锡林河流域羊草草原植物种群和功能群的长期变异性及其对群落稳定性的影响

 分析了内蒙古锡林河流域羊草(Leymus chinensis)草原群落植物种群、功能群和群落生物量的长期变异性,以及植物功能群间的补偿作用对群落稳定性的影响,结果表明：从种群水平到功能群和群落水平,地上生物量的年度间变异性逐渐降低,而稳定性则逐渐增加。植物功能群组成对群落稳定性具有更强烈的影响,在植物生活型功能群组成中多年生根茎禾草与多年生丛生禾草和多年生杂类草功能群,在生物量的年度变化上具有补偿作用,在生态类群组成中,旱生植物与中旱生植物也具有补偿作用。植物种群多度的长期变异性可能依赖于物种对环境波动的敏感性和种间相互作用对环境波动的放大效应,生物多样性使物种对环境波动响应的多样性增加,并通过不同响应类型(功能群)间的补偿作用使群落稳定性增加。     

水分条件变化对土壤微生物的影响及其响应机制研究进展

土壤微生物在维持陆地生态系统服务中扮演着重要的角色.土壤水分条件是影响微生物活性与生态系统功能的重要因素之一,全球气候变化所引起的极端干旱与降雨必将加速土壤水分的剧烈变化.由于不同土壤微生物对干旱胁迫的耐受性不同及其对水分变化的响应差异,使得土壤水分条件变化直接改变了土壤微生物活性与群落结构,进而对微生物介导的关键过程与土壤生态系统功能造成深刻的影响.因此,全面深入地理解水分条件变化下土壤微生物群落的结构变化特征与响应机制具有重要意义.本文在总结土壤水分条件变化对土壤微生物活性(土壤呼吸与酶活性)和微生物群落结构的影响的基础上,进一步阐述了土壤微生物对干旱胁迫与水分条件变化的响应机制和生态学策略,包括: 1)积累胞内溶质、产生胞外聚合物、进入休眠状态等应对干旱胁迫的细胞生理策略;2)微生物之间、微生物与植物之间相关抗逆性基因的转移及土壤微生物群落的功能冗余等应对水分变化的微生物机制.研究水分条件变化下土壤微生物群落结构及生态系统功能之间的内在联系,不仅有助于进一步剖析微生物介导的土壤生态过程,而且能够为今后陆地生态系统对气候变化的响应研究和模型预测提供理论依据.     

中国东北样带羊草群落C3和C4植物功能群生物量及其对环境变化的响应

在全球动态植被模型的发展中,受限于人力、物力和财力使得在物种水平上的研究变得既不可能也无必要。植物功能群的划分是从生态学的,而不是系统发育的角度来相互比较地对待不同地区的植物,从而削减了植被变化研究中植物分类群的数量,已成为研究植被变化及生物多样性对生态系统功能作用的重要单位。植物的不同光合途径（C3、C4和CAM）从叶片组织结构到生理功能,从生态适应到地理分布均表现出对不同水、热、光环境的响应,是理想的植物功能群分类。为此,分析了中国东北样带以羊草（Leymus chinensis）为建群种或共建种的草原群落植物光合类型功能群生物量及其与群落初级生产力和环境变化的关系。结果表明：（1）C4植物生物量具有明显的变化规律,且对环境变化的响应显著,其变异性较高,更能反映样地问环境变化的差异;（2）C4与C3植物变化具有明显的互补性,并且多数C4植物常在逆境中起到更大作用,如干旱化、盐碱化和放牧干扰;（3）C4植物种类少,在所有调查样方中仅出现7种,占总出现种类的9．72％。这些特点说明C4植物可以考虑作为评估和预测我国温带草原植被及其生态系统变化的重要植物功能群。     

气候变化对雌雄异株植物影响的研究进展

雌雄异株植物作为陆地生态系统的重要组成部分,在维持生态系统结构和功能稳定性方面发挥着关键作用。但是,由于雌雄异株植物的不同性别植株在形态特征、生理特征和资源分配等方面均存在明显差异,至今对全球气候变化背景下雌雄植物的性别差异响应机制的认识仍十分有限。本文综述了全球变暖、降水变化和大气CO2浓度升高等主要气候因子变化对雌雄异株植物的影响,探讨了雌雄异株植物对气候变化响应的性别差异,提出了未来雌雄异株植物与气候变化关系研究的重点,以期为揭示陆地生态系统结构和功能稳定性对气候变化的响应机制提供参考依据。     

