A new global dataset of bioclimatic indicators

Although species richness has been hypothesized to be highest at 'intermediate' levels of disturbance, empirical studies have demonstrated that the disturbance-diversity relationship can be either negative or positive depending on productivity On the other hand, hypothesized productivity diversity relationships can be positive, negative or unimodal, as confirmed by empirical studies. However, it has remained unclear under what conditions each pattern is realized, and there is little agreement about the mechanisms that generate these diverse patterns. In this study, I present a model that synthesizes these separately developed hypotheses and shows that the interactive effects of disturbance and productivity on the competitive outcome of multispecies dynamics can result in these diverse relationships of species richness to disturbance and productivity The predicted productivity diversity relationship is unimodal but the productivity level that maximizes species richness increases with increasing disturbance. Similarly, the predicted disturbance diversity relationship is unimodal but the peak moves to higher disturbance levels with increasing productivity Further, these patterns are well explained by the opposite effects of productivity and disturbance on competitive outcome that are suggested by the change in community composition along these two environmental gradients: higher productivity favours superior competitors while higher disturbance levels favour inferior competitors.

Determining What's Important about Landscapes

In our time, as the need to expand the output of foodfor the rapidly rising population of the world becomesmore acutely felt, and as development acceleratesthroughout the world, the scope and tasks of appliedecology cannot but increase. Ours is an age in whichecological thinking and methods have more than everbefore to contribute to the progress of mankind: theJournal of Applied Ecology hopes to play a useful partin the common effort.These aspirations represent the closing statement of thevery first Editorial published in the first issue of Journalof Applied Ecology in 1964 (Bunting & Wynne-Edwards1964), and yet are still highly relevant today. It was withconsiderable vision that the British Ecological Society(BES) launched a new journal that not only spannedplant and animal ecology but addressed issues ofrelevance to human well-being.The Journal of Applied Ecology was founded to publishthe results of original research, particularly of a quantita-tive and experimental kind, on ecological subjects that areof economic or social importance. Fifty years ago, appliedecology was widely viewed as the poor relation of themore glamorous fundamental areas of this young science.Scientific research relating to the conservation of biologi-cal diversity was in its infancy, journals such as Conserva-tion Biology were not even on the horizon, while it wouldbe more than a decade before the integration of agricul-ture and the environment became a recognized area ofresearch with the launch of the journal Agriculture, Eco-system and Environment in the 1970s. The Journal ofApplied Ecology had already celebrated a quarter of acentury of publishing the best applied ecological researchwhen the Ecological Society of America launched Ecologi-cal Applications. Few applied journals can compete withthe Journal of Applied Ecology in terms of its heritage andits contribution to establishing applied ecology as animportant discipline in its own right.To celebrate our golden jubilee, we have launched avirtual issue online (http://www.journalofappliedecology.org/view/0/virtualissues/fiftyyearsvirtualissue.html) that re-views some of the key articles we have published over thelast five decades. Much of the focus of the first decadewas on improving the productivity of agricultural ecosys-tems rather than addressing agriculture’s potential impacton species conservation. Nonetheless, the Journal had aglobal outlook from the start, drawing its examples fromecosystems around the world. Surprisingly, given thelaunch of the journal less than 2 years after the publica-tion of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (Carson, Darling &Darling 1962), studies describing the impact of agrochemi-cals on wildlife only appeared towards the end of the1960s. These studies did, however, include early classics inthe field. Work published at this time continues to haveimpact today. For example, Newman’s (1966) article, on amethod for estimating the total length of root in a sam-ple, is still heavily cited more than four decades later, with62 citations listed in Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.co.uk/) from January 2011 to November 2012.These recent citing articles include authors estimating car-bon stocks in Amazonia, understanding the effects ofmycorrhiza for coffee in Puerto Rico, and investigating thepotential for biocontrol of tomato root rot in Denmark.During the 1970s, much of what was published reflectedthe need for basic information about the biology of pestspecies that had large economic effects. This was a periodof rapid agricultural expansion and modernization, exem-plified by the so-called ‘green revolution’, and researcherswere acutely concerned with pests that lowered crop pro-ductivity. By the 1980s, while pests of agriculture werestill an important focus, models of their populationdynamics became increasingly more realistic and includedcrop phenology in assessments of the likely damage fromdefoliating insects. Furthermore, the management of agri-

