鄱阳湖地区生态系统服务权衡与协同关系的时空格局

鄱阳湖地区是中国最大淡水湖影响的区域,定量分析其生态系统服务权衡与协同关系对实现区域可持续发展具有重要意义.本研究首先基于遥感、土壤、气象、数字高程模型(DEM)等多源数据,定量测算2005—2015年鄱阳湖地区食物供给服务、土壤保持服务和产水服务,分析服务的时空格局及演变特征;然后运用相关分析、冷热点分析、空间制图方法探析1 km×1 km尺度上服务间权衡与协同关系的时空特征,并研究土地利用视角下生态系统服务及其相互关系的差异.结果表明: 研究期间,鄱阳湖地区食物供给服务增加,土壤保持服务减少,产水服务先增后减.空间分布上,食物供给服务在西北-东南方向上呈现“低-高-低-高”的分布格局,土壤保持服务呈现高低值集聚分布的空间格局,产水服务表现为南高北低的空间分布.鄱阳湖地区食物供给与土壤保持、食物供给与产水量是权衡关系,土壤保持与产水量是协同关系.食物供给与土壤保持呈现北部协同、南部权衡的空间格局,食物供给与产水量之间在空间上呈现出明显的权衡关系,土壤保持与产水量之间从北至南呈现协同-权衡-协同的“夹心式”分异规律.不同土地利用类型间,耕地与食物供给、园林地与土壤保持、水域与产水量之间均存在极显著协同关系,建设用地与3种服务皆是权衡关系.食物供给服务与土壤保持服务和产水服务之间在不同土地利用类型中皆以权衡为主,土壤保持与产水服务在耕地、园林地、草地及建设用地中以协同关系为主、在水域和未利用地中则以权衡关系为主.鄱阳湖地区多重生态系统服务热点区主要在东部和南部平原区,呈减少趋势.     

“保护兼容”理念源起、实践与发展

以国内外文献、报告、规划为原始材料,以"保护兼容"一词为核心,结合其使用语境,系统阐述在自然保护话语由"堡垒式"转向"社区保护"时,随着自然保护地功能与管理发生变化,人类活动的保护兼容性如何被重新发现并在自然保护实践中助力生物多样性保护。研究发现,"保护兼容"理念充分体现在景观尺度的土地利用连续体上;在生产性景观视角下乡村土地利用和传统农业系统进入自然保护领域;"保护兼容"理念以土地利用为基础下沉到乡村社区的资源管理、生计发展等多类型活动,以各种保护倡议和项目实现,并在发展中国家和发达国家呈现出不同特征。"保护兼容"理念既进行尺度扩展,探索区域内、跨行政区域乃至国家间多利益相关方参与、多类型土地利用贡献于自然保护扩展,也进行尺度下沉,倡导基于本土价值实现全球价值的保护理念。研究提出,全球在生物多样性保护中要进一步重视生产性景观和农业生物多样性保护,而发展中国家面对全球生物多样性保护紧迫目标时,需要坚持社区主体性和在保护实践中的主动性。     

BioPrEP – a regional, process-based approach for assessment of land with high conservation value for Bush Heritage Australia

Summary  A framework is presented for terrestrial conservation assessment that has been developed for Bush Heritage, an Australian non-profit organisation that manages land of outstanding conservation value through acquisition or working in partnership with other landowners. The framework is called Biodiversity Prediction using Ecological Processes and comprises seven conservation goals, with a set of candidate criteria and indicators for each goal. Particular emphasis is given to criteria that relate to habitat quality in addition to the more conventional focus on land quantity. The MCAS-S graphic user interface is used to help analyse the indicators and visualise the results in a transparent way that assists the decision-making process. The interface also allows indicators to be weighted differently, which among other things, allows analyses to reflect inter-regional differences in what represents high quality land. The framework was tested in a case study region (the Woodland region of south-eastern Australia), and the results reveal land that is potentially a priority for conservation investments. While the framework and case study results are indicative, and further analyses are required before they can be considered operational, the approach has potential application to other organisations in the private conservation sector.     

