Key Aquatic Environmental Factors Affecting Ecosystem Health of Streams in the Dianchi Lake Watershed, China

AbstractStreams in a lake watershed are important landscape corridors which link the lake and terrestrial ecosystems. Therefore, the ecosystem health of streams is usually used to indicate aquatic biodiversity of the lake ecosystem, as well as being affected by aquatic environmental factors in response to changes in land use cover of the terrestrial ecosystem due to natural geographic characteristics of the watershed with the closure of ridge lines. This study was carried out at a shallow freshwater lake watershed in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau of China, the Dianchi Lake watershed (DLW). Field survey of periphytic algal and macrozoobenthic biodiversity during July and August of 2009, as well as monthly monitoring of water temperature, pH, TSS, DO, TN, TP, NH3N, NO3N, CODMn, BOD, TOC, and the heavy metals Zn (II), Cd (II), Pb (II), Cu (II), and Cr (VI) from January to December 2009 was carried out in 29 streams flowing into Dianchi lake. Multivariate statistical techniques such as factor analysis and canonical correspondence analysis were applied to analyze the structure of the aquatic community in relation to aquatic environmental factors in order to provide controlling objectives for integrated watershed management and improvement of stream rehabilitation in the DLW. The results showed that the structure of the periphytic algal and macrozoobenthic communities were dominated by pollution-tolerant genera, namely the bacillariophytes Navicula and the annelids Tubificidae respectively, and TN, NH3N and TP were key aquatic environmental factors affecting the ecosystem health of streams in the DLW

Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Asia Virtual Resource Centre CBNRMASIA VRC : a web-based interactive information platform for researchers and innovators in CBNRM in Asia

Project number related to IDRC support could not be determine

Agroforestry systems in China

Published jointly with IDR

Achieving successful project outcomes through capacity-building : a case example of international environmental policy and management

This paper focuses on the systemic challenge of ‘capacity-building’ as a means to achieve successful project outcomes. Focusing generally on the domain of environmental and natural resource management and policy, a brief review reflects the breadth of application of this term. A number of conceptual definitions are discussed, relating to processes of project and public administration, role within broader social transformations, dimensions of organisational capacity-building, and a recent Australian perspective regarding inter-relationships with institutional arrangements. A case example is described of the design features being utilised by the authors for international capacity building programs, including principles of action learning, transdisciplinarity and mentoring. A discussion of this case considers the target of these programs, Chinese technologists and managers, along with a reflection of transdisciplinarity as an emergent process, the role of meta-methodologies and frameworks of interpretation, and the role of Universities in their involvement in action research