蚂蚁群落与栖境关系研究进展及新趋势

生物群落与栖境的关系是生态学研究的核心之一,蚂蚁群落由于在陆地生态系统中的生物量、分布以及具备的生态功能的重要性,是研究这种关系的理想对象。在查阅大量文献的基础上,简述了蚂蚁物种多样性与栖境关系研究现状。介绍了蚂蚁功能群划分以及在不同尺度上与栖境关系的应用研究,评述了功能群应用的限制。阐明了功能特征的定义以及基于形态特征和营养级方面的蚂蚁群落功能特征与栖境的研究,并对功能特征的研究趋势进行了展望。     

植物功能多样性与功能群研究进展

综述了植物功能多样性与功能群研究的最新进展。介绍了植物功能群的定义及植物功能群的划分方法。在功能多样性与生态系统资源动态关系方面．抽样效应和生态位互补效应用来解释植物多样性在生态系统资源动态中的作用。功能多样性与生态系统的稳定性间的关系可以用生态冗余或生态保险概念来解释,这两个概念是一个问题的两个侧面,是多样性与生态系统功能争论的焦点。     

固氮类植物在陆地生态系统中的作用研究进展

固氮类植物是陆地生态系统中的一个重要功能群,它们广泛存在于陆地生态系统中,是陆地生态系统最重要的氮源,大量研究表明,固氮类植物在陆地生态系统中的生态功能表现出明显的复杂性和多样性,对于生态过程有很强的主导性和控制性.通过与固氮微生物形成不同的共生固氮类型,它们可以改善土壤结构和营养组成以及地表微生境,直接影响碳氮磷循环、种子萌发和植株生长、植被演替、凋落物构成及其分解4个关键生态过程,进而提高群落结构复杂性、生物多样性和初级生产力,促进植被恢复和减少水土流失.未来研究中,应该加强对陆地生态系统固氮过程的定量化分析,确定影响共生固氮的主导因子和生态机制从而为陆地系统的生态恢复提供依据.     

植物功能性状研究进展

植物功能性状是指植物体具有的与其定植、存活、生长和死亡紧密相关的一系列核心植物属性,且这些属性能够显著影响生态系统功能,并能够反映植被对环境变化的响应.越来越多的研究表明,相比大多数基于植物分类和数量的研究,植物功能性状在种群、群落和生态系统尺度上,都已成为解决重要生态学问题的可靠途径.本文回顾了植物功能性状研究的发展历程,总结了近10年来基于植物功能性状研究的前沿科学问题,包括功能性状的全球分布格局和内在关联,沿环境梯度的变化规律,功能多样性的定义及应用,与群落物种共存机制和群落动态变化的关系,与系统发育的关系,对生态系统功能的影响以及对各类干扰的影响和响应.尽管功能性状研究已经延伸到生态学领域的各个方面,有力推动了各个前沿科学问题的研究发展,仍然有很多值得关注和着重研究的方向.本文也对未来基于植物功能性状的研究,从性状测量和选取、研究方法以及研究方向上提出了展望,并指出,在当前全球气候变化背景下,功能性状也可应用于指导生物多样性保护和生态系统管理政策的制定.     

丛枝菌根真菌生物地理学研究进展

丛枝菌根真菌(arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi,AMF)普遍存在于陆地生态系统中,能与绝大多数高等植物形成菌根共生体系。AMF能够促进植物对矿质养分的吸收,增强植物的抗逆能力,在维持生态系统稳定性和生产力中发挥着重要作用。AMF生物地理学主要研究AMF的生物地理分布格局和群落构建机制,对于理解AMF在不同生态系统中的重要性至关重要。总结了AMF生物地理学最新研究进展及研究方法,提出了AMF生物地理学研究理论框架。认为AMF在自然界中并非简单随机分布,宿主植物、地理因子、气候因子和土壤因子共同决定AMF的群落结构,不同尺度下的AMF群落构建符合生态位-中性连续统假说,但在不同尺度下这些驱动因子的相对重要性不同。在全球尺度和区域尺度下,AMF的地理分布格局主要受地理距离和气候因子的影响,中性理论的作用大于生态位理论。随着空间尺度的缩减,宿主植物和环境因子对AMF群落的影响胜过地理距离和扩散限制的作用,生态位理论取代中性理论在AMF群落构建中的主导地位。此外,很多研究发现,同一生境中AMF的群落构建机制并非一成不变,会随环境的变化而发生改变。在未来的研究中,应在野外调查和公共数据库的基础上加强整合分析和数据挖掘工作,从而进一步丰富和完善AMF生物地理学理论。     

