Evaluating ecosystem-based management options: Effects of trawling in Torres Strait,Australia

A suite of management options for a prawn trawl fishery in Torres Strait, Australia was assessed for impacts on the benthic fauna using a dynamic management strategy evaluation approach. The specification of the management options was gained through consultation with stakeholders. Data for the model was drawn from several sources: the fleet data from fishery logbooks and satellite vessel monitoring systems, benthic depletion rates from trawl-down experiments, benthic recovery rates from post-experiment recovery monitoring studies, and benthic distribution from large-scale benthic surveys. Although there were large uncertainties in the resulting indicators, robust measures relevant to management were obtained by taking ratios relative to the status quo. The management control with the biggest effect was total effort; reducing trawl effort always led to increases in benthic faunal density of up to 10%. Spatial closures had a smaller benefit of up to 2%. The effect of closing a set of buffer zones around reefs to trawling was indistinguishable from the status quo option. Closing a larger area, however, was largely beneficial especially for sea cucumbers. When the spatial distributions of fauna prior to fishing were accounted for, fauna with distributions positively correlated with effort improved relative to those negatively correlated. The reduction in prawn catch under effort reduction scenarios could be ameliorated by introducing temporal closures over the full-moon period.     

Nature-dependent people: Mapping human direct use of nature for basic needs across the tropics

Understanding where people depend the most on natural resources for their basic human needs is crucial for planning conservation and development interventions. For some people, nature is a direct source of food, clean water, and energy through subsistence uses. However, a high direct dependency on nature for basic needs makes people particularly sensitive to changes in climate, land cover, and land tenure. Based on more than 5 million household interviews conducted in 85 tropical countries, we identified where people highly depend on nature for their basic needs. Our results show that 1.2 billion people, or 30% of the population across tropical countries, are highly dependent on nature. In places where people highly depend on nature for their basic needs, nature-based strategies that protect, restore or sustainably manage ecosystems must be carefully designed to promote inclusive human development alongside environmental benefits.     

从生产资产到生态资产：资产—资本完备性

本研究探讨从生产资产（produc edassets）到生态资产的完备化理论。其内容主要包括：资产-资本完备化;生态资产定义、构成、分类与比较;经济权与完备化,为该研究的第一部分内容。首先,回顾了国内外环境、资源与生态经济学领域有关资产和资本的研究概况,指出当前该领域的前沿热点之一是从生产资产走向生态资产的综合与系统化,这一发展趋势突出体现在关于资产-资本的完备化研究。通过简要地分析新古典经济学中资产和资本范畴的局限性及其所产生的不完备性,总结出其主要表现是概念不完备性、价值不完备性和权义不完备性,而价值不完备性是当前研究的核心问题。在此基础上,进一步评述了现代经济学在资产或资本完备化研究中所取得的重要进展及有待解决的重大问题。该文从系统学意义上提出,推出完备化过程首先需要建立系统资产和资本概念,并进一步讨论了系统资产和资本的基本内涵,提出了资产-资本完备化的 5个法则。     

Sustainability begins at home? An ecological exploration of sub/urban Australian community-focused housing initiatives

This paper responds to challenges made by Castree [Castree, N., 2004. Environmental issues: signals in the noise? Progress in Human Geography 28 (1), 79-90] and Sneddon [Sneddon, C., 2000. ‘Sustainability’ in ecological economics, ecology and livelihoods: a review. Progress in Human Geography 24 (4), 521-549] for human geography to clarify its contribution to environmental debates and engage with recent formulations of sustainability as informed by the ‘new ecology’. This approach focuses on resilience, functional diversity, flexibility and complexity, here used to examine housing sustainability within an industrialised sub/urban context in terms of design philosophy, ownership, management bases, community engagement and funding mechanisms. This framework highlights areas of concern for enhancing the functional diversity of housing systems, echoing recent assertions that challenges for sustainability arise more from trust and power sharing issues, than from physical design and maintenance issues. It is argued that it is precisely human geography’s place-by-place consideration of power, embeddedness, scale and politics that can lend new ecology the social relevance it requires.     

海南临高海岸带典型生态环境问题与对策研究

为改善临高县海岸带生态环境、提升海岸带生态价值及保障海岸带生态安全,文章在实地考察、文献查阅和资料梳理的基础上,概述了当前临高县海岸带面临的典型生态环境问题,分析生态环境退化的主要原因,提出了海岸带保护修复的对策建议。研究结果表明：临高海岸带地区砂质海岸、红树林、珊瑚礁和白蝶贝等面临较严重的海岸侵蚀、生态环境退化和生物资源枯竭等问题;砂质海岸侵蚀主要受海平面上升、风暴潮等自然因素影响,红树林生态系统主要受围海养殖、环境污染影响,珊瑚礁、白蝶贝等海洋生态系统则主要受渔业捕捞、水体污染等人为活动影响;基于海岸生态退化现状及原因分析,提出文澜河口、抱吴港等岸段开展沙滩喂养及生态堤建设,新盈湾、黄龙湾、金牌湾等重点区实施红树林修复,珊瑚礁、白蝶贝保育区加强自然封育、严防人工干扰等建议措施。     

Mitigation options for methane, nitrous oxide and nitric oxide emissions from agricultural ecosystems

1.IntroductionNitrousoxide(N,O)andmethane(CH.)arethemostimportantgreenhousegassesintheatmospherewithitscontributiontoglobalwarmingjustlowerthanCO2.Theirconcentrationsinatmospherehavebeennotedtoincreasecurrentlyattherateof0.25%yr--'andl.02%yr',respectively(IPCC,1995).Atpresent,theincreaseofNZOandCH4intheatmospherehasbeenestimatedtoaccountfor20--25%oftheglobalwarming(FAO&IAEA,1992;Bailes&Bridges,1992).NOdoesnotabsorbradiationdirectlyintheatmosphere,buttheincreasingconcentrationofNOmay…