TRPV5 and TRPV6 are expressed in placenta and bone tissues during pregnancy in mice

We investigated the dynamic expression of calcium transporters, TRPV5 and TRPV6, in placenta and bone to determine their role in maternal and fetal calcium balance during gestation. In placenta, TRPV5 was expressed predominantly in syncytiotrophoblasts of the labyrinthine zone, whereas TRPV6 was expressed in spongiotrophoblasts of the junction zone. In bone, the two transporters were found in osteoblasts, osteoclasts, cartilage and bone matrices. During the first half of gestation, TRPV5 and TRPV6 levels in bone were increased on pregnancy day (P) 0.5, then decreased on P3.5 followed by a slight increase on P6.5. During the second half of pregnancy, both the proteins and their mRNAs gradually increased from P9.5 to P15.5?P17.5 in both bone and placenta, followed at parturition by relatively high amounts in placenta, but markedly decreased amounts in bone. The expression pattern is likely related to the fetal and maternal calcium requirement during gestation, which may be regulated by estrogen and other hormones, because the fetal demand for calcium is greatest during the last few days of gestation for rats; maternal calcium metabolism is designed to meet the calcium needs of the fetus during this period. We found that TRPV5 and TRPV6 are involved in calcium transport in the placenta and bone, and therefore play a role in calcium homeostasis during embryonic and fetal development.     

Bioarchaeological evidence for adaptive plasticity and constraint: Exploring life‐history trade‐offs in the human past

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease paradigm evaluates the consequences of early life stress on health at later stages of life. Interacting with this paradigm represents a profound opportunity to leverage the lifespan and contextual approaches to human skeletal remains adopted by bioarchaeological research. Teeth and bone provide evidence for stressors experienced early in life. These events represent evidence for adaptive plasticity as Individuals survive the events through reallocation of energy to essential physiological functions, which inhibits enamel and skeletal growth. Age‐at‐death, adult body size, chronic infection, or childhood mortality may be used as covariates to better understand the physiological constraints operating on individual bodies following survival of early life stress. Contextual evidence from cemeteries provides clues to the ecological and cultural contingencies that exacerbate or mitigate the expression of these trade‐offs. Future studies should incorporate newly derived methods that provide reproducible and precise ways to evaluate early life stress, while incorporating populations that are often neglected.     

The evolution of molluscs

Molluscs are extremely diverse invertebrate animals with a rich fossil record, highly divergent life cycles, and considerable economical and ecological importance. Key representatives include worm‐like aplacophorans, armoured groups (e.g. polyplacophorans, gastropods, bivalves) and the highly complex cephalopods. Molluscan origins and evolution of their different phenotypes have largely remained unresolved, but significant progress has been made over recent years. Phylogenomic studies revealed a dichotomy of the phylum, resulting in Aculifera (shell‐less aplacophorans and multi‐shelled polyplacophorans) and Conchifera (all other, primarily uni‐shelled groups). This challenged traditional hypotheses that proposed that molluscs gradually evolved complex phenotypes from simple, worm‐like animals, a view that is corroborated by developmental studies that showed that aplacophorans are secondarily simplified. Gene expression data indicate that key regulators involved in anterior–posterior patterning (the homeobox‐containing Hox genes) lost this function and were co‐opted into the evolution of taxon‐specific novelties in conchiferans. While the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)/decapentaplegic (Dpp) signalling pathway, that mediates dorso‐ventral axis formation, and molecular components that establish chirality appear to be more conserved between molluscs and other metazoans, variations from the common scheme occur within molluscan sublineages. The deviation of various molluscs from developmental pathways that otherwise appear widely conserved among metazoans provides novel hypotheses on molluscan evolution that can be tested with genome editing tools such as the CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats‐associated protein9) system.     

Causes and consequences of ontogenetic dietary shifts: a global synthesis using fish models

Ontogenetic dietary shifts (ODSs), the changes in diet utilisation occurring over the life span of an individual consumer, are widespread in the animal kingdom. Understanding ODSs provides fundamental insights into the biological and ecological processes that function at the individual, population and community levels, and is critical for the development and testing of hypotheses around key concepts in trophic theory on model organisms. Here, we synthesise historic and contemporary research on ODSs in fishes, and identify where further research is required. Numerous biotic and abiotic factors can directly or indirectly influence ODSs, but the most influential of these may vary spatially, temporally and interspecifically. Within the constraints imposed by prey availability, we identified competition and predation risk as the major drivers of ODSs in fishes. These drivers do not directly affect the trophic ontogeny of fishes, but may have an indirect effect on diet trajectories through ontogenetic changes in habitat use and concomitant changes in prey availability. The synthesis provides compelling evidence that ODSs can have profound ecological consequences for fish by, for example, enhancing individual growth and lifetime reproductive output or reducing the risk of mortality. ODSs may also influence food‐web dynamics and facilitate the coexistence of sympatric species through resource partitioning, but we currently lack a holistic understanding of the consequences of ODSs for population, community and ecosystem processes and functioning. Studies attempting to address these knowledge gaps have largely focused on theoretical approaches, but empirical research under natural conditions, including phylogenetic and evolutionary considerations, is required to test the concepts. Research focusing on inter‐individual variation in ontogenetic trajectories has also been limited, with the complex relationships between individual behaviour and environmental heterogeneity representing a particularly promising area for future research.     

