Causes of Forest Encroachment: An Analysis of Bangladesh

Deforestation is a major cause of environmental degradation. Tropical countries with huge population pressure and widespread poverty are main frontier of deforestation. Bangladesh, being one the most densely populated country with diminishing tropical forestland, supports lowest per capita forestland. The forests are depleting mainly due to illegal logging and conversion to non-forestry uses. In this paper encroachment of forestland by individuals has been dealt with. The socioeconomic causes and pattern of encroachment have been analyzed. Limited land availability and unemployment have been identified as the major proximate causes of encroachment and, if no measures are adopted within next three decades the existing natural forests might be encroached.Part of thesis of the first author submitted for the partial fulfillment of the Master of Science in Forestry in the Khulna University, Bangladesh in 2001 (Iftekhar, 2001). Some of the findings have been presented in the World Forestry Congress XIII, Canada, held from 21 to 28 September 2003 (Iftekhar et al., 2003).     

Migrant pathways to resource access in Lampung’s political forest: Gender, citizenship and creative conjugality

An important theme in studies of enclosure and resource access in Southeast Asian hinges on the concept of the ‘political forest’, a particular constellation of power constituted by ideas, practices and institutions that seek to regulate peoples’ access to resources, providing recognition and legitimacy to some, whilst excluding and criminalizing others. Whilst issues of class and ‘race’ underpin work in this vein, in Indonesia, much less attention has been directed towards the ways in which gender inheres in the regularisation of land and livelihood, and the ordering of upland spaces. Drawing on recent feminist and queer theorizing of the links between citizenship, recognition and hetero-normativity, and on analyses of the social relationships through which resource access is negotiated and realized, the paper presents a feminist political ecology of the gender dynamics inherent in the power plays of resource access as land-poor rural migrants negotiate a shifting landscape of enclosure in Lampung province. Through an analysis of three periods of resource governance and control in the province, the paper shows how the negotiation of resource access is simultaneously a process of self-regulation and subject-making that draws on particular ideas about family and conjugal partnership, inculcating gendered and hetero-normative ideologies of the “ideal citizen”. Through particular representational strategies - positionings - necessary to qualify for resource access, and through the material practices necessary to realize the benefits of resource access, conjugal partnership is reiterated and remade as an important social relationship through which resource access may be realised, for men as well as for women.     

城市陆面过程与边界层结构研究

通过城市边界层观测、卫星遥感以及城市边界层数值模拟等途径,获取对城市陆面过程特性的认识,研究建立精细城市边界层模式,引入合理城市区陆面过程参数化方案,并进行城市边界层结构影响研究。研究结果表明：①城市下垫面能量平衡过程迥异于自然地表,引入合理的参数化方案是改善数值模拟性能的关键。②高分辨卫星观测信息是认识城市地表参数状况及其变化的有效途径。 ③人为热排放参数化方案的合理引入是准确描述地表能量平衡过程的又一重要课题。需根据实际情况确定人为热排放的引入方案及量值变化。④应从合理描述城市建筑物下垫面对热力输送及大气动力场的影响出发,研究建立了多层城市冠层模式。⑤应建立更完善的多尺度城市边界层模式系统并引入更新的城市效应参数化方案和数据同化处理,以增强并完善城市边界层数值模拟能力。     

Late‐glacial and Holocene history of the dry forest area in the south Colombian Cauca Valley

