王莽岭地质公园旅游资源类型及开发建议

建立地质公园是保护地质遗迹资源、普及地学知识、促进旅游发展的一种形式.目前,地质公园旅游资源的不合理开发给公园的可持续发展造成了巨大压力.以山西陵川王莽岭国家地质公园为例,对公园内地质遗迹资源类型进行了系统论述,对人文资源和植物资源进行了概括.针对公园建设和资源开发现状,重点提出了地质遗迹保护和旅游资源开发建议.     

山东地质公园旅游开发及对策研究

山东地质资源丰富,地质遗迹保存较完整,以其稀有性、典型性著称,地质公园建设发展迅速.山东地质公园在建设过程中融入自身优美的自然景观和人文景观,具有很高的旅游价值.简要介绍了发展地质公园旅游的意义,分析了山东省地质公园旅游的开发现状,提出了存在的问题,并针对这些问题提出了相应的对策.     

北京延庆国家地质公园旅游资源类型与保护开发建议

建立地质公园是保护地质遗迹、普及地质知识和促进经济发展的有效途径。在野外综合地质考察和全面收集资料的基础上,对延庆国家地质公园内地质遗迹进行了系统的分类和描述,概括了地质公园内人文景观资源。在此基础上,对公园的资源及旅游开发条件进行评价,进而从地质遗迹保护、管理体制和公园发展等方面提出地质遗迹保护和旅游资源开发的初步构想,为延庆地质公园的建设和发展提供思路,确保公园内地质遗迹资源走上持续发展之路。     

基于AVC的兴文世界地质公园旅游景观评价

随着我国地质公园建设和规划的兴起,针对地质公园的开发和保护的评价方法不断发展.采用AVC旅游景观评价法对兴文世界地质公园旅游景观进行了评价.结果表明,兴文世界地质公园旅游景观处在评价等级中的第三等级,这与其开发保护现状吻合,同时也反映了该区旅游发展与其目标定位之间的差异和矛盾.基于此,对评价结果进行了分析,在此基础上提出了具有一定可行性的开发和保护建议,以供相关旅游部门参考.     

川南地区旅游地质资源的类型与开发利用价值

川南地区具有得天独厚的地质地貌条件,区内旅游地质资源丰富、种类齐全、资源级别极高,拥有自贡世界地质公园、兴文世界地质公园和峨眉山—乐山大佛这样的世界级旅游风景区和多处国家级的旅游胜地。旅游地质资源作为一种特色的旅游资源,具有较高的观赏价值、科普教育价值、人文历史价值、探险与康体健身价值。加快川南地区旅游地质资源的开发,有利于走特色旅游产业道路,促进川南地区旅游产业的转型升级,改善区域的经济结构和产业结构,实现川南地区人与经济、人与社会的和谐发展。     

祁阳浯溪碑林景区的深度开发

碑林资源以其蕴含的历史沉淀和艺术价值为载体,赋予了旅游景区独特的文化内涵.以祁阳浯溪碑林景区为研究对象,通过实地调查,发现景区开发存在产品开发水平低、资源保护力度不够、参与性和体验性产品缺失、联动发展程度低等问题.针对语溪碑林景区旅游资源的基本特征和景区开发中存在的问题,提出了有助于景区深度开发的策略与建议.     

凤山国家地质公园地质遗迹特征与旅游开发价值

广西凤山岩溶国家地质公园地质遗迹资源丰富、规模宏大、特征鲜明,共有15类岩溶为主的地质遗迹类型,其中岩溶洞穴、天生桥、天坑和天窗地质遗迹景观资源最具典型性和稀有性,拥有世界级景观、科学研究和旅游开发价值。但地质遗迹资源自身价值的优势并不能完全代表旅游开发的价值。衡量其旅游开发价值,必须从旅游者消费需求角度出发,考虑旅游安全、交通、服务、体验、经济等方面。     

福建深沪湾旅游资源评价及SWOT分析

在综合考察福建深沪湾地区旅游资源的基础上,对其进行了系统分类和评价,同时引入现代营销学中常用的SWOT分析法对福建深沪湾旅游资源的开发建设条件进行了系统分析,从而为该旅游资源的开发利用和申报国家地质公园提供战略性的决策支持.     

