Different climate response of three tree ring proxies of Pinus sylvestris from the Eastern Carpathians,Romania

The aim of this study was to compare the climatic responses of three tree rings proxies: tree ring width (TRW), maximum latewood density (MXD), and blue intensity (BI). For this study, 20 cores of Pinus sylvestris covering the period 1886–2015 were extracted from living non-damaged trees from the Eastern Carpathian Mountains (Romania). Each chronology was compared to monthly and daily climate data. All tree ring proxies had a stronger correlation with the daily climate data compared to monthly data. The highest correlation coefficient was obtained between the MXD chronology and daily maximum temperature over the period beginning with the end of July and ending in the middle of September (r = 0.64). The optimal intervals for the temperature signature were 01 Aug – 24 Sept for the MXD chronology, 05 Aug – 25 Aug for the BI chronology, and both 16 Nov of the previous year – 16 March of the current year and 15 Apr – 05 May for the TRW chronology. The results from our study indicate that MXD can be used as a proxy indicator for summer maximum temperature, while TRW can be used as a proxy indicator for just March maximum temperature. The weak and unstable relationship between BI and maximum temperature indicates that BI is not a good proxy indicator for climate reconstructions over the analysed region.     

不同海拔温度和降水对新疆阿尔泰山西伯利亚落叶松径向生长的影响

为定量并分离关键气候因子对新疆阿尔泰山不同海拔树木径向生长的影响,通过对高、中和低海拔的西伯利亚落叶松(Larixsibirica)树轮宽度标准年表与气候因子分别进行相关、多元线性回归等统计分析,并进一步计算了线性模型中不同气候因素的绝对和相对贡献率。结果表明,高海拔地区,当年6月温度和上年7月降水分别与径向生长呈显著正相关和负相关,两者共同解释西伯利亚落叶松径向生长变异的33.1%,相对贡献率分别为66.2%和33.8%;中海拔地区,当年6月温度和上年6月降水分别与径向生长呈显著正相关和负相关,两者共同解释径向生长变异的26.8%,相对贡献率分别为40.1%和59.9%;低海拔地区,上年6月温度和7月降水分别与径向生长呈显著负相关和正相关,两者共同解释径向生长变异的29.4%,相对贡献率分别为31.9%和68.1%。这表明限制树木径向生长的主要影响因子随海拔的不同而异,在高海拔地区,温度是主要限制因子;而在低海拔地区,降雨是主要限制因子。     

Fungal communities associated with acorn woodpeckers and their excavations

Wood-decay fungi soften wood, putatively providing opportunities for woodpeckers to excavate an otherwise hard substrate, yet the fungal community composition in tree cavities and the specificity of these relationships is largely unknown. We used high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the fungal ITS2 region to examine the fungal communities associated with acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) and their cavities in mature valley oak (Quercus lobata) and blue oak (Q. douglasii) trees in an oak savannah of central coastal California, USA. Acorn woodpeckers and their excavations harbored over 1500 fungal taxa, including more than 100 putative wood-decay fungi. The fungal communities found on the birds were more similar to those found in excavated cavities than those found in trees without excavated holes. These results suggest that symbiotic associations between acorn woodpeckers and fungi are highly diverse, with low specificity. Symbiotic associations between cavity-excavators and fungi are likely more common and widespread than previously thought.     

Wood decay under the microscope

Many aspects of the interactions between host wood structure and fungal activity can be revealed by high resolution light microscopy, and this technique has provided much of the information discussed here. A wide range of different types of decay can result from permutations of host species, fungal species and conditions within wood. Within this spectrum, three main types are commonly recognised: brown rot, white rot and soft rot. The present review explores parts of the range of variation that each of these encompasses and emphasizes that degradation modes appear to reflect a co-evolutionary adaptation of decay fungi to different wood species or the lignin composition within more primitive and advanced wood cell types. One objective of this review is to provide evidence that the terms brown rot, white rot and soft rot may not be obsolete, but rigid definitions for fungi that are placed into these categories may be less appropriate than thought previously. Detailed knowledge of decomposition processes does not only aid prognosis of decay development in living trees for hazard assessment but also allows the identification of wood decay fungi that can be used for biotechnology processes in the wood industry. In contrast to bacteria or commercial enzymes, hyphae can completely ramify through solid wood. In this review evidence is provided that wood decay fungi can effectively induce permeability changes in gymnospermous heartwood or can be applied to facilitate the identification of tree rings in diffuse porous wood of angiosperms. The specificity of their enzymes and the mild conditions under which degradation proceeds is partly detrimental for trees, but also make wood decay fungi potentially efficient biotechnological tools.     

