基于道路廊道的辽宁省旅游景区(点)空间格局分析

在分析辽宁省内旅游景(区)点和人口分布的空间格局的基础上,以双休日出游游程为服务距离,基于公路交通网络创建各主要城市的旅游区域和各旅游景区(点)的服务区域,揭示辽宁省内旅游景区(点)和人口之间的空间关系。结果表明,旅游景区(点)空间格局以一个旅游重点发展区域和一条滨海廊道热线为特征,重点发展“金三角区”由沈阳、大连、丹东3个重要城市节点和贯穿9个主要城市的3条旅游黄金廊道构成;辽西旅游廊道热线由盘锦和葫芦岛为主体的滨海廊道构成;辽宁省的14个地级市市区,特别是中部城市群成为省内旅游客源的主体;城市旅游域内景区(点)较多的城市也集中于金三角廊道;人口分布和旅游景区(点)的空间分布重心基本吻合。省内9个国家级风景名胜区的200 km的服务区总面积占全省总面积的92.5%,各服务区面积1.00×106~7.00×106hm2,其中4处可为千万以上人口服务。各服务区所覆盖的城市数、总人口数和城市人口数,与该风景区在道路网络中的位置及其与周围城市的空间分布密切相关,省内各景区(点)的服务范围及服务人口数量均已达一定规模。     

Little evidence of a road‐effect zone for nocturnal,flying insects

Roads and traffic may be contributing to global declines of insect populations. The ecological effects of roads often extend far into the surrounding habitat, over a distance known as the road‐effect zone. The quality of habitat in the road‐effect zone is generally degraded (e.g., due to edge effects, noise, light, and chemical pollution) and can be reflected in species presence, abundance, or demographic parameters. Road‐effect zones have been quantified for some vertebrate species but are yet to be quantified for insects. Investigating the road‐effect zone for insects will provide a better understanding of how roads impact ecosystems, which is particularly important given the role insects play as pollinators, predators, and prey for other species. We quantified the road‐effect zone for nocturnal flying insects along three major freeways in agricultural landscapes in southeast Australia. We collected insects using light traps at six points along 2‐km transects perpendicular to each highway (n = 17). We sorted the samples into order, and dried and weighed each order to obtain a measure of dry biomass. Using regression models within a Bayesian framework of inference, we estimated the change in biomass of each order with distance from the road, while accounting for environmental variables such as temperature, moon phase, and vegetation structure. The biomass of nine of the ten orders sampled did not change with distance from the freeway. Orthoptera (i.e., grasshoppers and crickets) was the only order whose biomass increased with distance from the freeway. From our findings, we suggest that the impacts of roads on insects are unlikely extending into the surrounding landscape over a distance of 2 km. Therefore, if there are impacts of roads on insects, these are more likely to be concentrated at the road itself, or on finer taxonomic scales such as family or genus level.     

Estimating the Material Stock of Roads: The Vietnamese Case Study

This study is a pioneering effort to quantify the materials stocked in the road network of a developing country, Vietnam, and analyze its relationships to the country's recent economic development. National road networks function as capital and infrastructure investments that are necessary catalysts for countries’ development, while requiring the extraction of vast amounts of construction materials for expansion and maintenance causing environmental impacts. However, there has so far been little research on the subject, especially in developing countries. We compile material stock and flow accounts for Vietnam's roads from 2003 to 2013 on the national and provincial levels, finding that approximately 40% of the domestic consumption of construction materials is for expanding and maintaining the road network, and the materials stocked in the road network doubled from 1,321 million metric tons in 2003 to 2,660 million metric tons in 2012. Material stock growth rates closely resembled those of gross domestic product (GDP) in this period, suggesting a codependency of physical infrastructure development and economic development. On the provincial level, our results show local disparities in the stock and its capacity to support the transportation of passengers and freight, especially considering the surging growth of vehicles in urban centers. By showcasing the challenges of conducting a material flow and stock analysis in a developing country, this study not only sheds light on Vietnam's transportation material stock and its policy implications, but also serves as a case study for further work in similar countries.     

