Captive breeding of wildlife resources-China's revised supply-side approach to conservation.

The conservation and utilization of wild animals in China often raises public concerns. Thus, the Chinese government is increasingly exploring sustainable development of wildlife resources, and has implemented a series of measures, such as the modification of the Wildlife Protection Law (WPL), implementation of captive breeding licenses, an animal marking system, forest certification, and other actions to regulate captive breeding and utilization of wildlife. At the same time, the government tries to meet the Chinese traditional demand for wildlife products. We first introduce wildlife utilization as an internationally accepted conservation tool, and describe market-based wildlife farming as a legal substitute for wild-hunted animals. Second, we highlight the importance of wildlife products in Chinese culture and economy and review some successful examples of wildlife utilization in China, showing that the supply-side approach is a viable alternative to classical conservation. Subsequently, we outline benefits of, and drawbacks to, China's 'conservation through utilization' approach, resulting in the implementation of China's new, revised WPL. We discuss merits and shortcomings of China's revised WPL and respond to recent national and international criticism on China's supply-side approach to conservation. We strongly propose that captive breeding is a feasible approach to China's wildlife conservation-utilization dilemma, and much work is needed to promote the progress, such as legislation restructure, government attention, duties clarification, and so on. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.

[Clinical features of early newborn infants with congenital heart disease].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical feature of early newborn infants with congenital heart disease. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical features of 477 newborn infants with congenital heart disease born within seven days out of 28 050 live births in Shaoxing women and children hospital from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2012. Infants with congenital heart disease were divided into single malformation group (240 cases), composite deformity group (199 cases) and multiple malformations group (38 cases). Differences of clinical feature were compared between the three groups. RESULTS: Atrial septal defect was the most malformation 91.6% (437/477) .Incidence of preterm birth was higher in newborn inants with congenital heart disease [512.23/10 000(134/2 616)] than infants without without congenital heart disease [134.86/10 000 (343/25 434) , P < 0.01]. Proportion of preterm birth among the three congenital heart disease groups was similar (P > 0.05) . The incidence of small for gestational age in congenital heart disease group (10.90%, 52/477) was also significantly higher than those without congenital heart disease group (5.91%, 1 630/27 573, P < 0.01).Small for gestational age with congenital heart disease of complex malformations, multiple malformations groups was higher than that in the single malformation group (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Early newborn with atrial septal defect is the most common neonatal congenital heart disease. The incidence of preterm is higher in newborn infants with congenital heart disease. Complex and multiple malformations are linked with small for gestational age birth weight.

High correlations between plant clonality and ecosystem service functions after management in a chronosequence of evergreen conifer plantations.

Introduction: Climate change and mono-afforestation or mono-reforestation have continuously caused a decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services on forest plantations. Key plant functional traits in forests or plantations may affect ecosystem functions after forest management practices. Plant clonality, a key functional trait, frequently links to biodiversity and ecosystem functions and affects the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship. However, little is known about how plant clonality affects ecosystem functions and services of plantations after forest management. Methods: We conducted a field experiment to discuss the diversity and proportion of clonal plants, plant diversity of the communities, and ecosystem service functions and their relationships under 10 years of close-to-nature (CTN) management, artificial gap management, and control (i.e., without management) in the three stages of C. Lanceolata plantations. Results: Our results showed that CTN and gap management modes significantly facilitated diversity of clonal plants, plant diversity of the communities, and parameters of ecosystem service functions in C. lanceolata plantations. Moreover, CTN management promoted plant community diversity, soil water conservation, and carbon storage the most in the earlier stand stages. Diversity of clonal plants was significantly positively correlated with ecosystem service functions after forest management. Structural equation modeling analysis indicated that forest gap or CTN management indirectly positively affected ecosystem service functions through increasing diversity of clonal woody plants and plant diversity of the communities. Conclusion: Our results indicate a highly positive effect of gap or CTN management on diversity and proportion of clonal plants and on plant diversity of the communities, which link to improvements in ecosystem service functions (i.e., water and soil conservation and carbon storage). The link between forest management, diversity, and ecosystem functions suggests that key functional traits or plant functional groups should be considered to underline the mechanism of traits-ecosystem functioning relationships and the restoration of degraded plantations.

[Multiple functions-targeted algorithms and potential applications of forest simulation optimization system (FSOS)].

Forest Simulation and Optimization System (FSOS) model has been widely used in British Columbia of Canada and in Changbai Mountains of China. This model is based on the viewpoint of harmonized and balanced management of forest resources and the application of simulated annealing optimized algorithms in arranging forest management schemes, aimed to realize the sustainable and harmonized development of forest resources multiple objective management and to transform forests to their desired status. The multiple functions (or the multiple objectives) in the FSOS model include water storage and purification, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat protection, biodiversity conservation, visual landscape quality, and timber production, and the desired forest status is comprehensively defined by experts, environmental organizations, and government policies. This paper introduced in detail the simulated annealing algorithms in FSOS, including solution representation, evaluations, and transitions, and the potential applications of the algorithms in forest ecosystem planning, aimed to provide helps to the planning and management of forest resources and to the governments to quantify, analyze, and manage the forest resources, effectively monitor forest operations, and achieve the sustainable development of forest ecosystem.