Food consumption and related water resources in Nordic cities

Many modern cities have strongly invested in the sustainability of their urban water management system. Nordic cities like Stockholm or Copenhagen are amongst pioneers in investments towards integrated urban water management. However, cities can never be fully self-sufficient due to their dependency on external (water) resources. In this paper, we quantify this water dependency with respect to food consumption in nine cities located in the five Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland), by means of the water footprint concept. Detailed urban water footprint assessments are scarce in the literature. By analysing national nutrition surveys, we find that urban food intake behaviour differs from national food intake behaviour. In large Nordic cities people eat generally less potatoes, milk products (without cheese), meat and animal fats and they drink less coffee than outside city borders. On the other hand, they generally eat more vegetables and vegetable oils and they drink more tea and alcoholic beverages. This leads consistently – for the six large Nordic cities Stockholm, Malmö, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Reykjavik – to slightly smaller food related urban water footprints (−2 to −6%) than national average values. We also analyse the water footprint for different diets based upon Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR) for these cities. We assessed three healthy diet scenarios: 1) including meat (HEALTHY-MEAT), 2) pesco-vegetarian (HEALTHY-PESCO-VEG) and 3) vegetarian (HEALTHY-VEG). This shows that Nordic urban dwellers 1) eat too many animal products (red meat, milk and milk products) and sugar and drink too much alcohol and 2) they eat not enough vegetables, fruit and products from the group pulses, nuts and oilcrops. Their overall energy and protein intake is too high. A shift to a healthy diet with recommended energy and protein intake reduces the urban WF related to food consumption substantially. A shift to HEALTHY-MEAT results in a reduction of −9 to −24%, for HEALTHY-PESCO-VEG the reduction is −29 to −37%, for HEALTHY-VEG the reduction is −36 to −44%. In other words, Nordic urban dwellers can save a lot of water by shifting to a healthy diet.     

Shifting abundances of communities associated with nitrogen cycling in soils promoted by sugarcane harvest systems

Sugarcane cultivation supports Brazil as one of the largest world sugar and ethanol producer. In order to understand the impact of changing sugarcane harvest from manual to mechanized harvest, we studied the effect of machinery traffic on soil and consequently soil compaction upon soil microbial communities involved in nitrogen cycling. The impact of sugarcane harvest was dependent on soil depth and texture. At deeper soil layers, mechanized harvesting increases the abundance of nitrogen fixers and denitrifying communities (specifically nosZ clade I and II) while manual harvesting increases the abundance of ammonia oxidizers (specifically AOA) and increases denitrifying communities (nosZ clade I and II) on top and at intermediate depth. The effect of change on the harvest system is more evident on sandy soil than on clay soil, where soil indicators of compaction (bulk density and penetration resistance) were negatively correlated with soil microorganisms associated with the nitrogen cycle. Our results point to connections between soil compaction and N transformations in sugarcane fields, besides naming biological variables to be used as proxies for alterations in soil structure.     

Evaluating regional water security through a freshwater ecosystem service flow model: A case study in Beijing-Tianjian-Hebei region,China

Freshwater ecosystem service is essential to human’s survival and development. Many studies have documented the spatial differences in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and proposed the concept of ecosystem services flows. However, few studies characterize freshwater ecosystem service flow quantitatively. Therefore, our paper aims to quantify the effects of freshwater ecosystem service flow on downstream areas. We developed a freshwater ecosystem service flow model and applied it in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, China, for the year of 2000, 2005, and 2010. We assessed the regional water security with an improved freshwater security index by integrating freshwater service provision, consumption and flow; and found that most areas of the BTH region (69.2%) were affected by upstream freshwater flows. The areas achieving water security in the region also expanded to 66.9%, 66.1%, and 71.3%, which were 6.4%, 6.8% and 5.7% increments compared to no-flow situation, in 2000, 2005 and 2010, respectively. Setting quota for human water consumption is suggested to further improve water security. These results highlight the need to fully understand the connections between distant freshwater ecosystem service provision and local freshwater ecosystem service consumption. This approach may also help managers to choose more sustainable strategies for critical freshwater resource management across different regions.     

闽江河口红树林土壤微生物群落对互花米草入侵的响应

采用磷脂脂肪酸标记法(PLFA)研究外来入侵植物互花米草对闽江河口湿地红树林土壤微生物群落结构的影响,并探讨其主要影响因素。结果表明:从3种不同植被群落土壤(红树林群落MC、红树林-互花米草混生群落MS、互花米草群落SC)共检测到22种PLFA生物标记,MS土壤微生物PLFA生物标记总量明显高于其他植被群落,3种植被群落土壤理化性质和酶活性的变化趋势为:MCMSSC,表明互花米草入侵后土壤微生物量增加,而理化性质和酶活性均有明显下降,红树林湿地土壤质量发生了明显退化。3种植被群落土壤中含量最高的PLFA生物标记是16:0,16:1w7c,9Me15:0w,18:1w12c。土壤中特征微生物相对生物量存在明显差异,细菌分布量最大,其次是真菌和放线菌,原生动物分布量最小。群落多样性指数呈相似规律,MS土壤微生物类群多样性指数均小于MC,表明互花米草入侵后土壤微生物群落多样性指数均有下降。通过主成分分析,基本能区分出3种不同植被群落微生物群落的特征。土壤理化性质、酶活性间存在相关性,有机碳、全氮、蔗糖酶、过氧化氢酶与革兰氏阴性菌、放线菌呈显著或极显著正相关。研究结果表明互花米草入侵在一定程度上具有影响红树林群落土壤营养代谢循环的潜力,特别是关于碳、氮、磷等的循环及酶活性,改变部分有利于自身生长的土壤环境相关的微生物类群含量,竞争有利环境,迅速扩张实现入侵。     

