Biological equilibrium in ecosystems 2. Parameters of ecosystems

In this paper the Theory of Biological Equilibrium (TBE), as the theoretical basis of the Canonical Hypothesis, is used to compute a set of theoretical parameters of natural ecosystems. These parameters are the individuals: species (I/S); the commonness: rarity (C/U) ration as well as the expected density (d _e) and total area (TA) of ecosystems. Results of sampling with nested quadrates are checked against theoretical values. Deviations from expected values of 5 to 10% occur in samples with Natural Biological Equilibrium (NBE); in disturbed and transitional sites a compensation mechanism is found which results in simulated NBE.     

Biological equilibrium in ecosystems 3. Classification of ecosystems

The Theory of Biological Equilibrium (TBE) is applied to the classification of ecosystems. It is shown that one of the basic factors, the habitat-type, governs the distribution of species through the subfactors climate and substrate in accordance with the Theory of Tolerance. Groups of species can be distinguished which show a very similar distribution, and combinations of species in these groups form the kengroups of classification units, or associations. Because the habitat-type of associations is often fragmented, the classification procedures can be applied to explaint the natural extinction of species, as well as the probability of species extinction through man's actions upon biocenoses.     

基于生态系统服务价值的生态足迹模型均衡因子及产量因子测算

均衡因子和产量因子是生态足迹模型中的关键参数,现有的测算方法多根据物质生产和消费实现,忽略生态系统提供服务的能力。本研究提出基于生态系统服务价值的均衡因子和产量因子测算方法,并以1990、2005和2015年北京市门头沟区为例,研究生态涵养发展区生态承载力,并与通用因子计算结果对比。结果表明:(1)基于生态系统服务价值获取的均衡因子:水域林地耕地。水域均衡因子最高,平均值达到8.37。耕地均衡因子最低,平均值仅为0.24。林地均衡因子高于耕地,均衡因子平均值为0.71。说明该方法较好的表现了不同生态系统提供生态服务能力的差异;(2)基于该研究方法获取的不同生态系统的产量因子接近:耕地林地水域,均值分别为0.90,0.87和0.86,且呈逐年递减趋势;(3) 1990年到2015年,门头沟区生态承载力先降低后提高,生态足迹先提高,再降低,2005年出现生态赤字,其森林、耕地和区域生态承载力与生态足迹小于通用因子生态足迹模型结果,水域生态承载力和生态足迹高于通用因子生态足迹模型结果。与通用因子相比,基于生态系统服务价值的均衡因子和产量因子更好的体现了研究区内各类生态系统生态服务的承载力。     

区域资源环境承载力科学概念及其生态学基础的讨论

资源环境承载力是生态学领域的一个重要概念,其理论和实践研究已成为衡量区域可持续发展的重要依据.但是有关生态学基础与资源环境承载力的科学联系仍未明确,其中有哪些生态学理论对资源环境承载力的发展起到了支撑作用还没被厘清,这使得资源环境承载力的科学概念十分模糊.本文在讨论资源环境、生态系统承载力科学概念及其发展的基础上,系统...     

General equilibrium of an ecosystem

Ecosystems and economies are inextricably linked: ecosystem models and economic models are not linked. Consequently, using either type of model to design policies for preserving ecosystems or improving economic performance omits important information. Improved policies would follow from a model that links the systems and accounts for the mutual feedbacks by recognizing how key ecosystem variables influence key economic variables, and vice versa. Because general equilibrium economic models already are widely used for policy making, the approach used here is to develop a general equilibrium ecosystem model which captures salient biological functions and which can be integrated with extant economic models. In the ecosystem model, each organism is assumed to be a net energy maximizer that must exert energy to capture biomass from other organisms. The exerted energies are the "prices" that are paid to biomass, and each organism takes the prices as signals over which it has no control. The maximization problem yields the organism's demand for and supply of biomass to other organisms as functions of the prices. The demands and supplies for each biomass are aggregated over all organisms in each species which establishes biomass markets wherein biomass prices are determined. A short-run equilibrium is established when all organisms are maximizing and demand equals supply in every biomass market. If a species exhibits positive (negative) net energy in equilibrium, its population increases (decreases) and a new equilibrium follows. The demand and supply forces in the biomass markets drive each species toward zero stored energy and a long-run equilibrium. Population adjustments are not based on typical Lotka-Volterra differential equations in which one entire population adjusts to another entire population thereby masking organism behavior; instead, individual organism behavior is central to population adjustments. Numerical simulations use a marine food web in Alaska to illustrate the model and to show several simultaneous predator/prey relationships, prey switching by the top predator, and energy flows through the web.     

