A critical sites network for freshwater biodiversity in the Lake Victoria Basin

The Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) is known for its high levels of species richness and endemism. Freshwater ecosystems within this region are highly threatened, putting both biodiversity and human livelihoods at risk. Protected areas (PAs) should provide the foundation for conservation actions to tackle threats but currently poorly represent freshwater species. To address this issue, systematic conservation planning (Marxan) was used to identify networks of sites within the LVB for the conservation of freshwater biodiversity, based on existing Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and PAs, and with minimal cost in terms of area and human impact. Networks were identified separately for threatened species and/or those endemic to the LVB, and those susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Here, these were combined to present an overall sites network for the conservation of freshwater biodiversity. Site‐level recommendations are provided as a scientific basis for the development and expansion of the existing network.     

Indigenous protected areas in Sea Country: Indigenous‐driven collaborative marine protected areas in Australia

1. In many parts of the world, policymakers, legislators, marine managers, and indigenous peoples have attempted to reconcile marine protected area (MPA) governance and management with indigenous peoples' ancient and ongoing traditional ownership of coastal and marine environments. This paper describes a novel approach in Australia to addressing this challenge through indigenous‐led planning and collaborative governance of holistic coastal land and sea indigenous protected areas (IPAs) based on the indigenous concept of “Country”—traditional land and sea estates and their associated cultural, environmental, and other values.
2. To provide context to this approach, the paper explains the concept of “Sea Country” and provides an overview of the relationship between indigenous peoples and Australia's coastal and marine environments, the legal and policy recognition of Indigenous Sea Country rights and interests, and the engagement of indigenous people in the governance and management of government‐led, legislated MPAs in Australia.
3. The paper then describes the evolution of IPAs from being specifically based on indigenous land tenure to being based more generally on Indigenous Country, across multiple tenures, including marine areas. In recent years, IPAs based on Country have enabled indigenous people to lead planning and governance of land and sea areas over which they have limited legal rights, including over existing national parks and marine parks. Using this approach, some IPAs complement existing protected area governance and management arrangements, whereas elsewhere Country‐based IPAs are adding significantly to Australia's MPA estate. The Dhimurru IPA in the Northern Territory and Girringun Region IPAs in Queensland are presented as examples of this Country‐based approach.
4. This indigenous‐driven, collaborative, nonlegislative approach to dedicating, governing and managing coastal areas and MPAs may serve as a model in other nation states for indigenous people wishing to use a protected area governance framework to support the contemporary management of their traditional marine and coastal estates.

     

Automated detection and tracking of marine mammals: A novel sonar tool for monitoring effects of marine industry

1. Many marine industries may pose acute risks to marine wildlife. For example, tidal turbines have the potential to injure or kill marine mammals through collisions with turbine blades. However, the quantification of collision risk is currently limited by a lack of suitable technologies to collect long‐term data on marine mammal behaviour around tidal turbines.
2. Sonar provides a potential means of tracking marine mammals around tidal turbines. However, its effectiveness for long‐term data collection is hindered by the large data volumes and the need for manual validation of detections. Therefore, the aim here was to develop and test automated classification algorithms for marine mammals in sonar data.
3. Data on the movements of harbour seals were collected in a tidally energetic environment using a high‐frequency multibeam sonar on a custom designed seabed‐mounted platform. The study area was monitored by observers to provide visual validation of seals and other targets detected by the sonar.
4. Sixty‐five confirmed seals and 96 other targets were detected by the sonar. Movement and shape parameters associated with each target were extracted and used to develop a series of classification algorithms. Kernel support vector machines were used to classify targets (seal vs. nonseal) and cross‐validation analyses were carried out to quantify classifier efficiency.
5. The best‐fit kernel support vector machine correctly classified all the confirmed seals but misclassified a small percentage of non‐seal targets (~8%) as seals. Shape and non‐spectral movement parameters were considered to be the most important in achieving successful classification.
6. Results indicate that sonar is an effective method for detecting and tracking seals in tidal environments, and the automated classification approach developed here provides a key tool that could be applied to collecting long‐term behavioural data around anthropogenic activities such as tidal turbines.