Two sedimentary cores with pollen, charcoal and radiocarbon data are presented. These records document the Late‐glacial and Holocene dry forest vegetation, fire and environmental history of the southern Cauca Valley in Colombia (1020 m). Core Quilichao‐1 (640 cm; 3° 6′N, 76° 31′W) represents the periods of 13 150–7720 ¹⁴C yr BP and, following a hiatus, from 2880 ¹⁴C yr BP to modern. Core La Teta‐2 (250 cm; 3° 5′N, 76° 32′W) provides a continuous record from 8700 ¹⁴C yr BP to modern. Around 13 150 ¹⁴C yr BP core Quilichao‐1 shows an active Late‐glacial drainage system and presence of dry forest. From 11 465 to 10 520 ¹⁴C yr BP dry forest consists mainly of Crotalaria, Moraceae/Urticaceae, Melastomataceae/Combretaceae, Piper and low stature trees, such as Acalypha, Alchornea, Cecropia and Celtis. At higher elevation Andean forest comprising Alnus, Hedyosmum, Quercus and Myrica was common. After 10 520 ¹⁴C yr BP the floral composition of dry forest changed, with extensive open grass vegetation indicative of dry climatic conditions. This event may coincide with the change to cool and dry conditions in the second part of the El Abra stadial, an equivalent to the Younger Dryas. From 8850 ¹⁴C yr BP the record from La Teta indicates dry climatic conditions relative to the present, these prevailing up to 2880 ¹⁴C yr BP at Quilichao and to 2720 ¹⁴C yr BP at La Teta. Severe dryness reached maxima at 7500 ¹⁴C yr BP and 4300 ¹⁴C yr BP, when dry forest reached maximum expansion. Dry forest was gradually replaced by grassy vegetation, reaching maximum expansion around 2300 ¹⁴C yr BP. After 2300 ¹⁴C yr BP grassy vegetation remains abundant. Presence of crop taxa (a.o. Zea mays), disturbance indicators (Cecropia) and an increase in charcoal point to the presence of pre‐Columbian people since 2300 ¹⁴C yr BP. After 950 ¹⁴C yr BP, expansion of secondary forest taxa may indicate depopulation and abandonment of previously cultivated land. After 400 ¹⁴C yr BP, possibly related to the Spanish conquest, secondary forest expanded and charcoal concentrations increased, possibly indicating further reduction of cultivated land. During the past century, Heliotropium and Didymopanax became abundant in an increasingly degraded landscape. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asymmetric vegetation responses to mid-Holocene aridity at the prairie-forest ecotone in south-central Minnesota

The mid-Holocene (ca. 8000-4000 cal yr BP) was a time of marked aridity throughout much of Minnesota, and the changes due to mid-Holocene aridity are seen as an analog for future responses to global warming. In this study, we compare the transition into (ca. 9000-7000 yr ago) and out of (ca. 5000-2500 yr ago) the mid-Holocene (MH) period at Kimble Pond and Sharkey Lake, located along the prairie forest ecotone in south-central Minnesota, using high resolution (∼ 5-36 yr) sampling of pollen, charcoal, sediment magnetic and loss-on-ignition properties. Changes in vegetation were asymmetrical with increasing aridity being marked by a pronounced shift from woodland/forest-dominated landscape to a more open mix of grassland and woodland/savanna. In contrast, at the end of the MH, grassland remained an important component of the landscape despite increasing effective moisture, and high charcoal influxes (median 2.7-4.0 vs. 0.6-1.7 mm² cm^− 2 yr^− 1 at start of MH) suggest the role of fire in limiting woodland expansion. Asymmetric vegetation responses, variation among and within proxies, and the near-absence of fire today suggest caution in using changes associated with mid-Holocene aridity at the prairie forest boundary as an analog for future responses to global warming.     

黑河下游河岸林植物水分来源初步研究

通过分析黑河下游极端干旱区荒漠河岸林植物木质部水及其不同潜在水源稳定氧同位素组成(δ18O),应用"同位素质量守恒多元"分析方法初步研究了不同潜在水源对河岸林植物的贡献.结果表明:在黑河下游荒漠河岸林生态系统,在河水转化为地下水和土壤水及水分在土壤剖面再分配的过程中均存在强烈的同位素分馏.对植物水δ18O而言,胡杨、柽柳和苦豆子的δ18O分别为-6.43‰、-6.28‰~和-6.61‰,较苦苣菜(-5.14‰)和蒲公英(-5·52‰)明显偏负.柱状频率图显示胡杨最多能利用93%的地下水,柽柳最多利用90%的地下水.而苦豆子97%水分来源于80 cm土层范围内的土壤水.除0~20 cm土层内的土壤水外,苦苣菜和蒲公英可能还有其他潜在水源.即在黑河下游天然河岸林乔木和灌木较多地利用地下水,而草本植物仍然以地表水为主.     