生物多样性管理最小有效面积选取模型与GIS的耦合

人口的增长和自然资源的有限性决定了很难把更多的土地用于生物多样性的保护。通过BMAS(生物多样性管理面积选取)模型与GIS(地理信息系统)的结合,可以用尽可能少的土地资源实现一定水平的生物多样性的保护。该方法初步在西双版纳的勐拉县进行了应用。与现实自然保护区面积的对比,用模型选区自然保护区有显著效果。该方法在保护与发展矛盾尖锐的发展中国家非常适用。     

Scale and conservation planning in the real world

Conservation planning is carried out on a variety of geopolitical and biogeographical scales. Whereas considerable consensus is emerging about the most appropriate procedures for identifying conservation areas, the spatial implications of conducting conservation planning at divergent scales have received little attention. Here we explore the consequences of planning at different geopolitical scales, using a database of the mammalian fauna from the Northern Provinces of South Africa. The conservation network resulting from treating the region as one unit is compared with networks generated separately for the provinces nested in that region. These outcomes are evaluated in terms of (i) their land use efficiencies, (ii) their spatial overlap, and (iii) the impact of algorithm attributes. Although land use efficiencies are greater on broader scales, on average the spatial congruence between the broad-scale regional network and fine-scale provincial networks was less than 14%. Algorithms using different selection rules fail to improve this disturbing outcome. Consequently, scale has an overwhelming influence on areas identified as conservation networks in geopolitical units. This should be recognized in conservation planning.     

Conservation targets for viable species assemblages?

Estimates of minimum areas required for effective biodiversity conservation differ substantially. Scientific reserve design and placement procedures indicate that between 30 and 75% of any region may be required to sample biodiversity features. These estimates do not routinely incorporate measures for sampling viable populations of species or explore the area requirements of sampling viable populations of species assemblages. To determine the area requirements for sampling viable populations of a herbivore assemblage, spatially explicit abundance data from the Kruger National Park, South Africa, were analyzed. Area requirements were consistently above 50% and were unaffected by selected target population sizes. In addition, area requirements appeared to be insensitive to selection unit size (analytical grain), habitat quality, the coarseness of the land classification system used or the presence of low-density species. Thus, traditional conservation area targets of 10–15% appear inadequate for representing viable populations of a herbivore assemblage from African savanna regions. This suggests that conservation targets of at least 50% of land classification units may represent a more appropriate conservation rule of thumb, or alternatively, that the use of data independent conservation targets may need to be abandoned.     

湖北省兴山县移民安置区内生态系统的管理

为了安置三峡工程的移民,湖北省兴山县形成了移民安置区.天然林地的恢复和农田、城镇及村落的重建是安置区所面临的问题.移民安置区内生态系统管理的核心问题是原有土地使用方式的重新配置.提出农用土地生态系统与天然林生态系统协同发展,维持或提高生态系统水土保持能力,维持或扩大野生动物栖息地的生态系统管理目标.通过划分功能保育区、功能改建区、自然保育区和自然维持区来实现管理目标.安置区内生态系统管理是以地块为基本操作单位,通过地理信息系统和栅格化地图的方法实现的.另外,提出多目标最佳空间规划的方法,该方法兼顾了土地利用格局中生态、经济和社会诸方面利益.这一方法被用于安置区内城镇和村落格局的设计中.根据本文提出的管理方案,安置区内林地面积可以增加30.19%,生态系统水土保持能力可以提高38.7%.     

