Measuring trail users’ perception of crowding in a peri-urban nature park: A best-worst scaling experiment

This paper evaluates the perception of crowding, its determinants and relationship with trail users’ experience in a peri-urban nature park. Existing crowding surveys rely heavily on a single-item 9-point crowding scale which was originally developed for backcountry areas. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to test the validity and reliability of this measure in detecting crowding issues and formulating visitor capacity limits. Low validity and reliability raised concerns about the applicability of this scale in similar frontcountry areas. Inability of this simple crowding measure to detect a visitor threshold brings to the fore its another important limitation – ignorance of the complexity of crowding phenomenon. The perception of crowding varies with various social, psychological and situational factors, and a best-worst scaling (BWS) experiment was designed to simultaneously evaluate different aspects of crowding in the Medvednica Nature Park, a peri-urban nature park near Zagreb, Croatia. The findings of BWS experiment revealed that occupancy of mountain huts, number of other hikers on the trail and amount of litter along the trail on average contributed most to the trail users’ sense of crowding. A latent class analysis identified a large heterogeneity in the perception of crowding; while one group of trail users (63%) was more disturbed by the direct social impacts, the others (37%) were more disturbed by the secondary impacts of other visitors, especially by the negative externalities from road traffic in the park. Older visitors had a greater tendency to primarily associate crowding with the environmental conditions. A higher impact of trail use level in the perception of crowding, younger age and more frequent use were associated with a more negative evaluation of crowding. The park management should closely monitor road traffic in the park and visitor activity on highly used trails, especially on those popular among younger trail users.     

莱芜水资源信息管理系统应用分析与展望

针对莱芜水资源无客水、水资源空间分布不均匀、水资源年际年内变化大以及水资源监测技术、监测方法和设备落后的现状,莱芜适时启用水资源信息管理系统,实现对水量、水位等诸多信息实时监控,为莱芜水资源的综合开发利用、优化调度提供了重要的决策依据。     

Modeling height-diameter relationship for artificial monoculture Metasequoia glyptostroboides in sub-tropic coastal megacity Shanghai,China

Tree height is a key variable in forest monitoring studies and for forest management. However, tree height measurement is time consuming, and the recommended procedure is to use estimates from tree height (H) - diameter at breast height (DBH) models. Increasingly, H-DBH models are being developed for urban forests, providing tools to forest management and ecosystem services estimation. Here, we compared model forms and approaches for predicting H as a function of DBH and additional stand level covariates variables. Four model forms were evaluated: (i) basic models (which only used DBH as predictor variable); (ii) generalized models (which used DBH and other predictor variables based on the best basic model); (iii) a mixed-effects model based on the best basic model; and (iv) a mixed-effects model based on the generalized model. Several sampling designs aimed at minimizing height measurement were tested in terms of accuracy and applicability. Taking predicted accuracy and investigation cost into account, we recommend generalized non-linear mixed-effects model (NLME) when there were two or less tree height measurements taken in a given stand. The basic NLME model could be calibrated when there were 3 or more tree height measurements, depending on the required level of accuracy and investigation cost. Additionally, we first reported that soil pH as a covariate variable in H-DBH model and our generalized NLME model implied that the difference in the H-DBH relationship caused by pH varies among different stands. This finding may be attributable to differing biological properties of the similar alkaline tolerance species.     

我国社会救助管理服务体系建设研究

我国社会救助体系不断完善的过程中涉及主体更多元、方式更多样。当前社会救助面临相关部门和组织多、信息复杂、经办分散、分类精准施救难度大等问题。基于我国社会救助模式的合理价值选择，提出管理服务体系建设的重要意义。进而分析社会救助在管理服务上面临的挑战和难题，从组织协调管理、信息网络系统、基层经办机构、社会参与机制四个方面提出构建多层次管理服务体系的思路。力求提高管理服务的效率和效能，促进互助共济社会救助共同体的形成，提升公众满意度，夯实我国民生保障基础。     

基于科技文献社会网络分析的"一带一路"科技情报安全研究

为明确中国在"一带一路"沿线国家所形成的科技网络中处于怎样的位置,面临怎样的科技情报风险,需要采取哪些措施维护中国科技情报安全,应用智库DIIS理论方法,对科学引文索引中2013年-2017年"一带一路"沿线国家论文合作数据进行社会网络分析,应用管理机制设计"七元组"理论开展科技情报安全机制设计。研究结果显示,中国科技情报的暴露程度较高,科技应用的不可控因素、知识产权保护的挑战、科技情报资源流失的风险同时存在,并与各种非传统安全问题相叠加。切实掌握核心技术,维护知识产权,加强政府、社会对科技交流的监管,防止科技情报被非法利用,是保障科技情报安全的主要途径。     

Responses of Australian sea lions,Neophoca cinerea,to anthropogenic activities in the Perth metropolitan area,Western Australia

