Mar 2010, Volume 4 Issue 1
    

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  • Research articles
    Understanding coupled human and natural systems in a changing world
    Zhifeng YANG, Shikui DONG,
    2010, 4(1): 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-010-0003-y
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  • Research articles
    Community-level enhancements of biodiversity and ecosystem services
    Stephen J. MORREALE, Kristi L. SULLIVAN,
    2010, 4(1): 14-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-010-0015-7
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    A common management technique for preserving and maintaining biodiversity is the establishment of large refuges and preserves. Although extensive sanctuaries can provide crucial protection for many organisms and ecosystems, they cannot fulfill all the needs of regional conservation. An alternative to a few large refuges is to create many different habitats across the landscape that enhance and improve local and regional biodiversity and provide immediate benefits to nearby communities in the form of ecosystem services. Furthermore, these can all be initiated and achieved by individuals or communities. Some key landscape enhancements can be undertaken on a local level: the creation or expansion of small wooded areas, windbreaks, or hedgerows; the construction of small wetlands; and the release of some lands from heavy pressure for the reestablishment of natural ecological processes, namely, the natural accumulation of woody and other organic materials. Newly created ecosystems can be inoculated at the outset with soil biota such as seed banks, microbes, fungi, and organic material that can accelerate ecological functioning and balance. In addition to increasing much local and regional biodiversity, locally enhanced areas can provide fuel, plant and animal food and medicinal products, and agroforestry products directly to the nearby community. These small ecological oases can serve as nesting and overwintering sites for numerous pollinators that are hugely beneficial to agricultural production. Moreover, several ecosystem enhancements may contribute positively to local and regional hydrologic cycles and prevent prolonged droughts. Enhancements to local landscapes can take on many forms. We believe that any changes that increase structural complexity in natural systems almost certainly lead to increases in local biological complexity. In addition, wider landscape level considerations, such as corridors and connectivity of populations, can be integrated on a broader scale to improve regional biodiversity and ecosystem services. Small landscape enhancements undoubtedly cannot provide for all conservation needs, but they can greatly increase widespread biodiversity, restore local ecosystem services, and can be used to complement the relatively few larger parks.
  • Research articles
    Driving forces and management strategies for estuaries in northern China
    Anning SUO, Dongzhi ZHAO, Fengshou ZHANG, Huaru WANG, Fengqiao LIU,
    2010, 4(1): 51-58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-010-0004-x
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    Estuaries, which lie at the end of rivers, belong to the interlocking area between marine ecosystems and terrestrial ecosystems. In the estuary region, there are plenty of biological resources that carry many important ecosystem services. However, severe degradation of the estuary ecosystem in northern China has been caused by anthropogenic disturbances, including water pollution from upstream area, change of marine environmental dynamics, animal habitat loss, and unreasonable exploitation in the estuary region. In order to provide scientific evidence for restoration and conservation of the estuary ecosystem, we collected data from published literature to analyze the ecological problems in several main estuary regions in northern China, such as the Yellow River estuary, Liaohe River estuary, Haihe River estuary, Yalu River estuary, and some others. The main ecological problems in the estuary region of northern China include the input decrease of fresh water from rivers, the change of the sediment input from rivers, the destruction of the estuary wetland ecosystem, the environmental pollution in the estuary region, the erosion in the estuary region, seawater encroachment, the biodiversity decline of the estuary region, and the depletion of the fish resources in the estuary region. Meanwhile, the driving forces for these ecological problems in the estuary region were also assessed. Based on the analysis of these driving forces, we propose several pieces of advice for integrated estuary management in northern China, including the creation of a management system for estuary conservation, improvement of the means and strength of the environmental law execution, increased investment on scientific research in the estuary ecosystem, improvement of public participation on the conservation for the estuary environment and biodiversity, and construction of a monitoring system for the estuary environment.
  • Research articles
    The myth of community and sustainable grassland management in China
    Andreas WILKES, Jingzheng TAN, MANDULA,
    2010, 4(1): 59-66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-010-0009-5
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    Within national and international domestic academic circles, there are increasing calls for enhanced involvement of communities in formulating and implementing grassland management arrangements. In contrast to the current national policy of contracting grasslands to households, many scholars call for support for collective grassland use arrangements. Several reasons are given for increased recognition and support for community-based management of grasslands, including lower costs of exclusion and dispute resolution, economies of scale in herding and marketing, mitigation of environmental risk, and ensuring equitable access to grassland resources. One conclusion from this literature is that devolving authority for designing and implementing grassland management systems to communities would lead to more sustainable grassland use, a position that I term as the ‘myth of community.’ This paper presents the results of a study of grazing systems in two communities in Hongyuan County, Sichuan Province. Each community uses its grasslands collectively. However, the study found evidence of severe overgrazing, especially in winter pastures, suggesting that community-based management of grasslands is not necessarily sustainable. The paper discusses three potential policy innovations required to support sustainable grazing systems in China’s grassland areas: overcoming constraints in labor and land markets, and payments for environmental services that reward sustainable stocking levels.