土地利用与生物多样性绩效研究及对风景园林规划的借鉴

在当今世界土地资源极度紧缺的大背景下,研究不同土地利用情景下的生物多样性,评估其达到生物多样性预期目标的能力,已成为土地规划领域的重要研究方向,具有重要的理论研究意义和实践价值。本文在大量文献研究的基础上,简要分析了土地利用对生物多样性的作用机理,详细总结了土地类型组成、土地利用连接度、土地利用强度与土地利用聚合度4个关键性因子对生物多样性绩效影响的研究现状。针对现有研究进展,从多样性指标、生态机制、时空异质性、参与情景模拟、非线性系统规律5个方面阐述了如何进一步完善土地利用与生物多样性的研究内容。研究结果表明,土地利用与生物多样性绩效的关系符合复杂适应性系统在风景园林规划中运用的规律,满足构建研究规划协同实践的概念性框架。进而重点从引导以生物多样性保护为重要目标的用地控制策略、建立多尺度一体化的生物多样性保护格局、发挥不同尺度蓝—绿网络体系的载体作用、构建区域层面的生物多样性发展骨架、提高城市环境下生物多样性的引导措施、推进不确定性规划减少决策风险6个方面提出了土地利用—生物多样性绩效关联分析对风景园林规划中可资借鉴的思考。     

Indicating disturbance content and context for preserved areas

An accepted goal of conservation is to build a conservation network that is resilient to environmental change. The conceptual patch-corridor-matrix model views individual conservation areas as connected components of a regional network capable of sustaining metapopulations and biodiversity, and assessment of contextual conditions in the matrix surrounding conservation areas is necessary for planning. Context is often assessed in terms of fixed-width buffers surrounding conservation areas, but in practice, different locations within the same conservation area experience different contexts. We present an alternate approach for describing the landscape context of conservation areas, and we illustrate the approach by assessing vegetation disturbance measured by Landsat NDVI changes over a 4-year period for 51 conservation areas in the Apulia region of south Italy. Insights gained from a multi-scale assessment of disturbance, coupled with information about land use and habitat mosaics are necessary to understand the distinctive features of different preserved areas and thus, to formulate appropriate plans for a regional conservation network to maintain or enhance biodiversity in the region.     

The San Lucas mountain range in Colombia: how much conservation is owed to the violence?

The imminence of forest conversion in the northern Andean region requires a careful evaluation of the social, political and economic context in which environmental efforts take place in order to achieve conservation. Through its socioeconomic effects violent conflict can result in threats pertinent to both conservation and resource management schemes. A survey of the San Lucas mountain range, at the northern tip of the Colombian Central Andes, is presented as a case study of factors associated with violent conflict that may hinder or enhance conservation in this complex social and political setting. Instability in land use and tenure associated with armed conflict were identified as major pressures associated with further conversion of tropical forest habitats; while low rates of settlement and measures enforced by armed rule were very effective in preserving certain tracts of forest. War certainly alleviates demographic pressure from settlers, but contemporary patterns of colonization in San Lucas suggest that armed conflict is detrimental to conservation purposes and to key members of the biological community.     

福建省生态保护重要性评价

生态保护重要性是表征区域生态系统结构和功能重要性程度的综合指标,确定生态保护空间范围是协调保护与发展、保障生态服务持续供给的基础。在明确福建省生态本底和关键生态问题的基础上,综合分析生态服务功能重要性和生态敏感性,构建福建省生态保护重要性评价指标体系,识别具有重要保护意义的生态极重要地区,能够为优化生态保护策略、划定生态红线和主体功能区划提供技术支持。研究结果表明,福建省生态保护极重要区占福建省陆地总面积的38.94%,生态重要性空间格局基本沿福建省闽西大山带、闽中大山带与海岸带分布,其中生态服务功能极重要区面积为3.96万km~2,以生物多样性维护功能和水源涵养功能为主;生态极敏感性区面积占福建省陆地总面积的9.71%,水土流失是主要的生态问题,占福建省陆地总面积的8.93%,土地沙化极敏感区集中在海岸带附近,与海岸侵蚀极敏感区空间范围基本一致。研究建议,生态保护极重要区作为划定生态红线和重点生态功能区的依据,支撑福建省开展有针对性的生态保护,保障和维护生态安全。     

Building regional threat-based networks for estuaries in the Western United States

