Different Levels Of Human Activity Research Articles

Characteristic and histological evidence of microplastic in scleractinian corals of Java Sea

Coral reefs are threatened by emerging microplastic pollution but only a few studies are available regarding the extent of contamination in coral reef systems in situ. For this research, we collected samples from the seawater, sediments, and coral colonies of the Panjang Island cluster and the Karimunjawa Archipelago, Java Sea. Microplastics were detected in all sample types. Based on a Mann–Whitney test (p < 0.05), there is a significant difference in microplastic abundance between areas subjected to different levels of human activity. Corals showed the highest concentration of microplastics, with fragments being the most dominant type. No significant difference in microplastic abundance was found among the different polyp sizes (Mann–Whitney test, p > 0.05) or among different species (Kruskal–Wallis test, p > 0.05). All coral samples contained fragment and fiber microplastics in their polyps, consisting of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), silicone-based plastic, polysulfoxide, and Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer. Here, we provide the first evidence of microplastics inside corals, observed using a histological method. The types of microplastic detected in the histological sections were similar to those extracted from the coral polyps. Tourism and fishing activity both play a role in governing the distribution, abundance, and diversity of microplastics in coral reef systems.

Effects of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic on CO2 Emissions in the Port Areas of the Strait of Messina

The Strait of Messina is characterised by a significant ship flow, especially of ferries, between its two shores. The ferry services involve four harbours, located on the Sicilian and Calabrian shores. During the epidemic emergency related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, due to the restrictions adopted to counteract the spread of the infection, a significant reduction in ferry activities and vehicle flow occurred. These circumstances made flow data, related to different actual scenarios, available and allowed the assessment of the environmental impact of the port area. Therefore, the port area became a noteworthy case study, suited to draw conclusions regarding possible future courses of action designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions in these types of settlements. In the study, in order to assess the effect of different levels of human activity on pollutant emissions, the total CO2 emissions from ferry activities in two successive years, 2019 before the spread of the virus and 2020 when the epidemic was at its peak, were evaluated and compared. The EMEP/EEA methodology was used and, as a result, an overall reduction of 13.2% in CO2eq yearly emission rates was observed, with the major reduction of 2784 tCO2eq due to maritime traffic.

Anthropogenic Influence on the Distribution of the Longlegged Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

The longlegged ant Anoplolepis gracilipes (Smith) is a highly invasive tramp ant species known for its deleterious effects on native ecosystems. While tramp ants are associated with human activity, information on how different intensities of human activity affect their distribution is limited. This study investigated how anthropogenic activities affected the distribution of A. gracilipes in Penang, a tropical island in northern peninsular Malaysia. Three study sites (Youth Park, Sungai Ara, and Bukit Jambul/Relau) were selected, containing four sub-locations corresponding to different levels of human activity (low, moderate, high, and very high), determined by the average number of passersby observed over 30 min. Baited index cards were placed at each sub-location to evaluate ant abundance and distribution. The results demonstrated that A. gracilipes worker abundance was highest in areas of moderate human activity, as opposed to areas with low and higher human activity. The low abundance of A. gracilipes in comparatively undisturbed localities may be attributed to unsuitable microclimate, lack of propagule pressure, and diminished honeydew availability. In contrast, its exclusion from more urbanized localities could be explained by high interspecific competition with other tramp species and the absence of preferred nesting sites.

Exploring the Ecological Climate Effects of Different Land Use Changes in the Yangtze River Basin from 2000 to 2020

Land use/cover change (LUCC) can change the energy balance of the earth’s surface by altering its biophysical properties (surface albedo), and it also has an important impact on the ecological climate. In this paper, using surface energy balance algorithms, the differences in energy balance and the resulting ecoclimatic effects under different land use changes in the Yangtze River basin from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) from 2000 to 2020, the energy uptake of surface net radiation (Rs) in the Yangtze River basin showed a downward trend with increasing intensity of impact from human activities. This indicated that human activities could weaken the positive trend of Rs uptake and increase the warming effect; (2) Rs and latent heat flux (LHF) showed an upward trend, which was more obvious in natural and semi-natural regions and mixed pixel regions; (3) LHF−Rs energy uptake showed a decreasing trend, indicating that the effect of Rs on surface absorbed energy was greater than that of LHF, which was more significant in old urban areas and urban expansion areas. This research highlights the variation in the surface energy budgets of the five land use types with different levels of human activities. This will provide a theoretical reference for future land planning and management. It will also provide a theoretical basis for judging climate change trends and urban heat island effects in the Yangtze River basin from the perspective of bio-geophysics.

