草原灌丛化对生态系统多功能性的影响

草原灌丛化现象在干旱半干旱区广泛发生,影响了生态系统的结构、过程和功能。生态系统具有同时提供多种功能的能力,即生态系统多功能性。灌丛化是否会引起草原生态系统多功能性的减少,其内在的作用机制又是什么？这些问题仍有待明晰。理解草原灌丛化对生态系统多功能性的影响,对于促进草原地区"草-畜-人"平衡和实现区域可持续发展至关重要。从响应规律、影响路径和控制因素三个方面总结评述了草原灌丛化对生态系统多功能性影响的研究进展,主要包括:(1)阐明了单一生态系统功能和多种生态系统功能对草原灌丛化的响应特征;(2)从生物路径、非生物路径以及气候变化和人类活动的影响方面探讨了灌丛化对生态系统多功能性的影响路径;(3)从灌丛化物种、灌丛化阶段和草原类型三个方面明晰了草原灌丛化对生态系统多功能性影响的控制因素。在此基础上,针对灌丛化对生态系统多功能性的影响机制,对生产-生态功能权衡的影响等方面对未来研究进行了展望,并面向可持续发展目标探讨了灌丛化生态系统的可持续管理路径。研究可为我国灌丛化草原的恢复和管理提供支撑。     

Coastal wetland restoration through the lens of Odum's theory of ecosystem development

Advancing ecological restoration assessments requires a more detailed consideration of species interactions and ecosystem processes. Most restoration projects rely on a few metrics not always directly linked with ecological theory. Here, we used Odum's theory of ecosystem development to assess and compare the ecosystem structure and services of created marshes (4–6 years old) with preexisting, reference marshes in a brackish water region of the Mississippi River Delta. We built ecosystem models for created and reference marshes that integrated large datasets of stomach contents, stable isotopes, and taxa abundances. Despite strong resemblance in community structure, created marshes were at an earlier succession stage compared to the reference marshes, having lower biomass (including exploited species), higher biomass turnover and production, less dependence on detritus, lower material cycling, and less energy flowing through specialist pathways. Although preserving preexisting marshes should be a priority, created marshes may still be an important tool for the restoration of coastal areas and their ecosystem services. In addition, our results show that comparisons of species biodiversity alone may fail to capture essential differences in ecosystem processes between habitats, which reinforces the importance of ecosystem modeling approaches to assess restoration projects.     

Death, detritus, and energy flow in aquatic ecosystems

1. Pelagic trophic structure and energy fluxes are evaluated predominantly on the basis of ingestion of particulate organic matter by living organisms and the effects of consumption on the population dynamics of trophic levels. 2. Population fluxes are not representative of the material and energy fluxes of either the composite pelagic region or the lake ecosystem. Metabolism of particulate and especially dissolved organic detritus from many pelagic and non-pelagic autochthonous and from allochthonous sources dominates both material and energy fluxes. Because of the very large magnitudes and relative chemical recalcitrance of these detrital sources, the large but slow metabolism of detritus provides an inherent ecosystem stability that energetically dampens the ephemeral, volatile fluctuations of higher trophic levels. 3. The annual time period is the only meaningful interval in comparative quantitative analyses of material and energy fluxes at population, community, and ecosystem levels. 4. Non-predatory death and metabolism by prokaryotic and protistian heterotrophs dominate. Continued application of animal-orientated relationships to the integrated, process-driven couplings of the aquatic ecosystems impedes understanding of quantitative ecosystem pathways and control mechanisms.     

生态系统多功能性的测度方法

生物多样性与生态系统多功能性(biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality, BEMF)之间的关系是目前生态学研究的一个热点, 其中, 生态系统多功能性(EMF)的测度方法是研究该问题的技术关键。由于缺乏统一的认识, 目前存在多个多功能性的测度方法, 这使人们对生物多样性与生态系统多功能性之间关系的理解复杂化。本文介绍了国际上常用的单功能法、功能-物种替代法、平均值法、单阈值法、多阈值法、直系同源基因法和多元模型法的原理及其特点, 并对其中较难理解的多阈值法进行了举例说明, 希望能对理解EMF的测度方法有所帮助。本文按不同的EMF测度方法对已发表的有关文章进行了归类, 以期帮助读者更好地选择EMF的测度方法。由于缺乏相对统一的、代表各个层次的生态系统功能的测度方法, 导致不同的研究结果难以相互比较, 严重限制了生物多样性与生态系统多功能性研究的发展; 所以, 研发新的、具有普遍适用性的EMF测度方法已成为当务之急。     

