Enhanced growth of sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) in response to manipulated ecosystem warming

Global models project impending climate changes that could significantly alter plant species composition in ecosystems. Climate manipulation experiments provide an opportunity to investigate such effects. Here we describe and apply a method for extracting the age‐detrended growth rate of sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) and show that experimental ecosystem warming enhances the growth rate of this shrub. Snowmelt date, not soil temperature or moisture, is demonstrated to be the dominant climate variable controlling the observed effect. Our findings suggest that global climate change will result in increased growth and range expansion of sagebrush near northern or high‐elevation range boundaries in the Western United States.     

Quantifying spatiotemporal patterns concerning land change in Changsha,China

Changsha has undergone speedy socio-economic development, rapid modification of industrial structure, and acceleration of urbanization, which has influenced land cover change during the most recent three decades. Policies have aimed to conserve total agricultural area, but it is not clear how successful these policies have been. Our purpose is to characterize and interpret spatiotemporal patterns of land change with respect to the policy to maintain agricultural area in Changsha, China. Maps at 1990, 2000, and 2010 show four land categories: Built, Forest, Crop and Other. We compute change components and apply Intensity Analysis to compare the land changes during two time intervals: 1990–2000 and 2000–2010. We also compare the central region to the peripheral region during 1990–2010. The maps show that Changsha’s land change accelerated from 1990–2000 to 2000–2010. Change was more intensive in the central region than in the peripheral region. Crop and Forest experienced net decreases while Built experienced net increase during both time intervals and in both regions. Built’s gain targeted Crop and avoided Forest during both time intervals and in both regions. The central region’s largest change component is quantity change, due to Built’s net gain. The peripheral region’s largest change component is exchange, due to simultaneous transitions from Forest to Crop and from Crop to Forest. According to these data, policies have not maintained the quantity of Crop, as the peripheral region has not gained Crop sufficiently to compensate for Crop’s loss from the central region.     

Dynamics of ungulates in relation to climatic and land use changes in an insularized African savanna ecosystem

Land use change and human population growth are accelerating the fragmentation and insularization of wildlife habitats worldwide. The conservation and management of wildlife in the resultant ‘island’ ecosystems in the context of global warming is challenging due to the isolation and reduced size of the ecosystems and hence the scale over which ecosystem processes can operate. We analyzed trends in numbers of nine large herbivores in Kenya’s Lake Nakuru National Park to understand how rainfall and temperature variability, surrounding land use changes, and boundary fencing affected wildlife population dynamics inside the park during 1970–2011. Buffalo, zebra and Thomson’s gazelle numbers increased persistently. Grant’s gazelle and impala increased initially then gradually declined. Waterbuck and warthog numbers progressively declined to levels that potentially threatened their local population persistence. The total biomass of ungulates tripled from 1970 to 2011, with buffalo replacing waterbuck as the predominant species in biomass. Increased competition from buffalo and zebra, heightened predation and illicit human harvests probably all contributed to the declines by waterbuck and warthog. Density-dependent limitation of population growth within the park confines was evident for buffalo, impala, eland, giraffe, Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles. Fluctuations in the lake level related to varying rainfall affected changes in animal abundance through expansion of the lake area and flooding of grasslands bordering the lake. Unusually, the most stressful conditions were associated with high water levels following high rainfall. There was also evidence of carry-over effects from prior habitat conditions affecting all species. The relatively stable populations of all species except warthog and waterbuck demonstrate the remarkable capacity of this small, insularized park to retain viable populations of most of the large herbivores, without much management intervention.     

Innovative snow harvesting technology increases vegetation establishment success in native sagebrush ecosystem restoration

Aims

In cold-arid systems, moisture availability is often a limiting factor to vegetation establishment and growth. Consequentially, manipulating soil moisture dynamics may help to improve restoration practice. Application of snow fencing, for microclimate manipulation in cold-arid regions, improves native species establishment and restoration success following disturbance by improving soil moisture retention.

Methods

Research was conducted in the Jonah Natural Gas Field, an area subjected to intensive gas development, in southwest Wyoming, USA, to assess roles of snow fencing in altering snowpack characteristics, and soil moisture, for improving re-establishment of native vegetation.

Results

Application of a customized snow fence design (the Hollow Frame Fence System, HFFS) significantly increased vegetation establishment of the framework taxon, Artemisia tridentata Nutt. spp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young, and other native sagebrush-steppe species. The HFFS exhibited significantly fewer invasive species than control blocks; establishment of A. tridentata was significantly higher within the HFFS, as compared to both control blocks, and commercial fence types. Significant increases in spring soil moisture are likely drivers of increased restoration success with use of HFFS.

