干旱地区斑块状植被格局形成的水分驱动机制及其研究进展

斑块状分布是植被在水分匮乏环境中长期适应的结果,其演替过程可以作为生态系统响应气候变化和人类活动产生突变的"指示器"。本文通过对斑块状植被的起源、生态水文过程及其对干旱区植被恢复的启示等方面进行综述,提出了我国干旱区植被恢复中目前尚存在的主要问题。认为斑块状植被的形成可能受气候变化、人类活动、植物自身的生物学特性及其对环境胁迫的适应等方面的影响,但不是主要因素,植被斑块和裸地斑块之间在不同空间尺度的水分再分配是其在干旱半干旱地区形成并且能够维持稳定的关键。斑块状植被是一个高效的雨水集流系统,裸地斑块是整个系统径流的"源",而植被斑块是整个系统径流的"汇",保护植被斑块的同时维持一定面积的裸地对于整个生态系统的稳定都具有极其重要的意义。斑块状植被也是一个非常脆弱的生态系统,气候的剧烈波动以及人类的过度活动都可能导致生态系统功能丧失,最终产生不可逆转的影响,因此需要加以严格保护。     

The influence of local elevation on the effects of secondary salinity in remnant eucalypt woodlands: Changes in understorey communities

Increasing land salinization in Australia is predicted to lead to severe declines in species diversity in affected areas, and perhaps significant numbers of species extinctions. Much of the diversity that will be lost consists of understorey and mid-storey species, yet the overwhelming majority of research has focussed on salinity tolerance in tree species. We investigated how the presence of a shallow, saline water table affected the understorey species composition, species richness and species diversity in two remnant Eucalyptus wandoo Blakely woodlands in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Species richness and species diversity were significantly lower in areas with a shallow water table at elevations < 0.5 m above the lowest local elevation, compared with both higher elevations and with areas of low elevation without a shallow water table. Species composition (Bray-Curtis similarities) was also significantly different in low elevation, saline areas. At one site, saline areas were colonized by native and alien species that were not present in the surrounding vegetation, yet the community that has developed does not contain either the species or structural diversity of the surrounding system. At the other site, no colonisation of saline areas by new species occurred. Even though small differences in elevation (< 0.5 m) at our study sites were important in moderating the impacts of salinity in areas with a shallow water table, the loss of species diversity, species richness and structural complexity in low-lying elevations indicated that the ecological risk from secondary salinity to species associated only with drainage lines, seasonally wet flats and other low-lying areas is severe. The priority is to identify those vegetation communities that are restricted to only low relative elevations within the landscape and that only occur in remnants predicted to be at a high risk of developing a shallow and saline water table.     

Differences in root architecture influence attraction of fishes to mangroves: A field experiment mimicking roots of different length, orientation, and complexity

Benthic structure plays an important role as shelter and feeding habitat for demersal fauna. While many studies have investigated the relationship between structural complexity of aquatic vegetation and the number of species or abundance of motile organisms, little is known of the attractiveness of submerged mangrove roots. We tested the importance of various root attributes in attracting fish species in a field experiment using different artificial mangrove units (AMUs) with PVC pipes mimicking roots to exclude interaction with other environmental and biotic factors. We manipulated length, vertical orientation, and three-dimensional structural complexity of root mimics in the AMUs to explore their effects on the fish community variables: fish abundance, number of species and community composition. Pipe length and three-dimensional structure did not have an effect on fish community variables. Vertical pipe orientation had a significant effect and AMUs with standing pipes showed higher total fish abundances and number of species than AMUs with hanging pipes. Also community composition differed greatly between AMUs with standing versus hanging pipes. At species level, demersal fish species mainly occupied AMUs with standing pipes and occurred only at very low abundances when hanging pipes dominated in the AMUs; in contrast, the semi-pelagic swimmer Sphyraena barracuda showed a trend of higher abundance in AMUs with mainly hanging pipes. When analyzed across all AMUs, fish abundances of demersal as well as semi-pelagic species decreased significantly with increasing interspatial pipe distance among AMUs, suggesting that distance to refuge may be the underlying mechanism for the observed patterns. The above findings are important in the context of the worldwide degradation of mangroves, because human alteration to mangrove vegetation affects its structure and thus composition and size of fish communities.     

