Indicating ecosystem and landscape organisation

This paper presents a brief outline of the theoretical and conceptual fundamentals for the derivation of an ecosystem oriented indicator system to demonstrate the state of ecological entities on a holistic basis. There are two branches of argumentation: on a normative level, the sustainability principle is interpreted from an anthropocentric point-of-view; sustainability in this context means to provide ecosystem services on a broad scale and a long-term basis, including the attempt to avoid unspecific ecological risks. A second line-of-argumentation bases on the principles of ecosystem analysis and the theory of ecological orientation. Consequently, the aspired indicandum is the self-organising capacity of ecosystems, and the indicator sets represents an aggregate of structural and functional ecosystem features in a developing environment. The indicator set is demonstrated by one case study from the Bornhoeved Lakes ecosystem research project.     

基于文献计量的21世纪以来我国生态系统服务研究现状及发展趋势

生态系统服务作为生态文明建设的核心内容,近年来一直受到国内外学者的广泛关注。为进一步探究我国生态系统服务领域的研究进展与发展趋势,基于文献计量法,运用Citespace软件对中国知网中以"生态系统服务"为主题的1349篇中文社会科学引文索引（CSSCI）期刊论文进行可视化分析。结果显示：①我国生态系统服务领域的研究在时间上呈现出明显的"萌芽-起步-快速发展"三阶段特征;②生态系统服务领域的研究学者和科研机构间均存在较为密切的合作关系;③目前国内关于生态系统服务领域的研究主要集中在"生态系统服务价值" "生态补偿" "土地利用"生态安全"等方面;④按照关键词突现时间顺序,生态领域研究前沿可分为理论探索（2000-2008年）、初步实践（2009-2016年）、全面开花（2017-年至今）三个阶段。最后详细总结了我国生态系统服务研究领域取得的成就、面临的挑战和未来的改进空间,并在此基础上提出加快完善生态系统服务价值核算、建立健全生态系统服务价值实现机制等政策建议。     

Towards a sounder interpretation of entropy-based indicators in ecological network analysis

Various indicators rooted in the concepts of information and entropy have been proposed to be used for ecological network analysis. They are theoretically well grounded and widely used in the literature, but have always been difficult to interpret due to an apparent lack of strict relations with node and link weight. We generated several sets of 10,000 networks in order to explore such relations and work towards a sounder interpretation. The indices we explored are based on network composition (i.e., type and importance of network compartments), or network flows (i.e., type and importance of flows among compartments), including Structural Information (SI), Total System Throughput (TST), Average Mutual Information (AMI), Flow Diversity (H), and Ascendency (ASC). A correlation analysis revealed a lack of strict relationships among the responses of the investigated indicators within the simulated space of variability of the networks. However, fairly coherent patterns of response were revealed when networks were sorted by following a “bottom-up” criterion, i.e. by increasing the dominance of the large-sized top predator in the network. This ranking is reminiscent of ecosystem succession, along which the prominence of higher trophic level organisms progressively increases. In particular, the results show that a simple increase in organisms having large size and low consumption rates is potentially able to simultaneously lead to an increase of different types of information (as SI, H and AMI), thus also emphasizing the importance of bionomic traits related to body size in affecting information-related properties in a trophically connected community. The observed trends suffer from a certain dispersion of data, which was diminished by imposing specific and ecologically meaningful constraints, such as mass balancing and restriction to certain range of the ratio A/C, an index related to the viability of ecological networks. These results suggest that the identification of a set of effective constraints may help to identify improved conditions for applicability of the investigated flow-based indicators, and also provide indication on how to normalise them with respect to meaningful network properties or reference states. Thus, in order to increase confidence in the derived network metrics describing a particular ecosystem state, and thus increase their applicability, it is advisable to construct replicate networks by taking the variability of input data into account, and by applying uncertainty and sensitivity analyses.     

