Environmental Management最新文献

In this study, we examine the spatio-temporal patterns of citizen-reported human-bear conflict (HBC) from 2002 to 2022 and use the Forest-Based and Boosted Classification (FBBC) technique to assess the significance of several factors in the occurrence of HBC. Our analysis reveals a significant increase in HBC incidents over the study period, with the fewest conflicts in 2002 (217) and the most in 2022 (4455). These were concentrated in northwestern Connecticut, particularly eastern Litchfield County and western Hartford County. The results of geostatistical analysis, including measures of dispersion and emerging hot spot analysis indicated a southward trend in HBC on both annual and monthly scales. The validation results of the FBBC highlighted the relevance of forest fragmentation, intermediate housing density, proximity to water bodies, and snowfall in predicting HBC. Each variable demonstrated nearly equal importance (20%) in predicting HBC occurrences from 2010 to 2022, though land cover showed no significant predictive power. These findings elucidate the spatio-temporal dynamics of HBC and offer valuable insights for wildlife managers to prioritize conflict mitigation strategies effectively. The results of this study identify locations prone to HBC. Moreover, FBBC results show that this technique can be used to predict future HBC based on projected changes in these variables due to climate change and expansion of the human-wildlife interface. Our analysis can aid in the development of targeted, evidence-driven, and ethical management interventions in Connecticut.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios run by an ensemble of models developed by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) projects an average sea level rise (SLRs) of 0.6 to 1.2 m for the low and high emission scenarios (SSP1-1.9, SSP5-8.5), during the next century (IPCC 2021). The coastal zone will experience an increase in the flooding of terrestrial habitats and the depth of marine productive areas, with potential negative consequences for these ecosystems. The coast in Denmark is highly modified due to anthropogenic uses. Dikes, dams, and other coastal infrastructure are widespread, causing a coastal squeeze that prevents natural coastal development and inland migration of coastlines. We performed a national-scale analysis on the impacts of mean sea level rise (MSLR) in 2070 and 2120, and a 1 in 10-year storm surge water level (10SS) in 2120 MSLR for the Danish coast. Our study shows extensive permanent flooding of coastal habitats (~14%), whereas only 1.6% of urban areas will be flooded. Finally, very large agricultural areas (~191,000 ha) will be frequently flooded by 10SS if no extra protective measures are planned. With the present coastal protection structures, key habitats will be affected by permanent flooding or coastal squeeze while even larger extents will be subjected to intermittent marine flooding. About 45% (199 km²) of all Danish coastal wetlands will be permanently flooded by 2120, while areas occupied by forest, lakes and freshwater wetlands will be more frequently flooded by marine water. This study highlights the importance of including coastal habitats as dynamic elements in climate adaptation plans. Conservation and restoration of key habitats such as coastal wetlands should be prioritized in management plans. If Denmark does not change its current priorities, it may face the complete loss of coastal wetlands habitat in the 22nd century.

Public lands worldwide provide diverse resources, uses, and values, ranging from wilderness to extractive uses. Decision-making on public lands is complex as a result and is required by law to be informed by science. However, public land managers may not always have the science they need. We developed a methodology for identifying priority science needs for public land management agencies. We relied on two core data sources: environmental effects analyses conducted for agency decisions and legal challenges to those decisions. We considered needs in four categories: data, science, methods, and mitigation measures. We classified topics as primary science needs when (1) the topic was analyzed frequently in agency environmental analyses, (2) our metric of quality/defensibility was low or mitigation measures were frequently included for the topic, and (3) the agency was challenged on its use of science for the topic. We applied our methodology to the Bureau of Land Management-the largest public land manager in the United States-in Colorado, a state with abundant and diverse public lands. Primary identified needs were data on vegetation; science about effects of oil and gas development and livestock grazing on multiple resources, including terrestrial wildlife; methods for analyzing environmental effects for many topics; and mitigation measures for protecting vegetation, soils, water quality, and archaeological and historic resources. Science needs often reflect needs for facilitating and supporting the use of existing science in agency decision-making. Our method can be applied across agencies, geographies, and timeframes to help strengthen science use in public lands decision-making.