     

Bonga shad (Ethmalosa fimbriata) spawning tactics in an upwelling environment

Successful recruitment in small pelagic fish populations inhabiting upwelling zones is subject to variation in fecundity and is driven by spatial and temporal fluctuations in environmental conditions, that is, mainly sea surface temperature, salinity and food availability. These fluctuations in abiotic factors have stimulated small pelagic fish populations to exhibit specifically adapted spawning tactics. To better understand to what extent a short‐lived exploited fish species such as bonga shad Ethmalosa fimbriata has adapted to an upwelling environment, we have investigated the interrelationship between upwelling intensity as a proxy for productivity and population fecundity by means of a virtual population analysis. We found that females of intermediate size contributed significantly more eggs to the population's fecundity than smaller or larger ones. Our model results further indicate that E. fimbriata exhibits a spawning preference at water temperatures of around 25°C and upwelling intensities of around 2.5 m³ s^?1 m^?1. Hence, we hypothesize that climate change‐driven increases in sea temperatures and modifications of upwelling‐favourable winds could significantly impact the species’ reproductive biology. To understand how climate change might impact fisheries, spawning tactics of small pelagic fishes are important to assess as well as their recruitment success. Such information is particularly relevant in countries where the fishery is critical at socio‐economic level, to better implement fisheries management addressing multiple stressors.     

Changes in the relationship between species richness and belowground biomass among grassland types and along environmental gradients in Xinjiang,Northwest China

The association between biodiversity and belowground biomass (BGB) remains a central debate in ecology. In this study, we compared the variations in species richness (SR) and BGB as well as their interaction in the top (0-20 cm), middle (20-50 cm) and deep (50-100 cm) soil depths among 8 grassland types (lowland meadow, temperate desert, temperate desert steppe, temperate steppe desert, temperate steppe, temperate meadow steppe, mountain meadow and alpine steppe) and along environmental gradients (elevation, energy condition (annual mean temperature (AMT) and potential evapotranspiration (PET)), and mean annual precipitation (MAP)) based on a 2011-2013 survey of 379 sites in Xinjiang, Northwest China. The SR and BGB varied among the grassland types. The alpine steppe had a medium level of SR but the highest BGB in the top soil depth, whereas the lowland meadow had the lowest SR but the highest BGB in the middle and deep soil depths. The SR and BGB in the different soil depths were tightly associated with elevation, MAP and energy condition; however, the particular forms of trends in SR and BGB depended on environmental factors and soil depths. The relationship between SR and BGB was unimodal in the top soil depth, but SR was positively related with BGB in the middle soil depth. Although elevation, MAP, energy condition and SR had significant effects on BGB, the variations in BGB in the top soil depth were mostly determined by elevation, and those in the middle and deep soil depths were mainly affected by energy condition. These findings highlight the importance of environmental factors in the regulations of SR and BGB as well as their interaction in the grasslands in Xinjiang.     

不同太阳能干燥量对对虾干燥品质特性和能耗的影响

以南美白对虾为试材，研究了不同太阳能干燥量（1、2、3、4 kg）对南美白对虾干燥速率、水分活度、硬度、弹性、咀嚼性、色泽、收缩率、复水率等品质特性和干燥能耗的影响。结果表明，干燥量越大，干燥速率越慢，干燥时间越长；不同干燥量干燥初期，南美白对虾的水分活度变化不明显，不同干燥量间差异不明显，当干燥到一定程度（干燥到5 h时），不同干燥量下水分活度出现显著差异（P＜0.05）；干燥量为3 kg与4 kg 时，南美白对虾干燥产品咀嚼性分别为137.41 mJ和131.06 mJ，显著优于其他干燥量（P＜0.05）；不同干燥量条件下，南美白对虾干燥后的色泽变化趋势不明显；干燥量3 kg与4 kg，干燥后的南美白对虾收缩率分别为22%和21.2%，复水率分别为73.0%和76.5%，收缩率显著低于、复水率显著高于其他干燥量（P＜0.05）；干燥量为3 kg，干燥时间为7 h时，总干燥能耗最低，为10.25 kWh，显著低于其他处理（P＜0.05）。干燥量3~4 kg时，南美白对虾干燥产品的咀嚼性、色泽、收缩率、复水率等理化特性优于其他干燥量，干燥能耗低，适于干燥南美白对虾产品。     

