安徽省高校共建共享动物学野外实习基地的初步探讨

动物学野外实习是生命科学本科教学的重要组成部分,承担着培养学生的实践与创新能力的作用。从建立共享实习基地的可行性、选择原则和建设内容三个方面着手,对安徽省高校与区域内的自然保护区、森林公园之间如何共同建设动物学野外实习基地、共享野外实习教学资源进行了初步探讨。     

Encountering nature through fieldwork: expert knowledge,modes of reasoning,and local creativity

The concept of ‘relation’ has been central to the anthropological reworking of the nature/culture and nature/society dichotomies. However, ecology is relational in a way that has often been ignored or dismissed in contemporary socio‐cultural anthropology. This article shows that there is more to ethnoecology than an ethnocentric form of analysis representing other people's understandings of the natural world through the prejudiced lens of Western scientific classifications. Three ‘fieldwork on fieldwork’ experiments involving encounters between natural scientists and indigenous communities in Amazonian Ecuador and Southern Guyana are discussed to illustrate the heterogeneity of human knowledge, the role of expert knowledge in intercultural communication, and the need to differentiate ecological reasoning from moral reasoning.     

传统生态知识的民族生态学分析框架

传统生态知识是民族生态学研究的核心范畴,国外已有多年的研究基础,国内的相关研究正是方兴未艾。通过文献查询和比较分析等方法,介绍了国外已有的传统生态知识的民族生态学分析框架的3个模型:知识-实践-信仰的三角形框架;本土经验知识-资源管理知识-社会制度知识-世界观知识的四椭圆框架;事实观察-管理体系-旧有及当下利用-伦理价值-文化特征-宇宙观的五边形框架。结合田野调查研究,提出了一个立体的传统生态知识的民族生态学分析模型,强调了传统生态知识的动态特征,将民族对于自然的被动认识和主动认知、民族人际关系规范、民族的哲学与伦理等方面所呈现出的传统生态知识进行了分类,从而为民族生态学的调查研究提供了方法上的建议。最后总结了这个立体的传统生态知识分析框架的意义,并建议在我国的生态文明建设中发展和应用民族生态学。     

Validating concepts of mental disorder: precedents from the history of science

A fundamental issue in any branch of the natural sciences is validating the basic concepts for use in that branch. In psychiatry, this issue has not yet been resolved, and indeed, the proper nature of the problem has scarcely been recognised. As a result, psychiatry (or at least those parts of the discipline which aspire to scientific status) still cannot claim to be a part of scientific medicine, or to be incorporated within the common language of the natural sciences. While this creates difficulties within the discipline, and its standing in relation to other branches of medicine, it makes it an exciting place for “frontiersmen” (and women). This is one of the key growing points in the natural science tradition. In this essay, which moves from the early history of that tradition to today’s debates in scientific psychiatry, I give my views about how these fundamental issues can move towards resolution.     

中国传统生态智慧及其现实意义——以丽江古城水系为例

中国传统文化中蕴含着极其丰富的生态智慧,天人合一是这些传统文化的核心思想,天就是大自然,人就是人类,天人合一就是人类与大自然的合一。云南丽江古城水系的设计、管理和保护就是这些传统生态智慧在现代文明社会中的延续,为当今人们解决日益严峻的生态危机提供了极其宝贵而深刻的启示。古城的选址充分考虑了地形地貌、方位朝向和水系分布的特点,环山抱水的空间格局蕴含着深刻的生态智慧;古城的建筑、街巷与水系密切结合,形成了变化丰富的临水模式;依据古城地势和水系的特点,古城人们开创了独特并且延续至今的洗街文化;发达的水系造就了众多的桥梁,同时也产生了独特的桥市文化;以三眼井为代表的用水、护水民俗,蕴含着丰富的水管理智慧。面对当前旅游业迅猛发展所造成的水环境压力,古城管理部门借鉴传统的生态智慧,效仿古人的用水、护水方法,采取了一系列的调控和保护措施,古城水系的水质、水量得到了很大的改善和提高,例如:城市的污水处理率已由2008年的45.20%上升到2012年的86.82%,古城下游的水质也由2010年的劣Ⅴ类上升为2014年的Ⅲ类。中国传统生态智慧体现了人与自然之间和谐共存、共同发展的关系,具有十分重要的现实意义。     