丛枝菌根真菌的生态分布及其影响因子研究进展

丛枝菌根(arbuscular mycorrhiza,AM)共生体系对于植物适应各种逆境胁迫具有重要积极作用。AM真菌还能够通过根外菌丝网络调节植物群落结构和演替,深刻影响生态系统结构和功能的稳定性。AM真菌生态生理功能的发挥主要取决于其生态适应性,明确AM真菌在不同环境中的多样性、生态适应性以及对各种生态因子的响应机制,是AM真菌资源管理、功能发掘与利用的前提。迄今为止,有关各种生态因子对AM真菌多样性的影响已有不少研究,但是AM真菌生态分布及其形成机制仍缺乏系统的研究和理论分析。综述了生物因子和非生物因子对AM真菌生态分布的影响,结合大型生物空间分布理论探讨了AM真菌生态分布规律和建成机制,分析了当前本研究领域所存在的问题和动向,以期推动相关研究进展。     

On structure and functioning of ecosystem in a Salmon lake

The seasonal dynamics of the main components of the ecosystem as well as the vertical distribution of their biomass and production were studied in the salmon lake Dalnee at Kamchatka Peninsula. The data received were used for the construction of schemes of energy balance during two successive years: 1970 and 1971, which were different by their thermic regime. Analysis of schemes showed that during a colder season the food chain was shorter and more effective in relation of the use of primary production by zooplankton. Through the detritus pool the ecosystem used from 16% (1971) up to 70% (1970) of energy of primary production. Seasonal succession includes two main phases -autotrophic and heterotrophic. The energy balance of the planktonic community at these two phases is given.     

生态补偿的机理与准则

分析国内外生态补偿实践和理论研究的基础上,从可持续发展角度探讨生态补偿的基本内涵;通过对生态系统自组织与反馈、恢复机制的剖析,提出了生态补偿应遵循的基本准则;结合国情,探讨了生态补偿亟待解决的实践困惑和应对策略。     

Ecosystem stability in space: α, β and γ variability

The past two decades have seen great progress in understanding the mechanisms of ecosystem stability in local ecological systems. There is, however, an urgent need to extend existing knowledge to larger spatial scales to match the scale of management and conservation. Here, we develop a general theoretical framework to study the stability and variability of ecosystems at multiple scales. Analogously to the partitioning of biodiversity, we propose the concepts of alpha, beta and gamma variability. Gamma variability at regional (metacommunity) scale can be partitioned into local alpha variability and spatial beta variability, either multiplicatively or additively. On average, variability decreases from local to regional scales, which creates a negative variability–area relationship. Our partitioning framework suggests that mechanisms of regional ecosystem stability can be understood by investigating the influence of ecological factors on alpha and beta variability. Diversity can provide insurance effects at the various levels of variability, thus generating alpha, beta and gamma diversity–stability relationships. As a consequence, the loss of biodiversity and habitat impairs ecosystem stability at the regional scale. Overall, our framework enables a synthetic understanding of ecosystem stability at multiple scales and has practical implications for landscape management.     

Terrestrial food web of the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary,Colombia: An analysis from a topological approach

Malpelo Island is the largest marine protected area (MPA) in the Colombian Pacific; however, the lack of information regarding its ecological dynamics suggests that management and conservation strategies are developed from an individual approach (species or groups of species) and not from an ecosystem one. This study analyzes the terrestrial food web of Malpelo Island, Colombia, based on topological analysis (e.g., centrality). The food web was constructed from 27 nodes representing the main trophogroups, which consist of species or functional groups. Malpelo Island had a food web of four steps with a maximum separation among all trophogroups and trophic pathways, with two steps in average length. Furthermore, the food web was divided into three food web compartments, with a recurrence of connectivity patterns dominated by apparent and exploitative competition, followed by tri-trophic chains and omnivory. Five key trophogroups control the energy flow throughout the food web (detritus, the land crab Johngarthia malpilensis, the lizard Anolis agassizi, the Malpelo dotted galliwasp Diploglossus millepunctatus, and the Nazca booby Sula granti). The high importance of detritus suggests that bottom-up processes act as a control and regulation mechanism of trophic flows. The low number of food web compartments and a high recurrence of specific connectivity patterns in the Malpelo Island terrestrial ecosystem evidence different ecological processes centered on five trophogroups, allowing stability against disturbances. In addition, the simulation of trophogroup removal (randomly or directed) suggests that food web can be vulnerable to structural alterations in their properties, which may have consequences on the resilience of this ecosystem. This study contributes to the knowledge of the trophic dynamics of Malpelo Island, providing a potential tool for management and conservation measures from an ecosystemic approach.     

