Integrating ecological and cultural values toward conservation and utilization of shrine/temple forests as urban green space in Japanese cities

In Japan, forests associated with shrines and temples are recognized as important components of urban green space, which can potentially function as centers for ecosystem conservation in rapidly urbanizing Japanese cities. In addition to their ecological value, shrine/temple forests have social value, providing recreational and aesthetic needs to residents of urban areas. We review the historical development of shrine/temple forests in Japan and discuss current conservation issues from both ecological and sociological perspectives. Generally, shrine forests are minimally managed and public access is discouraged, whereas temple forests are intensively managed for public display. Shrines tend to be spatially scattered across the landscape but associated with specific geographical features, whereas temples tend to be clustered. Their wide and random distribution in urban areas suggests that shrine forests can potentially be used as stepping stones in the urban green space network, whereas spatially clustered temple forests can be integrated to form large areas of green space. Species diversity of shrine/temple forests declines with decreasing area. The distribution pattern of species is not completely nested, indicating that although conservation of large forest fragments may be effective for maintaining landscape-level biodiversity, smaller forest fragments and adjacent precincts are sometimes significant because rare species occasionally inhabit them. Active management and ecological restoration, such as removal of invasive species, are also important to maintain the desirable near-natural forest conditions. A working group including the owner, community, regional government, and ecologists should be involved in creating an effective, long-term management plan. Because social and cultural values are diverse, basic ecological studies of shrine/temple forests would contribute a scientific basis that fosters public confidence in the process.     

基于传统生态智慧的江南水网空间韧性机制及实践启示

传统江南水网空间是一种典型的社会—生态系统,人文社会系统和自然生态系统之间的良性互动对于其韧性构建有着重要的积极作用。基于柯林斯等人提出的压力—冲击动态（PPD）模型,以平江府为典型代表,研究传统江南水网空间如何通过生态系统服务的桥梁搭建水网物质空间与人类社区发展之间的联系,从而厘清社会—生态系统在此过程中如何培育、优化和提升江南水网空间韧性。在此基础上,创新性地从生态系统服务供需关系的角度提出社会—生态韧性构建的生态智慧,并倡导以恢复力、适应力与变革力韧性机制培育为导向的、江南地区构建现代社区实践的若干启示,旨在引导江南水网空间实现具有韧性的社会—生态系统转型发展。     

Management of synchronized network activity by highly active neurons

Increasing evidence supports the idea that spontaneous brain activity may have an important functional role. Cultured neuronal networks provide a suitable model system to search for the mechanisms by which neuronal spontaneous activity is maintained and regulated. This activity is marked by synchronized bursting events (SBEs)--short time windows (hundreds of milliseconds) of rapid neuronal firing separated by long quiescent periods (seconds). However, there exists a special subset of rapidly firing neurons whose activity also persists between SBEs. It has been proposed that these highly active (HA) neurons play an important role in the management (i.e. establishment, maintenance and regulation) of the synchronized network activity. Here, we studied the dynamical properties and the functional role of HA neurons in homogeneous and engineered networks, during early network development, upon recovery from chemical inhibition and in response to electrical stimulations. We found that their sequences of inter-spike intervals (ISI) exhibit long time correlations and a unimodal distribution. During the network's development and under intense inhibition, the observed activity follows a transition period during which mostly HA neurons are active. Studying networks with engineered geometry, we found that HA neurons are precursors (the first to fire) of the spontaneous SBEs and are more responsive to electrical stimulations.     

Does the sociality of pollinators shape the organisation of pollination networks?

A striking structural pattern of pollination networks is the presence of a few highly connected species which has implications for ecological and evolutionary processes that create and maintain diversity. To understand the structure and dynamics of pollination networks we need to know which mechanisms allow the emergence of highly connected species. We investigate whether social pollinator species are highly connected in pollination networks, and whether network structure is affected by the presence of high proportions of social pollinator species. Social insects are abundant, with long activity periods and, at the highest level of social organisation, specialised foraging castes. These three attributes are likely to increase the number of interactions of social species and, consequently, their role in pollination networks. We find that social species have, on average, more prominent network roles than solitary species, a possible mechanism being the individual‐rich colonies of social insects. However, when accounting for the shared evolutionary history of pollinators, sociality is only associated with highly interactive roles in Apidae. For apid bees, our structural equation analysis shows that the effect of sociality on species network roles is an indirect result of their high levels of interaction frequency. Despite the relative importance of sociality at a species‐level, an increasing proportion of social species in pollination networks did not affect overall network structure. Our results suggest that behavioural traits may shape patterns of interaction of individual species but not the network‐level organisation of species interactions. Instead, network structure appears to be determined by more general aspects of ecological systems such as interaction intimacy, patterns of niche overlap, and species abundance distributions.     