萘对川西亚高山森林土壤微生物量、丰度和磷脂脂肪酸的影响

萘作为土壤动物化学抑制剂已在土壤动物生态功能的研究中广泛使用,但其非目标效应使其应用仍存在很大的不确定性。为了解在亚高山森林土壤应用萘抑制土壤动物群落的非目标效应,以川西亚高山森林土壤为研究对象,采用微缩实验研究了土壤微生物生物量、丰度和磷脂脂肪酸对萘胁迫的短期响应。结果表明,萘处理和对照的土壤微生物生物量碳(MBC)、真菌丰度以及细菌、真菌、革兰氏阳性菌(G~+)和革兰氏阴性菌(G~-)PLFAs含量在整个培养期间表现为降低的变化趋势,二者的土壤微生物生物量碳和G~+PLFAs含量以培养52d最低,细菌、真菌和G~-PLFAs含量以培养的45d最低。萘处理和对照的微生物生物量氮(MBN)含量表现出先升高后降低的动态,微生物生物量碳氮比(MBC/MBN)则表现为相反趋势。对照的真菌/细菌PLFAs比值呈现先升高后降低的动态,以培养的17d最高,但萘处理的真菌/细菌PLFAs比值无明显变化规律;萘处理的G~+/G~-PLFAs比值表现为降低的变化趋势,对照的G~+/G~-PLFAs比值表现为先降低后升高的趋势。萘处理仅显著影响了G~+/G~-PLFAs比值,但萘处理和采样时间的交互作用显著影响MBC/MBN、细菌丰度、真菌/细菌丰度比以及细菌、真菌的PLFAs含量、真菌/细菌PLFAs比值、G~+/G~-PLFAs比值。萘作为土壤动物抑制剂对川西亚高山森林土壤微生物群落的非目标效应具有时间变异性。     

Forest-scale sap flux responses to rainfall in a dryland eucalyptus plantation

Dryland salinity is caused by rising saline water tables, the result of relatively recent landscape-scale clearance of deep-rooted vegetation. One obvious solution to this problem is the reintroduction of deep-rooted vegetation into these landscapes, most likely non-deciduous trees. Ideally, continually-transpiring deep-rooted trees would remove moisture from throughout the soil profile, increasing the capacity of the soil to store water, thus lowering water tables by effectively reducing the number of rainfall events that contribute to groundwater recharge. In this study, we examined how water use by a Eucalyptus sideroxylon A. Cunn. ex Woolls plantation, growing in a salinity-prone landscape, varied in response to rainfall events across four years of sap flux monitoring. Responses of the plantation were observed across multiple seasons, from above average to well below average rainfall. We observed that the plantation forest, while capable of continuous water use during drought, was also quite responsive to rainfall events. During the driest periods, during which shallow soil moisture was reduced to a stable minimum, the forest continued using water at around 1 mm/day. Generally we observed increases in forest water use following only 5 mm of rainfall, in contrast to 20 mm for neighbouring native vegetation. We compared a range of plausible empirical models for describing forest water use responses to rainfall. The best model demonstrated that rainfall size, post-rainfall PET and the interaction between rainfall size and antecedent soil moisture made significant contributions to variation in forest water use across rainfall events. Interestingly, the model showed that all else equal, higher antecedent soil moisture tended to reduce potential increases in forest water use in response to rainfall.     

COI序列:影响动物分类学与生态学的DNA barcode

DNA barcode是一段特殊的、可用于物种鉴定的DNA序列.目前在动物中最常用的DNA barcode是细胞色素C氧化酶1号基因(COI)的部分序列.随着标准数据库的建立,基于COI基因的DNA barcode在动物分类学和生态学中得到了广泛应用.但是,采用COI基因作为DNA barcode所隐含的涉及线粒体的进化历史、遗传特性和物种成种时间的默认前提,并非完全成立,由此引发了许多问题.本文阐述了基于COI基因的DNA barcode对分类学和生态学的影响,目前存在的问题,以及可能的研究方向.     

红壤退化地森林恢复后土壤有机碳对土壤水库库容的影响

亚热带红壤侵蚀退化地实施生态恢复后生物生产力恢复迅速,但土壤尤其是土壤水库的功能并未获得同步恢复,导致土壤水库对于降水和地表径流的调节能力低下,区域性洪涝灾害和季节性干旱依然突出。采用野外调查和室内分析相结合的方式,研究了南方红壤侵蚀退化地典型植被恢复类型(马尾松与阔叶树复层林、木荷与马尾松混交林、阔叶混交林)0—60cm土层土壤水库各种库容差异,以及土壤总有机碳和活性有机碳密度分布特征,采用典型相关分析方法对土壤水库库容与土壤有机碳密度两组指标进行相关分析。结果表明:随着土层深度的增加,各森林恢复类型死库容呈上升趋势,兴利库容和最大有效库容呈下降趋势,防洪库容变化趋势不明显,木荷与马尾松混交林兴利库容略高。不同森林恢复类型同一土层土壤总有机碳密度均表现为马尾松与阔叶树复层林木荷与马尾松混交林阔叶混交林,而活性有机碳密度则以阔叶混交林最大。典型相关分析表明,土壤有机碳水平对土壤水库库容的增加具有显著的因果影响关系(P=0.01),其中对有机碳水平起到主导性贡献作用的是水溶性有机碳。因此,对于退化红壤地森林恢复初期,可通过适当密植和立体种植,提高林地生物量和土壤碳密度,并在马尾松等先锋树种针叶林分中补植阔叶乔灌木,以增加土壤活性有机碳含量,增大土壤水库容量,从而有利于土壤水库结构和功能以及退化生态系统的快速恢复。