生态记忆及其在生态学中的潜在应用

生态记忆指群落过去的状态或经验影响其目前或未来生态响应的能力.作为研究生态系统结构和功能的一个新视角,生态记忆在群落演替、生态恢复、生物入侵和自然资源管理等多个领域中受到重视.本文在综述生态记忆的概念、组成、类别的基础上,进一步探讨了生态记忆的可能机制和影响因素,并指出了其潜在应用,以期为理解演替机理和指导生态恢复提供参考.     

宁夏沙坡头干旱沙漠自然保护区生态系统稳定性评估

稳定性是生态系统的基本特征之一,也是决定生态系统兴亡的重要特征。宁夏中卫沙坡头国家级自然保护区是位于干旱沙漠区以荒漠为背景的自然保护区,具有脆弱性（生态与环境）、过渡性（草原向荒漠、沙漠向城市）与复合性（自然与人工生态系统并存）的特点,对其进行生态系统稳定性评估研究,对于维护腾格里沙漠西南缘生态安全和实现宁夏中卫市社会经济持续健康发展具有重要意义。在总结国内外生态系统稳定性评估研究基础上,基于稳定性三维内涵（恢复力稳定性、抵抗力稳定性和演替稳定性）、评估指标构建（原则与逻辑框架及指标体系）、评估方法确立（红绿灯综合评估法）等,针对性地开展沙坡头国家级自然保护区生态稳定性示范性评估,发现：1）近20年19个单项指标中,多数指标情况趋于变好,少部分进一步恶化,保持基本稳定仅两个。2）影响生态系统稳定性的要素由群落组成为主转变为以生境条件为主;2001年、2005年、2007年、2010年、2012年和2014年6个关键年份中,生态系统稳定性3个内涵对稳定性的贡献基本以抵抗力稳定性或恢复力稳定性为主。3）保护区整体生态稳定指数ESI由0.41增至0.661,稳定状态从临界到稳定,总体上保护区生态系统稳定性增强。这主要得益于长期的治沙防沙与生态修复工程实施、大规模推沙造林、各种生态监测和维护、大规模取黄河水灌溉等。     

Colonization and ecological development of new streams in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

SUMMARY 1. Colonization and ecological development of postglacial freshwater communities was investigated in Glacier Bay National Park, south-eastern Alaska, following the rapid recession of a Neo-glacial ice sheet within the last 250 years.
2. Environmental variables shown to be most significant in stream development were temperature, flow regime and sedimentation.
3. The Chironomidae (Diptera) were the pioneer invertebrate colonizers of newly emergent streams arising as meltwater from receding ice sheets and displayed a distinct pattern of succession with stream maturity.
4. Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera colonized warmer clearwater streams, but Trichoptera had a minimal role in invertebrate community development.
5. Establishment and production of salmonid fish populations in the new streams related principally to stream flow and sediment characteristics.
6. Future pathways along which the streams may develop is probably dependent on the degree of large organic debris input.
7. Stream development, structure and function are summarized including reference to theories of ecosystem development, ecological succession and community stability.     

