Soil enzymes are linked to microbial functions and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems and are considered sensitive to soil
disturbances. We investigated the effects of severe soil compaction and whole-tree harvesting plus forest floor removal (referred
to as FFR below, compared with stem-only harvesting) on available N, microbial biomass C (MBC), microbial biomass N (MBN),
and microbial biomass P (MBP), and dehydrogenase, protease, and phosphatase activities in the forest floor and 0–10 cm mineral
soil in a boreal aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) forest soil near Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada. In the forest floor, no soil compaction effects were observed
for any of the soil microbial or enzyme activity parameters measured. In the mineral soil, compaction reduced available N,
MBP, and acid phosphatase by 53, 47, and 48%, respectively, when forest floor was intact, and protease and alkaline phosphatase
activities by 28 and 27%, respectively, regardless of FFR. Forest floor removal reduced available P, MBC, MBN, and protease
and alkaline phosphatase activities by 38, 46, 49, 25, and 45%, respectively, regardless of soil compaction, and available
N, MBP, and acid phosphatase activity by 52, 50, and 39%, respectively, in the noncompacted soil. Neither soil compaction
nor FFR affected dehydrogenase activities. Reductions in microbial biomass and protease and phosphatase activities after compaction
and FFR likely led to the reduced N and P availabilities in the soil. Our results indicate that microbial biomass and enzyme
activities were sensitive to soil compaction and FFR and that such disturbances had negative consequences for forest soil
N and P cycling and fertility. 相似文献
An understanding of the effects of salinity and sodicity on soil carbon (C) stocks and fluxes is critical in environmental
management, as the areal extents of salinity and sodicity are predicted to increase. The effects of salinity and sodicity
on the soil microbial biomass (SMB) and soil respiration were assessed over 12weeks under controlled conditions by subjecting
disturbed soil samples from a vegetated soil profile to leaching with one of six salt solutions; a combination of low-salinity
(0.5dSm−1), mid-salinity (10dSm−1), or high-salinity (30dSm−1), with either low-sodicity (sodium adsorption ratio, SAR, 1), or high-sodicity (SAR 30) to give six treatments: control (low-salinity
low-sodicity); low-salinity high-sodicity; mid-salinity low-sodicity; mid-salinity high-sodicity; high-salinity low-sodicity;
and high-salinity high-sodicity. Soil respiration rate was highest (56–80mg CO2-C kg−1 soil) in the low-salinity treatments and lowest (1–5mg CO2-C kg−1 soil) in the mid-salinity treatments, while the SMB was highest in the high-salinity treatments (459–565mg kg−1 soil) and lowest in the low-salinity treatments (158–172mg kg−1 soil). This was attributed to increased substrate availability with high salt concentrations through either increased dispersion
of soil aggregates or dissolution or hydrolysis of soil organic matter, which may offset some of the stresses placed on the
microbial population from high salt concentrations. The apparent disparity in trends in respiration and the SMB may be due
to an induced shift in the microbial population, from one dominated by more active microorganisms to one dominated by less
active microorganisms. 相似文献
Manufactured soil for landscaping purposes was produced by composting for 6 weeks (1) municipal green waste alone, (2) green
waste amended with 25% v/v poultry manure, or (3) green waste immersed in, and then removed from, a mixture of liquid grease trap waste/septage. Composting
temperatures increased most rapidly and reached highest values (78oC) in the grease trap/septage-amended green waste. In comparison
with green waste alone, addition of poultry manure prolonged the period of elevated temperatures and increased the maximum
temperature attained from 52oC to 61oC. Following composting, each of the materials was split into (1) 100% compost, (2) 80%
compost plus 20% v/v soil, and (3) 70% compost plus 20% soil plus 10% coal fly ash. Addition of poultry manure or grease trap/septage to green
waste prior to composting increased bulk density and reduced total porosity of the composted product. Addition of soil, or
soil and ash, to composts increased bulk density, reduced total porosity, decreased percentage macropores, and increased percentage
mesopores and available water-holding capacity. Bicarbonate-extractable P, exchangeable NH4+ and NO3−, electrical conductivity (EC), soluble C, soluble C as a percentage of organic C, basal respiration, and metabolic quotient
were all markedly greater in the grease trap/septage-amended than poultry manure-amended or green waste alone treatments.
Values for extractable P and EC were considered large enough to be damaging to plant growth and germination index (GI) of
watercress was less than 60% for all grease trap/septage composts. Extractable P and EC were also high, and GI was <100%,
in the green waste alone and poultry manure-amended green waste alone treatments. Addition of soil or soil and ash to these
composts resulted in GI values >100%. 相似文献
In many disaster settings, top‐down responses emphasise ‘expert‐led’ solutions that often involve relocating disaster‐affected communities. While the intention might be to move people from harm's way and facilitate recovery, failure to attend to local pre‐disaster circumstances as well as the interplay between power, resilience and vulnerability within and around affected communities often sees resettlement reconfigure as displacement or disconnection. This oversight may even usher in a new phase of dispossession and disadvantage for marginalised groups (particularly in colonial settings). This paper explores experiences in Australia, Japan and Taiwan to reflect on what issues of local sociality, local culture and local resilience need to be attended to in framing ‘better’ disaster responses. 相似文献
Organisations acting to conserve and protect species across large spatial scales prioritise to optimise use of resources. Spatial conservation prioritization tools typically focus on identifying areas containing species groups of interest, with few tools used to identify the best areas for single-species conservation, in particular, to conserve currently widespread but declining species.
