Prospects for tropical forest biodiversity in a human-modified world

The future of tropical forest biodiversity depends more than ever on the effective management of human-modified landscapes, presenting a daunting challenge to conservation practitioners and land use managers. We provide a critical synthesis of the scientific insights that guide our understanding of patterns and processes underpinning forest biodiversity in the human-modified tropics, and present a conceptual framework that integrates a broad range of social and ecological factors that define and contextualize the possible future of tropical forest species. A growing body of research demonstrates that spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity are the dynamic product of interacting historical and contemporary human and ecological processes. These processes vary radically in their relative importance within and among regions, and have effects that may take years to become fully manifest. Interpreting biodiversity research findings is frequently made difficult by constrained study designs, low congruence in species responses to disturbance, shifting baselines and an over-dependence on comparative inferences from a small number of well studied localities. Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the potential prospects for biodiversity conservation can be explained by regional differences in biotic vulnerability and anthropogenic legacies, an ever-tighter coupling of human-ecological systems and the influence of global environmental change. These differences provide both challenges and opportunities for biodiversity conservation. Building upon our synthesis we outline a simple adaptive-landscape planning framework that can help guide a new research agenda to enhance biodiversity conservation prospects in the human-modified tropics.     

硫稳定同位素技术在生态学研究中的应用

随着人为SO₂释放的增加, 硫稳定同位素的动态已成为生物地球化学循环过程中研究的热点。该文对天然硫稳定同位素在大气自然过程中的硫来源分析及其在森林生态系统、农田生态系统和水域生态系统中的硫动态研究, 人为添加的硫稳定同位素在生态环境中的应用及硫稳定同位素技术在我国酸雨研究中的潜在贡献等进行了综述, 并从硫稳定同位素技术应用研究的范围、分析手段及源解析模型方面介绍了可能的发展方向。     

Almost 50 years of monitoring shows that climate,not forestry,controls long‐term organic carbon fluxes in a large boreal watershed

Here, we use a unique long‐term data set on total organic carbon (TOC) fluxes, its climatic drivers and effects of land management from a large boreal watershed in northern Finland. TOC and runoff have been monitored at several sites in the Simojoki watershed (3160 km²) since the early 1960s. Annual TOC fluxes have increased significantly together with increased inter‐annual variability. Acid deposition in the area has been low and has not significantly influenced losses of TOC. Forest management, including ditching and clear felling, had a minor influence on TOC fluxes – seasonal and long‐term patterns in TOC were controlled primarily by changes in soil frost, seasonal precipitation, drought, and runoff. Deeper soil frost led to lower spring TOC concentrations in the river. Summer TOC concentrations were positively correlated with precipitation and soil moisture not temperature. There is some indication that drought conditions led to elevated TOC concentrations and fluxes in subsequent years (1998–2000). A sensitivity analysis of the INCA‐C model results showed the importance of landscape position, land‐use type, and soil temperature as controls of modeled TOC concentrations. Model predictions were not sensitive to forest management. Our results are contradictory to some earlier plot‐scale and small catchment studies that have shown more profound forest management impacts on TOC fluxes. This shows the importance of scale when assessing the mechanisms controlling TOC fluxes and concentrations. The results highlight the value of long‐term multiple data sets to better understand ecosystem response to land management, climate change and extremes in northern ecosystems.     

Vegetation in clear‐cuts depends on previous land use: a century‐old grassland legacy

Plant species richness in central and northern European seminatural grasslands is often more closely linked to past than present habitat configuration, which is indicative of an extinction debt. In this study, we investigate whether signs of historical grassland management can be found in clear‐cuts after at least 80 years as coniferous production forest by comparing floras between clear‐cuts with a history as meadow and as forest in the 1870s in Sweden. Study sites were selected using old land‐use maps and data on present‐day clear‐cuts. Species traits reflecting high capacities for dispersal and persistence were used to explain any possible links between the plants and the historical land use. Clear‐cuts that were formerly meadow had, on average, 36% higher species richness and 35% higher richness of grassland indicator species, as well as a larger overall seed mass and lower anemochory, compared to clear‐cuts with history as forest. We suggest that the plants in former meadows never disappeared after afforestation but survived as remnant populations. Many contemporary forests in Sweden were managed as grasslands in the 1800s. As conservation of remaining grassland fragments will not be enough to reduce the existing extinction debts of the flora, these young forests offer opportunities for grassland restoration at large scales. Our study supports the concept of remnant populations and highlights the importance of considering historical land use for understanding the distribution of grassland plant species in fragmented landscapes, as well as for policy‐making and conservation.     

