国家公园自然资源保护分区研究——以北京长城国家公园体制试点区为例

合理的资源保护分区有助于提高国家公园自然资源保护措施的区域针对性,增强保护效果。以北京长城国家公园体制试点区为例,从"生态本底"、"资源特征"以及"人类干扰"三方面选取要素指标,构建了国家公园自然资源保护分区指标体系。将林小班作为分区单元,根据园区的生态本底特征将其划分为7个自然资源保护区,并以此作为国家公园开展资源调查和管理工作的基本区划单位;根据各区域具体的资源问题和保护需求将国家公园进一步细分为17种自然资源保护区域,形成了包含两个层次的自然资源保护分区方案,并基于各个保护区的保护目标提出了相应的保护措施。该分区方案避免了国家公园现存的各类用地空间布局交叉或错位所导致的难以协调问题,有利于实现国家公园自然资源保护分区方案的落地和自然资源的有效保护。     

Radioecological problems in coastal landscapes of the Sea of Azov

The features of the spatial distribution, of the migration, and of the accumulation of natural (232Th) and manmade (137Cs) radioactive nuclides in the coastal landscapes of the Sea of Azov are studied. It was shown, that the specific activity of 232Th in the accumulation of the so-called "black sands" was shown as high as 6000 Bq/kg, that increases the natural geochemical background in 200 times. The impact of aerial transfer of the "black sands" on 232Th migration and accumulation in the soil-plant system was clarified. The 232Th distribution down the soil profile suggests that the "black sands" are likely the product of the erosion of the coastal parent materials enriched by natural radionuclides. In general, the specific activity of 137Cs in the beach sand is not high and it is close to the background (global fallout) value. It was determined that 137Cs content in the coastal ecosystems is connected only by aerial pathway as a part of global and Chernobyl-born fallout.     

Practical importance for conservation of insect diversity in China

Insects are one of the most important groups in the natural world. They affect the life and welfare of humans in many different ways. While some insects are referred to as pests, others are beneficial to humans. For example, they may serve a function as pollinators of many cultivated plants, as natural enemies of harmful species, or as producers of valuable materials such as honey and silk. Several insect species, however, are not currently known as being harmful or beneficial. Nevertheless they are extremely important as essential components of both natural and modified ecosystems. In China, only 1% of insect species described are major pests. The majority of insects are either neutral or beneficial to humans. China, with its vast territory, diverse climate and ecosystems, is amongst the richest countries in insect diversity. However, as a result of the economic and population growth and development, Chinas insect diversity is now faced with habitat degradation, species extinction, and a decline in the natural enemies of harmful pests. These problems are due to the expansion of agriculture, urbanization, industrialization, pollution, mining, tourism, introduced species, hunting, and the illegal trade in endangered species. In order to exploit the beneficial components of insects as biological resources and to effectively control their harmful aspects, many national strategies, legal actions and capacity-building activities have been developed and implemented. These efforts work towards the goal of insect diversity conservation in China.     

Sexual selection, natural selection and the evolution of dimorphic coloration and ornamentation in agamid lizards

Both sexual selection and natural selection can influence the form of dimorphism in secondary sexual traits. Here, we used a comparative approach to examine the relative roles of sexual selection and natural selection in the evolution of sexually dimorphic coloration (dichromatism) and ornamentation in agamid lizards. Sexual dimorphism in head and body size were used as indirect indicators of sexual selection, and habitat type (openness) as an index of natural selection. We examined separately the dichromatism of body regions "exposed to" and "concealed from" visual predators, because these body regions are likely to be subject to different selection pressures. Dichromatism of "exposed" body regions was significantly associated with habitat type: males were typically more conspicuously coloured than females in closed habitats. By contrast, dichromatism of "concealed" body regions and ornament dimorphism were positively associated with sexual size dimorphism (SSD). When we examined male and female ornamentation separately, however, both were positively associated with habitat openness in addition to snout-vent length and head SSD. These results suggest that natural selection constrains the evolution of elaborate ornamentation in both sexes as well as sexual dichromatism of body regions exposed to visual predators. By contrast, dichromatism of "concealed" body regions and degree of ornament dimorphism appear to be driven to a greater degree by sexual selection.     

