Stable isotopes of Lithosiini and lichens in Hong Kong show the biodindicator potential of lichenivorous moths

Urban landscapes provide unique environments for a wide variety of plants and animals, but their suitability may be limited by anthropogenic impacts such as pollution. We examined the potential utility of lichen and lichen-feeding moths as biodindicators of air pollution in Hong Kong by comparing carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stable isotope values in lichens, lichenivorous and non-lichenivorous moths (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) and a moth outgroup (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). Our results show that stable isotope values for C and N were similar for lichens and lichen feeding moths, while non-lichen feeding moths formed a distinct group. In addition, we found consistent δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values across moth body parts, indicating that any portion of the specimen is suitable for isotopic fingerprinting. Our results highlight that lichen feeding moths may be useful for integrating signals of atmospheric nitrogen pollution and could therefore have utility in monitoring and quantifying air quality over time and space.     

基于生态足迹法的闽三角城市群生态安全评价

生态安全已经成为时下研究的热点问题,而生态足迹法(Ecological Footprint)是评价区域生态安全的重要方法之一。然而,目前鲜有应用改良后的生态足迹方法探讨海湾型城市群生态足迹以及生态安全状态的成果。鉴于此,论文以闽三角城市群为研究区,以NPP数据反映现实生物量,采用"国家公顷"实现产量因子区域化,测算2010—2015年的区域生态足迹、生态承载力、生态赤字以及生态压力指数,评价区域生态安全状态。结果表明:2010—2015年间,闽三角城市群的生态足迹快速增长,其中泉州与漳州增长迅速,而厦门则略有下降;区域总体生态承载力缓慢下降;城市群大部分区域呈现生态赤字且越发严重,其中厦门最为严重,泉州次之,漳州相对较轻;城市群生态压力指数持续增长,生态安全等级升高,与生态赤字情况总体相符,生态安全问题亟需解决。有助于拓展与丰富生态足迹与生态安全研究的视角与案例,并为城市群可持续发展提供科学依据和决策支撑。     

Living in the city: resource availability, predation, and bird population dynamics in urban areas

This article explores factors that shape population structure in novel environments that have received scant theoretical attention: cities. Urban bird populations exhibit higher densities and lower diversity. Some work suggests this may result from lower predation pressure and more predictable and abundant resources. These factors may lead to populations with few winners and many losers regarding access to food, body condition, and reproductive success. We explore these hypotheses with an individual-energy-based competition model with two phenotypes of differing foraging ability. We show that low frequency resource fluctuations favor strong competitors and vice versa. We show that low predation skews equilibrium populations in favor of weak competitors and vice versa. Increasing the time between resource pulses can thus shift population structure from weak to strong competitor dominance. Given recent evidence for more constant resource input and lower predation in urban areas, the model helps understand observed urban bird population structure.     

Modelling radiation fluxes in simple and complex environments—application of the RayMan model

The most important meteorological parameter affecting the human energy balance during sunny weather conditions is the mean radiant temperature T_mrt. It considers the uniform temperature of a surrounding surface giving off blackbody radiation, which results in the same energy gain of a human body given the prevailing radiation fluxes. This energy gain usually varies considerably in open space conditions. In this paper, the model ‘RayMan’, used for the calculation of short- and long-wave radiation fluxes on the human body, is presented. The model, which takes complex urban structures into account, is suitable for several applications in urban areas such as urban planning and street design. The final output of the model is, however, the calculated T_mrt, which is required in the human energy balance model, and thus also for the assessment of the urban bioclimate, with the use of thermal indices such as predicted mean vote (PMV), physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) and standard effective temperature (SET*). The model has been developed based on the German VDI-Guidelines 3789, Part II (environmental meteorology, interactions between atmosphere and surfaces; calculation of short- and long-wave radiation) and VDI-3787 (environmental meteorology, methods for the human-biometeorological evaluation of climate and air quality for urban and regional planning. Part I: climate). The validation of the results of the RayMan model agrees with similar results obtained from experimental studies.     

Carbon content of soil in urban parks in Tokyo,Japan

Because of difficulties in estimating the carbon fixation rate, we alternatively investigated the C content of the soil in 19 urban parks in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The C content of the soil under three vegetation types was measured: grassland/turf (“turf”); tree-planting area with plant management (with weeding and removal of fallen leaves) (“tree-planting area”); coppice or tree-planting area without plant management (“coppice”); bare land was used as control. Average C contents of turf, tree-planting area and coppice were about 82, 79 and 120 Mg–C ha⁻¹, respectively, and were larger than the C content of trees in an urban park, as estimated in previous studies. The results indicate that the soils of urban parks function as a C sink.     