多源空间数据整合视角下的城市开发强度研究

城市开发强度能直观表征人类活动强度,对指导城市规划与管理、促进城市可持续发展具有重要价值。采用社会-经济-生态系统耦合视角构建城市开发强度的多维测度体系,整合多源空间数据,测度了杭州市主城及3个副城的开发强度并揭示了其空间分布特征。结果表明,杭州城市开发强度由主城向副城呈波动降低,高强度开发过度集中于主城,主城的功能疏散有待加强;各副城开发强度不一,江南城与主城呈现跨江融合,临平城、下沙城空间上较为独立;各开发维度中,建筑强度、功能强度及效益强度热点区分布基本一致,环境响应高强度区则集聚于主副城交界处,表现出空间异质性。多维测度体系可较好表征城市开发强度,对城市规划及精细化管理具有一定的应用价值。     

基于能值分析的环太湖城市群生态经济系统可持续发展研究

采用能值理论与分析方法,研究2015年环太湖城市群生态经济系统的能值流量,并构建多维度的生态经济系统指标体系,综合评价环太湖城市群可持续发展程度和健康水平。研究结果表明：（1）可更新资源利用不足,在能值利用总量中占比最大值仅为7.95%;（2）不可更新资源消耗过度,在能值利用总量中占比最小值达到56.95%;（3）（除苏州市外）可更新资源产品中肉类与水产品占比最小值已达63.08%,急需对传统的农业结构进行调整;（4）不可更新资源产品均以水泥和钢铁为主,占比最小值已达88.02%,应该加快传统的工业转型升级;（5）输入能值占比最大值仅为36.27%,商品进出口呈现贸易顺差,对外经济开放仍有发展空间;（6）废弃物与可更新能值比率最大值仅为12.8%,废弃物能值比最小值仅为0.19%,废弃物排放和利用水平有待提高;（7）湖州市可持续指标ESI和能值可持续发展指标EISD为1.59和2.99,在环太湖城市群中更具可持续发展潜力;（8）苏州市健康能值指数EUEHI和改进的健康能值指数EUEHI''为8.22和1.65,在环太湖城市群中健康水平较低。据此结果提出了有助于环太湖城市群经济社会发展与自然生态环境和谐共赢的可持续发展对策。     

基于碳排放核算的中国区域旅游业生态效率测度及比较研究

旅游业作为国民经济发展的战略性支柱产业在区域发展中具有重要作用。借鉴生态效率的基本思想,考虑区域能源消费结构差异,使用自下而上的方法将旅游交通、旅游住宿与游憩活动碳排放进行加总估算出2000—2013年中国旅游业碳排放量;接着运用单一比值法计算出2000—2013年中国及各地区旅游业生态效率值,利用变异系数、莫兰指数对测度结果进行分析并与可持续发展生态效率值进行比较。研究结果表明:(1)2000—2013年,中国旅游业碳排放量不断增加,从2000年的1202.71万t增加到2013年的4151.57万t。旅游业部门之间碳排放量差异较大,尤其是旅游交通部门占到旅游业碳排放量的90%左右;(2)得益于2000—2013年旅游业发展的促进政策,中国及各地区旅游业生态效率总体上呈现不断改善的趋势,中国旅游业生态效率由2000年0.1193 kgCO_2-e/$下降到0.0309 kgCO_2-e/$。(3)时间维度上,中国旅游业生态效率的区域不平衡问题仍然存在,相比于2000年旅游业生态效率变异系数0.7114,2013年的变异系数反而增加到0.7483;空间维度上,各地区旅游业生态效率聚集模式发生了明显变化,莫兰指数由0.3036减少到0.0278。(4)通过将测度结果进行比较,中国旅游业自2000年开始进入可持续发展阶段,中国旅游业的整体可持续水平要优于其他产业,各地区的旅游业在2010年全部进入可持续发展状态。最后,对结果进行了讨论并提出旅游业生态效率的优化应从旅游收入增加与旅游业减排两方面进行。