武陵源风景区生态承载力预警

随着人类面临的严重环境挑战,可持续发展模式作为全人类共同的选择变得越来越重要。生态承载力作为可持续发展的衡量指标,通过生态承载力水平与生态荷载状况表现出来。可持续承载力预警是以可持续发展为目标进行生态承载力调控。利用主成分分析法、层次分析法构建了武陵源风景区的生态承载力评价指标体系,作为模型的输入层预警指标,并利用状态空间法求算的生态承载指数进行警度区间的划分,通过样本训练、建立BP神经网络模型,进行生态承载预警。从风景区的资源承载、环境承载、生态弹性和生态承压等方面来考虑,析出17个资源类、环境类、社会经济类指标作为评价指标体系。对于武陵源风景区的承载状态,从时间上看,2000年曾出现超载状态,主要是风景区的核心区范围内出现城市化现象所致;从空间上看,协和乡出现超载状态,其主要原因在于资源的开发利用上。基于BP网络模型实现的生态承载力预警,用于预测预报未来的可持续发展的发展状态,可以及时反映可持续状态的调控效果,为区域系统的可持续发展提供科学依据。     

Mycobacterium tuberculosis beta-ketoacyl-ACP reductase: alpha-secondary kinetic isotope effects and kinetic and equilibrium mechanisms of substrate binding

β-Ketoacyl-ACP reductase catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of β-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein to generate β-hydroxyacyl-acyl carrier protein and NADP⁺, the second step of the fatty acid elongation system type II of bacteria, plants, and apicomplexan organisms. Here, a modified and more efficient purification protocol is reported for recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis β-ketoacyl-ACP reductase (MabA). The increase in α-secondary deuterium kinetic isotope effect values measured at pH 10 as compared to those obtained at pH 7 points to isotope- and pH-sensitive steps occurring concomitantly. Equilibrium and kinetic fluorescence studies demonstrate positive cooperativity in binding of NADPH to MabA, with two forms of free enzyme in solution. Equilibrium dialysis shows no cooperativity in acetoacetyl-CoA binding to the enzyme. Moreover, modest affinity loss occurs when the substrates bind to the monomer as compared to the dimer of MabA. A mechanism of substrate binding to MabA is proposed on the basis of the experimental data.     

Minimum requirements for modelling bivalve carrying capacity

The concept of carrying capacity of an ecosystem fornatural populations is derived from the logisticgrowth curve in population ecology, and defined as themaximum standing stock that can be supported by agiven ecosystem for a given time. This definitionneeds to be modified for the exploitation ofecosystems. Carrying capacity for exploitation isdefined as the standing stock at which the annualproduction of a marketable cohort is maximized. Forbivalve suspension feeders, the dominant factordetermining the exploitation carrying capacity at theecosystem scale is primary production. At a localscale carrying capacity depends on physicalconstraints such as substrate, shelter and food supplyby tidal currents.We evaluate critically some existing models ofexploited ecosystems for shellfish cultivation inorder to formulate the minimum requirements of ageneric carrying capacity model. Generic models canbe developed for both the ecosystem scale and thelocal scale, depending on the aim of the modelling.Transport processes, sediment dynamics and submodelsfor organism and population level processes areminimum requirements for carrying capacity modelling. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Global biogeography of autotroph chemistry: is insolation a driving force?

Synthesis The tissue chemistry of plants can influence ecosystem processes including growth, herbivory, and decomposition. Our comparison of nitrogen and phosphorus in over 1700 autotroph taxa demonstrates that latitudinal trends in tissue chemistry are consistent across non‐vascular and vascular species in freshwater, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. Tissue chemistry varies most within species and taxonomic lineages, yet the nitrogen to phosphorus ratio within individuals is strikingly similar among species in different ecosystems. These results shed new light on existing hypotheses, suggesting that light (e.g. photon flux) and growing season duration are primary drivers of latitudinal gradients in tissue chemistry, but providing little support for temperature, nutrient supply, or soil substrate age. Photoautotroph nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) tissue concentrations can influence ecosystem function via processes including growth, decomposition, and consumption, and may reflect traits maintaining coexistence. Studies in terrestrial systems have led to hypotheses that latitudinal trends in the N and P content of leaves may be driven by soil substrate age, environmental temperature, or season length; however, terrestrial patterns alone cannot differentiate these mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate that broad geographical patterns of N and P in freshwater and marine multicellular photoautotrophs are concordant with those in terrestrial ecosystems. Our > 6800 record database reveals that mean tissue N and P increase with latitude in all ecosystems, but P increases more rapidly, causing N:P to decline; mean N:P scaling within individuals also is identical among systems, despite very different evolutionary environments. A partitioning of the variance in these data suggests that species composition and local environmental context likely lead to the variation observed within a latitudinal band. However, the consistency of trends in photosynthetic tissue chemistry across Earth’s ecosystems suggests that biogeographical gradients in insolation and growing season length may constrain tissue N and P, whereas global trends in temperature, nutrient supply, and soil substrate age are unlikely to generate the consistent latitudinal trends among ecosystems. Thus, this cross‐ecosystem comparison suggests a new hypothesis, global patterns of insolation, while also providing a new perspective on other mechanisms that have been hypothesized to underlie latitudinal trends in photosynthetic tissue chemistry.     