卢氏绿壳蛋鸡育成期适宜能量水平的研究

试验旨在通过研究不同能量水平对卢氏绿壳蛋鸡育成期体尺、生长性能及屠宰性能的影响，得出其育成期能量的需要量。选用150 只体重相近的8 周龄卢氏绿壳蛋鸡，按能量水平（A组10.52 MJ/kg、B组10.90 MJ/kg、C组11.29 MJ/kg、D组11.70 MJ/kg、E组12.10 MJ/kg）随机分为5 组（5 个重复，每个重复6 只鸡）。试验采取单因素试验设计，预试期1 周，正试期10 周。结果表明：不同能量水平显著影响卢氏绿壳蛋鸡育成期的胫长、胸宽和胸深(P<0.05)。D和E 组的终末体重和平均日增重差异不显著(P>0.05)，但均显著高于A、B和C组(P<0.05)。能量过高时（E组），终末体重和平均日增重又有所下降。不同能量水平对卢氏绿壳蛋鸡的屠宰性能影响显著(P<0.05)。在本试验条件下，日粮能量水平为11.70 MJ/kg时，更有利于提高卢氏绿壳蛋鸡育成期的生产性能和屠宰性能。     

面向一年两熟设施葡萄的能耗评估系统研究

一年两熟设施葡萄栽培系统的能耗研究具有很强的典型性和现实意义，但传统的能耗分析具有人工计算繁琐、易出错、工作效率低等缺陷。为了解决以上问题，本研究通过分析一年两熟设施葡萄的生产流程和系统特点，建立了其能源投入产出指标，构建了DEA-BCC模型和Malmquist指数法相结合的能源效率评估模型。模型首先基于投入主导型的DEA-BCC模型测算出一年两熟设施葡萄园的技术效率、纯技术效率和规模效率这3个关键能源效率参数；然后，通过引入Malmquist函数，将生产效率变动分解为技术效率变动指数、技术进步指数和规模效率变动指数，探索能源效率增长的动力，以此对设施葡萄能源效率进行全面评估。最后基于JavaEE平台下的MVC模式的B/S结构,结合Matlab Builder JA功能开发了面向一年两熟设施葡萄的能源消耗评估系统。应用测试表明，系统各功能正常运行，显著提高了能耗研究的计算效率和准确性，为一年两熟栽培模式能耗问题研究提供了可靠的数据处理支撑。     

Allergenic pollen of ornamental plane trees in a Mediterranean environment and urban planning as a prevention tool

Green spaces and urban green infrastructure are new concepts in urban planning, and lately, the influence of green spaces in cities and how this presence affects local climate change have been taken into account. Moreover, some of the ornamental trees most used in cities provoke allergic symptoms in sensitized people. Due to the importance the plane trees in our parks and cities have as ornamental trees, this article assesses the urban Platanus airborne pollen concentration in the air of five cities of the SW Iberian Peninsula and tries to determine the differential factors that its distribution has by means of combining continuous monitoring of the air using volumetric spore traps and the geolocation of plane trees. They were counted separately according to the direction (Q1 NE, Q2 SE, Q3 SW, Q4 NW) around the spore trap location in circles of 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 m in diameter. Pollen sums were distributed according to the predominant wind direction for each day. The highest concentrations for Platanus pollen were recorded in Don Benito. Differences amongst pollen stations were found and were mainly related to their degree of maturity and their proximity to spore traps, and finally, with the number of plane trees. Furthermore, other factors, as the pruning, which is different in each city and even in a more local way, affects pollination and is frequently unknown to aerobiological studies. The geolocation of ornamental trees can be a useful tool for providing summarized information about their behavioral differences amongst cities, which can be used to create healthy itineraries, minimizing the natural hazards in human health (allergic diseases) and could be implemented into a model to help policy-makers to create measures to improve green urban development.     

基于DSP与超声波测距的农业机器人定位与避障控制

随着新兴电子集成技术和自动化技术的发展,控制系统已逐渐向数字化转变,高集成芯片广泛应用于自动化控制领域,体积小、运算能力强的嵌入式系统慢慢开始取代计算机。为此,首先分析了超声波测距功能及其优越性,采用三球定位技术,设计研究了一种基于DSP和超声波的全局定位系统;然后,采用多路超声波收发模块设计了基于超声波的自主避障控制系统,并提出一种新的模糊推理方法,实现机器人的避障和路径规划功能;最后,采用Visual C++可视化程序设计软件对避障系统进行仿真和场地试验,验证了系统的可靠性和可行性,为机器人的研究和发展提供了更加宽广的空间。