Evaluation of 12-month interval methods for estimating animal-times at risk in a traditional African livestock farming system

Demographic parameters are useful for assessing productivity and dynamics of tropical livestock populations. Common parameters are the annual instantaneous hazard rates, which can be estimated by m/T (where m represents the number of the considered demographic events occurred during the year and T the cumulated animal-time at risk). Different approaches are encountered in the literature for computing T from on-farm survey data. One crude approach (“the 12-month interval approach”) only uses estimations of herds’ sizes at beginning and end of the year and aggregated counts of demographic events over the year. I evaluated the potential biases in using four 12-month interval methods (M1–M4) to estimate T. Biases were evaluated by comparing the 12-month estimates to gold-standard values of T. Data came from long-term herd monitoring on cattle and small ruminants in extensive agro-pastoral systems. Animal-times at risks were correctly estimated in average by methods M1, M2 and M4 (average relative biases <=6% in absolute values), except for adult-male small ruminants. For young animals, M2 and M4 showed equivalent biases. M2 is simple to implement and has the advantage of being applicable for any age-group, although M4 is only applicable for young animals. M3 was highly biased and I do not recommend it. Although accurate in average, 12-month interval methods showed highly variable biases. This variability results from interactions between the dates delimiting the 12-month interval and the distributions of the demographic events over time. This phenomenon is particularly important for the adult-male small ruminants. Based on the bias variability observed in the study, the user of 12-month interval methods has to remember that they only provide approximate results and that they cannot completely replace the gold-standard approaches.     

Conserving rare plants in locally-protected urban forest fragments: A case study from Miami-Dade County,Florida

We consider Miami-Dade County’s Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) network of preserves as a means to conserve rare plant species in urban and suburban forest fragments. In this rapidly urbanizing landscape, upland forests are at particularly high risk of development. We examined the number of rare plant species present in preserves based on the site area, ecosystem type and management practices using the EEL database maintained by the county and a database of plant species inventories collected by the Institute for Regional Conservation. About 99% of the area of the EEL system is located in southern Miami-Dade. Pine rockland forests are primarily in the outer suburbs of the county where fire can be used most effectively for management. Hardwood hammock forests are distributed throughout the county including within the urban core. All 56 EEL forested sites under study contained at least one rare plant species. Small sites often contained high numbers of rare species per unit area, but presumably at lower population sizes. The type of upland forest was not related to the mean richness of rare or state-listed plant species. Public access was not related to the mean richness of rare plants, but was negatively associated with the richness of state-listed plant species.     

相思苗木接种根瘤菌的研究

根瘤菌接种对黑木相思,灰木相思,２银昨黑荆苗木的生长,结瘤及固氮效应的研究结果表明：接种不同根瘤菌的相思苗木其苗高,总生物量和根瘤生物量分别比不接菌的对照苗木增加３５．３８％－１６０．２６％,１７．８５％＿２３８．７９％和２．４％－１０２．６１％。接菌的不同相思树种／种源苗木其苗高,总生物量和根瘤生物量分别比各自不接菌的对照苗木增加２．６４％－１０９．８２％,１．８２％－２８１．４８％和６４．７％     

Earthworm communities in native savannas and man-made pastures of the Eastern Plains of Colombia

 The structure and seasonal changes of earthworm communities were evaluated in a natural savanna and in a improved grass-legume pasture in a Colombian oxisol over a period of 18 months. One plot of 90×90 m was isolated in each of the systems and each month five samples of 1 m²×0.5 m and ten of 20×20×20 cm were randomly selected from a stratified block design. Species richness was similar in the two evaluated plots (seven species), whereas diversity measured by the index, H (Shannon and Weaver 1949) was clearly different, i.e. H=2.89 in natural savanna and H=1.29 in pasture. This is explained by differences in earthworm community structure. The average annual density in the savanna was 49.8, ranging from 10.8 to 135.8 individuals (ind) m^–2, and biomass was 3.3 g m^–2 (hand-sorting method), ranging from 0.9 to 11.5 g m^–2. In the man-made pasture, density was 80.1 ind m^–2 on average, ranging from 24 to 215.8 ind m^–2 and biomass was more than tenfold higher, ranging from 29.2 to 110.4 g m^–2. This was especially due to the presence of a large glossoscolecid anecic species, Martiodrilus carimaguensis Jiménez and Moreno, which has been greatly favoured by conversion of savanna to pasture. Endogeic species were dominant in the natural savanna whereas the anecic species accounted for 88% of total earthworm biomass in the pasture. Total earthworm density and biomass were significantly different in the two systems studied (t-test). The results indicate a clearly positive response of earthworm communities to improved pastures, a type of land use that is being increasingly adopted in moist neotropical savannas. Received: 20 October 1997     