Characterization of Two Subsurface H2-Utilizing Bacteria, Desulfomicrobium hypogeium sp. nov. and Acetobacterium psammolithicum sp. nov., and Their Ecological Roles

We examined the relative roles of acetogenic and sulfate-reducing bacteria in H₂ consumption in a previously characterized subsurface sandstone ecosystem. Enrichment cultures originally inoculated with ground sandstone material obtained from a Cretaceous formation in central New Mexico were grown with hydrogen in a mineral medium supplemented with 0.02% yeast extract. Sulfate reduction and acetogenesis occurred in these cultures, and the two most abundant organisms carrying out the reactions were isolated. Based on 16S rRNA analysis data and on substrate utilization patterns, these organisms were named Desulfomicrobium hypogeium sp. nov. and Acetobacterium psammolithicum sp. nov. The steady-state H₂ concentrations measured in sandstone-sediment slurries (threshold concentration, 5 nM), in pure cultures of sulfate reducers (threshold concentration, 2 nM), and in pure cultures of acetogens (threshold concentrations 195 to 414 nM) suggest that sulfate reduction is the dominant terminal electron-accepting process in the ecosystem examined. In an experiment in which direct competition for H₂ between D. hypogeium and A. psammolithicum was examined, sulfate reduction was the dominant process.     

海岸带城市生态承载力综合评价——以连云港市为例

海岸带是人类聚居和海洋资源开发利用的重点区域。海岸带城市综合生态承载力体现了海岸带生态系统对人类社会经济活动的承受能力,是判断海岸带城市生态系统健康程度和制定海岸带环境管理政策的重要依据。基于"压力(P)-状态(S)-响应(R)"概念模型,以连云港市为例,构建海岸带综合生态承载力评价指标体系,并对2005—2014年间连云港市的综合生态承载力进行评价。结果显示:连云港市海岸带综合生态承载力呈现逻辑斯蒂式波动上升趋势,2005—2007年处于超载状态,2008—2011年基本处于平衡状态,2012年后处于可载状态。对影响承载力的主要因素进行贡献度分析的结果表明:负向指标中,海岸带环境压力大于人口压力;正向指标中,海岸带经济发展水平及科技支撑条件的贡献呈上升趋势,海岸带可利用资源波动下降。结合相关分析和因子分析,得出海岸带环境压力、科技支撑条件及经济发展水平是制约综合承载力的关键因素。研究结果对海岸带地区环境管理及可持续发展政策制定具有重要意义。     

中国生态脆弱区联网协同观测及其在承载力研究中的应用

生态脆弱区约占中国国土面积的60%以上,全球变化和人类活动导致该区域生态系统退化加剧,资源环境承载力降低。准确量化生态脆弱区资源环境承载力对于应对全球变化风险挑战和加快生态文明建设进程具有重要意义。然而,现有的区域资源环境承载力评估方法很难体现生态系统结构、过程和功能变化在资源环境要素与承载力之间的传导作用。因此,构建网络化的野外观测体系以及获取资源环境要素-生态系统结构功能和过程-生态系统承载力变化的综合数据集,是发展资源环境承载力理论和评估方法的必要途径。本文介绍了通量以及无人机协同监测网络,包括思路、实践以及其在生态脆弱区生态系统结构、过程和功能研究中取得的初步成果。同时,基于目前已取得的成果和进展展望了联网协同观测在承载力评估方面的应用。     

