Threats to at-risk salmonids of the Canadian Rocky Mountain region

Trout and charr, members of the salmonid family, have high conservation value but are also susceptible to anthropogenic threats in part due to the specificity of their habitat requirements. Understanding historical and future threats facing these species is necessary to promote their recovery. Of freshwater trout and charr in the Canadian Rocky Mountain region, westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi), bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus; a charr species) and Athabasca rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are of conservation concern. And indeed, range contractions and declining populations are evident throughout much of their ranges. Range contraction was most evident in the southern Alberta designatable unit (DU) of westslope cutthroat trout. Diminished populations were also evident in the downstream watersheds of the Alberta bull trout range, and throughout the Athabasca rainbow trout range. We assessed historical and future threats to evaluate the relative importance of individual threats to each DU and compare their impact among species. Individual threats fall into the broad categories of angling, non-native species and genes, habitat loss and alteration, and climate change. Severity of each threat varies by DU and reflects the interaction between species’ biology and the location of the DU. Severity of threats facing each DU has changed over time, reflecting extirpation of native populations, changes in management and industry best practices, expansion of non-native species and progressing climate change. The overall threat impact for each DU indicates a high probability of substantial and continuing declines and calls for immediate action.     

Boundary-fitted grid in landscape modeling

Landscape modeling requires the delineation of system boundaries and interior features. Quite often, these components are complex and difficult to accurately represent. A rectangular grid is used to represent the study and adjacent non-study areas in most cases. When the non-study area occupies a large portion of the grid, computer memory is wasted, and computational time increases. An elliptical grid generator for non-orthogonal curvilinear coordinates is used to generate a boundary-fitted grid for a landscape model. In a boundary-fitted grid coordinate system, one coordinate axis follows the landscape domain boundary and is non-orthogonal to the second axis. The boundary-fitted grid uses elliptic partial differential equations to distribute grid points inside the landscape domain. Although the boundary-fitted grid follows the domain boundary, the grid pattern and point allocation remain structured. Thus, a landscape model can use a boundary-fitted grid without changing the model’s data structure or the computational scheme. In this study, a boundary-fitted grid and a raster-based grid were applied to the Everglades Landscape Fire Model. Use of the boundary-fitted grid decreased model simulation time by about one fifth and computer storage by 58% relative to the raster-based grid. Also, the linear characteristics of interior geographical features such as rivers and airboat trails were preserved by the boundary-fitted grid, but not by the raster-based grid. This preservation provided a more reasonable base map for simulating ecological processes, such as fire across heterogenous landscapes.     

The Application of GIS in Small Watershed Classification in Loess Plateau

ＴｈｅＡｐｐｌｉｃａｔｉｏｎｏｆＧＩｓｉｎＳｍａｌｌＷａｔｅｒｓｈｅｄＣｌａｓｓｉｆｉｃａｔｉｏｎｉｎＬｏｅｓｓＰｌａｔｅａｕＺｈｕＪｉｎｚｈａｏ，ＷｕＢｉｎ，ＢｉＨｕａｘｉｎｇ，ＺｈｏｕＣｈａｎｇｑｉｎｇＣｏｌｌｅｇｅｏｆＳｏｉｌａｎｄＷａｔｅｒＣ...     

Spatial distribution of Aspergillus flavus and its toxigenic strains on commercial cottonseed from south Texas and its relationship to aflatoxin contamination

The structure of Aspergillus flavus communities associated with south Texas cottonseed was determined by analysing samples from 178 truckloads of commercial cottonseed from 35 gins, extending from Fort Bend County in the north to the Rio Grande Valley in the south, from September 1999 to October 2001. The number of colony-forming units (CFU) of A. flavus on the cottonseed, and the percentage of S strain (%S) were both correlated with aflatoxin contamination of cottonseed. The number of CFU differed between both regions and seasons, while %S differed only between regions. Comparison of maps of CFU and %S revealed that CFU shows a higher variation across years, while %S shows higher spatial variation. The Rio Grande Valley had significantly lower CFU and %S strain than the Coastal Bend and Upper Coast regions. Cottonseed produced in 1999 had significantly more A. flavus than that produced in either 2000 or 2001. Identification of factors dictating geographical variation in S-strain incidence may provide insights that will lead to improved aflatoxin management.     

福建土壤对酸沉降的相对敏感性评价与区划

选择母岩、土壤类型、土地利用和降雨量 4个生态因子 ,应用半定量化方法对其进行类目划分和权重 ,综合评价了福建省土壤对酸沉降的相对敏感性 ,并应用地理信息系统进行了区划 .由于福建省风化缓慢的硅质岩所占的比例较大 ,土壤大多呈酸性至微酸性反应 ,降水丰富 ,加之针叶林面积大 ,所以全省有 60 %以上面积的土壤显示出较大的敏感性等级 (5～ 7级 )     

Landscape-ecological mapping of the Netherlands

The Landscape-ecological Mapping of the Netherlands project (LMN project) started in 1983 with the aim of establishing a landscape-ecological database for use in developing and evaluating national land-use plans. The project, working with grid cells of 1 km², has four working objectives: a) development of mapping potential for basic landscape-ecological data, b) assessment of susceptibility to interventions, c) evaluation of significance for nature conservation and d) production of vulnerability maps, as a combination of susceptibility and significance. In addition to information on soil, groundwater, ecotopes, flora and fauna, the database also incorporates information on physiographical features and entire landscapes. The resulting database is a geographic information system (GIS). This article describes the second phase of the project (1985–1989), covering the Randstad area, and focusses on the methods and the applications potential of the database.     

《蒙古秘史》中的野生食用植物研究

经考证,在《蒙古秘史》中的植物古蒙古名称中,有山荆子、稠李、地榆、鹅绒委陵菜、葱、山韭、山丹和野韭等８种野生食用植物。植物区系及地理分布的研究表明,这些植物在十二世纪蒙古人所采集的地点,即现在的蒙古国肯特山脉地区仍有广泛分布。从民族植物学的研究看,它们在蒙古族民间被用于代粮、野菜、茶用、药用和调味品,比过去的利用有了很大的发展,已成为独特的植物利用文化。本文不仅对蒙古学研究能够提供可靠的依据,而且对寻找新的食用植物种类及其开发利用研究也提供了一些基本资料。     

乌兰察布高原土壤腐殖质地理分布规律

本文研究了乌兰察布高原的地带性土壤府殖质的地理分布规律：（碱溶性腐殖质可提取的部分）以深厚黑色土为最高：８０－８７％；向北过渡至栗钙土、棕钙土明显降低在２０％左右，ＨＡ／ＦＡ亦是以深厚黑色土最高：土层中部达２以上；栗钙土１－１．５；至棕钙土０．６－１，并且表层最高，下部土层减少＜１；山地土壤ＨＡ／ＦＡ最高层在Ａ１层：１－１．３左右，向下锐减。光密度特性Ｅ４：Ｅ６：深厚黑色土最小＜４；草原土壤在４－５；山地土壤：＞５。土壤Ｃ／Ｎ也反映了土壤类型之间差异：深厚黑色土：表层低：６－７，下层高：１２－１３；草原土壤多在９－１０；山地土壤则较大１１－１３。通过对土壤以上各化学指标分析研究，明确了土壤类型的划分依据，对本区土壤分类中存在的几个问题进行初步探讨。     

吉林省公益林管理地理信息系统研究

本文对公益林管理系统进行需求和可行性分析,应用Microsoft Visual C#、Java等编程语言,在个人电脑终端客户、服务器和手机上开发了公益林管理地理信息系统,该系统适用于公益林管理,工作效率高,达到了实时监管公益林森林资源的目的。