Opportunities and challenges of sustainable agricultural development in China

This paper introduces the concepts and aims of sustainable agriculture in China. Sustainable agricultural development comprises sustainability of agricultural production, sustainability of the rural economy, ecological and environmental sustainability within agricultural systems and sustainability of rural society. China's prime aim is to ensure current and future food security. Based on projections of China's population, its economy, societal factors and agricultural resources and inputs between 2000 and 2050, total grain supply and demand has been predicted and the state of food security analysed. Total and per capita demand for grain will increase continuously. Total demand will reach 648 Mt in 2020 and 700 Mt in 2050, while total grain yield of cultivated land will reach 470 Mt in 2010, 585 Mt in 2030 and 656 Mt in 2050. The per capita grain production will be around 360kg in the period 2000-2030 and reach 470kg in 2050. When productivities of cultivated land and other agricultural resources are all taken into consideration, China's food self-sufficiency ratio will increase from 94.4% in 2000 to 101.3% in 2030, suggesting that China will meet its future demand for food and need for food security. Despite this positive assessment, the country's sustainable agricultural development has encountered many obstacles. These include: agricultural water-use shortage; cultivated land loss; inappropriate usage of fertilizers and pesticides, and environmental degradation.     

Ritual fights and male reproductive success in a human population

Ritual fights are widespread across human populations. However, the evolutionary advantage associated with this behaviour is unclear because these fights rarely provide direct benefits such as territory, resources or mates. Here, the reproductive success of men competing in a traditional ritual fight, Sereer wrestling, was investigated for the first time. Involvement in wrestling had a significant positive effect on men’s number of offspring and a marginally significant effect on polygyny, controlling for age, body condition and socio‐economic status. These positive effects suggest that being involved in wrestling competition provides prestige, facilitating access to mates and thereby increasing fecundity. However, when women were interviewed on their preference concerning qualities of potential mates, the quality ‘being involved in wrestling competition’ was poorly ranked. This discrepancy may arise either from deceptive reports or from discordance between parents and daughters in the choice of a husband.     

Assessment of Extinction Risk and Reasons for Decline in Sturgeon

Sturgeon populations in the Danube River have been affected by a combination of hydropower development, over-harvesting, habitat degradation from agricultural and industrial practices and from urbanization. The effects of these changes have been monitored on six sturgeon species inhabiting the Danube River. Two of them are resident species, while the other four migrate to the river for spawning. Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) has completely disappeared from this region. Ship sturgeon (Acipenser nudiventris) is very rare in professional fishing catches. Beluga (Huso huso), Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) and sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) are endangered with different levels of extinction risk. Here, we model the time dependence of the beluga and Russian sturgeon catch in the Serbian part of the Danube River. Predicted extinction of Russian sturgeon was estimated to fall around the middle of the century, and for beluga approximately at middle of the millennium. Suggestions for sturgeon conservation measures on a national level and coordination of all relevant institutions in Serbia are also presented.     

种植密度对玉米-大豆间作群体产量和经济产值的影响

采用二次饱和D最优设计,研究了种植密度对玉米 大豆间作群体产量和经济产值的影响,并建立了以玉米和大豆密度为变量,以间作群体籽粒产量、干物质积累和经济产值为目标函数的二元二次数学模型.模型解析表明： 种植密度对玉米 大豆间作群体籽粒产量、干物质积累和经济产值影响显著,玉米密度对群体各指标的影响大于大豆密度.在低密度水平下,群体籽粒产量、干物质积累和经济产值均随密度的增加而增加.群体籽粒产量达到8101.31 kg·hm^-2,最优措施组合为：玉米密度72023株·hm^-2+大豆密度99924株·hm^-2;群体干物质积累达到15282.45 kg·hm^-2,最优措施组合为：玉米密度75000株·hm^-2+大豆密度93372株·hm^-2;群体经济产值达到23494.50元·hm^-2,最优措施组合为：玉米密度73758株·hm^-2+大豆密度87597株·hm^-2.通过计算机模拟得出,在本试验条件下,玉米-大豆间作群体籽粒产量≥7500kg·hm^-2、干物质积累≥14250 kg·hm^-2、经济产值≥22500元·hm^-2的最佳密度组合为：玉米种植密度58554～71547株·hm^-2,大豆种植密度82217～100303株·hm^-2.     

我国珍稀濒危植物保护红线的划定

本文依据《国家生态保护红线——生态功能基线划定技术指南(试行)》原则和植物保护的具体情况, 探讨了我国珍稀濒危植物保护红线划定的原则与方法。研究选取《国家重点保护野生植物名录》中收录的所有物种作为研究对象。将其定义为红线保护植物, 其中的I级保护植物定义为红线关键植物, 并基于文献资料及标本记录等数据建立了我国植物的属性数据库和地理分布数据库。在GIS支持下, 以建立的数据库为基础研究了我国红线保护植物的地理分布特征; 基于保护生物学理论, 结合我国自然保护区的就地保护现状进行了分析和评价; 以热点地区和GAP分析为理论基础, 在其分布地中识别具有代表性的热点区域以及不同属性植物分布的重点区域, 进而结合土地利用和人类干扰因素, 划定我国珍稀濒危植物生境整体保护的红线。通过在全国尺度上的分析, 得出我国珍稀濒危植物的整体保护红线面积为71.63万km², 占陆域国土面积的7.45%。植物生境保护红线划定的原则、方法和划定方案的研究对于更准确地划定生态安全预警红线具有重要意义, 同时可以为我国国土生态安全格局的构建提供依据。     