Exploring taxonomic filtering in urban environments

Question: Several mechanisms have been proposed that control the spatio‐temporal pattern of species coexistence. Among others, the species pool hypothesis states that the large‐scale species pool is an important factor in controlling small‐scale species richness through filtering of species that can persist within a species assemblage on the basis of their tolerance of the abiotic environment. Because of the process of environmental filtering, co‐occurring species that experience similar environmental conditions are likely to be more taxonomically similar than ecologically distant species. This is because, due to the conservatism of many species traits during evolutionary diversification, the ability of species to colonize the same ecological space is thought to depend at least partially on their taxonomic similarity. The question for this study is: Under the assumption of trait conservatism, does environmental filtering lead to nonrandom species assemblages with respect to their taxonomic structure? Methods: The significance of taxonomic filtering in regulating species coexistence is tested using data from 15 local species assemblages from the urban flora of Rome (Italy). To find out whether the taxonomic structure of the selected’ local’ species assemblages was significantly different from random, we used a Monte Carlo simulation in which for each local species assemblage, the actual taxonomic diversity was compared to the taxonomic diversity of 1000 virtual species lists of the same size extracted at random from a larger ‘regional’ species pool. Results: We found that in most cases the local species assemblages have a higher degree of taxonomic similarity than would be expected by chance showing a phenomenon of ‘species condensation’ in a small number of higher‐level taxa. Conclusions: Our observations support the species pool hypothesis and imply that environmental filtering is an important mechanism in shaping the taxonomic structure of species assemblages. Therefore, the incorporation of taxonomic diversity into landscape and community ecology may be beneficial for a better understanding of the processes that regulate species coexistence.     

城市绿化竹种综合选择

针对城市绿化材料选择的需求,对福建华安竹种园79个丛生竹和121散混生竹分别测定分析,运用集对分析方法对竹子生态适应性、观赏性和放氧量等方面13个指标进行综合评价选择,结果表明:花竹、小叶琴丝竹、黄竹、糯竹、乡土竹、泰竹、青皮竹等为城市绿化优良丛生竹种;实心竹、衢县苦竹、黄槽毛竹、毛竹、鸟哺鸡竹、高节竹、红哺鸡竹、毛环水竹为城市绿化优良散混生竹种.     

The urban heat island in a small city in coastal Portugal

This project arose from the need to study the phenomenon of the urban heat island, since only by recognising this phenomenon can we moderate it to improve the human and urban environments. Not only big cities develop urban heat islands. This study detected the presence and recorded the characteristics of an urban heat island in the small coastal city of Aveiro, Portugal. The study was developed through the scheduled measurements of air temperature and the analysis of the geographical, meteorological and urban conditions. The form and intensity of Aveiro’s heat island are a response to the interaction of three principal factors: the urban morphology (the hottest zones in the city are those with the tallest and the highest density of buildings, without green spaces and with intense generation of heat from traffic, commerce and services); the meteorological conditions (the intensity of the island is at its maximum when the sky is totally clear and there is no wind, and at its minimum in those situations when there is atmospheric instability, such as wind, cloud and precipitation); and the proximity of the coastal lagoon (which borders the city to the west and northwest and moderates seasonal temperatures. The urban heat island influences the comfort and health of its inhabitants, thus urban planning is very important in the moderation and prevention of this phenomenon. Received: 7 July 1999 / Revised: 24 April 2000 / Accepted: 26 April 2000     

Phenology in central Europe – differences and trends of spring phenophases in urban and rural areas

In order to examine the impacts of both large-scale and small-scale climate changes (urban climate effect) on the development of plants, long-term observations of four spring phenophases from ten central European regions (Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Prague, Vienna, Zurich, Basle and Chur) were analysed. The objective of this study was to identify and compare the differences in the starting dates of the pre-spring phenophases, the beginning of flowering of the snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) and forsythia (Forsythia sp.), and of the full-spring phenophases, the beginning of flowering of the sweet cherry (Prunus avium) and apple (Malus domestica), in urban and rural areas. The results indicate that, despite regional differences, in nearly all cases the species studied flower earlier in urbanised areas than in the corresponding rural areas. The forcing in urban areas was about 4 days for the pre-spring phenophases and about 2 days for the full-spring phenophases. The analysis of trends for the period from 1951 to 1995 showed tendencies towards an earlier flowering in all regions, but only 22% were significant at the 5% level. The trends for the period from 1980 to 1995 were much stronger for all regions and phases: the pre-spring phenophases on average became earlier by 13.9 days/decade in the urban areas and 15.3 days/decade in the rural areas, while the full-spring phenophases were 6.7 days earlier/decade in the urban areas and 9.1 days/decade earlier in the rural areas. Thus rural areas showed a higher trend towards an earlier flowering than did urban areas for the period from 1980 to 1995. However, these trends, especially for the pre-spring phenophases, turned out to be extremely variable. Received: 21 October 1999 / Revised: 5 April 2000 / Accepted: 25 April 2000