Psychological Traces of China's Socio-Economic Reforms in the Ultimatum and Dictator Games

Can traces of rapid socio-economic changes within a society be reflected in experimental games? The post-Mao reforms in China provide a unique natural quasi-experiment to study people from the same society who were raised with radically different values about distribution of wealth and altruistic behavior. We tested whether the size of offers in the ultimatum and dictator games are an increasing function of the number of years Chinese citizens experienced of the Mao era (“planned economy”). For the cohort that lived throughout the entire Mao era, we found that mean offers in the two games were substantially higher than what is typically offered in laboratory studies. These offers were also higher than those of two younger Chinese cohorts. In general, the amount offered decreased with less time spent under Mao, while in the oldest group in which every member spent the same amount of time under Mao, the younger members tended to offer more, suggesting an additional effect of early education under Mao and contradicting the alternative hypothesis that generosity increases with age. These results suggest that some of the observed individual differences in the offers made in experimental games can be traced back to the values of the socio-economic era in which individuals grew up.     

Assessing the utility of conserving evolutionary history

It is often claimed that conserving evolutionary history is more efficient than species‐based approaches for capturing the attributes of biodiversity that benefit people. This claim underpins academic analyses and recommendations about the distribution and prioritization of species and areas for conservation, but evolutionary history is rarely considered in practical conservation activities. One impediment to implementation is that arguments related to the human‐centric benefits of evolutionary history are often vague and the underlying mechanisms poorly explored. Herein we identify the arguments linking the prioritization of evolutionary history with benefits to people, and for each we explicate the purported mechanism, and evaluate its theoretical and empirical support. We find that, even after 25 years of academic research, the strength of evidence linking evolutionary history to human benefits is still fragile. Most – but not all – arguments rely on the assumption that evolutionary history is a useful surrogate for phenotypic diversity. This surrogacy relationship in turn underlies additional arguments, particularly that, by capturing more phenotypic diversity, evolutionary history will preserve greater ecosystem functioning, capture more of the natural variety that humans prefer, and allow the maintenance of future benefits to humans. A surrogate relationship between evolutionary history and phenotypic diversity appears reasonable given theoretical and empirical results, but the strength of this relationship varies greatly. To the extent that evolutionary history captures unmeasured phenotypic diversity, maximizing the representation of evolutionary history should capture variation in species characteristics that are otherwise unknown, supporting some of the existing arguments. However, there is great variation in the strength and availability of evidence for benefits associated with protecting phenotypic diversity. There are many studies finding positive biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships, but little work exists on the maintenance of future benefits or the degree to which humans prefer sets of species with high phenotypic diversity or evolutionary history. Although several arguments link the protection of evolutionary history directly with the reduction of extinction rates, and with the production of relatively greater future biodiversity via increased adaptation or diversification, there are few direct tests. Several of these putative benefits have mismatches between the relevant spatial scales for conservation actions and the spatial scales at which benefits to humans are realized. It will be important for future work to fill in some of these gaps through direct tests of the arguments we define here.     

The future of evolutionary diversity in reef corals

One-third of the world''s reef-building corals are facing heightened extinction risk from climate change and other anthropogenic impacts. Previous studies have shown that such threats are not distributed randomly across the coral tree of life, and future extinctions have the potential to disproportionately reduce the phylogenetic diversity of this group on a global scale. However, the impact of such losses on a regional scale remains poorly known. In this study, we use phylogenetic metrics in conjunction with geographical distributions of living reef coral species to model how extinctions are likely to affect evolutionary diversity across different ecoregions. Based on two measures—phylogenetic diversity and phylogenetic species variability—we highlight regions with the largest losses of evolutionary diversity and hence of potential conservation interest. Notably, the projected loss of evolutionary diversity is relatively low in the most species-rich areas such as the Coral Triangle, while many regions with fewer species stand to lose much larger shares of their diversity. We also suggest that for complex ecosystems like coral reefs it is important to consider changes in phylogenetic species variability; areas with disproportionate declines in this measure should be of concern even if phylogenetic diversity is not as impacted. These findings underscore the importance of integrating evolutionary history into conservation planning for safeguarding the future diversity of coral reefs.     

土荆芥挥发油化感胁迫对土壤胞外酶活性和微生物多样性的影响

入侵植物释放的化感物质可改变土壤理化性状和微生物群落结构,通过与土壤微生物的互作抑制本土植物生长。为了进一步诠释土荆芥化感作用机制,采用温室培养瓶法,探讨了其挥发油对土壤胞外酶活性和微生物多样性的影响。结果表明:土荆芥挥发油不同程度降低了脲酶、酸性磷酸酶、蔗糖酶和硝酸还原酶的活性(P0.05);较高剂量的挥发油处理组显著促进了过氧化氢酶活性(P0.05)。处理初期挥发油对土壤胞外酶活性影响较大,但随着处理时间延长,其影响逐渐减弱;处理16 d后,较高剂量(20μL和50μL)的挥发油处理组细菌数量显著高于对照(P0.05)。挥发油对土壤放线菌数量的影响表现为低剂量促进,高剂量抑制的效应;PCR-DGGE分析表明,随着挥发油处理剂量增加和处理时间延长,土壤中细菌和真菌的Shannonwiener多样性指数和丰富度指数均增大。结论:土荆芥挥发油可改变土壤微生物群落结构和胞外酶活性,增加土壤微生物多样性。     

