深圳市西海岸和海域生物资源多样性的管护

本文着重介绍生物多样性管护区的基本含义和要求,结合深圳市西海岸和海域的特点,提出建立珠江口南海海岸和海洋生物多样性管护区,以发挥该区域的资源优势和持续利用,为建设深圳特区做出应有的贡献。     

The effect of transfer from low to high light intensity on electron transport in Rhodospirillum rubrum membranes

The effects of transfer from low to high ligh intensity on membrane bound electrontransport reactions of Rhodospirillum rubrum were investigated. The experiments were performed with cultures which did not form bacteriochlorophyll (Bchl) for about two cell mass doublings during the initial phase of adaptation to high light intensity. Lack of Bchl synthesis causes a decrease of Bchl contents of cells and membranes. Also, the cellular amounts of photosynthetically active intracytoplasmic membranes decrease.In crude membrane fractions containing both cytoplasmic and intracytoplasmic membranes the initial activities of NADH oxidizing reactions increase only slightly (about 1.2 times) per protein, but the initial activities of succinate oxidizing reactions decrease (multiplied by a factor of 0.7). On a Bchl basis activities of NADH oxidizing reactions increase 3.4 times while activities of succinate dependent reactions increase 1.9 times. With isolated intracytoplasmic membranes activities of NADH as well as succinate dependent reactions increase to a comparable extent on a Bchl basis (about 1.8 times) and stay nearly constant on a protein basis. Cytochrome c oxidase responds like succinate dependent reactions. The data indicate that in cells growing under the conditions applied NADH oxidizing electron transport systems are incorporated into both, cytoplasmic and intracytoplasmic membranes, while incorporation of succinate oxidizing systems is confined to intracytoplasmic membranes only.Activities of photophosphorylation and succinate dependent NAD⁺ reduction in the light increase per Bchl about 1.8 times. On a Bchl basis increases of the fast light induced on reactions at 422 nm and increases of soluble cytochrome c ₂ levels are comparable to increases of photophosphorylations and succinate dependent activities. But increases of slow light off reactions at 428 nm and of b-type cytochrome levels become three times greater then increases of cytochrome c ₂ reactions and levels. These results infer that although electrontransport reactions of intracytoplasmic membranes change correlated to each other, Bchl, cytochrome c ₂ and b-type cytochromes cellular levels are independent of each other. Furthermore, the data indicate that cytochrome c ₂ rather than b-type cytochrome is involved with steps rate limiting for photophosphorylation.Abbreviations Bchl bacteriochlorophyll - DCIP 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol     

Shapes and functions of species–area curves (II): a review of new models and parameterizations

This paper has extended and updated my earlier list and analysis of candidate models used in theoretical modelling and empirical examination of species–area relationships (SARs). I have also reviewed trivariate models that can be applied to include a second independent variable (in addition to area) and discussed extensively the justifications for fitting curves to SARs and the choice of model. There is also a summary of the characteristics of several new candidate models, especially extended power models, logarithmic models and parameterizations of the negative-exponential family and the logistic family. I have, moreover, examined the characteristics and shapes of trivariate linear, logarithmic and power models, including combination variables and interaction terms. The choice of models according to best fit may conflict with problems of non-normality or heteroscedasticity. The need to compare parameter estimates between data sets should also affect model choice. With few data points and large scatter, models with few parameters are often preferable. With narrow-scale windows, even inflexible models such as the power model and the logarithmic model may produce good fits, whereas with wider-scale windows where inflexible models do not fit well, more flexible models such as the second persistence (P2) model and the cumulative Weibull distribution may be preferable. When extrapolations and expected shapes are important, one should consider models with expected shapes, e.g. the power model for sample area curves and the P2 model for isolate curves. The choice of trivariate models poses special challenges, which one can more effectively evaluate by inspecting graphical plots.     

Ant community composition and functional traits in new grassland strips within agricultural landscapes

1. Ongoing intensification and fragmentation of European agricultural landscapes dramatically reduce biodiversity and associated functions. Enhancing perennial noncrop areas holds great potential to support ecosystem services such as ant‐mediated pest control.
2. To study the potential of newly established grassland strips to enhance ant diversity and associated functions, we used hand collection data and predation experiments to investigate differences in (a) ant community composition and (b) biocontrol‐related functional traits, and (c) natural pest control across habitats in cereal fields, old grasslands, and new grassland transects of three years of age.
3. Ant species diversity was similar between new and old grasslands, but significantly higher in new grasslands than in surrounding cereal fields. Contrary, ant community composition of new grasslands was more similar to cereal fields and distinct from the species pool of old grasslands. The functional trait space covered by the ant communities showed the same distribution between old and new grasslands. Pest control did not differ significantly between habitat types and therefore could not be linked to the prevalence of functional ant traits related to biocontrol services in new grasslands.
4. Our findings not only show trends of convergence between old and new grasslands, but also indicate that enhancing ant diversity through new grasslands takes longer than three years to provide comparable biodiversity and functionality.
5. Synthesis and applications: Newly established grasslands can increase ant species richness and abundance and provide a consistent amount of biocontrol services in agroecosystems. However, three years after their establishment, new grasslands were still dominated by common agrobiont ant species and lacked habitat specialists present in old grasslands, which require a constant supply of food resources and long colony establishment times. New grasslands represent a promising measure for enhancing agricultural landscapes but must be preserved in the longer term to promote biodiversity and resilience of associated ecosystem services.