Conclusions

The Hollow Frame Fence System provides increased water harvesting capacity necessary to improve habitat restoration in cold-arid environments subjected to disturbance.     

陕西省生态系统服务价值评估及时空差异

基于土地利用变更调查数据,运用中国陆地生态系统服务价值当量表,分析了2001-2006年陕西省生态系统服务价值变化与不同尺度上的差异,探讨了耕地占补平衡和退耕还林工程对生态系统服务价值的影响,并分析了其生态系统服务价值动态.结果表明:研究期间,陕西省生态系统服务价值整体呈增加趋势,其中,林地生态系统服务价值量占全省总价值量的比例达76.5％,林地生态系统服务价值增加量占全省增加总量的97.5％,生态系统服务价值降低的地类有耕地、草地和未利用地,耕地生态系统服务价值降低量占全省总降低量的81.7％.研究期内不同地市生态系统服务价值均有不同程度的增加,延安市的增加量最大,其次是榆林市,杨凌区最低.陕西省生态系统服务价值增加最明显的地区为黄土高原地区,其增加量占全省生态系统服务价值总增加量的61.2％,秦巴山地次之,关中平原地区最低.陕西省耕地占补平衡力度相对较大,其2001-2006年耕地生态系统服务价值呈增加趋势.退耕还林工程使黄土高原区生态系统服务价值增加最多,关中平原区增加最少.     

The concept of a climax in relation to the fertiliser input of a pastoral ecosystem

Summary The significance of the term ‘ecological climax’ is explained in relation to the productivity and fertiliser requirement of a pastoral ecosystem. A model has been constructed for drawing up nutrient balance sheets where a climax had been reached in a typical case. The balance sheets have been used to study the phosphate problem over a range of inputs and outputs for fertiliser elements likely to apply in practice. Results indicate that in a stable high-producing system phosphorus is not abnormal in comparison with other fertiliser elements. This conclusion is at odds with the theory of phosphate fixation.     

Plant community dynamics in a semi-arid ecosystem in relation to nutrient addition following a major disturbance

Effects of annual additions of mineral N and P (100 kg ha^–1) on plant species composition and annual aboveground net primary production (ANPP) were investigated during the first three years following disturbance in a semi-arid ecosystem. Additions of N reduced richness of perennial plant species during years 2 and 3, while P reduced the number of perennial species only in year 3. From year 1 to year 2, annual and biennial species richness declined in all treatments while ANPP of annual species increased greatly. Added N increased ANPP of annual species while it decreased ANPP of most perennial species relative to the unfertilized control treatment. Community similarities were higher for the control and native vegetation than for other pairs of treatments using both species presence and plant production data. Nitrogen additions have retarded but not completely arrested secondary succession in this system.     

The development of a benthic ecosystem

The development of a benthic ecosystem on a sandy bottom at 3 m depth in the saline Lake Grevelingen, The Netherlands, is described. The development started after the closure of the former Grevelingen estuary and was followed for 4 1/2 years. Ecosystem attributes studied were biomass, secondary production, production/biomass ratio, type of food chains, species diversity, pattern diversity, size of organisms, type of life-cycles, and r- and K-selection. The results are discussed in relation to E. P. Odum's (1969) theory of ecosystem development. Communication nr. 150 of the Delta Institute for Hydrobiological Research     

Physiological and structural changes in response to altered precipitation regimes in a Mediterranean macchia ecosystem

Significant decrease in precipitation up to 15–20% has been observed in the Mediterranean area in the last two decades as a consequence of climate change. To simulate an analogous scenario, the precipitation regime was altered in replicated experimental plots in a Mediterranean macchia dominated by Arbutus unedo L. species. Two different levels of soil water content (SWC) were obtained during the summer: a mean value of 7% was obtained in water-depleted (D) plots by a partial (−20%) rain exclusion treatment using rain gutters; while a mean value of 14% in SWC was obtained in watered (W) plots supplying water by a sprinkler net. The physiological and structural changes were investigated over the course of two consecutive years by measurement of water potential, gas exchange leaf carbon isotopes, leaf pigments and growth. Apart from short-term responses, mainly related to the elastic response of stomatal conductance to soil water, a more long-lasting and significant acclimation to water availability was observed as a result of the increase in hydraulic resistance in the soil–plant continuum, which persisted even after the return to full water availability during the fall and winter. This response involved the permanent down-regulation of stomatal conductance and photosynthesis, accumulation of photo-protective pigments, as well as a reduction in shoot growth, leaf area index and an increase in shoot-bearing flowers in D plots. This acclimation response prevented the onset of any run-away damage thereby reducing the forest vulnerability to drought. Furthermore, the imposed drought induced a slight increase or no change in intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUE_int), as a result of the parallel increase in stomatal and non-stomatal limitations; conversely integrated WUE (i.e., estimated from leaf carbon isotopes) was not affected by drought.     