青海省国家地质公园建设思考

国家地质公园是重要的自然资源和旅游资源，目前青海省已建立了4家国家地质公园。结合青海省实际，在分析青海省国家地质公园建设现状的基础上，讨论了国家地质公园建设中目前面临的一些问题，提出了相应的建议及对策。     

基于地质遗迹的地质公园可持续发展模式研究——以五大连池世界地质公园为例

近年来，随着联合国教科文组织建立世界地质公园计划的快速推进，我国对地质遗迹的保护和开发也给予了高度重视。在对五大连池火山地质遗迹及其保护利用现状分析的基础上，从如何正确处理保护利用与旅游开发的关系，如引导社区参与开发、强化环保意识、立法保护、建立地质遗迹信息库和管理人才培养、与科研机构合作等多个方面详细阐述了基于地质遗迹开发利用的五大连池世界地质公园可持续发展模式的思路和方法。     

Conversion of temperate forests into heaths: Role of ecosystem disturbance and ericaceous plants

Fire and logging in nutrient-poor temperate forests with certain ericaceous understory plants may convert the forests into heaths. The process of disturbance-induced heath formation is documented by using examples ofCalluna in western Europe,Kalmia in Newfoundland, andGaultheria (salal) in coastal British Columbia. In a cool, temperate climate, rapid vegetative growth ofCalluna, Kalmia, and salal following disturbance results in increasing organic accumulation (paludification), nutrient sequestration, soil acidification, and allelochemicals. These are thought to be the main reasons to conifer regeneration failure in disturbed habitats. If continuation in forest is a land-use objective, then temperate forests with an ericaceous understory should not be logged unless effective silvicultural methods are devised to control the ericaceous plants and restore forest regeneration. Preharvest vegetation control may be considered as an option. Failure to control the understory plants may lead to a long-term vegetation shift, from forest to heathland, particularly in nutrient-poor sites. Successful methods of controllingKalmia andGaultheria, however, have yet to be developed. While theKalmia- andGaultheria- dominated heathlands are undesirable in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a wide range ofCalluna heathlands of western Europe are being conserved as natural and seminatural vegetation.     

BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTUARINE/COASTAL POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Sustained interest in and concern about the health status of the aquatic environment has resulted in extensive research focused on (1) effects of pollution on survival, growth, and reproduction of resource species at all life stages; (2) diseases of fish and shellfish, as they may be related to pollution and as they may serve as indicators of environmental stress; and (3) contaminant body burdens in fish and shellfish - their effects on the aquatic animals and their potential effects on humans. Effects, lethal and sublethal, of pollutants on life history stages of fish and shellfish have been documented, as have impacts on local stocks in badly degraded habitats, but as yet there has been no adequate quantitative demonstration of effects on entire aquatic species - probably because of the difficulty in sorting out relative effects of the many environmental factors that influence abundance. Sublethal effects, especially those that result in disease, have been examined intensively, and some diseases and disease syndromes have been associated statistically with pollution. Other pollution indicators (biochemical, physiological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological) have also received some attention, as have body burdens of contaminants in aquatic species. Research, especially that conducted during the past decade, has done much to clarify the many pathways and toxic effects of contaminants on aquatic animals, and has also helped to identify mechanisms for survival of fish and shellfish in the presence of environmental changes caused by human activities.     

Using Paleo Reconstructions to Improve Streamflow Forecast Lead Time in the Western United States

In water stressed regions, water managers are exploring new horizons that would help in long‐range streamflow forecasts. Oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations have been shown to influence streamflow variability. In this study, long‐lead time streamflow forecasts are made using a multiclass kernel‐based data‐driven support vector machine (SVM) model. The extended streamflow records based on tree ring reconstructions were used to provide a longer time series data. Reconstructed data were used from 1658 to 1952 and the instrumental record was used from 1953 to 2007. Reconstructions for oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations included the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and North Atlantic Oscillation. Streamflow forecasts using all four oscillations were made with one‐year to five‐year lead times for 21 gages in the western United States. This is the first study that uses both instrumental and reconstructed data of oscillations in SVM model to improve streamflow forecast lead time. SVM model was able to provide “satisfactory” to “very good” forecasts with one‐ to five‐year lead time for the selected gages. The use of all the oscillation indices helped in achieving better predictability compared to using individual oscillations. The SVM modeling results are better when compared with multiple linear regression model forecasts. The findings are statistical in nature and are expected to be useful for long‐term water resources planning and management.     

Journalists' views of advertiser pressures on agricultural news

All major journalism ethical codes explicitly state that journalists should protect editorial copy from undue influence by outside sources. However, much of the previous research on agricultural information has concentrated on what information various media communicate (gatekeeping studies) or communication's role in increasing innovation adoption (diffusion studies). Few studies have concentrated specifically on organizational and structural constraints that might adversely affect agricultural journalists' ethical standards; those that have, focus largely on farm magazines. A study of newspaper reporters who cover agricultural news found that the most pressing ethical concern is the effect of advertiser (agri-business) pressure on editorial copy, and that their concerns in general parallel those of farm magazine writers and editors. The majority reported being in situations in which they might be exposed to advertiser pressure, including pressures to change or withhold editorial copy. Large minorities suggested that advertising pressures affect the overall environment in which agricultural journalists work, and more than one in ten said they allow advertiser pressures to influence editorial decisions. The newspaper reporters who cover agricultural beats showed slightly more resistance to advertiser pressure than did farm magazine editors in a parallel study.     

