Comparative phylogeography of African rain forest trees: A review of genetic signatures of vegetation history in the Guineo-Congolian region

The biogeographic history of the African rain forests has been contentious. Phylogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of genetic lineages within species, can highlight the signatures of historical events affecting the demography and distribution of species (i.e. population fragmentation or size changes, range expansion/contraction) and, thereby, the ecosystems they belong to. The accumulation of recent data for African rain forests now enables a first biogeographic synthesis for the region. In this review, we explain which phylogeographic patterns are expected under different scenarios of past demographic change, and we give an overview of the patterns detected in African rain forest trees to discuss whether they support alternative hypotheses regarding the history of the African rain forest cover. The major genetic discontinuities in the region support the role of refugia during climatic oscillations, though not necessarily following the classically proposed scenarios. We identify in particular a genetic split between the North and the South of the Lower Guinean region. Finally we provide some perspectives for future study.     

Enter the working forest: Discourse analysis in the Northern Forest

In 1988, four states in the northeastern USA commissioned a study to address land use changes in the Northern Forest, 26 million acres of temperate and boreal forest extending from Maine to eastern New York State. Against a backdrop of economic destabilization and concerns regarding social and ecological implications of a real estate boom, the sustained deliberative dialogue catalyzed by this study has come to rely heavily on the ambiguous concept of “working forest.” To clarify political and environmental dynamics in the region, we analyzed how people respond to and seek to capitalize on the interpretive flexibility of the term working forest. We combine an analysis of socio-political discourses of working forest based on a structured literature review with an assessment of local peoples’ definitions of working forest based on a survey conducted in a pair of contrasting New York State communities. The first study site represents an amenity-oriented community (i.e. a place where the forest supports a service economy including recreation and tourism) and the other study site represents a timber-dependent community. By linking data from community-level analysis to data derived from a general analysis of forest politics, we seek to develop a more robust perspective. By comparing discourses across differently structured communities, we investigate how local forest politics are mediated by local economic development processes. Our study empirically illustrates contested and geographically uneven processes of social construction of environment and rural development in a region confronting pressures of globalization. Results indicate that timber harvesting is a heavily privileged management objective, as a logic of ‘the forest that pays is the forest that stays’ dominates. Environmental politics in the region, and perhaps more generally, increasingly conforms to a form of pragmatism in which economic opportunities structure conservation planning and investment.     

京、津、冀地区的碳排放趋势估计

通过多种方法相结合,估计了京、津、冀地区2009-2050年的能源碳排放量、水泥工艺碳排放量和森林碳汇量,计算了区域总的碳排放量和净碳排放量。结果表明:1)京、津、冀地区碳排放量都呈现先升后降的Kuznets趋势,森林年碳汇量对碳排放降低影响不明显;2)在自由排放条件下,北京、天津均在2030年前达到碳排放高峰期,河北省及整个京津冀地区的碳排放高峰将延迟到2039年;3)在2050年前,北京、天津年碳汇量将有所降低,河北年碳汇量则上升。     

Assessing Natural and Cultural Determinants of Urban Forest Quality in Nanjing (China)

This study assessed underlying natural and cultural determinants of tree health and ways to improve urban forest performance in compact Nanjing city. Two groups of factors were investigated: (1) habitat conditions, including planting site, ground-cover, land cover, and district; and (2) tree traits, including species provenance and seasonality, and tree dimensions. A stratified sampling strategy selected 6351 trees for detailed assessment. The data were analyzed by multivariate logistic regressions. Institutional, park-garden and industrial trees with more open-space sites with vegetated ground-cover performed better than roadside and residential ones. Poor trees in confined residential sites deviated from those in other cities. Park-garden sites did not always nurture meritorious, large and diversified trees. District differentiation in tree performance was related to land cover. Exotic and evergreen species grew better than indigenous and deciduous, offering hints on species-habitat matching. Detailed field and statistical analyses could yield tree-environment information to enhance urban forestry research and management.     

论冷战后国际政治的基本态势及世界政治地理的研究任务与重点

本文立足于政冶地理学的基本理论，从冷战后国际政治基本态势的分析入手，系统阐述了当前世界政治地理研究的基本任务，并在此基础上提出了当前及今后一段时期世界政治地理研究应以世界政治地理格局的演变、国家形成与消亡的地理政治背景、国际领土及边界争端和各国行政区划的基本原则为重点。     

