Hasil untuk "General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution"

Zhang Qiyue

In April 2025, China acceded to the Agreement on Port State Measures, marking its active efforts in combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. This represents a significant initiative of China to protect the marine ecological environment, achieve sustainable development of fisheries, and deeply participate in global marine governance, while also indirectly responding to the constrains from the United States through its “Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Partnership”. This manuscript employs dual perspectives from international relations and international law, along with research methods such as literature review, legal provision analysis, comparative analysis, and case study, to examine the positive impacts, risks, and challenges brought by China’s accession to the Agreement. The research result is that China’s accession to the Agreement enables it to enhance the effectiveness of combating IUU fishing, better protect marine biological resources and fishery resources, and is conducive to improving its international image. In order to better fulfill the international obligations, China needs to ensure the coordination of domestic laws such as the Fishery law with the Agreement, fulfill its responsibilities and obligations as a port State, flag State, and developing country, and strengthen port supervision and compliance capabilities. Meanwhile, China also faces risks such as insufficient law enforcement capacity and certain developed states’ discriminatory inspections against Chinese fishing vessels. The research concludes that China should coordinate domestic laws with the Agreement on Port State Measures and other relevant laws and regulations, complete the upgrading and transformation of its domestic fishery industry, fulfill its responsibilities as a port State, flag State, and contracting party, establish standardized law enforcement procedures, improve the capacity of supervision and law enforcement, enhance the institutionalization, informatization, and intelligentization of fishery management, and actively participate in regional and international fishery cooperation. This article further discusses the accession to the Agreement marks China’s transformation from a “rule adapter” to an “rule builder” in global fishery governance, providing a practical path for balancing domestic sustainable fishery development with participation in global governance and constructing a maritime community with a shared future.

Sharla Sugierski, Chad Campbell, Emily R. Hall et al.

Microplastic pollution is ubiquitous in the oceans. However, little is known about the physiological impact of microplastics on corals, particularly under predicted future ocean conditions. This study investigated the individual impacts of microplastic exposure (MP) and predicted future ocean conditions [ocean acidification and warming (OAW)] as well as the combination of these stressors (OAW+MP) on the growth and physiology of Acropora cervicornis, a threatened Caribbean coral and its associated symbiont, Symbiodiniaceae. After 22 days, the OAW+MP treatment resulted in more pronounced physiological changes than either stressor individually or the control. OAW conditions alone had minimal impacts, despite A. cervicornis generally being sensitive to thermal stress. The OAW+MP treatment and the MP treatment also disrupted the host-symbiont relationship evidenced by the higher symbiont densities relative to the control and the OAW treatments. Additionally, the OAW+MP treatment resulted in lower chlorophyll a per symbiont cell. Microplastic handling is energetically costly, possibly leading to changes in host-symbiont signaling. Photosynthetic efficiency was only marginally lower in the OAW+MP treatment, and values did not indicate photosystem damage. Negative host health impacts were found with the OAW+MP treatment exhibiting lower skeletal growth compared to the control and lower host protein concentrations compared to the OAW treatment. These results indicate that although short term microplastic exposure alone may not pose a significant threat to coral health, when adding additional stressors, it can further threaten the health and recovery of this already vulnerable species.

Karen Stamieszkin, Nicole C. Millette, Jessica Y. Luo et al.

Aquatic ecologists are integrating mixotrophic plankton – here defined as microorganisms with photosynthetic and phagotrophic capacity – into their understanding of marine food webs and biogeochemical cycles. Understanding mixotroph temporal and spatial distributions, as well as the environmental conditions under which they flourish, is imperative to understanding their impact on trophic transfer and biogeochemical cycling. Mixotrophs are hypothesized to outcompete strict photoautotrophs and heterotrophs when either light or nutrients are limiting, but testing this hypothesis has been hindered by the challenge of identifying and quantifying mixotrophs in the field. Using field observations from a multi-decadal northern North Atlantic dataset, we calculated the proportion of organisms that are considered mixotrophs within individual microplankton samples. We also calculated a “trophic index” that represents the relative proportions of photoautotrophs (phytoplankton), mixotrophs, and heterotrophs (microzooplankton) in each sample. We found that the proportion of mixotrophs was positively correlated with temperature, and negatively with either light or inorganic nutrient concentration. This proportion was highest during summertime thermal stratification and nutrient limitation, and lowest during the North Atlantic spring bloom period. Between 1958 and 2015, changes in the proportion of mixotrophs coincided with changes in the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), was highest when the AMO was positive, and showed a significant uninterrupted increase in offshore regions from 1992-2015. This study provides an empirical foundation for future experimental, time series, and modeling studies of aquatic mixotrophs.