Topology of gap junction networks in C. elegans

Gap junctions are prevalent in every nervous system, but their role in information processing remains largely unknown. In C. elegans, the role of gap junctional communication in touch sensitivity has been demonstrated. In this animal, the entire complement of gap junctions in the nervous system is documented, therefore providing a good model for the computational investigation of circuit functions of gap junctions.We explored several hypotheses about the role of gap junctions in the nervous system of C. elegans by systematically analysing an anatomical database with recursive algorithms. We find that gap junctions connect different sets of neurons from those connected by chemical synapses. In addition, when analysing the topology of the gap-junction networks, we find that, surprisingly, most (92%) neurons in the worm are linked in a single gap-junction network. The worm nervous system can only be divided into smaller networks by assuming that two or more gap junctions are necessary for functional coupling or that neural activity has limited propagation. However, these groups, and others identified using algorithms with subsets or combinations of restrictive criteria, do not correspond to any known circuits identified in genetic and behavioral studies. Finally, we notice that the function of some gap junctions appears linked to their precise location on the neuronal processes. We propose that the location of the gap junctions within the neuron determines their functional role.     

The causes and implications of sex role diversity in shorebird breeding systems

Males and females often exhibit different behaviours during mate acquisition, pair-bonding and parenting, and a convenient label to characterize these behaviours is sex role. The diverse roles that male and female shorebirds (plovers, sandpipers and allies) exhibit in mating and parenting have played a key role in advancing mainstream theories in avian ecology and behavioural biology including sexual selection, sexual conflict and parental cooperation. Recent advances in shorebird research have also highlighted the significance of the social environment in driving sex role behaviours by linking the adult sex ratio with breeding behaviour and population demography. Here we review the key advances in sex role research using shorebirds as an ecological model system. We identify knowledge gaps and argue that shorebirds have untapped potential to accelerate diverse research fields including evolutionary genomics, movement ecology, social networks and environmental changes. Future studies of sex roles will benefit from individual-based monitoring using advanced tracking technologies, and from multi-team collaborations that are facilitated by standardized data collection methodologies across different species in the field. These advances will not only contribute to our understanding of reproductive strategies, but they will also have knock-on effects on predicting population resilience to environmental changes and on prioritizing species for conservation.     

Reaction networks and evolutionary game theory

The powerful mathematical tools developed for the study of large scale reaction networks have given rise to applications of this framework beyond the scope of biochemistry. Recently, reaction networks have been suggested as an alternative way to model social phenomena. In this “socio-chemical metaphor” molecular species play the role of agents’ decisions and their outcomes, and chemical reactions play the role of interactions among these decisions. From here, it is possible to study the dynamical properties of social systems using standard tools of biochemical modelling. In this work we show how to use reaction networks to model systems that are usually studied via evolutionary game theory. We first illustrate our framework by modeling the repeated prisoners’ dilemma. The model is built from the payoff matrix together with assumptions of the agents’ memory and recognizability capacities. The model provides consistent results concerning the performance of the agents, and allows for the examination of the steady states of the system in a simple manner. We further develop a model considering the interaction among Tit for Tat and Defector agents. We produce analytical results concerning the performance of the strategies in different situations of agents’ memory and recognizability. This approach unites two important theories and may produce new insights in classical problems such as the evolution of cooperation in large scale systems.     