Timing and abundance as key mechanisms affecting trophic interactions in variable environments

Climatic changes are disrupting otherwise tight trophic interactions between predator and prey. Most of the earlier studies have primarily focused on the temporal dimension of the relationship in the framework of the match–mismatch hypothesis. This hypothesis predicts that predator's recruitment will be high if the peak of the prey availability temporally matches the most energy‐demanding period of the predators breeding phenology. However, the match–mismatch hypothesis ignores the level of food abundance while this can compensate small mismatches. Using a novel time‐series model explicitly quantifying both the timing and the abundance component for trophic relationships, we here show that timing and abundance of food affect recruitment differently in a marine (cod/zooplankton), a marine–terrestrial (puffin/herring) and a terrestrial (sheep/vegetation) ecosystem. The quantification of the combined effect of abundance and timing of prey on predator dynamics enables us to come closer to the mechanisms by which environment variability may affect ecological systems.     

Comparison of PERV genomic locations between Asian and European pigs

Xenotransplantation from pigs provides a possible solution to the shortage of human organs for allotransplantation. Porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) are a possible obstacle to using porcine organs in addition to the immunological barriers. Three main types of PERVs (A, B and C) have been previously investigated in diverse pig breeds. To examine the copy numbers of PERVs and their genomic locations in the Korean native pig genome, we screened a BAC (Bacterial Artificial Chromosome) library with PERV-specific protease primers for initial recognition of PERV-positive clones and three sets of envelope-specific primers for the identification of PERV types. A total of 45 PERV-positive clones, nine PERV-A and 36 PERV-B, have been identified from the library screening and the BAC contigs were constructed using the primers designed from BAC end sequences (BESs). These primers were also used for SCH (Somatic Cell Hybrid) and RH (Radiation Hybrid) mapping of the PERV-positive clones. The results indicate that 45 PERV-positive BAC clones belong to nine contigs and a singleton. SCH and IMpRH (INRA-Minnesota Porcine Radiation Hybrid) mapping results indicated that there are at least eight separate PERV genomic locations, consisting of three PERV-A and five PERV-B. One contig could not be mapped, and two contigs are closely located on SSC7. Southern blotting indicates there may be up to 15 additional sites. Further investigation of these clones will contribute to a general strategy to generate PERV-free lines of pigs suitable for xenotransplantation.     

盐池县2000-2012年植被变化及其驱动力

荒漠草原区的植被对防治荒漠化、维护生态屏障具有决定性作用,宁夏盐池县作为其典型代表,近13年的植被变化深受气候变化和人类活动的综合影响。基于MODIS NDVI等数据,运用趋势分析、经验模态分解和空间叠置分析等方法,对盐池县2000—2012年的植被动态变化进行研究,结果表明:(1)2000—2012年盐池县NDVI在0.2—0.4之间呈波动上升趋势,上升幅度为0.078/10 a,上升趋势显著;总体来说,植被稳定性低,年际间波动或转换频繁、幅度大;(2)NDVI的波动分量与残余分量方差贡献率各占50%,且NDVI波动呈减弱趋势。促使NDVI波动的主控因子是年降水量,但其影响在减弱;(3)推动NDVI趋势性上升的主要因素是土地利用方式改善和类型变化,但土地利用方式改善对NDVI的贡献远远大于土地利用类型变化对NDVI的贡献。因此,荒漠草原区的生态改善应以保护为主,辅之以必要的生态重建,走以适度开发带动整体保护的道路。     

长江中下游滩地植被与钉螺孳生关系的研究

对由莎草、苔草、狗牙根为优势种组成的杂草群落植被类型、由多种苔草、荻、为优势种组成的苔草、荻群落植被类型和由芦苇、菱笋、蒌蒿及蓼类为优势种组成的芦苇群落植被类型３种长江中下游滩地主要群落植被类型进行了钉螺密度与植被高度、钉螺密度与植被盖度之间的关系。结果表明：杂草群落植被类型,钉螺生存最适宜的植被高度为２２．０５ｃｍ、范围为１５～４７ｃｍ,钉螺生存最适宜的植被盖度为６５．２８％、范围为３５％～９０％;苔草、荻群落植被类型,钉螺生存最适宜的植被高度为２２．６９ｃｍ、范围为２０～３３ｃｍ,钉螺生存最适宜的植被盖度为６７．８０％、范围为３５％～９５％;芦苇群落植被类型,钉螺生存最适宜的植被高度为６４．８２ｃｍ、范围为７２～７８ｃｍ,钉螺生存最适宜植被盖度为６３．９５％、范围为１％～１００％。这一研究结果对通过生态工程措施控制植被因子,实现抑螺防病的策略提供科学依据     

Albedo estimates for land surface models and support for a new paradigm based on foliage nitrogen concentration