Analysis of the genetic differentiation of Bashkirs and peoples from the Volgo-Ural region from data on polymorphic markers of the nuclear genome]

Nei's coefficient of genetic differentiation (Gst) was used to estimate the intergroup differentiation of four ethnic geographic groups of Bashkirs and the interethnic differentiation of seven ethnoses (Bashkirs, Tatars, Chuvashes, Udmurts, Maris, Komis, and Mordovians) from the Volga-Ural region. The coefficient of genetic differentiation calculated from data on four polymorphic loci (MET, D7S23, PKU, and apoB) and classical biochemical markers (AB0, MN, Rh, Hp, and AcP) of the nuclear genome was similar in all tested populations. The genetic difference between the ethnoses from the Volga-Ural region (Gst = 1.91%) was intermediate between that in European (Gst = 1.18%) and Siberian (Gst = 5.84%) ethnoses.     

Intentional Guidance of Human Actions

Human action is a tool for creating values—material, cultural, and moral. It is the principal form of interaction between people and the environment, especially the social environment. Human action is the single most important factor in influencing human development; it affects the development of humankind. Human action is a specific manifestation of man as an active and creative agent. Scientific understanding of human action not only is important for clarification of typical features of "human nature" (compared with that of subhuman creatures) but also has far-reaching practical importance: optimization of the decision-making process regarding goals and plans and increasing the effectiveness of human action (physical, mental, and creative).     

Ethnic Pluralism as an Organizing Principle of the Ethiopian Federation

In 1991 the Ethiopian government employed ethnic pluralism as an organizing principle, creating multiple ethnic-based territorial units with a right of secession provision. Ethiopians are watching this experiment with considerable apprehension. This paper: (1) provides a concise historical background of ethnic relations in Ethiopia, (2) examines the type of ethnic federal state established in Ethiopia, and (3) points out some problems encountered with ethnicity as an organizing principle and attempts a preliminary assessment of the ethnic-based federal experiment. The sources of data for this paper include public documents, fieldwork, and interviews with 30 knowledgeable Ethiopians in Addis Ababa. I spent several months during 2000–2002 observing political developments in the country as they pertain to ethnic federalism. Within Africa, a nation-state fully acknowledging and based on ethnic pluralism is unique. Thus far, the Ethiopian federation appears to have undercut the drive for secession by largely removing its rallying cause, manifest ethnic oppression. Nonetheless, the fact that the ruling group comes predominantly from a small ethnic group has raised serious protest from other ethnic groups, larger and smaller. Its use of democratic centralism has also undermined effective decentralization and democratization. Ethnic pluralism as an organizing principle underpinning the federal government in Ethiopia is a fragile and perilous experiment.     

Environmental history as an anthropologic topic. Contribution to "chemical anthropology"

Human population history is firmly connected with temporal and regional changes of the environment. Whether natural or anthropogene, alteration of environmental features lead to changes of human life-style and to the development of adaptive strategies. The demand of resources for his subsistence has led man to diverse impacts on his environment since ever. Thus, environmental history is a scientific topic for anthropologists. The research potential of trace element studies of excavated human skeletons for the reconstruction of natural and socio-cultural environments as well as for distribution patterns of hazardous substances is outlined for the European Middle Ages. The scientific value of unravelling past man/environment-interrelationships for both the historical and applied sciences and the place of any "chemical anthropology" within this context is discussed.     

Some prerequisites for a study of the evolution of cognition in the animal kingdom

A distinction is made between two definitions of animal cognition: the one most frequently employed in cognitive sciences considers cognition as extracting and processing information; a more phenomenologically inspired model considers it as attributing to a form of the outside world a significance, linked to the state of the animal. The respective fields of validity of these two models are discussed along with the limitations they entail, and the questions they pose to evolutionary biologists are emphasized. This is followed by a presentation of a general overview of what might be the study of the evolution of knowledge in animals.     

