乙肝疫苗新型佐剂 CpG-BW006对小鼠脾 NK 细胞表面分子 CD69的表达及γ干扰素分泌的影响

目的:研究重组乙型肝炎表面抗(HBsAg)佐剂 BW006对小鼠脾自然杀伤(NK)细胞表面分子 CD69的表达和γ干扰素(IFN-γ)分泌水平的影响.方法:BW006、HBsAg 单用或联用体外刺激小鼠脾 NK 细胞,流式细胞仪检测NK 细胞膜表面分子 CD69的表达水平,ELISA 检测 IFN-γ的分泌水平.结果:5μg BW006体外刺激小鼠脾 NK 细胞24 h 后,NK 细胞表面分子 CD69的表达达峰值(阳性率45.18%),显著高40μg HBsAg 组(21.44%)(P<0.05),与5μg BW006和40μg HBsAg 联用组(58.49%)相比无显著差异;24 h 时,5μg BW006组的 IFN-γ分泌水平达56.95 ng/mL,显著高40μg HBsAg 组(8.74 ng/mL)(P<0.05),与联用组(57.70 ng/mL)相比无显著差异.结论:BW006具有上调 NK 细胞表面分子 CD69表达和诱导 IFN-γ分泌的早期活化 NK 细胞的功能,作为疫苗的新型佐剂前景较好.     

Reproductive burden, locomotor performance, and the cost of reproduction in free ranging lizards

Abstract. A reduction in the locomotor capacity of gravid females is considered to be a cost of reproduction if it leads to an increased risk of mortality. In this study, we measured the change in endurance between gravid and postgravid female side-blotched lizards ( Uta stansburiana ) as a test of the cost of reproduction. We also altered reproductive investment in some females by direct ovarian manipulation (yolkectomy), which decreased reproductive burden by 30%. Regardless of experimental treatment, all females had lower endurance when gravid. Endurance was 28% lower in gravid females from the yolkectomy treatment and 31% lower in the unmanipulated females relative to postoviposition females. The experimental reduction in clutch mass resulted in a 21% increase in endurance of gravid yolkectomy females relative to control females. Postovipositional endurance was significantly higher in the yolkectomized females than unmanipulated females, which suggests that the cost of reproduction carries over to postoviposition performance. Unmanipulated females exhibited a significant negative association between endurance and size-specific burden. Endurance was not correlated with clutch size or size-specific burden in the yolkectomy females. Survivorship to the second clutch was higher in the yolkectomy females. The results from a logistic regression showed the probability of survival to the second clutch was significantly and positively associated with endurance after controlling for the effects of treatment. Our analyses demonstrated that the decrement in performance associated with current reproductive investment represents a cost of reproduction expressed as diminished locomotor performance and lowered survivorship to the next clutch.     

Geographical range size of tropical plants influences their response to anthropogenic activities

Biodiversity patterns may be influenced by the species geographical range sizes, but this is rarely shown. We used a highly replicated and large-scale study in coastal Ecuador to determine for the first time the importance of latitudinal range size of plant species in their response to land-use activities. We examined herbaceous plant communities of five land-use types with decreasing anthropogenic disturbance (from the most intervened rice and pasture to the less intervened managed agroforest, abandoned agroforest, and forest) in a low and a high impact human-dominated landscape. All species were classified in four latitudinal range size quartiles, from the 25% species with the narrowest to the 25% with the widest range size. We found notable differences between patterns of total species richness and those of individual range size quartiles. Whereas total species richness was higher in more intervened land-use types, percentages of narrow-ranged species were significantly higher in less intervened land-use types. In contrast, percentages of wide-ranging species were higher in more intervened land-use types. Hence, responses of plant species to human activities were influenced by traits that determine their range sizes. An analysis of floristic similarity between land-use types revealed that narrow-ranged species were mainly preserved in forest fragments, but the other land-use types supported many unique narrow-ranged species and therefore made an important contribution to their preservation at the landscape level. Conservation efforts should combine protection of natural habitats with strategies to maintain a diversity of low-intensity land-use types, looking for win-win solutions or trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and human welfare in human-dominated landscapes.     