基于生态网络的生态安全格局评价

生态网络可用于描述、评价生境破碎条件下景观空间组织方式与物种存续的关系.本文以青岛市为研究区域,基于最小成本路径方法模拟得到2005年林地、湿地生态网络,并基于廊道累计成本值对得到的生态网络进行分级.利用介数指数、相关长度-逐块筛选指数对生态网络中斑块与廊道等结构要素进行重要性区分,形成生态网络结构体系.并在评价2005—2013年新增建设用地对生态网络影响的基础上,提出应对建设用地变化的生态安全格局.结果表明: 在生态网络框架基础上,图形理论的相关评价方法能够量化评价识别生态用地的具体属性(如生态网络斑块的面积)和生态用地之间的功能联系;2005—2013年间,青岛市新增建设用地对湿地侵占面积较大,且没有考虑具体林地、湿地在整个地区生态系统连通性维护中的作用;基于生态网络的生态安全格局的划定可以优化地区生态基底,为生态保护与恢复提供更加精确的空间决策依据,同时为城市空间扩张提供科学合理的空间指引.     

Emergent Properties of Balinese Water Temple Networks: Coadaptation on a Rugged Fitness Landscape

For over a thousand years, generations of Balinese farmers have gradually transformed the landscape of their island, clearing forests, digging irrigation canals, and terracing hillsides to enable themselves and their descendants to grow irrigated rice. Paralleling the physical system of terraces and irrigation works, the Balinese have also constructed intricate networks of shrines and temples dedicated to agricultural deities. Ecological modeling shows that water temple networks can have macroscopic effects on the topography of the adaptive landscape, and may be representative of a class of complex adaptive systems that have evolved to manage agroecosystems.     

Detecting phylogenetic signal in mutualistic interaction networks using a Markov process model

Ecological interaction networks, such as those describing the mutualistic interactions between plants and their pollinators or between plants and their frugivores, exhibit non‐random structural properties that cannot be explained by simple models of network formation. One factor affecting the formation and eventual structure of such a network is its evolutionary history. We argue that this, in many cases, is closely linked to the evolutionary histories of the species involved in the interactions. Indeed, empirical studies of interaction networks along with the phylogenies of the interacting species have demonstrated significant associations between phylogeny and network structure. To date, however, no generative model explaining the way in which the evolution of individual species affects the evolution of interaction networks has been proposed. We present a model describing the evolution of pairwise interactions as a branching Markov process, drawing on phylogenetic models of molecular evolution. Using knowledge of the phylogenies of the interacting species, our model yielded a significantly better fit to 21% of a set of plant–pollinator and plant–frugivore mutualistic networks. This highlights the importance, in a substantial minority of cases, of inheritance of interaction patterns without excluding the potential role of ecological novelties in forming the current network architecture. We suggest that our model can be used as a null model for controlling evolutionary signals when evaluating the role of other factors in shaping the emergence of ecological networks.     

Pattern of functional extinctions in ecological networks with a variety of interaction types

There is a strong trend of declining populations in many species of both animals and plants. Dwindling numbers of species can eventually lead to their functional extinction. Functional, or ecological, extinction occurs when a species becomes too rare to fulfill its ecological, interactive role in the ecosystem, leading to true (numerical) extinction of other depending species. Recent theoretical work on food webs suggests that the frequency of functional extinction might be surprisingly high. However, little is known about the risk of functional species extinctions in networks with other types of interactions than trophic ones. Here, we explore the frequency of functional extinctions in model ecological networks having different proportions of antagonistic and mutualistic links. Furthermore, we investigate the topological relationship between functionally and numerically extinct species. We find that (1) the frequency of functional extinctions is higher in networks containing a mixture of antagonistic and mutualistic interactions than in networks with only one type of interaction, (2) increased mortality rate of species having both mutualistic and antagonistic links is more likely to lead to extinction of another species than to extinction of the species itself compared to species having only mutualistic or antagonistic links, and (3) trophic distance (shortest path) between functionally and numerically extinct species is, on average, longer than one, indicating the importance of indirect effects. These results generalize the findings of an earlier study on food webs, demonstrating the potential importance of functional extinction in a variety of ecological network types.     