Adaptation as process: the future of Darwinism and the legacy of Theodosius Dobzhansky

Conceptions of adaptation have varied in the history of genetic Darwinism depending on whether what is taken to be focal is the process of adaptation, adapted states of populations, or discrete adaptations in individual organisms. I argue that Theodosius Dobzhansky's view of adaptation as a dynamical process contrasts with so-called "adaptationist" views of natural selection figured as "design-without-a-designer" of relatively discrete, enumerable adaptations. Correlated with these respectively process and product oriented approaches to adaptive natural selection are divergent pictures of organisms themselves as developmental wholes or as "bundles" of adaptations. While even process versions of genetical Darwinism are insufficiently sensitive to the fact much of the variation on which adaptive selection works consists of changes in the timing, rate, or location of ontogenetic events, I argue that articulations of the Modern Synthesis influenced by Dobzhansky are more easily reconciled with the recent shift to evolutionary developmentalism than are versions that make discrete adaptations central.     

Thoughts Toward a Theory of Natural Selection: The Importance of Microbial Experimental Evolution

Natural selection should no longer be thought of simply as a primitive (magical) concept that can be used to support all kinds of evolutionary theorizing. We need to develop causal theories of natural selection; how it arises. Because the factors contributing to the creation of natural selection are expected to be complex and intertwined, theories explaining the causes of natural selection can only be developed through the experimental method. Microbial experimental evolution provides many benefits that using other organisms does not. Microorganisms are small, so millions can be housed in a test tube; they have short generation times, so evolution over hundreds of generations can be easily studied; they can grow in chemically defined media, so the environment can be precisely defined; and they can be frozen, so the fitness of strains or populations can be directly compared across time. Microbial evolution experiments can be divided into two types. The first is to measure the selection coefficient of two known strains over the first 50 or so generations, before advantageous mutations rise to high frequency. This type of experiment can be used to directly test hypotheses. The second is to allow microbial cultures to evolve over many hundreds or thousands of generations and follow the genetic changes, to infer what phenotypes are selected. In the last section of this article, I propose that selection coefficients are not constant, but change as the population becomes fitter, introducing the idea of the selection space.This article is about natural selection. For many years, I have asked my undergraduate students to memorize this definition of natural selection: Natural selection is the differential reproduction and survival of different phenotypes when, at least, part of the differences in phenotypes is caused by differences in genotype. This can also be expressed as differential growth rates of subpopulations when the subpopulations are distinguished by genetic differences. When expressed as differences in the growth rates in terms of the Malthusian growth parameter, m, then natural selection is the difference in birth rates minus the difference in death rates.From demography, we know that birth rates are very variable depending on the environment. In humans in the United States, the birth rate dropped during the economic depression of the 1930s, rose after World War II to produce a baby boom, and dropped afterward. Worldwide, birth rates drop with the provision of government-provided old-age assistance, also with the increasing survival of children previously born. Thus, birth rates are very sensitive to many environmental conditions. Likewise for death rates. We have long known that starvation, disease, war, and fratricide will increase the death rate, often dramatically. There has been a drop in death rates since 1750 as transportation and social organization improved, preventing starvation in local areas as the crops failed. The 1918 flu spiked the death rate and disease could again raise the death rate dramatically. The black plague is famous for wiping out a third to half of some European populations and changing social conditions. Today, high fructose sweetener is blamed for increasing the death rate among lower class Americans. Thus, the environment changes birth and death rates, sometimes dramatically, sometimes very subtly.Turning back to natural selection, natural selection is the difference between two subpopulations, defined by a genetic difference in their birth and death rates weighted by the effects of all environments experienced by these subpopulations over the time period of the observation. Will natural selection be even more complex than population demography or will it be simpler? It could be much more complicated because the response of the birth and death rates of the two subpopulations in the different environments could be different, giving different norms of reaction. Also, the epistasis and dominance could make the reactions of various individuals within each subpopulation to the changing environment very different. Or it could be much simpler when the genetic difference gives different effects only in one environment. For example, continued synthesis of the lactase gene is selected in human populations that ingest lactose as adults.This complexity embedded in the concept of natural selection has been known for a long time. In population genetics, it is assumed that one can estimate an average selection coefficient over all the environments experienced by the population in a set period without needing to specify the environments or their effect on birth and death rates. This selection coefficient is then used to project gene frequency change over time. Because population genetics is interested in the effects or consequences of natural selection, not the causes, it is satisfactory to treat natural selection as a constant without understanding the causes of natural selection. Unfortunately, this simplification has led to a caricature of natural selection as a constant, given a genetic difference.The model of natural selection that I currently use is given in Figure 1. Here, the definition of natural selection as I gave to my students is an expanded definition because phenotypes are generated by genotypes in an environment (the epigenetic environment) and natural selection is generated by differences in phenotypes in an environment (the selective environment). The interaction of genetic variation, epigenetic environment, phenotypic variation, and the selective environment generate natural selection. These are the “causes” of natural selection. The “effects” of natural selection produce changes in allele frequencies giving rise to adaptive evolution. I believe that the most important function of experimental evolution will be to figure out the causal rules or laws of natural selection. I have previously made the analogy of natural selection evolution with force in physics (Dykhuizen 1995). Newton described the effects of force; the understanding of the causes of force were performed over the next 300 years leading to an understanding of electromagnetism, thermodynamics, atomic energy, etc. This understanding has led to most of the practical applications from physics. Hopefully, the same can be performed for natural selection. But, as the causes of force were much stranger than expected, the causes of natural selection will be stranger than we now imagine. Only by doing experiments will we be forced to accept whatever strangeness there is in natural selection.Open in a separate windowFigure 1.The current model of natural selection indicating the complexity of its causes and distinguishing causes from effects. Population genetics studies only the effects of natural selection.     