荒漠河岸胡杨(Populus euphratica)树干液流的时滞效应

以2012年4—9月树干液流速率与环境因子的实测数据,分析了荒漠河岸胡杨(Populus euphratica)树干液流的时滞效应。结果表明:不同月份胡杨树干液流速率对不同环境因子的时滞不同;4—9月,胡杨树干液流速率峰值时间比太阳辐射峰值时间晚约1h,比空气温度峰值时间早约1h,比水汽压差峰值时间早约2h,比空气相对湿度谷值时间早约2h;对影响胡杨树干液流速率的环境因子进行了主成分分析,发现胡杨树干液流速率与1h以前的第1主成分、第2主成分相关性最高,相关系数分别为0.864、0.875;对错位前后胡杨树干液流速率与环境因子进行多元线性回归分析发现,在胡杨树干液流的数值模拟中,考虑液流相对于环境因子的时滞效应可以提高模型的拟合精度。     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Boundary Control and Legal Priniciples . Curtis M. Brown , Walter G. Robillard and Donald A. Wilson . Lost Initiatives: Canada's Forest Industries, Forest Policy, and Forest Conservation . R. Peter Gillis and Thomas R. Roach . The Navajo Atlas: Resources, People, and History of the Dine Bikeyah . James M. Goodman . The City and the Sign . M. Gottdiener AND Alexandros Ph . Lagopoulos , EDS. The Comfortable House: North American Suburban Architecture 1890–1930 . Alan Gowans . Arabic-Islamic Cities. Building and Planning Principles . Besim Salim Hakim . Contemporary Climatology . Ann Henderson -Sellers and Peter J. Robinson . A Trace of Desert Waters . Samuel G. Houghton . Geography, Resources and Environment. Vol. 1: Selected Writings of Gilbert F. White. Vol. 2: Themes from the Work of Gilbert F. White . Robert W. Kates AND Ian Burton , ED. Spatial Dimensions of Unemployment and Underemployment (A Case Study of Rural Punjab) . Gopal Krishan . Maps of the Holy Land: Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475–1900 . Compiled by Eran Laor , assisted by Shoshana Klein . The Geography of Third World Cities . Stella Lowder . A Perspective on U.S. Farm Problems and Agricultural Policy . Lance Mc Kinzie , Timothy G. Baker AND Wallace E. Tyner . Soil Erosion and Its Control. R.P.C . Morgan , ED Geopolitics . Patrick O'Sullivan . Landscape, Meanings and Values . Edmund C. Penning -Rowsell AND David Lowenthal , EDS.     

广西森林转型与森林扰动遥感监测研究

近20年来由于封山育林政策的实施和人工乔木林的大面积种植,广西森林面积大幅增加,正在经历深刻的森林转型,森林转型过程中农林交错带和森林内部的结构重组都给生态系统带来了不容忽视的扰动。本文基于2000—2016年MODIS-EVI影像数据、1∶100万地貌图和4期土地利用数据,采用变化矢量法和Sen+Mann-Kendall对广西进行森林转型背景下的森林转型路径和森林内部扰动特征分析。研究表明:自2000年以来广西森林的EVI变化强度以无变化和低变化类型为主,总体EVI上升趋势略大于下降趋势,EVI显著下降主要分布于十万大山、大瑶山、海洋山和越城岭等山地区域和桂西北的百色水利枢纽和龙滩水利枢纽周围,显著上升部分主要集中于桂中南的左江-邕江-郁江流域平原丘陵区、桂西南喀斯特区和桂东北山地区地势低平的河谷地带。广西森林面积增加的土地来源于耕地和草地,森林转型路径表现为"经济增长型"和"森林短缺型"两种路径并存,或者存在更为复杂的复合型路径。广西森林内部扰动的减少型和扰动型分布于桂西北喀斯特和桂东北山地起伏度较大的陡坡区域,增加型分布于桂中南的平原丘陵地区。由于山地陡坡区域和喀斯特地区的生态敏感性,应更多关注扰动型和减少型在桂西北和桂东北地区的集中分布问题。     

Spatial patterns of subsistence extraction of forest products – An indirect approach for estimation of forest degradation in dry forest

Successful implementation of a forest based climate change mitigation mechanism such as REDD + depends on robust and available methods for measurement and estimation of forest degradation. Currently available methods are for application in single-hit degradation incidents in high density humid forests. However, it has been suggested that gradual degradation, especially in dry forests, is more widespread and that methods are needed for measuring and estimating associated emissions. We assess the applicability of an indirect remote sensing approach for monitoring forest degradation: infrastructure and other indicators of human activities are mapped and used for spatial prediction of degradation activities. For proxy variables we tested distance to forest edge, distance to roads, and population pressure calculated as the sum of inhabitants per pixel in the Landscan 2010 population raster dataset multiplied by an inverse power distance decay function. Wood extraction incidents were counted in 160 plots in two dry forests in Tanzania with infrastructural entry from one side only. We analyzed the spatial pattern of forest degradation as a function of the chosen proxy variables using zero inflated count models which allows for an excess of zero counts. A jack-knife bootstrap using 10,000 runs was applied to optimize the population distance decay function. We found that the impact of forest degradation is highest near high population concentration, above 1000 individuals. Furthermore, distance to nearest forest edge or road was a significant proxy for estimation of the number of wood extraction incidents (p < 0.001), where degradation incidents decreased with increasing distance to forest edge or road. At 3000 m from the forest edge towards the forest core the probability of wood extraction is 20% and dropping. The population distance decay function was found to have a steep decline indicating a relative small impact on forest degradation. Further, and perhaps larger, studies are needed to be able to recommend a distance decay function for general application in Tanzania. However, the results are useful for understanding spatial patterns of wood harvesting as a function of distance to nearest forest edge or road in dry Miombo woodland areas with average population pressure at 1685 ± 101 persons within a radius of 4000 m from the wood extraction sites.     

基于PPT战略的广东省乐昌市生态旅游扶贫模式探讨

以贫困人口受益为出发点,基于有利于贫困人口发展的旅游(Pro-Poor Tourism,PPT)战略,以广东省乐昌市为例,开展适用于中国南方林区生态旅游扶贫开发的发展模式和旅游扶贫产业的发展路径研究.结果表明:1)政府部门、旅游企业、乡村社区和非营利社会组织都应在提升贫困人口参与度、减轻贫困和生态保护方面承担责任,具体...