在遗传学课堂教学中培养本科生科研素质

课堂是本科教学的主要场地,充分利用课堂教学培养本科生的科研素质,是一个值得思考的教改问题。本文从系统架构课程内容体系、教学内容反映科研进展、知识点的讲解反映其科研活动、用PPT动画讲解科学原理和实验过程、用双语教学提高专业英语阅读能力、考试考察学生的科研分析能力6个方面介绍了作者多年来在遗传学课堂教学中培养学生科研素质的教改措施与实践经验。这些改革措施有利于激发本科生的学习积极性,培养本科生发现问题、分析问题和解决问题的科学思维能力,提高本科生的科技英语阅读能力和文献查阅能力,为本科生进入科研领域奠定了良好的基础。     

Colour spaces in ecology and evolutionary biology

The recognition that animals sense the world in a different way than we do has unlocked important lines of research in ecology and evolutionary biology. In practice, the subjective study of natural stimuli has been permitted by perceptual spaces, which are graphical models of how stimuli are perceived by a given animal. Because colour vision is arguably the best‐known sensory modality in most animals, a diversity of colour spaces are now available to visual ecologists, ranging from generalist and basic models allowing rough but robust predictions on colour perception, to species‐specific, more complex models giving accurate but context‐dependent predictions. Selecting among these models is most often influenced by historical contingencies that have associated models to specific questions and organisms; however, these associations are not always optimal. The aim of this review is to provide visual ecologists with a critical perspective on how models of colour space are built, how well they perform and where their main limitations are with regard to their most frequent uses in ecology and evolutionary biology. We propose a classification of models based on their complexity, defined as whether and how they model the mechanisms of chromatic adaptation and receptor opponency, the nonlinear association between the stimulus and its perception, and whether or not models have been fitted to experimental data. Then, we review the effect of modelling these mechanisms on predictions of colour detection and discrimination, colour conspicuousness, colour diversity and diversification, and for comparing the perception of colour traits between distinct perceivers. While a few rules emerge (e.g. opponent log–linear models should be preferred when analysing very distinct colours), in general model parameters still have poorly known effects. Colour spaces have nonetheless permitted significant advances in ecology and evolutionary biology, and more progress is expected if ecologists compare results between models and perform behavioural experiments more routinely. Such an approach would further contribute to a better understanding of colour vision and its links to the behavioural ecology of animals. While visual ecology is essentially a transfer of knowledge from visual sciences to evolutionary ecology, we hope that the discipline will benefit both fields more evenly in the future.     

You are welcome here: A practical guide to diversity,equity, and inclusion for undergraduates embarking on an ecological research experience

As we build a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture in the ecological research community, we must work to support new ecologists by empowering them with the knowledge, tools, validation, and sense of belonging in ecology to succeed. Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are critical for a student''s professional and interpersonal skill development and key for recruiting and retaining students from diverse groups to ecology. However, few resources exist that speak directly to an undergraduate researcher on the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dimensions of embarking on a first research experience. Here, we write primarily for undergraduate readers, though a broader audience of readers, especially URE mentors, will also find this useful. We explain many of the ways a URE benefits undergraduate researchers and describe how URE students from different positionalities can contribute to an inclusive research culture. We address three common sources of anxiety for URE students through a DEI lens: imposter syndrome, communicating with mentors, and safety in fieldwork. We discuss the benefits as well as the unique vulnerabilities and risks associated with fieldwork, including the potential for harassment and assault. Imposter syndrome and toxic field experiences are known to drive students, including students from underrepresented minority groups, out of STEM. Our goal is to encourage all students, including those from underrepresented groups, to apply for UREs, build awareness of their contributions to inclusion in ecology research, and provide strategies for overcoming known barriers.     

病毒生态学研究进展

病毒是目前所知的最简单的生命单元,通常由外壳蛋白和包裹在外壳蛋白内的核酸两部分组成。病毒本身缺乏完整的酶系统及能量转化系统,当游离于环境中时,它只是一个有机大分子,只有侵染宿主后才具有生命特征,进行复制。病毒也是地球上最丰富的生物实体,是微生物群落和功能的重要影响因素。尽管病毒在生态系统中发挥着重要的作用,但因病毒间缺少通用的标记基因,病毒生态学的研究远远滞后于细菌和真核生物。近年来高通量测序技术的发展应用帮助人们发现和认识了许多未知的新病毒及其基因,极大地丰富了病毒基因数据库,直接推动了病毒生态学的发展。从生态学角度对病毒的结构与分类、病毒生态学研究方法、病毒的生态功能及土壤病毒生态学研究进展作一简要综述,并提出今后土壤病毒生态学研究的重点。     

Diversity,equity, and inclusion in the melanoma research community

The inaugural Diversity and Inclusion in Science Session was held during the 2021 Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) congress. The goal of the session was to discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion in the melanoma research community and strategies to promote the advancement of underrepresented melanoma researchers. An international survey was conducted to assess the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) climate among researchers and clinicians within the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR). The findings suggest there are feelings and experiences of inequity, bias, and harassment within the melanoma community that correlate with one's gender, ethnic/racial group, and/or geographic location. Notably, significant reports of inequity in opportunity, discrimination, and sexual harassment demonstrate there is much work remaining to ensure all scientists in our community experience an academic workplace culture built on mutual respect, fair access, inclusion, and equitable opportunity.     

