神农架大九湖湿地保护与管理对策

大九湖湿地是华中地区重要的亚热带高山湿地,在蓄洪调水、净化水质、古气候环境研究方面发挥重要作用。回顾了大九湖湿地退化原因、保护现状和存在的问题,提出了大九湖湿地保护与恢复建议,为大九湖湿地保护与恢复提供技术支撑。     

Spatio-temporal analysis of the human footprint in South Ecuador: Influence of human pressure on ecosystems and effectiveness of protected areas

Human influence and its impacts are perceptible in all ecosystems resulting in land transformation, changes in global biogeochemistry, climate change, and loss of biological diversity. Mapping the spatial and temporal patterns of human influence is essential to address land use management and conservation programs. In this study, we tailored the Human Footprint index (HF) developed at global level to evaluate the spatial and temporal patterns of human pressure in South Ecuador for 1982, 1990 and 2008. Landscape and ecosystem levels were analyzed to identify the contribution of different human proxies to the HF. We also used the HF to evaluate the effectiveness of protected areas to reduce human pressure in the surrounding landscape. We found that levels of human pressure increased and the wildest areas decreased since 1982. We identified important “hotspots of changes” in the seasonally dry forests in the western part and the premontane evergreen forest in the eastern part of the study area. Our results show that each human proxy contributes in a different way to the observed values of HF in the studied ecosystems. Finally, we found that Podocarpus NP, the most important protected area in our study region, seems to be partially effective in reducing human pressure inside and in the buffer zones where only a low increase in HF was detected. However, the HF values observed in the surrounding landscape were higher than those observed in the buffer zone and inside the protected area. We demonstrated that HF could be a useful regional evaluation tool to facilitate conservation planning.     

Determinants for water consumption from improved sources in rural villages of southern Mali

Water supply must take into consideration a variety of factors, including consumer habits, options and needs. Little is known about water demands in rural areas of developing regions. Based on data from southern Mali, this paper banks on the hypothesis that water consumption in rural villages can be predicted by combining measurable variables with spatial analyses. A ten-day field campaign was carried out at the end of the dry season 2016. All improved water sources were checked for functionality, flow rate and water quality. Outcomes were coupled with those from over one-hundred household interviews and incorporated into a geographic database. Buffered network analyses were used to quantify the main spatial determinants for water use. Simple and multiple regression models were then developed to establish the main predictors for per capita and household water consumption. Multiple regression reveals that models based on the number of household members, travel time and total travel distance provide robust forecasts for water consumption (R² > 0.93). Conversely, potentially relevant parameters such as affordability or water quality were not statistically significant. This could be attributed to the presence of free water sources and to the absence of quality-monitoring, respectively. Outcomes also suggest that having access to basic means of transportation, such as pushcarts, doubles water consumption at the household level. In terms of access to improved water sources, coverage was found to be lower in practice than on paper. These outcomes contribute to the growing body of literature that challenges the widely accepted assumption that 90% of the world population has access to safe drinking supplies.     

Impact of urbanization level on the interactions of urban area,the urban climate,and human thermal comfort

One significant effect of urbanization is the modification of natural surfaces, local environment, and thermal comfort. Farmland and agricultural land in Klang Valley conurbation, Malaysia have been replaced with engineered surfaces and infrastructures to accommodate the rapid population growth witnessed in the past decades. To understand the current environmental conditions of the conurbation, numerical Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled to the Urban Canopy Model (UCM) was used. A model evaluation conducted against a network of observations showed an overall good performance of the model in predicting near-surface meteorological parameters. Also, an examination of spatiotemporal variability of urban parameters revealed a diurnal dependence of human physiological thermal conditions on urbanization level. A maximum urban heat island intensity (UHII) of ∼2.64 °C was observed. In an effort to investigate the effect of urbanization level on the extremities of urban climatic conditions, two different experiments with varying urban/vegetation fractions were further simulated. The latter results indicate that urbanization level has a significant effect on the extremities of urban climatological parameters and spatial extent of the induced impacts. Furthermore, the effect of urbanization level on the mean urban outdoor thermal discomfort (UOTD) level was significant (with an increase of 0.7 °C, 0.64 °C and 0.04 observed) for temperature humidity index (THI), effective temperature index (ETI) and relative strain index (RSI), respectively. However, a non-significant (at 95% level) effect of urbanization level on the extremities of UOTD indices was observed.     

