Understanding seagrass resilience in temperate systems: the importance of timing of the disturbance

Temperate seagrass meadows form valuable ecosystems in coastal environments and present a distinct seasonal growth. They are threatened by an increasing amount of stressors, potentially affecting their capacity to recover from disturbances. We hypothesized that their resilience to disturbances is affected by seasonal dynamics. Hence, we investigated the effect of the timing of the disturbance on seagrass Leaf Area Index (as a proxy for presence, or ‘visible’ status), recovery from disturbance (as a proxy for meadow resilience), and rhizome carbohydrates (as a proxy for longer term resilience) by a series of four disturbance-recovery field experiments spread over the growing season at two sites in Shandong Province, China. During the course of the growing season, we found the highest recovery at the start of the growing season, lowest recovery when Leaf Area Index peaked around mid-growing season, and intermediate recovery when Leaf Area Index decreased at the end of the growing season. Rhizome carbohydrates were not affected by disturbances during any of the four experimental periods and could not explain the low recovery during mid-growing season. The two sites differed in exposure and in the occurrence of incidents like a green tide and storms, which affected recovery. However, general patterns were similar; timing strongly influenced the indicator of meadow resilience and its correlation with presence during the two main seagrass growth phases. Our results emphasize the importance of carefully considering timing in the evaluation of seagrass resilience in temperate systems. Furthermore, our study implies that, to effectively protect seagrass beds, conservation management should aim at avoiding disturbances particularly during the peak of the growing season, when resilience is lowest.     

Using Echo Ultrasound from Schooling Fish to Detect and Classify Fish Types

Fish finders have already been widely available in the fishing market for a number of years.However,the sizes of these fishfinders are too big and their prices are expensive to suit for the research of robotic fish or mini-submarine.The goal of thisresearch is to propose a low-cost fish detector and classifier which suits for underwater robot or submarine as a proximity sensor.With some pre-condition in hardware and algorithms,the experimental results show that the proposed design has good per-formance,with a detection rate of 100 % and a classification rate of 94 %.Both the existing type of fish and the group behaviorcan be revealed by statistical interpretations such as hovering passion and sparse swimming mode.     

Evolution as a cognition process: Towards an evolutionary epistemology

Recently, biologist and philosophers have been much attracted by an evolutionary view of knowledge, so-called evolutionary epistemology. Developing this insight, the present paper argues that our cognitive abilities are the outcome of organic evolution, and that, conversely, evolution itself may be described as a cognition process. Furthermore, it is argued that the key to an adequate evolutionary epistemology lies in a system-theoretical approach to evolution which grows from, but goes beyond, Darwin's theory of natural selection.     

Single Material Solar Cells: the Next Frontier for Organic Photovoltaics?

An overview of various approaches for the realization of single‐material organic solar cells (SMOCs) is presented. Fullerene‐conjugated systems dyads, di‐block copolymers, and self‐organized donor‐acceptor molecules all represent different possible approaches towards SMOCs. Although each of them presents specific advantages and poses specific problems of design and synthesis, these different routes have witnessed significant progress in the past few years and SMOCs with efficiencies in the range of 1.50% have been realized. These performances are already higher than those of bi‐component bulk heterojunction solar cells some ten years ago, demonstrating that SMOCs can represent a credible approach towards efficient and simple organic solar cells. Possible directions for future research are discussed with the aim of stimulating further research on this exciting topic.     

辽东山区天然次生林的数量分类

结合DCA排序和TW IN SPAN分类结果,将辽东山区天然次生林划分为5个群落类型:花曲柳林、蒙古栎林、阔叶混交林、水曲柳林、胡桃楸林。DCA排序与TW IN SPAN分类产生了较一致的分类结果。DCA第一轴代表的环境意义为坡向。花曲柳林多分布于阳坡的中坡及中上坡,蒙古栎林多分布在中上坡。花曲柳与蒙古栎常混生在一起,随着坡位上升,花曲柳优势度下降,而蒙古栎优势度增加。阔叶混交林多位于阴坡,乔木层没有稳定和绝对优势种,多以假色槭、风桦、色木槭为优势种,但假色槭分布于乔木层第2亚层。水曲柳林多分布在中下坡。胡桃楸分布在山下部,喜潮湿生境。色木槭在辽东山区分布广泛,重要值较高,且更新良好,很可能是群落演替顶级物种。辽东山区天然次生林林下藤本植株数量多,以五味子、软枣猕猴桃、狗枣猕猴桃为主。     

森林粗死木质残体的概念及其分类

森林粗死木残体 (Coarse woody debris,CWD)在不同的文献中有不同的定义 ,没有通用而确切的概念用来描述 CWD,对研究结果的比较造成了很大障碍。 2 0世纪 90年代以来 ,随着景观生态学的发展 ,以及对 CWD生态功能的深入研究 ,国外的森林管理和研究机构 (例如 USDA Forest Service和 L TER)为了把 CWD放在区域以及景观尺度上进行比较 ,对 CWD的概念等进行了统一 ,将其直径标准由原来的≥ 2 .5 cm调整到≥ 10 cm,但是我国在此方面还没有与国际接轨 ,仍采用旧标准 (≥ 2 .5 cm ) ,这样的研究结果难于和国外进行比较 ,不利于我国 CWD的长期深入研究。另外 ,有关 CWD的分类一直以来也没有形成一个完整的分类系统 ,我国也缺少 CWD分类方法的介绍。鉴于以上情况 ,综合国内外近年来在 CWD方面的研究动态 ,综述了 CWD的概念和分类情况 ,并初步提出较综合的 CWD概念及其分类系统 ,以供相关研究者讨论和参考 ,为我国的 CWD研究起到推动作用     

一株与鳆发光杆菌最相似细菌的研究

对从海鲜食品中分离到的1株少见细菌M1进行系统分类鉴定。采用常规方法[1]进行分离培养,以形态学特征、培养特性、生理生化特征以及分子生物学等方法对其进行分类鉴定。结果可见,该菌株为革兰氏阴性杆状细菌,16SrDNA核甘酸序列测定与鳆发光杆菌最为相似,生理生化特征与发光杆菌属、弧菌属相近,但都不完全相符,而与鳆发光杆菌相似性最高。     

桃花水母

介绍了桃花水母的生活习性、形态、生理、分类、分布,讨论了桃花水母的研究意义及经济价值。