中国自然保护综合地理区划

综合自然地理区划可以为生物多样性保护和自然保护区体系建设等提供基础资料,为区域生物多样性政策的制定提供科学依据。随着我国自然保护区事业的不断发展,自然保护综合地理区划成为自然地理区划的重要研究内容之一。虽然我国自然保护区体系已经初步建立,但仍然没有一个同时依据生物因素和非生物因素分布规律,确定的自然保护综合地理区划方案,为生物多样性保护和自然保护区建设服务。利用GIS技术和PC-ORD4.0软件中的双向指示种分析(TWINSPAN)方法,将中国版图划分出3489个基本地理单元,并对这些地理单元进行了数量化分类。然后,根据这个分类结果,参考植被区划和地貌区划等,提出了中国自然保护综合地理区划方案。中国自然保护综合地理区划方案包括了8个自然保护地理大区、37个自然保护地理地区和117个自然保护地理亚地区。该区划具有以下特点:(1)利用TWINSPAN的数量分类方法进行地理区划的探索是区划方法上的创新,为自然地理区划的研究提供了新的研究途径。(2)选取的数量化指标是在结合已有专项区划资料提出的,有助于避免动植物分布指标的人为选择偏差,可以综合反映区域自然地理特征,对生物多样性就地保护和自然保护区体系建设具有较好的指导作用。(3)量化分析保证了地理区划的客观性,同时定性分析避免了量化分析过程中的误差,使区划结果更准确。     

Natural acidification changes the timing and rate of succession,alters community structure,and increases homogeneity in marine biofouling communities

Ocean acidification may have far‐reaching consequences for marine community and ecosystem dynamics, but its full impacts remain poorly understood due to the difficulty of manipulating pCO₂ at the ecosystem level to mimic realistic fluctuations that occur on a number of different timescales. It is especially unclear how quickly communities at various stages of development respond to intermediate‐scale pCO₂ change and, if high pCO₂ is relieved mid‐succession, whether past acidification effects persist, are reversed by alleviation of pCO₂ stress, or are worsened by departures from prior high pCO₂ conditions to which organisms had acclimatized. Here, we used reciprocal transplant experiments along a shallow water volcanic pCO₂ gradient to assess the importance of the timing and duration of high pCO₂ exposure (i.e., discrete events at different stages of successional development vs. continuous exposure) on patterns of colonization and succession in a benthic fouling community. We show that succession at the acidified site was initially delayed (less community change by 8 weeks) but then caught up over the next 4 weeks. These changes in succession led to homogenization of communities maintained in or transplanted to acidified conditions, and altered community structure in ways that reflected both short‐ and longer‐term acidification history. These community shifts are likely a result of interspecific variability in response to increased pCO₂ and changes in species interactions. High pCO₂ altered biofilm development, allowing serpulids to do best at the acidified site by the end of the experiment, although early (pretransplant) negative effects of pCO₂ on recruitment of these worms were still detectable. The ascidians Diplosoma sp. and Botryllus sp. settled later and were more tolerant to acidification. Overall, transient and persistent acidification‐driven changes in the biofouling community, via both past and more recent exposure, could have important implications for ecosystem function and food web dynamics.     

A synthesis of methane emissions from 71 northern,temperate, and subtropical wetlands

Wetlands are the largest natural source of atmospheric methane. Here, we assess controls on methane flux using a database of approximately 19 000 instantaneous measurements from 71 wetland sites located across subtropical, temperate, and northern high latitude regions. Our analyses confirm general controls on wetland methane emissions from soil temperature, water table, and vegetation, but also show that these relationships are modified depending on wetland type (bog, fen, or swamp), region (subarctic to temperate), and disturbance. Fen methane flux was more sensitive to vegetation and less sensitive to temperature than bog or swamp fluxes. The optimal water table for methane flux was consistently below the peat surface in bogs, close to the peat surface in poor fens, and above the peat surface in rich fens. However, the largest flux in bogs occurred when dry 30‐day averaged antecedent conditions were followed by wet conditions, while in fens and swamps, the largest flux occurred when both 30‐day averaged antecedent and current conditions were wet. Drained wetlands exhibited distinct characteristics, e.g. the absence of large flux following wet and warm conditions, suggesting that the same functional relationships between methane flux and environmental conditions cannot be used across pristine and disturbed wetlands. Together, our results suggest that water table and temperature are dominant controls on methane flux in pristine bogs and swamps, while other processes, such as vascular transport in pristine fens, have the potential to partially override the effect of these controls in other wetland types. Because wetland types vary in methane emissions and have distinct controls, these ecosystems need to be considered separately to yield reliable estimates of global wetland methane release.     

