甘南高寒草甸群落的物种-多度关系沿坡向的变化

物种-多度格局研究是揭示群落组织结构和物种区域分布规律的重要手段。该研究以青藏高原东北部的甘南高寒草甸为研究对象, 基于野外调查和室内分析, 研究了不同坡向的环境因子、植物群落分布, 并利用RAD软件程序包对其进行了拟合分析。结果显示: 在南坡-北坡上, 土壤含水量从南坡(0.18 g·g ^-1)到北坡(0.31 g·g ^-1)呈现递增的趋势, 土壤温度从南坡(22.33 ℃)到北坡(18.13 ℃)以及光照强度从南坡(744.15 lx)到北坡(681.93 lx)均呈逐渐减小的趋势。物种-多度分布曲线的斜率从南坡向北坡依次减小。随着坡向由南向北转变, 物种-多度和物种多样性都呈递增的趋势。通过6个模型对坡向梯度的物种-多度分布进行拟合发现, 甘南高寒草甸区的物种-多度分布主要是以生态位模型为主, 其次是随机分布模型。青藏高原高寒草甸微生境梯度上的物种在总体上的资源分配模式是以固定分配模式为主, 稀有种的资源分配模式是以随机性模型为主, 常见种的资源分配模式则是以确定性模型为主。     

Can grassland plant communities be preserved on road and railway verges?

Abstract. Semi‐natural grasslands are a threatened biotope type in many countries. Typical grassland plant species are adapted to continuous grazing or mowing that keeps the environment open. With the decline in grassland area, these species are ever more reliant on alternative habitats such as road verges. To find out whether plant communities comparable to those of semi‐natural grasslands can be maintained on modern road and railway sides, the vegetation of 92 grasslands and 90 road and railway verges was studied. These biotope types were compared with each other according to their community structure, total number of species, number of grassland species and restricted‐range diversity. Further study of the vegetation of road and railway verges was carried out in order to identify the treatments and environments which are most likely to support diverse plant communities. The species number and the restricted‐range diversity proved to be higher next to roads and railways than on grasslands. Grassland species were, however, most abundant on grasslands. Furthermore, the community structure of these biotope types was totally divergent. In their present state, road and railway verges are not a substitute for semi‐natural grasslands. Nevertheless, the occurrence of grassland species in verges may be enhanced by a suitable mowing regime, by giving up the use of de‐icing salt and herbicides and by allowing natural establishment of vegetation on the verges.     

气候变化对草甸草原土壤氮素矿化作用影响的实验研究

 用盖顶PVC管法,将锡林河流域中1469m高海拔处的草甸草原原状土柱分别移植到海拔1187m、960m的低海拔处培养,用以研究温度变化对土壤氮素的净氨化速率、净硝化速率和净矿化速率的可能影响。经过一个生长季培养后的测定结果表明：从高海拔到低海拔,实验所选择的3个地点的年均气温分别为-0.5℃、2.2℃和4.4℃,受此不同气温的影响,移植到这3个地点的草甸草原土壤氮素的净氨化速率分别为0.05 mgN·kg-1·m-1,0.13mgN·kg-1·m-1和1.09mgN·kg-1·m-1;净硝化速率分别为0.05mgN·kg-1·m-1,0.76mgN·kg-1·m-1和0.26mgN·kg-1N·m-1;净矿化速率分别为0.10mgN·kg-1·m-1,0.89mgN·kg-1·m-1和1.35mgN·kg-1·m-1。由此可推断未来气候变化将促进草甸草原土壤氮素的净矿化作用。     

生态因子对赣南桉树枝瘿姬小蜂雄成虫比率的影响

桉树枝瘿姬小蜂Leptocybe invasa具有偏雌性的特点,了解桉树枝瘿姬小蜂的性比规律,有利于监测和掌控该蜂的种群动态,便于及时有效防控该蜂.2017年至2019年,采用在桉树Eucalyptus林中悬挂黄色粘虫板的方法,监测、观察桉树枝瘿姬小蜂成虫的发生动态,通过分析该蜂雄成虫比率及其影响因子,以弄清生态因子对...     