论地生态学

生态学发展到目前已形成一系列的分科,它已不是一门单独的学科,而是一组学科-学科的体系。名称中包含“生态”二字的学科至少在一百个以上,因而,产生了如何对大量生态学科进行分类的问题。 我们认为,如果根据研究对象的性质和尺度(规模)以及相应地需要采用的研究方法的特点,并考虑当前发展的趋势,可以把生态学概括为3类:生物生态学、地生态学和全球生态学。 从当前趋势看,至少下列8个问题是地生态学注意的核心:(1)人工生态系统;(2)生物(主要是植物)指示现象;(3)地生态制图;(4)生态监测;(5)生态预测;(6)生态区划;(7)生态规划与设计;(8)生态影响评价。     

设计生态系统绩效研究专题导读

面对全球,特别是中国大范围的生态与环境问题,设计生态学应运而生:通过人工设计生态关系,修复、重建甚至创造基于自然的生态系统,已经成为当下生态文明和美丽中国建设的关键途径。人类有关生态科学的研究成果、古老文明的生态智慧积累和当代人对美好生活的向往是设计生态的三大灵感源泉,使设计的生态具有基于自然的、以综合生态系统服务为导向的、科学和艺术完美结合的特质。本专栏发表了对若干人工设计生态系统的绩效研究,研究结果已经给设计生态学在解决中国当下生态与环境问题的前景带来希望,尤其在城乡大规模生态修复方面显示出广泛的应用前景。设计生态学必将成为生态文明时代的一门崭新而极富挑战的新学科。     

A pervasive denigration of natural history misconstrues how biodiversity inventories and taxonomy underpin scientific knowledge

Embracing comparative biology, natural history encompasses those sciences that discover, decipher and classify unique (idiographic) details of landscapes, and extinct and extant biodiversity. Intrinsic to these multifarious roles in expanding and consolidating research and knowledge, natural history endows keystone support to the veracity of law-like (nomothetic) generalizations in science. What science knows about the natural world is governed by an inherent function of idiographic discovery; characteristic of natural history, this relationship is exemplified wherever an idiographic discovery overturns established wisdom. This nature of natural history explicates why inventories are of such epistemological importance. Unfortunately, a Denigration of Natural History weakens contemporary science from within. It expresses in the prevalent, pervasive failure to appreciate this pivotal role of idiographic research: a widespread disrespect for how natural history undergirds scientific knowledge. Symptoms of this Denigration of Natural History present in negative impacts on scientific research and knowledge. One symptom is the failure to appreciate and support the inventory and monitoring of biodiversity. Another resides in failures of scientiometrics to quantify how taxonomic publications sustain and improve knowledge. Their relevance in contemporary science characteristically persists and grows; so the temporal eminence of these idiographic publications extends over decades. This is because they propagate a succession of derived scientific statements, findings and/or conclusions - inherently shorter-lived, nomothetic publications. Widespread neglect of natural science collections is equally pernicious, allied with disregard for epistemological functions of specimens, whose preservation maintains the veracity of knowledge. Last, but not least, the decline in taxonomic expertise weakens research capacity; there are insufficient skills to study organismal diversity in all of its intricacies. Beyond weakening research capacities and outputs across comparative biology, this Denigration of Natural History impacts on the integrity of knowledge itself, undermining progress and pedagogy throughout science. Unprecedented advances in knowledge are set to follow on consummate inventories of biodiversity, including the protists. These opportunities challenge us to survey biodiversity representatively—detailing the natural history of species. Research strategies cannot continue to ignore arguments for such an unprecedented investment in idiographic natural history. Idiographic shortcuts to general (nomothetic) insights simply do not exist. The biodiversity sciences face a stark choice. No matter how charismatic its portrayed species, an incomplete ‘Brochure of Life’ cannot match the scientific integrity of the ‘Encyclopedia of Life’.     

