Reverse influence of riparian buffer width on herbivorous and predatory Hemiptera

Insects are major contributors to farmland biodiversity, and their economic roles are also diverse. Many herbivorous species are crop pests, while predatory insects have the potential to act as biological controls against pests. Overall insect diversity has declined as a result of intensified agricultural practices. Riparian buffers may support insect populations in intensively cultivated areas, but their actual impact on the balance between harmful pests and beneficial predators is not known. It can be postulated that this impact may vary depending on the characteristics and location of the riparian buffer itself. We investigated the possibility that the biotic and abiotic attributes of agricultural riparian buffers adjoining crop fields and watercourses can explain the species composition of hemipteran assemblages. In particular, we were interested in the abundances of species belonging to the genus Nabis (generalist predators) and recognized and potential pests of cereal crops. Riparian buffer width and the presence or absence of woody plants were not associated with hemipteran species turnover among riparian buffers. In contrast, differences in the degree of dominance by grasses, in plant species turnover, and in which crop plant was cultivated in the adjacent field, explained a significant proportion of the variance in hemipteran species turnover. The abundance of predatory Nabis species increased with increasing riparian buffer width, whereas the abundance of recognized and potential crop pests decreased. The reverse patterns in the predatory and herbivorous Heteroptera suggest that increasing riparian buffer width might enhance biological control by Nabis predators.     

Biodiversity surrogate groups and conservation priority areas: birds of the Brazilian Cerrado

The choice of surrogates of biodiversity is an important aspect in conservation biology. The quantification of the coincidence in the spatial patterns of species richness and rarity between different groups and the vulnerability of groups are different approaches frequently considered to accomplish this task. However, a more appropriate approach is to verify the efficiency of priority networks selected using information from one group of organisms to capture the biodiversity of other groups. Using a deconstructive approach, the main purposes of this study were to evaluate the performance of some orders and families of birds in the Cerrado biome (a savanna-like biome) as surrogates of other bird groups, in a pairwise analysis, and to investigate the characteristics of these groups that predict the efficiency in representation of other groups. We used biogeographical data on bird orders or families with more than 10 species that occur in the Brazilian Cerrado. The best surrogate group was the Thamnophilidae. Moreover, this group is not the most specious, favouring further survey efforts that are necessary to verify the conservation value of areas at suitable scales. The majority of the species from this family are dependent on forest habitats, one of the characteristics that most influenced representativeness level, probably due to the spatial distribution of these habitats throughout the Brazilian Cerrado. Beta diversity patterns of the different groups also affected representativeness, and our analyses showed that the networks selected by a surrogate group will be more effective in the representation of other groups of species if their patterns of beta diversity (not richness) are correlated.     

Identifying priority areas for conservation: a global assessment for forest-dependent birds

Limited resources are available to address the world's growing environmental problems, requiring conservationists to identify priority sites for action. Using new distribution maps for all of the world's forest-dependent birds (60.6% of all bird species), we quantify the contribution of remaining forest to conserving global avian biodiversity. For each of the world's partly or wholly forested 5-km cells, we estimated an impact score of its contribution to the distribution of all the forest bird species estimated to occur within it, and so is proportional to the impact on the conservation status of the world's forest-dependent birds were the forest it contains lost. The distribution of scores was highly skewed, a very small proportion of cells having scores several orders of magnitude above the global mean. Ecoregions containing the highest values of this score included relatively species-poor islands such as Hawaii and Palau, the relatively species-rich islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the megadiverse Atlantic Forests and northern Andes of South America. Ecoregions with high impact scores and high deforestation rates (2000-2005) included montane forests in Cameroon and the Eastern Arc of Tanzania, although deforestation data were not available for all ecoregions. Ecoregions with high impact scores, high rates of recent deforestation and low coverage by the protected area network included Indonesia's Seram rain forests and the moist forests of Trinidad and Tobago. Key sites in these ecoregions represent some of the most urgent priorities for expansion of the global protected areas network to meet Convention on Biological Diversity targets to increase the proportion of land formally protected to 17% by 2020. Areas with high impact scores, rapid deforestation, low protection and high carbon storage values may represent significant opportunities for both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, for example through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) initiatives.     