Objective
A single-species prioritization framework, based on temporal and spatial patterns of occupancy and abundance, was developed to spatially prioritize conservation action for widespread species by identifying smaller areas to work within to achieve predefined conservation objectives.
Methods
We demonstrate our approach for 29 widespread bird species in the UK, using breeding bird atlas data from two periods to define distribution, relative abundance and change in relative abundance. We selected occupied 10-km squares with abundance trends that matched species conservation objectives relating to maintaining or increasing population size or range, and then identified spatial clusters of squares for each objective using a Getis-Ord-Gi* or near neighbour analysis.
Results
For each species, the framework identified clusters of 20-km squares that enabled us to identify small areas in which species recovery action could be prioritized.
Conclusions
Our approach identified a proportion of species’ ranges to prioritize for species recovery. This approach is a relatively quick process that can be used to inform single-species conservation for any taxa if sufficiently fine-scale occupancy and abundance information is available for two or more time periods. This is a relatively simple first step for planning single-species focussed conservation to help optimise resource use.
We address understanding of whole-system and landscape-based approaches to the ecosystem services framework by considering the supply of provisioning services and the dynamics of agricultural land use in Scotland between 1940 and 2016.
Objectives
To characterise and understand the dynamics of change in provisioning services from agriculture in Scotland over the period 1940–2016. To identify ways in which funds of capitals and flows of inputs and output ecosystem goods are linked to land management practices and policies at a national scale.
Methods
Data describing agricultural land use, production, financial and energy inputs and outputs, and drivers of change in land use in Scotland are analysed with an accounting framework that links funds of natural, human, physical and financial capital, with flows of goods and services. Flow–fund ratios are used as benchmarks of system performance and dynamics.
Results
Scotland’s agriculture has modernised since 1940 and become more efficient in conversion of resources, with a consequent increase in delivery of provisioning goods and services. Although the energy ratio, and flow of goods per unit hectare and per unit labour have increased, the inputs necessary to maintain those flows of ecosystem goods are also increasing, even as their relative economic costs decrease. Increases in use of fertiliser suggests that production from the soil, as a natural capital fund, is not being conserved without a large, and increasing, input. Analysis of the complexity of the coupled agricultural land system also suggests that land management rather than biodiversity is a necessary subject for evaluation of provisioning services from agriculture. Understanding of ecosystem services based on accounts that integrate inputs, outputs and flows from funds of natural, human, social, financial and physical capitals, provides a process-based foundation for improved understanding of ecosystem services and human–environmental relationships.
Conclusions
Adopting an accounting approach for understanding the role of agricultural land use for supply of provisioning services, and particularly examining a long time-series of accounts, enables understanding of land changes and underlying drivers, as well as the contribution of cultural and other aspects of human systems coupled with environment systems. Accounting for ecosystem services using costs as well as benefits, and use of metrics beyond financial benefit, supports debate and evaluation of trade-offs between services and has direct relevance for decision- and policy-making.
‘Conserving Nature’s stage’ has been advanced as an important conservation principle because of known links between biodiversity and abiotic environmental diversity, especially in sensitive high-latitude environments and at the landscape scale. However these links have not been examined across gradients of human impact on the landscape.
Objectives
To (1) analyze the relationships between land-use intensity and both landscape-scale biodiversity and geodiversity, and (2) assess the contributions of geodiversity, climate and spatial variables to explaining vascular plant species richness in landscapes of low, moderate and high human impact.
Methods
We used generalized additive models (GAMs) to analyze relationships between land-use intensity and both geodiversity (geological, geomorphological and hydrological richness) and plant species richness in 6191 1-km2 grid squares across Finland. We used linear regression-based variation partitioning (VP) to assess contributions of climate, geodiversity and spatial variable groups to accounting for spatial variation in species richness.
Results
In GAMs, geodiversity correlated negatively, and plant species richness positively, with land-use intensity. Both relationships were non-linear. In VP, geodiversity best accounted for species richness in areas of moderate to high human impact. These overall contributions were mainly due to variation explained jointly with climate, which dominated the models. Independent geodiversity contributions were highest in pristine environments, but low throughout.
Conclusions
Human action increases biodiversity but may reduce geodiversity, at landscape scale in high-latitude environments. Better understanding of the connections between biodiversity and abiotic environment along changing land-use gradients is essential in developing sustainable measures to conserve biodiversity under global change.
Early-maturing maize (Zea Mays L.) germplasm developed from diverse sources has the potential for use in developing maize hybrids suitable for increasing maize production in the dry ecologies of eastern Africa. A diallel study was conducted to estimate general combining ability (GCA) of 12 early-maturing maize inbred lines, identify potential single-cross hybrids for use as parents, assess genetic diversity among the inbred lines, and relate genetic distance to specific combining ability (SCA) and hybrid performance. Sixty-six F1 diallel hybrids were evaluated under optimal and drought stress conditions at four locations in Kenya and Uganda. The parental inbred lines were genotyped using 94 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Additive gene action was more important than nonadditive gene action for inheritance of grain yield (GY) under optimal conditions. However, nonadditive gene effects were more important in the inheritance of GY under drought and across all environments. Inbred lines CKL0722, VL058014, and CZL0724 were among the best with positive GCA effects for GY across both optimal and drought stress conditions. The correlation between SCA and both genetic distance and F1 GY was significant under both drought stress and across all environments. Inbred lines with desirable GCA effects for GY and other agronomic traits and hybrids with good performance under both optimal and drought stress conditions are potential parents for development of various types of high-yielding, stress-tolerant, and early-maturing hybrids. 相似文献