Changes in vegetation types and Ellenberg indicator values after 65 years of fertilizer application in the Rengen Grassland Experiment,Germany

Question: How does semi-natural grassland diversify after 65 years of differential application of Ca, N, P, and K fertilizers? Is fertilizer application adequately reflected by the Ellenberg indicator values (EIVs)? Location: Eifel Mountains, West Germany. Methods: The Rengen Grassland Experiment (RGE) was established in an oligotrophic grassland in 1941. Six fertilizer treatments (Ca, CaN, CaNP, CaNP-KCl, CaNP-K₂SO₄, and unfertilized control) were applied annually in five complete randomized blocks. Species composition of experimental plots was sampled in 2006 and compared with constancy tables representing grassland types in a phytosociological monograph of a wider area. Each plot was matched to the most similar community type using the Associa method. Mean EIVs were calculated for each treatment. Results: The control plots supported oligotrophic Nardus grassland of the Polygalo-Nardetum association (Violion caninae alliance). Vegetation in the Ca and CaN treatments mostly resembled montane meadow of Geranio-Trisetetum (Polygono-Trisetion). Transitional types between Poo-Trisetetum and Arrhenatheretum (both from the Arrhenatherion alliance) developed in the CaNP treatment. In the CaNP-KCl and CaNP-K₂SO₄ treatments, vegetation corresponded to the mesotrophic Arrhenatheretum meadow. Major discontinuity in species composition was found between control, Ca, and CaN treatments, and all treatments with P application. EIVs for both nutrients and soil reaction were considerably higher in P treatments than in Ca and CaN treatments. Surprisingly, the control plots had the lowest EIVs for continentality and moisture, although these factors had not been manipulated in the experiment. Conclusions: Long-term fertilizer application can create different plant communities belonging to different phytosociological alliances and classes, even within a distance of a few meters. Due to their correlated nature, EIVs can erroneously indicate changes in factors that actually did not change, but co-varied with factors that did change. In P-limited ecosystems, EIVs for nutrients may indicate availability of P rather than N.     

Effects of changes in farming of subalpine meadows on a grassland bird, the whinchat ( Saxicola rubetra)

The increasing intensity of farming of meadows is supposed to be the major cause for strong declines of many meadow breeding birds. The whinchat, Saxicola rubetra, a Palaearctic migratory bird, is an indicator species of open grassland farmed at a low intensity. Originally widespread throughout Switzerland, it is now restricted to mountain and subalpine grassland. We document the changes in meadow cultivation in subalpine farmland from 1988 to 2002, and the breeding performance and density of the whinchat. We explored the impact of habitat degradation on the population dynamics of this meadow bird. The cultivation of hay meadows changed markedly within the 15 years: the onset of mowing was shifted forward by about 20 days, and farmers applied new techniques such as silage and irrigation. This shift was more pronounced in the favourable farmland in the valley bottom (Pradellas) than on the slopes (Vnà). The percentage of successful whinchat broods, ranging from 5% to 78% in different years, strongly depended on mowing date on both sites. In spite of earlier mowing, birds did not change their time schedule of breeding. Breeding success in Pradellas was too low to compensate for mortality (sink population), but because of immigration the number of breeding pairs did not decrease untill 2000. Population size may therefore be a misleading indicator of local population viability. Based on the breeding schedule of whinchats at different altitudes, we recommend mowing dates in agreement with the reproductive cycle of ground nesting meadow birds.     

What lies beneath: Why knowledge of belowground biomass dynamics is crucial to effective seagrass management

