1(st) Central and Eastern European Proteomic Conference & 3(rd) Czech Proteomic Conference 29 - 31 October 2007, Prague, Czech Republic

More than 130 delegates from all over the world attended the 1(st) Central and Eastern European Proteomic Conference organized together with the 3(rd) Czech Proteomic Conference in the TOP Hotel, Prague in the Czech Republic from 29(th) to 31(st) October, 2007. The autumn nostalgia of the historical city of Prague provided the stage for a fascinating meeting that reviewed rapidly emerging proteomic research in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and focused on proteomics driven discovery and applications.     

Report on the 1st International Conference of the Hellenic Proteomics Society in Athens, Greece

The First International Conference of the Hellenic Proteomics Society took place at the Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece, 22-25 May 2005. Scientists from about 20 countries attended this conference where proceedings in proteomics methodologies, advances in mass spectrometry, proteomics applications, disease diagnostics and bioinformatics were presented. The relatively small size of the meeting gave the opportunity for the attendees to interact and discuss projects and collaborations. The event was completely financed by companies which exhibited their products and services related to proteomics research.     

The Potential of Tree Rings for the Study of Forest Succession in Southern Mexico

Studies of tropical secondary forest succession face strong limitations due to the slow pace of succession and the time-consuming task of monitoring processes. The occurrence of tree rings in secondary forest trees may help expand our knowledge on succession in these systems and may be useful for fallow dating in chronosequence studies. We examine here the potential of tree rings to study forest succession by sampling 70 species along chronosequences of dry and wet forests in southern Mexico. Based on wood anatomical features, we estimated that about 37 percent of the species presented distinct growth rings useful for ring studies. Overall, maximum number of rings matched well the interview-based fallow ages but, at some sites, trees had consistently higher numbers of rings, probably due to errors in fallow ages derived from interviews. Best fallow age estimations were obtained by examining rings in both pioneer and nonpioneer species. Reconstruction of species' establishment dates revealed that pioneer and nonpioneer species establish early during succession, and that species of both groups continue to recruit after many years. Our study clearly shows that tree ring analysis is a promising tool for studies on secondary forest succession in the tropics.     

Changes in Macrofungal Communities Following Forest Conversion into Tree Plantations in Southern Brazil

Conversion of diverse native forests to tree monocultures remains an ongoing, worldwide threat to biodiversity. Although the effects of forest conversion have been studied in a wide range of taxonomic groups, the effects on macrofungal communities remain poorly understood. We sampled macrofungal fruiting bodies in the National Forest of São Francisco de Paula in Southern Brazil over 12 months in four different forest habitats: native Araucaria angustifolia forest, A. angustifolia plantation, Pinus taeda or P. elliottii plantation, and Eucalyptus saligna plantation. The distribution of macrofungal species in different functional groups varied among habitats: the macrofungal species composition of the A. angustifolia plantation was more similar to that of the native forest, while the exotic Pinus or Eucalyptus plantations were less similar to the native forest. The conversion of native forest to exotic tree plantations reduced the number of macrofungal decomposer species, probably due to changes in substrate availability and quality. We conclude that fungal diversity and ecosystem functionality require the preservation of native, mature forests and suggest a shift of Brazilian forestry guidelines to encourage the plantations of native species instead of exotics.     

第一次全国植被分类、分区及制图学术工作会议简报

经国家农委农业自然资源及农业区划委员会批准,第一次全国植被分类、分区及制图学术工作会议于1980年11月25日至12月5日在西安召开。这次会议由中国植被图植被区划编辑委员会主持,委托西北大学、陕西师范大学、西北植物研究所三个单位筹办。与会代表来自全国28个省(区)、     

树类-细小病毒的初步研究

从树肾细胞培养物中分离出3株病毒,嗜在对数分裂期的TL细胞上复制,产生细胞病变和血凝素抗原,能凝集豚鼠和小鼠红细胞。交互血凝抑制实验表明3株病毒同属一个血清型。免疫酶染色显示抗原首先出现于细胞核。电镜观察负染标本病毒形态近似圆形和六角形,无胞膜,直径约30nm。血清学检查大多数树血清中含有该病毒抗体,证明是树的一种潜在病毒。初步鉴定为类细小病毒。     

Mechanisms of Araucaria (Atlantic) Forest Expansion into Southern Brazilian Grasslands

Recent studies have shown that tropical and subtropical forests expanded during the late Holocene, but rates and mechanisms of expansion are still unknown. Here, we investigate how a forest–grassland mosaic changed over the past 10,000 years at the southernmost limit of the Brazilian Atlantic forest. We used soil organic matter carbon isotopes (δ¹³C and ¹⁴C) to quantify and date changes in vegetation, examining soil properties and leaf traits of tree species (nutrient content, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, and specific leaf area—SLA) to describe potential mechanisms of expansion. Our results show that after several millennia of stability, forests have been expanding over grasslands through continuous, but very slow, border dynamics and patch formation (<100 m since ~4,000 YBP). This process of expansion coincided with past changes in climate, but biotic feedback mechanisms also appear to be important for the long-term persistence and expansion of forests. Soil fertility and microbial biomass match current rather than past vegetation distribution, increasing progressively across the gradient: grasslands < isolated trees < forest patches < forests. Foliar δ¹⁵N values of trees that are able to colonize the grassland are consistently lower across this vegetation gradient, suggesting an increasingly greater reliance on symbiotic nutrient uptake from grasslands to forests. No significant relationships were found between soil and leaf nutrients, but SLA explained variation in leaf N, P, and K (positive relationships) and in leaf δ¹³C (negative relationship). These findings suggest that a tradeoff between tree growth and water use efficiency is an important regulator of forest–grassland dynamics in the study region.     

Ants Induce Domatia in a Rain Forest Tree (Vochysia vismiaefolia)1

In Amazonian rain forest trees of Vochysia vismiaefolia (Vochysiaceae), ants were found to induce twig structures that resembled classical ant domatia. This phenomenon is novel for ant‐plants, which commonly develop domatia without the activity of ants. Eight species of ants were recorded inside the domatia of six individual trees, but domatia were most numerous and characteristic when induced and inhabited by an undescribed species of Pseudomyrmex on two trees. To investigate the mechanism of domatium growth, we drilled holes into young twigs: the expansion of the twig diameter surrounding the holes was significantly accelerated, comparable to domatia formation. Domatia induction is discussed as a putative step in the evolution of ant‐plants.     

Patterns of Foraging of the Forest Ant Formica neogagates Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on Tree Branches

Numbers of ants moving on trunks of oak trees and successive visits of workers of the forest ant Formica neogagates Emery to leaves of black birch trees were recorded in the forest. Ants were found to search systematically because they tended to move in the same direction on a twig before and after visiting a leaf. However, many leaves were skipped, and the probability of visiting an encountered leaf was about 0.5. Data were used to develop a computer model of ant foraging on leaves and twigs of trees. It was found that reasonable model outputs of numbers of leaves skipped between visits and the number of new leaves visited, as the total number of visits increased, could be obtained only if ants were assumed to partially avoid leaves that they had previously visited. Model results implied that 100 ants in a tree foraging for about 3 h should be able to visit about one quarter of the leaves in a tree.