Championing inclusive terminology in ecology and evolution

Amid a growing disciplinary commitment to inclusion in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), it is critical to consider how the use of scientific language can harm members of our research community. Here, we outline a path for identifying and revising harmful terminology to foster inclusion in EEB.     

Cultivating scientific literacy and a sense of place through course‐based urban ecology research

Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to increase engagement, improve learning outcomes, and enhance career development for students in ecology. However, these opportunities may not be accessible to all students, and incorporating inquiry‐based research directly into undergraduate curricula may help overcome barriers to participation and improve representation and inclusion in the discipline. The shift to online instruction during the COVID‐19 pandemic has imposed even greater challenges for providing students with authentic research experiences, but the pandemic may also provide a unique opportunity for creative projects conducted remotely. In this paper, I describe a course‐based undergraduate research experience (CURE) designed for an upper‐level ecology course at California State University, Dominguez Hills during remote learning. The primary focus of student‐led research activities was to explore the potential impacts of the depopulation of campus during the pandemic on urban coyotes (Canis latrans), for which there were increased sightings reported during this time. Students conducted two research studies, including an evaluation of urban wildlife activity, behavior, and diversity using camera traps installed throughout campus and analysis of coyote diet using data from scat dissections. Students used the data they generated and information from literature reviews, class discussions, and meetings with experts to develop a coyote monitoring and management plan for our campus and create posters to educate the public. Using the campus as a living laboratory, I aimed to engage students in meaningful research while cultivating a sense of place, despite being online. Students’ research outcomes and responses to pre‐ and post‐course surveys highlight the benefits of projects that are anchored in place‐based education and emphasize the importance of ecological research for solving real‐world problems. CUREs focused on local urban ecosystems may be a powerful way for instructors to activate ecological knowledge and capitalize on the cultural strengths of students at urban universities.     

海洋微生物多样性及其分子生态学研究进展

海洋微生物多样性的深入研究将有助于微生物资源更好的开发和利用,海洋微生物多样性有很大的研究价值和研究空间。海洋中大多数微生物处于未可培养状态,在分子生态学基础上对海洋未可培养微生物进行研究是当今微生物多样性研究的主要方向。近年来相关研究进展迅速,研究方法不断更新。主要从分子生态学角度对微生物多样性研究现状进行概述并详细分析探讨了相关的研究方法,而且从分子生态学与海洋微生物多样性研究相结合的层面,对本领域的研究进行展望。旨在为海洋微生物多样性的研究及海洋资源的可持续开发与利用提供参考。     

Biodiversity inhibits species' evolutionary responses to changing environments

Despite growing interplay between ecological and evolutionary studies, the question of how biodiversity influences evolutionary dynamics within species remains understudied. Here, using a classical model of phenotypic evolution in species occupying a patchy environment, but introducing global change affecting patch conditions, we show that biodiversity can inhibit species' evolution during global change. The presence of several species increases the chance that one or more species are pre-adapted to new conditions, which restricts the ecological opportunity for evolutionary responses in all the species. Consequently, environmental change tends to select for changes in species abundances rather than for changing phenotypes within each species. The buffering effects of species diversity that we describe might be one important but neglected explanation for widely observed niche conservatism in natural systems. Furthermore, the results show that attempts to understand biotic responses to environmental change need to consider both ecological and evolutionary processes in a realistically diverse setting.     

景观生态学中的十大研究论题

近年来 ,景观生态学在理论、方法及应用诸方面均取得了长足发展。但作为一个迅速发展中的学科 ,景观生态学尚面临着许多新的问题和挑战。基于两次相关论题的国际研讨会 ,概述当今景观生态学十大研究论题 ,以促进国内该学科的全面发展。     

Self-structuring in spatial evolutionary ecology

Spatial self-structuring has been a focus of recent interest among evolutionary ecologists. We review recent developments in the study of the interplay between spatial self-structuring and evolution. We first discuss the relative merits of the various theoretical approaches to spatial modelling in ecology. Second, we synthesize the main theoretical studies of the evolution of cooperation in spatially structured populations. We show that population viscosity is generally beneficial to cooperation, because cooperators can reap additional benefits from being clustered. A similar mechanism can explain the evolution of honest communication and of reduced virulence in host–parasite interactions. We also discuss some recent innovative empirical results that test these theories. Third, we show the relevance of these results to the general field of evolutionary ecology. An important conclusion is that kin selection is the main process that drives evolution of cooperation in viscous populations. Many results of kin selection theory can be recovered as emergent properties of spatial ecological dynamics. We discuss the implications of these results for the study of multilevel selection and evolutionary transitions. We conclude by sketching some perspectives for future research, with a particular emphasis on the topics of evolutionary branching, criticality, spatial fluctuations and experimental tests of theoretical predictions.     