基于金矿规格单元数据的机器学习方法在成矿建模分析中的应用

现代金矿勘察主要是通过综合地球化学和地质测量等数字化方法对深部矿床进行研究,所需要的人力物力成本较高。而通过分析积累的金矿规格单元数据,可以建立金矿成矿情况与相关成矿元素含量之间的非线性关系,从已有的勘查数据中寻找金矿成矿的一般规律。本文基于与金矿相关的成矿元素含量数据,分别采用逻辑斯蒂回归、随机森林和决策树方法对原始数据和重采样数据进行训练,综合运用召回率、精确率和准确率对模型进行评价。通过对比发现,在训练和测试原始数据过程中,由于每组之间数据量的巨大差距,导致成矿数据被淹没;而在训练重采样数据过程中,随机森林在召回率和准确率方面均有较好的表现,分别达到了90.63%和70.78%;并最终分析了随机森林模型中不同分类边界对于金矿成矿情况预测结果的影响。利用不同的测量指标对模型进行评价分析,使模型更适用于金矿成矿预测,可有效地提高金矿勘察的效率。     

Addressing Scottish rural fuel poverty through a regional industrial symbiosis strategy for the Scottish forest industries sector

Tackling fuel poverty is central to the delivery of the Scottish Executive’s commitment to social justice. Many Scottish rural households are not linked into the mains gas network and rely on expensive alternatives, despite being surrounded by plentiful supplies of low-cost renewable wood biomass. A regional study was undertaken to establish the potential market for pelletised wood fuel, available as a low-value by-product from the rapidly expanding Scottish forest industry sector. The wider implications of the research findings are analysed by extending the principles of industrial symbiosis from a site-specific to a regional scale. Promoting an indigenous pellet-based wood fuel market for rural Scotland would fulfil important Scottish Executive economic, social and environmental sustainability objectives. Adding off-site social symbiotic elements increases the potential for on-site technical symbiosis in nascent Scottish forest industry clusters. At present, market failure is preventing the realisation of these benefits, and the paper concludes by identifying ways in which market intermediation, through wood fuel energy service companies, might overcome the current barriers to exploiting such symbiosis.     

森林沼泽景观区区域化探新、旧方法技术应用效果对比

自森林沼泽景观区1∶20万区域化探工作开展以来,各个单位、不同阶段工作方法技术各有不同,工作效果不明显。中国地质科学院地球物理地球化学勘查研究所近年来通过研究制定了新的工作方法技术,通过应用取得了较好的效果,为此本文仅以内蒙古一二五公里幅1∶20万区域化探新、旧方法技术的应用效果对比进行初步探讨。     

三维绿色生物量的遥感模式研究与绿化环境效益估算

本文从理论和技术上叙述了绿量的遥感模式研究和绿化环境效益估算，并取得了以下几个方面的进展：（１）提出了绿量的概念，进一步完善了城市绿化的量化指标体系；（２）成功地修正了“逻辑斯蒂曲线”方程，并以平面量模拟立体量的方法测算了上海市全市的绿量，不仅节省了人力物力，而且提高了精度；（３）提出了模式林的概念及测定了以绿量估算绿化环境效益中所必须的标准换算量；（４）首次用绿量在全市范围估算了绿化群落的吸碳产氧、吸收二氧化硫、滞尘及夏季降温等环境效益。为分析现有绿化群落布局与结构的合理性，及为绿化规划乃至整个城市的总体规划提供了很有价值的技术参数。