嘉兴石臼漾湿地冬季浮游植物群落结构特征

2010年冬季对嘉兴石臼漾饮用水水源人工湿地水体的浮游植物群落结构进行了调查,以探索湿地净化措施对浮游植物群落结构的影响.结果表明:在石臼漾湿地共发现浮游植物77种,隶属7门39属,其中硅藻门最多,为14属33种;优势种有变异直链藻、梅尼小环藻、菱形藻、色球藻、针晶蓝纤维藻、四尾栅藻、小型黄丝藻等,梅尼小环藻优势度最大,为0.144.石臼漾湿地冬季浮游植物平均密度为1.28×106 cell·L-1;出水口密度最低,为6.80×105cell·L-1,并且出水口蓝藻细胞的密度仅为进水口的14.9％(P＜0.05).各采样点Shannon多样性指数为0.94 ～1.27.经聚类和多维尺度分析,石臼漾湿地冬季浮游植物群落可分为根孔沿岸带群落、根孔植物床流水型群落(2种)、深度净化湖区静水型群落和湿地源水群落五大类;各采样点生态环境及水体流速的不同是五类群落产生的主要影响因素.     

不同土地利用方式下土壤动物群落的聚类与排序

对广州天河城市化地区林地、草地和农田3种土地利用方式下,6个代表性的样地中小型土壤动物群落进行了调查,共捕获中小型土壤动物1623个,共26个类群,其中线虫纲( Nematoda)、蜱螨目(Acarina)和弹尾目(Collembola)为优势类群,共占总捕获量的79.1％.不同样地生境中土壤动物的类群组成以及个体数不同.总体来看,林地、农田、草地土壤动物群落的Shannon多样性指数、复杂性指数均依次降低,Pielou均匀性指数、Margalef丰富度指数均以林地为最高.对土壤动物的聚类和排序结果表明,研究区中小型土壤动物可划分为4大类,其中第1类由3种优势类群组成;第一、二排序轴分别反映了土壤理化性质、土地利用类型(以人类干扰程度不同为主要特征)对土壤动物组成及分布的影响.     

Functional responses and scaling in predator-prey interactions of marine fishes: contemporary issues and emerging concepts

Predator-prey interactions are a primary structuring force vital to the resilience of marine communities and sustainability of the world's oceans. Human influences on marine ecosystems mediate changes in species interactions. This generality is evinced by the cascading effects of overharvesting top predators on the structure and function of marine ecosystems. It follows that ecological forecasting, ecosystem management, and marine spatial planning require a better understanding of food web relationships. Characterising and scaling predator-prey interactions for use in tactical and strategic tools (i.e. multi-species management and ecosystem models) are paramount in this effort. Here, we explore what issues are involved and must be considered to advance the use of predator-prey theory in the context of marine fisheries science. We address pertinent contemporary ecological issues including (1) the approaches and complexities of evaluating predator responses in marine systems; (2) the 'scaling up' of predator-prey interactions to the population, community, and ecosystem level; (3) the role of predator-prey theory in contemporary fisheries and ecosystem modelling approaches; and (4) directions for the future. Our intent is to point out needed research directions that will improve our understanding of predator-prey interactions in the context of the sustainable marine fisheries and ecosystem management.     

A spatially explicit analysis to extrapolate carbon fluxes in upland tundra where permafrost is thawing

One of the most important changes in high‐latitude ecosystems in response to climatic warming may be the thawing of permafrost soil. In upland tundra, the thawing of ice‐rich permafrost can create localized surface subsidence called thermokarst, which may change the soil environment and influence ecosystem carbon release and uptake. We established an intermediate scale (a scale in between point chamber measurements and eddy covariance footprint) ecosystem carbon flux study in Alaskan tundra where permafrost thaw and thermokarst development had been occurring for several decades. The main goal of our study was to examine how dynamic ecosystem carbon fluxes [gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration (R_eco), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE)] relate to ecosystem variables that incorporate the structural and edaphic changes that co‐occur with permafrost thaw and thermokarst development. We then examined how these measured ecosystem carbon fluxes responded to upscaling. For both spatially extensive measurements made intermittently during the peak growing season and intensive measurements made over the entire growing season, ecosystem variables including degree of surface subsidence, thaw depth, and aboveground biomass were selected in a mixed model selection procedure as the ‘best’ predictors of GPP, R_eco, and NEE. Variables left out of the model (often as a result of autocorrelation) included soil temperature, moisture, and normalized difference vegetation index. These results suggest that the structural changes (surface subsidence, thaw depth, aboveground biomass) that integrate multiple effects of permafrost thaw can be useful components of models used to estimate ecosystem carbon exchange across thermokarst affected landscapes.     

Wind Power Compensation is not for the Birds: An Opinion from an Environmental Economist

This article advocates for better implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) framework as applied to wind power development, with a particular focus on improving compensatory restoration scaling. If properly enforced, the environmental impacts hierarchy “avoid‐minimize‐compensate” provides the regulated community with incentives to prevent wildlife and habitat impacts in sensitive areas and, if necessary, compensate for residual impacts through restoration or conservation projects. Given the increase in legislation requiring resource‐based environmental compensation, methods for scaling an appropriate quantity and quality of resources are of increasing relevance. I argue that Equivalency Analysis (EA) represents a transparent and quantitative approach for scaling compensation in the case of wind power development. Herein, I identify the economic underpinnings of environmental compensation legislation and identify weaknesses in current scaling approaches within wind power development. I demonstrate how the recently completed REMEDE toolkit, which provides guidance on EA, can inform an improved scaling approach and summarize a case study involving raptor collisions with turbines that illustrates the EA approach. Finally, I stress the need for further contributions from the field of restoration ecology. The success of ex ante compensation in internalizing the environmental costs of wind development depends on the effective implementation of the environmental impacts hierarchy, which must effectively encourage avoidance and minimization over environmental restoration and repair.     