Ecosystem growth and development

One of the most important features of biosystems is how they are able to maintain local order (low entropy) within their system boundaries. At the ecosystem scale, this organization can be observed in the thermodynamic parameters that describe it, such that these parameters can be used to track ecosystem growth and development during succession. Thermodynamically, ecosystem growth is the increase of energy throughflow and stored biomass, and ecosystem development is the internal reorganization of these energy mass stores, which affect transfers, transformations, and time lags within the system. Several proposed hypotheses describe thermodynamically the orientation or natural tendency that ecosystems follow during succession, and here, we consider five: minimize specific entropy production, maximize dissipation, maximize exergy storage (includes biomass and information), maximize energy throughflow, and maximize retention time. These thermodynamic orientors were previously all shown to occur to some degree during succession, and here we present a refinement by observing them during different stages of succession. We view ecosystem succession as a series of four growth and development stages: boundary, structural, network, and informational. We demonstrate how each of these ecological thermodynamic orientors behaves during the different growth and development stages, and show that while all apply during some stages only maximizing energy throughflow and maximizing exergy storage are applicable during all four stages. Therefore, we conclude that the movement away from thermodynamic equilibrium, and the subsequent increase in organization during ecosystem growth and development, is a result of system components and configurations that maximize the flux of useful energy and the amount of stored exergy. Empirical data and theoretical models support these conclusions.     

Seagrass ecosystem multifunctionality under the rise of a flagship marine megaherbivore

Large grazers (megaherbivores) have a profound impact on ecosystem functioning. However, how ecosystem multifunctionality is affected by changes in megaherbivore populations remains poorly understood. Understanding the total impact on ecosystem multifunctionality requires an integrative ecosystem approach, which is especially challenging to obtain in marine systems. We assessed the effects of experimentally simulated grazing intensity scenarios on ecosystem functions and multifunctionality in a tropical Caribbean seagrass ecosystem. As a model, we selected a key marine megaherbivore, the green turtle, whose ecological role is rapidly unfolding in numerous foraging areas where populations are recovering through conservation after centuries of decline, with an increase in recorded overgrazing episodes. To quantify the effects, we employed a novel integrated index of seagrass ecosystem multifunctionality based upon multiple, well-recognized measures of seagrass ecosystem functions that reflect ecosystem services. Experiments revealed that intermediate turtle grazing resulted in the highest rates of nutrient cycling and carbon storage, while sediment stabilization, decomposition rates, epifauna richness, and fish biomass are highest in the absence of turtle grazing. In contrast, intense grazing resulted in disproportionally large effects on ecosystem functions and a collapse of multifunctionality. These results imply that (i) the return of a megaherbivore can exert strong effects on coastal ecosystem functions and multifunctionality, (ii) conservation efforts that are skewed toward megaherbivores, but ignore their key drivers like predators or habitat, will likely result in overgrazing-induced loss of multifunctionality, and (iii) the multifunctionality index shows great potential as a quantitative tool to assess ecosystem performance. Considerable and rapid alterations in megaherbivore abundance (both through extinction and conservation) cause an imbalance in ecosystem functioning and substantially alter or even compromise ecosystem services that help to negate global change effects. An integrative ecosystem approach in environmental management is urgently required to protect and enhance ecosystem multifunctionality.     

Ecological succession as an energy dispersal process

Ecological succession is described by the 2nd law of thermodynamics. According to the universal law of the maximal energy dispersal, an ecosystem evolves toward a stationary state in its surroundings by consuming free energy via diverse mechanisms. Species are the mechanisms that conduct energy down along gradients between repositories of energy which consist of populations at various thermodynamic levels. The salient characteristics of succession, growing biomass production, increasing species richness and shifting distributions of species are found as consequences of the universal quest to diminish energy density differences in least time. The analysis reveals that during succession the ecosystem's energy transduction network, i.e., the food web organizes increasingly more effective in the free energy reduction by acquiring new, more effective and abandoning old, less effective species of energy transduction. The number of species does not necessarily peak at the climax state that corresponds to the maximum-entropy partition of species maximizing consumption of free energy. According to the theory of evolution by natural selection founded on statistical physics of open systems, ecological succession is one among many other evolutionary processes.     

Effect of (a)synchronous light fluctuation on diversity,functional and structural stability of a marine phytoplankton metacommunity

Disentangling the mechanisms that maintain the stability of communities and ecosystem properties has become a major research focus in ecology in the face of anthropogenic environmental change. Dispersal plays a pivotal role in maintaining diversity in spatially subdivided communities, but only a few experiments have simultaneously investigated how dispersal and environmental fluctuation affect community dynamics and ecosystem stability. We performed an experimental study using marine phytoplankton species as model organisms to test these mechanisms in a metacommunity context. We established three levels of dispersal and exposed the phytoplankton to fluctuating light levels, where fluctuations were either spatially asynchronous or synchronous across patches of the metacommunity. Dispersal had no effect on diversity and ecosystem function (biomass), while light fluctuations affected both evenness and community biomass. The temporal variability of community biomass was reduced by fluctuating light and temporal beta diversity was influenced interactively by dispersal and fluctuation, whereas spatial variability in community biomass and beta diversity were barely affected by treatments. Along the establishing gradient of species richness and dominance, community biomass increased but temporal variability of biomass decreased, thus highest stability was associated with species-rich but highly uneven communities and less influenced by compensatory dynamics. In conclusion, both specific traits (dominance) and diversity (richness) affected the stability of metacommunities under fluctuating conditions.     

