Making agricultural landscapes more sustainable for freshwater biodiversity: a case study from southern England

• 1. Agriculture is known to have a range of deleterious impacts on freshwater habitats and biota and many countries have introduced measures to attempt to mitigate these impacts through agri‐environment initiatives. Despite the protection they provide, water bodies (any discrete body of surface fresh water) in farmland landscapes commonly remain impaired by agriculture. In some areas of the UK there have been calls to halt farming completely, indicating that the measures offered for the widespread protection of aquatic systems, particularly the use of buffer strips, may not be extensive enough to provide sufficient protection for freshwater biota.
• 2. This study investigated whether existing agri‐environment measures for the widespread protection of aquatic habitats could be better deployed to provide a higher level of protection for the aquatic macrophytes and macroinvertebrates of a study area in southern England.
• 3. Reserve selection procedures were used to reallocate the area of land that could be remunerated under the Environmental Stewardship scheme as buffer strips bordering water bodies, so that a higher level of protection was provided for both the richness and rarity of aquatic species in the study area.
• 4. Almost 395 ha were available for reallocation in the reserve selection process, which was found to provide a satisfactory level of protection for up to 90% of the surveyed species.
• 5. The results showed that the agri‐environment scheme in England has a great deal of potential to provide more effective protection for the aquatic biodiversity of agricultural landscapes if measures are targeted.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

酸沉降影响下湖南两个典型小流域土壤酸化研究

在湖南选定2个小流域,对小流域降雨和土壤进行了监测分析,研究了酸沉降影响下小流域土壤酸化状况．结果表明,2个小流域降雨pH的体积加权平均值分别是4．54和4．90;估计每年硫沉降分别是6．6和5．8g/m^2,表明在2个小流域降雨为酸性且硫沉降较高．2个小流域土壤pH在3.94-5．19,盐基饱和度在5．9％-56．4％,两小流域土壤有较高酸性．结合考虑在这2小流域高的硫沉降和土壤酸化现状,虽然在目前两小流域尚未观察到植被受土壤酸化危害的迹象,但存在潜在的生态危害．     

Conservation and management in Jervis Bay,Australia

The growth of the human population and the impact of this upon the natural environment is there for all to see. Little wonder that public concern for the environment has increased in recent decades. Such preoccupations have resulted in a corresponding increase in the declaration of new areas as national parks, reserves and other protected areas. In Australia the declaration of such areas meets an important need to preserve both the natural heritage and the human and cultural heritage. This paper describes the processes and policy implications of the declaration of national parks, marine parks, and recreational areas in Australia. Jervis Bay on the New South Wales (NSW) coast is used as a case study to document these processes and to evaluate the policy implications. After an initial discussion on conservation and management a vision statement for the bay is analysed in terms of its various dimensions. In the implementation of the vision, various approaches are canvassed. An integrated, total catchment management system is proposed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

OPTIMAL FARM MANAGEMENT RESPONSES TO EMERGING SOIL SALINISATION IN A DRYLAND CATCHMENT IN EASTERN AUSTRALIA

Secondary salinisation of soil and water resources is an acute management issue over large parts of Australia. This paper focusses on the situation in the Liverpool Plains, where secondary soil salinity is on the increase due to rising saline groundwater tables. The Liverpool Plains are famous for the vast alluvial floodplains where self-mulching black clays provide the production basis for an extensive dryland cropping industry. The farmers there are asking how best to manage their resources under the present hydrological conditions, and are concerned whether their businesses will remain viable in the future. A multi-period programming model is applied to a model farm situation. The objective function reflects the economic paradigm of farming. The model includes a simulation sub-routine which links land use, rainfall and lateral groundwater flow into a point water balance and estimates the salt-affected area. A feedback relationship applies between soil salinity and land productivity. The results of the model suggest that the prevailing cropping practices that rely on long fallowing for soil moisture retention are sub-optimal. Increased cropping frequency increases farm income and reduces on-farm recharge to groundwater. Diversification into lucerne is favourable for the same reasons. Unless trees have commercial value, tree planting is not a favoured option except on salt-affected land. The farm achieves complete on-farm recharge control. However, assuming that the groundwater table rises at a rate of 10 cm per year independent of on-farm recharge, salinisation continues despite these land management changes. The subsequent land productivity losses render the model farm financially unviable in the medium term. Sustaining the productivity of the Liverpool Plains is an issue of reducing recharge to the groundwater system by changing land-use practices throughout the entire catchment. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimating the effects of set-aside on water quality: scaling-up of lysimeter studies