The protein folds as platonic forms: new support for the pre-Darwinian conception of evolution by natural law

Before the Darwinian revolution many biologists considered organic forms to be determined by natural law like atoms or crystals and therefore necessary, intrinsic and immutable features of the world order, which will occur throughout the cosmos wherever there is life. The search for the natural determinants of organic form-the celebrated "Laws of Form"-was seen as one of the major tasks of biology. After Darwin, this Platonic conception of form was abandoned and natural selection, not natural law, was increasingly seen to be the main, if not the exclusive, determinant of organic form. However, in the case of one class of very important organic forms-the basic protein folds-advances in protein chemistry since the early 1970s have revealed that they represent a finite set of natural forms, determined by a number of generative constructional rules, like those which govern the formation of atoms or crystals, in which functional adaptations are clearly secondary modifications of primary "givens of physics." The folds are evidently determined by natural law, not natural selection, and are "lawful forms" in the Platonic and pre-Darwinian sense of the word, which are bound to occur everywhere in the universe where the same 20 amino acids are used for their construction. We argue that this is a major discovery which has many important implications regarding the origin of proteins, the origin of life and the fundamental nature of organic form. We speculate that it is unlikely that the folds will prove to be the only case in nature where a set of complex organic forms is determined by natural law, and suggest that natural law may have played a far greater role in the origin and evolution of life than is currently assumed.     

The role of blood-sucking ticks and insects in natural foci of infections

During 60 years passed after the creation of the conception on natural focus of human infections by the academician E. N. Pavlovski? our knowledge on a role of blood-sucking insects and ticks in this phenomenon have been significantly enlarged. It has been recovered, that these arthropods serve not only as vectors of infection agents, but also as natural reservoirs and amplificators of these agents. In the process of the infection agent circulation in the natural focus there are several additional pathways of circulations without a participation of vertebrates. These pathways are as follows: the dispersion of infection agent in cases of simultaneous feeding of infected and "clean" ticks, and also the sexual, transovarial and transphase transmissions of pathogens. These mechanism of circulation are most often occur in the ixodid ticks, which can play the main role in supporting the infection agent in the focus.     