河岸带对陆地水体氮素输入的截流转化作用

氮素是陆地水体的重要污染物之一,相邻高地土壤中的氮素经非点源途径通过河岸带进入水体.河岸带是高地和水体之间的过渡带,健康的河岸带系统能够通过物理的、生物的和生物化学的过程,实现对氮素的截留转化.本文系统地介绍了氮素进入陆地水体的主要途径和河岸带对陆地水体氮素污染物截留转化的机制,并从河岸带水文过程、土壤特征、植被状况、人为活动等方面,论述了影响河岸带氮素截留转化作用的因素;在此基础上,对目前河岸带研究中存在的问题进行了讨论,并对我国开展河岸带的研究提出了建议.     

暴雨和缓冲带特征对城市滨水缓冲带雨洪消减与水质净化效果的影响机制

通过设置多组实验,模拟不同暴雨径流及缓冲带条件,对城市滨水缓冲带在不同暴雨雨型、历时、重现期、缓冲带坡度、植被覆盖度、初期冲刷等条件下的径流削减和水质净化作用进行研究。得出在不同实验条件下,滨水缓冲带的雨量动态径流系数结果在0.29—0.55之间。分析实验结果发现缓冲带对峰型靠前、历时较短、重现期短的暴雨径流削减效果更好,同时更平缓与植被覆盖度更高的缓冲带对径流的削减效果更佳。模拟实验显示,径流中不同污染物去除率范围分别为:SS为66.41%—90.29%、TN为44.48%—64.90%、NH_3-N为32.72%—63.68%、TP为89.83%—95.04%、COD为34.32%—66.23%。缓冲带的径流水质净化效果在应对不同暴雨雨型时未显示明显规律,而缓冲带对中高浓度径流污染物削减率更高能够应对较强的初期冲刷效应。同时更平缓与植被覆盖度更高缓冲带,即表流流速更缓慢时,显示出更好的径流净化效果。     

东风港滨岸缓冲带对水生生物群落结构的影响

选择苏州河的支流东风港为研究对象,选取其中一段人工建造滨岸缓冲带作为研究区,调查其水生生物群落并与对照区相比较,以具体说明滨岸缓冲带对水生生物群落结构的影响。通过对研究区与对照区内的浮游植物、浮游动物、底栖动物和大型水生植物的调查研究,结果显示,研究区浮游植物的种类数多于对照区,且以清水种占优势;浮游动物群落结构研究区明显比对照区复杂;底栖动物的种类数、密度和生物量研究区都多于对照区;另外研究区还有较为多样化的大型水生植物群落。这些都表明研究区的水生生物群落结构较对照区更为完善。说明滨岸缓冲带对提高水体生物多样性,完善水生生物群落结构具有较为明显的作用。     

River otter and mink occupancy dynamics in riparian systems

Semi-aquatic mammals are dependent upon streams and riparian areas, which are a product of the landscapes they drain. Both local stream morphology and surrounding land use are likely to have important influences on current occupancy of semi-aquatic mammals and potentially affect future geographic distributions. We identified aspects of the riparian system and stream structure at multiple scales that relate to the presence of river otter (Lontra canadensis) and mink (Neovison vison) to better understand how changing landscapes affect occupancy dynamics of these semi-aquatic mammals and to facilitate future monitoring and management. We estimated multi-season occupancy using 103 sites sampled over 6 seasonal sampling periods in southern Illinois, USA (44,526 km²) during 2012–2014. We hypothesized river otter and mink occupancy were related to multiple aspects of landscape and local habitat attributes including land cover, water availability, human disturbance, and stream characteristics. Occupancy of river otter was predicted by large stream size, less developed area near the stream site, and proximity to areas with reintroduced or remnant populations of river otter. Mink were more likely to occupy sites with small streams and decreased water availability near the site. However, top models for both species had low weights and high uncertainty for multiple variables. Habitat-based models may not be the best predictors of occupancy for these carnivores because they are more likely to respond to prey diversity or availability, but landscape changes that decrease natural water availability and increase human disturbance to the stream at the local scale are likely to negatively affect river otter. © 2019 The Authors. The Journal of Wildlife Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Wildlife Society.     

