Assessing changes in habitat quality due to land use changes in the spur-thighed tortoise Testudo graeca using hierarchical predictive habitat models

In this study we propose a model-building approach based on the hierarchical integration of the main environmental factors (climate, topography/lithology, and land uses) determining the distribution of the spur-thighed tortoise in south-east Spain. Data on the presence/absence of the species were primarily based on information derived from interviews to shepherds. The hierarchical modelling exercise consisted of three steps. First, we constructed a model for the entire region using climate variables, thus obtaining a potential climatical model. Second, we introduced variables referring to topography and lithology that fall within the climatic distribution range ( potential model). Third, by using this second model as a starting point, we included land use variables to obtain the actual distribution model.
We analysed the changes in the values of probability of the presence of this species for a given cell between the potential and the actual model, assessing areas where habitat quality has decreased, been maintained or increased. The spatial representation of these changes was highly coherent. A discriminant analysis linked areas where habitat quality has dropped with agriculture landscapes, whereas those areas where habitat quality has been maintained or increased were located mainly in shrublands. Twenty-five per cent (479 km²) of the potential distribution of the species became suboptimal when land use was included, which emphasizes the importance of land use changes in both the range dynamics and the conservation of the spur-thighed tortoise in south-east Spain.     

Rank,relationships, and responses to intruders among adult male vervet monkeys

We examined the influences of dyadic relationships among captive adult male vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus) on behavior directed toward caged “intruder” males placed inside subjects' enclosures. Subjects were all 9 adult male residents from three stable social groups, each of which contained 3 adult males, at least 3 adult females, and their immature offspring. Every male was observed in two 3-hour sessions, each time with one of the 2 other adult males from his group. Observation sessions consisted of six consecutive 30-min stages in which group composition and the presence of the intruder were manipulated. All groups exhibited a stable, linear male dominance hierarchy prior to and throughout the study. In each group, there was one pair of males, when together, in which each member exhibited higher rates of intruder-directed approach and aggressive behaviors than when either animal was paired with the third male of his social group. Such pairs were also distinguished by high levels of within-pair agonistic interactions. The higher-ranking member of each dyad was the most aggressive male toward the intruder in his social group, although only one of these animals was the dominant male of his group. Mutual facilitation of aggression against intruding males is interpreted as cooperative behavior benefitting both males by increasing the likelihood of repelling a potential competitor for resident females. Such cooperation provides further evidence in nonhuman primates for cohesive male-male dyads between animals whose social interactions are characterized by agonism. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

基于生态敏感性评价的本溪青云山景区空间规划

林地型景区的生态环境保护和利用是景区旅游开发的基础.本文基于生态环境要素和保护需要构建了生态敏感性评价指标体系,通过层次分析法和熵权法得到组合权重,结合GIS技术对本溪青云山景区进行生态敏感性评价,并根据评价结果制定景区空间规划.结果表明:青云山景区内高敏感区占比9.2%,敏感区占比60.2%,低敏感区占比22.7%,不敏感区占比7.9%.依据青云山生态特征和生态保护红线将景区分为限制开发区、适度开发区和旅游开发区三大板块,结合自然、人文等资源的空间分布特征,制定了景区"二轴六区"的空间规划,针对各板块资源利用现状和存在的问题,制定了相应的旅游开发规划策略.本研究能够为林地型景区空间规划提供更为科学有效的规划路径.     

