甘肃金水湖国家湿地公园景观自然性的时空异质性

景观自然性体现了各景观要素的时空分布格局,对提高生态系统的整体性和稳定性有重要意义.通过解译2003年、2009年和2015年3个时相的遥感影像,利用GIS和层次分析法,研究了甘肃金川金水湖国家湿地公园景观自然性变化规律.结果表明:随着时间的变化,景观结构中景观多样性指数、均匀度指数、斑块丰富度呈增加趋势,景观优势度、景观分离度呈减小趋势;提供栖息地、植物群落维持功能、面积加权平均斑块分维数、植被覆盖度等生态功能指标呈增大趋势;人工干扰指数、人工景观平均面积等生态学干扰指标呈减小趋势,湿地公园的景观自然性指数由2003年的0.4761增加至2015年的0.7485.湿地公园保育和恢复工程的实施改变了土地覆被结构,增强了生态系统的稳定性、生态弹性和服务价值,较大程度上提高了金水湖国家湿地公园的景观自然性.     

青海东部人工生态公益林近自然经营的林分结构调整

依据研究区5种典型人工林近自然状况,以人工生态公益林的近自然经营管理为目标,提出林分结构调整策略与方法。主要从林分结构、物种组成、年龄及枯死木几个方面考虑选取了垂直结构、水平结构、草本盖度及其多样性、天然更新、物种多样性、组成系数、直径分布、枯木比例、健康木比例10个指标,应用基于单位圆的π值法则,采取定性与定量相结合的方法,对5种林分的近自然状态做出评价并依据评价结果提出相应改造措施。青海云杉-白桦混交林（ω_PB=0.4786）属于远近自然林分,此类林分在密度合理的情况下无需过多人为抚育;青杨-白桦混交林（ω_BP=0.2664）属于近人工林,此类林分以伐除病虫害严重的青杨、调整密度和补植青海云杉为主;青海云杉-青杨混交林（ω_PP=0.2283）属于近人工林,此类林分以伐除病虫害严重的青杨、调整密度和补植白桦为主;青海云杉-落叶松混交林（ω_PL=0.1872）属于人工林,此类林分以调整密度和补植白桦为主;青海云杉纯林（ω_P=0.0190）属于人工林,此类林分以调整密度和营造杉桦混交林为主。通过近自然度评价与分析,为当地近自然经营提供了直观可靠的依据。在进行林分结构调整时,首先通过伐除干扰木来调整林分密度,其次要营造针阔混交林分,其中以青海云杉和白桦混交林为主要目标林分。     

次生林概念与生态干扰度

近一个世纪强烈的人为干扰使世界范围内的原始林面积锐减,次生林已成为中国乃至世界森林资源的主体.虽然在文献与现实中"次生林（Secondary forest）"被广泛使用,但次生林的概念在各个国家,甚至同一国家或地区以及各种不同文献中存在相互矛盾的情况,这给次生林研究与经营实践带来诸多不便;而不准确的次生林定义也为与各个层次的决策制定者及公众之间的交流带来了障碍.本文在查阅大量国内外关于次生林概念文献的基础上,结合近年来关于次生林生态与经营研究实践,综合分析了次生林概念的不确定性,同意以往次生林定义中的基本内涵,并认为：次生林是由于人为破坏性干扰或异常自然干扰使原始林固有的林分结构、物种组成或基本功能发生了显著变化,经过天然更新或人工诱导天然更新恢复形成的林分.但该定义中仍存在着很多不确定性, 如:怎样的干扰为"人为破坏性干扰"和"异常自然干扰";"林分结构、物种组成或基本功能"发生了怎样的变化为"显著变化";"人工诱导天然更新"中"人工"参与的成分比例如何等.次生林概念是在20世纪初由植物演替学家提出,当时未考虑干扰的持续性;而实际上,无论是次生林还是原始林,均是森林生态系统演替过程中的某一状态,在现代森林生态系统研究中,应重新规范"次生林"的概念.考虑到"次生林"定义的不确定性或困难性,建议使用"森林自然度"或"森林生态系统成熟度"或"森林干扰度"来表达现实森林所处的状态,但该方面的研究与实践尚需加强.     

Do factors describing forest naturalness predict the occurrence and abundance of middle spotted woodpecker in different forest landscapes?

Conservation biologists often use some specialized species as surrogates for communicating conservation needs, e.g. to signal states and changes in ecosystem. This requires a detailed knowledge of a species’ habitat demands and relationship between its occurrence and abundance, and certain environmental conditions. This paper explores the relationship between the occurrence and abundance of middle spotted woodpecker (Leiopicus medius) and structural, compositional, and functional elements of forest naturalness in three different forest landscapes in Poland, which encompass a wide spectrum of species’ habitats. Neither compositional nor functional elements of forest naturalness seemed to affect species’ distribution. In all studied areas, environmental variables related to the structural elements of forest naturalness, e.g. the share of old and uneven-aged stands, number of large living trees, positively influenced the occurrence and abundance of middle spotted woodpecker. Mature, unevenly structured forests might occur as a result of sustainable forest management, aimed at preserving the continuity of old stands and the maintenance of diverse age and species’ structure, providing suitable habitat condition for the species. Therefore, both presence and abundance of middle spotted woodpeckers can serve as indicators of wildlife-friendly forest management in deciduous forests.     

Where are Europe’s last primary forests?