The R* rule and energy flux in a plant-nutrient ecosystem

The R* rule predicts that the species that can survive in steady state at the lowest level of limiting resource, R*, excludes all other species. Simple models indicate that this concept is not necessarily consistent with Lotka's conjecture that an ecological system should evolve towards a state of maximum power, Max(G), where G is the power, or rate of biomass production of the system. To explore the relationship in detail, we used a published model of a plant-nutrient system in which a plant can use various strategies, S, of allocation of energy between foliage, roots, and wood. We found that the allocation strategy, S_MinR*, that leads to , where is a limiting nutrient in soil pore water in our model (and equivalent to R* in Tilman's notation), is the same as the strategy, S_{MaxG_root}, for which energy flux to roots is maximized. However, that allocation strategy is different from the strategy, S_MaxG, that produces maximum power, or maximum photosynthetic rate, for the plant system, Max(G). Hence, we conclude that and Max(G) should not necessarily co-occur in an ecological system. We also examined which strategy, S_fit, was fittest; that is, eliminated any other strategies, when allowed to compete. The strategy S_fit differed from S_MinR*, S_MaxG, and S_{MaxG_root}, which we demonstrated mathematically. We also considered the feasible situation in which a plant is able to positively influence external nutrient input to the system. Under such conditions, the strategy, S_{MaxG_root}, that maximizes energy flux to roots was the same as the strategy, S_MaxR*, that leads to maximum concentration of available nutrient in soil pore water, , and not same as S_MinR*, for .     

The role of Chironomidae in energy flow of a lotic ecosystem

Chironomid secondary production was estimated on a species-specific basis for 14 dominant taxa in a third-order woodland stream. Results from this study were used to provide an expalanation for the common observation that benthos secondary production in streams is insufficient to account for levels of fish production,i.e., the ALLEN paradox. Annual chironomid secondary production was 29.7 g dry mass m^–2 and accounted for 80% of the total aquatic insect secondary production. A contribution by chironomids this high has not been reported previously from similar streams and indicates that chironomids are an energetically important group available for fish consumption. Most studies examining chironomid secondary production group all taxa at the family level and calculate secondary production for the entire family using the size-frequency method. This approach violates assumptions of the size-frequency method and will result in inaccurate and unpredictable estimates of chironomid secondary production. The species-specific approach to estimate chironomid production used in this study, combined with non-chironomid production, yielded a benthos annual production rate that exceeded consumption necessary to support fish production.     

Organic matter turnover in a sagebrush steppe landscape

Laboratory incubations of¹⁵N-amended soils from a sagebrush steppe in south-central Wyoming indicate that nutrient turnover and availability have complex patterns across the landscape and between microsites. Total and available N and P and microbial C and N were highest in topographic depressions characterized by tall shrub communities. Net and gross N mineralization rates and respiration were also highest in these areas, but microbial efficiencies expressing growth relative to respiration cost were highest in soils of exposed ridgetop sites (prostrate shrub communities). Similar patterns occurred between shrub and intershrub soils, with greater nutrient availability under shrubs, but lower microbial efficiencies under shrubs than between. Surface soils had higher soil nutrient pools and N mineralization rates than subsurface soils, but N and C turnover and microbial efficiencies were lower in those surface soils. All soils decreased in respiration, mineralization, and immobilization rates during the 30-day incubation period, apparently approaching a steady-state substrate use. Soil microbial activity of the high organic matter accumulation areas was apparently more limited by labile substrate.     

Quantifying conformational changes in GPCRs: glimpse of a common functional mechanism

Background

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are important drug targets and a better understanding of their molecular mechanisms would be desirable. The crystallization rate of GPCRs has accelerated in recent years as techniques have become more sophisticated, particularly with respect to Class A GPCRs interacting with G-proteins. These developments have made it possible for a quantitative analysis of GPCR geometrical features and binding-site conformations, including a statistical comparison between Class A GPCRs in active (agonist-bound) and inactive (antagonist-bound) states.

