Responses of arthropod populations to warming depend on latitude: evidence from urban heat islands

Biological effects of climate change are expected to vary geographically, with a strong signature of latitude. For ectothermic animals, there is systematic latitudinal variation in the relationship between climate and thermal performance curves, which describe the relationship between temperature and an organism's fitness. Here, we ask whether these documented latitudinal patterns can be generalized to predict arthropod responses to warming across mid‐ and high temperate latitudes, for taxa whose thermal physiology has not been measured. To address this question, we used a novel natural experiment consisting of a series of urban warming gradients at different latitudes. Specifically, we sampled arthropods from a single common street tree species across temperature gradients in four US cities, located from 35.8 to 42.4° latitude. We captured 6746 arthropods in 34 families from 111 sites that varied in summer average temperature by 1.7–3.4 °C within each city. Arthropod responses to warming within each city were characterized as Poisson regression coefficients describing change in abundance per °C for each family. Family responses in the two midlatitude cities were heterogeneous, including significantly negative and positive effects, while those in high‐latitude cities varied no more than expected by chance within each city. We expected high‐latitude taxa to increase in abundance with warming, and they did so in one of the two high‐latitude cities; in the other, Queens (New York City), most taxa declined with warming, perhaps due to habitat loss that was correlated with warming in this city. With the exception of Queens, patterns of family responses to warming were consistent with predictions based on known latitudinal patterns in arthropod physiology relative to regional climate. Heterogeneous responses in midlatitudes may be ecologically disruptive if interacting taxa respond oppositely to warming.     

Happy to breed in the city? Urban food resources limit reproductive output in Western Jackdaws

Urban areas expand worldwide, transforming landscapes and creating new challenging habitats. Some bird species, mainly omnivorous feeding on human waste and cavity nesters, commonly breed in these habitats and are, therefore, regarded as urban‐adapted. Although urban areas may provide new nesting sites and abundant human waste, the low breeding success found in some of these species suggests that the poor protein content in human waste might limit breeding parameters. We investigated whether the breeding success of a cavity nester and omnivorous species commonly breeding in urban areas, the Western Jackdaw (Corvus monedula), depended on the availability of good‐quality non‐urban food. We approached the objective by combining a literature review and experiments in the field. With the literature review, we compared jackdaw populations in different habitats across Europe and found that clutch size and number of fledglings per pair decreased with distance to non‐urban foraging grounds, even after controlling for the effect of colony size, latitude, and climate. In two experiments, we tested whether the breeding success of urban pairs could be increased by supplementing high‐quality food, first only during egg formation and second also until chick fledging. Food supplementation during egg formation led to larger eggs and higher hatching success than in urban control nests, but this did not result in higher chick survival. However, when food supplementation was prolonged until fledging in the second experiment, we observed a significant increase of nestling survival. These findings highlight that research and management actions should not only focus on species displaced by urbanization, but also on “urban‐adapted” species, as they might be suffering from a mismatch between availability of nesting sites in buildings and adequate non‐urban food resources. In these cases, nest sites should be provided in or close to adequate food resources.     

Habitat use of urban Tree Sparrows in the process of urbanization: Beijing as a case study

The Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) is a dominant species in urban bird communities. With the development of urbanization, the habitats and sources of food for Tree Sparrows are decreasing. Can the urban Tree Sparrow adapt to changes in the urban environment? To answer this question, we studied the habitat use of Tree Sparrows in eight types of urban areas in Beijing. The results show that the number of both breeding and wintering Tree Sparrows decreased with increasing urbanization. The habitat use of Tree Sparrows, analyzed using stepwise discriminant analysis, was positively correlated with the number of brick bungalows, coniferous and broad-leaved trees and air conditioners. It was negatively correlated with the area of high buildings and hardened roads, pedestrian and automobile flux. This indicates that the Tree Sparrow had not adapted to rapid urbanization even though it is a generally adaptable species. Urban planning should take birds such as the Tree Sparrow into consideration. __________ Translated from Biodiversity Science, 2006, 14(5): 372–381 [译自:生物多样性]     

