Assessing the perceived utility of wood resources in a protected area of Western Tanzania

To identify factors associated with interest in gaining access to protected wood resources in western Tanzania, I collected demographic, socio-economic and wood-use data for 240 households in three villages bordering Katavi National Park. Interest in accessing the protected wood resources was not associated with fuelwood needs, and did not fall along ethnic or demographic lines. Instead, logistic regression analysis identified material and land wealth as variables that increase households' interest in accessing wood resources in the Park, whereas intent to move in the near future and the interaction of material and land wealth were negative influences. These results suggest that resource-use interests are largely dependent upon expected individual gains, which vary according to household needs and ability to process resources for potential local sale or trade. This study considers the importance of distinguishing between people's conservation attitudes and their interest(s) in using specific resources, emphasizing the need to recognize intra-community variation in use interests.     

Landsliding related to land-cover change: A diachronic analysis of hillslope instability distribution in the Sierra Norte,Puebla, Mexico

This study examines mass movement associated with land use change, particularly deforestation, from multiple perspectives. The significance of such understanding is related to the degree of impact landsliding may cause on human settlements and economic activities, and on forest ecosystems. In this paper, the distribution of hillslope instability in the Sierra Norte, Puebla, Mexico is addressed by means of a diachronic analysis, which involves the development of vegetation indexes, as well as vegetation fragmentation derived from Landsat-5 (TM) and Landsat-7 (ETM+) satellite images from 1989 and 1999, respectively. The time period was chosen to compare vegetation cover conditions prior and after the extreme October 1999 rainfall event that triggered hundreds of slope failures in the study area. Results suggested there was a significant vegetation reduction from 1989 to 1999, which was strongly expressed by an increase of 809 km² of bare surfaces. Additionally, areas with highest vegetation density (91–100%) decreased considerably, from 1245 to 363 km², resulting in a net vegetation reduction of 70%. Furthermore, it was possible to highlight that landslide concentration was much higher on surfaces that were bare and had low vegetation density (0–50%), representing 85% of hillslope instability, than on surfaces having a greater density of vegetation cover. Land use change and land degradation are precursors to environmental hazards, such as mass movement events, that pose serious threats to regional population distributions and economic vitality.     

Impacts of the ancient Maya on soils and soil erosion in the central Maya Lowlands

Many studies across the central and southern Maya Lowlands of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico have produced records of land degradation, mostly sedimentation and soil erosion, during the ancient Maya period from before 1000 BC to the Maya Collapse of c. AD 900. This paper provides new data from two sites (Blue Creek and Cancuén), synthesizes more than a decade of the authors' research in Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, and synthesizes other findings from this region. These research projects analyzed more than 100 excavations in upland and depression sites, cored lakes and wetland sediments, and studied sediments in the field and laboratory using radiocarbon dating, a battery of soil chemistry tests, stratigraphic analysis, magnetic susceptibility, elemental analyses, and artifact identification. Our objective was to date when sedimentation and soil erosion occurred, identify stable surfaces, and correlate them with the state of knowledge about past land use. These findings indicate three general epochs of accelerated soil erosion and identified two major paleosols. The three waves of soil erosion occurred in the Preclassic period (c. 1000 BC to AD 250), the Late Classic (AD 550 to 900), and in the last several decades. The major paleosol (‘Eklu'um’) in these sites is a well-developed Mollisol or Vertisol that started forming in the early Holocene and was buried in either the Preclassic or Classic periods (AD 250 to 900). At some sites the Eklu'um paleosol lies beneath sediments with a fainter paleosol, which in turn lies buried below Classic period and later sediments. This picture shows higher than expected soil erosion linked to the region's first pioneer farmers in the Preclassic and less than expected soil erosion in the Late Classic when population peaked and land use was the most intensive. In other regions like Cancuén, Guatemala, however, most soil erosion occurred during the Maya Late Classic (AD 550–830). Erosion here was intense but short-lived: depressions record 1–3 m of aggradation in two centuries. A third epoch of accelerated soil loss and aggradation arose with the rapid land use changes brought by new pioneers during the last several decades.     

水土流失定量监测中GPS实测更新GIS数据的实用方法研究

介绍了GPS实测更新GIS陈旧处数据的实用方法研究及其在水土流失定量监测中的应用。该方法由GPS软硬件接收设备组装的实测仪器、实施实测的要点、实测数据的投影系统转换与对GIS陈旧处数据的更新处理等部分组成。它在实测更新土地利用图的应用效果,与测绘界所采用的RTK技术方法比,更为经济、快速和实用,而其所定位置和更新的GIS数据结果在消除系统误差后则更为可信。它在实验研究区应用表明:利用原土地利用图和实测更新后的土地利用图所获得的水土流失定量监测的两个结果,后者的监测精度明显高于前者7个百分点;为提高监测水土流失和水质面源污染量的精度,必须重视实测、更新变化了的山丘土地利用界线。     

