Eight urgent,fundamental and simultaneous steps needed to restore ocean health,and the consequences for humanity and the planet of inaction or delay

1. The ocean crisis is urgent and central to human wellbeing and life on Earth; past and current activities are damaging the planet's main life support system for future generations. We are witnessing an increase in ocean heat, disturbance, acidification, bio‐invasions and nutrients, and reducing oxygen levels. Several of these act like ratchets: once detrimental or negative changes have occurred, they may lock in place and may not be reversible, especially at gross ecological and ocean process scales.
2. Each change may represent a loss to humanity of resources, ecosystem function, oxygen production and species. The longer we pursue unsuitable actions, the more we close the path to recovery and better ocean health and greater benefits for humanity in the future.
3. We stand at a critical juncture and have identified eight priority issues that need to be addressed in unison to help avert a potential ecological disaster in the global ocean. They form a purposely ambitious agenda for global governance and are aimed at informing decision‐makers at a high level. They should also be of interest to the general public.
4. Of all the themes, the highest priority is to rigorously address global warming and limit surface temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100, as warming is the pre‐eminent factor driving change in the ocean. The other themes are establishing a robust and comprehensive High Seas Treaty, enforcing existing standards for Marine Protected Areas and expanding their coverage, especially in terms of high levels of protection, adopting a precautionary pause on deep‐sea mining, ending overfishing and destructive fishing practices, radically reducing marine pollution, putting in place a financing mechanism for ocean management and protection, and lastly, scaling up science/data gathering and facilitating data sharing.
5. By implementing all eight measures in unison, as a coordinated strategy, we can build resilience to climate change, help sustain fisheries productivity, particularly for low‐income countries dependent on fisheries, protect coasts (e.g. via soft‐engineering/habitat‐based approaches), promote mitigation (e.g. carbon storage) and enable improved adaptation to rapid global change.

     

Effects of mountaintop mining on fish distributions in central Appalachia

Mountaintop mining with valley fills (MTM/VF) is the main source of landscape change in central Appalachia. While our knowledge of the local‐scale effects of MTM/VF on stream chemistry and biotic assemblages has recently improved, the effects at the landscape scale are less well known. In this study, we explore the effects of MTM/VF on the distributions of six fish species with contrasting ecologies in the upper Kentucky River basin, an area heavily affected by MTM/VF. Using a museum‐based data set of 239 occurrence records, land use/land cover data and boosted regression tree modelling, we were able to create robust predictive models for the focal species (AUCs = 0.82–0.93). Models explained from 41.2 to 71.9% of the variation in species distributions. We detected a marked negative influence of MTM/VF in four of the six species distribution models – with relative influences ranging from 5.9–12.7%. Species typically inhabiting faster‐flowing riffle and run mesohabitats appeared to respond more strongly to MTM/VF. Interestingly, the mean patch size of MTM/VF was more influential than the overall proportion of the watershed affected by MTM/VF in our models. Thus, our data suggest the spatial pattern of mining disturbance is very important in determining the cumulative impact of MTM/VF. Considering the central Appalachian region is a continental hot spot for freshwater biodiversity, establishing a firm understanding of the effects of MTM/VF at the landscape scale is essential if we wish to protect these natural resources.     

Assessing the success of experimental rehabilitation on a coastal mineral sands mine in Namaqualand,South Africa§

The success of different rehabilitation treatments following surface mining on the arid west coast of South Africa was assessed. Treatments consisting of one or a combination of topsoil addition, plant translocation and seeding were applied to experimental rehabilitation sites in 2001, while the treatment of another site in 2008 combined all three techniques. Vegetation and species cover, species richness, diversity and evenness, and grazing capacity of rehabilitation sites were sampled during winter 2009 and summer 2010, and compared with a reference site. All rehabilitated sites achieved the objective to attain a minimum grazing capacity of 20 ha per small stock unit. Rehabilitation trials were successful in establishing a vegetation cover, but were unable to return species richness and diversity to reference levels and did not resemble the reference site in species composition. Common species in reference sites were absent or only occurred in low numbers. No treatment outperformed the others and further experimentation is needed to determine the most suitable combination. It is recommended that rehabilitation should be done in multiple stages in future to improve seedling survival and to return species that are unable to establish in the adverse conditions present at the onset of rehabilitation.     

数据挖掘的技术特点及发展现状

首先给出数据挖掘所涉及的技术领域及其研究特点，介绍了数据仓库与一般事务数据库的区别，基于对典型数据挖掘算法的基本原理、实现技术及应用领域的分析，论证了数据挖掘是当前信息技术的一个核心研究内容。文章的最后给出了未来数据挖掘的研究方向及发展趋势。     

集装箱多式联运的多维数据分析与数据挖掘

在对集装箱多式联运各环节进行深入分析基础上，基于雪花型架构构建了多式联运多维数据库，在此基础上对其进行多维数据分析，进而对多维数据库中的数据进行了数据挖掘．前端展示证明了该技术运用于集装箱多式联运信息处理的可行性和有效性，可为集装箱多式联运提供决策支持．     