Disproportionate loss of threatened terrestrial mammals along anthropogenic disturbance gradients

Tens of thousands of species are increasingly confronted with habitat degradation and threatened with local extirpation and global extinction as a result of human activities. Understanding the local processes that shape the regional distribution patterns of at-risk species is useful in safeguarding species against threats. However, there is only limited understanding of the processes that shape the regional distribution patterns of threatened species. We explored the drivers and patterns of species richness of threatened, non-threatened and total terrestrial mammals by employing multi-region multi-species occupancy models based on data from a broad camera trapping survey at 1096 stations stratified across different levels of human activities in 54 mountain forests in southwest China. We compared correlates between total and threatened species richness and examined relationships of human impact variables with the proportion of threatened species and the site's local contribution to β diversity (LCBD). We found that threatened species richness was negatively related to human modification and human presence. However, both non-threatened and total species richness increased as human modification increased. Predicted proportions of threatened species were strongly and positively related to LCBD but negatively related to human modification and human presence. Our results indicate that human impacts can lead to disproportionate loss of threatened terrestrial mammals and highlight the importance of considering threatened species diversity independently from total species richness for directing conservation resources. Our approach represents one of the highest-resolution analyses of different types of human impacts on regional diversity patterns of threatened terrestrial mammals available to inform conservation policy.

Intra-annual relationship between precipitation and forest disturbance in the African rainforest

Analysis of forest disturbance patterns in relation to precipitation seasonality is important for understanding African tropical forest dynamics under changing climate conditions and different levels of human activities. Newly available radar-based forest disturbance information now enables an investigation of the intra-annual relationship between precipitation and forest disturbance in a spatially and temporally explicit manner, especially in the tropics, where frequent cloud cover hinders the use of optical-based remote sensing products. In this study, we applied cross-correlation on monthly precipitation and forest disturbance time series for 2019 and 2020 at a 0.5° grid in the African rainforest. We used the magnitude of the correlation and time lag to assess the intra-annual relationship between precipitation and forest disturbance, and introduced accessibility proxies to analyse the spatial variation of the relationship. Results revealed that a significant negative correlation between forest disturbance and precipitation dominates the study region. We found that significant negative correlations appear on average closer to settlements with overall smaller variations in travel time to settlements compared to grid cells with non-significant and significant positive correlation. The magnitude of the negative correlation increases as the travel time to settlements increases, implying that forest disturbances in less accessible areas are more affected by precipitation seasonality and that in particular human-induced disturbance activities are predominantly carried out in the drier months. Few areas showed a significant positive correlation, mainly resulting from natural causes such as flooding. These new insights in the interaction between forest disturbance, precipitation and accessibility provide a step forward in understanding the complex interactions that underlie the complexity of forest loss patterns that we can increasingly capture with Earth Observation approaches. As such, they can support forest conservation and management in coping with climate change induced changes of precipitation patterns in African rainforest countries.

Evaluation of the impacts of human activities on propagation from meteorological drought to hydrological drought in the Weihe River Basin, China

Understanding the relationship among different types of drought is crucial for drought mitigation and early warnings. Much attention has been recently focused on the propagation from meteorological drought (MD) to hydrological drought (HD); however, the influences of human activities on drought propagation have rarely been explored. The novelty of the study was to propose an effective framework to quantify the impacts of human activities on MD-HD propagation. We adopted the framework to comprehensively evaluate the anthropic impacts on hydrological drought variations and time, thresholds, and probabilities of MD-HD propagation in the Weihe River Basin (WRB) during different periods. The results showed that human activities did significantly disturb HD variations and MD-HD propagation characteristics. Specifically, human activities increased the frequency and extremes of HD and weakened its correlation with MD. The MD-HD propagation characteristics showed spatiotemporal differences across three subbasins because of the different levels of human activities. The thresholds of MD triggering different levels of HD generally became larger with change rates from 1% to 143% and 3% to more than 189% during two periods, respectively. Meanwhile, we also found that the thresholds became distinctly smaller, which could only be observed in spring and winter. Moreover, the relationship between natural and human-induced probabilities of HD occurrence showed three patterns with the increase of MD severity. The quantitative results of this study can provide guide information on adaptation strategies to promote drought preparedness in the WRB. The proposed framework can be also applied in other regions to improve the understanding of hydrological drought mechanisms.

