An indicator framework for assessing the technology aspect of Integrated Lake Basin Management for Lake Malawi Basin

Lake Malawi is one of the African Great Lakes and is well known for its fish biodiversity which is the greatest in the world for freshwaters. The lake basin is a valuable resource to the riparian countries. Activities associated with the derivation of the values offered by the lake basin, however, result in the generation of wastes and pollutants that also impact on the lake basin. Such anthropogenic activities within the lake basin place considerable strain on the lake system and may lead to the degradation of the lake basin. Proper application of technology can effectively supplement command-and-control measures and economic instruments for better lake basin management. Currently, no comprehensive framework exists to assess the management of the lake basin. Such a framework is necessary to guide managers and policy-makers in the formulation of management plans and strategies for the sustainable management and utilization of the lake basin. We propose an indicator framework for assessing the technology aspect of Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) in the context of the Lake Malawi Basin. We further demonstrate applicability of the proposed framework through a study conducted in the Malawian side of the basin. We applied a five point Likert-type scale in our indicator assessment. Overall, our results show that the technology aspect of the management of the lake basin is weak to moderate. This threatens the sustainability of the lake especially in the areas of solid waste management, sanitation services, pollution control and protection of wetlands and lagoons which performed from very low to moderate. The major challenges are weak institutional capacity, weak regulation enforcement, and insufficient resources.     

甘肃早白垩世恐龙蛋化石新类型（英文）

甘肃省早白垩世地层中,出土了大量恐龙骨骼以及恐龙足迹化石,但是至今未有蛋化石的报道。根据发现于兰州-民和盆地下白垩统河口组的蛋壳化石,建立一恐龙蛋新蛋属、蛋种,并将其归于一新蛋科:Polyclonoolithidae(多小枝蛋科)。新发现的蛋化石标本不同于所有已知的恐龙蛋类型,具有独特的显微特征组合:分叉的蛋壳单元向外延伸至蛋壳外表面,并未在靠近蛋壳外表面处融合成层;弦切面上具相互链接或独立的多角形的蛋壳单元;以及不规则的气孔道。中国的恐龙蛋化石大多出自晚白垩世地层,仅在辽宁有早白垩世恐龙蛋的报道。新发现扩展了中国恐龙蛋化石的地质和地理分布,也有可能为圆形蛋科蛋壳结构的起源提供新的认识。     

Microbial metabolite fluxes in a model marine anoxic ecosystem

Permanently anoxic regions in the ocean are widespread and exhibit unique microbial metabolic activity exerting substantial influence on global elemental cycles and climate. Reconstructing microbial metabolic activity rates in these regions has been challenging, due to the technical difficulty of direct rate measurements. In Cariaco Basin, which is the largest permanently anoxic marine basin and an important model system for geobiology, long‐term monitoring has yielded time series for the concentrations of biologically important compounds; however, the underlying metabolite fluxes remain poorly quantified. Here, we present a computational approach for reconstructing vertical fluxes and in situ net production/consumption rates from chemical concentration data, based on a 1‐dimensional time‐dependent diffusive transport model that includes adaptive penalization of overfitting. We use this approach to estimate spatiotemporally resolved fluxes of oxygen, nitrate, hydrogen sulfide, ammonium, methane, and phosphate within the sub‐euphotic Cariaco Basin water column (depths 150–900 m, years 2001–2014) and to identify hotspots of microbial chemolithotrophic activity. Predictions of the fitted models are in excellent agreement with the data and substantially expand our knowledge of the geobiology in Cariaco Basin. In particular, we find that the diffusivity, and consequently fluxes of major reductants such as hydrogen sulfide, and methane, is about two orders of magnitude greater than previously estimated, thus resolving a long‐standing apparent conundrum between electron donor fluxes and measured dark carbon assimilation rates.     

Integrating anthropogenic factors into regional‐scale species distribution models—A novel application in the imperiled sagebrush biome

Species distribution models (SDMs) that rely on regional‐scale environmental variables will play a key role in forecasting species occurrence in the face of climate change. However, in the Anthropocene, a number of local‐scale anthropogenic variables, including wildfire history, land‐use change, invasive species, and ecological restoration practices can override regional‐scale variables to drive patterns of species distribution. Incorporating these human‐induced factors into SDMs remains a major research challenge, in part because spatial variability in these factors occurs at fine scales, rendering prediction over regional extents problematic. Here, we used big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) as a model species to explore whether including human‐induced factors improves the fit of the SDM. We applied a Bayesian hurdle spatial approach using 21,753 data points of field‐sampled vegetation obtained from the LANDFIRE program to model sagebrush occurrence and cover by incorporating fire history metrics and restoration treatments from 1980 to 2015 throughout the Great Basin of North America. Models including fire attributes and restoration treatments performed better than those including only climate and topographic variables. Number of fires and fire occurrence had the strongest relative effects on big sagebrush occurrence and cover, respectively. The models predicted that the probability of big sagebrush occurrence decreases by 1.2% (95% CI: ?6.9%, 0.6%) when one fire occurs and cover decreases by 44.7% (95% CI: ?47.9%, ?41.3%) if at least one fire occurred over the 36 year period of record. Restoration practices increased the probability of big sagebrush occurrence but had minimal effect on cover. Our results demonstrate the potential value of including disturbance and land management along with climate in models to predict species distributions. As an increasing number of datasets representing land‐use history become available, we anticipate that our modeling framework will have broad relevance across a range of biomes and species.     