Ecosystem engineering as an energy transfer process: a simple agent-based model

Ecosystem engineers are defined as organisms who modulate the availability of resources for themselves and other organisms by physically changing the environment. Ecosystem engineering is a well-recognised ecological interaction, but there is a limited number of general models due to the recent development of the field. Agent-based models are often used to study how organisms respond to changing environments and are suitable for modelling ecosystem engineering. To our knowledge, agent-based methodology has not yet been used to model ecosystem engineering. In this paper, we develop a simple agent-based population dynamics model of ecosystem engineering as an energy transfer process. We apply energy budget approach to conceptually explain how ecosystem engineers transfer energy to the environment and define various types of energy transfers relative to their effects on the engineers and other organisms. We simulate environments with various levels of resource abundance and compare the results of the model without ecosystem engineering agents to the model with ecosystem engineering agents. We find that in environments with higher levels of resources, the presence of ecosystem engineers increases the average carrying capacity and the strength of population fluctuations, while in environments with lower levels of resources, ecosystem engineering mitigates fluctuations, increases average carrying capacity and makes environments more resilient. Finally, we discuss about the further application of agent-based modelling for the theoretical and experimental development of the ecosystem engineering concept.     

城市生态系统承载力理论与评价方法

城市作为一个复杂的人工生态系统,其承载力的意义与生态学中的种群承载力意义有了很大差别。定义了城市生态系统承载力,强调其对维系城市生态系统健康的能动性特征,并在比较生物免疫力与城市生态系统承载力的相似性的基础上,构建了“城市生态系统承载力免疫学模型”作为其理论模型。在理论模型基础上设计其计量模型,分为天然承载力和获得性承载力两部分。并通过承载力与压力的相对变化趋势表达城市生态系统维系其健康水平的能力。以广州市为例,计算了广州市城市生态系统承载力与压力,获得二者的动态关系。结果表明,自1992年以来,广州市基本上处于一种经济发展与城市生态系统支持力同步发展的良性状态,所采取的发展模式具有可持续性     

生态系统退化程度诊断：生态恢复的基础与前提

 生态系统退化程度诊断是进行生态恢复与重建的基础和前提。然而目前的生态系统化程度诊断大多停留在定性的水平,如何对退化生态系统的退化程度进行定量的诊断就成为恢复生态学与生态恢复实践所面临的一个迫切且十分关键的问题。在综述前人研究的基础上,比较系统地论述了生态系统退化程度诊断的一系列问题：绘制了描述生态系统退化程度的概念模型;认为在实践中退化程度诊断的参照系统可以选择相应的受人类或自然干扰程度比较轻的“自然生态系统”;归纳了生态系统退化程度诊断的生物途径、生境途径、生态过程途径、生态系统功能/服务途径、景观途径;把诊断方法分为单途径单因子诊断法、单途径多因子诊断法、多途径综合诊断法;分析了生态系统退化程度诊断的可能指标（体系）;给出了生态系统退化程度诊断的策略与流程,并对生态系统退化程度诊断及生态恢复过程中应注意的事项进行了讨论。建议我国加强典型生态系统退化程度的综合诊断研究。     

Thermodynamic equilibrium model in anaerobic digestion process

Catabolic reactions provide the chemical energy necessary for the maintenance of living microorganisms. The catabolic reactions in anaerobic digestion process may progress close to the equilibrium state (ΔG = 0) depending strongly on the microorganisms in the digester. The thermodynamic equilibrium of catabolic reactions in the anaerobic digestion process was modelled under isothermal and isobaric conditions. Three thermodynamic models were considered; the ideal, the Debye-Hückel–Praunitz, and the Pitzer–Praunitz. The models in this paper concentrate on the methanogenic equilibrium of the anaerobic digestion process. The thermodynamic equilibrium model shows that the methanogenesis step requires thermal energy and electrons, so that anaerobic digestion may achieve high substrate degradation and high conversion to methane. Some thermodynamic recommendations are suggested for the future development of the methanogenic phase of anaerobic digestion.     

How to improve scaling from traits to ecosystem processes

Scaling approaches in ecology assume that traits are the main attributes by which organisms influence ecosystem functioning. However, several recent empirical papers have found only weak links between traits and ecosystem functioning, questioning the usefulness of trait-based ecology (TBE). We argue that these studies often suffer from one or more widespread misconceptions. Specifically, these studies often (i) conflict with the conceptual foundations of TBE, (ii) lack theory- or hypothesis-driven selection and use of traits, (iii) tend to ignore intraspecific variation, and (iv) use experimental or study designs that are not well suited to make strong tests of TBE assumptions. Addressing these aspects could significantly improve our ability to scale from traits to ecosystem functioning.     

