Cretaceous origins of the vibrotactile bill-tip organ in birds

Some probe-foraging birds locate their buried prey by detecting mechanical vibrations in the substrate using a specialized tactile bill-tip organ comprising mechanoreceptors embedded in densely clustered pits in the bone at the tip of their beak. This remarkable sensory modality is known as ‘remote touch’, and the associated bill-tip organ is found in probe-foraging taxa belonging to both the palaeognathous (in kiwi) and neognathous (in ibises and shorebirds) clades of modern birds. Intriguingly, a structurally similar bill-tip organ is also present in the beaks of extant, non-probing palaeognathous birds (e.g. emu and ostriches) that do not use remote touch. By comparison with our comprehensive sample representing all orders of extant modern birds (Neornithes), we provide evidence that the lithornithids (the most basal known palaeognathous birds which evolved in the Cretaceous period) had the ability to use remote touch. This finding suggests that the occurrence of the vestigial bony bill-tip organ in all modern non-probing palaeognathous birds represents a plesiomorphic condition. Furthermore, our results show that remote-touch probe foraging evolved very early among the Neornithes and it may even have predated the palaeognathous–neognathous divergence. We postulate that the tactile bony bill-tip organ in Neornithes may have originated from other snout tactile specializations of their non-avian theropod ancestors.     

西南山地流域NDVI变化特征及降水敏感性——以贵州沅江流域为例

归一化植被指数(Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,NDVI)是反映植被生长的重要指标,探究其时空变化特征,对生态保护、退耕还林和灾害防治具有重要意义。选取2000—2015年贵州沅江流域典型年份NDVI,采用重心分析、标准差椭圆、地理加权回归等方法,从干旱视角探究流域NDVI变化和降水敏感性。得出以下结论:(1)2000—2015年贵州沅江流域NDVI总体处于上升趋势,植被正在改善,期间西部植被改善最为明显,退耕还林还草取得较好成果。(2)2000—2015年贵州沅江流域干旱年与正常年NDVI空间变化趋势不一致,干旱程度对植被影响具有区域差异。(3)贵州沅江流域NDVI与降水呈负相关,空间敏感性自西向东递增,降水对流域西部喀斯特山区NDVI影响更明显。(4)2000—2015年贵州沅江流域NDVI时段变化与降水主要为负相关,降水越多NDVI时段变化敏感性越弱,退耕还林还草工程应重点放在负敏感区。研究结果可为退耕还林还草和干旱灾害防治提供科学参考。     

儿童反复呼吸道感染与肠道微生态变化的相关性

目的研究儿童反复呼吸道感染与患儿肠道微生态平衡紊乱的关系。方法选择102例反复呼吸道感染患儿为研究组,167例急性肺炎患儿为肺炎对照组,142例健康体检儿童为正常对照组。采用16S rRNA荧光定量PCR检测3组对象肠道双歧杆菌及大肠埃希菌数量,计算B/E值,并比较3组研究对象细胞免疫功能。结果正常对照组、肺炎对照组以及研究组儿童肠道双歧杆菌数量依次降低,大肠埃希菌依次增多,B/E值依次降低,差异均有统计学意义(均P0.05)。正常对照组、肺炎对照组以及研究组儿童血液中CD3~+、CD4~+细胞水平以及CD4~+/CD8~+依次降低,CD8~+细胞水平依次增高,差异均有统计学意义(均P0.05)。结论儿童反复呼吸道感染与肠道微生态失衡具有一定相关性,肠道微生态稳态的维持可为反复呼吸道感染的防治提供新思路。     

普通卷甲虫肠道可培养细菌的分离、鉴定及产消化酶活性

目的分离培养普通卷甲虫肠道中的可培养细菌,筛选有产消化酶活性的细菌,推测其在协助普通卷甲虫消化食物中的作用。方法通过传统分离培养法分离普通卷甲虫肠道中的可培养细菌,利用平板透明圈法筛选产淀粉酶、蛋白酶、纤维素酶和脂肪酶活性的细菌,利用水解圈与菌落直径的比值,比较不同细菌的产消化酶活性。利用SPSS 20.0软件进行统计学分析,组间比较采用单因素方差分析。结果在普通卷甲虫肠道中分离出4个属9种细菌,其中气单胞菌属3种,假芽胞杆菌属和柠檬酸杆菌属各2种,芽胞杆菌属和假单胞菌属各1种。9种细菌中弗氏柠檬酸杆菌、豚鼠气单胞菌、南海假芽胞杆菌等3种细菌可产蛋白酶,嗜水气单胞菌、波特卡伦柠檬酸杆菌、水生气单胞菌、豚鼠气单胞菌和南海假芽胞杆菌等5种细菌可产纤维素酶,嗜水气单胞菌、波特卡伦柠檬酸杆菌、印度芽胞杆菌、水生气单胞菌、嗜盐假芽胞杆菌、豚鼠气单胞菌和南海假芽胞杆菌等7种细菌可产淀粉酶,未筛选到产脂肪酶细菌。统计学分析表明,3种产蛋白酶细菌和5种产纤维素酶细菌的产酶活性差异无统计学意义。而7种产淀粉酶细菌产酶的活力间差异有统计学意义,水生气单胞菌的产淀粉酶活性能力最强。结论普通卷甲虫肠道可培养细菌结构简单,但有消化酶活性的细菌种类多,5种细菌有产2种以上消化酶功能,说明肠道细菌可能在普通卷甲虫食物消化中起着重要作用。     