Conservation of seagrasses meadows is important, because these habitats are ecologically important and under threat. Monitoring and modelling are essential tools for assessing seagrass condition and potential threats, however there are many seagrass indicators to choose from, and differentiating between natural variability and declining conditions poses a serious challenge. Tropical seagrass meadows in the Indo-Pacific, in contrast to most temperate meadows, are characterized by a multi-species composition and a year-round growth. Differences in characteristics between species growing within one meadow could induce uncertainty in the assessment of the dynamics of these meadows if variation in productivity and related biomass turnover timescales are not taken into consideration. We present data on biomass distribution, production and turnover timescales of above- and belowground tissues for three key tropical seagrass species (Thalassia hemprichii, Cymodocea rotundata and Halodule uninervis) in two mixed-species meadows in the Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia. Seagrass leaf turnover time scales were comparable for the three studied seagrass species and varied between 25 and 30 days. Variation in leaf and rhizome turnover timescales were small (or insignificant) between the two meadows. In contrast, rhizome turnover time scales were around ten times longer than leaf turnover timescales, and large differences in rhizome turnover time scales (200–500 days) were observed between the species. The late-successional species T. hemprichii had much slower rhizome turnover compared to the two early successional species. Furthermore, since rhizome biomass has a much longer turnover time compared to leaf biomass, changes in rhizome biomass reflect effects on seagrass meadows on a much longer timescale compared to changes in leaf biomass for these tropical meadows. We conclude that belowground biomass dynamics are an important proxy to assess long-term effects of environmental stressors on seagrass ecosystems and should be included in tropical seagrass management programmes.     

Effects of food availability on proceptivity: A test of the reproduction at all costs and metabolic fuels hypotheses

Proceptive behaviours are used by animals to indicate interest in opposite-sex conspecifics. These behaviours can be affected by an individual's nutritional status. Two mutually exclusive hypotheses have been proposed to account for the effects of food availability on reproduction. These are the metabolic fuels hypothesis and the reproduction at all costs hypothesis. It is not known if food availability affects proceptive behaviours such as scent marking, over-marking, and self-grooming. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that food-deprived and nonfood-deprived meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, differ in the number of scent marks they deposit, the proportion of over-marks they deposit, and the amount of time they spend self-grooming when they encounter the scent marks of opposite-sex conspecifics. We tested this hypothesis by exposing meadow voles that either had continuous access to food or were food-deprived for either 6hours or 24hours to the scent marks of an opposite-sex conspecific. Due to differences in the natural history of male and female meadow voles, we predicted that female voles' behaviour will best be explained by the metabolic fuels hypothesis whereas males' behaviour will best be explained by the reproduction at all costs hypothesis. We found that both male and female voles deprived of food for either 6hours or 24hours spent less time self-grooming compared to nonfood-deprived voles. However, food availability did not affect the scent marking and over-marking behaviour of male and female voles. Differences in the effects of food availability on these proceptive behaviours are discussed within the context of the natural history of meadow voles.     

Impacts of human activity on environment in the high-cold pasturing area: A case of Gannan pasturing area

Identifying the specific forces driving environmental impact is a hot topic in the field of sustainable development in the pasturing area. In the paper, the ecological footprint was taken as the index of environmental impact, and a series of index like population quality, prosperous, using intensity, livelihood tactics are considered as the main human factors. Using the STIRPAT model and temporal series data from 1980 to 2007, the author analyzes the effects of the human driving forces of environmental impact.
The ecological footprint method presents a simple framework for national natural capital accounting, and it has been used as a comprehensive index of human activity impact, which indirectly reflect human activity’s pressure on the environment. Our analyses showed that the ecological footprint increased from 238736.9 to 877716.1 ha and per capital ecological footprint also increased from 0.854 to 1.961 ha/per during 1980–2007 in Gannan pasturing area. However, in the meantime, the ecological footprint intensity was inclined from 25.396 to 3.025 ha/ten thousand yuan.
With a view of dismantling the human driving forces of ecological footprint, the modified IPAT-called STIRPAT has been employed as a common analytic framework. Our analyses showed that population quantity and using intensity was a major driver of ecological footprint, their coefficients were greater than 1.0 in model (1); In addition, promoting the prosperous lever and the primary industry proportion, the impact of environment will be increased, but their coefficients are less than 1.0 in model (1). At the same time, the technological eco-efficiency of sample regions was discussed in details, the range ability of the technological eco-efficiency was wider, and 15 years went beyond the average level, but the other was less than the average level. Another important finding in the empirical study is that there are some evidences of an environmental Kuznets curve for ecological footprint within the range of calculated data. Some potential improvements in some further researches and suggestions to alleviate the environment pressure, and it is put forward in the last section.