The effects of grassland management using fire on habitat occupancy and conservation of birds in a mosaic landscape

Prescribed burning is routinely used to improve grazing in Pyrenean rangelands affected by an overall trend of land abandonment. This study considers the environmental variables influencing habitat occupancy by birds and the consequences of the use of fire in range management for bird conservation. Bird use and habitat structure of 11 cover types, the result of specific management regimes, were monitored for two breeding seasons in a mosaic landscape. Three main gradients of avian composition, corresponding to tree cover, shrub volume and grazing intensity, were identified from canonical correspondence analysis. The structure of the bird community seemed more intensely affected by species-specific selection of cover types than by the birds' use of multiple patches. Out of a total of 10 bird species analysed by a simultaneous confidence intervals procedure, four species with an unfavourable conservation status in Europe (Emberiza cia, Lullula arborea, Saxicola torquata and Lanius collurio) preferred managed grassland. Three types of grassland with shrubs (derived from single or repeated burning) had the highest bird conservation index (taking into account specific status and abundance of the bird assemblage), whereas forests showed middle or low values. The relation (P = 0.054) of this index to the logarithm of the pastoral value (which includes density and grazing quality of grasses) in currently managed cover types suggests that the objectives of grassland recovery by appropriate management practices and those of bird conservation coincide in our study area.     

Efficiency and dimensioning of riparian buffer zones in agricultural catchments

A strong linear correlation was found between the log-transformed load and retention of nitrogen and phosphorus in riparian buffer zones (r=0.99 and 0.997, respectively). Analyses of N and P budgets in four riparian forests of varying age (two grey alder stands in Estonia and two riparian deciduous forests in USA) show a significant efficiency. Despite the different input load (72.9–110.4 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ and 2.5–3.0 kg P ha⁻¹ year⁻¹), the outputs into streams from the alder stands systems were comparably low (9.0–13.2 and 0.38–0.62 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹). The older forests from the USA showed less efficiency. Plant uptake of both N and P in younger stands was significantly higher than in older forests. Methods to determine the buffer zones' and buffer strips' width and their efficiency are presented. The testing of efficiency assessment in a watershed in Estonia demonstrated an expected efficiency of buffers.     

Soil respiration within riparian buffers and adjacent crop fields

We quantified rates of soil respiration among sites within an agricultural landscape in central Iowa, USA. The study was conducted in riparian cool-season grass buffers, in re-established multispecies (switchgrass + poplar) riparian buffers and in adjacent crop (maize and soybean) fields. The objectives were to determine the variability in soil respiration among buffer types and crop fields within a riparian landscape, and to identify those factors correlating with the observed differences. Soil respiration was measured approximately monthly over a two-year period using the soda-lime technique. Mean daily soil respiration across all treatments ranged from 0.14 to 8.3 g C m^–2 d^–1. There were no significant differences between cool-season grass buffers and re-established forest buffers, but respiration rates beneath switchgrass were significantly lower than those beneath cool-season grass. Soil respiration was significantly greater in both buffer systems than in the cropped fields. Seasonal changes in soil respiration were strongly related to temperature changes. Over all sites, soil temperature and soil moisture together accounted for 69% of the seasonal variability in soil respiration. Annual soil respiration rates correlated strongly with soil organic carbon (R = 0.75, P < 0.001) and fine root (<2 mm) biomass (R = 0.85, P < 0.001). Annual soil respiration rates averaged 1140 g C m^–2 for poplar, 1185 g C m^–2 for cool-season grass, 1020 g C m^–2 for switchgrass, 750 g C m^–2 for soybean and 740 g C m^–2 for corn. Overall, vegetated buffers had significantly higher soil respiration rates than did adjacent crop fields, indicating greater soil biological activity within the buffers.     