<i>Integrative Conservation</i>: A new journal from the conservation frontline

Conservation planning is carried out on a variety of geopolitical and biogeographical scales. Whereas considerable consensus is emerging about the most appropriate procedures for identifying conservation areas, the spatial implications of conducting conservation planning at divergent scales have received little attention. Here we explore the consequences of planning at different geopolitical scales, using a database of the mammalian fauna from the Northern Provinces of South Africa. The conservation network resulting from treating the region as one unit is compared with networks generated separately for the provinces nested in that region. These outcomes are evaluated in terms of (i) their land use efficiencies, (ii) their spatial overlap, and (iii) the impact of algorithm attributes. Although land use efficiencies are greater on broader scales, on average the spatial congruence between the broad-scale regional network and fine-scale provincial networks was less than 14%. Algorithms using different selection rules fail to improve this disturbing outcome. Consequently, scale has an overwhelming influence on areas identified as conservation networks in geopolitical units. This should be recognized in conservation planning.

Landscape ecology has made tremendous progress since the 1980s, which is in part reflected in the rapidly increasing number of publications in the English literature (Fig. 1). For the period of 1991–2007, ten countries from North America, Europe, Oceania, and East Asia were contributed more than 92% to the total number of publications, and about 31 % of all articles were published in ten journals (Table 1). These numbers indicate that landscape ecology has been widely recognized in research and applications, and become a wellestablished scientific field internationally (Wu 2007). Based on our survey, it is clear that the assessment, planning, and modeling of various landscapes are dominant in the literature. The concepts and tools of landscape ecology have been increasingly integrated in biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration. Researchers have become more cautious and critical in using landscape metrics, with new methods such as graph theory and vector based landscape pattern analysis being introduced in landscape studies. Socioeconomic factors are increasingly considered in contemporary landscape ecology that emphasizes the driving mechanisms and environmental impacts of landscape change. Interfacing with other scientific fields has created new growing points of landscape ecology, including landscape genetics, fluvial landscape ecology, multifunctional landscape research, and sustainable landscape design and planning. These new growing points are leading landscape ecology to a more advanced stage. Landscape genetics, for example, combines landscape ecology with population genetics to understand the interactions between landscape characteristics and microevolutionary processes including gene flow, genetic drift, and selection (Holderegger and Wagner 2006). Thus, landscape genetics can help bridge fine-scale genetic studies with broad-scale landscape research and management, which is important in biological conservation and disease control. Landscape ecology has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field which will contribute significantly to the new sustainability science (Wu 2006; Naveh 2007). There is, however, still a long way to go to become a genuinely transdisciplinary enterprise. Landscapes are entities with overwhelming complexity, and the definitions of landscape often have to consider various ecological goods and services, cultural, and aesthetic values. Landscape ecological research, therefore, often requires the involvement of many disciplines from both natural and social sciences. Furthermore, the effective communication and application of scientific findings are dependent largely on the active participation of stakeholders (Luz 2000), which demands a transdisciplinary approach. To facilitate the development of landscape ecology towards a truly transdisciplinary science, it is B. Fu (&) Y. Lu L. Chen State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China e-mail: bfu@rcees.ac.cn

How to Excel in Conservation Biology

The focus of conservation biology has been predominantly the study of single species, and conservation management and legislation has been directed mostly at the species level. Increasingly, however, there has been a recognition that ecosystems and landscapes need to be considered, since they form the physical and biotic context within which species exist. Increased emphasis on the landscape scale suggests that the emerging discipline of landscape ecology might have much to offer conservation biology. Landscape ecology is still a young science with no well-defined theoretical framework and little rigorous quantitative methodology. It aims to study patterns, processes and changes at the scale of hectares to square kilometers. Its focus on the pattern and dynamics of ecosystems or patches within a landscape offers much which is of relevance to conservation biology. Topics such as disturbance, patch dynamics, metapopulation dynamics, landscape flows, connectivity and fragmentation all have relevance to the conservation of biodiversity in natural, altered and rapidly changing systems. The papers in this issue provide a cross section of Australian research into landscape ecology which is of relevance to conservation biology. Methodological, theoretical and practical aspects are covered. I suggest that effective conservation of biodiversity will be achieved only if the landscape context is taken into account.

Beyond Biodiversity Conservation: Why Policy Needs Social Theory, Social Theory Needs Justice, and Justice Needs Policy

Farmers and the Forest: Can Agroforestry Actually Conserve Biodiversity?

