Ecosystem Services and Emergent Vulnerability in Managed Ecosystems: A Geospatial Decision-Support Tool

Managed ecosystems experience vulnerabilities when ecological resilience declines and key flows of ecosystem services become depleted or lost. Drivers of vulnerability often include local management actions in conjunction with other external, larger-scale factors. To translate these concepts to management applications, we developed a conceptual model of feedbacks linking the provision of ecosystem services, their use by society, and anthropogenic change. From this model we derived a method to integrate existing geodata at relevant scales and in locally meaningful ways to provide decision-support for adaptive management efforts. To demonstrate our approach, we conducted a case study assessment of southeast Alaska, where managers are concerned with sustaining fish and wildlife resources in areas where intensive logging disturbance has occurred. Individual datasets were measured as indicators of one of three criteria: ecological capacity to support fish/wildlife populations (provision); human acquisition of fish/wildlife resources (use); and intensity of logging and related land-use change (disturbance). Relationships among these processes were analyzed using two methods—a watershed approach and a high-resolution raster—to identify where provision, use and disturbance were spatially coupled across the landscape. Our results identified very small focal areas of social-ecological coupling that, based on post-logging dynamics and other converging drivers of change, may indicate vulnerability resulting from depletion of ecosystem services. We envision our approach can be used to narrow down where adaptive management might be most beneficial, allowing practitioners with limited funds to prioritize efforts needed to address uncertainty and mitigate vulnerability in managed ecosystems.     

热带森林树种多度和丰富度空间分布特征研究

用巴拿马50 hm2森林动态监测样地内直径≥1 cm的树种资料,分析了该样地树种多度(个体数)和丰富度(物种数)及其方差和变异系数在6个取样尺度(5 m×5 m,10 m×10 m,20 m×20 m,25 m×25 m,50 m×50 m,100 m×100 m)的变化规律.结果显示:(1)由于多度的可加性,不同取样尺度在样地内树种多度的变化表现出一致性;随取样尺度的增加,多度方差呈线性增加,而变异系数呈线性减小.(2)丰富度随取样尺度的变化较为复杂,随取样尺度的增加,丰富度方差呈非线性变化,在取样尺度为25 m×25 m时方差最大;变异系数随取样尺度的增加而呈线性减小.研究表明,大尺度的多度值可以由小尺度的多度值通过外推法估计,而丰富度却不能,在生物多样性的保护和管理中不能简单地从一个取样尺度的生物丰富度推测另一个取样尺度丰富度.     

Ecosystem Approach to Rapid Health Assessments among Indigenous Cultures in Degraded Tropical Rainforest Environments: Case Study of Unexplained Deaths among the Secoya of Ecuador

Large-scale economically-driven encroachments into tropical rainforest environments are major factors for disease emergence. A better understanding of the process of disease emergence can be best derived from a multilevel, transdisciplinary ecosystem approach that analyzes health data in its biological, ecological, social, and cultural context. Multiple methods, including ethnographic techniques, are recommended for such an approach. The value of this approach and methodology is presented in this article through a rapid health assessment case study of an unexplained fatal syndrome that occurred among the Secoya peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon in 1999. This type of study is significant given the lack of health data for indigenous populations at risk of disease emergence. Moreover, indigenous cultures share a long-term, close relationship to the land and each other, which makes information about changes in their environment and health patterns highly salient to them. This local knowledge is of strategic value to researchers working on issues of environmental change and disease emergence.     

Investigating the Use of Fractional Replication and Taguchi Techniques in Cryopreservation: A Case Study Using Orthodox Seeds of a Tropical Rainforest Tree Species

Cryopreservation is increasingly important for conserving endangered species including tropical rain forest germplasm where optimal cryopreservation protocols must be established rapidly sacrificing little germplasm. Currently, full factorial experiments analysed by ANOVA establish optimal conditions. However, these experiments can contain many treatment combinations whilst ANOVA identifies significant effects without guaranteeing to find robust optimal conditions. Taguchi optimization techniques efficiently identify robust conditions through fractional factorial experiments with an appropriate signal to noise ratio (SNR). This paper reports for the first time the use of Taguchi techniques in cryopreservation. An orthodox seed (Cassia siamea Lam.) was used to guarantee sufficient data to compare full and fractionally replicated experiments analysed using both ANOVA and SNR. For sprouting day (smaller is better), identical significant main effects were found for all experimental sizes for ANOVA and SNR. The 1/4 replicate did not allow investigation of interaction terms, but the significant main effects were the same for larger experiments. For shoot to root ratio (nominal is best), a significant main effect was found for all experimental sizes using ANOVA. This was also found using SNR, which identified additional significant main effect and interactions. No significant effects were found for dry weight (larger is better). We show smaller experiments are possible, provided important two level interactions are analysed. Differences determining the optimal treatment combination were found between ANOVA and SNR; with the Taguchi choice provides more robust solutions. Taguchi optimization techniques are recommended when germplasm is scarce and/or the experiment needs to be conducted rapidly.     

Operational Changes in a Shared Resource Laboratory with the Use of a Product Lifecycle Management Approach: A Case Study

Shared Resource Laboratories (SRLs) provide investigators access to necessary scientific and resource expertise to leverage complex technologies fully for advancing high-quality biomedical research in a cost-effective manner. At the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the Flow Cytometry Research Facility (FCRF) offered access to exceptional technology, but the methods of operation were outdated and unsustainable. Whereas technology has advanced and the institute has expanded, the operations at the facility remained unchanged for 35 yr. To rectify this, at the end of 2013, we took a product lifecycle management approach to affect large operational changes and align the services offered with the SRL goal of education, as well as to provide service to researchers. These disruptive operational changes took over 10 mo to complete and allowed for independent end-user acquisition of flow cytometry data. The results have been monitored for the past 12 mo. The operational changes have had a positive impact on the quality of research, increased investigator-facility interaction, reduced stress of facility staff, and increased overall use of the resources. This product lifecycle management approach to facility operations allowed us to conceive of, design, implement, and monitor effectively the changes at the FCRF. This approach should be considered by SRL management when faced with the need for operationally disruptive measures.     

Integration of Ecosystem Services into Ecological Risk Assessment for Implementation in Ecosystem-Based River Management: A Case Study of the Yellow River,China

Ecological risk assessment (ERA) is a scientific tool used to support ecosystem-based management (EBM), but most current ERA methods consider only a few indices of particular species or components. Such limitations restrict the scope of results so that they are insufficient to reflect the integrated risk characterization of an ecosystem, thereby inhibiting the application of ERA in EBM. We incorporate the concept of ecosystem services into ERA and develop an improved ERA framework to create a comprehensive risk map of an ecosystem, accounting for multiple human activities and ecosystem services. Using the Yellow River as a case study, we show how this framework enables the implementation of integrated risk characterization and prioritization of the most important ecological risk issues in the ecosystem-based river management of the Yellow River. This framework can help practitioners facilitate better implementation of ERA within EBM in rivers or any target ecosystem.