Sediment-activation depth values for gentle and steep beaches

This paper analyzes methods and terminologies used in literature for the determination and characterization of vertical distribution of sediment-activation depth, which is bottom sediment layer affected by hydrodynamic processes. Studies on this topic include assessments carried out during short time spans, from minutes to few hours or longer periods, from a tidal cycle to several days. In the first case, activation is generally named “mixing depth” and is calculated by evaluating vertical distribution of fluorescent tracers. In the second case, it is referred to as “disturbance depth” and is generally evaluated using plugs of marked sand and rods, or rods with a loose-fitting washer. Vertical cross and longshore distribution of mixing and disturbance depth values, recorded in different works with different techniques, were also analyzed highlighting the conceptual differences between used methods and obtained results. In a further step, a data set from literature on this topic was gathered to obtain new formulations between disturbance depth and beach and wave characteristics as well as morphodynamic beach state, expressed throughout the surf scaling parameter and the surf similarity index. Good linear regressions were observed between these variables, obtaining expressions that can be easily used in a wide range of beach states, from dissipative and intermediate to reflective ones.     

基于改进当量的甘肃省耕地生态系统服务价值及其与区域经济发展的空间关系研究

为量化分析耕地生态系统服务价值及其与区域经济发展的空间关系,采用改进的耕地当量因子,对甘肃省2014年耕地生态系统服务价值进行定量化研究,并采用双变量空间自相关探讨其与区域经济发展在空间上的关联关系。结果表明：（1）在GPP修正的基础上估算得到的甘肃省2014年耕地生态系统服务价值为4.96×10¹¹元,其中水资源供给功能的价值为负,食物生产功能的生态系统服务价值相对较高,美学景观功能的生态系统服务价值最低。（2）双变量空间自相关显示人均国内生产总值与耕地生态系统服务价值在空间上存在显著的负相关关系,Moran’s I指数为-0.252 3。局部双变量空间自相关LISA图也显示低-高聚集区主要分布在经济发展相对落后、具有明显生态优势的东南部地区;而高-低聚集区则主要分布在经济高速发展,生态环境相对恶劣的西北部地区。研究结果可为甘肃省生态环境管护与区域经济发展提供决策参考,为实现经济增长与生态保护统筹协调发展提供参考依据。     

对虾养殖围隔生态系细菌的生物量

对5个对虾养殖围隔生态系细菌生物量(以C计,下同)的研究结果表明,浮游细菌总生物量波动在0.09～0．83mg/dm3之间,平均0．37±0．21mg／dm3,占水层颗粒有机碳含量的11．94%;附着细菌生物量在(0．14～3．69)x10－2mg/dm3)之间,平均(0．77±0．58)x10-2mg/dm3,占浮游细菌总生物量的2.08%±1．95%。随着养殖时间的推移,浮游细菌总生物量、附着细菌生物量均有所上升。底泥细菌生物量为(44～132)x(10-6m/m),平均(86±23)x(10-6m/m),占底泥有机碳含量的1．55%。     

A Comparison of Simulated Particle Fluxes Using NEMURO and Other Ecosystem Models in the Western North Pacific

JGOFS has revealed the importance of marine biological activity to the global carbon cycle. Ecological models are valuable tools for improving our understanding of biogeochemical cycles. Through a series of workshops, the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) developed NEMURO (North Pacific Ecosystem Model Understanding Regional Oceanography) a model, specifically designed to simulate the lower trophic ecosystem in the North Pacific Ocean. Its ability to simulate vertical fluxes generated by biological activities has not yet been validated. Here compare NEMURO with several other lower trophic level models of the northern North Pacific. The different ecosystem models are each embedded in a common three-dimensional physical model, and the simulated vertical flux of POM and the biomass of phytoplankton are compared. The models compared are: (1) NEMURO, (2) the Kishi and Nakata Model (Kishi et al., 1981), (3) KKYS (Kawamiya et al., 1995, 2000a, 2000b), and (4) the Denman model (Denman and Peña, 2002). With simple NPZD models, it is difficult to describe the production of POM (Particulate Organic Matter) and hence the simulations of vertical flux are poor. However, if the parameters are properly defined, the primary production can be well reproduced, even though none of models we used here includes iron limitation effects. On the whole, NEMURO gave a satisfactory simulation of the vertical flux of POM in the northern North Pacific.     