生态系统中流的分解与能量最小耗损原理

本文从一般的生态系统模式出发讨论生态系统的几个基本问题。考虑图1表示的陆地生态系统,整个系统由六个子系统(或称分室)组成,分別为植物群,不同营养层次的动物群,枯落物和土壤,近地面空气层(图1)。系统与环境之间有物质和能量交换,是一个开放系统。箭头表示流向。ρ_(?)、μ_(?)、τ_(?)和λ_(tj)分别表示各个有关分室的呼吸速率常数、死亡加排泄的速率常数、摄食速率常数和输运速率常数,p、g、r分別表     

Testing the effects of diversity on ecosystem multifunctionality using a multivariate model

Most ecosystems provide multiple services, thus the impact of biodiversity losses on ecosystem functions may be considerably underestimated by studies that only address single functions. We propose a multivariate modelling framework for quantifying the relationship between biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). Our framework consolidates the strengths of previous approaches to analysing ecosystem multifunctionality and contributes several advances. It simultaneously assesses the drivers of multifunctionality, such as species relative abundances, richness, evenness and other manipulated treatments. It also tests the relative importance of these drivers across functions, incorporates correlations among functions and identifies conditions where all functions perform well and where trade‐offs occur among functions. We illustrate our framework using data from three ecosystem functions (sown biomass, weed suppression and nitrogen yield) in a four‐species grassland experiment. We found high variability in performance across the functions in monocultures, but as community diversity increased, performance increased and variability across functions decreased.     

Energetics of microbial food webs

The energetic demand of microorganisms in natural waters and the flux of energy between microorganisms and metazoans has been evaluated by empirical measurements in nature, in microcosms and mesocosms, and by simulation models. Microorganisms in temperate and tropical waters often use half or more of the energy fixed by photosynthesis. Most simulations and some experimental results suggest significant energy transfer to metazoans, but empirical evidence is mixed. Considerations of the range of growth yields of microorganisms and the number of trophic transfers among them indicate major energy losses within microbial food webs. Our ability to verify and quantify these processes is limited by the variability of assimilation efficiency and uncertainty about the structure of microbial food webs. However, even a two-step microbial chain is a major energy sink. As an energetic link to metazoans, the detritus food web is inefficient, and its significance may have been overstated. There is not enough bacterial biomass associated with detritus to support metazoan detritivores. Much detritus is digestible by metazoans directly. Thus, metazoans and bacteria may to a considerable degree compete for a common resource. Microorganisms, together with metazoans, are important to the stability of planktonic communities through their roles as rapid mineralizers of organic matter, releasing inorganic nutrients. The competition for organic matter and the resultant rapid mineralization help maintain stable populations of phytoplankton in the absence of advective nutrient supply. At temperatures near O °C, bacterial metabolism is suppressed more than is the rate of photosynthesis. As a result, the products of the spring phytoplankton bloom in high-temperate latitudes are not utilized rapidly by bacteria. At temperatures below 0°C microbial food webs are neither energy sinks or links: they are suppressed. Because the underlying mechanism of low-temperature inhibition is not known, we cannot yet generalize about this as a control of food web processes. Microorganisms may operate on several trophic levels simultaneously. Therefore, the realism of the trophic level concept and the reality of the use of ecological efficiency calculations in ecosystem models is questionable.     

沙区生态系统恢复演变过程中固沙植物种间生态位关系变化的研究

以演变时间为生态位维 ,通过分析物种的生态位体积和生态位重叠 ,研究了荒漠生态系统恢复演变过程中固沙植物种间生态位关系的变化 ,同时也探讨了物种更替的生态学机制。这一研究对于实现沙区固沙植物群落的持续发展具有重要的指导意义