The Himalaya represents a vast mountain system and globally valued for its significant role in regulation of global as well as regional climate that has direct impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services crucial for...The Himalaya represents a vast mountain system and globally valued for its significant role in regulation of global as well as regional climate that has direct impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services crucial for sustenance of millions of people in Himalaya and adjoining areas. However, mountain regions worldwide are impacted by climate change and at the same time represent distinctive area for the assessment of climate related impacts. Climate change impacts in Himalayan region have its implications on food production, natural ecosystems,retreat of glacier, water supply, human and animal health and overall human well being. The livelihood and food security of the people inhabited in region largely depend on climate sensitive sectors i.e.agriculture, livestock, forestry and their interlinkages with each other, and has the potential to break down food and nutritional security as well as livelihood support systems. People's perception and understanding of climate can be an important asset when it comes to adaptation to climate change impact;however it is not taken into consideration for the development of policy design and implementation of modern mitigation and adaptation strategies by governments and other civil society organizations.The knowledge of local people and farming communities for rural landscape management and sustainable use of bioresources is gaining credence as a key strategy to cope up with the climate change.Therefore, the present study analyzes the indigenous knowledge of local people and their perceptions on climate change, and also documented adaptation approaches at local level in mountain ecosystem of western Himalaya. The study could be useful to policy makers to design appropriate adaptation strategies to cope up with the impacts of climate change.展开更多
Human activities significantly alter ecosystems and their services; however, quantifying the impact of human activities on ecosystems has been a great challenge in ecosystem management. We used the Universal Soil Loss...Human activities significantly alter ecosystems and their services; however, quantifying the impact of human activities on ecosystems has been a great challenge in ecosystem management. We used the Universal Soil Loss Equation and county-level socioeconomic data to assess the changes in the ecosystem service of soil conservation between 2000 and 2010, and to analyze its spatial characteristics and driving factors in the southwestern China. The results showed that cropland in the southwestern China decreased by 3.74%, while urban land, forest, and grassland areas increased by 46.78%, 0.86%, and 1.12%, respectively. The soil conservation increased by 1.88 × 10^(11) kg, with deterioration only in some local areas. The improved and the degraded areas accounted for 6.41% and 2.44% of the total land area, respectively. Implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program and urbanization explained 57.80% and 23.90% of the variation in the soil conservation change, respectively, and were found to be the main factors enhancing soil conservation. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was one of the factors that led to the degradation of soil conservation. Furthermore, industrial adjustment, by increasing shares of Industry and Service and reducing those of Agriculture, has also promoted soil conservation. Our results quantitatively showed and emphasized the contributions to soil conservation improvement made by implementing ecological restoration programs and promoting urbanization. Consequently, these results provide basic information to improve our understanding of the effects of ecological restoration programs, and help guide future sustainable urban development and regional industrial restructuring.展开更多
In the mid-latitude regions of the Asian continent, Zhuye Lake is located in the northwest margin of the Asian monsoon, where the modem climate is affected by the Asian monsoon and Westerlies. In this study, we invest...In the mid-latitude regions of the Asian continent, Zhuye Lake is located in the northwest margin of the Asian monsoon, where the modem climate is affected by the Asian monsoon and Westerlies. In this study, we investi- gated the absolutely dated Holocene records in Zhuye Lake for detecting the Holocene climate cycles. Totally, 14 14C dates and 6 optically simulated luminescence (OSL) dates are obtained from the QTH01 and QTH02 sections. The proxies of grain-size, total organic carbon content (TOC), C/N and 813C are used for wavelet analysis, and the results show obvious -256, -512 and -1024-year climate cycles, which are consistent with the Holocene millennial and cen- tennial scale climate cycles in the typical Asian summer monsoon domain. In different parts of the Zhuye Lake, the Holocene sediments show variable climate cycles that are affected by the lake basin topography. In the Zhuye Lake, the Holocene climate cycles are mainly correlated with the solar-related Asian summer monsoon variability and the North Atlantic ice-rafting events.展开更多
The existence of a solid service sector and some degree of specialisation in tertiary activities are among a number of territorial diversity of factors which need to be taken into account in relation to the creation o...The existence of a solid service sector and some degree of specialisation in tertiary activities are among a number of territorial diversity of factors which need to be taken into account in relation to the creation of competitive capacities. In addition globalisation has presumably played a significant role in the productive restructuring of economies in which the service sector has had an increasing quantitative and qualitative importance over the years Therefore, an evaluation of the role of services in constructing regional competitive capacities is required. This paper aims at addressing indirectly the meaning of services on improving competitiveness by providing a wide-ranging analysis of regional efficiency of the Mexican service sector and its determinants as well as an overview of its territorial distribution and special isation patterns. We evaluate the patterns of concentration of the third sector and its branches, and specialisation of regions. The efficiency of the service sector in the NAFTA period is analysed further because of the impact of services on regional competitiveness. We employ state leve data to examine technical efficiency's differentials across regions and their determinants. The methodology includes data envelopment analysis to measure technical efficiency which is the dependent variable in a reduced form model that links regional performance with a number of proxies for various types of agglomeration economies such as specialisation, urbanisation and internal economies of scale展开更多