全球气候变化下植物水分利用效率研究进展

气候变化是20世纪80年代以来全球最为关注的环境问题之一,显著影响着植物的生产力以及水分运移和利用格局,改变植物个体、群落及生态系统的水分利用效率（WUE）,最终影响植被分布格局和群落结构.开展植物WUE的研究有助于理解和预测陆地植被对全球变化的响应和适应对策,从而为应对全球变化提供新的依据.本文从叶片、个体、群体或生态系统等不同尺度简要介绍了植物水分利用效率的概念及测定方法,着重综述了气候变暖、CO₂浓度升高、降水变化和氮沉降等重要气候因子及其复合作用对植物WUE的影响研究进展,以及不同立地条件下植物WUE变化特征及生存适应策略,指出当前研究中存在的问题,并对全球气候变化下植物WUE的研究进行展望.     

基于能量属性的植物功能群划分方法探索——以内蒙古锡林河流域草原植物群落为例

植物功能群(plant functional groups, PFGs) 是具有确定的植物功能特征的一系列植物的组合,是生态学家为研究植被对气候变化和干扰的响应而引入的生态学概念.目前功能群研究中最核心的问题仍在于决定植物功能群划分的植物特征的选择上.以内蒙古锡林河流域草原植物群落为例,选取3个草原类型(羊草草原、大针茅草原和羊草草甸草原)及其退化梯度系列(未退化、轻度退化、中度退化、重度退化),在对植物热值进行分析测定的基础上,依据植物的能量属性-单位重量干物质在完全燃烧后所释放出来的热量值,采用人为分段的方法对草原植物进行了能量功能群的划分(高能值植物功能群、中能值植物功能群和低能值植物功能群).并探讨了这种能量功能群划分方法在草原植被动态研究中的客观性与可行性.     

Plant functional group removal alters root biomass and nutrient cycling in a typical steppe in Inner Mongolia, China

Loss of functional diversity has been demonstrated to have a variety of impacts on ecosystem functioning. However, most studies have been implemented in artificially assembled communities by removing the original vegetation and seeding with desired species or functional group compositions. Such approaches could significantly disturb belowground biomass, especially roots, making it difficult to examine belowground responses to diversity manipulations. To circumvent this issue, plant diversity gradients were established by in situ removal of aboveground biomass of different plant functional groups (PFGs) in a typical steppe, and belowground processes related to roots and soil were examined. Root nutrient pools exhibited contrasting patterns, with the phosphorus (P) pool decreasing linearly upon increased PFG removal while the nitrogen (N) pool had a hump-shaped response. Soil NO^3? increased while net N mineralization decreased with PFG removal. In contrast, soil P showed little response to PFG removal. Furthermore, both the identity and number of PFG removed had a significant influence on root and soil properties. The results of this study showed that loss of a combination of PFGs was important in natural grassland, and an approach with minimal influence on belowground processes is promising in studying diversity loss effects in natural ecosystems.     

热带森林植物功能群及其动态研究进展

热带森林极高的物种多样性和结构复杂性给生态学研究带来了很多挑战。植物功能群是对特定环境响应相似或对主要的生态过程具有相似作用的物种组合。应用植物功能群的方法是有效减少热带森林群落复杂性,并揭示其格局和过程的良好途径。在介绍植物功能群概念和划分途径的基础上,分析了热带森林植物功能群的时空动态规律。一般来讲,划分植物功能群通常有3种途径,并可通过5个步骤来完成。热带森林植物功能群的空间分布常受景观格局的制约,而环境异质性往往是影响不同植物功能群组配比例变化的直接原因。不同类型的植物功能群随演替过程发生显著的替代,而干扰体系和全球气候变化对功能群的动态过程具有重要的驱动作用。以功能群为基础的动态模型在模拟热带林群落动态和预测植被潜在分布等方面具有广阔的发展前景。探索有效的植物功能分类方法、构建完善的植物功能性状数据库、开发更为精确的功能群动态模型以及加强基于景观水平的植物功能群动态机制的认识等是未来热带森林植物功能群及其动态研究的重要方向。     