Traditional Mapuche ecological knowledge in Patagonia,Argentina: fishes and other living beings inhabiting continental waters,as a reflection of processes of change

Background

Understanding how people interpret environmental change and develop practices in response to such change is essential to comprehend human resource use. In the cosmology of the American indigenous peoples, as among the Mapuche people, freshwater systems are considered a living entity, where animals have an enormous role to play in the universe of meaning. However, human adaptive responses to freshwater system dynamics are scarcely examined. In this work a survey is carried out in three Mapuche communities of Argentine Patagonia to assess their traditional knowledge of the fishes and other non-human living beings that inhabit lakes and rivers. Both material and symbolic aspects are included, as are the differences in knowledge and use of the fishes between past and present times.

Methods

Our methods were based on a quali-quantitative fieldwork approach. In-depth interviews were carried out with 36 individuals from three rural Mapuche populations in Neuquén province (Patagonia, Argentina). Free listing was used for inquiring about fish knowledge and use. Fishes were identified scientifically and ethnotaxonomically. In-depth analysis of the discourses was conducted, documenting the recognition, perception, and cultural significance of fluvial environments and their inhabitants. Quantitative survey results were analyzed with categorical statistical methods.

Results

The body of knowledge of the communities studied reflects the socio-environmental changes experienced by Patagonian freshwater bodies. According to local perception, non-human beings live in these water bodies, guarding the environment, and they should not be disturbed. At present, five different fish species are identified, three of which are exotic, having been introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by the white man. These exotic trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss and Salvelinus fontinalis) are considered ill omens, indicators of the white man’s presence, and therefore their appearance presages negative events for the families. In addition, we found that Mapuche people differentiate fish species mainly by morphological, organoleptic and ecological attributes. Current consumption of fish by Mapuche communities is sporadic, in accordance with bibliography and ancient tales. Several fishing tools are used, including modern elements.

Conclusions

Our data enable us to characterise dynamic traditional knowledge in these communities, which is flexible in nature and adaptable to new situations, demonstrated by the incorporation not only of new species but also new fishing tools. It also seems that new significances become absorbed in synchrony with the advance or arrival of exotic and invasive species. For the Mapuche, the presence of the white man heralded by exotic trouts speaks of how a recent event, such as the introduction of the salmonids, is already incorporated into Mapuche symbolism. Mapuche traditional knowledge and cosmovision on the use of fish and waters, a vision which promotes respect and the avoidance of actions that could disturb the beings (animals and sacred or mythological characters) that inhabit and take care of them should be fostered as part of management plans of regional natural resources. This paper contributes to the broader literature on freshwater resource management by providing empirical evidence of the critical role of local perceptions in promoting the sustainable management of natural resources.

     

Bad Hair Days in the Paleolithic: Modern (Re)Constructions of the Cave Man

Although we have never seen Paleolithic humans in the flesh, we recognize them immediately in illustrations, art, cartoons, and museum displays. The familiar iconography of the "Cave Man" often depicts our early human ancestors with longish, unkempt hair. However, this conventionalized image is not congruent with available archaeological data on the appearance of Upper Paleolithic humans. The lengthy iconographic history of representations of our prehistoric humans is rather a palimpsest of beliefs about the origins of humans, "natural man," human nature, primitive humans, and the savage "Other": a history of discourses about human evolution, human language, and the place of humans in the natural world. These images are traced in their anthropological, evolutionary, and philosophical contexts from medieval art through recent scientific illustrations, art, cartoons, and murals, and their influence on the scientific interpretation of our ancestors is assessed. [Cave Man, Paleolithic, evolution, primitive, illustration]     

The Impact of Boundary Spanning Scholarly Publications and Patents

Background

Human knowledge and innovation are recorded in two media: scholarly publication and patents. These records not only document a new scientific insight or new method developed, but they also carefully cite prior work upon which the innovation is built.

