The Wild Life of Pesticides: urban agriculture,institutional responsibility,and the future of biodiversity in Sydney's Hawkesbury-Nepean River

Agricultural chemicals are a notoriously intractable source of environmental pollution. Offering enhanced agricultural productivity, they simultaneously risk degrading the ecological basis upon which agriculture depends. This paper considers chemicalisation as a cause of the erosion of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, focusing on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River and the small-scale horticulturalists who supply the city's fresh vegetable markets, working under the pressure of urbanisation, retail monopolies, indifferent land-use planning, and often without access to information about pesticide use in the languages they understand. Arguing that standard practices of ‘risk management’ are unable to adequately control chemical contamination, the paper presents findings from interviews with actors within the ‘assemblage’ of institutions with responsibility for agriculture, water quality, and environmental protection, in order to assess the effectiveness of pesticide governance in the Greater Sydney Basin. It appears that pesticide pollution is far from being tamed: it is rarely measured nor monitored, neither is it a priority of any particular agency. Arguing that public health, the long-term viability of local farming and the ecological well-being of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River are mutually consistent goals, we conclude that these vital elements of the common-weal are currently subject to a system of ‘organised irresponsibility’. The paper concludes by proposing several ways forward.     

Identification, definition and quantification of goods and services provided by marine biodiversity: implications for the ecosystem approach

This paper identifies and defines ecosystem goods and services provided by marine biodiversity. Case studies have been used to provide an insight into the practical issues associated with the assessment of marine ecosystem goods and services at specific locations. The aim of this research was to validate the definitions of goods and services, and to identify knowledge gaps and likely difficulties of quantifying the goods and services. A validated theoretical framework for the assessment of goods and services is detailed, and examples of the goods and services at a variety of case study areas are documented. These results will enable future assessments of marine ecosystem goods and services. It is concluded that the utilisation of this goods and services approach has the capacity to play a fundamental role in the Ecosystem Approach, by enabling the pressures and demands of society, the economy and the environment to be integrated into environmental management.     

Recent changes to conservation of New Zealand's native biodiversity

Abstract: This article examines recent changes to conservation in New Zealand. The argument is influenced by practical experience over the past 15 years, first as conservation planner employed by the Department of Conservation, then as an environmentalist involved in community conservation projects. The development of public‐private partnerships in conservation action over the past 15 years is reviewed. These changes point to the configuration of new landscapes, although the diverse and uncoordinated nature of many contemporary initiatives suggest that future biological communities will comprise a diversity of hybrid mixes from predominantly native to fully non‐native species.     

Relationships between bacterial-algal proliferating and mass extinction in the Late Devonian Frasnian-Famennian transition: Enlightening from carbon isotopes and molecular fossils

The five major mass extinctions which occurred in the transition of the Ordovician-Silurian (440 Ma), Late Devonian Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) (370 Ma), Permian-Triassic (250 Ma), Triassic-Jurassic (205 Ma) and Cretaceous-Paleogene (65 Ma) are significant phenomena in the Phanerozoic global environment and organic evolution. Their corresponding extinction rates of marine invertebrate at the level of genus and family are 60% (genus) and 26% (family), 57% and 22%, 82% and 51%, 53% and 22%, …     

图们江流域敬信湿地生物多样性及其保护对策

敬信湿地位于图们江流域下游,中、俄、朝3国交界处,是吉林省主要湿地之一,鱼类资源丰富,植物群丛多样,重点保护鸟类众多。目前,由于围垦、生物资源过度利用、城市化等不合理的人类活动,敬信湿地生物多样性面临诸多方面的压力和威胁。通过分析敬信湿地生物多样性的现状及其所面临的主要威胁,提出敬信湿地生物多样性保护和可持续利用的主要对策,以期为敬信湿地生物多样性保护和图们江地区湿地保护与合理利用提供依据。     

Transboundary biodiversity conservation of the Pha Taem Protected Forest Complex: A bioregional approach

With the financial assistance from the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the Thailand's Royal Forest Department (RFD) has initiated a strategy for cooperation in transboundary biodiversity conservation with Cambodia and Laos. The Pha Taem Protected Forest Complex (PPFC) in northeastern region was chosen as a pilot project because of the increasing pressure on biodiversity from illegal trade in plants and wildlife across the tri-national borders. The PPFC covers five protected areas in Thailand and adjoins the Phouxeingthong National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NCBA) in Laos and the Cambodia's Protected Forest for Conservation of Genetic Resources of Plants and Wildlife. Two important outputs derived from the project phase I (2001–2004) were a long-term management plan in a framework of transboundary biodiversity conservation and initiative cooperation between the three countries. Cooperation is achieved at certain level and Laos is reluctant to nominate the Phouxeingthong NBCA for inclusion in the project's second phase. In addition, forest cover in buffer zone has been encroached for agricultural practices. The ecological management zones using bioregional approach was developed to provide a framework for transboundary biodiversity conservation in the adjoining protected forests and reducing the conflict of resource uses by local residents in the buffer zone.     

Wetland changes in Jianghan Plain and simulation with GIS

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安徽种子植物特有属的生物多样性及其保护

论述了安徽种子植物特有属的物种组成多样性、生态类型多样性、空间分布格局多样性及其生态地理特性和区系特征,探讨了安徽与邻近地区中国种子植物特有属的地理联系及其重要地位,并对特有属的生物多样性保护与持续发展提出了具体对策．     

Biodiversity and conservation in the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau (Qinghai-Xizang Plateau) is a unique biogeographic region in the world, where various landscapes, altitudinal belts, alpine ecosystems, and endangered and endemic species have been developed. A total of 26 altitudinal belts, 28 spectra of altitudinal belts, 12,000 species of vascular plant, 5,000 species of epiphytes, 210 species of mammals, and 532 species of birds have been recorded. The plateau is also one of the centers of species formation and differentiation in the world To protect the biodiversity of the plateau, about 80 nature reserves have been designated, of which 45 are national or provincial, covering about 22% of the plateau area. Most of the nature reserves are distributed in the southeastern plateau. Recently, the Chinese government has initiated the “Natural Forests Protection Project of China,” mainly in the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. “No logging” policies have been made and implemented for these areas.