国外生态保护地体系对我国生态保护红线划定与管理的启示

中国共产党第十八届三中全会和《环境保护法》明确提出依法划定生态保护红线, 实施最为严格的源头保护制度。世界上大多数国家都实行了将天然或近天然的区域划作保护地、建立生态空间体系对物种及其生境进行保护。在国际上虽未有“生态保护红线”这一提法, 但是划定生态保护区域的做法是相似的。作者基于相关文献, 对世界自然保护联盟(IUCN)保护地系统, 以及美国、欧盟、俄罗斯、日本等地区和国家的生态保护地(区)体系的保护地面积和管理实践进行了系统梳理和总结。大多数国家的生态保护地(区)的面积在5-40%之间, 并建立了专门的保护管理职能部门或成立了多部门分工负责的管理体制, 根据人类活动强度的不同制定差异化的管控措施。对比我国现有保护地体系的空缺分析以及保护地分类管理中存在的问题, 本文提出了整合与优化我国现有各类保护区域, 通过重要性、敏感性评价对在生态系统服务功能、生物多样性和生境保护方面作用最为重要的土地优先划入生态保护红线内, 面积比例以占到陆地国土总面积的30%以上为宜。为严守生态保护红线, 根据我国现有部门职能分工, 建议强化环境保护部门对生态保护红线区域的统一监督管理职能, 制定生态保护红线管理办法, 在生态保护红线区域内实行分级分类管理。     

植物叶片水力与经济性状权衡关系的研究进展

叶片既是植物光合产物形成的主要场所, 又是整株植物的水力瓶颈、应对灾难性水力失调的安全阀门, 是植物碳水耦合权衡的重要器官。叶经济型谱反映了叶片经济性状“投资-收益”的权衡, 为验证植物进化过程中形成的物种对策提供了适用的理论框架。叶片水力性状变化会影响叶片经济性状及植物存活和生长。因此, 探索植物叶片水力与经济性状的权衡关系, 对建立植物碳-水耦合模型、揭示植物水-碳投资机理、扩展植物性状型谱等均有重要意义。该文首先综述了叶片水力性状、经济性状及两者之间的权衡关系, 分析了叶片导水率与水力脆弱性、失膨点水势、水容、安全阈值等水力性状以及与叶片的形态、结构和气体交换功能性状之间的关系。然后, 从叶片形态、解剖和叶脉网络结构以及气孔功能方面探讨了叶片水力性状与经济性状的调节机制。最后, 提出今后应加强三方面的研究: (1)探索建立植物根-茎-叶水力输导系统的碳-氮-水资源的整株经济型谱, 以揭示植物功能结构耦合、高效固碳用水的生理生态学机制; (2)探索叶片水力安全、水力效率和固碳效率之间的普适性权衡关系, 以深入理解抗旱植物叶片构建的生物物理结构与生理代谢的关系; (3)探索个体水平碳水代谢关系、水分运输与生长速率的耦合, 为代谢推演理论和植物群落尺度预测提供基础。     

Trade‐off relationship between productivity and thallus toughness in Laminariales (Phaeophyceae)

Trade‐off relationships are considered key to understanding the mechanisms supporting the coexistence of multiple species within kelp beds. Thus, information on trade‐offs is expected to contribute to conservation of kelp bed diversity. To test the existence of a trade‐off between productivity and thallus toughness, thallus traits and relationships between the traits were examined for seven species of Laminariales including 24 populations. For each population, photosynthetic capacity per unit biomass (as A _mass) and nitrogen (i.e., photosynthetic nitrogen‐use efficiency, PNUE), nitrogen content (as N _mass), thallus mass per unit thallus area (as TMA) and force required to penetrate the thallus (as F _p, a common index of leaf toughness in land plants by punch test) were determined. A _mass increased with increasing N _mass. Blades with high N _mass showed high A _mass. These blades may invest a large proportion of nitrogen to the photosynthetic parts, and consequently exhibit high metabolic rates. Moreover, blades with high N _mass tended to be associated with low TMA, and N _mass decreased with increasing TMA. A significant negative correlation was observed between TMA and A _mass because of the linkage of high A _mass with high N _mass and high N _mass associated with low TMA, while a significant positive correlation was observed between TMA and F _p. The two correlations indicate the existence of a trade‐off between productivity and thallus toughness in Laminariales. PNUE showed a significant negative correlation with TMA, which also showed a significant positive correlation with F _p as the index of thallus toughness, and therefore a trade‐off relationship between productivity and thallus toughness.     

Ecological intensification to mitigate impacts of conventional intensive land use on pollinators and pollination

Worldwide, human appropriation of ecosystems is disrupting plant–pollinator communities and pollination function through habitat conversion and landscape homogenisation. Conversion to agriculture is destroying and degrading semi‐natural ecosystems while conventional land‐use intensification (e.g. industrial management of large‐scale monocultures with high chemical inputs) homogenises landscape structure and quality. Together, these anthropogenic processes reduce the connectivity of populations and erode floral and nesting resources to undermine pollinator abundance and diversity, and ultimately pollination services. Ecological intensification of agriculture represents a strategic alternative to ameliorate these drivers of pollinator decline while supporting sustainable food production, by promoting biodiversity beneficial to agricultural production through management practices such as intercropping, crop rotations, farm‐level diversification and reduced agrochemical use. We critically evaluate its potential to address and reverse the land use and management trends currently degrading pollinator communities and potentially causing widespread pollination deficits. We find that many of the practices that constitute ecological intensification can contribute to mitigating the drivers of pollinator decline. Our findings support ecological intensification as a solution to pollinator declines, and we discuss ways to promote it in agricultural policy and practice.