Evolution of Escherichia coli in different carbon environments for 2,000 generations

Cellular energetics is thought to have played a key role in dictating all major evolutionary transitions in the history of life on Earth. However, how exactly cellular energetics and metabolism come together to shape evolutionary paths is not well understood. In particular, when an organism is evolved in different energy environments, what are the phenomenological differences in the chosen evolutionary trajectories, is a question that is not well understood. In this context, starting from an Escherichia coli K‐12 strain, we evolve the bacterium in five different carbon environments—glucose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose and a mixture of these four sugars (in a predefined ratio) for approximately 2,000 generations. At the end of the adaptation period, we quantify and compare the growth dynamics of the strains in a variety of environments. The evolved strains show no specialized adaptation towards growth in the carbon medium in which they were evolved. Rather, in all environments, the evolved strains exhibited a reduced lag phase and an increased growth rate. Sequencing results reveal that these dynamical properties are not introduced via mutations in the precise loci associated with utilization of the sugar in which the bacterium evolved. These phenotypic changes are rather likely introduced via mutations elsewhere on the genome. Data from our experiments indicate that evolution in a defined environment does not alter hierarchy in mixed‐sugar utilization in bacteria.     

Re-mapping Robert Rosen's (M,R)-systems

The central concern of this paper is to re-evaluate Rosen's replicating (M,R)-systems, presented in his book 'Life Itself ', where M and R signify metabolism and repair, respectively. We look anew at Rosen's model of an organism in the light of extensive research into natural hierarchical systems, and the paper presents conclusions drawn from a comparison between Rosen's relational model and that of a birational complementary natural hierarchy. We accept that Rosen's relational model provides a useful stepping stone to understanding the nature of life, but also suggest that it induces potentially digressive conclusions. We conclude that a binary segregation of relational assemblies into mechanisms and organisms is insufficient, and indicate how a threefold segregation throws new light on Rosen's model. An organism is not 'the complement of a mechanism': the complement of a mechanism is its ecosystem. An organism is the 'complex interface' between mechanism and ecosystem.     

广西紫金牛属野生观赏植物的综合评价

利用层次分析法,综合观赏价值、资源开发潜力、生物学特性三大约束因素共14个指标,对分布于广西的29种紫金牛属野生观赏植物进行综合评价。结果表明:按照开发利用价值的高低,可将29个种(变种)根据轻重缓急划分为4个等级,其中:Ⅰ级:开发利用价值高的种类,5个;Ⅱ级:开发利用价值较高的种类,9个;Ⅲ级:开发利用价值一般的种类,9个;Ⅳ级:开发利用价值较低的种类,6个。研究结果将为科学、合理地开发利用广西紫金牛属野生观赏植物资源提供决策依据。     

The role of juvenile hormone in competition and cooperation by burying beetles

Few studies have addressed the physiological mechanisms that modulate aggression in insects. In some social insects, there is a correlation of JH and aggression in colony defense and in the establishment of dominance, but only a few studies demonstrate a causal relationship. Burying beetles aggressively defend a breeding resource, a carcass, and juvenile hormone (JH) hemolymph titers increase rapidly upon the discovery of a carcass. In this study, I show that treatment with the JH analog, methoprene, in the absence of a carcass increases the probability of injuries from aggressive interactions, but treatment to one member of a pair of competing Nicrophorus orbicollis females does not increase the probability that she will win control of the resource. In addition, higher JH levels are not associated with greater competitive ability in communally breeding Nicrophorus tomentosus females. Treatment of one female N. tomentosus does not increase her share of the communal brood. Methoprene seems to make a less competitive female more persistent and less willing to concede, which, although maintaining her share of reproduction, results in her exclusion from the brood chamber.     

The Optimal Human Ventral Stream from Estimates of the Complexity of Visual Objects

The part of the primate visual cortex responsible for the recognition of objects is parcelled into about a dozen areas organized somewhat hierarchically (the region is called the ventral stream). Why are there approximately this many hierarchical levels? Here I put forth a generic information-processing hierarchical model, and show how the total number of neurons required depends on the number of hierarchical levels and on the complexity of visual objects that must be recognized. Because the recognition of written words appears to occur in a similar part of inferotemporal cortex as other visual objects, the complexity of written words may be similar to that of other visual objects for humans; for this reason, I measure the complexity of written words, and use it as an approximate estimate of the complexity more generally of visual objects. I then show that the information-processing hierarchy that accommodates visual objects of that complexity possesses the minimum number of neurons when the number of hierarchical levels is approximately 15.