Qiying Yang, Weibin Zhong, Yaqian Jiao et al.

Cigarette butts (CBs) pollution is a critical global environmental issue, yet limited research exists on CBs pollution in both coastal and inland Chinese cities with varying development levels. This study investigated CBs occurrence, contamination, Cigarette Butts Pollution Index (CBPI), and heavy metal leakage in four cities. The results of CBs collected over multiple days revealed higher contamination levels in coastal city of Dalian (0.10 ± 0.03 CBs/m2), inland cities of Baoding (0.06 ± 0.02 CBs/m2) and Meizhou (0.07 ± 0.02 CBs/m2) compared to first-tier coastal city of Guangzhou (0.03 ± 0.02 CBs/m2). Patterns of CBs occurrence and CBPI varied across land usage and cities development level. SEM and EDS analysis identified microplastics and heavy metal particles released from CBs in water environments. ICP-MS detected a total of 629.7 μg/L of 14 heavy metals. Approximately 1.9 ± 0.9 g/km2 of heavy metals are leaked daily in Chinese cities due to CBs, posing a severe threat to soil and water safety given the indiscriminate disposal of CBs. This study offers scientific insights into CBs pollution and underscores the pressing need for effective measures to mitigate environmental hazards, particularly heavy metal and microplastics contamination released from CBs in China.

Xiaoteng Xiao, Xiaoteng Xiao, Yufeng Zhang et al.

Seawater salt is constantly supplied from the marine environment to coastal underground brine deposits, meaning that brine has the potential for continuous extraction. There is currently a lack of information about the processes that drive the fluxes of seawater salt to underground brine deposits in tidal-driven brine mining areas. We chose the Yangkou salt field on the southern coast of Laizhou Bay, a brine mining area, as our study site. We monitored the spatial and temporal distribution of the underground brine reserve and the changes in water level and salinity in the mining area and adjacent tidal flats using electrical resistivity tomography and hydrogeological measurements. We monitored cross-sections along two survey lines and observed that the underground brine reserve receives a stable supply of seawater salt, and calculated that the rate of influx into the brine body in the mining area near the boundary of the precipitation funnel was 0.226−0.232 t/h. We calculated that a total salt flux of approximately 5.50 t enters the underground brine body every day through a 150 m long shoreline and a 1322.3 m2 window, which is sufficient to sustain the daily extraction of one brine well. During tidal cycles, there are two peaks in the salinity of the water supplied to the underground brine reserve, which means that the brine supply is from at least two high-salinity salt sources in different tidal stages. The first salinity peak occurs during the initial stage of the rising tide after seawater inundates the tidal flat. At this time, seawater, which is a solution and carries a large amount of evaporated salt, is transported into the brine layer through highly permeable areas or biological channels and replenishes the brine in the mining area. The second salinity peak occurs during the early stage of the falling tide. Influenced by hysteresis-driven tidal pumping, high-salinity brine from the lower intertidal zone is rapidly transported into the mining area, thereby increasing the salinity of the underground brine.

Tarun Kumar Lohani, Gordon Sigu, Nellie Oduor et al.

The site suitability assessment of Bamboo in Kenya was studied for diverse agroecological zones (AEZs) comprising one indigenous and fifteen exotic bamboo species in nine different AEZs of Kenya. Three bamboo clumps from each species that were at least five years old were assessed to accurately capture data on growth performance and yield. Soil samples collected at 0–30 cm depth from different areas varied considerably. The proportion of soil varied across the bamboo planting sites (F(1,11) = 24.94; p < 0.001), soil pH in the planting sites varied significantly (F(1,11) = 13.92; p < 0.001), and soil bulk densities had different results (F(1,11) = 13.92; p < 0.001). The lowest bulk density (0.61 ± 0.01) was recorded in Kakamega (UM1), while the highest (1.63 ± 0.01) was reported in Gede. Data on characteristics of clumps and internode length and wall thickness integrated through GenStat statistical software using ANOVA entail a huge variation in growth performance for each bamboo species across planting sites. Morphological characters were also studied in detail. The mean height, diameter, and stocking density were comparatively lower even in elevated zones that were only 200 m below its natural range. This resulted in an extremely low yield, which is not viable for economic investment. The species is unsuitable for plantation establishment outside its natural range of 2300 m–3200 m above the sea level (a.s.l.). Plantation below this range will not dissipate but will not attain a healthy growth. The primary use will be restricted for ornamental and conservation purposes such as scaffolding, roof construction, and fabrication of basic household furniture.