矿业农庄：改善矿区民生的有益探索

“十二五”规划将坚持保障和改善民生作为转变经济发展方式的根本出发点和落脚点。河南省超越集团以改善矿区民生为目标，创立了“矿业农庄”模式。“矿业农庄”包括矿业、农业、农庄三个部分，通过合资、合作、培训等方式，实现了矿区新型城镇化、新型工业化和新型农业现代化的协调发展。“矿业农庄”重点发展矿业循环经济产业、农业循环经济产业和新农村建设三大产业，增加了农民就业、改善了农民生活、提高了农民素质，带动了矿区及周边农村地区的发展。     

Identification of a diverse mini‐core panel of Indian rice germplasm based on genotyping using microsatellite markers

Identification of a small core germplasm set representing the available genetic diversity is essential for its proper evaluation and subsequent utilization in rice improvement programmes. For constituting a small diverse mini‐core panel of Indian rice germplasm, a representative set of 6912 accessions drawn based on their geographic origin from the whole rice germplasm collection available in the National Gene Bank was genotyped using 36 microsatellite markers. Automated fragment analysis of amplicons yielded a total of 435 alleles, with an average 12.4 and range of 3–29 alleles per locus. Polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.08 (RGNMS190) to 0.86 (RM552) with an average of 0.528. Based on genotyping data, a mini‐core consisting of 98 genotypes was identified. Ninety‐four per cent of the alleles present in the core set were present in the mini‐core. The identified small but diverse panel will be useful for further intensive trait‐specific evaluation and utilization in allele mining.     

矿区复垦对土壤养分和酶活性以及微生物数量的影响

[目的]研究矿区复垦对土壤养分和酶活性以及微生物的影响,并揭示其时空演变规律。[方法]以安徽省庐江钒矿区碳质页岩风化物区域的复垦土壤为对象,采用野外调查和室内分析的方法,对矿区复垦下的土壤养分、酶活性及微生物数量展开调查。[结果]随着复垦年限的增加,土壤电导率、含水量和全盐含量均明显增加,土壤容重、pH值和总孔隙度则明显降低;随着复垦年限的增加,土壤全钾和有效钾含量均降低,有机质、全氮、碱解氮、微生物量碳和微生物量氮增加,而全磷和有效磷并没有明显的变化趋势,其中土壤微生物量的变化幅度最大,对复垦的响应最为敏感;随着复垦年限的增加,矿区土壤蔗糖酶、脱氢酶、脲酶、碱性磷酸酶活性和微生物数量均有所增加,但其增加幅度逐渐减小,细菌数量处于绝对优势地位,占到微生物总数的99.3%以上;随着土层深度的增加,土壤酶活性、微生物数量和土壤养分均呈降低趋势,表现出明显的"表聚性",同层相比,基本呈现出:60a40a20a5a规律,局部有所波动。[结论]矿区复垦能够改善土壤质量和土壤肥力;矿区复垦过程中通过影响土壤微生物活动和代谢进而影响土壤养分及酶活性,同时土壤微生物与养分和酶活性等地下生态指标之间在复垦过程中具有统一性。     

风沙区煤炭开采对土壤物理性质和结皮的影响

[目的]为了准确了解煤炭开采对脆弱生态环境造成的影响。[方法]通过样地调查和室内分析,对毛乌素风沙区超大工作面煤炭开采当年和3a后的土壤物理性质和结皮情况进行分析。[结果]开切点土壤物理性质受到采矿的影响强于开采面,开采面土壤的修复能力优于开切点,且采煤对土壤物理性质的影响3a后仍未消除;各采样点的土壤温度不仅与对照存在差异性(p0.05),而且各土壤温度在空间和时间跨度上也存在差异性(p0.05);20cm处的土壤容重、孔隙度和含水率与土壤温度均存在负相关,含水率与土壤温度存在显著负相关(p0.05);结皮的厚度和覆盖度受到采煤的影响,结皮含水率和结皮持水能力在3a内均未恢复到采煤前。[结论]风沙区超大工作面采煤对土壤物理性质和结皮会造成破坏,且在无人为干扰的情况下土壤将进行自我修复,但3a的修复效果与对照组仍存在一定差异。     

Diversity of the ectomycorrhiza community at a uranium mining heap

Ectomycorrhiza (EM) community structure was analyzed at one bare heap site (BHS), one heap site with organic cover (HS-OH) and one reference site (RS) in the former uranium mining area near Ronneburg (Thuringia, Germany). Twenty-three EM morphotypes were distinguished, and 14 of them were additionally characterized by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence analysis. Colonization of birch by the different morphotypes was quantified, and the EM diversity at the different sites was investigated. Compared to RS, total EM colonization was reduced by 6% (P=0.851) at HS-OH and by 58% (P<0.001) at BHS. Likewise, EM diversity was reduced by 16% (P=0.229) at HS-OH and 52% (P<0.001) at BHS. The Sørensen similarity between EM samples from RS was nearly independent from the sampling date, whereas at HS-OH and especially BHS, the Sørensen similarity decreased with increasing time between the samplings. All EM fungal species dominating at the two heap sites were also present at RS. Thus, fungi with high tolerance against uranium and other stress factors at the heap sites (e.g. heavy metals, nutrient limitation, drought) were selected among all EM fungi of the area. Highly adapted fungi with a distribution restricted to the contaminated soils were not detected.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at .