Effects of additional N on herbaceous species of desertified steppe in arid regions of China: a four-year field study

Human-induced nitrogen (N) enrichment is impacting the structure and function of grassland ecosystems, although few studies have been conducted in arid and semi-arid ecosystems under field conditions. Here, a 4-year multi-level N addition experiment under ambient precipitation in a typical temperate desert steppe in arid regions of China was designed to evaluate the impact of N enrichment on the herbaceous vegetation community in desert ecosystems. The results showed that species richness declined in response to N addition during all 4 years, while aboveground biomass increased in the relatively wet year (2007) and decreased in the relatively dry years (2008–2010) according to N addition level, as compared to the control. Plant community composition differed among plant functional groups (PFGs) based on added N. Perennial grasses (PG) benefited more compared with annuals and perennial forbs (PF) from N enrichment in terms of biomass production under conditions of high precipitation in 2007. In relatively dry years, biomass production of all PFGs was strictly dependent on inter- and intra-annual precipitation, which led PG to dominate in 2008 (with a dry spring) and PF to dominate in 2009 and 2010. Our results demonstrate that the impact of N enrichment on the herbaceous vegetation community in desert steppes may be strongly dependent on natural precipitation patterns characterized by shifts in plant community composition, particularly in terms of biomass production.     

伊洛河河岸带生态系统草本植物功能群划分

植物功能群是对环境有相同响应和对主要生态系统过程有相似作用的组合。伊洛河是黄河中游南岸的一条重要水系,其河岸带生态系统不同生境类型中草本植物优势种变化明显,能较好地反映出植被与环境的动态关系。根据调查结果,结合出现次数和重要值,选取27种优势种进行种间联结及相关性分析。以$2检验为基础,结合联结系数AC和共同出现百分率PC来测定草本层优势种间的联结性,根据优势种间的联结性及其在不同生境中的变化异同,以优势种为主体划分伊洛河河岸带生态系统中草本植物功能群。结果表明,对27种草本植物优势种共划分了5组功能群:"广布型"、"湿生型"、"中旱生型"、"农田逃逸型"和"入侵型"。表明以优势种为主体对伊洛河河岸带生态系统草本植物进行功能群划分可行性高,有较强的代表性。同一功能群物种间表现出显著正联结性,一起出现在同一生境下的几率较大,在长期的生长演化过程中,能够适应相似的资源环境且对干扰有相似的响应。伊洛河河岸带生态系统由于长期的自然和人为干扰,加上外来物种的入侵,河岸带生态系统的生物多样性和生态安全面临着严峻的挑战。     

Grazing effects on plant functional group diversity in Mediterranean shrublands

Grazing is one of the prevalent human activities that even today are taking place inside protected areas with direct or indirect effects on ecosystems. In this study we analyzed the effects of grazing on plant species diversity, plant functional group (PFG) diversity and community composition of shrublands. We analyzed plant diversity data from 582 sampling plots located in 66 protected areas of the Greek Natura 2000 network, containing in total 1102 plant species and subspecies. We also classified a priori all plant species in seven PFGs: annual forbs, annual grasses/sedges, legumes, perennial forbs, perennial grasses/sedges, small shrubs and tall shrubs. For each site, grazing intensity was estimated in four classes (no grazing, low, medium and high grazing intensity). We found that, at the spatial and temporal scale of this study, as grazing intensity increased, so did total species richness. However, each PFG displayed a different response to grazing. Short-lived species (annual grasses or forbs and legumes) benefited from grazing and their species richness and proportion in the community increased with grazing. Perennial grasses and forbs species richness increased with grazing intensity, but their dominance decreased, since their proportion in the community declined. Short shrub species richness remained unaffected by grazing, while tall shrub diversity decreased. Finally, in sites without grazing the spatial pattern of species richness of the different PFGs was not congruent with each other, while in grazed sites they were significantly positively correlated (with the exception of tall shrubs). This finding may imply that grazing is a selective pressure organizing the community structure, and imposing a certain contribution of each PFG. So, in Mediterranean shrublands in protected areas with a long historical record of grazing, it seems that grazing promotes species diversity and its continuation on a portion of the landscape may be a necessary part of an effective management plan.     

