Negative effects of oil spillage on beach microalgae in Nigeria

In a concerted effort to apply epipsammic microalgae indices as a biological indicator of crude oil pollution and natural remediation in a tropical estuarine environment, the direct effect of a recent oil spill on the abundance of microalgae in the coastal shore of the Qua Iboe Estuary was investigated. A significant negative effect of contamination on the salinity, acidity and nutritive salts (CO₃²⁻, Cl⁻, and SO₄²⁻) levels of the sandy beach soil was observed. The Biological Index of Pollution (BIP) of the beach soil was raised from the previous slightly polluted level (18%) to 75, 88, 45 and 41% after contamination, at sampling distances of 5.5, 9.5, 11.5 and 15 m from the barrier used for pollution control. These corresponded with increases in the density of microalgae with distance from the barrier. This implies that the effect of oil pollution was more severe on microalgal cells that are close to the barrier. The overall effect was a distance-influenced reduction in the regeneration capabilities of the epipsammic microalgae. Some microalgal species, particularly the cyanobacterial species of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, Lyngbya majusculata,and a centric diatom Actinoptychus undulatus may have been exposed to contamination levels exceeding normal homeostasis and compensation. They lost their existence in the sandy beach, and their absence is recommended for use as an indicator of the short term effect of oil pollution in coastal sandy beaches in a tropical estuarine environment.     

融入植被连续性因子的生态单元制图法在城市生物多样性维护中的应用

基于一个以植被结构为构建框架的生态单元分类系统,构建了融入了植被覆盖连续性因子的改良城市生态单元制图模型,并将其应用于瑞典赫尔辛堡市的绿色空间研究.使用原生林地指示种或林地连续性指示种（AWIS）鉴定长、短连续性林地的分布,对比其含有维管束植物的物种丰富度,对植被覆盖的连续性因子进行评估检验.结果表明： 长连续性林地中含有较多的AWIS;在建群种均龄大于30年的林地中,长连续性林地相对于结构相似的短连续性林地通常含有较高的生物多样性.融入植被连续性因子的生态单元制图模型是调查城市生物多样性的重要工具,通过图谱中各生态单元所含有的生物多样性信息,可对今后城市生物多样性的维护提出相应策略.     

Ecological indicators of Tuber aestivum habitats in temperate European beech forests

Although Tuber aestivum is widely distributed across Europe, little is known about its biology and ecology. We assess the vegetation composition of wild T. aestivum sites and use this information to characterise suitable habitats in Fagus sylvatica, Carpinus betulus and Ostrya carpinifolia (FCO) forests. Plant species composition at 16 naturally colonised T. aestivum sites in southwestern Germany and Switzerland was compared with that of 232 reference sites in Swiss FCO forest communities. The vegetation composition of truffle sites exhibits a high proportion of herb and shrub species that are indicators of a warm and dry climate, alkaline soil, and open tree canopy and thus typically occur in thermophilous FCO communities on calcareous bedrock. We conclude that T. aestivum is associated with a set of key species in addition to known host species. Based on their floristic composition, we identified FCO forest communities with high and low suitability for T. aestivum.     

A tool for protected area management: multivariate control charts ‘cope’ with rare variable communities

Performance assessment, impact detection, and the assessment of regulatory compliance are common scientific problems for the management of protected areas. Some habitats in protected areas, however, are rare and/or variable and are not often selected for study by ecologists because they preclude comparison with controls and high community variability makes meaningful change detection difficult. Shallow coastal saline lagoons are habitats that experience comparatively high levels of stress due to high physical variability. Lagoons are rare, declining habitats found in coastal regions throughout Europe (and elsewhere) where they are identified as one of the habitats most in need of protected area management. The infauna in the sediments of 25 lagoons were sampled. Temporal and spatial variation in three of these [protected] lagoons was investigated further over 5 years. In a multivariate analysis of community structure similarities were found between some lagoons, but in other cases communities were unique or specific to only two sites. The protected lagoons with these unique/specific communities showed significant temporal and spatial variation, yet none of the changes observed were attributed to human impacts and were interpreted as inherent variability. Multivariate control charts can operate without experimental controls and were used to assess community changes within the context of ‘normal’ lagoon variability. The aim of control chart analysis is to characterize background variability in a parameter and identify when a new observation deviates more than expected. In only 1 year was variability more than expected and corresponded with the coldest December in over 100 years. Multivariate control charts are likely to have wide application in the management of protected areas and other natural systems where variability and/or rarity preclude conventional analytical and experimental approaches but where assessments of condition, impact or regulatory compliance are nonetheless required.     

Urban bird trends in a rapidly growing tropical city

Long-term studies of urban birds are relatively scarce, especially in Africa. We analysed trends in species richness and bird species occurrence over a 32-year period in Kampala, Uganda, in order to assess changes in the bird community in a period that has shown rapid expansion of the city's human population. Given that species may respond to urbanisation according to their diet, we also analysed bird community trends of species groups defined according to predominant diet. There was an overall decline in species richness that was largely driven by declines in insectivores and granivores. General declines were evident also when the trends in the most common individual species in these two groups were considered. The occurrence of the commonest predator and scavenger species tended to increase over the period considered. Insectivorous species are likely to be especially affected by increasing urbanisation due to air pollution. Predators and scavengers are likely to have benefitted from the inability of municipal waste management to keep pace with growth in the human population, hence providing more potential food resources. Both insectivores and predators/scavengers are therefore good candidates for the development of urban indicators.     