     

Área de Conservación Guanacaste,northwestern Costa Rica: Converting a tropical national park to conservation via biodevelopment

The ~30,000 hectare classical Costa Rican Parque Nacional Santa Rosa has used about 35 years and $107 million to be converted to the 169,000 ha government-NGO hybrid Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG). This semi-decentralized conservation entity has today a staff of ~150 paraprofessional resident Costa Ricans, biodeveloping at least 650,000 multicellular species (Eucaryotes) into perpetuity for ACG survival through being integrated with its local, regional, national, and international society. ACG began in 1985 as an ongoing exercise of landscape-level ecosystem rescue and restoration of a continuous swath from 6 km out in the Pacific ocean, across dry forested lowlands, up and over the volcanic Cordillera Guanacaste, and down into the rain-forested Caribbean lowlands. It is being impacted by climate change, yet its diverse ecosystems hold hope for major biodiversity survival, albeit in new community assemblages. It quickly became simultaneously a biophysical challenge and an administratively novel challenge in decentralized conservation in a democratic tropical country. ACG specializes at being managed by on-the-job stimulated and trained residents with minimal formal education, searching for ways to involve ACG in its society without damaging its wildness, and pioneering ways to render wild biodiversity to being a welcome member at society's negotiating table. It continues to pay its bills through government subsidy, generous donors, payments for services, project grants, and huge in-kind contributions from mutualisms. ACG hopes that the concept will spread south–south to other tropical countries while they still have some of their wild biodiversity with which to integrate.     

Physiological functions of Wilms’ tumor 1-associating protein and its role in tumourigenesis

The Wilms’ tumor-associated gene WT1 encodes a tumor suppressor gene, which is implicated in renal differentiation and development of adult urogenital system. Wilms’ tumor 1-associating protein (WTAP) is initially identified as a nuclear protein that specifically interacts with WT1 in both in vitro and in vivo assays. WTAP is ubiquitously expressed in different tissues and various growth periods, and its expression is involved in cell cycle, RNA splicing and stabilization, N6-methyladenosine RNA modification, cell proliferation, and apoptosis as well as embryonic development. In the present review, we aimed to summarize the functions of WTAP in various physiological and pathological processes, in particular with regard to the current knowledge about the role of WTAP in tumorigenesis of different cancers.     

Habitat ecological integrity and environmental impact assessment of anthropic activities: A GIS-based fuzzy logic model for sites of high biodiversity conservation interest

In literature, an effective method enabling the classification, based on a single indicator, of habitats that need a priority protection intervention has not been identified yet. Moreover, the excessive number of landscape metrics, used to quantify integrity of habitats, can cause confusion, often providing redundant and inconsistent results.The aim of this work is to develop a method for evaluating the ecological vulnerability of the habitats in sites of high biodiversity conservation interest. In the first phase, we selected and analyzed, by using principal component analysis (PCA) and fuzzy logic, the landscape metrics, in order to obtain the map of the intrinsic ecological vulnerability index. In the second step, the result of this intrinsic vulnerability was connected, through another fuzzy model, to anthropogenic impacts, obtaining the integrated ecological vulnerability index. We developed specific spatial indicators (landscape metrics), which can examine the mutual position and morphology of the habitats present, along with indicators of human pressure, related to the type and intensity of use of the anthropic territory, with reference to the habitat itself as well as to the areas immediately adjacent. The developed fuzzy models are innovative, compared to the current ecological studies, and examine landscape metrics as well as the impact of human activities.The case study is the “Val Basento-Ferrandina Scalo” Site of Community Importance, Ferrandina-SCI (Basilicata Region, Southern Italy). The results allowed us to build a rank of the habitats based on their intrinsic and integrated ecological vulnerability. Moreover, the results show that, in the Ferrandina-SCI, the most important source of concern is not human activities, but rather the inherent risk of ecological fragility caused by geographical and landscape features of the different patches of habitats themselves.This model aims to be a tool for decision support in sustainable landscape management. It is easy to use and to apply on other regions, although it should always be accompanied by a sensitivity analysis to reduce the subjectivity.