Moving beyond the guild concept: developing a practical functional trait framework for terrestrial beetles

1. New logical and analytical frameworks for studying functional traits have led to major advances in plant and freshwater ecology at local and global scales. The ecological and taxonomic diversity of terrestrial adult beetles (Coleoptera) means that functional trait approaches should have considerable power to illuminate the function not only of these animals but also of the ecosystems in which they occur. 2. Even though the functional trait concept is not new in ecology, it is still plagued with inconsistencies in methodology and terminology. Plant‐based studies have shown that an integrated and relatively consistent functional trait approach facilitates comparisons between studies, and allows the full utility and predictive capacity of trait‐based approaches to be realised. 3. This review outlines a logical framework for adult beetle functional trait studies using uniform terminology and methodology similar to those used by plant ecologists. Beetle life‐history and ecomorphological trait studies are synthesised and it is shown that a combination of both is analogous to the functional trait approach. A general functional trait list for beetles and potential functional links is outlined, as are potential analysis approaches. A consistent functional trait approach, coupled with advances in molecular techniques, has the capability to provide deeper insights into beetle community assembly and how beetles impact ecosystems and will enable worldwide comparisons and predictions to be made.     

Grazing effect on grasslands escalated by abnormal precipitations in Inner Mongolia

Grazing effects on arid and semi‐arid grasslands can be constrained by aridity. Plant functional groups (PFGs) are the most basic component of community structure (CS) and biodiversity & ecosystem function (BEF). They have been suggested as identity‐dependent in quantifying the response to grazing intensity and drought severity. Here, we examine how the relationships among PFGs, CS, BEF, and grazing intensity are driven by climatic drought. We conducted a manipulative experiment with three grazing intensities in 2012 (nondrought year) and 2013 (drought year). We classified 62 herbaceous plants into four functional groups based on their life forms. We used the relative species abundance of PFGs to quantify the effects of grazing and drought, and to explore the mechanisms for the pathway correlations using structural equation models (SEM) among PFGs, CS, and BEF directly or indirectly. Grazers consistently favored the perennial forbs (e.g., palatable or nutritious plants), decreasing the plants’ relative abundance by 23%–38%. Drought decreased the relative abundance of ephemeral plants by 42 ± 13%; and increased perennial forbs by 20 ± 7% and graminoids by 80 ± 31%. SEM confirmed that annuals and biennials had negative correlations with the other three PFGs, with perennial bunchgrasses facilitated by perennial rhizome grass. Moreover, the contributions of grazing to community structure (i.e., canopy height) were 1.6–6.1 times those from drought, whereas drought effect on community species richness was 3.6 times of the grazing treatment. Lastly, the interactive effects of grazing and drought on BEF were greater than either alone; particularly, drought escalated grazing damage on primary production. Synthesis. The responses of PFGs, CS, and BEF to grazing and drought were identity‐dependent, suggesting that grazing and drought regulation of plant functional groups might be a way to shape ecosystem structure and function in grasslands.     

Ruleminer: a knowledge system for supporting high-throughput protein function annotations

In this paper, we present RuleMiner, a knowledge system to facilitate a seamless integration of multi-sequence analysis tools and define profile-based rules for supporting high-throughput protein function annotations. This system consists of three essential components, Protein Function Groups (PFGs), PFG profiles and rules. The PFGs, established from an integrated analysis of current knowledge of protein functions from Swiss-Prot database and protein family-based sequence classifications, cover all possible cellular functions available in the database. The PFG profiles illustrate detailed protein features in the PFGs as in sequence conservations, the occurrences of sequence-based motifs, domains and species distributions. The rules, extracted from the PFG profiles, describe the clear relationships between these PFGs and all possible features. As a result, the RuleMiner is able to provide an enhanced capability for protein function analysis, such as results from the integrated sequence analysis tools for given proteins can be comparatively analyzed due to the clear feature-PFG relationships. Also, much needed guidance is readily available for such analysis. If the rules describe one-to-one (unique) relationships between the protein features and the PFGs, then these features can be utilized as unique functional identifiers and cellular functions of unknown proteins can be reliably determined. Otherwise, additional information has to be provided.