Estuaries are ecologically and economically valuable and have been highly degraded from both land and sea. Estuarine habitats in the coastal zone are under pressure from a range of human activities. In the United States and elsewhere, very few conservation plans focused on estuaries are regional in scope; fewer still address threats to estuary long term viability.We have compiled basic information about the spatial extent of threats to identify commonalities. To do this we classify estuaries into hierarchical networks that share similar threat characteristics using a spatial database (geodatabase) of threats to estuaries from land and sea in the western U.S. Our results show that very few estuaries in this region (16%) have no or minimal stresses from anthropogenic activity. Additionally, one quarter (25%) of all estuaries in this study have moderate levels of all threats. The small number of un-threatened estuaries is likely not representative of the ecological variability in the region and will require working to abate threats at others. We think the identification of these estuary groups can foster sharing best practices and coordination of conservation activities amongst estuaries in any geography.     

Should conservation of biodiversity involve private land? A Q methodological study in Poland to assess stakeholders’ attitude

Biodiversity conservation is gradually shifting its dependency on public protected areas to take a more holistic ecosystem and landscape approach that includes private lands in addition to public lands. However, effective practice of biodiversity conservation on private land also depends on landowners’ attitude and their willingness to participate and cooperate. This study focuses on Poland where conservation on private land is a relatively new concept but it is slowly gaining recognition, especially after its accession into the European Union. It investigates and classifies the diverse attitudes among stakeholder groups in Poland toward biodiversity conservation on private land that are part of protected areas. Four primary stakeholder groups were considered: conservation and park authorities, local administrative officials, local conservation based NGOs and private landowners. The study was conducted across three sites that represented three different forms of protected areas in Poland: a national park, a landscape park and a Natura 2000 site. Q methodology, a research method from psychology and other social sciences, was used to classify human subjectivity in stakeholders’ attitude in a more systematic manner. The analysis yielded three predominant factors which highlighted the diversity in attitudes among the stakeholder groups based on their knowledge, concerns and experience in the subject. Additionally, it underlined the common recognition among all stakeholder groups for better policy support, stronger collaboration among stakeholder and more financial or compensatory support for landowners to make private land conservation more feasible. Understanding the differences in attitudes will help bridge the gap between conservation priority and conservation opportunity—a current challenge in the field of biodiversity conservation.     

基于空间距离指数的青藏高原生态敏感性综合评价及时空演变分析

生态敏感性是生态系统对外界压力的适应性及遭受破坏的恢复力,开展生态敏感性评价是识别区域生态环境问题的有效手段之一。根据青藏高原的区域特性和主要生态环境问题,在定量构建土地荒漠化敏感性、水土流失敏感性、滑坡灾害敏感性和冻融侵蚀敏感性的基础上,通过空间距离指数法对青藏高原生态敏感性进行综合评价,并采用空间自相关分析和生态敏感性变化模式分析,探讨其时空演变特征和保护管理区划。结果表明：（1）青藏高原综合生态敏感性由西北向东南递减,极度和重度敏感区主要集中在西北部和高大山脉区,不敏感区主要集中在东南部;（2）2000-2018年间青藏高原综合生态敏感性指数值从1.49上升到1.51,表明该区域生态敏感性逐步下降,生态环境改善明显;（3）青藏高原生态敏感性存在显著的空间正相关,低-低聚集网格数量波动上升,从2000年的7277增至2018年7357,表明青藏高原部分地区的生态环境仍存在着一定恶化的风险;（4）根据区域生态敏感性变化模式分析,将青藏高原划分为严格保护区、生态退化区、潜在治理区、生态改善区和综合发展区五个区域,并提出了相应保护与管理对策。研究结果可以为青藏高原生态保护和可持续发展提供参考,从而有效推动保护管理措施的制定。     

Conservation Efforts May Increase Malaria Burden in the Brazilian Amazon

Background

Large-scale forest conservation projects are underway in the Brazilian Amazon but little is known regarding their public health impact. Current literature emphasizes how land clearing increases malaria incidence, leading to the conclusion that forest conservation decreases malaria burden. Yet, there is also evidence that proximity to forest fringes increases malaria incidence, which implies the opposite relationship between forest conservation and malaria. We compare the effect of these environmental factors on malaria and explore its implications.