1. Tourist‐based activities, partly due to their rapid increase, have raised concerns regarding the impacts of anthropogenic activity on marine fauna. Documented effects on pinnipeds in proximity to humans include changes in behaviour, site use and potentially higher aggression levels towards people. Effects vary considerably between populations and sites, thus requiring separate assessment of human impacts on activity and energy budgets.
2. Responses of the endangered Australian sea lion, Neophoca cinerea, to human visitation were recorded from November 2013 through April 2014. Exposure levels and response types to anthropogenic activities were assessed at two easily accessible locations with different management schemes, Seal (landing prohibited) and Carnac (landing permitted) islands, Western Australia. Exposure levels were measured as both stimulus type (i.e. ‘People’, ‘Paddlers’, ‘Small’, ‘Medium’, and ‘Large vessels’, ‘Tour vessels’, and ‘Jet skies’), and people (‘Direct’, ‘Attract’, ‘Interact’, ‘View’, ‘Incidental’, ‘Water’, ‘Low‐level’), and vessel activities (‘Interact’, ‘Approach/Follow’, ‘Anchor noise’, ‘Engine noise’, ‘Close to beach’, ‘Moderate/Fast travel’, ‘Slow travel’, ‘Transit’, ‘Drift/At anchor’, ‘Aircraft noise’).
3. Exposure levels varied significantly between the islands in numbers, stimuli type, duration and minimum approach distances. The instantaneous behaviours of ‘Lift head’, ‘Interact’ and ‘Sit’ were the most frequent responses. ‘Aggressive’ and ‘Retreat’ responses, the highest disturbance levels measured, occurred on Carnac approximately once per day, but rarely on Seal Island. ‘Aggressive’ behaviour towards ‘People’ was observed only on Carnac Island and elicited only by ‘People’. ‘People’, ‘Tour vessels’, and scenic ‘Aircrafts’ on both islands as well as ‘Jet skis’ on Carnac Island had the highest probability of triggering responses. Owing to their relatively high visitation at Seal Island, ‘Paddle powered vessels’, followed by ‘Tour vessels’ elicited the highest number of responses, compared with ‘People’, ‘Small’, and ‘Medium vessels’ at Carnac Island. The majority of responses occurred when any stimulus type was at short‐range (≤10 m), and ‘People’ ‘Viewing’ N. cinerea elicited most. Vessels triggered more responses at larger ranges than ‘People’.
4. To limit close‐range access to N. cinerea, one possibility is to close the beach at Carnac Island to human visitation and increase the minimum approach distance by vessels and ‘People’ by installing marker buoys at least 15 m from the shore.

© 2016 The Authors. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recreational fisheries in Portofino Marine Protected Area,Italy: Some implications for the management

Since the 1970s, recreational fishing has become a mass hobby in Italy, reaching a large number of people, who, using modern equipment, increased their harvesting capacity, provoking serious conflicts with the professional fisheries. Recreational fishing is strictly regulated inside Italian Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and is generally allocated to local residents, mainly to reduce the tensions caused by limitations of access to the resources. The aim of this study was to provide an analysis of recreational fishing activities within the Portofino MPA (Mediterranean Sea), to assess the possible impact on the local fish stocks and to plan potential management actions. Furthermore, some serious inconsistencies on the minimum lengths of fish caught as defined by law relative to the minimum size of first reproduction are discussed. Since 2014, all anglers exploiting the Portofino MPA have been obliged to fill out a logbook. The compilation of these was not completely satisfactory, when compared with a group of reliable anglers whose catches were accurately monitored, but allowed for estimated yields of about 24 kg/angler/yr. After 15 years of protection, the fish biomass has increased within the Portofino MPA, generating a positive spillover effect. At the same time, it has attracted many anglers whose gross harvesting was estimated at about 8 t/year, representing about the 8% of the total yield of the local small‐scale fishery.     

有色黏虫板对柑橘木虱的监测及防治研究进展

柑橘黄龙病是柑橘生产中的重大病害,随着其在全球范围内的传播蔓延,该病已成为近年来柑橘生产和研究中普遍关注的热点。柑橘木虱(Diaphorina citri Kuwayama)是传播柑橘黄龙病菌(Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus)的主要虫媒,对柑橘木虱种群的准确监测与有效防控是控制柑橘木虱传播黄龙病的关键所在。有色黏虫板是一种利用昆虫趋色性,对小型飞行昆虫进行监测与诱杀的重要物理防治手段。有色黏虫板同样适用于监测和诱捕柑橘木虱,但黏虫板的颜色、光源、气候条件、悬挂黏虫板的植物种类及其挥发性信息化合物成分等都会影响黏虫板对柑橘木虱的诱集效果。本文在综合国内外柑橘木虱防控技术的基础上,将近年来利用有色黏虫板,监测与防控柑橘木虱的最新进展进行综述,并对有色黏虫板的发展前景给予展望。     

槟榔科学研究近况分析

概述世界槟榔种植区域分布、面积和产量，及2015年度国内外在槟榔生理生化、生防菌、栽培管理、加工和利用等方面取得的研究进展，并对目前槟榔研究技术瓶颈和发展趋势进行了分析。