福州市公园外来入侵植物初步调查与分析

[目的] 了解福州市公园的外来入侵植物种类组成,分析其原产地及入侵等级等情况,能够为福州外来入侵植物的扩散、防控以及生物多样性保护提供参考依据。[方法] 对福州市4个区49个公园的外来入侵植物种类、原产地、生活型、入侵频度、危害程度（入侵等级）等进行调查和分析。[结果] 在调查的福州市所有公园内均有入侵植物分布,目前有入侵植物66种,隶属25科,其中菊科、豆科、苋科3个科为优势科,共计33种（占50.00%）;从来源上看,大多数原产于美洲,其次是非洲、欧洲、亚洲;以草本植物为主,共有55种（占83.30%）;从入侵频度看,入侵频度超过50%的入侵植物有7种,其中小蓬草的频度最高,为87.76%;从入侵等级来看,其中恶性（1级）入侵植物16种,严重（2级）入侵植物14种,局部（3级）入侵植物12种,一般（4级）入侵植物11种,有待观察类（5级）13种。[结论] 当前福州市公园内的外来植物入侵现象比较严重,应当加强该区域的入侵植物监测与预警,防止入侵植物扩散从而造成重大生态危害。     

“Into and Out of” the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau and the Himalayas: Centers of origin and diversification across five clades of Eurasian montane and alpine passerine birds

Encompassing some of the major hotspots of biodiversity on Earth, large mountain systems have long held the attention of evolutionary biologists. The region of the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau (QTP) is considered a biogeographic source for multiple colonization events into adjacent areas including the northern Palearctic. The faunal exchange between the QTP and adjacent regions could thus represent a one‐way street (“out of” the QTP). However, immigration into the QTP region has so far received only little attention, despite its potential to shape faunal and floral communities of the QTP. In this study, we investigated centers of origin and dispersal routes between the QTP, its forested margins and adjacent regions for five clades of alpine and montane birds of the passerine superfamily Passeroidea. We performed an ancestral area reconstruction using BioGeoBEARS and inferred a time‐calibrated backbone phylogeny for 279 taxa of Passeroidea. The oldest endemic species of the QTP was dated to the early Miocene (ca. 20 Ma). Several additional QTP endemics evolved in the mid to late Miocene (12–7 Ma). The inferred centers of origin and diversification for some of our target clades matched the “out of Tibet hypothesis’ or the “out of Himalayas hypothesis” for others they matched the “into Tibet hypothesis.” Three radiations included multiple independent Pleistocene colonization events to regions as distant as the Western Palearctic and the Nearctic. We conclude that faunal exchange between the QTP and adjacent regions was bidirectional through time, and the QTP region has thus harbored both centers of diversification and centers of immigration.     

Mass loss and nutrient release during the decomposition of sixteen types of plant litter with contrasting quality under three precipitation regimes

Mass loss and nutrient release during litter decomposition drive biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the relationship between the litter decomposition process and the decomposition stage, precipitation, and litter quality has rarely been addressed, precluding our understanding of how litter decomposition regulates nutrient cycling in various ecosystems and their responses to climate change. In this study, we measured mass loss as well as carbon and nutrient releases during the decomposition of 16 types of leaf litter under three precipitation treatments over 12 months in a common garden experiment (i.e., using standardized soil and climatic conditions). Sixteen types of leaves were divided into three functional groups (evergreen, deciduous, and herbaceous). The objectives were to understand the effects of decomposition stages and precipitation regimes on litter decomposition and to examine the relationship between this effect and chemical properties. The mass loss and release of nitrogen and potassium were significantly higher in the 6‐ to 12‐month stage of decomposition (high temperature and humidity) than in the 0‐ to 6‐month stage. Phosphorus was relatively enriched in evergreen leaves after 6 months of decomposition. The rates of mass loss and nutrient release were significantly greater in herbaceous than in deciduous and evergreen leaves. Increasing precipitation from 400 to 800 mm accelerated mass loss and potassium release but decreased phosphorus release in the 0‐ to 6‐month stage of decomposition. These results highlighted the contribution to and complexity of litter chemical properties in litter decomposition.     