The role of native forest plantations in the conservation of Neotropical birds: the case of the Andean alder

The gradual increase in reforested areas worldwide, as a strategy for mitigating native forest loss, has stressed the need of assessing their real value as habitat for native species. Forest plantations, particularly those based on native species, could be valuable for conservation purposes, especially in heavily fragmented and disturbed ecosystems. We evaluated the value of a monoculture of a native tree species, the Andean alder (Alnus acuminata), for the conservation of avifauna in the Central Andes region, which is considered a bird species diversity hotspot but also suffers from high anthropogenic disturbance levels. Our results suggest that alder plantations are valuable for conservation from three points of view: (1) they have similar or greater bird species richness and abundance than secondary native forests; (2) low community similarities are found between this type of forest compared to secondary forest stands (with 27 species exclusive to alder plantations); and (3) three near threatened species (Odontophorus hyperythrus, Eriocnemis derbyi, and Cyanolyca viridicyanus). Further, 27 out of the 85 species found at the alder plantations were of least concern but showing decreasing population trends. While forest plantations do not replace native forests, they offer habitat for many bird species, some of them being of conservation concern (i.e., included in an IUCN threat category) or with decreasing populations. Hence establishing native species plantations among native forest remnants – especially in heavily fragmented landscapes – could have a positive effect in the conservation of threatened avifauna.     

Species-specific foraging behavior of birds in a riparian forest

In riparian forest, insectivorous birds are largely dependent on aquatic preys. However, the contribution made by aquatic preys to bird diets varies considerably among bird species. In the present study, bird foraging behaviors were observed in order to examine the relationship between bird foraging method and the variation in the contribution of aquatic preys. The great tit, the black-faced bunting, and the wren are largely dependent on aquatic preys by capturing them on the ground. Sallyers, the brown flycatcher, the pale-legged willow warbler, and the narcissus flycatcher are also largely dependent on aquatic preys and capture them mostly during flight. The narcissus flycatcher frequently utilises aquatic invertebrates dwelling on the ground. The leaf and branch gleaner, the crowned willow warbler, does not depend on aquatic prey as much. Although both the pygmy woodpecker and nuthatch are branch and trunk gleaners, the nuthatch utilises aquatic preys frequently by capturing them on the ground as well as during flight, but the pygmy woodpecker does not depend on aquatic preys. The marsh tit also does not depend on aquatic preys but carefully searches terrestrial prey that hide in the vegetation. The differential dependence on aquatic preys among species can lead to the heterogeneous distribution of birds within a riparian forest, suggesting that the indirect effect of aquatic preys on a forest ecosystem via birds can vary within a forest–stream ecotone.     

Habitat occupancy by riparian muskrats reveals tolerance to urbanization and invasive vegetation