Atmospheric nitrate formation pathways in urban and rural atmosphere of Northeast China: Implications for complicated anthropogenic effects

Effects of human activities on atmospheric nitrate (NO3-) formation remain unclear, though the knowledge is critical for improving atmospheric chemistry models and nitrogen deposition reduction strategies. A potentially useful way to explore this is to compare NO3- oxidation processes in urban and rural atmospheres based upon the oxygen stable isotope composition of NO3- (Δ17O–NO3-). Here we compared the Δ17O–NO3- from three-years of daily-based bulk deposition in urban (Shenyang) and forested rural sites (Qingyuan) in northeast China and quantified the relative contributions of different formation pathways based on the SIAR model. Our results showed that the Δ17O in Qiangyuan (26.2 ± 3.3‰) is significantly higher (p < 0.001) than in Shenyang (24.0 ± 4.0‰), and significantly higher in winter (Shenyang: 26.1 ± 6.7‰, Qingyuan: 29.6 ± 2.5‰) than in summer (Shenyang: 22.7 ± 2.9‰, Qingyuan: 23.8 ± 2.4‰) in both sites. The lower values in the urban site are linked with conditions that favored a higher relative contribution of nitrogen dioxide reaction with OH pathway (0.76-0.91) than in rural site (0.47-0.62), which should be induced by different levels of human activities in the two sites. The seasonal variations of Δ17O–NO3- in both sites are explained by a higher relative contribution of ozone-mediated oxidation chemistry and unfavorable conditions for the OH pathway during winter relative to summer, which is affected by human activities and seasonal meteorological condition change. Based on Δ17O, wintertime conditions led to a contribution of O3 related pathways (NO3 + DMS/HC and N2O5 hydrolysis) of 0.63 in Qingyuan and 0.42 in Shenyang, while summertime conditions led to 0.15 in Qingyuan and 0.05 in Shenyang. Our comparative study on Δ17O–NO3- between urban and rural sites reveals different anthropogenic effects on nitrate formation processes on spatial and temporal scales, illustrating different responses of reactive nitrogen chemistry to changes in human activities.

Impact of Human Activities on the Distribution of Termite Communities in Teak Plantations (Tectona grandis L. F., Verbenaceae) in the Korhogo Communal Area (North Côte d'Ivoire)

Aims: This study aimed to assess the impact of human activities on termites in teak plantations in the Korhogo communal area.&#x0D; Methodology: Termites were sampled from October to November 2020 using the transect method recommended by Jones and Eggleton (2000). The study was carried out in three teak plantations undergoing different levels of human activities, with a forest fragment as reference area. Five types of human activity were assessed and the overall proportion of human pressure on each habitat was calculated. The species richness (S), Shannon index (H'), Evenness (E) and the relative abundance were calculated of termites for each habitat type. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare the species richness and abundance of termites.&#x0D; Results: The results showed that the village plantation of teak (PVT) had the highest degree of human pressure (50.94%), followed by the teak plantation of the forest of Mount Korhogo (TFMK) (29.24%). The teak plantation of Botanical Garden (TJB) was under low pressure (6.60%). A total of 30 species grouped in 19 genera and 8 sub-families of termites were identified in all plots. Termite diversity was high in the forest fragment (19.67 ± 1.15) and in the teak plantation of Botanical Garden (21.33 ± 2.08), but low in the village teak plantation (11 ± 1). The abundance of termites evolves in the same direction as the species richness.&#x0D; Conclusion: Anthropogenic activities affect the trophic composition of termites, particularly the humivore group. Reconstruction of the fauna and flora of the teak forests would be beneficial for the conservation of termite species. In this region, teak forests would thus play a role as a refuge for termite communities, which are recognised as the main soil fertilising organisms in the tropics.