Habitat invasion research: where vegetation science and invasion ecology meet

In the last decade, habitat‐oriented studies of plant invasions, performed at broad scales and using large data sets of vegetation plots, have focused on quantifying the representation of alien species in vegetation or habitat types, identifying factors underlying invasions, and exploring the pools of species available for invasion into particular habitats. In this essay we summarize what we have learned, discuss constraints associated with this kind of data and outline promising research topics to which a macroecological perspective of habitat invasions can contribute. Such topics include, among others: integrating species‐specific information on invasion status, residence time in the region, biological and ecological traits and phylogenetic relationships into habitat invasion research to better capture the context‐dependence of invasions; focusing on the functional role that alien species, relative to natives, play in plant communities; and obtaining insights into the role of pre‐adaptation for invasion by comparing the functional composition of habitat species pools in the native range. There is still a strong geographic bias, with detailed assessments across broader ranges of habitat types in large regions available only from Europe, the United States and New Zealand, which call for extension of this research to other continents.     

Free riders and pious sons--why science research remains obligatory

John Harris has previously proposed that there is a moral duty to participate in scientific research. This concept has recently been challenged by Iain Brassington, who asserts that the principles cited by Harris in support of the duty to research fail to establish its existence. In this paper we address these criticisms and provide new arguments for the existence of a moral obligation to research participation. This obligation, we argue, arises from two separate but related principles. The principle of fairness obliges us to support the social institutions which sustain us, of which research is one; while the principle of beneficence, or the duty of rescue, imposes upon us a duty to prevent harm to others, including by supporting potentially beneficial, even life-saving research. We argue that both these lines of argument support the duty to research, and explore further aspects of this duty, such as to whom it is owed and how it might be discharged.     

微生物分子生态学发展历史及研究现状

微生物群落多样性是微生物生态学和环境学研究的重点之一。分子生物学方法应用于微生物群落结构分析使得对环境样品中占大多数的不可培养微生物的研究成为了可能。由于功能上高度保守,序列上的不同位置具有不同的变异速率,核糖体RNA（rRNA）是目前在微生物分子生态学上最为有用以及应用最广泛的分子标记,通过rRNA序列比对,可以分析不同分类水平的系统发育关系。元基因组学研究方法通过对环境样品中的各种微生物群落的总的基因组进行分析,充分展示了环境微生物代谢途径,极大地扩展了对微生物的认识。快速发展的高通量测序极大地促进了各项微生物生态学技术的发展,带来了新的突破。     

The ecology of differences: assessing community assembly with trait and evolutionary distances

Species enter and persist in local communities because of their ecological fit to local conditions, and recently, ecologists have moved from measuring diversity as species richness and evenness, to using measures that reflect species ecological differences. There are two principal approaches for quantifying species ecological differences: functional (trait‐based) and phylogenetic pairwise distances between species. Both approaches have produced new ecological insights, yet at the same time methodological issues and assumptions limit them. Traits and phylogeny may provide different, and perhaps complementary, information about species' differences. To adequately test assembly hypotheses, a framework integrating the information provided by traits and phylogenies is required. We propose an intuitive measure for combining functional and phylogenetic pairwise distances, which provides a useful way to assess how functional and phylogenetic distances contribute to understanding patterns of community assembly. Here, we show that both traits and phylogeny inform community assembly patterns in alpine plant communities across an elevation gradient, because they represent complementary information. Differences in historical selection pressures have produced variation in the strength of the trait‐phylogeny correlation, and as such, integrating traits and phylogeny can enhance the ability to detect assembly patterns across habitats or environmental gradients.     

区域生态学的国际起源和研究热点

20世纪80年代以来,区域生态学迅速发展,成为生态学领域重要的分支学科。本文综述了区域生态学的国际起源、发展脉络,以及主要研究热点,对比了国内外区域生态学研究的区别以及对国内区域生态学发展的启示。分析表明,在国际上,区域生态学的研究热点主要集中在生物多样性保护、区域气候变化影响、生态系统服务、城市生态学、区域生态修复和可持续发展等方面。由于国情以及学科发展进度不同,国内外区域生态学研究在关注问题、研究思路和研究手段上存在区别。国内区域生态学受学科起步较晚、相关数据的质、量和利用率较低及对方法和模型研究尚浅的影响,未来研究要在深度利用遥感数据的基础上,加强学科理论和方法的学习,重点关注气候变化影响生态过程的机理、生态模型优化、全国生态系统服务评估与定价、区域生态安全以及区域可持续发展规划。