Size matters: When resource accessibility by ecosystem engineering elicits wood‐boring beetle demographic responses

Episodic natural disturbances play a key role in ecosystem renewal, and ecological engineering could do so by transforming resource accessibility. While such coupling creates nontrophic and lasting interactions between resource consumers and ecosystem engineers, it is unclear how large the disturbance must be to sustain such coupling. Natural disturbances that occur from the ecological engineering by the Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis) modulate deadwood dynamics in many forest ecosystems. Relying on such episodes of fresh woody debris, primary wood‐boring beetles, organisms that dig tunnels into those debris for reproduction, act as important deadwood decomposers in the ecosystem. Here, we investigate how the age and size of beaver disturbances act as predictors for primary wood‐boring beetle abundance and species richness around beaver‐altered habitat patches. To do so, we sampled beetles around 16 beaver‐disturbed and unaltered watercourses within the Kouchibouguac National Park (Canada) and modeled beetle demographic responses to site conditions and their physical characteristics, distance from the watercourse, deadwood biomass, and the geographical location of the sites. Our results indicate that the size of the disturbance is positively associated with beetle abundance, which highlights unique deadwood dynamics inherent to large beaver ponds. The role of beavers in forest ecosystems by reaching multiple taxa at multiple spatiotemporal scales further exemplifies the need to study nontrophic interactions and their complex consequences in ecosystem management.     

长江中游城市群城市生态承载力时空格局及其影响因素

长江中游城市群是我国的典型生态敏感区和重点开发区,科学评价其生态承载力具有重要的科学价值和现实意义。从城市生态系统的组成要素、结构特征出发,选择状态空间法从社会经济协调力、资源环境支撑力和生态弹性力3个维度构建了城市生态承载力综合评价指标体系,综合运用空间分析、多元回归、地理加权回归等方法深入分析了2006—2015年长江中游城市群城市生态承载力时空格局及其影响因素。结果表明:①2006—2015年长江中游城市群城市生态承载力指数总体呈波动上升的"W"型走势,社会经济协调力维度呈波动下降的趋势,而资源环境支撑力和生态弹性力维度整体呈波动上升的趋势;②从空间格局来看,2006—2015年长江中游城市群城市生态承载力表现出显著的空间关联性与异质性,环洞庭湖地区和环鄱阳湖城市群地区形成两大高值集聚区,而在武汉城市圈和环长株潭城市群核心区域形成两大低值集聚区;③社会发展水平、城镇居民收入水平、人口密度、经济发展效率、资源供给状况和环境污染治理水平等要素对长江中游城市群城市生态承载力空间分异格局的影响较为显著,影响强度具有空间异质性特征。     

Lipase immobilisation: an equilibrium study of lipases immobilised on hydrophobic and hydrophilic/hydrophobic supports

This work investigates the enzyme-support equilibrium behaviour in immobilised lipase biocatalysts. Equilibrium data determines the maximum enzyme up-take by unit weight of support. Four lipases were immobilised on two polymeric supports, respectively. They were Lipase PS from Pseudomonas, Lipolase 100L from Humicola, SP871 from Rhizomucor miehel and QL from Alcaligenes. The supports were Accurel EP100 (a polypropylene material) and 45SAA (a polypropylene/silica composite). Experimentally, equilibrium was expressed in terms of lipase loading (LU/g support) versus residual lipase concentration (LU/dm³). Activity, efficiency and operational stability of the immobilised lipases were assayed by solvent-free esterification of oleic acid and octanol.Equilibrium data were modelled by the Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich–Peterson formulae. It was found that Lipolase 100L/Accurel, PS/45SAA and SP871/45SAA systems conformed to the Langmuir behaviour, while Lipase PS/Accurel and SP871/Accurel systems followed the Freundlich behaviour and Lipolase 100L/45SAA, QL/45SAA and QL/Accurel EP100 resembled Redlich–Peterson behaviour. Whereas immobilisation on Accurel EP100 resulted in classical equilibrium isotherms with all four lipases, immobilisation on support 45SAA resulted in two-plateau equilibrium curves which included a step change in the isotherm for all lipases studied, except for SP871. Quantitatively, for 1 g lipase, Accurel and 45SAA had a maximum capacity of 140 and 260 kLU for PS, 112 and 550 kLU for Lipolase 100L, 320 and 800 kLU for SP871 and 18 and 29 kLU for QL, respectively.