A conceptual framework for ecosystem management based on tradeoff analysis

Three dimensions (natural, social and economic factors) in tradeoff analysis have not been focused in ecology. It is necessary to consider the multi-dimensions through a tradeoff analysis of disturbances to find their positive and negative effects (referred to as two-sidedness). We proposed an 11-step approach to integrate the concepts, methods and examples to understand ecological two-sidedness. We recommend that: (1) ecological complexity and large-scale systematic perspectives need to be integrated; (2) disparate disciplines should be integrated to classify the two-sidedness indicators; (3) models should be adopted to define the characteristic metrics of disturbed ecosystems; (4) researchers need to reconsider evaluation standards and for each indicator with marginal changes; and (5) initial decision-making should refer to the two-sidedness value and that final decision-making should be subject to debate. This approach has great significance for ecosystem management because decision-makers can obtain the superiority and inferiority of disturbance strategies and select optimal strategy.     

Large herbivores affect forest ecosystem functions by altering the structure of dung beetle communities

Dramatic increases in populations of large mammalian herbivores have become a major ecological issue, particularly in the northern hemisphere, due to their substantial impacts on both animal and plant communities through processes such as grazing, browsing, and trampling. However, little is known about the consequences of these population explosions on ecosystem functions. Here, we experimentally investigated how the population density of sika deer (Cervus nippon) in temperate deciduous forest areas in Japan affected the decomposition of mammal dung by dung beetles, which is a key process in forest ecosystems. We measured a range of environmental variables (e.g., vegetation cover, soil hardness) and the dung decomposition rate, measured as the amount of deer dung decomposed during one week, and sampled dung beetles at 16 study sites with three different deer densities (high/intermediate/low). We then used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships between deer density, environmental variables, the biomass of dung beetles (classified into small or large species), and the dung decomposition rate. We found that the biomass of small species increased with increasing deer density, whereas that of large species was not related to deer density. Furthermore, the dung decomposition rate was positively related to the biomass of small species but unrelated to that of large species. Overall, our results showed that an increase in deer density affects the decomposition rate of mammal dung by changing the structure of dung beetle communities (i.e., increasing the number of small dung beetles). Such an understanding of how increases in large herbivore populations affect ecosystem functions is important for accurately evaluating the ecological consequences of their overabundance and ultimately managing their populations appropriately.     

生态系统原理与可持续农业

论述了农业生态系统的能量流动物质循环原理、系统相关原理、相生相克原理、忍耐极限原理、结构功能原理、系统开放原理、限制因子原理、非加和原理、生物竞争原理和竞争排斥原理 ;认为中国生态农业是一种较为典型的可持续发展的农业系统类型 ,建议在国家持续农业发展进程中要积极推行生态农业 .     

生态系统健康评价——概念构架与指标选择

在探讨生态系统健康概念构架的基础上,寻求对管理景观中的生态系统健康进行整体性评价的合适指标.健康的生态系统不仅在生态学意义上是健康的,并能维持健康的人类群体及有利于社会经济的发展.健康生态系统的一般特征是恢复力、多样性和生产力.建立生态系统健康评价指标的第一步是指标选择原则的确定,根据生态系统健康评价的目的和指标筛选的原则,把生态系统健康指标体系(Ecosystem Health Indicaror,EHI)分为生物物理指标、生态学指标和社会经济指标.     