TRMM/GPM和Stage IV降水产品在小流域水文模拟效用评估

以地面观测降水作为参照,在美国俄克拉荷马州Little Washita River流域,对比分析了TRMM 3B42 V7,GPM-IMERG卫星降水和Stage IV雷达降水的精度,并用这3种降水产品驱动CREST分布式水文模型,评估了其水文模拟效用.研究表明:3种降水产品与地面降水的相关系数均大于0.5,通过了0.05置信水平检验;GPM-IMERG和TRMM3B42 V7卫星降水对无雨和微雨存在低估,对大雨和暴雨存在高估;总体上,Stage IV降水精度最好,其次GPM降水精度优于TRMM 3B42 V7.在水文模拟效用评估中,设定相同率定期,分别使用3种降水产品率定CREST模型参数,得到率定参数集后,在相同验证期对流域日径流过程进行模拟.对比结果表明:Stage IV雷达降水在小流域水文模拟中效果最好,GPM-IMERG次之,TRMM 3B42 V7模拟效果不理想.     

Integrated Pest Management of Pest Mole Crickets with Emphasis on the Southeastern USA

There are at least 70 species of mole crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae). Some are rare, others are innocuous, and a few are important pests. These soil-dwelling pests damage underground parts of a long list of cultivated plants. Although tillage and flooding are used successfully in some situations to bring these pests to the soil surface and expose them to vertebrate and other predators, chemical pesticides are widely used against them. Knowledge of their life history is used to time application of chemical treatments to save money, but is not used as widely as it might be. Classical biological control has been used against immigrant mole crickets in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the southern USA. In Florida, three Scapteriscus species from South America cause major damage to pastures and turf and are targets of a classical biological control program. Population levels of two of the pest species have been reduced substantially in Florida by establishment of a tachinid fly (Ormia depleta) and a steinernematid nematode (Steinernema scapterisci) from South America. The nematode also functions as a biopesticide. Managers of pastures and turf in Florida have thus far derived benefit from these classical biological control agents without understanding their function: use of chemicals is reduced when mole cricket populations are lower due to action of these organisms. Future enhancement of the action of O. depleta and of a sphecid wasp (Larra bicolor, which also was introduced from South America) probably will demand deliberate planting of nectar sources for adults of these biological control agents, and the advantage will be to managers who adopt such a strategy. Chemical pesticide use is strongly promoted by a large chemical industry, whereas biopesticidal use has thus far been little promoted and sales have been few. Even managers who do not change their simple strategy of pesticide use in response to damage by mole crickets, and have no knowledge of the differing life cycles of the three Scapteriscus species or of the presence and action of the classical biological control agents, will derive benefit as these biological control agents (and a predatory beetle which has not yet been released) increase their distribution.     