“一带一路”区域可持续发展生态环境遥感监测

2013年9月和10月,习近平主席在出访中亚和东南亚国家期间,先后提出了共建"丝绸之路经济带"和"21世纪海上丝绸之路"(简称"一带一路")的重大倡议。要全面保护"一带一路"区域生态环境,实现2030年可持续发展目标,是一个具有挑战性的问题。遥感技术对生态环境监测与评价发挥着十分重要的作用。本研究利用多尺度、多源遥感数据,对2015年"一带一路"区域的生态环境状况进行监测和分析,旨在提供可持续发展目标生态环境遥感监测的本底。本文选取了几个重要的生态环境方面开展监测与分析,主要包括宏观生态系统结构和植被状况、太阳能资源分布、水资源平衡、主要生态环境限制因素对经济走廊建设的影响、主要城市生态环境质量等。监测区域覆盖亚洲、非洲、欧洲和大洋洲的陆上区域。研究结果为生态环境评价与保护提供了有效的决策依据,有助于"一带一路"建设积极推进。     

基于生态系统的海洋管理理论与实践

海洋孕育了丰富的生态系统服务功能,包括为人类提供多种海产食物、净化海洋环境和提供宜人景观及发展空间等。随着工程科技水平的提高,人类对海洋资源和空间的开发利用越来越多、越来越快,对海洋生态系统的影响也越来越大,这一问题在我国尤为突出。近20年来一些发达国家通过推行基于生态系统的海洋管理(MEBM),在海洋生态系统的框架下规范和管理开发活动,特别是在解决区域性海洋管理问题方面取得了一定成效,值得我们借鉴。概述了海洋生态系统及其服务功能,回顾了海洋开发中存在的问题以及MEBM的发展历程,系统阐述了MEBM的原则和措施,剖析了国内外MEBM的成功案例,探讨了在中国实施MEBM的必要性和前提条件。近年来,我国依据海洋功能区划来管理海洋开发已取得一定的成果。建议以此为基础,强化相关生态科学研究及相应技术和法规支撑,从而为我国海洋经济可持续发展提供保障。     

水质较好湖泊环境保护的理论基础及中国实践

目前,我国湖泊富营养化及蓝藻水华问题十分突出,国家高度重视湖泊的生态环境保护.自“九五”以来,国家就投入太湖、巢湖、滇池“老三湖”等重污染湖泊的治理,但成本巨大,且历经近30年才初见成效.按照湖泊污染程度,湖泊治理与保护可分为“污染治理型”“防治结合型”“生态保育型”3大类.“老三湖”的治理是典型的“先污染、后治理”的模式,水质较好湖泊主要属于生态保育型湖泊,因此,“老三湖”治理模式不适用于水质较好湖泊的保护.本文系统总结了我国水质较好湖泊优先保护理念的形成和水质较好湖泊专项实施的历程.根据水质较好湖泊的特点,及其生态系统退化与修复的一般过程,提出了水质较好湖泊保护的基本思路.从热力学角度,阐明了氮磷营养盐输入湖泊生态系统中是熵增过程,也是湖泊生态系统退化的根本原因,湖泊氮磷污染负荷源头控制是关键.湖泊流域生态安全格局是确保湖泊生态系统健康的基础,从景观生态学角度,阐明了优化湖泊流域水土资源利用、优化发展模式是减轻湖泊环境压力的重要途径.在浅水湖泊生态系统,以沉水植物占优势的“清水态”和以浮游植物占优势的“浊水态”转换过程不是沿着同一条途径,存在上临界阈值和下临界阈值,水生态修复过程表现出一种迟滞的现象.从湖泊水生态系统稳态转换理论角度,阐明了湖泊生态修复工程应在湖泊生态系统发生退化转变之前实施,才能获得较高的环境效益.通过国家财政专项对81个水质较好湖泊的支持,既能促进湖泊流域经济社会发展,又能确保湖泊水环境质量变好,湖泊水生态系统逐步改善.建议加强不同类型湖泊保护模式的总结,深入对水质较好湖泊生态系统演替理论和保护技术研究,支撑国家系统开展水质较好湖泊保护.     