自然资本流变及其对生态系统服务价值的演变路径

生态系统服务价值化是将生态系统惠益于人类社会的价值进行量化,以评估生态系统服务状态,便于生态系统监测和管理。自然资本是生态系统服务的来源,结合自然资本视角进行生态系统服务价值化,其成果有利于提高生态系统保护政策制定的精准性和统筹力,有利于创新生态系统服务评估方法。通过梳理自然资本概念的缘起与发展过程,认为自然资本经历了"同义指代"、"边界明晰"、"多领域交汇"和"隐喻多义"四个阶段逐步丰富的过程。当今针对自然资本研究的三种主流视角,即将自然资本视为"产生经济价值的资产"、"产生服务流的存量"和"金融资本"为生态系统服务的价值化提供了多种途径。生态系统服务价值化的过程要体现可持续发展的基本目标,保证自然资本的稳定,维持人类社会代际公平。以此为前提,鼓励生态系统价值化视角的多样性。价值化途径应关注生态系统服务的时空动态变化、多种服务协同作用和供需权衡。生态系统服务价值化是自然资本金融杠杆化的推手,应警惕有可能带来的金融风险和生态风险。     

Evaluation of Exploration and Monitoring Methods for Verification of Natural Attenuation Using the Virtual Aquifer Approach

Though natural attenuation (NA) is increasingly considered as a remediation technology, the methods for proper identification and quantification of NA are still under discussion. Here the "Virtual Aquifer" approach is used to demonstrate problems which may arise during measurement of concentrations in observation wells and for interpolation of locally measured concentrations in contaminated heterogeneous aquifers. The misinterpretation of measured concentrations complicates the identification and quantification of natural attenuation processes. The "Virtual Aquifer" approach accepts the plume simulated with a numerical model for a heterogeneous aquifer as "virtual reality". This virtual plume is investigated in the model with conventional methods like observations wells. The results of the investigation can be compared to the virtual "reality", evaluating the monitoring method. Locally determined concentrations are interpolated using various interpolation methods and different monitoring set-ups. The interpolation results are compared to the simulated plume to evaluate the quality of interpolation. This evaluation is not possible in nature, since concentrations in a heterogeneous aquifer are never known in detail.     

Directed biosynthesis of avermectins

Avermectin homologs are produced by Streptomyces avermitilis when externally supplied with sodium 2-methylpentanoate and sodium 2-methylhexanoate. The homologs carry 2-pentyl and 2-hexyl groups, respectively, at C-25 of the aglycone moiety as opposed to the 2-butyl group of "a" components and the isopropyl group of "b" components of natural avermectins. The new homologs designated as avermectin "c" and "d" components, respectively, possess potent anthelmintic and insecticidal activity.     

Mechanisms of the filtering area adaptation in Daphnia

The changes of selected parameters of the filtering comb of the third thoracic limb were studied in a natural population of Daphnia pulicaria Forbes, as well as in experimental enclosures and in lab cultures, including individual life history. Two hypotheses were tested: 1. either these changes are related to the succession of clones coexisting within one population, or 2. the size of the filtering area changes gradually as an individual adaptation during the moulting. No evidence supporting the clonal hypothesis was found. On the contrary, the adaptability of the filtering comb is the same in a natural population as it is in a clone and in individuals.     