Compilation and discussion of driver,pressure, and state indicators for the Grand Bank ecosystem,Northwest Atlantic

There are global calls for new ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) approaches. Scientific support for EBFM includes assessing ecosystem indicators of biological communities, environmental conditions, and human activities. As part of a broader research project we have synthesized a suite of traditional and new indicators for the Grand Bank in Atlantic Canada, which we share here. This is an ideal ecosystem for indicator analysis because it experienced dramatic changes over the past three decades, including a collapse in fish biomass that had profound socio-economic consequences. We exploit the wealth of data for this ecosystem to investigate how individual indicators reflect observed changes in the ecosystem, and then illustrate two applications of this indicator suite. Correlations were used to show that relationships among the fish functional groups changed after the collapse, and that a subset of indicators is sufficient to characterize each ecosystem category. Lagged correlations highlighted how changes in the drivers and pressures are often not immediately manifest in the fish community structure. We also organized indicators into the DPSIR (driver-pressure-state-impact-response) management framework. This exercise illustrated that indicator categorization is contextual and not straightforward, and we advocate for use of simpler categories that clearly show what is actionable. Additional future analyses that can be performed with our newly published suite of indicators are recommended.     

生态系统健康评价—概念构架与指标选择

在探讨了生态系统健康概念构架的基础上,寻求对管理景观中的生态系统健康进行整体性评价的合适指标,健康的生态系统不仅在生态学意义上是健康的,并能维持健康的人类群体及有利于社会经济的发展,健康生态系统的一般特征是恢复力,多样性和生产力,建立生态系统健康评价指标的第一步是指标选择原则的确定,根据生态系统健康评价的目的和指标筛选的原则,把生态系统健康指标体系（Ecosystem Health Indicator,EHI)分为生物物理指标,生态学指标和社会经济指标。     

Invasive bivalves increase benthic communities complexity in neotropical reservoirs

Invasive bivalves often act as ecosystem engineers, generally causing physical alterations in the ecosystems in which they establish themselves. However, the effects of these physical alterations over benthic macroinvertebrate communities’ structure are less clear. The objective of this study was to characterize the ecological effects of the invasive bivalves Corbicula fluminea and Limnoperna fortunei on the structure of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in neo-tropical reservoirs. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) invasive bivalves act as facilitator species to other benthic macroinvertebrates, resulting in communities with higher number of species, abundance and diversity; (2) invasive bivalves change the taxonomic composition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities; (3) invasive bivalves increase the complexity of benthic macroinvertebrate communities. For that it was used data from 160 sampling sites from four reservoirs. We sampled sites once in each area, during the dry season from 2009 to 2012. The first hypothesis was rejected, as the presence of invasive bivalves significantly decreased the host benthic communities’ number of species and abundance. The second hypothesis was corroborated, as the composition of other benthic macroinvertebrates was shown to be significantly different between sites with and without invasive bivalves. We observed a shift from communities dominated by common soft substrate taxa, such as Chironomidae and Oligochaeta, to communities dominated by the invasive Gastropoda Melanoides tuberculata. The biomass data corroborated that, showing significantly higher biomass of M. tuberculata in sites with invasive bivalves, but significantly lower biomass of native species. Benthic macroinvertebrate communities presenting invasive bivalves showed significantly higher eco-exergy and specific eco-exergy, which corroborate the third hypothesis. These results suggest that while the presence of invasive bivalves limits the abundance of soft bottom taxa such as Chironomidae and Oligochaeta, it enhances benthic communities’ complexity and provide new energetic pathways to benthic communities in reservoirs. This study also suggests a scenario of invasion meltdown, as M. tuberculata was facilitated by the invasive bivalves.     

海南岛生态系统生态调节功能及其生态经济价值研究

生态系统服务功能是指生态系统与生态过程所形成及所维持的人类赖以生存的自然环境条件与效用．最新研究表明,生态系统服务功能包括生态系统产品、生态调节功能、生命支持功能与社会文化功能．对生态调节功能的认识与评价是区域生态环境保护与资源开发的基础,并已成为当前区域生态评价与生态规划的前沿课题．以海南岛为例,探讨了基于生态系统结构与过程的生态调节功能评价方法．在研究中。将海南生态系统类型划分为13类。分析、评价了海南岛各类生态系统在水源涵养、水土保持、营养物质循环、固碳、防风固沙等方面的生态调节功能及其生态经济价值,以及生态系统提供产品的价值．研究表明,2002年海南岛生态系统所提供的生态调节功能的价值为2035．88×10^8～2153.39×10^8元,而生态系统产品价值仅为254．06×10^8元,生态调节功能价值是其产品价值的8倍多。     