云梦泽圩田的生态模式设计研究

云梦泽圩田是儒家井田制文化与云梦泽地区水文环境相结合的产物,是人们在长期治田治水实践中创造的一种独特的农田开发形式,然而,圩田这种土地利用方式利弊并存,如何挖掘这种传统水利田的生态智慧使之继续发挥作用是一个亟待解决的现实问题。以湖北朱湖湿地公园内的圩田恢复区为研究对象,以生态学思想为指导,从单纯的治田治水理念拓展为水利、生态、经济、文化与社会发展并重的多重理念,充分挖掘蕴含圩田之中的生态智慧,提出了"湖-圩"共生复合生态系统的生态模式,主要包括：小微湿地群模式、水陆界面生态调控模式、柔性设计模式和"河流-湿地"复合体模式。这些模式有助于云梦泽地区蓄洪防旱、水质净化、景观优化,以及生物生境等综合生态服务功能的实现,并促进云梦泽地区圩田景观文化传承与生态环境的协同共生,从而实现了智慧圩田的生态模式。这些生态模式是对圩田系统生态结构设计思路与方法的全新探索,可以为长江中下游地区圩田的景观保护与生态模式设计提供工程示范与参考。     

Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores

Social information networks have the potential to shape the spatial structure of ecological communities by promoting the formation of mixed‐species groups. However, what actually drives social affinity between species in the wild will depend on the characteristics of the species available to group. Here we first present an agent‐based model that predicts trait‐related survival benefits from mixed‐species group formation in a multi‐species community and we then test the model predictions in a community‐wide field study of African savannah herbivores using multi‐layered network analysis. We reveal benefits from information transfer about predators as a key determinant of mixed‐species group formation, and that dilution benefits alone are not enough to explain patterns in interspecific sociality. The findings highlight the limitations of classical ecological approaches focusing only on direct trophic interactions when analysing community structure and suggest that declines in species occupying central social network positions, such as key informants, can have significant repercussions throughout communities.     

Untangling the Tangled Bank: A Novel Method for Partitioning the Effects of Phylogenies and Traits on Ecological Networks

Understanding how evolutionary and ecological processes shape species interaction networks remains as one of the main challenges in eco-evolutionary studies. Here, we present an integrative analytical framework to partition the effects of phylogenies and functional traits on the structure of ecological networks. The method combines fuzzy set theory and matrix correlation, implemented under a Monte Carlo framework. We designed a simulation study in order to estimate the accuracy of the methods proposed here, measuring Type I Error rates. The simulation study shows that the method is accurate, i.e., incorrectly rejecting a true null hypothesis in ~5% of the cases and falling within the confidence interval. We illustrate our framework using data from a seed dispersal network from southern Brazil. Our analyses suggest that birds must have specific traits in order to consume their plant resources, and that phylogenetic resemblance has no explanatory power for species traits and species interactions in this seed-dispersal network.     

基于生态恢复和文化回归的梯田景观格局重建--以菲律宾科迪勒拉高山水稻梯田景观复兴为例

基于菲律宾科迪勒拉梯田景观遭到严重破坏、世界文化遗产受到威胁的现状,通过分析先人建立的"水源涵养林-木涌-聚落-梯田-水系"结构体系以及传统文化对梯田景观格局稳定性的保护和控制,剖析隐含在高山水稻梯田景观背后的生态技术和文化格局,了解和借鉴先人智慧,结合现状生态、社会问题和地区特征,分析梯田景观恢复的需求和挑战,运用景观生态学技术手段和对传统文化的唤醒,进行采伐迹地恢复、梯田景观恢复、灌溉体系修复、对抗外来物种入侵,借鉴传统管理模式建立适应新形势的社区管理和合理的旅游规划体系,重建"森林-木涌-聚落-梯田-水系"的景观生态格局,促进传统文化回归,实现高山梯田景观复兴与世界文化遗产保护。     

基于CL-PIOP方法的青岛市生态网络结构要素评价

景观生态学中的生态网络概念,已被国内外越来越多机构与学者所接受。生态网络结构要素的量化评价成为生态网络能否真正发挥在空间上调和自然生态保护与社会发展作用的关键。图形理论中相关评价指数为量化评价提供了方法。探讨如何基于图形理论中相关评价结果数据,发现对一个地区生态网络连通性有重要影响的斑块与廊道等生态网络结构要素。以青岛作为研究案例区域,使用最小成本路径模型构建了湿地和林地两种生态网络,并以一定阈值为标准对生态网络做等级划分,采用图形理论中的CL-PIOP评价方法作为基础方法,提出两种生态网络结构要素评价标准对结果数据作深入分析。分析结果表明:基于不同等级生态网络斑块的CL-PIOP重要性频次统计可以有效的识别对网络连通性有重要作用的斑块,既涵盖了几乎所有大面积的斑块,同时也包括一定数量的小面积斑块;CL-PIOP评价方法可在众多廊道中快速识别具有不可替代作用的廊道,且根据CL-PIOP值大小以及在各等级网络中非零CL-PIOP值的频率统计进一步确定廊道的重要程度。此外,不同等级网络中CL-PIOP值存在异常增大的斑块及其相关廊道对于网络构建与连通性增强有关键作用,这些斑块通常与面积等自身的属性无关,而与其在网络所处的位置相关。生态网络模型与图形理论相关方法结合可以快速有效的识别区域重要的生态用地,为相关规划中生态用地的保护、恢复提供量化依据。     