Evaluating the non-rice host plant species of Sesamia inferens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) as natural refuges: resistance management of Bt rice

Although rice (Oryza sativa L.) lines that express Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins have shown great potential for managing the major Lepidoptera pests of rice in southern China, including Sesamia inferens, their long-term use is dependent on managing resistance development to Bt toxins in pest populations. The maintenance of "natural" refuges, non-Bt expressing plants that are hosts for a target pest, has been proposed as a means to minimize the evolution of resistance to Bt toxins in transgenic plants. In the current study, field surveys and greenhouse experiments were conducted to identify host plants of S. inferens that could serve as "natural" refuges in rice growing areas of southern China. A field survey showed that 34 plant species in four families can be alternative host plants of S. inferens. Based on injury level under field conditions, rice (Oryza sativa L.); water oat (Zizania latifolia Griseb.); corn (Zea mays L.); tidalmarsh flatsedge (Cyperus serotinus Rottb.); and narrow-leaved cat-tail (Typha angustifolia Linn.) were identified as the primary host plant species of S. inferens. Greenhouse experiments further demonstrated that water oat, corn, and narrow-leaved cat-tail could support the survival and development of S. inferens. Interestingly, greenhouse experiments showed that S. inferens preferred to lay eggs on tidalmarsh flatsedge compared with the other three nonrice host species, although no pupae were found in the plants examined in field surveys. Few larvae were found to survive on tidalmarsh flatsedge in greenhouse bioassays, suggesting that tidalmarsh flatsedge could serve as a "dead-end" trap crop for S. inferens, but is not a candidate to serve as natural refuge to maintain susceptible S. inferens. Overall, these results suggest that water-oat, corn, and narrow-leaved cat-tail might serve as "natural refuge" for S. inferens in rice planting area of southern China when Bt rice varieties are planted.     

Species and kinds: a critique of Rieppel's "one of a kind" account of species

A major issue in philosophical debates on the species problem concerns the opposition between two seemingly incompatible views of the metaphysics of species: the view that species are individuals and the view that species are natural kinds. In two recent papers in this journal, Olivier Rieppel suggested that this opposition is much less deep than it seems at first sight. Rieppel used a recently developed philosophical account of natural kindhood, namely Richard Boyd's "homeostatic property cluster" theory, to argue that every species taxon can be conceived of as an individual that constitutes the single member of its own specific natural kind. In this paper I criticize Rieppel's approach and argue that it does not deliver what it is supposed to, namely an account of species as kinds about which generalized statements can be made.     

Neo-epitopes emerging in the degenerative hippocampal granules of aged mice can be recognized by natural IgM auto-antibodies

Background

Degenerative granular structures appear progressively with age in the hippocampus of most mouse strains. We recently reported that these granules contain a neo-epitope that is recognised by IgM antibodies present as contaminants in many commercial antibodies obtained from mouse ascites and mouse or rabbit serum. We hypothesise that these anti-neo-epitope IgMs are in fact natural auto-antibodies that are generated spontaneously during the foetal stage without previous contact with external antigens and whose repertoire and reactivity pattern have been determined through evolution, being remarkably stable within species and even between species.

Findings

In the present work we found that mice from the ICR-CD1, BALB/C and SAMP8 strains have anti-neo-epitope IgM antibodies in their plasma at all ages tested and even when maintained under specific opportunistic pathogen-free conditions. Moreover, we determined that these anti-neo-epitope IgMs are also present in rabbit, goat and rat serum. We also found that, in each mouse that presented hippocampal granules, the anti-neo-epitope IgMs contained in its plasma recognised the neo-epitopes in its own granules.

Conclusions

This study led to the conclusion that anti-neo-epitope IgMs are widespread natural auto-antibodies contained in the plasma of mice and other species. The presence of these natural auto-antibodies not only explains why they are frequently found as contaminants in commercial antibodies, but also paves the way for a new approach to a treatment and diagnosis of pathological brain processes based on natural IgMs and neo-epitopes.