云南苍山火烧迹地不同恢复期地表蜘蛛群落多样性

为了解云南苍山针阔混交林火烧迹地恢复过程地表蜘蛛群落多样性变化,于2009年1月份-2009年12月份,运用陷阱法,以“空间序列代替时间序列”,调查了苍山森林火干扰后不同恢复期样地(火干扰后2、10、18、23、33a和对照样地)地表蜘蛛多样性.研究结果表明,(1)物种组成及相对多度:不同恢复期随着恢复时间的增加优势类群更替趋势明显;(2)多样性:恢复1Oa样地地表蜘蛛群落多度显著大于其他恢复期(P＜0.05),而不同恢复期地表蜘蛛物种多样性却没有显著差异;(3)群落相似性:PCoA相似性分析将地表蜘蛛群落发展过程划分为火烧后2a、火烧后10a和火烧后18-33a 3个阶段;(4)指示物种:西菱头蛛Sibianor sp.1等是阶段1的指示物种,格氏狼蛛Lycosa grahami等是阶段2的指示物种,花蟹蛛Xysticus sp.2等是阶段3的指示物种,弱蛛Leptoneta sp.1等是对照的指示物种.火干扰改变了苍山针阔混交林原有的地表蜘蛛群落多样性;指示物种对生境的选择能够反映出不同恢复阶段地表环境变化;5个不同恢复时期火烧迹地中恢复最久的火烧迹地地表蜘蛛群落仍没有完成恢复,说明云南苍山火迹地地表蜘蛛的恢复需要30a以上.     

Hierarchically Structured 3D Integrated Electrodes by Galvanic Replacement Reaction for Highly Efficient Water Splitting

A NiFe‐based integrated electrode is fabricated by the spontaneous galvanic replacement reaction on an iron foam. Driven by the different electrochemical potentials between Ni and Fe, the dissolution of surface Fe occurs with electroless plating of Ni on iron foam with no need to access instrumentation and input energy. A facile cyclic voltammetry treatment is subsequently applied to convert the metallic NiFe to NiFeO_x . A series of analytical methods indicates formation of a NiFeO_x film of nanosheets on the iron foam surface. This hierarchically structured three dimensional electrode displays high activity and durability against water oxidation. In 1 m KOH, a current density of 1000 mA cm^?2 is achieved at an overpotential of only 300 mV. This method is readily extended to fabricate CoFe or NiCoFe‐based integrated electrodes for water oxidation. Phosphorization of the bimetallic oxide (NiFeO_x ) generates the bimetallic phosphide (NiFe‐P), which can act as an excellent electrocatalyst for hydrogen production in 1 m KOH. An alkaline electrolyzer is constructed using NiFeO_x and NiFe‐P coated iron foams as anode and cathode, which can realize overall water splitting with a current density of 100 mA cm^?2 at an overpotential of 630 mV.     

Developing and testing alien species indicators for Europe

Alien species indicators provide vital information to the biodiversity policy sector on the status-quo and trends of biological invasions and on the efficacy of response measures. Applicable at different geographical scales and organizational levels, alien species indicators struggle with data availability and quality. Based on policy needs and previous work on the global scale, we here present a set of six alien species indicators for Europe, which capture complementary facets of biological invasions in Europe: (a) an combined index of invasion trends, (b) an indicator on pathways of invasions, (c) the Red List Index of Invasive Alien Species (IAS), (d) an indicator of IAS impacts on ecosystem services, (e) trends in incidence of livestock diseases and (f) an indicator on costs for alien species management and research. Each of these indicators has its particular strengths and shortcomings, but combined they allow for a nuanced understanding of the status and trends of biological invasions in Europe. We found that the scale and impact of biological invasions are steadily increasing across all impact indicators, although societal response in recent years has increased. The Red List Index is fit-for-purpose and demonstrates that overall extinction risks (here shown for amphibians in Europe) are increasing. Introduction pathway dynamics have changed, with some pathways decreasing in relevance (e.g., biological control agents) and others increasing (e.g., horticultural trade) providing a leverage for targeted policy and stakeholder response. The IAS indicators presented here for the first time on a continental basis serve as a starting point for future improvements, and as a basis for monitoring the efficacy of the recent EU legislation of IAS. This will need a better workflow for data collection and management. To achieve this, all main actors must work toward improving the interoperability among existing databases and between data holders.     

Multiple imputation for multivariate data with missing and below-threshold measurements: time-series concentrations of pollutants in the Arctic

Many chemical and environmental data sets are complicated by the existence of fully missing values or censored values known to lie below detection thresholds. For example, week-long samples of airborne particulate matter were obtained at Alert, NWT, Canada, between 1980 and 1991, where some of the concentrations of 24 particulate constituents were coarsened in the sense of being either fully missing or below detection limits. To facilitate scientific analysis, it is appealing to create complete data by filling in missing values so that standard complete-data methods can be applied. We briefly review commonly used strategies for handling missing values and focus on the multiple-imputation approach, which generally leads to valid inferences when faced with missing data. Three statistical models are developed for multiply imputing the missing values of airborne particulate matter. We expect that these models are useful for creating multiple imputations in a variety of incomplete multivariate time series data sets.     

棉田多虫复合危害互作效应及“两红”复合防治指标应用研究

针对长江中游棉区棉花多虫复合危害问题,设计了６种害虫４种组合的复合危害系统．运用通径分析方法,定量描述了多种害虫对棉花的侵害及其间的互作效应．通过多种害虫对棉花产量和品级的直接影响效应和间接影响效应分析,认为当多虫复合危害时,害虫间的相互作用就其对作物的侵害而言,表现为增强效应和减弱效应．在此基础上,研究并制定了“两红”（棉红铃虫和朱砂叶螨）复合危害动态防治指标,经验证、示范及推广应用,取得了显著的经济、生态和社会效益．