In Europe, various conservation programs adopted to maintain or restore biodiversity have experienced differing levels of success. However, a synthesis about major factors for success of biodiversity-related conservation programs across ecosystems and national boundaries, such as incentives, subsidies, enforcement, participation, or spatial context, is missing. Using a balanced scorecard survey among experts, we analyzed and compared factors contributing to success or failure of three different conservation programs: two government programs (Natura 2000 and the ecological measures of the Water Framework Directive) and one conservation program of a non-governmental organization (NGO; Rewilding Europe), all focusing on habitat and species conservation. The experts perceived the NGO program as more successful in achieving biodiversity-related aims than governmental conservation legislation. Among the factors perceived to influence the success of biodiversity conservation, several stood out: Biodiversity-damaging subsidies, external economic interests competing with conservation goals or policies conflicting with biodiversity conservation were recognized as major factors for the lack of conservation success. Outreach to raise societal interest and awareness as well as stakeholder involvement were perceived as closely related to the success of programs. Our expert survey demonstrated that external factors from economy and policy often hinder success of conservation programs, while societal and environmental factors rather contribute to it. This study implies that conservation programs should be designed to be as inclusive as possible and provides a basis for developing a standardized methodology that explicitly considers indirect drivers from areas such as economy, policy and society.

Anchovy waste, a protein resource with high nutritional value and potential for recycling with a relatively high economic effect, is essential for the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Preventing microbial contamination during the recycling process, through enzymatic hydrolysis, ensures the safety of recycled products. High-pressure carbon dioxide is a novel non-thermal decontamination technology, which inactivates cells by breaking their membranes. Here, we selected 40 °C_5.0 MPa and 50 °C_1.0 MPa treatment conditions for effectively decontaminating anchovy samples during the hydrolysis process. Next Generation Sequencing and real-time PCR experiments showed that a microbial growth promotion stage existed at the beginning of 40 °C_5.0 MPa, which may threaten hydrolysates, as some microbial genera were detected from the metabolites produced. Treatment at 50 °C_1.0 MPa ensured a high safety level for hydrolysates but this is limiting for various enzymatic hydrolysis processes. Orientaaze OP was selected as an additional enzyme with the highest hydrolysis efficiency under 40 and 50 °C among 10 different industrial proteases. Compared with control samples without high-pressure carbon dioxide treatment, 40 °C_5.0 MPa and 50 °C_1.0 MPa treated samples presented higher total amino acid concentrations by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography. Hence, there was an increased enzyme activity by 40 °C_5.0 MPa and 50 °C_1.0 MPa treatments in endogenous or additional proteases hydrolytic processes. Despite the need for more future studies to be conducted, this research still provides essential information and instruction for industrial enzymatic hydrolysis applications on anchovy waste recycling.

Metal pollution from mining is a threat to lotic fishes, although legislation that requires improved water quality and provides funding for remediation has been enacted to combat this stressor. The Spring River in southeastern Kansas historically received inputs of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc that reduced the prevalence of several sensitive and imperiled fishes. Long-term reductions in these toxic metals have occurred since the 1990's because of management activities, but presently it is unknown how riffle fish communities responded to improved water quality. As such, the objective of our research was to quantify changes in riffle fish community structure between 1993-1995 and 2019-2021 using a before-after-control-impact (BACI) study design. Responses were quantified with univariate analyses to examine the interactive effects of time period (i.e., historical versus contemporary), pollution tolerance classification (i.e., intolerant, moderately-intolerant, moderately-tolerant, and tolerant), and site position (i.e., above versus below the most severe historical metal pollution inputs) on relative abundance, occupancy, and species richness of riffle fishes. We used multivariate analyses to examine temporal changes in community structure above and below pollution inputs. Our findings indicated that intolerant fish species relative abundance increased between the historical and contemporary time periods throughout the Spring River. Occupancy of all fishes increased over time in the formerly metal contaminated portion of the Spring River, becoming similar to values in the reference reach. Changes in species richness depended on site position and pollution tolerance, as temporal increases of intolerant and moderately intolerant species richness were most pronounced in the lower Spring River below historical metal pollution inputs. Multivariate analyses revealed a significant interaction between time period and site position, as there was a shift in community structure over time in the lower reach that was less pronounced in the upper reach. Most of the intolerant species that increased in prevalence are of high conservation priority, thus our research suggested that legislation enacted to improve water quality produced a ripple effect that stimulated the recovery of imperiled fish species.

Agencies monitoring aquatic ecosystems desire to accurately measure the similarity of species assemblages to undisturbed states to assess ecological "health". Over the past century, numerous fish-based indices have been developed to estimate the abstract property of stream health. The Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) is the predominant technique used by state and federal agencies in the United States and has been widely used by these agencies following its inception over 40 years ago. However, biogeographic patterns can often confound the application of traditional IBI frameworks in highly speciose regions. While nearly all regional IBI versions are developed to suit particular geographic regions, few measure contemporary biogeographic changes (such as loss or maintenance of endemic species) even though these properties are critical components of "healthy" ecosystems in highly diverse regions. Quantitative analyses from recent decades have shown that the proportion of endemic fishes may decline, but that other taxonomically and ecologically similar widespread (albeit native) species may replace them. Herein, we summarize challenges using traditional trait-based fish IBIs in the southeastern United States-a region with unparalleled fish species richness and endemism within the temperate world. In our experience, complex biogeographic patterns and scant biological information for many fish species in this region often hinder the ability of traditional fish-based biotic integrity indices to measure stream health. Tailoring indices and metrics to better suit biogeographic patterns and incorporating traits such as species identity and endemism may help to further refine stream health indices in highly diverse regions.