Key Elements in a Framework for Land Use Impact Assessment Within LCA (11 pp)

Background, Aim and Scope Land use by agriculture, forestry, mining, house-building or industry leads to substantial impacts, particularly on biodiversity and on soil quality as a supplier of life support functions. Unfortunately there is no widely accepted assessment method so far for land use impacts. This paper presents an attempt, within the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, to provide a framework for the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) of land use. Materials and Methods: This framework builds from previous documents, particularly the SETAC book on LCIA (Lindeijer et al. 2002), developing essential issues such as the reference for occupation impacts; the impact pathways to be included in the analysis; the units of measure in the impact mechanism (land use interventions to impacts); the ways to deal with impacts in the future; and bio-geographical differentiation. Results: The paper describes the selected impact pathways, linking the land use elementary flows (occupation; transformation) and parameters (intensity) registered in the inventory (LCI) to the midpoint impact indicators and to the relevant damage categories (natural environment and natural resources). An impact occurs when the land properties are modified (transformation) and also when the current man-made properties are maintained (occupation). Discussion: The size of impact is the difference between the effect on land quality from the studied case of land use and a suitable reference land use on the same area (dynamic reference situation). The impact depends not only on the type of land use (including coverage and intensity) but is also heavily influenced by the bio-geographical conditions of the area. The time lag between the land use intervention and the impact may be large; thus land use impacts should be calculated over a reasonable time period after the actual land use finishes, at least until a new steady state in land quality is reached. Conclusions: Guidance is provided on the definition of the dynamic reference situation and on methods and time frame to assess the impacts occurring after the actual land use. Including the occupation impacts acknowledges that humans are not the sole users of land. Recommendations and Perspectives: The main damages affected by land use that should be considered by any method to assess land use impacts in LCIA are: biodiversity (existence value); biotic production potential (including soil fertility and use value of biodiversity); ecological soil quality (including life support functions of soil other than biotic production potential). Bio-geographical differentiation is required for land use impacts, because the same intervention may have different consequences depending on the sensitivity and inherent land quality of the environment where it occurs. For the moment, an indication of how such task could be done and likely bio-geographical parameters to be considered are suggested. The recommendation of indicators for the suggested impact categories is a matter of future research.     

海南橡胶林植物多样性特征

为探讨人工林物种多样性维持机制及人为干扰后人工林群落的多样性恢复机制, 作者依据自然林的核心理论建立了一个1 ha的橡胶(Hevea brasiliensis)林固定样地, 通过研究近自然管理后样地内植物物种组成与分布来探讨近自然管理后橡胶林生物多样性的特征。结果表明: 近自然管理后橡胶林群落物种多样性较高, 1 ha样地内共有植物69科155属183种。在面积为4,000 m²、3,000 m²和2,000 m²时分别包含了样地内大约90%的种、属和科; 逻辑斯蒂模型拟合拟合种-面积曲线效果较好(R²=0.997), 证明了1 ha取样尺度可以满足橡胶林群落物种多样性研究的需要。多度-面积曲线和丰富度-面积曲线与随机分布模型有明显的差异, 表明橡胶林群落内个体数及物种分布呈非随机性。(4)对数级数模型和对数正态模型拟合橡胶林群落的种-多度分布都不理想, 相比而言后者拟合效果稍好。     

人工林赤腹松鼠危害程度与生境因子的关系研究

2009年3～6月,采用样方法对四川省洪雅县人工林赤腹松鼠危害相关的生境因子进行了调查。共设置了240个样方。样方调查中记录了2个反应危害等级的变量(危害株数和乔木总数)和11个生境变量(森林类型、海拔、坡向、坡度、坡位、距最近道路距离、距最近水源距离、乔木均高、乔木平均胸围、灌木盖度和草本盖度)。通过广义线性模型研究这些因子与人工林赤腹松鼠危害程度的关系。结果显示,赤腹松鼠危害程度与森林类型、坡度、坡向、乔木平均胸围呈显著性相关,与其他因子无显著相关性,在柳杉-杉木林中的危害高于纯柳杉林,在阴坡的危害低于其他坡向,危害程度随坡度和乔木平均胸围的增加而增加。