Effects of elevated seawater temperature and phosphate enrichment on the crustose coralline alga Porolithon onkodes (Rhodophyta)

Both global and local environmental changes threaten coral reef ecosystems. To evaluate the effects of high seawater temperature and phosphate enrichment on reef‐building crustose coralline algae, fragments of Porolithon onkodes were cultured for 1 month under laboratory conditions. The calcification rate of the coralline algae was not affected at 30°C, but it decreased to the negatives at 32°C in comparison to the control treatment of 27°C, indicating that the temperature threshold for maintaining positive production of calcium carbonate lies between 30 and 32°C. Phosphate enrichment of 1–2 μmol L ^?1 did not affect the calcification rate. The net oxygen production rate was enhanced by phosphate enrichment, suggesting that the photosynthetic rate was limited by the availability of phosphate. It was concluded that moderate phosphate enrichment does not directly deteriorate algal calcification but instead ameliorates the negative effects of high seawater temperature on algal photosynthesis.     

Disentangling species and functional group richness effects on soil N cycling in a grassland ecosystem

Species richness (SR) and functional group richness (FGR) are often confounded in both observational and experimental field studies of biodiversity and ecosystem function. This precludes discernment of their separate influences on ecosystem processes, including nitrogen (N) cycling, and how those influences might be moderated by global change factors. In a 17‐year field study of grassland species, we used two full factorial experiments to independently vary SR (one or four species, with FGR = 1) and FGR (1–4 groups, with SR = 4) to assess SR and FGR effects on ecosystem N cycling and its response to elevated carbon dioxide (CO₂) and N addition. We hypothesized that increased plant diversity (either SR or FGR) and elevated CO₂ would enhance plant N pools because of greater plant N uptake, but decrease soil N cycling rates because of greater soil carbon inputs and microbial N immobilization. In partial support of these hypotheses, increasing SR or FGR (holding the other constant) enhanced total plant N pools and decreased soil nitrate pools, largely through higher root biomass, and increasing FGR strongly reduced mineralization rates, because of lower root N concentrations. In contrast, increasing SR (holding FGR constant and despite increasing total plant C and N pools) did not alter root N concentrations or net N mineralization rates. Elevated CO₂ had minimal effects on plant and soil N metrics and their responses to plant diversity, whereas enriched N increased plant and soil N pools, but not soil N fluxes. These results show that functional diversity had additional effects on both plant N pools and rates of soil N cycling that were independent of those of species richness.     

Water-use efficiency of four native trees under CO2 enrichment and N addition in subtropical model forest ecosystems

Aims We aimed to evaluate the changes in water-use efficiency (WUE) in native tree species in forests of subtropical China, and determine how coexisting species would be responding to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations and nitrogen (N) deposition.Methods We used model forest ecosystems in open-top chambers to study the effects of elevated CO₂ (ca. 700 μmol mol^-1) alone and together with N addition (NH 4 NO 3 applied at 100kg N ha^-1 year^-1) on WUE of four native tree species (Schima superba, Ormosia pinnata, Castanopsis hystrix and Acmena acuminatissima) from 2006 to 2010.Important findings Our result indicated that all species increased their WUE when they were exposed to elevated CO₂. Although higher WUE was shown in faster-growing species (S. superba and O. pinnata) than that of slower-growing species (C. hystrix and Acmena acuminatissima), the increased extent of WUE induced by elevated CO₂ was higher in the slower-growing species than that of the faster-growing species (P < 0.01). The N treatment decreased WUE of S. superba, while the effects on other species were not significant. The interactions between elevated CO₂ and N addition increased intrinsic WUE of S. superba significantly (P < 0.001), however, it did not affect WUE of the other tree species significantly. We conclude that the responses of native tree species to elevated CO₂ and N addition are different in subtropical China. The species-specific effects of elevated CO₂ and N addition on WUE would have important implications on species composition in China's subtropics in response to global change.     

蔬菜温室土壤某些化学性质的演变特征

1引言温室蔬菜生产具有许多露地栽培无可比拟的优点,如通过人工调节水、肥、气、热条件,充分利用光能进行高效生产,使土地生产力和光能利用率成倍提高.然而,由于温室土壤常处于半封闭状态下,气温高,湿度大,水分蒸发量大,缺少雨水淋洗,化肥及有机肥投入量大,土壤利用频度高,与露地土壤环境条件存在明显差别[2,9,10,16].蔬菜栽培几年后,温室土壤的基本性状会发生明显变化,从而导致土壤化学性质发生明显变化,并进一步影响蔬菜的生长发育及产量、品质等[2~5,7,13].本文对辽宁省新民市大民屯蔬菜基地不同使用年限蔬菜温室的不同深度土壤化学性质…     

呼和浩特市周边地下水CPR和DPANN类群的检测及多样性分析

【背景】候选门级辐射类群(candidate phyla radiation, CPR)和DPANN是与绝大多数已知细菌和古菌具有显著差异的独特类群，因发现较晚，人们对其认识还非常有限。已知二者类群庞大、存在广泛，但在不同生境中的多样性研究还较少，生态功能尚属未知。【目的】分析不同地下水中CPR和DPANN的多样性，探讨不同方法对CPR和DPANN检出及富集的影响。【方法】采用0.1μm滤膜收集菌体和宏基因组测序的方法分析呼和浩特市周边4个不同地下水中CPR和DPANN的多样性。比较宏基因组测序与16S rRNA基因扩增子测序对CPR和DPANN检出的影响，以及不同过滤方式和不同滤膜组合对CPR和DPANN富集的作用。【结果】4个地下水样品CPR类群检出33-64个菌门，相对丰度在0.17%-1.67%之间；DPANN检出1-7个菌门，相对丰度在0.00093%-0.07100%之间。对于CPR和DPANN,16SrRNA基因V3-V4区扩增子测序仅检出了纳古菌门(Nanoarchaeota)。1.2μm与0.1μm滤膜组合具有最好的CPR和DPANN富集效果，在及时更换滤膜的过滤方式...     