Landscape ecology is playing an increasingly important role in resources management and landuse planning in recent decades and attracting much attention from resource managers and scientists in China as well as in the world. Reviews of landscape ecology development in China have been well documented, whereas forest landscape ecology and its applications receive relatively fewer reviews. In this paper, we first present a brief review of the historical development and current advances of landscape ecology in China and then introduce the applications of landscape ecology to forest park designs, urban greenspace planning, ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation and forest eco-hydrology. Finally, the problems with the application of forest landscape ecology in China, such as inadequate synthesis and integration, lack of basic research on patterns and processes, basic data shortage and model usage problem are discussed on the basis of which we suggest a future direction of forest landscape ecology in China.

A simple modelling approach was used to investigate the influence of habitat fragmentation on the distributions and regional population sizes of passerines breeding in 145 small woods in an arable landscape. Observed distributions in three consecutive years were compared with those predicted by random selection of woods by pairs (based on a Poisson distribution), and by a simulation model based on the area of habitat available and estimates of individual species minimum area requirements and territory sizes. None of the species studied were distributed randomly; some were distributed according to the area of woodland available, whereas others preferred either small or large woods. However, species distributions were influenced by their regional population sizes. When species population sizes were small, observed distributions could be predicted using algorithms based on area alone, but as numbers increased, algorithms using territory parameters were required. An absence of detectable territorial interaction suggested that space for more pairs of the species concerned had been available in our woods. Of the 14 species investigated, the models for only two consistently required the use of territory parameters, indicating that the available habitat could probably have accommodated more pairs of most of the species. Thus habitat fragmentation may reduce regional population sizes more than expected from the loss of habitat alone, to the extent that patches of suitable habitat may be unused, or occupied at low density.

The present-day distribution of centres of endemism is the result of an interplay between historical biogeography and contemporary environmental conditions. The relative importance of these two factors has never been established, however, for want of information on both the distributions themselves and the continental-scale measurement of environmental variables. Recently published maps of avian endemism in Africa, and the increasing availability of continental-scale surrogates of climatic conditions derived from Earth-orbiting satellites, has allowed this problem to be addressed directly. In this paper, temporal-Fourier-processed surrogate meteorological data derived from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's series of polar-orbiting meteorological satellites and from the geostationary Meteosat satellites are used within a discriminant analytical framework to describe and predict areas of bird endemism in East Africa. The technique predicts endemic bird areas (EBAs) with an accuracy of 89% (mean 85%, range 70 to 89%). Contemporary environmental conditions, ultimately determined by climate, therefore appear to account for a substantial fraction of the observed variation in the distribution of EBAs. On the basis of these results, several hypotheses proposed to explain the distribution of centres of avian endemism are reviewed.

Historical reference conditions have provided empirical benchmarks for guiding ecological restoration but the relevance of historical conditions has been questioned in this era of rapid global change. Trait‐based ecology offers an alternative approach for setting restoration objectives. If we understand which phenotypic traits confer high survival in a given environment, then we can restore assemblages of species with favorable trait combinations to reduce mortality risk, achieve functional outcomes, and enhance restoration success. Our objective was to compare restoration prescriptions based on historical reference conditions versus trait‐based objectives in southwestern United States mixed conifer forests. To optimize survival and enhance resilience under projected increasing frequencies of fire and drought, we constructed and evaluated models based on combinations of three traits: thick bark, dense wood, and moderate leaf nitrogen concentration. Models with multiple traits accurately derived historical species abundance distributions, which is a necessary condition for the application of trait‐based models under less certain future conditions. Model results indicated that trait‐based restoration objectives could be achieved in two ways: by manipulating abundances of species that already coexist at a site or by adding native species from warmer climates to the local species pool. The latter approach may create no‐analog communities of native species. Restoration goals based on either historical reference conditions or future projections are special cases of a more general class of desired future conditions that are derived from trait‐based objectives. Functional ecology provides a general, flexible, and theory‐based approach to restoring resilient ecosystems at a time of rapid environmental change.