基金Task Force 3‘Forest Resources and Plant Biodiversity’under National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem(NMSHE)funded by Department of Science and Technology(DST),Govt.of India for financial support(DST/SPLICE/CCP/NMSHE/TF/GBPIHED/2014[G]dated 2/09/14)to conduct the study
文摘The Himalaya represents a vast mountain system and globally valued for its significant role in regulation of global as well as regional climate that has direct impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services crucial for sustenance of millions of people in Himalaya and adjoining areas. However, mountain regions worldwide are impacted by climate change and at the same time represent distinctive area for the assessment of climate related impacts. Climate change impacts in Himalayan region have its implications on food production, natural ecosystems,retreat of glacier, water supply, human and animal health and overall human well being. The livelihood and food security of the people inhabited in region largely depend on climate sensitive sectors i.e.agriculture, livestock, forestry and their interlinkages with each other, and has the potential to break down food and nutritional security as well as livelihood support systems. People's perception and understanding of climate can be an important asset when it comes to adaptation to climate change impact;however it is not taken into consideration for the development of policy design and implementation of modern mitigation and adaptation strategies by governments and other civil society organizations.The knowledge of local people and farming communities for rural landscape management and sustainable use of bioresources is gaining credence as a key strategy to cope up with the climate change.Therefore, the present study analyzes the indigenous knowledge of local people and their perceptions on climate change, and also documented adaptation approaches at local level in mountain ecosystem of western Himalaya. The study could be useful to policy makers to design appropriate adaptation strategies to cope up with the impacts of climate change.
基金Under the auspices of National Key Technology Research and Development Program of China(No.2011BAC09B08)Special Issue of National Remote Sensing Survey and Assessment of Eco-Environment Change between 2000 and 2010(No.STSN-04-01)
文摘Human activities significantly alter ecosystems and their services; however, quantifying the impact of human activities on ecosystems has been a great challenge in ecosystem management. We used the Universal Soil Loss Equation and county-level socioeconomic data to assess the changes in the ecosystem service of soil conservation between 2000 and 2010, and to analyze its spatial characteristics and driving factors in the southwestern China. The results showed that cropland in the southwestern China decreased by 3.74%, while urban land, forest, and grassland areas increased by 46.78%, 0.86%, and 1.12%, respectively. The soil conservation increased by 1.88 × 10^(11) kg, with deterioration only in some local areas. The improved and the degraded areas accounted for 6.41% and 2.44% of the total land area, respectively. Implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program and urbanization explained 57.80% and 23.90% of the variation in the soil conservation change, respectively, and were found to be the main factors enhancing soil conservation. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was one of the factors that led to the degradation of soil conservation. Furthermore, industrial adjustment, by increasing shares of Industry and Service and reducing those of Agriculture, has also promoted soil conservation. Our results quantitatively showed and emphasized the contributions to soil conservation improvement made by implementing ecological restoration programs and promoting urbanization. Consequently, these results provide basic information to improve our understanding of the effects of ecological restoration programs, and help guide future sustainable urban development and regional industrial restructuring.
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41001116)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. LZUJBKY-2010-99)
文摘In the mid-latitude regions of the Asian continent, Zhuye Lake is located in the northwest margin of the Asian monsoon, where the modem climate is affected by the Asian monsoon and Westerlies. In this study, we investi- gated the absolutely dated Holocene records in Zhuye Lake for detecting the Holocene climate cycles. Totally, 14 14C dates and 6 optically simulated luminescence (OSL) dates are obtained from the QTH01 and QTH02 sections. The proxies of grain-size, total organic carbon content (TOC), C/N and 813C are used for wavelet analysis, and the results show obvious -256, -512 and -1024-year climate cycles, which are consistent with the Holocene millennial and cen- tennial scale climate cycles in the typical Asian summer monsoon domain. In different parts of the Zhuye Lake, the Holocene sediments show variable climate cycles that are affected by the lake basin topography. In the Zhuye Lake, the Holocene climate cycles are mainly correlated with the solar-related Asian summer monsoon variability and the North Atlantic ice-rafting events.
文摘The existence of a solid service sector and some degree of specialisation in tertiary activities are among a number of territorial diversity of factors which need to be taken into account in relation to the creation of competitive capacities. In addition globalisation has presumably played a significant role in the productive restructuring of economies in which the service sector has had an increasing quantitative and qualitative importance over the years Therefore, an evaluation of the role of services in constructing regional competitive capacities is required. This paper aims at addressing indirectly the meaning of services on improving competitiveness by providing a wide-ranging analysis of regional efficiency of the Mexican service sector and its determinants as well as an overview of its territorial distribution and special isation patterns. We evaluate the patterns of concentration of the third sector and its branches, and specialisation of regions. The efficiency of the service sector in the NAFTA period is analysed further because of the impact of services on regional competitiveness. We employ state leve data to examine technical efficiency's differentials across regions and their determinants. The methodology includes data envelopment analysis to measure technical efficiency which is the dependent variable in a reduced form model that links regional performance with a number of proxies for various types of agglomeration economies such as specialisation, urbanisation and internal economies of scale