A comparative evaluation of models of cinnabar moth dynamics

Summary 1. A complex model of cinnabar moth dynamics proposed by Dempster and Lakhani (1979) with 23 parameters is reduced to a single equation with five parameters, and the behaviour of the reduced model shown to explain most features of the full model. 2. The efficiency of the full model is compared with the reduced model and with two even simpler models (the two parameter discrete logistic and a four parameter model based on a step-function for mortality) in their abilities to describe time series data of cinnabar moth population densities from Weeting Heath. Models with more parameters were not significantly better than few-parameter models in describing population trajectories. 3. Models that included a driving variable (in this case observed rainfall data) were no better at describing the data than simpler models without driving variables. It appears, therefore, that the routine inclusion of driving variables may be counterproductive, unless there is compelling empirical or theoretical evidence of their importance and the mode of action of the driving variables can be modelled mechanistically. For example, the regression model used to describe the relationship between rainfall and plant biomass in Dempster and Lakhani (1979), breaks down if rainfall is assumed to be constant, because there is no explicit model for the regulation of plant biomass. 4. The parameter values of the cinnabar-ragwort interaction suggest that cinnabar moth dynamics may be chaotic. Whether or not field data exhibit chaos or environmental stochasticity (or a mixture of both) is impossible to determine from inspection of time series data on population density. There is an urgent need for experimental and theoretical protocols to disentangle these two sources of population fluctuation.     

不同宽度林带对国道两侧农田水稻叶片和糙米中重金属含量的影响

以205国道淮安段具有5 m和20 m宽林带的路段为研究区域,对国道东西两侧200 m范围内农田水稻(Oryza sativa L.)叶片和糙米中Al、Fe、Cu、Zn、Cd、Cr、Ni和Pb含量及其与路侧距离的相关性进行了分析.结果表明:具5 m宽林带路段两侧稻叶和糙米中大多数重金属元素的含量呈现随路侧距离增加而减少的趋势,且峰值多出现在距路侧5～10m或20 m附近;其中,东侧稻叶中Cu、Cr和Ni含量及糙米中Al、Fe、Cu、Zn和Ni含量以及西侧稻叶中Cu和Pb含量及糙米中Cd和Pb含量与路侧距离呈显著或极显著负相关.具20m宽林带路段两侧稻叶和糙米中大多数重金属元素的含量并没有呈现随路侧距离增加而减少的趋势,且峰值多出现在距路侧20 m以外;只有东侧稻叶中Cr和Ni含量及糙米中Fe和Ni含量以及西侧糙米中Al和Cu含量与路侧距离呈显著或极显著负相关.具5m宽林带路段两侧稻叶和糙米中的重金属含量分布特征与无林带路段十分相似,而具20m宽林带路段两侧稻叶和糙米中的重金属含量较低,说明20 m宽林带对公路大气污染物有较明显的阻滞作用.根据研究结果,建议在公路两侧10～20 m范围内设置乔灌草结构模式的防护林带,并适当提高防护林中灌木的比例,保持乔木疏密适度.     

Driving forces for data exchange

The subgroup ‘Driving Forces for Data Exchange’ as part of the SETAC LCA Workgroup on Data Availability and Quality is finishing its final report with recommendations and guidelines to stimulate availability and exchange of LCI data. Activities in the past three years involved a literature review, interviews with LCI data publishers and stakeholder discussions. The final report will be part of a SETAC ‘Code of Life Cycle Inventory Practice’, dealing with LCI data availability and quality aspects in a broader sense.     