Ludmila S. Zinevich, Darya N. Rozhkova, Mikhail I. Iljin et al.

DNA analysis is a “gold standard” for individual identification and parentage studies as for humans, so for animals (Saks et al., 1991). First forensic testing of the rare animal species DNA occurred in 1991 in Great Britain, when the case of illegal capture of the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) chicks was proved by parentage testing using DNA fingerprints of birds in question and other peregrines in captivity (Shorrock, 1998). In Russia, illegal capture for foreign sales is the main threat for Saker (Falco cherrug) and Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) populations (Kovács et al., 2014, Lobkov et al., 2020).

Jia Li, Diqiang Li, Diqiang Li et al.

Similar species may co-occur in sympatry because of the partitioning of habitat use and resources at different spatial and temporal scales. Understanding coexistence patterns of species may contribute to further uncovering the underlying coexistence mechanisms, and ultimately benefit the conservation of threatened species. In this study, camera trapping was used to investigate spatial and temporal activity patterns of sympatric giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) in Changqing National Nature Reserve in Qinling Mountains, China. Our study obtained 281 independent detections of giant pandas and 185 of Asiatic black bears during 93,606 camera-trap days from April 2014 to October 2017. We performed occupancy modeling and temporal overlap analyses to examine the spatial-temporal relationships between pandas and bears, and results showed that: (1) giant pandas had higher detection probabilities than Asiatic black bears, while having lower occupancy probabilities; (2) Elevation positively predicted giant panda and negatively predicted Asiatic black bear occupancy, understory vegetation type negatively predicted giant panda occupancy, and distance to nearest settlement positively predicted Asiatic black bear occupancy; (3) giant pandas were more active in spring and winter, while Asiatic black bears were more active in summer, and the two species had low spatial overlap with one another throughout the year; (4) both giant pandas and Asiatic black bears showed mainly diurnal activity patterns, and had high temporal overlap with one another in spring and moderate temporal overlap with one another in autumn. Our results provide detailed information of the spatial and temporal ecology of sympatric giant pandas and Asiatic black bears in the Qinling Mountains of China, which could act as a guide to construct conservation priorities as well as design efficient management programs.

Meghan M. Beale, Kyle H. Knopff, Christina C. Small et al.

Abstract Successful cumulative effects management is fundamental for conservation policy and practice. We investigated the application of a carrying capacity (CC) model as a cumulative effects management tool for bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) in British Columbia, Canada, where CC is defined as the natural limit of a sustainable population that is set by the availability of resources in the environment. We estimated winter CC using forage availability across winter ranges, weighted by relative selection by sheep and a safe use factor, and divided by overwinter forage requirements to determine how many sheep the landscape can support. We explored application of our model to decision‐making about new industrial projects or conservation activities in a cumulative effects context. Cumulative effects include both positive and negative contributions to animal populations and we simulated the potential positive outcomes of burning to increase bighorn sheep carrying capacity in our study area. Our results show that carefully planned conservation actions could generate a 5% increase in CC (i.e., from 493 to 519 sheep). Robust tools and scientific techniques that are capable of quantifying multiple impacts and conservation actions and that consider spatial processes over long temporal scales, such as the CC model presented, should be applied to help inform decisions about how to better manage cumulative habitat change and achieve conservation objectives.

Shanshan Yang, Shanshan Yang, Chenting Gu et al.

Stefanie Kaiser, Stefanie Kaiser, Stefanie Kaiser et al.

Fernando Ascensão, Arnaud L.J. Desbiez

Human activity is depleting biodiversity, and road networks are directly contributing to this trend due to roadkill. Nevertheless, few studies empirically estimated the impact of roadkill on wildlife populations. We integrated information on roadkill rates, population abundance, and animal movement to estimate the survival rates and the proportion of the population likely to be extirpated due to roadkill, using giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) as model species. We then assessed the consequent implications of roadkill on population persistence using population viability analysis (PVA). The yearly survival rate of resident anteaters inhabiting road vicinity areas (0.78; CI: 0.62−0.97) was considerably lower than for those living far from roads (0.95; CI:0.86–1.00). The real number of anteaters being road-killed is considerably higher than the one recorded in previous studies (by a factor of 2.4), with ca. 20% of the population inhabiting road vicinity areas being road-killed every year. According to PVA results, roadkill can greatly affect the persistence of the giant anteater populations by reducing the growth rate down to null or negative values. This study confirms that roads have significant impacts on local population persistence. Such impacts are likely to be common to other large mammals, calling for effective mitigation to reduce roadkill rates.

You-You Hao, Zhuo-Yi Zhu, Zhuo-Yi Zhu et al.