Patch and landscape features drive fire regime in a Brazilian flammable ecosystem

The flammable ecosystems are evolutionary dependent on the periodic action of fire. Several environmental factors, both at local and landscape scales, can affect fire regimes in these ecosystems differently. Here, we evaluated the influence of local and landscape features on two parameters of the fire regime of a flammable protected area of the Brazilian savanna: The Chapada Diamantina National Park. We characterized both fire frequency and the time since the last fire, from 1990 to 2019 and measured five environmental predictors (tree canopy cover, altitude, water surface, predominant land use and distance to the nearest municipality). We used Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) to assess the influence of environmental predictors on the measured fire regime parameters. We found a large interannual variation in the total annual area burned in the studied period. In total, 68 % of the protected area (1030 km²) was burned at least once and 32 % (486 km²) was unaffected by fires during the study period. Predominant land use, distance to the nearest municipality, tree cover and the interaction between tree cover and altitude were negatively related to fire frequency, while the water surface and altitude positively influenced fire frequency in the park. Compared to older fires, recent fires occurred in landscapes at lower altitudes and with lower tree cover. Our results demonstrate that the fire frequency and time since the last fire were highly variable across the park, reflecting the strong influence of landscape heterogeneity on their parameters.     

High-fidelity representation of climate variations by Amburana cearensis tree-ring chronologies across a tropical forest transition in South America

Numerous ring-width chronologies from different species have recently been developed in diverse tropical forests across South America. However, the temporal and spatial climate signals in these tropical chronologies is less well known. In this work, annual growth rings of Amburana cearensis, a widely distributed tropical tree species, were employed to estimate temporal and spatial patterns of climate variability in the transition from the dry Chiquitano (16–17°S) to the humid Guarayos-southern Amazon (14–15°S) forests. Four well-replicated chronologies (16–21 trees, 22–28 radii) of A. cearensis were compared with temperature and precipitation records available in the region. The interannual variations in all four A. cearensis tree-ring chronologies are positively correlated with precipitation and negatively with temperature during the late dry-early wet season, the classic moisture response seen widely in trees from dry tropical and temperate forests worldwide. However, the chronologies from the dry Chiquitano forests of southern Bolivia reflect the regional reduction in precipitation during recent decades, while the chronologies from the tropical lowland moist forests in the north capture the recent increase in precipitation in the southern Amazon basin. These results indicate that A. cearensis tree growth is not only sensitive to the moisture balance of the growing season, it can also record subtle differences in regional precipitation trends across the dry to humid forest transition. Comparisons with previously developed Centrolobium microchaete chronologies in the region reveal a substantial common signal between chronologies in similar environments, suggesting that regional differences in climate are a major drivers of tree growth along the precipitation gradient. The difficulty of finding A. cearensis trees over 150-years old is the main limitation involved in the paleoclimate application of this species. The expansion of monocultures and intensive cattle ranching in the South American tropics are contributing to the loss of these old growth A. cearensis trees and the valuable records of climate variability and climate change that they contain.     