Identifying sustainability challenges on land and water uses: The case of Lake Ziway watershed,Ethiopia

This paper firstly analyzes the land use - land cover (LULC) in Lake Ziway watershed (Ethiopia) and quantifies the changing patterns from 1973 to 2014 using Landsat images. Secondly, the paper estimates sediment yields using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT model). It also assesses and estimates water abstraction from Lake Ziway using survey data. The study shows that the conversions from woodlands into agricultural lands and settlement areas are the major detected LULC changes. Of the total area of the watershed, agricultural lands and settlement areas together increased from 57% in 1973 to 75% in 2014 at the expense of woodlands whose areas decreased from 26.16% to 6.63% in the study periods. The study also shows that water abstraction and sediment loads are increasing at Lake Ziway watershed. The major driving forces behind these LULC changes and the impacts on the lake natural condition are anthropogenic factors such as population growth, land policy changes and deforestation. Increasing demands for more land and water resources, i.e., land for settlements and cultivation, wood for fuel and charcoals, and water for irrigation and municipal water supply, are the underlying causes for the observed changes on the watershed resources. Thus, if the existing scenarios of human pressures are left neglected without management interventions, severe watershed degradations will continue to further affect the watershed's resources including the hydrology. Therefore, responsible government institutions should start mobilizing the local communities along with providing financial and material supports for watershed rehabilitation through afforestation and soil and water conservation activities. Additionally, the free-access practices for water use should be replaced by user-charge policy to regulate water abstractions in order to adequately sustain the water level of Lake Ziway and its feeder rivers. In this respect, this study provides firsthand information to policy makers and planners to put in place a comprehensive land and water use plan and regulations against the unruly human actions in the watershed before irreversible losses might happen to Lake Ziway and its watershed resources.     

Global multi-layer network of human mobility

Recent availability of geo-localized data capturing individual human activity together with the statistical data on international migration opened up unprecedented opportunities for a study on global mobility. In this paper, we consider it from the perspective of a multi-layer complex network, built using a combination of three datasets: Twitter, Flickr and official migration data. Those datasets provide different, but equally important insights on the global mobility – while the first two highlight short-term visits of people from one country to another, the last one – migration – shows the long-term mobility perspective, when people relocate for good. The main purpose of the paper is to emphasize importance of this multi-layer approach capturing both aspects of human mobility at the same time. On the one hand, we show that although the general properties of different layers of the global mobility network are similar, there are important quantitative differences among them. On the other hand, we demonstrate that consideration of mobility from a multi-layer perspective can reveal important global spatial patterns in a way more consistent with those observed in other available relevant sources of international connections, in comparison to the spatial structure inferred from each network layer taken separately.     

热带扰动与远距离暴雨关系的统计分析与数值试验

对2006—2011年5—9月90~150°E、0°~50°N范围内远距离暴雨进行统计与合成分析,并选取典型个例进行诊断分析与数值试验,研究结果表明:1)在有利的大气背景下,强度较低的热带扰动也可以与中纬度系统共同作用引发远距离暴雨,对统计得出的21例依据水汽通道的类型分为3类:S型水汽通道、双水汽通道和西北向型水汽通道,其中S型水汽通道发生次数最多。2)低空急流合成分析表明,不论扰动强弱,热带扰动东侧的偏南低空急流是形成远距离暴雨的关键,是联系中低纬度系统的纽带和桥梁,对S型的个例进行诊断分析与数值试验也进一步显示,热带扰动东侧低空急流是中纬度暴雨区水汽输送的主要通道,偏南低空急流的强弱是影响远距离暴雨强度的主要因子之一。3)敏感性试验结果表明,热带扰动也可以引起Rossby波能量向东北方向传播,其强度与扰动强度成正比,从而改变远距离降水分布;去除热带扰动则无法形成波列,不利于能量的传播与远距离降水发展。     

Recent pollen sedimentation in Los Padres pond,Buenos Aires Province,Argentina

This paper presents the results of a palynological study of surface sediments and two short cores from Los Padres pond, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The surface samples were taken from the center of the pond and from various near shore sites. Herbaceous taxa were abundant in the pollen spectra, representative of the surrounding steppe vegetation. Arboreal taxa represent cultivated trees located near the pond. Using multivariate analysis techniques, surface samples were divided into three groups: two of them reflect local conditions (high sand and organic matter concentrations) and are represented by local vegetation (Cyperaceae andMyriophyllum) and from the surrounding areas (Pinus, Plantago, Brassicaceae). The third group better represents the regional vegetation; it is characterized by grass steppe with shrubby communities found in the surrounding hilly areas. Pollen assemblages of two short cores were interpreted by analogy with the recent samples. The data provide information about the vegetational changes that have occurred since the first settlement, ca. 200 years ago. The presence of pollen types related to anthropogenic activities (Cupressus andEucalyptus) allowed the identification of different use of soils in the area. Historical evidence supports the conclusion.This is the third in a series of papers published in this issue on Paleolimnology in Southern South America. Dr. C. A. Fernández served as guest editor for these papers.     

Water use patterns of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and the effects of human disturbance

To aid the effectiveness of water developments, patterns of deer visiting water sources and the responses of deer to disturbance were examined. Deer visited water sources day and night, but not all deer at water sources drank. Thus, the assumption that radio-telemetry locations within arbitrary distances of water indicate drinking events may lead to overestimates of watering frequency. Human disturbance did not preclude or seriously impede use of water by deer. Deer reacted by adjusting the amount of time spent at water sources, moving away from water to return later and/or increasing the frequency with which they drank.