Definition Procedures Have Little Effect on Performance of Environmental Classifications of Streams and Rivers

Mapped environmental classifications are defined using various procedures, but there has been little evaluation of the differences in their ability to discriminate variation in independent ecological characteristics. We tested the performance of environmental classifications of the streams and rivers of France that had been defined from the same environmental data using geographic regionalization and numerical classification of individual river valley segments. Test data comprised invertebrate assemblages, water chemistry, and hydrological indexes obtained from sites throughout France. Classification performance was measured by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Geometric regions defined by a regular grid and without regard to environmental variables and a posteriori classifications based on clustering the test datasets defined lower and upper bounds of performance for a given number of classes. Differences in classification performances were generally small. The ANOSIM statistics for the a posteriori classifications were around twice that of all environmental classifications, including geometrically defined regions. The hydro-ecoregions performed slightly better for the invertebrate data and the network classification performed slightly better for the chemistry and hydrological data. Our results indicate that environmental classifications that are defined using different procedures can be comparable in terms of their ability to discriminate variation of ecological characteristics and that alleged differences in performance arising from different classification procedures can be small relative to unexplained variation. We conclude that definition procedures might have little effect on the performance of large-scale environmental classifications and decisions over which procedures to use should be based primarily on pragmatic considerations.     

Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatially extensive metropolitan areas. In addition to reviewing key findings relevant to each state factor, we note the emergence of tentative "urban syndromes" concerning soils, streams, wildlife and plants, and homogenization of certain ecosystem functions, such as soil organic carbon dynamics. We note the utility of the ecosystem approach, the human ecosystem framework, and watersheds as integrative tools to tie information about multiple state factors together. The organismal component of urban complexes includes the social organization of the human population, and we review key modes by which human populations within urban areas are differentiated, and how such differentiation affects environmentally relevant actions. Emerging syntheses in land change science and ecological urban design are also summarized. The multifaceted frameworks and the growing urban knowledge base do however identify some pressing research needs.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

Predicting deer-vehicle collisions in an urban area

Collisions with deer and other large animals are increasing, and the resulting economic costs and risks to public safety have made mitigation measures a priority for both city and wildlife managers. We created landscape models to describe and predict deer-vehicle collision (DVCs) within the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Models based on roadside characteristics revealed that DVCs occurred frequently where roadside vegetation was both denser and more diverse, and that DVCs were more likely to occur when the groomed width of roadside right-of-ways was smaller. No DVCs occurred where the width of the vegetation-free or manicured roadside buffer was greater than 40 m. Landscape-based models showed that DVCs were more likely in more heterogeneous landscapes where road densities were lower and speed limits were higher, and where non-forested vegetation such as farmland was in closer proximity to larger tracts of forest. These models can help wildlife and transportation managers to identify locations of high collision frequency for mitigation. Modifying certain landscape and roadside habitats can be an effective way to reduce deer-vehicle collisions.     

MANGANESE CYCLE IN IMPOUNDMENT WATER

Manganese entering impounded water will undergo a cyclic transformation. Oxidation precipitates manganese from top waters. At the bottom of the lake, biological activity will render manganese soluble by both intracellular as well as extracellular activity. The study was made to demonstrate that biological reduction and transformation, organometallic complexation, together with the presence of carbon dioxide and the lowering of pH all have some effect on the solubility of manganese. Dissolved manganese may be brought back to top waters during the lake overturn and therefore deteriorates the water quality.     

Effect of Light on Biodegradation of Estrone, 17β‐Estradiol,and 17α‐Ethinylestradiol in Stream Sediment

Biodegradation of [A‐ring ¹⁴C] Estrone (E1), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) to ¹⁴CO₂ was investigated under light and dark conditions in microcosms containing epilithon or sediment collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado. Mineralization of the estrogen A‐ring was observed in all sediment treatments, but not epilithon treatments. No difference in net mineralization between light and dark treatments was observed for ¹⁴C‐E2. Net mineralization of ¹⁴C‐E1 and ¹⁴C‐EE2 was enhanced in light treatments. Extents of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were significantly greater for E2 than E1 under dark conditions, but were comparable under light conditions. These results indicate substantial differences in the uptake and metabolism of E1 and E2 in the environment and suggest biorecalcitrance of E1 relative to E2 in light‐limited environments. The extent of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rate of mineralization for EE2 in dark treatments were less than half of that observed for E2 and generally lower than for E1, consistent with previous reports of EE2 biorecalcitrance. However, ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were comparable for EE2, E2, and E1 under light conditions. These results indicate photoactivation and/or phototransformation/photodegradation processes can substantially enhance heterotrophic biodegradation of estrogens in sunlit environments and may play an important role in estrogen transport and attenuation.