Estuaries modify the concentration and composition of riverine nutrients and organic matter (OM), which eventually determine the riverine flux effect to coasts. Nutrients, organic carbon (OC), pigments, and amino acids (AAs) from the samples collected in the eutrophic Wenchang River Estuary (WRE) in China and the oligotrophic Krka River Estuary (KRE) in Croatia were analyzed in order to have a better understanding of how estuaries regulate terrestrial materials. We found a clear increase of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentration and its subsequent decrease due to the removal of DIN (over 100 μM) in the WRE, whereas DIN showed minor variation lengthwise in the KRE, i.e., with the salinity changes, ranging between 1.0 and 5.8 μM. The elevated algae-derived OC, dissolved organic nitrogen, and particulate AAs nitrogen suggest that the OM assimilation may explain approximately one-third of the DIN removal in the WRE, whereas in the oligotrophic KRE, such inorganic to organic transformation is not likely to be significant. Due to the prominent estuarine nitrogen removal/assimilation process, DIN/dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) ratio was as high as 425 in the upper WRE under strong riverine influence, but it declined to as low as 5.4 at the mouth of WRE, that is even lower than DIN/DIP ratio at the mouth of oligotrophic KRE (12). When compared with other rivers worldwide, the Wenchang River showed high nutrients and organic carbon yields. Given the contrasting estuarine process (e.g., DIN removal) between the KRE and the WRE, apparent high nutrient yield from eutrophic rivers should be viewed with caution in ocean studies as the final impact to coastal zone could be similar to the oligotrophic rivers like the KRE.

Gabriela V. Moraes, Mary Colleen Hannon, Douglas M. M. Soares et al.

Bioluminescence is widespread throughout the phylum Annelida and occurs in terrestrial and marine lineages. Among marine taxa, bioluminescence has been documented in eight families and anecdotally reported in six additional families. Although new bioluminescent systems have been recently described in annelids, there are still many other families whose light emission mechanisms have not been sufficiently studied. Some of these include luminescent species belonging to the Polynoidae family, also known as scale worms, whose iterations of dorsal elytra (scales) have the ability to emit intense light when stimulated. Depending on the degree of stimulation, some polynoids can autotomize these luminous elytra and posterior segments, which could potentially give them an advantage in evading attacks by predators. It is believed that Polynoidae bioluminescence is associated with a membrane enzyme known as “polynoidin,” which was isolated during the early 1980s from Malmgrenia lunulata. However, the characterization and properties of this enzyme, as well as the chemical nature of its substrate or additional potential cofactors, have never been fully described and remain largely unknown. As such, this paper seeks to revisit previous research involving bioluminescence studies in Polynoidae, as well as the morphological, phylogenetic and ecological aspects related to this emission of light.

Clive R. McMahon, Fabien Roquet, Sophie Baudel et al.

Marine animals equipped with biological and physical electronic sensors have produced long-term data streams on key marine environmental variables, hydrography, animal behavior and ecology. These data are an essential component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The Animal Borne Ocean Sensors (AniBOS) network aims to coordinate the long-term collection and delivery of marine data streams, providing a complementary capability to other GOOS networks that monitor Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), essential climate variables (ECVs) and essential biodiversity variables (EBVs). AniBOS augments observations of temperature and salinity within the upper ocean, in areas that are under-sampled, providing information that is urgently needed for an improved understanding of climate and ocean variability and for forecasting. Additionally, measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence and dissolved oxygen concentrations are emerging. The observations AniBOS provides are used widely across the research, modeling and operational oceanographic communities. High latitude, shallow coastal shelves and tropical seas have historically been sampled poorly with traditional observing platforms for many reasons including sea ice presence, limited satellite coverage and logistical costs. Animal-borne sensors are helping to fill that gap by collecting and transmitting in near real time an average of 500 temperature-salinity-depth profiles per animal annually and, when instruments are recovered (∼30% of instruments deployed annually, n = 103 ± 34), up to 1,000 profiles per month in these regions. Increased observations from under-sampled regions greatly improve the accuracy and confidence in estimates of ocean state and improve studies of climate variability by delivering data that refine climate prediction estimates at regional and global scales. The GOOS Observations Coordination Group (OCG) reviews, advises on and coordinates activities across the global ocean observing networks to strengthen the effective implementation of the system. AniBOS was formally recognized in 2020 as a GOOS network. This improves our ability to observe the ocean’s structure and animals that live in them more comprehensively, concomitantly improving our understanding of global ocean and climate processes for societal benefit consistent with the UN Sustainability Goals 13 and 14: Climate and Life below Water. Working within the GOOS OCG framework ensures that AniBOS is an essential component of an integrated Global Ocean Observing System.