试论生态系统与生物体之间的全息关系

提出生态系统与生物体之间存在全息关系的观点,并认为生态系统与生物体都具有保护、支撑、运动、同化、呼吸、循环、排泄、繁殖和调控功能,生态系统的次生演替与生物体的再生修复过程存在着共同点。根据全息胚重演过程中的滞育性、可简化性,可以对生态演替的多方向、多途径问题作出新的解释。     

Human dimensions indicators of coastal ecosystem services: A hierarchical perspective

Coastal resource management revolves around defining the dynamic between people and the marine and coastal resources they use and depend upon for a large range of goods and services. The process of defining that dynamic is iterative and must account not only for changing natural resource conditions but also for changing social conditions. Decision-making therefore happens within a context of a social system that includes differing levels of capacity, commitment, economics, political mandates and pressures, and cultural and traditional frameworks. The aim of this paper is to introduce a hierarchical approach in which the large number of variables needed to measure the complex, numerous and abstract social concepts used to evaluate the delivery of ecosystem services can be aggregated into smaller sets of indicators, which can ultimately be aggregated into a single report card. These variables and indicators can identify and describe non-economic human dimensions societal benefits derived as ecosystem services that are readily collected, that can identify changes over time, and are appropriate to specific coastal regions. The identified indicators would capture changes in the delivery of overall ecosystem services impacted by, or that will impact, changes in particular sets of environmental characteristics that are valued by society at large.     

旅游开发及其对生态系统和景观的影响

概括了国内外关于旅游开发和环境关系的研究进展。国外研究主要包括对旅游环境概念和旅游环境质量标准的探讨,旅游对自然环境影响的研究,旅游环境容量的研究,旅游对社会文化环境影响的研究及旅游环境保护对策研究等;国内的有关科研工作滞后于国外,但是旅游与环境的关系从20世纪70年代开始就受到重视。由于国内研究者广泛吸收国外的研究成果,研究起点较高,使这一领域取得了长足发展。还介绍了旅游对生态系统组成和景观的负面影响研究,如旅游对植被的局部性破坏,造成土壤侵蚀和理化性质的变化,减少野生动物的数量,增加空气中细菌、灰尘和废气的含量,造成水体污染等。今后的研究要处理好开发与保护两者间的矛盾,将景观生态学的观点应用到旅游区规划和保护之中。     

Assessing the relationship between ecosystem functions and services: Importance of local ecological conditions

The development of standard procedures for mapping ecosystem services (ES) hotspots is an active research issue, mainly because it is very important to provide spatially reliable information to decision makers on land-use planning. When ES supply is estimated and mapped from sets of contributing ecosystem functions (EF), it is important to identify which of them contribute the most to a particular ES. Also, it is crucial to determine whether that contribution varies across different ecological contexts. In this work, we used an expert-knowledge-elicitation approach to build “integration matrices” that resume the relationships between EF and ES in four different ecoregions of southern South America (Valdivian Forests, Campos, Chaco and Pampas). To verify the utility of creating different matrices, we compared the results of the Pampas ecoregion with an average score matrix from the four selected ecoregions. Results showed that the contribution of EF to ES differed slightly using the Pampas and the general matrix. We also mapped hotspots of three ES in a real landscape from the Pampas, using both matrices and the ECOSER protocol for ES supply mapping. The location of ES supply hotspots differed between matrices, but the amount of discrepancies was not proportional to the differences in matrices scores. This suggests that the developed matrix that takes into account local ecological conditions provides a more reliable source of spatially explicit information on ES supply for decision makers than a general matrix. The integration matrices generated in this study are useful for different protocols of ES supply mapping.     