Seed germination and dormancy traits of forbs and shrubs important for restoration of North American dryland ecosystems

• In degraded dryland systems, native plant community re‐establishment following disturbance is almost exclusively carried out using seeds, but these efforts commonly fail. Much of this failure can be attributed to the limited understanding of seed dormancy and germination traits.
• We undertook a systematic classification of seed dormancy of 26 species of annual and perennial forbs and shrubs that represent key, dominant genera used in restoration of the Great Basin ecosystem in the western United States. We examined germination across a wide thermal profile to depict species‐specific characteristics and assessed the potential of gibberellic acid (GA₃) and karrikinolide (KAR₁) to expand the thermal germination envelope of fresh seeds.
• Of the tested species, 81% produce seeds that are dormant at maturity. The largest proportion (62%) exhibited physiological (PD), followed by physical (PY, 8%), combinational (PY + PD, 8%) and morphophysiological (MPD, 4%) dormancy classes. The effects of chemical stimulants were temperature‐ and species‐mediated. In general, mean germination across the thermal profile was improved by GA₃ and KAR₁ for 11 and five species, respectively. We detected a strong germination response to temperature in freshly collected seeds of 20 species. Temperatures below 10 °C limited the germination of all except Agoseris heterophylla, suggesting that in their dormant state, the majority of these species are thermally restricted.
• Our findings demonstrate the utility of dormancy classification as a foundation for understanding the critical regenerative traits in these ecologically important species and highlight its importance in restoration planning.

     

怀来盆地西沟湾1号旧石器地点试掘简报

西沟湾1号旧石器地点位于河北省张家口市怀来县官厅镇珠窝园村,埋藏于永定河右岸第二级阶地后缘。2015年8-9月对该地点进行试掘,揭露面积约27m2,出土232件石制品和19件动物化石。石制品原料以粗面岩为主,应为就地取材;类型包括石核、石片、断块等,标本大小总体以小型为主;石核剥片均采用硬锤锤击法。石制品的类型和技术特征显示其总体属于石片石器技术体系。结合遗物和堆积状况,推测西沟湾1号地点为一处原地埋藏类型的临时性石制品剥片场所。依碳十四年代测定,初步推断该地点的时代为旧石器时代晚期。     

Responses of morphological and physiological traits to herbivory by snails of three invasive and native submerged plants

3种入侵和本地沉水植物形态和生理性状对螺类牧食的响应 沉水植物水盾草(Cabomba caroliniana)已成为中国太湖流域的优势入侵水生植物。与外来物种的原产地环境相比,引入地新环境中存在的专食性天敌较少。外来物种可能会逃避其原产地环境中的天敌牧食,又因为它们的适口性相对较差,从而导致在引入地外来物种通常比本地物种遭受的牧食者影响更低(天敌逃逸假说)。本研究的目的是比较水盾草与共生的本地沉水植物对本地牧食者的响应。我们进行了一个中宇宙尺度实验,研究了水盾草和两种共生的本地沉水植物黑藻(Hydrilla verticillata)和穗花狐尾藻(Myriophyllum spicatum)对两种本地广食性腹足纲螺类萝卜螺(Radix swinhoei)和环棱螺(Sinotaia quadrata)的牧食响应。记录了它们的形态性状指标(总生物量、冠根比和相对生长率)和生理性状指标(叶片总非结构性碳、木质素和纤维素)。研究结果表明,环棱螺对3种沉水植物性状指标的影响较少。随着本地广食性螺类萝卜螺数量的增加,黑藻和穗花狐尾藻大部分植物性状发生了改变,而水盾草的植物性状表现出相对稳定的趋势。水盾草对萝卜螺的牧食更具抵抗力,这与天敌逃逸假说的假设一致。这一发现说明牧食性螺类促进了水盾草的入侵,这可能会改变沉水植物群落中的物种组成。     

Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in Penstemon rostriflorus (Plantaginaceae) and cross‐species amplification

Eight novel microsatellite primer pairs are presented for Penstemon rostriflorus, representing the first microsatellite markers available for this genus. Loci were characterized for 20 individuals from two populations in the Great Basin, USA. All loci are polymorphic within P. rostriflorus (seven to 13 alleles per locus; observed heterozygosity between 0.40 and 0.95), and therefore useful for population genetic studies within the species. Cross‐species transferability was tested on 40 additional species of Penstemon, and results indicate that these primers pairs will likely be useful for population genetic studies on many Penstemon species.     

滇东南普阳盆地含煤地层孢粉组合特征及其年代

云南地处青藏高原东南缘, 生物多样性丰富, 季风气候特征明显。新生代剧烈的构造活动形成了众多山间盆地, 其间保存了大量精美的植物化石, 是探讨新生代以来植被、植物多样性和地球环境演变的理想地区。但是长期以来, 由于地层年代学证据的缺乏, 这些新生代沉积盆地的地质年代还存在很大争议。本研究通过对滇东南地区富宁县普阳盆地的含煤地层开展深入的孢粉学研究, 探讨盆地含煤地层年代及其古气候演化过程。剖面下部煤层孢粉组合以杉粉属(Taxodiaceaepollenites)为主, 指示以杉科为主的湿润沼泽森林, 冬春季相对湿润; 剖面上部孢粉组合指示以常绿栎类为主的亚热带常绿‒落叶阔叶混交林, 生长山核桃粉属(Caryapollenites)、冬青粉属(Ilexpollenites)、胡桃粉属(Juglanspollenites)、枫香粉属(Liquidambarpollenites)等亚热带常见树种, 气候温暖湿润, 季节分明。结合新发现的哺乳动物化石证据和周边地区不同地质时代的孢粉组合, 普阳盆地含煤地层的沉积时代应为晚始新世; 同时, 孢粉组合也表明滇东南地区植被现代化面貌至少在晚始新世就已经开始出现。