Changes in tropical forest vegetation along an altitudinal gradient in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania

This study describes changes in woody vegetation in the Mwanihana forest, Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania, over an altitude range of 470–1700 m. Two methods, fixed‐ and variable‐area plots, are compared to elucidate altitudinal variation in tropical forest structure, diversity and community composition. Six 25 m × 100 m fixed area plots recorded a total of 2143 woody stems of ≥3 cm d.b.h. from 204 species. The 78 variable‐area plots recorded the nearest twenty trees of ≥20 cm d.b.h. to an objectively chosen point, giving a total of 1560 stems in 9.1 ha from 156 species. A linear trend of increasing stem density with altitude was seen for variable‐area plots. Species diversity is highest at high elevations. There was no clear zonation of elevational vegetation types. Restricted range taxa occur at all altitudes sampled. The study also revealed some methodological considerations. Bias in sample size and plot area can be tested by employing two sampling methods. Of the two methods used, fixed area plots are preferred as variable area plots are impractical in tangled understorey. Plot size must be controlled for in order to make reliable observations of diversity. Sampling along a continuous or near‐continuous altitudinal gradient with sufficient replication is also important.     

横断山区六种八居群鼠尾草属植物的核型分析

鼠尾草属(Salvia)是唇形科(Lamiaceae)最大的属,属下多种为民间常用草药,亦有供观赏的种类。为探究横断山区物种在细胞学水平的进化方式,讨论形态分类学与分子系统学之间的分类关系,该研究通过广泛收集染色体文献资料,采用植物常规压片法对采集自横断山地区6种8居群鼠尾草属植物进行核型分析,并构建了中国地区分布的鼠尾草属植物叶绿体系统发育树。统计结果表明:(1)全世界范围内报道了约23%的鼠尾草属植物染色体数据,其中分布在中国地区的鼠尾草属植物染色体报道率为32.10%,分布在横断山地区的鼠尾草属植物报道率为40.54%,(2)鼠尾草属植物染色体基数以x=8和x=11为主,分布在中国地区的鼠尾草属植物染色体基数均为x=8。实验结果表明:(1)西藏鼠尾草(S. wardii)核型数据为首次报道。(2)雪山鼠尾草(S. evansiana)首次在云南德钦地区发现二倍体居群。将细胞学数据结合叶绿体进化树开展染色体进化关联分析,论证多倍化可能不是鼠尾草属物种适应高海拔环境的主要机制,表明多倍体不是该属物种形成的主要进化途径而是以二倍体水平为主,推测染色体组的加倍可能是物种在形态学与分子系统学上分类关系不一致的原因之一。该研究丰富了横断山区鼠尾草属植物的染色体核型数据,结合区域分子系统树探讨染色体特征的进化关系,为今后深入研究该属物种的核型进化做出了探索,为开展祖先物种染色体基数推演分析补充了基础数据。     

THE FOSSIL GREEN ALGA MIZZIA (DASYCLADACEAE): A TOOL FOR INTERPRETATION OF PALEOENVIRONMENT IN THE UPPER PERMIAN CAPITAN REEF COMPLEX SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO1

A paleoenvironmental study of the dasyclad Mizzia Schubert, 1907 is potentially important because, unlike most of the other fossil reef-dwelling organisms found in the Guadalupe Mountains, the fossil Mizzia (restricted to the Permian) has a modern analog, Cymopolia Lamouroux, 1916 (Cretaceous to Holocene). The overall morphology of the two genera is similar: both are articulated, and observations on our specimens suggest that both were branched. The transition from the remarkably high-diversity sponge and algal assemblage in the reef into the remarkably low-diversity dasyclad-dominated assemblage in the back reef is abrupt, occurring over distances as short as 10 m. Mizzia is the dominant and usually the only component in grainstones, packstones, and wackestones found; immediately shelfward of the Capitan reef. The low percentage of broken segments (average 10%) and the discovery of several intact sections of thallus are evidence against wave action as a possible limiting factor. Because the climate in the Guadalupe Mountains was extremely arid and because dasyclads are euryhaline, hypersalinity is considered the most likely limiting factor in this case. Our conclusion that prolific stands of dasyclads formed in shallow protected lagoons immediately behind an emergent barrier reef is not compatible with the currently accepted marginal mound hypothesis for deposition of the Capitan reef complex. We suggest that the marginal mound model must either be modified or abandoned in favor of the originally proposed barrier reef model of deposition.     