     

The origin of helping: the role of variability in reproductive potential

We investigate the relationship between variation in reproductive potential among members of a family and genetic relatedness to determine which combinations favor natural selection for helping behavior. Conditions favoring helping are derived for the helper, the recipient, and the parents of these individuals. Our analysis reveals that a factor of general significance in the evolution of social organisms is variability in reproductive potential among offspring of a parent. To a limited extent this factor has already been appreciated because of its implicit role in "facultative altruism" and "parental manipulation", or suppression of offspring or sibs; however, the unifying role of variance per se and the ways by which it may act have not been widely appreciated. We show that suppression as a source of intra-brood variance is less powerful in the evolution of sociality than other, natural, sources of variance. The facts of natural history appear to be more consistent with a model utilizing natural variance than with a variance-enhancement model for most vertebrates. We present models for discrete and for overlapping generations. Fecundity of young potential helpers relative to adults is an important source of variance for the origin of helping.     

聚酮类抗生素组合生物合成

组合生物合成是公认的产生大量"非天然"的天然产物的一种有效方法,也是近年来药物创新与应用的研究热点和重要手段之一。目前,组合生物合成在聚酮类抗生素等生物活性物质的开发应用研究中已经取得了显著的成果。结合文献中的例子,回顾了运用组合生物合成在天然产物的基础上产生更多结构及功能多样性的聚酮类抗生素的方法和思路,并对某些方法所存在的问题与不足进行了讨论。     

Thermophysiology of the paradoxical sleep

Data on interactions between the paradoxical sleep (PS) and thermoregulation under thermo-comfortable and extreme conditions (in high and low temperatures, forced and spontaneous fasting, acclimation to cold and acclimation to natural winter conditions) are reviewed. The hypothesis of the PS role in synchronising and endogenous "kindling" of the visceral function ultradian rhythms is substantiated. Some new data are presented on entering torpor as a phenomenon of the "dramatic" neuronal plasticity.     

The cellulose paradox: pollutant par excellence and/or a reclaimable natural resource?

The various aspects of cellulose as a pollutant are considered in view of its lack of toxicity on the one hand and its recalcitrant durable nature on the other. The microbial degradation of cellulosics is discussed, and the contrast between its success in handling natural cellulosic wastes versus its failure to cope with man-made refuse is described. Research carried out in the past decade has demonstrated that cellulolytic organisms are provided with cell surface multifunctional multienzyme conglomerates, called cellulosomes, which are capable of solubilizing solid cellulosic substrates. The intriguing properties of such complexes include their cohesive nature, their many enzymatic components, and a characteristic glycosylated cellulose-binding, scaffolding component. The latter appears to serve as a substrate-targeting carrier, which delivers the other (hydrolytic) components to the cellulose. Progress in establishing efficient model systems for in vitro solubilization of purified cellulose or natural cellulosic substrates has been achieved using purified cellulosome preparations, fortified with -glucosidase and pectinase. The latter enzymes were required in order to alleviate the phenomenon of product inhibition which reduces the efficiency of the free cellulosome. Such combined enzyme systems are proposed as examples of future tailor-made cellulolytic systems for the degradation of natural cellulosics.     

Simple oligomers as antimicrobial peptide mimics

New approaches to antibiotic design are desperately needed. The design of simple oligomers that capture the shape and biological function of natural antimicrobial peptides could prove to be versatile and highly successful. We discuss the use of aromatic backbones to design facially amphiphilic (FA) -sheet like structures which are potently antimicrobial. These oligomers capture the physiochemical properties of peptides like the Magainins and Defensins, which fold into specific conformations that are amphiphilic resulting in antimicrobial activity. However, natural peptides are expensive to prepare and difficult to produce on large scale. The design of polymers and oligomers that mimic the complex structures and remarkable biological properties of proteins is an important endeavor and provides attractive alternatives to the difficult synthesis of natural peptides. We therefore have designed a series of FA oligomers that are easy to prepare from inexpensive monomers. They adopt structures very reminiscent of amphiphilic -sheets and have significant activity with minimal inhibitory concentrations at 6 h in the low microgram per ml range (M to nM). They are active against a broad spectrum of bacteria including gram-positive and gram-negative as well as antibiotic resistant strains.