Methodology

We quantify the impact of information flow across fields using two large citation dataset: one spanning over a century of scholarly work in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, and second spanning a quarter century of United States patents.

Conclusions

We find that a publication''s citing across disciplines is tied to its subsequent impact. In the case of patents and natural science publications, those that are cited at least once are cited slightly more when they draw on research outside of their area. In contrast, in the social sciences, citing within one''s own field tends to be positively correlated with impact.     

Biodiversity loss and the taxonomic bottleneck: emerging biodiversity science

Human domination of the Earth has resulted in dramatic changes to global and local patterns of biodiversity. Biodiversity is critical to human sustainability because it drives the ecosystem services that provide the core of our life-support system. As we, the human species, are the primary factor leading to the decline in biodiversity, we need detailed information about the biodiversity and species composition of specific locations in order to understand how different species contribute to ecosystem services and how humans can sustainably conserve and manage biodiversity. Taxonomy and ecology, two fundamental sciences that generate the knowledge about biodiversity, are associated with a number of limitations that prevent them from providing the information needed to fully understand the relevance of biodiversity in its entirety for human sustainability: (1) biodiversity conservation strategies that tend to be overly focused on research and policy on a global scale with little impact on local biodiversity; (2) the small knowledge base of extant global biodiversity; (3) a lack of much-needed site-specific data on the species composition of communities in human-dominated landscapes, which hinders ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation; (4) biodiversity studies with a lack of taxonomic precision; (5) a lack of taxonomic expertise and trained taxonomists; (6) a taxonomic bottleneck in biodiversity inventory and assessment; and (7) neglect of taxonomic resources and a lack of taxonomic service infrastructure for biodiversity science. These limitations are directly related to contemporary trends in research, conservation strategies, environmental stewardship, environmental education, sustainable development, and local site-specific conservation. Today’s biological knowledge is built on the known global biodiversity, which represents barely 20% of what is currently extant (commonly accepted estimate of 10 million species) on planet Earth. Much remains unexplored and unknown, particularly in hotspots regions of Africa, South Eastern Asia, and South and Central America, including many developing or underdeveloped countries, where localized biodiversity is scarcely studied or described. "Backyard biodiversity", defined as local biodiversity near human habitation, refers to the natural resources and capital for ecosystem services at the grassroots level, which urgently needs to be explored, documented, and conserved as it is the backbone of sustainable economic development in these countries. Beginning with early identification and documentation of local flora and fauna, taxonomy has documented global biodiversity and natural history based on the collection of "backyard biodiversity" specimens worldwide. However, this branch of science suffered a continuous decline in the latter half of the twentieth century, and has now reached a point of potential demise. At present there are very few professional taxonomists and trained local parataxonomists worldwide, while the need for, and demands on, taxonomic services by conservation and resource management communities are rapidly increasing. Systematic collections, the material basis of biodiversity information, have been neglected and abandoned, particularly at institutions of higher learning. Considering the rapid increase in the human population and urbanization, human sustainability requires new conceptual and practical approaches to refocusing and energizing the study of the biodiversity that is the core of natural resources for sustainable development and biotic capital for sustaining our life-support system. In this paper we aim to document and extrapolate the essence of biodiversity, discuss the state and nature of taxonomic demise, the trends of recent biodiversity studies, and suggest reasonable approaches to a biodiversity science to facilitate the expansion of global biodiversity knowledge and to create useful data on backyard biodiversity worldwide towards human sustainability.     

Botanical Literature Goes Global: The Biodiversity Heritage Library

Scholars in the natural sciences rely on historic literature more than any other branch of science. Yet much of this material has limited global distribution and much of it is available in only a few select libraries. This wealth of knowledge is availahle only to those few who can gain direct access to significant library collections, a situation that is considered one of the chief impediments to the efficiency of research in the field. Community support and new technologies led to the formation of the Biodiversity Heritage Library. The BHL is an international collaboration of natural history libraries working together to make biodiversity literature available for use by the widest possible audience through open access and sustainable management.