Since its emergence in 2007, the global mechanism for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in developing countries (REDD+) has raised hopes of providing cost-effective solutions to climate change. However, the design and implementation of REDD+ projects in many developing countries, including Ghana, have faced complex governance challenges. In recent years, a collaborative governance approach has been increasingly recommended for effective REDD+ implementation, but the impact of the dynamics of developing countries' context on collaboration success remains unclear. Using Ghana's Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme (GCFRP) as a case study, this paper aims to increase our understanding of how the dynamics of developing countries' context affect the drivers shaping the initiation of REDD+ collaborative regimes for transforming cocoa forest landscapes. Through qualitative content analysis of document reviews and semi-structured interviews with national program stakeholder groups, the results indicate that Ghana's dynamic context facilitates collaboration on REDD+ implementation when stakeholders feel uncertain about the future availability of forest resources and recognize their interdependence in responding to such issues. Additionally, the findings of the study indicate that strong political will for change, along with strategic windows of opportunity created by REDD+ funding mechanisms, play a vital role in shaping consequential incentives essential for aligning stakeholder interests and fostering cross-sector leadership for initiating the REDD+ collaborative governance regime. While the applicability and limitations of the IFCG framework are discussed, further in-depth studies at project levels are crucial to understanding local stakeholders' perspectives on the key elements necessary for successful collaboration.

Anthropogenic disturbance has led to widespread vegetation clearing and geomorphic adjustment along most of the world's rivers. Over the past 50 years, riparian vegetation has been returning, unassisted, to rivers in eastern Australia that have been experiencing geomorphic river recovery. We used a novel rapid riparian assessment method to analyse vegetation condition on rivers undergoing geomorphic recovery. The rapid riparian assessment method incorporated vegetation cover, native species richness, the proportion of native to exotic species cover, and other features of vegetation health to produce a vegetation condition score that classifies sites as poor, moderate, or good. Vegetation condition was analysed along 36 river reaches in coastal catchments of New South Wales (NSW) in three different climatic regions (North, Mid and South coasts), covering three stages of geomorphic recovery (low, moderate and high) and for three geomorphic units (bars, benches and floodplains). Most reaches had a poor or moderate riparian vegetation condition, with only three sites assessed as being in good condition. Native species richness and proportion of native to exotic species cover were higher in the later stages of geomorphic recovery and on benches and floodplains, compared to bars. However, most of the riparian vegetation on recovering rivers consisted of a mixture of native and exotic species, highlighting that even in the later stages of recovery, novel communities are produced that do not resemble the pre-disturbance ecosystem. To improve vegetation quality at-scale (i.e. across catchments and regions) will require that vegetation management interventions are designed and adapted to work with these novel ecosystems, and that realistic rehabilitation targets and expectations are set to account for the geomorphic and vegetative recovery that is occurring along these rivers.

Ecological conservation and sustainable land management are vital endeavors in the face of rising anthropogenic pressures and habitat deterioration. Accurate and effective evaluation techniques are essential for identifying regions that are of ecological relevance and concern. The present research introduces an innovative approach using geospatial tools to detect natural hotspots and deficits within a landscape. The research incorporates six essential ecological parameters, namely spatial variability, vegetation health, road network connectivity, fragmentation, biological richness, and habitat areas, obtained from existing literature studies. These parameters indicate the overall health of ecosystems and the extent of biodiversity present, which are crucial for developing effective strategies for ecological planning. The research project aims to use geospatial applications to identify the "ecological rich", "ecological moderate" or "ecological deficit" areas in the study area and to establish a model framework for automating the geospatial analysis. The resulting map offers a comprehensive and practical depiction of the ecological condition of the landscape, facilitating decision-makers in strategically allocating resources for conservation and restoration initiatives. The importance of this research resides in its capacity to streamline and automate what was previously a time-consuming and labor-intensive procedure. This innovative approach empowers conservationists, land managers, and policymakers with a powerful tool "Eco-track' to identify and prioritize ecological hotspots and deficits, ultimately fostering more effective and targeted efforts in preserving the natural heritage.