Indicators quantifying small pelagic fish interactions: application using a trophic model of the southern Benguela ecosystem

Three indicators quantifying interactions between species are developed for an upwelling system to provide useful measures for the comparison of marine ecosystem structure and function. Small pelagic fish are dominant in upwelling systems, and by definition, they are pivotal in a wasp-waist upwelling system. The indicator of interaction strength (IS) quantifies the effect that a change in biomass of one group has on abundance of other groups. The functional impact (FI) indicator quantifies the trophic impacts of species on their own and other functional groups or feeding guilds. The trophic replacement (TR) indicator quantifies the trophic similarity between a species that is removed from an ecosystem and other species in that ecosystem, i.e. it quantifies the ability of one group to trophically replace another. A trophic model of the southern Benguela ecosystem is used as an example for the application of the indicators. The strong similarities in trophic functioning of the southern Benguela ecosystem in the anchovy-dominated system of the 1980s, and the 1990s when there was a shift towards greater sardine abundance, are explained by the mutual trophic replacement abilities of anchovy and sardine. Differences between the proposed indicators and mixed trophic impact assessment are highlighted, mainly resulting from the static versus dynamic nature of the models upon which they are based. Trophic indicators such as those presented here, together with other kinds of ecosystem indicators, may assist in defining operational frameworks for ecosystem-based fisheries management.     

我国区域尺度生态系统管理中的几个重要生态学命题

生态系统管理学是研究生态系统管理的理论与实践技术,相关政策和管理策略的综合性应用生态学。当前,综合研究全球或区域尺度生态系统管理模式及其相关的重大科学问题不公是人类社会可持续发展的迫切需要,也是生态系统管理学的重要发展方向和科学任务,为此,本文系统地论述了生态服务功能、可持续性、复杂性和不确定性的综合评价与生态学机制,自然资源保护、生态系统健康以及退化生态系统恢复的生态学基础,生态系统管理的基础生态学过程,生态系统适应性管理的理论与实践,生态系统网络研究,监测和成果集成,区域尺度生态系统管理的综合性专题研究等一系列重要生态学命题,讨论了这些生态学命题的国内外研究进展及其发展方向。     

种、种的多样性及退化生态系统功能的恢复和维持研究

物种多样性是生态系统的重要特征并维持系统的功能支行,生物种和不同种类构成的群落为人类提供诸如营养物质循环、生物生产力、营养功能等形式的重要生态服务,特种多样性与生态系统抵御逆境和干扰的能力紧密相关,多样性的提高会增加系统的稳定性,与单个种和种类的数量相比,功能群和功能多样性对生态系统功能的影响效应要大得多,且易于被用来测度稳定性和预测群落变化,本文提出并探讨了种对生态系统功能作用的几种形式,理解物种多样性与生态系统的功能关系能指导退化生态系统恢复和维持其功能的实践活动,尤其为恢复的初始阶段进行群落的“种类组装”提供生态理论基础。     

The analysis of convergence in ecological indicators: An application to the Mediterranean fisheries

Ecological indicators are increasingly used to examine the evolution of natural ecosystems and the impacts of human activities. Assessing their trends to develop comparative analyses is essential. We introduce the analysis of convergence, a novel approach to evaluate the dynamic and trends of ecological indicators and predict their behavior in the long-term. Specifically, we use a non-parametric estimation of Gaussian kernel density functions and transition probability matrix integrated in the R software. We validate the performance of our methodology through a practical application to three different ecological indicators to study whether Mediterranean countries converge towards similar fisheries practices. We focus on how distributions evolve over time for the Marine Trophic Index, the Fishing in Balance Index and the Expansion Factor during 1950–2010. Results show that Mediterranean countries persist in their fishery behaviors throughout the time series, although a tendency towards similar negative effects on the ecosystem is apparent in the long-term. This methodology can be easily reproduced with different indicators and/or ecosystems in order to analyze ecosystem dynamics.