Effect of plastic mulch on water flow and herbicide transport in soil cultivated with pineapple crop: A modeling study

In Hawaii, pineapple is typically grown in raised beds covered with impervious plastic mulch. Field measurements of a commonly used herbicide (bromacil) mass beneath mulch-covered pineapple beds and inter-bed open areas revealed that open areas contained a mass of bromacil about 3.5 times greater than was originally applied, based on label instructions, to the entire field. The broadcast bromacil ended up in the inter-bed open areas through water runoff from the plastic mulch covering the pineapple beds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of surficial management on water dynamics and bromacil concentration in the soil on a pineapple plantation using the one- (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) flow and transport models. Flow and transport processes were simulated in a 2D vertical cross-section perpendicular to the plant rows. The 1D simulation was limited to the open inter-bed areas. Several simulation scenarios were proposed to evaluate the effect of plastic mulch on bromacil transport in soil. In our simplified approach, the water and solute boundary fluxes for the non-covered areas were increased to simulate the water and solute contribution from the plastic mulch surface. The simulation results were compared with field observations of soil water potentials and resident bromacil concentration profiles. The field and laboratory-measured hydraulic and transport parameters were used for all simulation scenarios. Reasonably good agreement between the model-predicted and observed soil water potentials and bromacil concentration profiles was obtained. Biased 1D and 2D results were predicted when the water runoff from plastic mulch was neglected. The 1D approach to quantify bromacil transport beneath the inter-bed open areas seemed to be sufficient in case the water runoff from the mulch was taken into account.     

发展中国南海热带岛礁海洋牧场——机遇、现状与展望

广阔的南海热带海域拥有得天独厚的岛礁资源与环境优势,具有巨大的开发利用潜力。近年来,在国家"海洋强国"战略的提出与稳步践行的背景之下,加快南海岛礁渔业资源的保护与可持续利用已迫在眉睫。现代海洋牧场是集生境修复、资源养护、休闲渔业和景观生态于一体的渔业生产新业态,真正实现了海洋经济发展和海洋生态环境保护并重,但目前南海热带岛礁海洋牧场建设仍严重滞后。充分利用南海热带岛礁海域的资源与环境优势,发展热带海洋牧场可以有力振兴岛礁经济、保护与合理开发岛礁资源,同时也是维护南海海洋权益、实践"海洋强国"战略的有力举措。本文论述了南海热带岛礁海域开展海洋牧场建设的优势,包括政策优势、自然地理优势、资源优势和产业经济优势等;提出南海热带岛礁海洋牧场的适宜建设模式,主要包括资源养护与增殖型海洋牧场和休闲旅游型海洋牧场;综述了广东、广西和海南省在热带近岸和岛礁海洋牧场建设方面的进展;阐述了热带岛礁牧场建设面临的困难和风险,包括气候与自然灾害、生物敌害、基础设施落后、海域使用权审批严格等问题;基于对问题的分析,提出了相关的对策与建议,包括科学选址、优化设施设计与投放方案、研发敌害应对技术、提升自动化信息化运营管理能力、创新牧场投资与运行模式、加大政府政策支持与扶持力度等,相关建议以期为未来南海热带岛礁海洋牧场建设提供策略支持。     

Habitat analysis of the commercial tuna of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean

We have extracted information on the habitats of bigeye (Thunnus obesus), skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean by matching the spatial‐temporal distribution of catch and effort of purse seine and longline fleets collected by the Inter‐American Tropical Tuna Commission with oceanographic conditions and subjecting the matched data to Quotient Analysis and General Additive Models (GAMs). These analyses yielded the following results. The habitats defined by the GAM analysis of young fish differ significantly between two periods, one before and one after the introduction of fish aggregation devices (FADs). This was not true for the older fish caught by longline. We speculate that these changes were caused by the extensive use of FADs. Younger bigeye and yellowfin caught by the purse seine fleet have a different preference of environmental variables compared to older fish caught by longline. This is to be expected since tuna of different age groups have different sizes, metabolic capabilities and swimming skills. Moreover, as revealed by GAMs, the habitats of young fish differ between species to a much larger degree than those of older fish. Our results indicate the fundamental differences between fishing methods, targeted species, and operating region of the two fisheries. Specifically, young bigeye occupy equatorial waters farther from the coast and where the hypoxic layer is deeper, young skipjack occupy more productive waters associated with equatorial and coastal upwelling, and young yellowfin occupy broad areas where waters are underlain by a shallow hypoxic layer.