Lower temperature tolerance in the temperate,ambush foraging lizard Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus

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An organism's thermal tolerance to the environment may indicate a thermal limit to its geographical distribution.     

A note on testing separability in spatial-temporal marked point processes

Summary .   In environmental risk analysis, it is common to assume the stochastic independence (or separability) between the marks associated with the random events of a spatial-temporal point process. Schoenberg (2004, Biometrics 60, 471–481) proposed several test statistics for this hypothesis and used simulated data to evaluate their performance. He found that a Cramér-von Mises-type test is powerful to detect gradual departures from separability although it is not uniformly powerful over a large class of alternative models. We present a semiparametric approach to model alternative hypotheses to separability and derive a score test statistic. We show that there is a relationship between this score test and some of the test statistics proposed by Schoenberg. Specifically, all are different versions of weighted Cramér-von Mises-type statistics. This gives some insight into the reasons for the similarities and differences between the test statistics' performance. We also point out some difficulties in controlling the type I error probability in Schoenberg's residual test.     

Relationship of species composition of tropical seagrass meadows to multiple physical environmental factors

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between species composition of tropical seagrasses and various physical environmental factors: depth, sediment thickness and silt–clay content in the sediments. We investigated species composition and abundance of seagrasses as well as the physical environmental factors for six transects around Ishigaki Island, southwest Japan. Eight species occurred in the quadrat census. The occurrence frequencies ranged from 66.8% (Thalassia hemprichii) to 4.5% (Enhalus acoroides). Both canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and cluster analysis elucidated that depth was mainly responsible for the distributions of species and assemblage type. Monte Carlo permutation for partial CCA revealed that 37.5% of the variance was explained by depth, 10.3% by sediment thickness and 4.6% by silt–clay content in the sediment. Twenty-six sites were categorized into four assemblage types by a cluster analysis using the leaf area index (LAI; the ratio of total leaf area to bottom area) as a measure of species abundance. Type I was dominated by T. hemprichii and Cymodocea rotundata, Type II by C. serrulata, Type III by E. acoroides, and Type IV by Halodule pinifolia and Halophila ovalis. Type I occurred mostly in the intertidal zone (91.3±30.5 cm below MSL, mean sea level), Type II in the subtidal zone (179.1±75.0 cm below MSL) and Type IV in both shallow sites (between 47.8 and 75.6 cm below MSL) and in those with low silt–clay contents (between 2.0 and 3.8%).     

Pelagic cephalopods from eastern Australia: species composition, horizontal and vertical distribution determined from the diets of pelagic fishes

The distribution and relative biomass of cephalopods from pelagic waters off eastern Australia was examined between 1997 and 2004 from stomach contents of swordfish, yellowfin tuna and dolphinfish taken in the domestic longline fishery. A total of 38 taxa from 19 families were identified. Comparison of the species composition of the three predators indicated pronounced differences in cephalopod species composition. In swordfish, species of the family Ommastrephidae, particularly Ommastrephes bartramii (Lesueur 1821) and Nototodarus gouldi (McCoy 1888) dominated, whereas a more diverse mix of species was identified from yellowfin-sampled cephalopods. Todaropsis eblanae (Ball 1841) was the main cephalopod sampled from the surface-dwelling dolphinfish. For swordfish-sampled cephalopods, significant relationships were found between biomass and season, fluorescence and year. In yellowfin tuna, cephalopod biomass was significantly correlated with season, area and sea surface temperature. Significant factors differed between predator-sampler, possibly reflecting the limits of the predator, but could also give insights into individual cephalopod species distributions. However, the increase in cephalopod biomass over summer in both swordfish and yellowfin tuna suggested cephalopod biomass was higher over summer in the region.     

宁夏回族自治区六盘山国家级自然保护区发现毛冠鹿

2016年1月、8月和9月,在宁夏回族自治区固原市六盘山国家级自然保护区的两个林场(35°27′~35°38′N,106°12′~106°18′E,海拔2 202~2 221 m),利用红外相机拍摄到8张毛冠鹿(Elaphodus cephalophus)的有效照片。资料记载,该物种主要分布在中国的亚热带地区和缅甸的东北部,此次在宁夏回族自治区首次发现,为该区哺乳动物分布的新纪录。     

Homalothecium meridionale (M.Fleisch. & Warnst.) Hedenäs: a distinct species from H. sericeum (Hedw.) Schimp. (Brachytheciaceae,Bryopsida) in the Iberian Peninsula

Previous molecular studies have done much to shed some light on the taxonomy and phytogeographic position of Homalothecium sericeum and H. meridionale and the present study clarifies the taxonomy and distribution of the two species across Iberia. By conducting a revision of Homalothecium specimens available in Spanish and Portuguese herbaria, we concluded that sporophytic differences are the most appropriate characters for the delimitation of each species. Scanning electron microscope examination of the peristomes of the two taxa helped distinguish between them.

We also noted that H. meridionale is a frequently distributed taxon throughout the Iberian territory, but occurs mostly in Portuguese areas with a Mediterranean influence, becoming less frequent in the Atlantic as well as in continental parts of the Peninsula. As a result of this study, based on numerous new localities in Portugal and Spain, we provide an updated map of the distribution of H. meridionale, and an account of its ecology and habitat affinities.     

四合木(Tetraena mongolica)分布区景观结构时空变化分析

利用3S技术,1972年航空黑白像片,1988年TM CCT磁带数据以及1995年1：10万TM影像等信息源,以斑块为最小景观结构单元,对西鄂尔多斯特有种四合木（Tetraena mongolica)的分布及其分布区的景观结构进行了研究,结果表明：（1）四合木的分布区面积约为2 754km2;(2)分布区面积及斑块平均面积都在减少,1988年实际占有1456km2,1995年为15．38km2,减少了18．1％;（3）四合木分布面积的减少在不同时空尺度上并不相同,1988－1995年间的年变化率比1972－1988年间的年变化率高5倍,空间尺度上城市工业区的年变化率比放牧分布区高。     

Distribution patterns of bacterioplankton and chlorophyll-a in the German Wadden Sea

 In a first synoptic evaluation, the temporal and spatial distribution of bacterioplankton and chlorophyll-a were determined in the German Wadden Sea. Three surveys were undertaken in winter, spring, and summer of 1994 using up to eight ships simultaneously between the river Ems and Sylt island. Despite intensive hydrodynamic mixing of the Wadden Sea water, spatial gradients were obvious. The abundance of bacterioplankton ranged from 0.4 to 26×10⁵ ml^–1 and chlorophyll-a varied between <0.1 and 79 μg l^–1. In winter, relatively homogeneous distribution patterns of both parameters with small gradients were found. Highest chlorophyll-a values connected with a highly patchy structure were observed in spring, while in summer both total chlorophyll-a values and the complexity of the distribution pattern had decreased. In contrast, bacterial numbers increased steadily from January to July with the highest bacterial densities and greatest patchiness observed in summer. Moreover, in some regions of the Wadden Sea, a trophic succession of algae as carbon producers and bacteria as consumers was evident. Correlation analysis verified the relationship between bacteria and chlorophyll a, indicating bottom-up control of bacterial abundance in the northern part of the German Wadden Sea. Since the observed regression slope is remarkably low (0.12–0.46) compared to literature values (0.5–0.8), we suggest that the link between phytoplankton and bacteria found here is a special characteristic of the Wadden Sea as a transition zone between the coastal region and the outer North Sea. Received: 26 May 1998 / Accepted:12 November 1998