Vegetation albedo is a critical component of the Earth's climate system, yet efforts to evaluate and improve albedo parameterizations in climate models have lagged relative to other aspects of model development. Here, we calculated growing season albedos for deciduous and evergreen forests, crops, and grasslands based on over 40 site‐years of data from the AmeriFlux network and compared them with estimates presently used in the land surface formulations of a variety of climate models. Generally, the albedo estimates used in land surface models agreed well with this data compilation. However, a variety of models using fixed seasonal estimates of albedo overestimated the growing season albedo of northerly evergreen trees. In contrast, climate models that rely on a common two‐stream albedo submodel provided accurate predictions of boreal needle‐leaf evergreen albedo but overestimated grassland albedos. Inverse analysis showed that parameters of the two‐stream model were highly correlated. Consistent with recent observations based on remotely sensed albedo, the AmeriFlux dataset demonstrated a tight linear relationship between canopy albedo and foliage nitrogen concentration (for forest vegetation: albedo=0.01+0.071%N, r²=0.91; forests, grassland, and maize: albedo=0.02+0.067%N, r²=0.80). However, this relationship saturated at the higher nitrogen concentrations displayed by soybean foliage. We developed similar relationships between a foliar parameter used in the two‐stream albedo model and foliage nitrogen concentration. These nitrogen‐based relationships can serve as the basis for a new approach to land surface albedo modeling that simplifies albedo estimation while providing a link to other important ecosystem processes.     

The biogeochemistry of nitrogen in freshwater wetlands

The biogeochemistry of N in freshwater wetlands is complicated by vegetation characteristics that range from annual herbs to perennial woodlands; by hydrologic characteristics that range from closed, precipitation-driven to tidal, riverine wetlands; and by the diversity of the nitrogen cycle itself. It is clear that sediments are the single largest pool of nitrogen in wetland ecosystems (100's to 1000's g N m^-2) followed in rough order-of-magnitude decreases by plants and available inorganic nitrogen. Precipitation inputs (< 1–2 g N m^-2 yr^-1) are well known but other atmospheric inputs, e.g. dry deposition, are essentially unknown and could be as large or larger than wet deposition. Nitrogen fixation (acetylene reduction) is an important supplementary input in some wetlands (< < 1–3 g N m^-2 yr^-1) but is probably limited by the excess of fixed nitrogen usually present in wetland sediments.Plant uptake normally ranges from a few g N m^-2 yr^-1 to 35 g N m^-2 yr^-1 with extreme values of up to 100g N m^-2 yr^-1 Results of translocation experiments done to date may be misleading and may call for a reassessment of the magnitude of both plant uptake and leaching rates. Interactions between plant litter and decomposer microorganisms tend, over the short-term, to conserve nitrogen within the system in immobile forms. Later, decomposers release this nitrogen in forms and at rates that plants can efficiently reassimilate.The NO₃ formed by nitrification (< 0.1 to 10 g N m^-2 yr^-1 has several fates which may tend to either conserve nitrogen (uptake and dissimilatory reduction to ammonium) or lead to its loss (denitrification). Both nitrification and denitrification operate at rates far below their potential and under proper conditions (e.g. draining or fluctuating water levels) may accelerate. However, virtually all estimates of denitrification rates in freshwater wetlands are based on measurements of potential denitrification, not actual denitrification and, as a consequence, the importance of denitrification in these ecosystems may have been greatly over estimated.In general, larger amounts of nitrogen cycle within freshwater wetlands than flow in or out. Except for closed, ombrotrophic systems this might seem an unusual characteristic for ecosystems that are dominated by the flux of water, however, two factors limit the opportunity for N loss. At any given time the fraction of nitrogen in wetlands that could be lost by hydrologic export is probably a small fraction of the potentially mineralizable nitrogen and is certainly a negligible fraction of the total nitrogen in the system. Second, in some cases freshwater wetlands may be hydrologically isolated so that the bulk of upland water flow may pass under (in the case of floating mats) or by (in the case of riparian systems) the biotically active components of the wetland. This may explain the rather limited range of N loading rates real wetlands can accept in comparison to, for example, percolation columns or engineered marshes.     

Effect of vegetation on density thresholds of adult desert locust gregarization from survey data in Mauritania

In the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forskål) (Orthoptera: Acrididae), the threshold density inducing the gregarization phenomenon has never been determined under natural conditions. The influence of environmental factors on this phenomenon has been studied mostly in controlled environments. Based on data collected during several years by the survey teams of the National Center for Locust Control in Mauritania, we analyzed the influence of locust density, vegetation cover, and vegetation status on the probability of observing gregarious locusts. We assumed that a probability to observe gregarious locusts of 0.5 corresponded to the density threshold of gregarization. The results showed in detail the change in the threshold of gregarization according to the cover and status of the vegetation. Low cover and dry vegetation led to a low density threshold of gregarization probably due to high probability of individuals to touch each other. Dense and green vegetation favored a high threshold of gregarization probably due to a dispersion of the individuals and a low probability of individual encounters. These findings should help the management of locusts and decision making during control operations.