Potential effects of interaction between CO2 and temperature on forest landscape response to global warming

Projected temperature increases under global warming could benefit southern tree species by providing them the optimal growing temperature and could be detrimental to northern species by exposing them to the supra optimal growing temperatures. This benefit-detriment trade-off could increase the competitive advantage of southern species in the northern species range and cause the increase or even dominance of southern species in the northern domain. However, the optimum temperature for photosynthesis of C3 plants may increase due to CO₂ enrichment. An increase in the optimum temperature could greatly reduce the benefit-detriment effect. In this study, we coupled a forest ecosystem process model (PnET-II) and a forest GAP model (LINKAGES) with a spatially dynamic forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) to study how an optimum temperature increase could affect forest landscape response due to global warming. We simulated 360 years of forest landscape change in the Boundary Water Canoe Area (BWCA) in northern Minnesota, which is transitional between boreal and temperate forest. Our results showed that, under the control scenario of continuing the historic 1984–1993 mean climate (mainly temperature, precipitation and CO₂), the BWCA will become a spruce-fir dominated boreal forest. However, under the scenario of predicted climatic change [the 2000–2099 climates are predicted by Canadian Climate Center (CCC), followed by 200 years of continuing the predicted 2090–2099 mean climate], the BWCA will become a pine-dominated mixed forest. If the optimum temperature increases gradually with [CO₂] (the increase in optimum temperature is assumed to change gradually from 0 °C in year 2000 to 5 °C in year 2099 when [CO₂] reaches 711 ppm and stabilizes at 5 °C after year 2099), the BWCA would remain a fir-dominated boreal forest in areas with relatively high water-holding capacity, but not in areas with relatively low water-holding capacity. Our results suggest that the [CO₂] induced increases in optimum temperature could substantially reduce forest landscape change caused by global warming. However, not all tree species would be able to successfully adapt to future warming as predicted by CCC, regardless of optimum temperature acclimations.     

Identification of aberrant cell cycle regulation in Epstein-Barr virus-associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma by cDNA microarray and gene set enrichment analysis

Previous studies have revealed that Epstein-Barr virus （EBV） was closely associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma （NPC）. This study aimed to characterize the global pathways affected in the EBV-associated NPC. Combined with microdissection, gene expression profries in 22 NPCs and 10 non-tumor nasopharyngeal epithelial （NPE） tissue samples were analyzed. All NPC specimens served in the microarray analysis were positive for EBV, as judged by identification of the expression of EBV nuclear antigen 1 （EBNA1）. Through gene set enrichment analysis （GSEA）, we found that cell cycle pathway was the most disregulated pathway in NPC （P = 0.000, false discovery rate q-value = 0.007）, which included some aberrant expressed components. We first found that overexpression of CDK4, cyclin D1, and Rb proteins, and loss of expression of proteins p16, p27, and p19 were statistically significant in NPC tissues compared with non-cancerous NPE （P〈 0.05） by real-time RT- PCR and tissue microarray. EBV-encoded small RNA-1 （EBER-1） hybridization signals in the NPC showed significant associations with the overexpression of Rb （P = 0.000）, cyclin D1 （P = 0.000）, CDK4 （P = 0.000）, and the loss of expression of p16 proteins （P = 0.039）. In the final logistic regression analysis model, EBER-1 and abnormal expression of p16, Rb, cyclin D1, and E2F6 were inde- pendent contributions to nasopharyngeal carcinogenesis. Through survival analysis, only cyclin D1 could predict the prognosis of NPC patients. These results suggested that cell cycle pathway was the most disregulated pathway in the EBV-associated NPC, and EBER-1 was closely associated with p16, CDK4, cyclin D1, and Rb. cyclin D1 could be the prognosis biomarker for NPC.     

食物丰容对圈养猩猩行为的影响

于2007年2～4月对成都动物园圈养猩猩"铁里"进行了两个食物丰容试验,即用PVC+轮胎和圆木+轮胎试验,每期8 d,观察和记录了猩猩在丰容试验前、后以及两种丰容方式中的各种行为发生次数.结果 表明食物丰容有效地恢复了圈养猩猩的多种摄食行为,增加了猩猩的运动相关行为,减少了休息相关行为;但对刻板行为的影响不明显.     

实验动物产生波动性不对称的影响因素

饲养方式、社会环境和化学污染是影响动物发育不稳定的重要环境胁迫因素,会使动物种群的适应和竞争能力等指数降低。而波动性不对称FA（Fluctuating asymmetry）的水平可用来指示某一种群对这种环境压力的进化和适应能力。FA的测量方法比常规的参数更加灵敏,而且可将环境压力的影响定量化,同时其测定和分析都比较简单,不需要昂贵的设备和试剂,使研究和监测成本大大降低。