Patterns of daily stem growth in different tree species in a warm-temperate forest in northern China

Radial growth in trees responds to environmental changes in various ways ranging from immediate to hysteretic responses. However, species-specific tree radial growth patterns and their responses to short-term weather changes are not fully understood. Here, the daily stem radial changes (SRCs) in four common tree species, linden (Tilia mongolica), birch (Betula dahurica), oak (Quercus wutaishanica) and larch (Larix principis-rupprechtii), were monitored with high-resolution point dendrometers during the main growing seasons in 2017–2019 on Dongling Mountain, northern China. The SRC was differentiated into tree water deficit-induced stem shrinkage (TWD) and growth-induced irreversible stem expansion (GRO) to evaluate species-specific responses to weather variables and short-term drought events. We found that the TWD and GRO of the four species were significantly different. The TWD was influenced primarily by the vapor pressure deficit (VPD), whereas the GRO was influenced primarily by precipitation (P). In linden and birch, a larger proportion of the GRO occurred at higher air temperature (T_mean) and VPD values; in contrast, the range of these changes was lower in oak and larch. With the increased durations of drought periods, oak and larch experienced large and rapid increases in TWD, whereas birch and linden showed small and slow increases. These results indicate that oak and larch would be sensitive to warmer and drier weather conditions predicted for the future, while linden and birch would have a conservative growth strategy. Our results provide further insights into the physiology of these four tree species and allow us to better predict the growth response of forest dynamics under climate change.     

麻雀幼鸟和成鸟逃逸距离的比较

逃逸是鸟类常用的反捕食手段。自然选择会优化鸟类的逃逸距离,以便在躲避被捕食风险和保持能量之间做出权衡。理论模型预测动物个体可依据期望寿命来调整自身的行为：期望寿命短的个体倾向于风险偏好,即逃逸距离短;而期望寿命长的个体倾向于风险回避,即逃逸距离长。同时,逃逸距离还受到外部因素（如人为干扰强度、鸟类群体大小）的影响。本研究在北京城区收集了麻雀（Passer montanus）145只成鸟和75只幼鸟的逃逸距离数据,发现麻雀成鸟比幼鸟有着更长的逃逸距离,且成鸟更可能是群体中首先逃逸的个体。此外,研究发现麻雀的逃逸距离随着人为干扰强度的增加而降低,随着群体大小增加而增加。本研究结果符合理论预期：存活率高的类群（成鸟）有着更长的逃逸距离。     

树鼩原代皮肤成纤维细胞的分离培养技术

建立稳定的树鼩(Tupaiabelangeri)皮肤成纤维细胞的体外培养体系,可为有关此类细胞的实验和疾病树鼩细胞模型提供技术支持。取树鼩大腿内侧皮肤用组织块贴壁法和胶原酶Ⅰ消化法分离皮肤细胞,胰蛋白酶差别消化法纯化细胞;用MEM(10%FBS)完全培养基和含低血清生长添加物(LSGS)的培养基培养细胞;免疫荧光和蛋白印迹法鉴定细胞,并测定细胞的生长、冻存和复苏特性。经树鼩皮肤细胞分离效果比较,胶原酶消化法比组织块贴壁法更适合用于树鼩原代皮肤细胞分离;对分离及冻存复苏后细胞生长状况观察比较发现,添加了LSGS的MEM培养基更利于细胞存活、生长;细胞形态观察、免疫荧光和蛋白印迹检测鉴定所分离的细胞为树鼩皮肤成纤维细胞。成功建立了树鼩原代皮肤细胞的分离、纯化方法,并优化了该细胞的培养条件。     

树鼩原代小胶质细胞的分离培养、纯化与鉴定

本文旨在建立树鼩(Tupaia belangeri)小胶质细胞原代培养及纯化的方法,为利用新型实验动物树鼩进行相关研究工作提供实验材料。将新生树鼩大脑皮质机械分离,皮质组织块用胰蛋白酶消化后制成细胞悬液;培养9～10 d后,分别采用直立手拍法、温和胰酶消化法以及恒温振荡法分离纯化树鼩小胶质细胞,通过差速贴壁进一步纯化。荧光显微镜下,利用小胶质细胞的特异性标记物CD11b抗体进行鉴定。结果显示,小胶质细胞分离培养第3天时呈静息状态,表现为梭形、杆状、分支状等不规则形态。细胞免疫荧光CD11b呈阳性。不同纯化方法细胞免疫荧光并计数显示,直立手拍法所获得的细胞产量明显高于恒温振荡法(P 0.05),细胞阳性率( 96%)明显高于温和胰酶消化法( 90%,P 0.05)。直立手拍法可获得产量及纯度高的树鼩原代小胶质细胞。