Methods and Findings

Using a large malaria dataset (∼1,300,000 positive malaria tests collected over ∼4.5 million km²), satellite imagery, permutation tests, and hierarchical Bayesian regressions, we show that greater forest cover (as a proxy for proximity to forest fringes) tends to be associated with higher malaria incidence, and that forest cover effect was 25 times greater than the land clearing effect, the often cited culprit of malaria in the region. These findings have important implications for land use/land cover (LULC) policies in the region. We find that cities close to protected areas (PA’s) tend to have higher malaria incidence than cities far from PA’s. Using future LULC scenarios, we show that avoiding 10% of deforestation through better governance might result in an average 2-fold increase in malaria incidence by 2050 in urban health posts.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that cost analysis of reduced carbon emissions from conservation efforts in the region should account for increased malaria morbidity, and that conservation initiatives should consider adopting malaria mitigation strategies. Coordinated actions from disparate science fields, government ministries, and global initiatives (e.g., Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation; Millenium Development Goals; Roll Back Malaria; and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria), will be required to decrease malaria toll in the region while preserving these important ecosystems.     

Optimal conservation planning of multiple hydrological ecosystem services under land use and climate changes in Teshio river watershed,northernmost of Japan

Most anthropogenic activities impacted on water quality and quantity, and further impacted on ecosystem services (ESs) in watershed are related to land use and climate changes those may cause losses of ecosystem functions. Effective information regarding ESs and their optimal priority conservation planning responded to land use and climate changes provide useful support for diverse stakeholders in ESs planning, management and policies. This study integrated the approach of spatially explicit ESs (water yield, inorganic nutrient, organic nutrient and sediment retentions) by using hydrology and material flow model (Soil and Water Assessment Tools, SWAT model) into systematic conservation of hydrological ESs according to land use and climate changes in Teshio watershed located in the north of Hokkaido, Japan. We investigated the spatial patterns and the hotspots of ESs changes to determine the spatial pattern of changes in systematic conservation optimal area of ES protection in terms of ESs protection targets. Under the land use and climate change scenarios, the forest land use significantly affected on the water yield, sediment, organic-Nitrogen (N) and organic-Phosphorous (P) retentions. The agricultural land (paddy and farmland fields) impacted on the inorganic-N and inorganic-P retentions. We applied the systematic conservation model (MARXAN model) to optimize the area for management of hydrological ESs satisfied the protection targets (30% and 50% of potential maximum ESs values among all scenarios) in all and individual ecosystem services, respectively. The simulated results indicated that the areas of spatial optimal ESs protection for all hydrological ESs were totally different from those for individual ESs. For bundles of ESs, the optimal priority conservation areas concentrated in southwest, north, and southeast of this watershed, which are related to land use, topography and climate driving factors. These places could guarantee ESs sustainability from both environmental protection and agricultural development standpoints. The priority conservation area turned more compact under climate change because the increased precipitation and temperature increased ESs amount. For individual ESs, the optimal priority conservation areas of water yield, sediment retention and organic nutrient retention were traded off against those of inorganic nutrient retention (lower Jaccard's indexes and negative correlations of selection times). Especially, the negative correlation of selection times increased as the conservation target increased from 30% to 50%. The proposed approach provided useful information for assessing the responses of ESs and systematic conservation optimal planning to the land use and climate changes. The systematic conservation optimal areas of hydrological ESs provided an effective trade-off tool between environmental protection (sediment and organic nutrient retentions) and economic development (water yield and inorganic nutrient retention).     