Trend reversal from source region to remote tropospheric NO2 columns.

Global tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) changes have different or even opposite impacts on the photochemical formation of ozone in different regions under different weather and emission condition. However, the changes over regions affected by different levels of human activities are not well known. By using the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) measurements, we analyzed spatial and temporal variability of tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities (VCDs) from the megacity to the background regions during 2005-2019. Consistent with previous research, our results show a rapid decline of tropospheric NO2 column density over regions strongly affected by human activities, especially for source regions. The decline rates of annual mean NO2 VCDs are up to - 2.44% year-1, - 2.37% year-1, and - 1.43% year-1 over megacities of the USA, Europe, and China, respectively. However, the decreasing rate has slowed, and even reversed to an increasing trend, of tropospheric NO2 from megacities to developing and remote regions, especially over ocean and background areas less affected by anthropogenic activity. From 2005 to 2019, the NO2 VCDs over the ocean and background areas increased for all seasons, with the statistically significant (p < 0.05) trends of 1.15%/0.74% year-1 (MAM), 1.20%/1.06% year-1 (JJA), 1.16%/0.82% year-1 (SON), and 0.68%/0.65% year-1 (DJF), respectively, for ocean/background region. Such decreasing/increasing trends of tropospheric NO2 over sources/remote regions may prevent the ozone air pollution to be effectively resolved to achieve air quality goals worldwide.

Trichomycete prevalence in Thomas Brook, Nova Scotia, exposed to different levels of human activity

The Thomas Brook in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, was the focus of an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada wastershed evaluation of beneficial management practices (WEBs) project from 2004–2008. The stream is impacted by human activities along its course, with residential influences and farming operations. The water quality in Thomas Brook was assessed in 2006, and the current study done in 2011–2012 used the same standard invertebrate metrics to measure water quality. This project also examined the prevalence of gut endosymbionts (trichomycetes) in aquatic invertebrates to determine whether water quality affects this community of obligate microorganisms in their hosts. The water quality was improved in Thomas Brook in 2011/2012 compared with that measured in the earlier study. There were 34 taxa of trichomycetes recorded in benthic insects in the stream, including two new species. The trichomycete community was rich in dipteran hosts (midges and black fly larvae), but the prevalence of gut fungi in ephemeropteran (mayfly) nymphs in the system was low, perhaps due to the impact of human activities on water quality.

Integration of synthetic aperture radar and multispectral data for aboveground biomass retrieval in Zagros oak forests, Iran: an attempt on Sentinel imagery

ABSTRACT The use of freely accessible Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (S-1 SAR) and Sentinel-2 multispectral instrument (S-2 MSI) data are currently a feasible way of mapping forest aboveground biomass (AGB) over large areas. Despite the extensive mapping of forest AGB by remote sensing, how to effectively combine different sensors data, selecting the proper statistical modelling method, and variable screening are still poorly understood. This paper presents a framework for Sentinel-based AGB estimation through the use of four variable screening techniques, namely, genetic algorithm (GA), least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), boruta, and removal-based; and three statistical modelling methods including multiple linear regression (MLR), artificial neural network (ANN), and random forest (RF). These methods were examined across two forested sites with different levels of human activity (highly-degraded: HD and minorly-degraded: MD) in Zagros coppice oak forests. We used backscatter coefficients and texture metrics of S-1 SAR, in addition to raw bands, simple band ratios, vegetation indices and texture metrics of S-2 MSI to extract 53 explanatory variables. Our findings showed that GA and removal-based variable screening techniques outperformed the others and RF and MLR statistical modelling methods obtained the best results. The use of different variable screening techniques and modelling methods demonstrated higher accuracies of AGB estimates for the MD site compared to the HD site. S-2 MSI (Coefficient of determination (R 2) = 0.76 and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) = 35.08% of the mean) provided a higher accuracy than S-1 SAR (R 2 = 0.42 and RMSE = 52.94% of the mean). Overall, the study demonstrates encouraging results in the retrieval and predictive mapping of the AGB of Zagros forests using the freely accessible Sentinel imagery.

