Environmental sustainability has become a policy priority in China. In agriculture, China has had major success in rehabilitating desertified lands through programs to convert steeply-sloped cropland to forest and lim...Environmental sustainability has become a policy priority in China. In agriculture, China has had major success in rehabilitating desertified lands through programs to convert steeply-sloped cropland to forest and limit grazing on sensitive grasslands. However, little has been done in terms of policies for agricultural nutrient management. Runoff and leaching of nutrients in chemical fertilizers and livestock manure are widely acknowledged as significant problems in China. This paper presents an evaluation of agricultural nonpoint pollution control options for China. Options analyzed include design standards（command ＆ control）, performance standards, and design and performance incentives. Evaluation criteria include economic efficiency and effectiveness, environmental impact and risk, and social criteria such as equity and food security. The evaluation indicates that the best options for China involve subsidies to farmers for changing production practices in order to reduce nonpoint emissions, combined with appropriate farmer education and technical assistance.展开更多
Aims While a growing number of studies have demonstrated the impor-tance of intraspecific differences within plant species on associ-ated arthropod communities,little is known regarding the relative strength of these ...Aims While a growing number of studies have demonstrated the impor-tance of intraspecific differences within plant species on associ-ated arthropod communities,little is known regarding the relative strength of these effects compared to environmental factors.In this study,we examined whether intraspecific plant differences and nutrient fertilization interact to shape the arthropod community of a dominant coastal shrub,Baccharis pilularis(coyote bush).Methods We overlaid a fertilization treatment on a 12-year-old common garden experiment planted with erect and prostrate architectural morphs of Baccharis in california,USA.to collect the associated arthropod community,we vacuum sampled the crown of each Baccharis and identified individuals to species or morphospecies.Important Findings We found that arthropod richness and abundance were 2-to 3-fold greater on prostrate Baccharis than on erect morphs,but observed no main effects of fertilizer addition on the over-all arthropod communities.Predators responded as strongly as herbivores to plant morph,and both were unaffected by nutrient additions.Only the specialist stem galler,Gnorimoschema bac-charisella,showed an interactive response to plant morph and fertilization.Nitrogen,phosphorous and potassium addition had opposite effects on the two morphs,increasing stem gall abun-dance by 50%on prostrate morphs,but reducing galling by 20%on erect morphs.the architectural complexity of prostrate morphs could be the driving mechanism of differences in arthropod assemblages.Overall,our results demonstrate that communitylevel consequences of intraspecific differences in plants are strong,rather than being context dependent,and are generally maintained under different resource environments.the growing number of studies showing strong genotype than nutrient effects on associated arthropod communities suggests that this might be a generalized pattern.展开更多
文摘Environmental sustainability has become a policy priority in China. In agriculture, China has had major success in rehabilitating desertified lands through programs to convert steeply-sloped cropland to forest and limit grazing on sensitive grasslands. However, little has been done in terms of policies for agricultural nutrient management. Runoff and leaching of nutrients in chemical fertilizers and livestock manure are widely acknowledged as significant problems in China. This paper presents an evaluation of agricultural nonpoint pollution control options for China. Options analyzed include design standards（command ＆ control）, performance standards, and design and performance incentives. Evaluation criteria include economic efficiency and effectiveness, environmental impact and risk, and social criteria such as equity and food security. The evaluation indicates that the best options for China involve subsidies to farmers for changing production practices in order to reduce nonpoint emissions, combined with appropriate farmer education and technical assistance.
基金EEB summer grants from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,University of Tennessee(to M.N.B.-G.and M.A.R.-C.)the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science(to G.M.C.).
文摘Aims While a growing number of studies have demonstrated the impor-tance of intraspecific differences within plant species on associ-ated arthropod communities,little is known regarding the relative strength of these effects compared to environmental factors.In this study,we examined whether intraspecific plant differences and nutrient fertilization interact to shape the arthropod community of a dominant coastal shrub,Baccharis pilularis(coyote bush).Methods We overlaid a fertilization treatment on a 12-year-old common garden experiment planted with erect and prostrate architectural morphs of Baccharis in california,USA.to collect the associated arthropod community,we vacuum sampled the crown of each Baccharis and identified individuals to species or morphospecies.Important Findings We found that arthropod richness and abundance were 2-to 3-fold greater on prostrate Baccharis than on erect morphs,but observed no main effects of fertilizer addition on the over-all arthropod communities.Predators responded as strongly as herbivores to plant morph,and both were unaffected by nutrient additions.Only the specialist stem galler,Gnorimoschema bac-charisella,showed an interactive response to plant morph and fertilization.Nitrogen,phosphorous and potassium addition had opposite effects on the two morphs,increasing stem gall abun-dance by 50%on prostrate morphs,but reducing galling by 20%on erect morphs.the architectural complexity of prostrate morphs could be the driving mechanism of differences in arthropod assemblages.Overall,our results demonstrate that communitylevel consequences of intraspecific differences in plants are strong,rather than being context dependent,and are generally maintained under different resource environments.the growing number of studies showing strong genotype than nutrient effects on associated arthropod communities suggests that this might be a generalized pattern.