Resources at the landscape scale influence possum abundance

Abstract There is increasing realization that human perceptions of a ‘patchy’ environment do not necessarily relate to that of a particular organism and ecological characteristics of land adjacent to patches of natural vegetation (‘remnants’) may influence the ecological processes within. We investigated how the distribution and abundance of resources within and surrounding 39 small remnants located within the city of Melbourne, Australia, influenced the abundance of common brushtail possums Trichosurus vulpecula (Phalangeridae) and common ringtail possums Pseudocheirus peregrinus (Pseudocheiridae), two primarily folivorous marsupials. Bayesian modelling techniques were used to relate the abundance of both possum species to estimates of den and food availability both within the remnant and within a 100‐m buffer strip extending out into adjacent residential development. We found that both brushtail and ringtail possum abundance within remnants increased with the density of potential den sites within the remnant and food availability within the surrounding landscape. Ringtail possum density within the remnant further increased with den availability within the surrounding landscape. Our results lend support to the hypothesis that, in highly modified landscapes, processes originating outside a remnant vegetation patch may influence the abundance of species within.     

经济快速增长区城市用地空间扩展对生态安全的影响

目前我国正处于经济快速发展、城市化进程加快阶段,承受着生态环境恶化的巨大压力,大多数城市已为环境污染、空间拥挤、绿化率低、秩序混乱等严重的城市问题所困扰.昆山市作为我国经济发展最为活跃的地区之一,其城市化过程与生态环境安全之间的矛盾更为突出.在总结国内外生态安全和城市生态研究的基础上,分析城市用地扩展对城市生态安全产生的影响.昆山市城市用地空间扩张经历了缓慢发展期(1949～1977年)、老城区改造期(1977～1985年)、新区开发期(1985～1999年)和快速扩展期(1999年至今)4个阶段,针对城市土地利用变化特征及其城市土地利用存在的问题,对昆山市城市用地空间扩展进程和模式及扩展的主要特征方面进行剖析.从城市废水、废气和固废排放量几个方面分析了昆山城市用地空间扩展过程中生态环境变化情况,指出高速工业化、城市化过程,快速增长的经济可能威胁到昆山城市的生态安全.同时建立城市生态安全评价模式,构建城市生态安全评价的指标体系,探讨城市生态安全评价的方法,评价了昆山市1985～2004年的城市生态安全,最后对昆山市未来城市生态安全进行预警.为维护昆山市的生态安全,实现可持续发展提供科学依据.     

太湖流域湖西区城市化空间过程及其生态效应

我国快速推进的城市化进程正对周围生态系统造成现实或潜在的威胁.基于RS和GIS技术,从镇域尺度探讨1984～2004年太湖流域城市化空间过程及其生态效应.(1)城镇用地轴向扩展明显:沿路三级邻域带R1、R2、R3在1984～2004年期间新增城镇用地面积累积平均百分比分别为88.24%、90.23%、94.68%.(2)城镇用地扩展形态指数MFD与城镇公路连接数UR存在关系:UR=UR3时,扩展形态指数MFD>=1.5;UR＝UR1时,1.250高值区占全区面积的66.33%,形成两核两带:两核位于溧阳经济开发区和镇江谏壁镇-丹徒镇附近;两带分别是两核连线地带和溧阳城区-宜兴新街镇附件一带.     

CLUE-S模型在南京市土地利用变化研究中的应用

土地利用/覆盖变化模型是研究区域景观动态并解释其驱动机制的重要技术手段.应用CLUE-S模型,在Landsat TM影像等相关数据支持下,对南京地区1998-2006年土地利用的时空动态变化进行了研究.结果表明:各土地利用类型变化受地形因素影响最大,人均GDP与城镇用地和农业用地的分布呈显著相关,城乡主干道对土地利用变化的贡献显著大于省级及以上道路;海拔较高区域林地的发生比率较高,而地形低平区域农田、城建用地的发生比率较高.经检验,在300 m空间分辨率水平,对南京地区2003年、2006年土地利用状况模拟的精度分别达到了85.7%和84.1%;而通过将研究区分成若干子区,分别修正模型参数并重新模拟,准确率提高到89.7%和88.3%,分区赋值法有效地提高了模拟精度.研究表明,CLUE-S模型对城市发展的空间结构也有较强的预测能力,对指导城市规划、分析景观动态的驱动机制有重要参考价值.     