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 1981-2015年我国大陆地区景观生态学研究文献分析 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201604240775 作者: 作者单位: 北京师范大学,北京师范大学 资源学院 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金项目（41390462） A bibliometric analysis of landscape ecology in China mainland between 1981 and 2015 Author: Affiliation: Beijing Normal University,Beijing Normal University Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:在我国大陆地区，景观生态学已走过35周年，国际景观生态学会中国分会已经正式成立20周年。以“景观生态学”为主题词，检索得到1981-2015年我国大陆地区景观生态学学者发表的相关文献，对文献数量、文献期刊分布、文献所属研究机构、文献内容和文献国际影响力5个方面进行统计分析，得到关于我国大陆地区景观生态学研究发展历程和现状的几点认识。（1）我国大陆地区景观生态学研究按发表文献数量状况可划分为3个阶段：1981-1989年，景观生态相关研究较少，学科处于引进、吸收的初始阶段；1990-2006年，文献数量迅猛增长，我国大陆地区景观生态学学科发展成熟并壮大；2007年至今，景观生态学研究平稳发展，在思索中寻求创新。（2）我国大陆地区景观生态学研究文献发表刊物以生态、农业、资源与环境、地理测绘和园林领域刊物为主，刊物影响因子差别明显，景观生态学专业期刊在我国大陆地区有所欠缺。（3）景观生态学研究机构主要为以中国科学院生态环境研究中心和中国科学院沈阳应用生态研究所为代表的中国科学院研究所和以北京大学、北京林业大学和北京师范大学为代表的高校，各研究机构发挥所处地理环境优势和自身学科特色，对不同类型景观展开深入研究。（4）我国大陆地区景观生态学研究内容主要包括学科理论与技术方法、景观格局-生态过程-尺度的相互作用机制、景观生态学的部门应用等，其研究主题包括城市、农业、湿地、园林、气候变化、生物多样性、景观可持续等众多方面，其研究范式正经历着从“格局-过程-尺度”向“格局-过程-服务-可持续性”的变化过程。（5）就英文文献的发文量和被引频次而言，我国大陆地区景观生态学研究是国际景观生态学研究的重要组成部分，但其国际影响力有待于进一步提升。 Abstract:Landscape ecology is an interdisciplinary field that investigates landscape units, spatial patterns, and ecological processes. It can be used to improve landscape protection, management, planning, design, and sustainability at many different scales. The development of landscape ecology in China mainland began 35 years ago in1981 when the subject was introduced into China mainland for the first time. The International Association of Landscape Ecology in China (IALE China) was established in 1995. This study describes the development and status of landscape ecology research in China mainland by analyzing the articles published in the CNKI and Web of Science databases between1981 and 2015. The key term used for the literature search was landscape ecology, and both Chinese and English articles written by scientists in China mainland were included. The analysis of the detailed information was based on the number of related articles, journal names, research institutes, articles content, and international influence. The research results were as follows: (1) The development of landscape ecology in China mainland could be divided into three stages according to the number of related articles per year. Between 1981 and 1989, there was little research on landscape ecology in China mainland and the discipline was in its introduction and early development phase. Between 1990 and 2006, the number of related articles per year increased rapidly and landscape ecology in China mainland developed rapidly. Since 2007, landscape ecology in China mainland has been in a steady development phase where it has always been a challenging task to innovate and develop new ideas. (2) Articles on landscape ecology research in China mainland were published in ecology, agriculture, resources and environment, geographical mapping and architecture journals. There are no specialized journals on landscape ecology in China mainland, and the relative journals have different impact factors. (3) In terms of the number of published papers, the major research institutions for landscape ecology were the Chinese Academy of Sciences, such as the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences and the Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology; Peking University; Beijing Forestry University; and Beijing Normal University. They carried out comprehensive studies on landscape ecology by integrating geographical concerns with their own subject characteristics. (4) There were different research priorities at different periods of time; and three Chinese landscape ecology research areas were identified by key words analysis. These were landscape ecology discipline and technology research, the interaction mechanisms between landscape pattern, ecological processes, and scale, and the application of landscape ecology to different areas. Landscape ecology in China mainland included urban areas, agriculture, wetlands, gardens, climate change, biodiversity, and landscape sustainability, etc. The research paradigm for landscape ecology evolved from a “pattern-process-scale” to “pattern-process-service-sustainability”. (5) When the number and citation frequencies of articles included in Web of Science database were taken into account, China mainland’s international status in the field of landscape ecology has improved significantly since the 1990s. The total number of articles from China mainland was ranked 5th in the world. Although China mainland’s landscape ecology research contribution was an important part of international landscape ecology research, the article citation frequencies were low and its international influence may need to improve. The reference searching methods used in this study had serious limitations, and it was difficult to collect all the landscape ecology articles published by the scientists from China mainland. However, the 20th birthday of IALE-China is an appropriate time to review the progress made by the scientists over the last 35 years in the area of landscape ecology. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献