  • Research articles
    Promoting a coupled human and natural systems approach to addressing conservation in complex mountainous landscapes of Central Asia
    James P. LASSOIE, Ruth E. SHERMAN
    2010, 4(1): 67-82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-010-0007-7
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    Global climate change, nonpoint source pollution, watershed and wildlife habitat destruction, and unsustainable development are damaging the natural world, threatening the socio-cultural integrity of communities, and jeopardizing the livelihood security of peoples worldwide. Despite the past 50 years of progress in addressing environmental damage in the United States and elsewhere, intractable problems have arisen that to date have eluded successful technological or policy responses. Solutions have been sought by recognizing that these problems are very complex and demand interdisciplinary approaches that require building effective partnerships among relevant academic institutions, governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and private business, as well as levering various disciplines and traditional knowledge systems. Such thinking has evolved to now consider humans to be an integral part of nature, which is captured in the idea of the ‘human ecosystem’ ,where biophysical, socioeconomic, and cultural systems interact via a complex set of organizational, spatial, and temporal ‘couplings’. Within such a context, environmental problems can be viewed as coupled human and natural systems, which afford unique and novel approaches to their solutions. This paper discusses the development of the coupled systems approach as a scientific methodology, reviews its key characteristics and principles, provides an example of how it has been applied to assess conservation issues in alpine areas of Northwest Yunnan Province, China, and recommends how this scientific approach might be further developed for use in mountainous landscape regions of Central Asia and elsewhere.
  • Research articles
    Introspection of sustainable development and environmental planning of National Park management
    Hoshu CHOU,
    2010, 4(1): 83-88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-010-0012-x
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    Because of slender land and high mountain, steep slope, and rapids of natural environment, the whole regional ecosystem has the changeable terrain and landscape with diverse ecology and species. During the past 300 years, the humanity lives and spreads on this splendid domain, accomplished the complex, fragment and sensitive of nature and humanities ecosystem, and its Landscape ecology texture. This paper finds out that, although the National Parks system in China has been in operation for over 30 years and has achieved the objective of species conservation, it is still facing the a conflicting situation and coordinated demand of its conservation and recreation. With the global tendency of “sustainable development” and “ecotourism”, this paper suggests that National Park system should establish a sustainable development mechanism integrating “conservation, recreation, and research.” Therefore, this paper suggests shifting the traditional planning paradigm of resource benefit guidance and resource valuation framework of Ecological Planning to the “Sustainable Planning” theory and technique that are suitable for sustainable development concept in order to meet the demand for a new conservation concept and technique of sustainable development for the human beings dealing with the environment resources. Also, the texture and model of Landscape ecology and the model and method of Geographic Informational System could be considered as the proper tool. This paper points out that the landscape ecology texture and tendency should represent the secret code of sustainable development. Furthermore, the situation of the sustainable development is dynamic, and the GIS model is necessary for corresponding planning. Finally, this paper develops a suitable sustainable development operation definition and planning methodology to represent the interlacing framework of ecology (conservation) and human being (e.g., recreation, research, life, etc.) system of National Park management.
  • Research articles
    Using comprehensive and sequential vegetation classification system to predict the influence of climate change on vegetation succession of alpine grassland of Qinghai Plateau
    Hongmei LI, Yanfang BAI, Yushou MA,
    2010, 4(1): 99-104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-010-0014-8
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    Distribution of grassland vegetation is highly associated with climatic conditions and varied with climatic change. The tendency of climatic changes on Qinghai Plateau was analyzed, based on the meteorological data from 1961 to 2007 collected from 50 meteorological stations distributed throughout the whole plateau. The vegetation distribution of alpine grassland under past and future climatic change was estimated by using the approach of Comprehensive and Sequential Classification system. Results show that the climate varied greatly before and after 1987. The temperature increased 0.16°C/10a before 1987 and 0.64°C/10a after 1987. The precipitation increased 0.14mm/10a before 1987 and 3.92mm/10a after 1987. There were 12 types of grassland vegetation between 1961 and 1987, while there were 11 types of grassland vegetation between 1988 and 2007 on the Plateau. When climatic warming continued with CO2 doubling in the future, the vegetation of alpine grassland will shrink into nine types.
  • Research articles
    Integrated, watershed-based management for sustainable water resources
    Rebecca L. SCHNEIDER,
    2010, 4(1): 117-125. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-010-0013-9
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    Water scarcity is a becoming a critical issue globally, driven largely by the demands of an exponentially growing human population and complicated by the impacts of climate change on the amounts and distribution of precipitation. It is also due to mismanagement as scarce water resources are being used simultaneously for irrigation, power generation, public and industrial water supply, flood reduction, and wastewater disposal without consideration of the cumulative impacts to the water resources themselves. This paper outlines eight ecologically based principles and associated guidelines as the basis for integrated and watershed-based management of the world’s water resources.