土荆芥挥发性化感物质诱导蚕豆保卫细胞死亡及信号调节

为了探讨入侵植物土荆芥的化感作用机制,以其入侵地广泛种植的农作物蚕豆叶片下表皮为受试材料,通过对保卫细胞的活性分析,研究了土荆芥挥发油及其两种主要成分α-萜品烯和对伞花素诱导保卫细胞死亡及其信号调节的机制。结果表明:土荆芥挥发油、α-萜品烯、对伞花素具有显著的细胞毒性,随着处理剂量增加,保卫细胞存活率显著下降,细胞核出现了畸形、碎裂和降解等程序性细胞死亡的典型特征;活性氧(Reactive oxygen species,ROS)、一氧化氮合酶(Nitric oxide synthetase,NOS)和Ca~(2+)的组织化学定位显示,在土芥挥发油、α-萜品烯和对伞花素作用下,保卫细胞内ROS、NOS和Ca~(2+)的水平明显高于对照组;活性氧清除剂(AsA)、Ca~(2+)螯合剂(EGTA)和硝酸还原酶抑制剂(NaN——3)均可有效缓解土荆芥挥发油、α-萜品烯和对伞花素的细胞毒性,显著提高了保卫细胞的存活率(P0.05)。上述结果表明,ROS、NO和Ca~(2+)参与了土荆芥挥发油、α-萜品烯和对伞花素诱导蚕豆保卫细胞死亡的信号调节过程。土荆芥挥发油、α-萜品烯和对伞花素诱导的保卫细胞死亡,可能是通过ROS和NO调控保卫细胞内Ca~(2+)水平的变化而引起的。     

Historical biogeography of the widespread macroalga Sargassum (Fucales,Phaeophyceae)

Sargassum is a cosmopolitan brown algal genus spanning the three ocean basins of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, inhabiting temperate, subtropical and tropical habitats. Sargassum has been postulated to have originated in the Oligocene epoch approximately 30 mya according to a broad phylogenetic analysis of brown macroalgae, but its diversification to become one of the most widespread and speciose macroalgal genera remains unclear. Here, we present a Bayesian molecular clock study, which analyzed data from the order Fucales of the brown algal crown radiation (BACR) group to reconstruct a time-calibrated phylogeny of the Sargassum clade. Our phylogeny included a total of 120 taxa with 99 Sargassum species sampled for three molecular markers – ITS-2, cox3 and rbcLS – calibrated with an unambiguous Sargassaceae fossil from between the lower and middle Miocene. The analysis revealed a much later origin of Sargassum than expected at about 6.7 mya, with the genus diversifying since approximately 4.3 mya. Current geographic distributions of Sargassum species were then analyzed in conjunction with the time-calibrated phylogeny using the dispersal-extinction-cladogenesis (DEC) model to estimate ancestral ranges of clades in the genus. Results strongly support origination of Sargassum in the Central Indo-Pacific (CIP) region with subsequent independent dispersal events into other marine realms. The longer history of diversification in the ancestral CIP range could explain the much greater diversity there relative to other marine areas today. Analyses of these dynamic processes, when fine-tuned to a higher spatial resolution, enable the identification of evolutionary hotspots and provide insights into long-term dispersal patterns.     

Comparing patterns of taxonomic,functional and phylogenetic diversity in reef coral communities

Coral Reefs - Biodiversity defines the variety of living organisms on this planet and is often quantified by the total number of species. However, species richness is insufficient in accounting for...     

Volatile allelochemicals of Chenopodium ambrosioides L. induced mitochondrion-mediated Ca2+-dependent and Caspase-dependent apoptosis signaling pathways in receptor plant cells

Plant and Soil - This study aims to explain the mechanism of action of allelochemical effect of Chenopodium ambrosioides L. volatile oil on mitochondrial characteristics of receptor plants. This...     

Nitrogen addition drives convergence of leaf litter decomposition rates between <Emphasis Type="Italic">Flaveria bidentis</Emphasis> and native plant

Evidence is growing that invasive species can change decomposition rates and associated nutrient cycling within an ecosystem by changing the quality of the litter entering a system. However, the relative contribution of their distinct litter types to carbon turnover is less understood, especially in the context of enhanced N deposition. The objective of this study was to investigate the whole-plant responses of an invasive plant Flaveria bidentis in litter decay to simulated N eutrophication. A 1-year study was conducted to assess if N enhancement influenced decomposition and nutrient dynamics of litters from foliage, fine roots and twigs of F. bidentis compared to co-occurring native species Setaria viridis. N fertilization significantly decreased the decomposition rate of the foliage of the invasive F. bidentis by more than 25% relative to the water control, but had relatively minor effects on decomposition of its twigs and fine root litter or leaf litter from the native species. Collectively, decomposition rates of foliar litters of the invasive and native species become convergent over time in the presence of N addition. Moreover, net N loss was predominately influenced by litter species, followed by the litter type, while N addition had little effect on net N loss. Our study showed that the variation in litter decomposition was much greater between litter types of the invasive F. bidentis than between different plant species under the N addition and that the litter of invasive species with higher inherent decomposability did not always decompose more rapidly than the litter of native species in response to predicted N deposition enhancement.