Keep raising money for pandas

Conservationist have long known that using pandas, tigers and other charismatic species to front their campaigns is a good way to raise money. But some have argued that focusing on these animals can neglect equally threatened but less cuddly ones, such as pangolins. Now Jennifer McGowan at Macquarie University in Sydney and her colleagues suggest that we can have it both ways, after finding that funding for flagship species also helps other threatened species in the surrounding areas. McGowan was contacted by a US charity called WildArk, which wanted its fundraising to be backed by robust science on the ecological impact of helping certain species. To find the best approach, McGowan's team first drew up a list of 534 flagship species in wildlife-rich hotspots around the world, from golden-snub nosed monkeys to giant armadillos. The biodiversity hotspots were each split into grids of 100 by 100 kilometre squares. The researchers then compared two conservation approaches across eight simulated scenarios which assumed different levels of human activity and protected areas.

Desert bighorn sheep responses to human activity in south-eastern Utah

Abstract ContextHuman activity in wildlands can influence wildlife populations by decreasing or degrading habitat, decreasing survival, or through displacement. For bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), some human activities are detrimental and may result in physiological stress, altered activity budgets, or habitat abandonment. From 1979 to 2000, human recreation increased over 300% in areas occupied by desert bighorn sheep (O. c. nelsoni) in south-eastern Utah. Concurrently, the population of desert bighorn sheep occupying the Potash Bighorn Sheep Management Unit of south-eastern Utah was in steep decline. AimsWe investigated behavioural responses of desert bighorn sheep to different levels of human activity in this area from 2002 to 2003. MethodsWe divided the study population into two areas on the basis of the level of human use, i.e. low and high. We observed desert bighorn sheep at seven sites within these areas, including three with a high level of human use and four areas of a low level of human use. Key resultsDesert bighorn sheep spent significantly less time grazing and more time vigilant in areas of a high level of human use than in areas of a low level of human use. ConclusionsHuman recreational use of desert bighorn sheep habitat has the potential to negatively affect foraging by desert bighorn sheep. ImplicationsWe raise a cautionary flag because recreational use in bighorn sheep habitat near Moab, Utah, continues to increase and bighorn numbers continue to decline. When managers consider proposals to increase areas or trails for human recreation, they should incorporate ways to minimise impacts and reduce stressors to bighorn sheep.

Factors Affecting Macrobenthic Invertebrates Distribution in Badagry Creek, South Western Nigeria

The aim of the paper is to identify macroinvertebrates distribution in response to induced stressors and physico-chemical parameters of water and sediment. The species composition of macrobenthic invertebrates as well as the physico-chemical characteristics of Badagry creek was investigated monthly. Six sampling stations selected based on different levels of human activities along the creeks stretch and samples were collected monthly from September 2006 to February 2007. The fluctuations of some of the physical and chemical parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, BOD and total organic carbon appeared to have been influenced by activities along the study stretch. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for all parameters showed no significant differences (P &gt; 0.05) in the parameters but Post hoc tests analysis using Duncan showed that there was a significant difference (P = 0.05) in the mean total of some of the parameters. pH, clay, sand and gravel were significantly correlated with other parameters while canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) model showed that the environmental variables correlated with significant part of the variations in the individual species abundance and it revealed that dominant species were found to be significantly correlated with dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids, sand and pH.

Saúl Taborda and the October Revolution: Between Expectation and Uncertainty

The triumph of the Bolsheviks opened a propitious field for discussion on what it meant, in cultural terms, to face a revolution capable of linking the different levels of human activity. Within this framework, the "pedagogical question" was for the Cordovan thinker Saúl Taborda one of the veins from which he questioned - taking distance from the dogmatic versions of Marxism - on the problems concerning education and culture.