Acoustic localization of terrestrial wildlife: Current practices and future opportunities

Autonomous acoustic recorders are an increasingly popular method for low‐disturbance, large‐scale monitoring of sound‐producing animals, such as birds, anurans, bats, and other mammals. A specialized use of autonomous recording units (ARUs) is acoustic localization, in which a vocalizing animal is located spatially, usually by quantifying the time delay of arrival of its sound at an array of time‐synchronized microphones. To describe trends in the literature, identify considerations for field biologists who wish to use these systems, and suggest advancements that will improve the field of acoustic localization, we comprehensively review published applications of wildlife localization in terrestrial environments. We describe the wide variety of methods used to complete the five steps of acoustic localization: (1) define the research question, (2) obtain or build a time‐synchronizing microphone array, (3) deploy the array to record sounds in the field, (4) process recordings captured in the field, and (5) determine animal location using position estimation algorithms. We find eight general purposes in ecology and animal behavior for localization systems: assessing individual animals' positions or movements, localizing multiple individuals simultaneously to study their interactions, determining animals' individual identities, quantifying sound amplitude or directionality, selecting subsets of sounds for further acoustic analysis, calculating species abundance, inferring territory boundaries or habitat use, and separating animal sounds from background noise to improve species classification. We find that the labor‐intensive steps of processing recordings and estimating animal positions have not yet been automated. In the near future, we expect that increased availability of recording hardware, development of automated and open‐source localization software, and improvement of automated sound classification algorithms will broaden the use of acoustic localization. With these three advances, ecologists will be better able to embrace acoustic localization, enabling low‐disturbance, large‐scale collection of animal position data.     

Breaking barriers? Ethnicity and socioeconomic background impact on early career progression in the fields of ecology and evolution

The academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have long suffered from a lack of diversity. While in recent years there has been some progress in addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM subjects, other characteristics that have the potential to impact on equality of opportunity have received less attention. In this study, we surveyed 188 early career scientists (ECRs), defined as within 10 years of completing their PhD, in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, behaviour, and related disciplines. We examined associations between ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, sex, socioeconomic background, and disability, with measures of career progression, namely publication record, number of applications made before obtaining a postdoc, type of contract, and number of grant applications made. We also queried respondents on perceived barriers to progression and potential ways of overcoming them. Our key finding was that socioeconomic background and ethnicity were associated with measures of career progression. While there was no difference in the number of reported first‐authored papers on PhD completion, ethnic minority respondents reported fewer other‐authored papers. In addition, ECRs from a lower socioeconomic background were more likely to report being in teaching and research positions, rather than research‐only positions, the latter being perceived as more prestigious by some institutions. We discuss our findings in the context of possible inequality of opportunity. We hope that this study will stimulate wider discussion and help to inform strategies to address the underrepresentation of minority groups in the fields of ecology and evolution, and STEM subjects more widely.     

模拟氮沉降对长白山岳桦林下草本植物和土壤肥力的短期影响

选取长白山岳桦林中的岳桦-蟹甲草群落（Comm.Betula ermanii-Parasenecio forrestii）、岳桦-藜芦群落（Comm.Betula ermanii-Veratrum nigrum）和岳桦-小叶章群落（Comm.Betula ermanii-Deyeuxia purpurea）开展野外模拟氮沉降实验,采用野外原位模拟实验方法,设置对照（0 kg·hm^-2·a^-1）、低氮（30 kg·hm^-2·a^-1）、中氮（50 kg·hm^-2·a^-1）和高氮（100 kg·hm^-2·a^-1）4个氮处理水平,测定草本植物生长状况和土壤肥力,研究岳桦林下草本层植物和土壤肥力对氮沉降的短期响应。结果显示：（1）岳桦林下草本植物随氮沉降量的增加而加速生长,小叶章对氮沉降的响应较为敏感,藜芦次之,蟹甲草最弱;（2）氮添加造成林下土壤肥力发生变化,有机质含量下降,特别是岳桦-小叶章群落下的土壤有机质含量下降最明显;土壤总氮和速效氮含量增大,岳桦-蟹甲草群落下的土壤总氮和速效氮增加最多;土壤总磷和速效磷含量减小,岳桦-小叶章群落下的土壤总磷和速效磷含量的减少最多。本研究结果表明氮添加在短期内会促进长白山岳桦林下草本植物生长,尤其是小叶章的生长,加快土壤有机质的分解和磷的释放,逐步改变土壤肥力并反馈给植物,促使其进一步变化。