Effects of habitat isolation on pollinator communities and seed set

Destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats is the major reason for the decreasing biodiversity in the agricultural landscape. Loss of populations may negatively affect biotic interactions and ecosystem stability. Here we tested the hypothesis that habitat fragmentation affects bee populations and thereby disrupts plant-pollinator interactions. We experimentally established small ”habitat islands” of two self-incompatible, annual crucifers on eight calcareous grasslands and in the intensively managed agricultural landscape at increasing distances (up to 1000 m) from these species-rich grasslands to measure effects of isolation on both pollinator guilds and seed set, independently from patch size and density, resource availability and genetic erosion of plant populations. Each habitat island consisted of four pots each with one plant of mustard (Sinapis arvensis) and radish (Raphanus sativus). Increasing isolation of the small habitat islands resulted in both decreased abundance and species richness of flower-visiting bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Mean body size of flower-visiting wild bees was larger on isolated than on nonisolated habitat islands emphasizing the positive correlation of body size and foraging distance. Abundance of flower-visiting honeybees depended on the distance from the nearest apiary. Abundance of other flower visitors such as hover flies did not change with increasing isolation. Number of seeds per fruit and per plant decreased significantly with increasing distance from the nearest grassland for both mustard and radish. Mean seed set per plant was halved at a distance of approximately 1000 m for mustard and at 250 m for radish. In accordance with expectations, seed set per plant was positively correlated with the number of flower-visiting bees. We found no evidence for resource limitation in the case of mustard and only marginal effects for radish. We conclude that habitat connectivity is essential to maintain not only abundant and diverse bee communities, but also plant-pollinator interactions in economically important crops and endangered wild plants. Received: 7 May 1999 / Accepted: 19 July 1999     

Sexual differences in biomass and nutrient allocation of first-year Silene dioica plants

Reproductive and somatic biomass, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) pools were compared between females and males in 1st-year plants of Silene dioica. We estimated irretrievable resources allocated to seeds, pollen, flowers, and unrecovered summer leaf investment by collecting plant parts at abscission throughout the season. At the end of the season, we determined resources lost through senescent stems and autumn leaf turnover and resources stored in perennial roots and overwintering buds. Sexual differences in allocation patterns depended on the resource used for comparison, and whether absolute or proportional resource pools were assessed. Total resource pools in terms of biomass and N were similar for females and males. However, male plants acquired relatively more P. The proportional reproductive investment, i.e., reproductive effort, was similar for males and females in terms of biomass and N. In terms of P, male reproductive effort was higher. There was no difference between sexes in the proportional and relative biomass allocated to perennial roots and overwintering buds. However, in terms of absolute and relative N allocation to below-ground parts, females had larger reserves than males. Females, moreover, had a larger proportion of their P in below-ground parts. However, as male total P pools were larger, absolute P reserves did not differ between sexes. The high reproductive effort and N depletion of below-ground parts in males resulted largely from higher flower production compared to females. In females, seeds were the major component of reproductive effort. These results show that if biomass and nutrient allocation are assessed in parallel for dioecious plants, we obtain a more complete view of their sexual differences. Received: 07 May 1998 / Accepted: 30 October 1998     

香菇空间诱变突变体的分子生物学鉴定研究*

香菇Cr04菌株经空间诱变后从中筛选出了农艺性状明显改善的突变菌株Cr04DZ。本研究用RAPD和AFLP技术对Cr04DZ与其地面对照菌株Cr04进行了DNA指纹分析,找出了它们之间的DNA多态性,从而从分子水平上证实了香菇经空间诱变后遗传物质发生了变化。此外,还比较了AFLP与RAPD检测香菇DNA多态性的效率,优化了对食用菌进行RAPD与AFLP分析的反应条件。通过对Cr04DZ及其对照株Cr04的RAPD及AFLP分析,筛选出了突变体的3个RAPD及29个AFLP多态性产物,已完成了3个AFLP产物的克隆。     

Reconsidering the Role of Absentee Herd Owners: A View from Mongolia

Since the privatization of livestock in 1992, rates of absentee ownership of livestock have increased sharply in Mongolia. Unlike other documented instances of absentee herding in pastoral societies, absentee herd ownership has few detrimental ecological or social impacts in Mongolia. Rather, the relationship between absentee herd owners and herders may be viewed as a revitalized institution, with links to customary patterns of urban-rural exchange, emerging to meet the needs of both herders and town-dwellers during the transition from a socialist planned economy to a free market economy. Absentee herding in Mongolia differs from absentee and contract herding accounts from Africa and the Middle East in its continuing emphasis on subsistence rather than speculative investment and accumulation. Other important distinctions include: (1) absentee owners and herders are usually kin or friends; (2) herders tend their own private herds in addition to absenteeowned animals;(3)few ethnic, caste, or class differences existbetween herders and absentee herd owners; and (4) herders from all wealth strata tend absentee-owned animals. Policies to restrict or regulate absentee livestock ownership must be carefully considered in the Mongolian context, making clear distinctions between informal, mutually beneficial subsistence-driven arrangements among kin and friends, and more formal investment-driven contracts between businesses or investors and herders.     