A comparative assessment of multi-temporal Landsat 8 and machine learning algorithms for estimating aboveground carbon stock in coppice oak forests

ABSTRACTRemote sensing of low biomass forests has challenges related to the contribution of soil and understory reflectance recorded by sensors, hampering accurate forest aboveground carbon (AGC) quantification. To improve Landsat-based AGC estimates in forests with low biomass, this study explored the use of multi-temporal Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) derived spectral information in Zagros forests by testing four machine learning algorithms: support vector machine (SVM), boosted regression trees (BRT), random forest (RF) and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS). We selected two forest areas with different levels of human activity for AGC reference plots: un-degraded forest (UD) and highly-degraded forest (HD). The results of the study showed that the Landsat image acquired in the peak of the growing season (10 August) provided the best AGC estimates for the UD site, but that for the HD site, AGC estimates were not affected by the timing of the imagery. The comparison of different modelling methods demonstrated lower accuracies from BRT, considerably biased estimates from SVM, and generally robust results from the RF algorithm. Overall, the study demonstrated the utility of applying the free Landsat 8 OLI dataset to AGC estimation, in particular non-commercial forests in developing countries where little budget is allocated for management.

Does hunting or hiking affect wildlife communities in protected areas?

Summary Managed public wild areas have dual mandates to protect biodiversity and provide recreational opportunities for people. These goals could be at odds if recreation, ranging from hiking to legal hunting, disrupts wildlife enough to alter their space use or community structure. We evaluated the effect of managed hunting and recreation on 12 terrestrial wildlife species by employing a large citizen science camera trapping survey at 1947 sites stratified across different levels of human activities in 32 protected forests in the eastern USA. Habitat covariates, especially the amount of large continuous forest and local housing density, were more important than recreation for affecting the distribution of most species. The four most hunted species (white‐tailed deer, raccoons, eastern grey and fox squirrels) were commonly detected throughout the region, but relatively less so at hunted sites. Recreation was most important for affecting the distribution of coyotes, which used hunted areas more compared with unhunted control areas, and did not avoid areas used by hikers. Most species did not avoid human‐made trails, and many predators positively selected them. Bears and bobcats were more likely to avoid people in hunted areas than unhunted preserves, suggesting that they perceive the risk of humans differently depending on local hunting regulations. However, this effect was not found for the most heavily hunted species, suggesting that human hunters are not broadly creating ‘fear’ effects to the wildlife community as would be expected for apex predators. Synthesis and applications. Although we found that hiking and managed hunting have measureable effects on the distribution of some species, these were relatively minor in comparison with the importance of habitat covariates associated with land use and habitat fragmentation. These patterns of wildlife distribution suggest that the present practices for regulating recreation in the region are sustainable and in balance with the goal of protecting wildlife populations and may be facilitated by decades of animal habituation to humans. The citizen science monitoring approach we developed could offer a long‐term monitoring protocol for protected areas, which would help managers to detect where and when the balance between recreation and wildlife has tipped.