PAH contamination in road dust from a moderate city in North China: The significant role of traffic emission

To investigate the contamination level, distribution, possible source, and human exposure risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the urban traffic environment, 15 PAHs were measured in 34 road dust samples (particle size < 25 μm) collected from three grades of roads and park paths in Xinxiang, China. ΣPAHs concentrations ranged from 311 to 21200 ng g^?1, with a mean of 5890 ng g^?1 and decreased in the following order: main roads (7650 ng g^?1) > collector streets (7410 ng g^?1) > bypasses (2970 ng g^?1) > park paths (1570 ng g^?1), indicating that significant positive correlation existed between PAH contamination and traffic density. PAHs in all samples were dominantly composed of 4-ring PAHs, accounting for 44.8% of the total. Pyrene, fluoranthene, and chrysene were the predominant individual components and accounted for 14.7% (1.2–19.2%), 12.9% (3.3–20.3%), and 11.0% (2.5–18.6%) of ΣPAHs, respectively. The specific isomer ratios indicated that traffic emission was the dominant source of PAHs in road dust. The incremental lifetime cancer risk values showed that cancer risk from exposure to road dust–borne PAHs was acceptable for local residents in Xinxiang.     

Modeling connectivity to identify current and future anthropogenic barriers to movement of large carnivores: A case study in the American Southwest

This study sought to identify critical areas for puma (Puma concolor) movement across the state of Arizona in the American Southwest and to identify those most likely to be impacted by current and future human land uses, particularly expanding urban development and associated increases in traffic volume. Human populations in this region are expanding rapidly, with the potential for urban centers and busy roads to increasingly act as barriers to demographic and genetic connectivity of large‐bodied, wide‐ranging carnivores such as pumas, whose long‐distance movements are likely to bring them into contact with human land uses and whose low tolerance both for and from humans may put them at risk unless opportunities for safe passage through or around human‐modified landscapes are present. Brownian bridge movement models based on global positioning system collar data collected during bouts of active movement and linear mixed models were used to model habitat quality for puma movement; then, a wall‐to‐wall application of circuit theory models was used to produce a continuous statewide estimate of connectivity for puma movement and to identify pinch points, or bottlenecks, that may be most at risk of impacts from current and future traffic volume and expanding development. Rugged, shrub‐ and scrub‐dominated regions were highlighted as those offering high quality movement habitat for pumas, and pinch points with the greatest potential impacts from expanding development and traffic, although widely distributed, were particularly prominent to the north and east of the city of Phoenix and along interstate highways in the western portion of the state. These pinch points likely constitute important conservation opportunities, where barriers to movement may cause disproportionate loss of connectivity, but also where actions such as placement of wildlife crossing structures or conservation easements could enhance connectivity and prevent detrimental impacts before they occur.     

Evolution to environmental contamination ablates the circadian clock of an aquatic sentinel species

Environmental contamination is a common cause of rapid evolution. Recent work has shown that Daphnia pulex, an important freshwater species, can rapidly evolve increased tolerance to a common contaminant, sodium chloride (NaCl) road salt. While such rapid evolution can benefit organisms, allowing them to adapt to new environmental conditions, it can also be associated with unforeseen tradeoffs. Given that exposure to environmental contaminants can cause circadian disruption, we investigated whether the circadian clock was affected by evolving a tolerance to high levels of road salt. By tracking the oscillations of a putative clock gene, period, we demonstrated that D. pulex express per mRNA with approximately 20‐hr oscillations under control conditions. This putative circadian rhythm was ablated in response to high levels of salinity; populations adapted to high NaCl concentrations exhibited an ablation of period oscillation. Moreover, we showed that while gene expression is increased in several other genes, including clock, actin, and Na⁺/K⁺‐ATPase, upon the adaptation to high levels of salinity, per expression is unique among the genes we tracked in that it is the only gene repressed in response to salt adaptation. These results suggest that rapid evolution of salt tolerance occurs with the tradeoff of suppressed circadian function. The resultant circadian disruption may have profound consequences to individuals, populations, and aquatic food webs by affecting species interactions. In addition, our research suggests that circadian clocks may also be disrupted by the adaptation to other environmental contaminants.