Identification of hotspots of at-risk terrestrial vertebrate species in the south-central Great Plains of North America: A tool to inform and address regional-scale conservation

Biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate, and resources for conservation efforts are limited. This is particularly problematic in the Great Plains of North America, where land-cover conversion for agriculture and energy production has reduced habitat for many species. In the U.S. portion of the Great Plains, a growing human population and a concomitant increasing need for food, fiber, and energy have caused landscape transformations that have resulted in over 700 vertebrate species currently being listed by state and federal conservation agencies as being at-risk in this region. Conservation efforts for such a large number of species will be most efficient when applied to areas with large numbers of these species, but such areas have never before been identified. We overlaid range maps created by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Gap Analysis Program for terrestrial vertebrate species to identify hotspots of high concentrations of U.S. state-defined Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN; species that have identified as being rare or otherwise vulnerable enough to warrant conservation action in a given state) in the short- and mixed-grass prairie ecoregions of the southern and central Great Plains of the United States. We identified hotspots for species currently listed as SGCN as well as those pending designation, and a combined (current and pending) group. We then used data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Protected Areas Database on land ownership and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service on land use/land cover to quantify the types of land ownership and land use/land cover types in hotspots to give land managers necessary information to address conservation of at-risk species in the Great Plains. Sufficient data were present for examination of 289 at-risk terrestrial vertebrate species. Hotspots of these species were located mostly on state- or federally-managed land in eastern New Mexico, Colorado, and west Texas. The current hottest hotspots were associated with areas with more natural/less anthropogenic forms of land use/land cover; areas with the lowest numbers of SGCNs had proportionately more cropland and less grassland than did hotspots. Identifying regional hotspots of at-risk biodiversity, and describing land use/land cover features associated with such areas, offers an opportunity to take a multi-species approach in more precisely establishing areas of conservation concern in the U.S.     

The Efficacy of Landscape-Level Conservation in Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve,China

Anthropogenic landscape alteration is rather common in many protected areas (PAs), jeopardizing the efficacy of PAs conservation. However, the general consensus is that PAs still remain effective in habitat conservation. To assess the efficacy of landscape-level conservation, we examined landscape alterations in the Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve (CMBR), which was established in 1960 as a “flagship” protected area in China. Based on analyses of high-resolution satellite images and data of forest inventory, field survey and interview, we developed two new indexes to assess the efficacy of landscape conservation, i.e. the quality index of protected landscape and the interference index of anthropogenic landscape. From 1993 to 2012, the quality index increased from 74.48 to 75.50, and the interference index decreased from 0.49 to 0.06, suggesting that the overall quality of protected landscape improved and the degree of anthropogenic interference decreased in CMBR. The increase in landscape quality was mainly due to the progressive vegetation recovery of previous cutover land in the windthrow area, the cease of the use of the cultivated land, and the amelioration of spatial pattern of protected landscape. We conclude that the current landscape conservation methods used in CMBR are effective, and the method we developed has the potential to be used to assess the efficacy of landscape-level conservation in nature reserves worldwide.     

Analysis of land cover and landscape change patterns in Ebinur Lake Wetland National Nature Reserve,China from 1972 to 2013

For effective monitoring and protection, researchers need to analyze the trends and causes of landscape pattern change in wetlands. The present study used Geographic Information System and remote sensing technology to analyze temporal and spatial dynamics of landscape pattern and related driving forces in the Ebinur Lake Wetland National Nature Reserve (ELWNNR) in China. We used Landsat images from 1972, 1998, 2007 and 2013, and classified the landscape into six types of land cover: water body, wetland, vegetation, salinized land, desert, and other objects (i.e., Gobi and Mountain). Landscape transition matrices and change pattern analysis were used understand wetland dynamics. Our results showed that land cover had changed dramatically during 1972–2013. The spatial extent of much of the wetland areas in the ELWNNR had reduced gradually from 1972 to 2007, and wetland loss occurred more rapidly after 2007. From 1972 to 2013, 415.8 km² of wetland area had been lost and only 250.1 km² wetland area had expanded, which represents a 22% decrease in wetland area in the ELWNNR. At the same time, the landscape pattern experienced diverse changes in the Nature Reserve. The high-density human population of the region has an intensive effect on the region. Wetlands in the nature reserve have also changed with recent rapid development in the region. This study may provide scientific information for developing effective and sustainable conservation plans for the ELWNNR.