Since 1990, agriculture in the five new federal states of Germany has experienced a fundamental structural change. As much as 10 per cent of the 6·2 million ha of previously intensively farmed agricultural land were set-aside abruptly. In the spring of 1991, a lysimeter trial (filled with soils common in the catchment area of the Elbe River), was set up to investigate the impact of set-aside on the water and solute balance. The studies proved that restricting agricultural use in areas previously farmed intensively by converting them into permanent or rotation fallow will result in measurable changes in deep percolation (ground-water recharge) and water quality in less than one year. The results of the lysimeter studies were extrapolated to calculate the effects of set-aside in a catchment area (about 2 500 ha) with similar meteorological and soil conditions. The calculations showed that increasing the area under rotation fallow from 8 to 15 per cent increases the nitrogen load of the stream draining the catchment by about 5 per cent. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

云南省小江流域砂化土地整理研究

云南省小江流域地处小江断裂带,有百余条泥石流沟、造成大量泥沙下泄,使得河床宽敞、土地砂化、边滩发育。多年来东川人一直进行泥石流防治及河滩地开发工作,并取得明显效益。通过全面深入的调查、量测和分析研究,查明了小江滩地利用现状。提出不同类型和气候条件下滩地的种植方向和开发模式,对600多hm²河滩地制定了科学、合理、系统、高效的开发和保护规划。为同类型山区多泥沙河流滩地开发和保护提供借鉴。     

The CLIMEX soil-heating experiment: soil response after 2 years of treatment

 Most model predictions concerning the response of boreal forest ecosystems to climate change are inferred from small-scale experiments on artificial, simplified systems. Whole-ecosystem experiments designed to validate these models are scarce. We experimentally manipulated a small forested catchment in southern Norway by increasing soil temperature (+3  °C in summer to +5  °C in winter) using heating cables installed at 1 cm depth in the litter layer. Especially nitrification in the 0 to 10-cm soil layer increased as a result of the climate manipulation. Betula litter, produced after exposing trees for 2 years to ambient and elevated CO₂ in greenhouses, was incubated for 1 year in the manipulated catchment. Exposure to elevated CO₂ did not affect the C/N ratio or decomposition of the Betula litter, but lignin content decreased by 10%. We found no effect of elevated temperature on litter decomposition, probably due to desiccation of the litter. The heating cables caused a permanent increase in soil temperature in this soil layer, but when soils were dry, the temperature difference between control and heated plots decreased with increasing distance from the cables. When soils were wet, no gradients in temperature increase occurred. Received: 25 November 1997     

ATHYS模型及其在巢湖流域丰乐河水文过程模拟中的应用

以巢湖典型支流丰乐河流域为例,利用分布式水文模型ATHYS对流域降雨—径流过程进行模拟,以期为丰乐河流域水土保持、防洪、水资源利用和非点源污染防治等提供科学依据。ATHYS模型将流域分为大小相同的空间小单元,以库模型进行产流计算,以滞后演算法（lag and route）方法进行汇流计算,并以Nash and Sutcliffe指数作为检验模拟结果的标准,模拟流域出口断面日径流量,初步分析流域径流实测值与模拟值的年际变化。模型模拟结果表明,在率定期和验证期模拟与实测径流量的总Nash and Sutcliffe值（Nash值）都可以达到0.80以上,相关系数均可达0.89以上。除了部分峰值和基流,模型能较好地模拟丰乐河的径流过程。模型模拟径流总量的相对误差在率定期为23.1%,验证期为34.6%。流域降雨量、径流量的年内、年际变化均比较明显,径流实测值和模拟值的年际变化也都比较大。综合来看,模型比较适用于所研究流域的日径流模拟。     

地下水源保护区划分原理及其在龙口市城市供水水源地中的应用

介绍了地下水源保护区划分方法以及解析单元法基本原理,以地下水流运移至水源井的时间长短为标准,利用解析单元法对龙口市的2个地下水源地进行了保护区划分,并针对不同级别保护区提出了地下水保护的具体措施。对龙口市今后制订地下水资源管理、土地利用、环境保护及城市规划等政策措施具有重要的指导作用。对其它地区地下水源保护区的划分具有一定借鉴作用。     

扎龙湿地对乌裕尔河流域水文特征的响应

流域的地表径流是河滨湿地的主要补给水源,对于其生态系统的演变起决定性的作用。本文对乌裕尔河流域的水文特征及其变化趋势进行了详细的分析,并阐述了这种水文特征对扎龙湿地景观、水质、生物及生态功能方面的影响,在此基础上,提出了维持湿地健康的管理对策。