基于保护价值与保护成本分析的滇西北植被优先保护区识别

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 基于保护价值与保护成本分析的滇西北植被优先保护区识别 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201504040677 作者: 作者单位: 云南大学生态学与地植物学研究所,云南大学生态学与地植物学研究所,云南大学生态学与地植物学研究所,云南大学生态学与地植物学研究所,云南大学生态学与地植物学研究所,云南大学生态学与地植物学研究所 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（41361046）；科技部国家科技支撑计划项目（2011BAC09B07）；中国科学院“西部之光”人才培养计划 Priority area identification for vegetation in northwest Yunnan, based on protection value and protection cost Author: Affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Geobotany, Yunnan University,Institute of Ecology and Geobotany, Yunnan University,Institute of Ecology and Geobotany, Yunnan University,Institute of Ecology and Geobotany, Yunnan University,Institute of Ecology and Geobotany, Yunnan University,Institute of Ecology and Geobotany, Yunnan 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:生物多样性丧失和保护资源不足是当前人类面临的严峻问题，确定保护等级和优先保护区是当前一项重要工作。以滇西北三江并流区为例，基于多准则决策分析方法（MCDA），以物种丰富度、植被稀有性、国家级濒危植物种数、省级濒危植物种数、濒危等级和生境特殊性6个因子为指标，对滇西北24种植被亚型进行保护价值评分。并融合海拔、距居民点距离、距道路距离、距河流距离4个人为干扰因子分析了保护成本。对保护价值和保护成本进行叠加分析确定研究区植被的保护等级以及优先保护区。结果表明：滇西北植被可分为4个保护等级，其中等级1作为优先保护区面积16983km2，占滇西北总面积25.58%，其主要保护的为季风常绿阔叶林，寒温性针叶林，高山、亚高山草甸，寒温性灌丛，积雪，水体这6类植被亚型；优先保护区作为综合的保护区能够对重要的森林、草地和湿地植被做到保护，等级2是作为森林保护主体区。等级3可作为保护缓冲区，等级4则作为传统的土地利用区。 Abstract:Biodiversity losing and unreasonable use of nature resources are two important environmental issues. In order to protect biodiversity rescources, many countries have established numerous nature reserves and other types of protected areas. However, degradation of natural resources is a big challenge in conservation projects, and we cannot prohibit all the activities associated with economic development in the conserved areas, particularly in southwest China. There is a serious conflict between two aspects. One aspect is the rich biodiversity, increasing its importance for conservation. The other is the backward economy that requires more resources for local development. Therefore, land zoning is an important approach that can reduce conflict by partitioning the landscape into various land use units that are managed according to different levels of human activity. Our research focuses on the Three Parallel Rivers of the Yunnan Protected Area. We present a systematic methodology that integrates vegetation plot data with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) technique to guide a zoning scheme. The vegetation plot data include species richness, rarity of vegetation, number of endangered plant species, ranking of endangered species, and quality of habitat. Based on these data, the protection value scores for the sub-vegetation in northwest Yunnan were obtained. Then altitude, distance to villages, distance to roads and distance to rivers were used as the impact factors to simulate the pattern of protection cost. The protection value and protection cost were integrated to generate a final combined suitability map. A K-means cluster analysis was performed to classify the suitability map into four priority levels. In this study, the area considered under level 1 was 16983 km2, accounting for 25.58% of the total research area. The targeted areas for protection in level 1 included sub-vegetation of monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest, cold-temperate coniferous forest, alpine and sub-alpine meadow, cold-temperate shrub, and areas covered by snow and water; level 1 accounts for the most important protection areas where important forest ecosystems, grassland ecosystems, and wetland ecosystems can be found. The areas under level 1 can be further divided into six parts. Part 1 is located northeast of Zhongdian; the average altitude is above 3000 m, and it is covered by cold-temperate coniferous forest. Part 2 comprises most areas of Denqing and northern Weixi, which include the Meili and Baima snowmountains. Part 3 forms the main part of the Nu mountains in Yunnan, and it appears as a line. Part 4 is located in Gongshan and Fugong, including the main part of Gaoligong National Nature Reserve. Part 5 comprises regions of southeast Zhongdian, northwest Ninglang, and northeast Lijiang. Although this part has a large area, its distribution is scattered. Part 6 comprises the Erhai Lake in Dali, which has a small area, and it is the only critical conservation region southeast of our research area. Level 2 accounts for the main areas for the conservation of forest ecosystems. Therefore, we suggested that an equal protection effort as level 1 should be made. Level 3 had a low protection value and we could use it as a buffer zone. Level 4 had no protection value and was considered the traditional land use area. According to the priority levels, we determined the area under level 1 as the priority area. We believe that our results will be useful as a reference for extension of reserves in northwest Yunnan in the future. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Community Structure and Distribution Pattern of Intertidal Invertebrate Macrofauna at Some Anthropogenically Influenced Coasts of Kathiawar Peninsula (India)

Present communication reports the community structure and distribution pattern of intertidal invertebrate macrofauna at four shores of the Kathiawar peninsular coastline off the Arabian Sea (India). The selected shores have different levels of human activities. Present report tests three hypotheses; that is, (i) distribution of invertebrate macrofauna in these shores is influenced by space and time, (ii) abiotic factors have a profound influence on the distribution pattern of intertidal macrofaunal assemblages, and (iii) human activities influence the community structure of the intertidal invertebrate macrofauna at these shores. To test these hypotheses, spatiotemporal variations in different ecological indices were studied. A total of 60 species from six phyla were considered for the study. High species diversity was recorded during winter and monsoon seasons in almost all the shores studied. It was also evident that a few environmental factors had a cumulative influence on the distribution pattern of intertidal macrofauna. Significant spatial variations in the species diversity and evenness were also observed. Though the shores studied have similar coast characteristics and climatic conditions, they face different levels of human activities. Therefore, the observed variations in the intertidal faunal assemblage were possibly caused by anthropogenic stress.