Environmental flows in India: towards sustainable water management

Abstract

The strong wet and dry seasons of tropical monsoon hydrology in India necessitate development of storage and flow diversion schemes for utilization of water to meet various social and economic needs. However, the river valley schemes may cause adverse flow-related impacts due to storage, flow diversion, tunnelling and spoil disposal. There may be critical reaches in which altered flows are not able to sustain the river channel ecology and riparian environment that existed prior to implementation of the storage and diversion schemes. In the past, environmental flows in India have usually been understood as the minimum flow to be released downstream from a dam as compensation for riparian rights, without considering the impacts on the river ecosystem. Rivers in India have been significantly influenced by anthropogenic activities over the past 60 years and have great social and religious significance to the vast population. This paper explores various aspects of past, present and future environmental flow assessment (EFA) in India highlighted by case studies from rivers across the nation. It demonstrates that multidisciplinary studies requiring expertise from a range of fields are needed for EFA, and that environmental flows are necessary for aquatic ecosystems to remain in a healthy state and for the sustainable use of water resources. The major focus areas for the development of EFA research in India are the creation of a shareable database for hydrological, ecological and socioeconomic data, developing hydrology–ecology relationships, evaluation of ecosystem services, addressing pollution due to anthropogenic activities and promotion of research on EFA. At the same time, efforts will be needed to develop new methods or refine existing methods for India.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Guest editor M. Acreman

Citation Jain, S.K. and Kumar, P., 2014. Environmental flows in India: towards sustainable water management. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 751–769.     

Towards Regional Synergy: Reconciling Rangeland Ecological Functioning with Forage Production of Cultivated Pasture

Animal husbandry and crop farming are specialized for development in separate areas on the Tibetan Plateau. Such a pattern of isolation has led to current concerns of rangeland and farming system degradation due to intensive land use. The crop-livestock integration, however, has been proven to increase food and feed productivity thorough niche complementarity, and is thereby especially effective for promoting ecosystem resilience. Regional synergy has emerged as an integrated approach to reconcile rangeland livestock with forage crop production. It moves beyond the specialized sectors of animal husbandry and intensive agriculture to coordinate them through regional coupling. Therefore, crop-livestock integration (CLI) has been suggested as one of the effective solutions to forage deficit and livestock production in grazing systems. But it is imperative that CLI moves forward from the farm level to the regional scale, in order to secure regional synergism during agro-pastoral development. The national key R & D program, Technology and Demonstration of Recovery and Restoration of Degraded Alpine Ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau, aims to solve the problems of alpine grassland degradation by building up a grass-based animal husbandry technology system that includes synergizing forage production and ecological functioning, reconciling the relationship between ecology, forage production and animal husbandry, and achieving the win-win goals of curbing grassland degradation and changing the development mode of animal husbandry. It is imperative to call for regional synergy through integrating ecological functioning with ecosystem services, given the alarming threat of rangeland degradation on the Tibetan Plateau. The series of papers in this issue, together with those published previously, provide a collection of rangeland ecology and management studies in an effort to ensure the sustainable use and management of the alpine ecosystems.     

基于综合指标法的中国生态系统服务保护有效性评价研究

将生态系统服务保护纳入到传统的以保护区为基础的自然保护之中是生态保护研究的新领域。利用综合指标方法,分析了中国从2000-2010年的4种生态系统服务时空变化特征;并对中国的七大生态保护和恢复区域的服务空间保护成效进行评价,提出了国家尺度上的生态系统服务保护优先性分级。主要结论为：① 中国的生态系统服务自西北向东南逐渐增加,显著增加区主要分布在黄土高原地区,显著减少区主要分布在东北及华北地区。黄土高原的生态系统服务提高主要是农田向草地和林地、草地向林地的转换引的;华北地区的降低主要是耕地的减少以及人工用地的增加引起的;东北地区是由于林地向耕地草地、耕地向湿地与人工用地的转换引起的。② 七大生态保护和恢复区的生态系统服务均为增加趋势而且显著增加面积大于减少面积;显著增加面积最大的为三北防护林工程区、最小的为重点生态功能区;显著减少最大为重要生态功能区、最小的为三北防护林工程区。而且,对服务的保护成效在重要生态功能区最高,其次为天然林保护工程区,其余区域均小于全国平均水平。③ 提出的生态系统服务保护优先性等级中,极高级别占到了国土面积的26.18%,保护的生态系统服务量占到全国总量的64.19%,保护成效为全国平均水平的2.47倍。