阿尔泰山南部科克森山和卡拉麦里山盘羊冬季卧息地的选择

2007 年11 月至2008 年1 月,在阿尔泰山南部科克森山和卡拉麦里山采用样线法研究了盘羊冬季卧息地
的选择性。结果表明,两地区的盘羊对冬季卧息地的利用均有选择性,两地区盘羊偏好利用山坡做卧息地,避
免选择山沟和平滩卧息;偏好位于半阴和半阳坡的卧息地,避免利用阴坡,对阳坡随机利用;偏好位于上坡位
和中坡位的卧息地,对下坡位则为随机利用。通过与对照样方比较,科克森山和卡拉麦里山盘羊冬季卧息地均
以植物科数多、植物种数多、植物密度高、灌木株数小、驼绒藜株数少、接近隐蔽物、隐蔽级高和雪覆盖浅为
主要特征。在科克森山,盘羊通常选择坡度大、雪覆盖浅的位置作为其卧息地。在卡拉麦里山盘羊通常选择坡
度大的地方作为其卧息地。科克森山和卡拉麦里山盘羊卧息地变量前6 个特征值的累积贡献率分别达到了
80.75%和82. 58% ,较好地反映了盘羊卧息地的生境特征。科克森山和卡拉麦里山盘羊卧息地第1 主成分贡献
率分别达到了23.04% 和24. 33%。在两地区,植物科数、植物种数、灌木种数、雪深和坡度5 个因子的载荷系
数均为正值,具有较大的作用。其余5 个主成分中隐蔽级、海拔、距水源距离和距居民点距离也很重要。     

太行山猕猴的冬季生境选择

2007 年11 月至2008 年2 月,在太行山猕猴国家级自然保护区愚公保护站,根据观察到的猕猴活动痕迹和位置,设置了180 个10 m × 10 m 的样方。在这些样方中,对10 个生态因子(地形、海拔高度、坡位、坡向、坡度、离水源距离、人为干扰、郁闭度、隐蔽度、平均胸径)进行了调查分析,以期了解太行山猕猴的冬季生境选择特征。结果表明:太行山猕猴在冬季喜好选择的生境特征为:倾向于围绕大树(乔木平均胸径> 15 cm)活动;较之其它季节,冬季的猕猴更愿意接近人类居所(< 2 000 m),并选择离水源近(< 1 000 m)的地方活动,说明直接饮水可能是猕猴在干旱冬季获得足量水分的重要途径;冬季猕猴喜欢在坡度为15° ～40°、郁闭度< 60% 的阳坡活动,活动区域的海拔高度为1 000 ～1 300 m。猕猴对生境中地形特征和坡位无明显偏好,对活动地点的隐蔽条件也无特殊要求。文中还对所选择的生态因子进行了主成分分析,结果表明,前5 个主成分的特征值均大于1,其累积贡献率达到70.713% ,可以较好地反映猕猴的冬季生境特征。     

祁连山区青海云杉林冠层叶面积指数的反演方法

叶面积指数(Leaf area index, LAI)是陆地生态系统的一个十分重要的结构参数。随着空间精细化模型的发展和基于过程的分布式模拟技术的应用, 对LAI的区域估算显得越来越重要, 但目前尚缺乏有效的估算手段。该项研究以青海云杉(Picea crassifolia)林为研究对象, 利用LAI-2000冠层分析仪、鱼眼镜头法和经验公式法对林冠层LAI进行了测定, 观测值分别为1.03~3.70、0.48~2.26和2.27~8.20, 显然, 仪器测定值偏低。针对针叶的集聚效应导致仪器测定值偏低的现象, 利用跟踪辐射与冠层结构测量仪(TRAC)测定的青海云杉林聚集系数计算调整系数, 对鱼眼镜头法获取的LAI值进行订正。根据高分辨率的遥感数据反演青海云杉林的植被指数与LAI的关系, 最后获得了较合理的该地区林冠层LAI的空间分布图。     

长白山红松阔叶混交林林冠空隙树种更新动态规律的研究

分析了长白山红松阔叶混交林林冠空隙(Gap)内更新树种的数量特征.结果表明, 在34个林冠空隙中, 更新乔木树种出现频度为7.27%, 更新灌木树种出现频度为21.02%, Gap形成后, 阳性先锋树种首先侵入, 出现频度较高, 占据较宽的生态位, 随着Gap年龄的增加, 树种间的竞争逐渐增大, 阳性树种的生长逐渐受到限制, 阴性树种逐渐增多;Gap年龄与Gap郁闭度和Gap面积呈负相关, Gap面积与树种出现频度呈负相关;Gap年龄主要分布在5～15a和46～55a两段期间, 树种出现频度与Gap年龄存在着密切关系, 当Gap年龄小于25a时, 二者呈正相关;当Gap年龄在25～40a时, 二者呈负相关;当Gap年龄大于40a时, 树种出现频度趋于稳定;34个Gap内4种主要乔木更新树种和4种主要灌木更新树种的胸径均基本上呈正态分布, 乔木更新树种的最高点胸径为4～6cm径级, 灌木更新树种的最高点胸径为1.2cm径级.     