Results

Here we implement algorithms for the analysis of interhelical angles, distances, interactions and binding-site volumes in the transmembrane domains of 25 Class A GPCRs (7 active and 18 inactive). Two interhelical angles change in a statistically significant way between average inactive and active states: TM3-TM6 (by -9°) and TM6-TM7 (by +12°). A third interhelical angle: TM5-TM6 shows a trend, changing by -9°. In the transition from inactive to active states, average van der Waals interactions between TM3 and TM7 significantly increase as the average distance between them decreases by >2 Å. Average H-bonding between TM3 and TM6 decreases but is seemingly compensated by an increase in H-bonding between TM5 and TM6. In five Class A GPCRs, crystallized in both active and inactive states, increased H-bonding of agonists to TM6 and TM7, relative to antagonists, is observed. These protein-agonist interactions likely favour a change in the TM6-TM7 angle, which creates a narrowing in the binding pocket of activated receptors and an average ~200 ų reduction in volume.

Conclusions

In terms of similar conformational changes and agonist binding pattern, Class A GPCRs appear to share a common mechanism of activation, which can be exploited in future drug development.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12859-015-0567-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Biodiversity changes in a shallow lake ecosystem: a multi-proxy palaeolimnological analysis

Biodiversity is a key measure of environmental quality in lake ecosystems. Lake biodiversity can be assessed using modern survey data, but typically these data only provide a ‘snap-shot’ measure and in most cases it is not possible to reconstruct temporal trends in biodiversity, so that human impacts can be detected. Palaeoecological techniques offer an alternative means of identifying changes in biodiversity over the period of historical records and far beyond, but there are problems associated with this approach. This is because only a select set of organisms leave a trace in the sediment record such that it is not usually possible to make reliable assessments of diversity changes within an entire taxonomic order (e.g. the algae). Moreover these organisms are typically from the lower levels of the trophic hierarchy (i.e. plants and insects). The problems of identifying changes in biodiversity from the palaeolimnological record are addressed with reference to Groby Pool, a shallow, eutrophic, medieval lake in the English Midlands, which has been subjected to eutrophication over the last 150 years. ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs-dated sediment cores have been used to estimate short-term alterations in the composition and diversity of three groups of indicators, representing different levels in the trophic cascade, namely diatoms, aquatic pollen and chironomids. By exploring relationships, both between these indicators and with archival macrophyte records, an assessment is made of eutrophication-related changes in overall habitat diversity at the ecosystem level. These data suggest that the lake has undergone considerable nutrient enrichment, resulting in the loss of a diverse, mesotrophic macrophyte flora from at least the turn of the century onwards and its replacement by a few highly competitive species tolerant of high nutrient concentrations. Reductions in macrophyte diversity seem to be reflected palaeoecologically by a decline in the diversity of fossil chironomid assemblages, related to the breakdown of particular host-plant relationships amongst the phytophagic species. However, diatom assemblages generally exhibit the opposite trend, which may be related to increases in macrophyte cover and increasing opportunities for the colonization of diverse epiphyte communities. The different fossil indicators have different limitations and merits, and for this reason a ‘multi-proxy’ approach is essential if meaningful inferences are to be made of changes in lake biodiversity using palaeoecological data.     

Quantifying energy dissipation by grazing animals in harsh environments

Grazing systems in harsh environments are common throughout the world, and animal production is the mainstay of the livelihoods of many resource-poor farmers. The energy cost of the various activities involved in the process of harvesting the pasture to transform it into animal product can be estimated through an energy balance. This cost would be the difference between the metabolizable energy intake (MEI) and the energy expenditures for maintenance (MEm), temperature regulation (MEtr), and the energy for production (MEp). Each of the ME has its own net energy (NE) and its associated efficiency (K). When MEI>MEm+MEtr+MEp, the difference is attributable to the energy dissipated during grazing. The efficiency of converting the energy consumed into animal products depends on the magnitude of the dissipation. The inefficiency is associated with the energy spent in locomotion and the stress produced when there is low availability of energy in the pasture. This paper presents a method to quantify the dissipation of energy by grazing animals by considering it as a function of available energy. Such an understanding is required in order to develop management strategies to increase conversion efficiency.