Aim

Primary forests have high conservation value but are rare in Europe due to historic land use. Yet many primary forest patches remain unmapped, and it is unclear to what extent they are effectively protected. Our aim was to (1) compile the most comprehensive European‐scale map of currently known primary forests, (2) analyse the spatial determinants characterizing their location and (3) locate areas where so far unmapped primary forests likely occur.

Location

Europe.

Methods

We aggregated data from a literature review, online questionnaires and 32 datasets of primary forests. We used boosted regression trees to explore which biophysical, socio‐economic and forest‐related variables explain the current distribution of primary forests. Finally, we predicted and mapped the relative likelihood of primary forest occurrence at a 1‐km resolution across Europe.

Results

Data on primary forests were frequently incomplete or inconsistent among countries. Known primary forests covered 1.4 Mha in 32 countries (0.7% of Europe’s forest area). Most of these forests were protected (89%), but only 46% of them strictly. Primary forests mostly occurred in mountain and boreal areas and were unevenly distributed across countries, biogeographical regions and forest types. Unmapped primary forests likely occur in the least accessible and populated areas, where forests cover a greater share of land, but wood demand historically has been low.

Main conclusions

Despite their outstanding conservation value, primary forests are rare and their current distribution is the result of centuries of land use and forest management. The conservation outlook for primary forests is uncertain as many are not strictly protected and most are small and fragmented, making them prone to extinction debt and human disturbance. Predicting where unmapped primary forests likely occur could guide conservation efforts, especially in Eastern Europe where large areas of primary forest still exist but are being lost at an alarming pace.     

Life Cycle Impact assessment of land use based on the hemeroby concept

The impact category ‘land use’ describes in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology the environmental impacts of occupying, reshaping and managing land for human purposes. Land use can either be the long-term use of land (e.g. for arable farming) or changing the type of land use (e.g. from natural to urban area). The impact category ‘land use’ comprises those environmental consequences, which impact the environment due to the land use itself, for instance through the reduction of landscape elements, the planting of monocultures or artificial vegetation, or the sealing of surfaces. Important environmental consequences of land use are the decreasing availability of habitats and the decreasing diversity of wildlife species. The assessment of the environmental impacts of land use within LCA studies is the objective of this paper. Land use leads to a degradation of the naturalness of the area utilised. In this respect the naturalness of any area can be defined as the sum of land actually not influenced by humans and the remaining naturalness of land under use. To determine the remaining naturalness of land under use, this study suggests applying the Hemeroby concept. “Hemeroby is a measure for the human influence on ecosystems” (Kowarik 1999). The Hemeroby level of an area describes the intensity of land use and can therefore be used to characterise different types of land use. Characterization factors are proposed, which allow calculating the degradation of the naturalness of an area due to a specific type of land use. Since the resource ‘nature/naturalness’ is on a larger geographical scale by far not homogeneous, the assessment of land use needs to be regionalised. Therefore, the impact category ‘land use’ has been subdivided into the impact sub-categories ‘land use in European biogeographic regions’. Following the general LCA framework, normalization values for the impact sub-categories are calculated in order to facilitate the evaluation of the characterization results with regard to their share in a reference value. Weighting factors, which enable an aggregation of the results of the different land use sub-categories and make them comparable to other impact categories (e.g. climate change or acidification) are suggested based on the assumption that the current land use pattern in the European biogeographic regions is acceptable.     

北京城市及近郊区环境结构对鸟类的影响

本文研究了北京市区及近郊环境结构与四季鸟类群落的关系,用相对数量路线调查法估计了鸟类的实际分布。环境结构分为面积和空间异质性两个主要因素,后者又包括自然度和环境多样性两个方面。结果表明,空间异质性对鸟类物种数及多样性有显著的影响,其中自然度的作用较环境多样性的作用更为显著。“边缘效应”是由于环境多样造成的。当空间异质性较高时,面积对鸟类物种数的影响是明显的。由于城市环境的空间异质性较低,由少数优势种决定了鸟类群落特征。为改善城市环境结构,建议增加绿化面积,丰富植被层次及物种组成,同时在北京城市环境中适当增加各种形式的水体。     

Responses of plant community mycorrhization to anthropogenic influence depend on the habitat and mycorrhizal type

Anthropogenic impact represents a major pressure on ecosystems, yet little is known about how it affects symbiotic relationships, such as mycorrhizal symbiosis, which plays a crucial role in ecosystem functioning. We analyzed the effects of three human impact types – increasing urbanity, introduction of alien plant species (alienness) and modifications in plant species distribution ranges (as a proxy for naturalness) – on plant community overall mycorrhization (including arbuscular, ecto‐, ericoid and orchid mycorrhizal plants) and arbuscular mycorrhization (indicating the degree of forming mycorrhizal symbiosis at plant community level using the relative abundance of mycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal plants, respectively). The study was carried out in three habitat types, each dominated by a distinct mycorrhizal type – ectomycorrhizal woodlands, ericoid mycorrhizal heathlands and arbuscular mycorrhizal grasslands – at the regional scale in the Netherlands. The response of community mycorrhization and arbuscular mycorrhization to anthropogenic influence showed contrasting patterns, depending on the specific aspect of human impact. Community mycorrhization responded negatively to urbanity and positively to increasing alienness, while arbuscular mycorrhization showed the reverse trend. More natural heathlands were found to be more mycorrhizal and less arbuscular mycorrhizal. The strongest responses were detected in woodlands and heathlands, while mycorrhization in grasslands was relatively insensitive to human impact. Our study highlights the importance of considering mycorrhizal symbiosis in understanding and quantifying the effects of anthropogenic influence on plant communities, especially in woodlands and heathlands.