Carbon : nitrogen stoichiometry in forest ecosystems during stand development

Aim Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stoichiometry is a critical indicator of biogeochemical coupling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, our current understanding of C : N stoichiometry is mainly derived from observations across space, and little is known about its dynamics through time. Location Global secondary forests. Methods We examined temporal variations in C : N ratios and scaling relationships between N and C for various ecosystem components (i.e. plant tissue, litter, forest floor and mineral soil) using data extracted from 39 chronosequences in forest ecosystems around the world. Results The C : N ratio in plant tissue, litter, forest floor and mineral soil exhibited large variation across various sequences, with an average of 145.8 ± 9.4 (mean ± SE), 49.9 ± 3.0, 38.2 ± 3.1 and 18.5 ± 0.9, respectively. In most sequences, the plant tissue C : N ratio increased significantly with stand age, while the C : N ratio in litter, forest floor and mineral soil remained relatively constant over the age sequence. N and C scaled isometrically (i.e. the slope of the relationship between log‐transformed N and C is not significantly different from 1.0) in litter, forest floor and mineral soil both within and across sequences, but not in plant tissue either within or across sequences. The C : N ratio was larger in coniferous forests than in broadleaf forests and in temperate forests than in tropical forests. In contrast, the N–C scaling slope did not reveal significant differences either between coniferous and broadleaf forests or between temperate and tropical forests. Main conclusions These results suggest that C and N become decoupled in plants but remain coupled in other ecosystem components during stand development.     

Antibody production in Bacillus megaterium: strategies and physiological implications of scaling from microtiter plates to industrial bioreactors

Bacillus megaterium was used as an alternative high potential microbial production system for the production of antibody fragment D1.3 scFv. The aim of the study was to follow a holistic optimization approach from medium screening in small scale microtiter platforms, gaining deeper process understanding in the bioreactor scale and implementing advanced process strategies at larger scales (5-100 L). Screening and optimization procedures were supported by statistical design of experiments and a genetic algorithm approach. The process control relied on a soft-sensor for biomass estimation to establish a μ-oscillating time-dependent fed-batch strategy. Several cycles of growth phases and production phases, equal to starving phases, were performed in one production. Flow cytometry was used to monitor and characterize the dynamics of secretion and cell viability. Besides the biosynthesis of the product, secretion was optimized by an appropriate medium design considering different carbon sources, metal ions, (NH(4))(2)SO(4), and inductor concentrations. For bioprocess design, an adapted oscillating fed-batch strategy was conceived and successfully implemented at an industrially relevant scale of 100 L. In comparison to common methods for controlling fed-batch profiles, the developed process delivered increased overall productivities. Thereby measured process parameters such as growth stagnation or productivity fluctuations were directly linked to single cell or population behavior leading to a more detailed process understanding. Above all, the importance of single cell analysis as key scale-free tool to characterize and optimize recombinant protein production is highlighted, since this can be applied to all development stages independently of the cultivation platform.     

Order parameters of unsaturated phospholipids in membranes and the effect of cholesterol: a 1H–13C solid-state NMR study at natural abundance

Most biological phospholipids contain at least one unsaturated alkyl chain. However, few order parameters of unsaturated lipids have been determined because of the difficulty associated with isotopic labeling of a double bond. Dipolar recoupling on axis with scaling and shape preservation (DROSS) is a solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance technique optimized for measuring ¹H–¹³C dipolar couplings and order parameters in lipid membranes in the fluid phase. It has been used to determine the order profile of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine hydrated membranes. Here, we show an application for the measurement of local order parameters in multilamellar vesicles containing unsaturated lipids. Taking advantage of the very good ¹³C chemical shift dispersion, one can easily follow the segmental order along the acyl chains and, particularly, around the double bonds where we have been able to determine the previously misassigned order parameters of each acyl chain of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC). We have followed the variation of such order profiles with temperature, unsaturation content and cholesterol addition. We have found that the phase formed by DOPC with 30% cholesterol is analogous to the liquid-ordered (l_o) phase. Because these experiments do not require isotopic enrichment, this technique can, in principle, be applied to natural lipids and biomembranes.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at .     

The species-area-energy relationship

Area and available energy are major determinants of species richness. Although scale dependency of the relationship between energy availability and species richness (the species-energy relationship) has been documented, the exact relationship between the species-area and the species-energy relationship has not been studied explicitly. Here we show, using two extensive data sets on avian distributions in different biogeographic regions, that there is a negative interaction between energy availability and area in their effect on species richness. The slope of the species-area relationship is lower in areas with higher levels of available energy, and the slope of the species-energy relationship is lower for larger areas. This three-dimensional species-area-energy relationship can be understood in terms of probabilistic processes affecting the proportions of sites occupied by individual species. According to this theory, high environmental energy elevates species' occupancies, which depress the slope of the species-area curve.