular and Fitness Evaluation of Commercially Available versus Locally Collected Blue Lupine Lupinus perennis L. Seeds for Use in Ecosystem Restoration Efforts

Dependence on wild seed sources is often impractical for large‐scale habitat restoration programs. Reliance on commercial seed supplies of unknown provenance and fitness is thereby warranted. Little consideration has been given, however, to how the large volumes of seed required should be sourced. We evaluated commercial and locally collected seed sources for potential use in a New York State‐based, landscape‐scale program for restoring blue lupine Lupinus perennis. Through analysis of microsatellite markers we determined that “native” lupine designations by some commercial suppliers were in fact interspecific hybrids and therefore unreliable; at least two commercial sources, however, were genetically as close to native New York populations as native New York populations were to one other. Common garden experiments revealed that seed source influenced first‐year overwintering survival and subsequent height growth of surviving plants; seed sources more closely related genetically to native New York populations survived better and produced more stems per individual in the field in the area targeted for restoration. We conclude that (1) commercial suppliers often but not always offer reliably characterized seed sources of sufficient genetic similarity to native populations to warrant their use in restoration projects and (2) genetic affinity of potential seed stock to native populations is positively related to its fitness in the environment targeted for restoration.     

Área de Conservación Guanacaste,northwestern Costa Rica: Converting a tropical national park to conservation via biodevelopment

The ~30,000 hectare classical Costa Rican Parque Nacional Santa Rosa has used about 35 years and $107 million to be converted to the 169,000 ha government-NGO hybrid Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG). This semi-decentralized conservation entity has today a staff of ~150 paraprofessional resident Costa Ricans, biodeveloping at least 650,000 multicellular species (Eucaryotes) into perpetuity for ACG survival through being integrated with its local, regional, national, and international society. ACG began in 1985 as an ongoing exercise of landscape-level ecosystem rescue and restoration of a continuous swath from 6 km out in the Pacific ocean, across dry forested lowlands, up and over the volcanic Cordillera Guanacaste, and down into the rain-forested Caribbean lowlands. It is being impacted by climate change, yet its diverse ecosystems hold hope for major biodiversity survival, albeit in new community assemblages. It quickly became simultaneously a biophysical challenge and an administratively novel challenge in decentralized conservation in a democratic tropical country. ACG specializes at being managed by on-the-job stimulated and trained residents with minimal formal education, searching for ways to involve ACG in its society without damaging its wildness, and pioneering ways to render wild biodiversity to being a welcome member at society's negotiating table. It continues to pay its bills through government subsidy, generous donors, payments for services, project grants, and huge in-kind contributions from mutualisms. ACG hopes that the concept will spread south–south to other tropical countries while they still have some of their wild biodiversity with which to integrate.     

Modelling biomass of mountainous grasslands by including a species composition map

High mountain grasslands offer multiple goods and services to society but are severely threatened by improper land use practices such as abandonment or rapid intensification. In order to reduce abandonment and strengthen the common extensive agricultural practice a sustainable land use management of high mountain grasslands is needed. A spatially detailed yield assessment helps to identify possible meadows or, on the contrary, areas with a low carrying capacity in a region, making it easier to manage these sites. Such assessments are rarely available for remote and inaccessible areas. Remotely sensed vegetation indices are able to provide valuable information on grassland properties. These indices tend, however, to saturate for high biomass. This affects their applicability to assessments of high-yield grasslands.The main aim of this study was to model a spatially explicit grassland yield map and to test whether saturation issues can be tackled by consideration of plant species composition in the modelling process. The high mountain grassland of the subalpine belt (1800 – 2500 m a.s.l.) in the Kazbegi region, Greater Caucasus, Georgia, was chosen as test site for its strong species composition and yield gradients.We first modelled the species composition of the grassland described as metrically scaled gradients in the form of ordination axes by random forest regression. We then derived vegetation indices from Rapid Eye imagery, and topographic variables from a digital elevation model, which we used together with the multispectral bands as predictive variables. For comparison, we performed two yield models, one excluding the species composition maps and one including the species composition map as predictors. Moreover, we performed a third individual model, with species composition as predictors and a split dataset, to produce the final yield map.Three main grassland types were found in the vegetation analysis: Hordeum violaceum-meadows, Gentianella caucasea-grassland and Astragalus captiosus-grassland. The three random forest regression models for the ordination axes explained 64%, 33% and 46% of the variance in species composition. Independent validation of modelled ordination scores against a validation data set resulted in an R² of 0.64, 0.32 and 0.46 for the first, second and third axes, respectively. The model based on species composition resulted in a R² = 0.55, whereas the benchmark model showed weaker relationships between yield and the multispectral reflectance, vegetation indices, and topographical parameters (R² = 0.42). The final random forest yield model used to derive the yield map resulted in 62% variance explained and an R² = 0.64 between predicted and observed biomass. The results further indicate that high yields are generally difficult to predict with both models.The benefit of including a species composition map as a predictor variable for grassland yield lies in the preservation of ecologically meaningful features, especially the occurrence of high yielding vegetation type of Hordeum violaceum meadows is depicted accurately in the map. Even though we used a gradient based design, sharp boundaries or immediate changes in productivity were visible, especially in small structures such as arable fields or roads (Fig. 6b), making it a valuable tool for sustainable land use management. The saturation effect however, was mitigated by using species composition as predictor variables but is still present at high yields.