Turloughs - Ireland’s unique wetland habitat

Turloughs are karst wetland ecosystems that are virtually unique to Ireland. Flooding annually in autumn through springs and fissures in the underlying limestone and draining in the springtime, often through the same fissures or swallow-holes, they have been described as ‘temporal ecotones’. Over 300 have been documented. They are priority habitats in the EU Habitats Directive and support a variety of wet grassland and fen type vegetation. Though the vegetation has been recorded and mapped for over 80 turloughs, records for invertebrates are more sporadic. Characteristic species include some aquatic species-often benefiting from the absence of fish-, and many wetland terrestrial species, including carabid beetles that are rare on a European scale. Due to their shallow nature and the full vegetation cover of the basin, turloughs can host internationally significant numbers of visiting winter wildfowl, particularly whooper swans. The variety of plant and invertebrate communities between turloughs is primarily due to different hydrogeomorphological characteristics, but also depends on the range of grazing practices on turloughs. Since these often vary within a turlough basin, this helps maintain within-turlough biodiversity. The main threat to turloughs in the past was drainage, but pollution by nutrients is also now potentially detrimental. However, a more recent and important threat may be the cessation of farming within turloughs. As potentially threatened wetlands of European importance, turloughs require a full inventory of their biodiversity and the factors affecting it. The collation here of all literature concerning turloughs will provide a basis for an integrated approach to future research on turloughs that is essential for a full understanding of these complex ecosystems.     

中国的退耕还林政策和林权制度改革——以陕西省黄土高原为中心

本文从林业和环境的可持续性的视点出发,对关系到森林的退耕还林政策的成果和问题以及最近开始的林权制度改革的内容和课题进行了实地考察和探讨,针对今后中国的森林和环境保护的方向进行了论述。     

Recovery of saturated hydraulic conductivity under secondary succession on former pasture in the humid tropics

Landscapes in the humid tropics are undergoing a continuous change in land use. Deforestation is still taking its toll on forested areas, but at the same time more and more secondary forests emerge where formerly agricultural lands and pastures are being abandoned. Regarding soil hydrology, the extent to which secondary succession can recover soil hydrological properties disturbed by antecedent deforestation and pasture use is yet poorly understood. We investigated the effect of secondary succession on saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) at two soil depths (0-6 and 6-12 cm) using a space-for-time approach in a landscape mosaic in central Panama. The following four land-use classes were studied: pasture (P), secondary forest of 5-8 years of age (SF5), secondary forest of 12-15 years of age (SF12) and secondary forest of more than 100 years of age (SF100), each replicated altogether four times in different micro-catchments across the study region. The hydrological implications of differences in Ks in response to land-use change with land use, especially regarding overland flow generation, were assessed via comparisons with rainfall intensities.Recovery of Ks could be detected in the 0-6 cm depth after 12 years of secondary succession: P and SF5 held similar Ks values, but differed significantly (α = 0.05) from SF12 and SF100 which in turn were indistinguishable. Variability within the land cover classes was large but, due to sufficient replication in the study, Ks recovery could be detected nonetheless. Ks in the 6-12 cm depth did not show any differences between the land cover classes; only Ks of the uppermost soil layer was affected by land-use changes. Overland flow - as inferred from comparisons of Ks with rainfall intensities - is more likely on P and SF5 sites compared to SF12 and SF100 for the upper sample depth; however, generally low values at the 6-12 cm depth are likely to impede vertical percolation during high rainfall intensities regardless of land use.We conclude that Ks can recover from pasture use under secondary succession up to pre-pasture levels, but the process may take more than 8 years. In order to gain comprehensive understanding of Ks change with land use and its hydrological implications, more studies with detailed land-use histories and combined measurements of Ks, overland flow, precipitation and throughfall are essential.     

在ERDASIMAGINE中建立邯郸市TM影像土地类型解译标志

为了准确地了解邯郸市的土地利用类型,掌握土地资源的发展动态,在ERDASIMAGINE软件支持下,将Landsat 5号卫星所得的TM4、3、2波段数据组合输出成为标准假彩色影像,对其进行几何校正、重采样、图像裁剪与镶嵌等操作,依据遥感图像特征、地物相关关系、区域特点和全国土地利用分类系统,对处理后所得的邯郸市TM影像建立土地类型解译标志。经过实地验证,其结果判正率比较高,可以满足解译精度的要求,这说明利用遥感技术建立土地利用类型解译标志是可行的。     

科尔沁沙地杨柴生物沙障平茬复壮技术研究

针对科尔沁沙地杨柴生物沙障的生存现状和生长动态规律,分析了经过不同预留盖度和留茬高度的平茬处理后杨柴生物沙障和林间草本植被的恢复情况及其防风固沙效益,结果表明：平茬对杨柴及其林间草本的生长均有极大的促进作用;在平茬后的第1年内,预留盖度10%和留茬高度0 cm（齐地刈割）对杨柴生长最为有利;综合风速和风蚀量的测定分析发...     

龙脑樟研究利用及其发展前景

龙脑樟是叶精油中富含右旋龙脑的天然冰片新资源.介绍龙脑樟的发现、龙脑樟良种繁育、原料林培育、天然冰片加工及利用情况.