Koen F. V. Parmentier, Koen F. V. Parmentier, Yves Verhaegen et al.

The restrictions and the concerted action of the global ban on the use and presence of tributyltin (TBT) in marine applications to protect ecosystems in the marine environment in 2008 was mainly based on the economic impact on shellfish industries and the dramatic extinction of local mollusk populations in the past. In contrast to the vast datasets on effects on mollusks, the knowledge on impacts on species from other taxa remained in the uncertain until almost two decades ago. The assumption on a long-term TBT-mediated pernicious metabolic bottom–up regulation of the crustacean Crangon crangon population was provoked by the outcome of an EU-project ‘Sources, Consumer Exposure and Risks of Organotin Contamination in Seafood.’ This study reported high TBT body burdens in C. crangon in 2003, at the start of the transition period to the global ban. Experimental research on the TBT impact in C. crangon focused on agonistic interference with natural ecdysteroid hormones at the metabolic pathways regulating growth and reproduction and the biogeochemical distribution of the chemical. In this paper, metabolic, topical and population-relevant biological endpoints in C. crangon and other crustaceans are evaluated in relation to the temporal and spatial trends on TBT’s occurrence and distribution in the field during and after the introduction of the tributyltin restrictions and endocrine-related incidents. Arguments are forwarded to relate the German Bight incident on growth and reproduction failure in the C. crangon population, despite the lack of direct evidence, to the pernicious impact of tributyltin in 1990/91 and previous years. The extreme occurrence of TBT in C. crangon from other parts of the southern North Sea and evidence on the high body burdens as dose metrics of exposure also feeds the suspicion on detrimental impacts in those areas. This paper further demonstrates the complexity of distinguishing and assessing the individual roles of unrelated stressors on a population in an integrated evaluation at the ecosystem level.

Frontiers Editorial Office

Dirk Schmeller, Andrea Maier, Douglas Evans et al.

Conservation of habitats is a major approach in the implementation of biodiversity conservation strategies. Because of limited resources and competing interests not all habitats can be conserved to the same extent and a prioritization is needed. One criterion for prioritization is the responsibility countries have for the protection of a particular habitat type. National responsibility reflects the effects the loss of a particular habitat type within the focal region (usually a country) has on the global persistence of that habitat type. Whereas the concept has been used already successfully for species, it has not yet been developed for habitats. Here we present such a method that is derived from similar approaches for species. We further investigated the usability of different biogeographic and environmental maps in our determination of national responsibilities for habitats. For Europe, several different maps exist, including (1) the Indicative European Map of Biogeographic Regions, (2) Udvardy&rsquo;s biogeographic provinces, (3) WWF ecoregions, and (4) the environmental zones of Metzger et al. (2005). The latter is particularly promising, as the map of environmental zones has recently been extended to cover the whole world (Metzger et al. in press), allowing the application of our methodology at a global scale, making it highly comparable between countries and applicable across variable scales (e.g. regions, countries). Here, we determined the national responsibilities for 71 forest habitats. We further compared the national responsibility class distribution in regard to the use of different reference areas, geographical Europe, Western Palearctic and Palearctic. We found that the distributions of natural responsibility classes resembled each other largely for the different combinations of reference area and biogeographic map. The most common rank in all cases was the &ldquo;medium&rdquo; rank. Most notably, with increasing size of the reference area, a shift from allocations to a basic rank to allocations to a medium rank (from 1:4 to 1:1) was observed. The least frequent rank was the &ldquo;very high&rdquo; category. The methodology to determine national responsibilities presented here is readily applicable to estimate conservation responsibilities for habitats of the EU25 countries. It should be based on the environmental zones map and should use Europe as the reference area. It then provides a tool to allocate funds, direct conservation actions in the most sensible way, and highlight conservation-relevant data gaps.

O.A.E. Rasa

The nocturnal desert detritivore Parastiz.opus armaticeps shows differences in surface activity patterns and burrow fidelity depending on surface humidity. After rain approximately half of the beetle population, independent of sex, is highly vagile and disperses over long distances. During drought, beetles are more sedentary and show higher burrow fidelity. They also inhabit burrows that are longer and deeper than non-inhabited ones, such burrows being relatively scarce. Burrow fidelity and the adoption of a more sedentary habit during drought are considered strategies to avoid the risks of not locating a suitable burrow before sunrise and subsequent desiccation in shallow burrows.

J. B. P. Beyers

A NEW SPECIES OF GNIDIA FROM THE KNERSVLAKTE. WESTERN CAPE. SOUTH AFRICA