The lateglacial vegetation and radiocarbon dating of Lake Trilistnika, Rila Mountains (Bulgaria)

Pollen analysis, supplemented by 5 ¹⁴C dates, was carried out on the lateglacial section (160 cm) of a core retrieved from the glacial Lake Trilistnika (2216 m) in the northwestern Rila Mountains (Bulgaria). The reconstruction of the lateglacial vegetation history is linked for the first time to a chronological framework for the time window 13000–10000 b.p. The delimitation of an interstadial/stadial cycle, analogous with the Bølling/Allerød-Younger Dryas from Western Europe, is based on important changes in the pollen stratigraphy. Mountain-steppe vegetation composed of Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae, Poaceae and other cold-resistant herbs, with isolated stands of Pinus and Juniperus-Ephedra shrubland, dominated the landscape after the ice-retreat. Interstadial conditions were established before 12815±130 b.p. The spread of tree vegetation at lower elevation as a response to the climate improvement was confined to the time interval 12110±95–11140±75 b.p. The Younger Dryas stadial is characterised by a re-advance of the mountain-steppe vegetation. The results are compared with other sites of lateglacial age from the high mountains (Rila, northern Pirin, western Rhodopes) in southern Bulgaria.     

Habitat Assessment, Phytosociology and Conservation of the Tunbridge Filmy-fern Hymenophyllum tunbrigense (L) Sm. in its Isolated Locations in the Vosges Mountains

The Tunbridge Filmy-fern, Hymenophyllum tunbrigense, has been discovered within the last 10 years in several places in a 15 km long by 2 km wide area located in the western part of the Vosges Mountains. After the disappearance of the Saxony and Ardennes sites, these Vosgian locations have to be considered as one of the last continental areas for this fern in Europe, meriting the same level of interest as the well-known Luxembourg locations. In its Vosgian area, the fern occurs in Abies alba forests on small (less than 2.5 m high) and moist sandstone rocks, generally located near running water in wet valleys, at altitudes between 400 and 640 meters a.s.l. As assessed through the impact of the 26 December 1999 storm on one Hymenophyllum location, this fern appears to be sensitive to direct sunlight in the Vosges mountains. Therefore the main measure to ensure its conservation would be to maintain a dense and permanent forest canopy above the Hymenophyllum sites in order to avoid any direct sunlight.     

Gene lineages and eastern North American palaeodrainage basins: phylogeography and speciation in salamanders of the Eurycea bislineata species complex

Contemporary North American drainage basins are composites of formerly isolated drainages, suggesting that fragmentation and fusion of palaeodrainage systems may have been an important factor generating current patterns of genetic and species diversity in stream-associated organisms. Here, we combine traditional molecular-phylogenetic, multiple-regression, nested clade, and molecular-demographic analyses to investigate the relationship between phylogeographic variation and the hydrogeological history of eastern North American drainage basins in semiaquatic plethodontid salamanders of the Eurycea bislineata species complex. Four hundred forty-two sequences representing 1108 aligned bases from the mitochondrial genome are reported for the five formally recognized species of the E. bislineata complex and three outgroup taxa. Within the in-group, 270 haplotypes are recovered from 144 sampling locations. Geographic patterns of mtDNA-haplotype coalescence identify 13 putatively independent population-level lineages, suggesting that the current taxonomy of the group underestimates species-level diversity. Spatial and temporal patterns of phylogeographic divergence are strongly associated with historical rather than modern drainage connections, indicating that shifts in major drainage patterns played a pivotal role in the allopatric fragmentation of populations and build-up of lineage diversity in these stream-associated salamanders. More generally, our molecular genetic results corroborate geological and faunistic evidence suggesting that palaeodrainage connections altered by glacial advances and headwater erosion occurring between the mid-Miocene and Pleistocene epochs explain regional patterns of biodiversity in eastern North American streams.