Wildlife communities are being altered by rapid environmental change including habitat loss and fragmentation, urbanization, and spread of invasive species. To predict consequences of these anthropogenic changes to landscapes, it is necessary to identify not only species that are negatively affected, but also species that are unaffected or even thrive. We used occupancy modeling to examine the spatial distribution of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) in riparian habitat within an agricultural region of east-central Illinois from 2007 to 2008. We examined whether site occupancy was related to local habitat conditions and anthropogenic landscape alterations including urbanization and dominance of invasive reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea). We sampled 90 study sites (200-m stream segments) for occupancy by muskrats based on presence of tracks, scat, and feeding sign. Per-survey detection probability was 0.79 (SE = 0.04) in 2007 and 0.76 (SE = 0.04) in 2008. Detection was related positively to Julian date and negatively to abundance of woody debris and emergent rocks. Site occupancy by muskrats was 0.59 (SE = 0.09) in 2007 and 0.69 (SE = 0.06) in 2008, a year with above-average precipitation. Occupancy was related positively to urban land cover surrounding sites, which could reflect higher baseflows and reduced risk from predation and trapping in urban areas. Occupancy was unrelated to site dominance by invasive reed canary grass, but muskrats occurred more often at larger, deeper streams and those with greater bank heights and less sandy bank soils. Turnover between years was driven by stream size and water availability. Muskrats exhibited tolerance to key aspects of environmental change, and muskrats might even be urban adapters when occupying riparian habitat that remains adequately connected in urbanizing landscapes. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.     

The pitfall-trap of species conservation priority setting

To elucidate the factors underlying species conservation priority setting, we analysed the relationships among species’ structural complexity, scientific attention, threatened species listing, and conservation investments at different organisational levels, including global, European, national, and sub-national. Although the literature often highlights the need to consider criteria other than extinction risk status, our results show that an excessive use of Red lists still persists in the setting of conservation priorities. We found that organismal complexity, available scientific information, and species listing combine together to create a positive feed-back loop, in which more complex organisms have a larger proportion of threatened species in the Red lists and legal lists. This bias promotes research that is devoted to understanding conservation problems as well as more funds invested to solve them. We propose that a sort of pitfall-trap is currently constraining the species conservation priority setting, in which few species, mainly threatened and better-known species, tend to receive most of the funds and policy attention. To counteract this pitfall-trap, we highlight the need to increase scientific effort on lower taxa and expand Red lists to assess lesser-known taxonomic groups as well as the need to use other criteria for species conservation prioritisation.     

Coherence,conservation and patch‐occupancy analysis

Spatial coherence (synchrony) among subpopulations poses a danger to the metacommunity, as it increases the risk of regional extinction. When this effect is significant, the use of inference techniques based on the stochastic patch occupancy model (SPOM) may be inadequate, since SPOMs assume that each habitat patch is either occupied or empty, thereby neglecting the intra‐patch dynamics. Here we suggest a general classification of the dynamics that allows the identification, in a model‐independent manner, of the regimes where coherence effects are strong. We also present a new technique, based on patch occupancy (presence/absence) data, for identifying the role of spatial coherence in the stabilization of a metapopulation. If the chance of a local extinction grows with the connectivity, this implies that spatial synchronization is too strong and that regional‐scale extinction becomes possible. When this scenario occurs, a decrease in the movement of individuals (habitat fragmentation, reduced dispersal rates) has a positive effect on the sustainability of the spatially distributed population. The results of individual based simulations of a spatially structured population are analyzed with SPOM and the regime where the two‐state approximation fails is identified.     

不同坡度缓冲带径流污染净化效果及其最佳宽度

在前期资料调研、小试试验和基地选址的基础上,选择百慕大草皮构建了2％、3％、4％和5％四种不同坡度结构的滨岸缓冲带试验基地,开展径流污染物净化效果现场试验。结果表明,坡度与缓冲带径流悬浮固体颗粒物（SS）截留效果显著相关,19m长的2％坡度缓冲带末端的SS截留率达到84％,而5％坡度只有70％;2％坡度缓冲带末端渗流出水总氮（TN）、总磷（TP）平均浓度分别比5％坡度低1．63mg&#183;L^-1和0．1mg&#183;L^-1,在进水TP平均浓度范围为0．9—1．0mg&#183;L^-1时,4种不同坡度试验带的渗流出水TP浓度均低于《地表水环境质量标准》（GB3838-2002）Ⅳ类水标准;通过计算,末端SS去除率为80％时,2％坡度需要的缓冲带最佳宽度为16．1m,5％坡度则为24．7m,两者相差达8．6m。