In vitro storage of Eucalyptus grandis germplasm under minimal growth conditions

Slow growth-storage, for up to 10 months, has been achieved for Eucalyptus grandis shoot cultures by either the addition of 10 mg l⁻¹ abscisic acid to the growth medium or by the halving of nutrient supply (half MS) and removal of exogenous plant growth regulators. Reduction of light intensity or the addition of mannitol to the media were less effective in reducing growth rate. Isolated in vitro axillary buds encapsulated in calcium alginate and stored under low temperature and low light intensities survived for up to 3 months without loss in viability. Storage of such encapsulated fresh axillary buds at higher temperature resulted in a loss in viability. These methods have immediate applications to forestry breeding and clonal programs. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

择伐对动物多样性的影响

择伐是生态林业持续利用的一种途径 ,即以达到在经济上是可持续的 ,保持稳定的木材产量 ,同时保护生物多样性。择伐对动物多样性的影响成为生物多样性保护和生态林业持续性研究的一个焦点。择伐因不同地区和不同森林类型以及择伐木的树种、大小、生长状况、分布格局、择伐的强度等不同 ,对不同动物类群的影响可能不同。大多数研究认为 ,在采伐迹地中 ,分布范围广或广适应种的物种多样性或丰富度将增加 ,而适应于原始林的专化种或狭生种的物种多样性或丰富度将下降。在自然干扰频繁的地区 ,择伐对动物多样性影响相对较小。在热带原始林 ,动物多样性受择伐影响大 ,而在温带森林 ,动物多样性受影响小。轻度的择伐对动物多样性影响小 ,因而与生物多样性保护相协调。采伐时 ,动物的食物树种、枯死木和为动物提供洞穴的树应得到保护。大多数研究仅比较了择伐对动物多样性的影响 ,而对择伐对动物多样性影响的生态学机制探讨较少。我国这方面开展的研究较少。未来的研究重点包括了解择伐对动物多样性影响的生态学机理、择伐对动物遗传多样性、生态系统过程、非指示类群的影响以及枯死木的生态功能。     

基于结构方程模型分析森林生态安全的影响因素

森林生态安全是维持国家生态安全的重要基础,也是人类生存的必要环境。森林不仅为人类提供木材和其他林副产品等实物价值,还具有美化环境、固碳释氧、涵养水源、防风固沙等生态服务价值,对维持生态平衡有重要作用。生态安全的相关研究多集中在构建评价指标评价森林生态安全,研究内容相对单一,而针对林业生态-产业共生关系的研究,并没有对林业产业类型进行区分,其次,林业产业发展对森林生态安全的影响研究较少。针对上述问题,在考虑产业分类的基础上,基于PSR理论和狭义的森林生态安全定义,利用31个省(市、自治区)3年的林业统计数据,运用PLS结构方程模型分析林业产业发展、森林生态保护对森林生态安全的影响及影响的大小,并分析了各地区森林生态保护的响应活动,为林业产业发展和森林生态保护的政策制定提供依据,从而促进林业的可持续发展。基于上述分析得出如下结果:(1)林业产业发展对森林生态安全无显著影响,但有部分子产业有森林生态安全有影响;(2)林业一产发展对森林生态安全有显著地直接影响,路径系数为0.175,间接影响不显著;(3)林业二产和三产发展对森林生态安全的直接影响和间接都不显著;(4)三类产业对林业产业发展的影响均显著,影响的大小分别为林业二产(0.636)、林业一产(0.204)、林业三产(0.151);(5)森林生态保护对森林生态安全有显著地直接影响,路径系数为0.619;(6)相对于其他地区,西部的森林生态保护活动积极性不高。由此得出如下结论:林业产业发展及林业二产、林业三产对森林生态安全未形成压力,只有林业一产发展对森林生态安全产生了正压力,需进一步加强林业产业结构的调整;加大保护响应力度对森林生态安全的影响大于合理利用的正压力;加强西部区域的森林生态保护力度,提高森林生态安全。     

Co‐benefits,trade‐offs,barriers and policies for greenhouse gas mitigation in the agriculture,forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector

The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector is responsible for approximately 25% of anthropogenic GHG emissions mainly from deforestation and agricultural emissions from livestock, soil and nutrient management. Mitigation from the sector is thus extremely important in meeting emission reduction targets. The sector offers a variety of cost‐competitive mitigation options with most analyses indicating a decline in emissions largely due to decreasing deforestation rates. Sustainability criteria are needed to guide development and implementation of AFOLU mitigation measures with particular focus on multifunctional systems that allow the delivery of multiple services from land. It is striking that almost all of the positive and negative impacts, opportunities and barriers are context specific, precluding generic statements about which AFOLU mitigation measures have the greatest promise at a global scale. This finding underlines the importance of considering each mitigation strategy on a case‐by‐case basis, systemic effects when implementing mitigation options on the national scale, and suggests that policies need to be flexible enough to allow such assessments. National and international agricultural and forest (climate) policies have the potential to alter the opportunity costs of specific land uses in ways that increase opportunities or barriers for attaining climate change mitigation goals. Policies governing practices in agriculture and in forest conservation and management need to account for both effective mitigation and adaptation and can help to orient practices in agriculture and in forestry towards global sharing of innovative technologies for the efficient use of land resources. Different policy instruments, especially economic incentives and regulatory approaches, are currently being applied however, for its successful implementation it is critical to understand how land‐use decisions are made and how new social, political and economic forces in the future will influence this process.