Motifs in bipartite ecological networks: uncovering indirect interactions

Indirect interactions play an essential role in governing population, community and coevolutionary dynamics across a diverse range of ecological communities. Such communities are widely represented as bipartite networks: graphs depicting interactions between two groups of species, such as plants and pollinators or hosts and parasites. For over thirty years, studies have used indices, such as connectance and species degree, to characterise the structure of these networks and the roles of their constituent species. However, compressing a complex network into a single metric necessarily discards large amounts of information about indirect interactions. Given the large literature demonstrating the importance and ubiquity of indirect effects, many studies of network structure are likely missing a substantial piece of the ecological puzzle. Here we use the emerging concept of bipartite motifs to outline a new framework for bipartite networks that incorporates indirect interactions. While this framework is a significant departure from the current way of thinking about bipartite ecological networks, we show that this shift is supported by analyses of simulated and empirical data. We use simulations to show how consideration of indirect interactions can highlight differences missed by the current index paradigm that may be ecologically important. We extend this finding to empirical plant–pollinator communities, showing how two bee species, with similar direct interactions, differ in how specialised their competitors are. These examples underscore the need to not rely solely on network‐ and species‐level indices for characterising the structure of bipartite ecological networks.     

Comparing species interaction networks along environmental gradients

Knowledge of species composition and their interactions, in the form of interaction networks, is required to understand processes shaping their distribution over time and space. As such, comparing ecological networks along environmental gradients represents a promising new research avenue to understand the organization of life. Variation in the position and intensity of links within networks along environmental gradients may be driven by turnover in species composition, by variation in species abundances and by abiotic influences on species interactions. While investigating changes in species composition has a long tradition, so far only a limited number of studies have examined changes in species interactions between networks, often with differing approaches. Here, we review studies investigating variation in network structures along environmental gradients, highlighting how methodological decisions about standardization can influence their conclusions. Due to their complexity, variation among ecological networks is frequently studied using properties that summarize the distribution or topology of interactions such as number of links, connectance, or modularity. These properties can either be compared directly or using a procedure of standardization. While measures of network structure can be directly related to changes along environmental gradients, standardization is frequently used to facilitate interpretation of variation in network properties by controlling for some co‐variables, or via null models. Null models allow comparing the deviation of empirical networks from random expectations and are expected to provide a more mechanistic understanding of the factors shaping ecological networks when they are coupled with functional traits. As an illustration, we compare approaches to quantify the role of trait matching in driving the structure of plant–hummingbird mutualistic networks, i.e. a direct comparison, standardized by null models and hypothesis‐based metaweb. Overall, our analysis warns against a comparison of studies that rely on distinct forms of standardization, as they are likely to highlight different signals. Fostering a better understanding of the analytical tools available and the signal they detect will help produce deeper insights into how and why ecological networks vary along environmental gradients.     

Balinese "Water Temples" and the Management of Irrigation

Bali has figured prominently in debates on the question of whether irrigation centralizes state power. New evidence shows that irrigation is actually organized by networks of "water temples" that constitute an institutional system separate from the state. Earlier attempts to identify a discrete system of irrigation management misconceived the problem. For most crops, irrigation simply provides water for the plant's roots. But in a Balinese rice terrace, water is used to construct a complex, pulsed artificial ecosystem. Water temples manipulate the states of the system, at ascending levels in regional hierarchies. The permanence of water temple networks contrasts sharply with the instability of the traditional Balinese states. Since the water temples are real, perhaps it is the Balinese "state" that is chimerical.