Analysis of Peg Formation in Cucumber Seedlings Grown on Clinostats and in a Microgravity (Space) Environment

Cucumis sativus L. cv Burpee Hybrid II) grown under conditions of normal gravity, microgravity, and simulated microgravity (clinostat rotation). Seeds were germinated on the ground, in clinostats and on board the space shuttle (STS-95) for 1–2 days, frozen and subsequently examined for their stage of development, degree of hook formation, number of pegs formed, and peg morphology. The frequency of peg formation in space-grown seedlings was found to be nearly identical to that of clinostat-grown seedlings and to differ from that of seedlings germinated under normal gravity only in a minority of cases; ˜6% of the seedlings formed two pegs and nearly 2% of the seedlings lacked pegs, whereas such abnormalities did not occur in ground controls. The degree of hook formation was found to be less pronounced for space-grown seedlings, compared to clinostat-grown seedlings, indicating a greater degree of decoupling between peg formation and hook formation in space. Nonetheless, in all seedlings having single pegs and a hook, the peg was found to be positioned correctly on the inside of the hook, showing that there is coordinate development even in microgravity environments. Peg morphologies were altered in space-grown samples, with the pegs having a blunt appearance and many pegs showing alterations in expansion, with the peg extending out over the edges of the seed coat and downwards. These phenotypes were not observed in clinostat or ground-grown seedlings. Received 12 October 1999/ Accepted in revised form 18 October 1999     

香鼬、艾虎和大(狂鸟)的食物资源分割--来自稳定性同位素的证据

通过对高寒草甸生态系统内香鼬、艾虎和大(狂鸟)3种食肉类稳定性碳和氮同位素比值(δ13C和δ15N)的测定,依据同位素的质量平衡原理和IsoSource软件计算得到:小型哺乳类在香鼬、艾虎和大(狂鸟)食谱中的分配比例分别为26.8%、27.0%和29.2%;雀形目成鸟的分配比例为22.3%、47.7%和69.1%;雀形目幼鸟为50.9%、25.6%和1.70%.3种食肉类的稳定性碳和氮同位素分布模式在二维空间上存在明显分割,由此说明,香鼬、艾虎和大(狂鸟)之间存在明显的食物资源分割现象,同时也反映了三者在高寒草甸生态系统内共存的基础.     

香鼬、艾虎和大鵟的食物资源分割——来自稳定性同位素的证据

通过对高寒草甸生态系统内香鼬、艾虎和大鵟3种食肉类稳定性碳和氮同位素比值(δ^13C和δ^15N)的测定,依据同位素的质量平衡原理和IsoSource软件计算得到：小型哺乳类在香鼬、艾虎和大鵟食谱中的分配比例分别为26．8％、27．0％和29．2％;雀形目成鸟的分配比例为22．3％、47．7％和69．1％;雀形目幼鸟为50．9％、25．6％和1．70％。3种食肉类的稳定性碳和氮同位素分布模式在二维空间上存在明显分割,由此说明．香鼬、艾虎和大鵟之间存在明显的食物资源分割现象,同时也反映了三者在高寒草甸生态系统内共存的基础。     

An autonomic provisioning framework for outsourcing data center based on virtual appliances

As outsourcing data centers emerge to host applications and services from many different organizations, it is critical for data center owners to isolate different applications while dynamically and optimally allocate sharable resources among them. To address this issue, we propose a virtual-appliance-based autonomic resource provisioning framework for large virtualized data centers. We present the architecture of the data center with enriched autonomic features. We define a non-linear constrained optimization model for dynamic resource provisioning and present a novel analytic solution. Key factors, including virtualization overhead and reconfiguration delay, are incorporated into the model. Experimental results based on a prototype demonstrate that the system-level performance has been greatly improved by taking advantage of fine-grained server consolidation, and the whole system exhibits flexible adaptation in failure scenarios. Experiments with the impact of switching delay also show the efficiency of the framework due to significantly reduced provisioning time.

Autonomic resource management in virtualized data centers using fuzzy logic-based approaches

Data centers, as resource providers, are expected to deliver on performance guarantees while optimizing resource utilization to reduce cost. Virtualization techniques provide the opportunity of consolidating multiple separately managed containers of virtual resources on underutilized physical servers. A key challenge that comes with virtualization is the simultaneous on-demand provisioning of shared physical resources to virtual containers and the management of their capacities to meet service-quality targets at the least cost. This paper proposes a two-level resource management system to dynamically allocate resources to individual virtual containers. It uses local controllers at the virtual-container level and a global controller at the resource-pool level. An important advantage of this two-level control architecture is that it allows independent controller designs for separately optimizing the performance of applications and the use of resources. Autonomic resource allocation is realized through the interaction of the local and global controllers. A novelty of the local controller designs is their use of fuzzy logic-based approaches to efficiently and robustly deal with the complexity and uncertainties of dynamically changing workloads and resource usage. The global controller determines the resource allocation based on a proposed profit model, with the goal of maximizing the total profit of the data center. Experimental results obtained through a prototype implementation demonstrate that, for the scenarios under consideration, the proposed resource management system can significantly reduce resource consumption while still achieving application performance targets.