Effect of urbanization on centipede (Chilopoda) diversity in the Wielkopolska-Kujawy Lowlands of western Poland

Over fifty years of research data from various sources were compiled and analyzed in order to determine the effect of urbanization on centipede diversity in the Wielkopolska-Kujawy Lowlands of western Poland. Urbanization has had a significant effect on species composition and community structures. However, it has not reduced overall species richness and diversity in the centipede fauna. The centipede fauna from built-up areas was found to be rich and varied. The habitats with the highest levels of species richness were the city of Poznań and the beech forests in the surrounding region.     

环境变化对中国野生蜜蜂多样性的影响

蜜蜂尤其是野生蜜蜂对维持生态系统功能、保证粮食安全等方面具有重要的作用。近年来, 野生蜜蜂的栖息地由于天然林减少, 而现营造的又多为纯林, 以及大面积种植单一经济林而遭到了严重破坏和片断化。已有研究表明纯林、油茶(Camellia oleifera)和橡胶树(Hevea brasiliensis)经济林中的野生蜜蜂多样性较低。现代农业中新烟碱类杀虫剂、除草剂的大规模使用, 会对蜜蜂个体发育和行为产生不利影响。城市化进程潜在影响了蜜蜂的群落, 如郊区的蜜蜂平均物种丰富度要明显高于中心商业区; 废水、废气和粉尘对蜜蜂的觅食、生长发育等都具有不利影响; CO₂等温室气体导致的气候变暖影响了传粉蜜蜂与植物之间的互利共生关系, 造成时间或功能上的不匹配。综上所述, 我国的环境变化可能已导致中国野生传粉蜜蜂多样性的下降和种群的衰退。我国虽是传粉蜜蜂种质资源大国, 但缺乏种类和分布本底以及长期而有效的监测数据, 缺乏对蜜蜂多样性和种群下降机制的研究。因此亟待开展传粉蜜蜂调查、实施长期监测项目, 为之建立研究网络。并通过积累丰富的相关数据, 开展风险预测和评估, 用于管理和缓解传粉蜜蜂下降所带来的经济及非经济影响。     

The association between artificial light at night and prostate cancer in Gwangju City and South Jeolla Province of South Korea

Exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN) has been reported to be associated with various pathological changes including sleep deprivation, circadian rhythm disruption, and melatonin suppression with increase in various cancers such as breast or prostate cancers. In this study, we sought to elucidate the association between ALAN and prostate cancer in 27 districts within Gwangju City and urban and rural areas from South Jeolla Province in South Korea. We analyzed the correlation between ALAN and the incidence of a range of cancers by Poisson regression analysis, after adjustment for confounding risk factors, such as smoking, drinking, obesity, stress, air pollution (particulate matter <10 μm in diameter), urbanization (proportion of urbanized area), and the cancer screening rate. Interestingly, the incidence of prostate cancer was significantly associated with ALAN (risk ratio = 1.02, p = 0.0369) and urbanization (risk ratio = 1.06, p = 0.0055). In particular, comparing the prostate cancer incidence at 25% and 75% level of ALAN, the risk ratio was 1.726 (12.6 over 7.3, respectively). No significant association was observed between ALAN and other cancers, including stomach, esophageal, liver, pancreatic, laryngeal, lung and tracheal, bladder, and brain and central nervous system cancers, as well as lymphoma and multiple myeloma. In conclusion, this study shows that a high incidence of prostate cancer may be independently associated with light pollution and urbanization, which represent significant factors in the rapid process of industrialization of South Korea.