Trade‐offs in seedling growth and survival within and across tropical forest microhabitats

For niche differences to maintain coexistence of sympatric species, each species must grow and/or survive better than each of the others in at least one set of conditions (i.e., performance trade‐offs). However, the extent of niche differentiation in tropical forests remains highly debated. We present the first test of performance trade‐offs for wild seedlings in a tropical forest. We measured seedling relative growth rate (RGR) and survival of four common native woody species across 18 light, substrate, and topography microhabitats over 2.5 years within Hawaiian montane wet forest, an ideal location due to its low species diversity and strong species habitat associations. All six species pairs exhibited significant performance trade‐offs across microhabitats and for RGR versus survival within microhabitats. We also found some evidence of performance equivalence, with species pairs having similar performance in 26% of comparisons across microhabitats. Across species, survival under low light was generally positively associated with RGR under high light. When averaged over all species, topography (slope, aspect, and elevation) explained most of the variation in RGR attributable to microhabitat variables (51–53%) followed by substrate type (35–37%) and light (11–12%). However, the relative effects of microhabitat differed among species and RGR metric (i.e., RGR for height, biomass, or leaf area). These findings indicate that performance trade‐offs among species during regeneration are common in low‐diversity tropical forest, although other mechanisms may better explain the coexistence of species with small performance differences.     

中国的主要山脉和山峰

基于我国的地貌特征、数字高程模型(DEM)以及数字地形模型(DTM)等资料,参考以往的研究文献,给出了我国主要山峰和山脉的分布图及相关的地理信息,为我国的宏观生态学和生物地理学研究提供基本的山地资料。     

福建武夷山自然保护区地形对毛竹(Phyllostachys pubescens)林分布的影响

用PC-ORD4．0软件对保护区内31个毛竹(Phyllostachys pubescens)林样方进行聚类分析,把毛竹林划分成9类。利用保护区1980年航空相片、1998年和2000年Lnndsat TM卫星影像,并结合保护区森林资源调查资料,绘制武夷山保护区毛竹林分布图。利用保护区1：50000的地形图数字化100m等高距生成数字高程模型(DEM),并从中获取海拔、坡向、坡度等地形参数,对毛竹林分布进行空间叠加分析。结果表明：保护区内毛竹纯林和毛竹一甜槠(Gastanopsis eyrei)林面积最大,分别占毛竹林总面积的40．6％和20．3％。分析毛竹林与海拔的关系时得出,海拔500-700m范围内毛竹林面积最大;随着海拔升高,毛竹林面积逐渐减少,Shannon-Wiener指数(H‘)增加;毛竹最大胸径减小。毛竹在东南坡和西北坡分布的面积比例最大。随着坡度的增加,毛竹分布的面积减少。     

Storage and mobility of black carbon in permafrost soils of the forest tundra ecotone in Northern Siberia

Boreal permafrost soils store large amounts of organic carbon (OC). Parts of this carbon (C) might be black carbon (BC) generated during vegetation fires. Rising temperature and permafrost degradation is expected to have different consequences for OC and BC, because BC is considered to be a refractory subfraction of soil organic matter. To get some insight into stocks, variability, and characteristics of BC in permafrost soils, we estimated the benzene polycarboxylic acid (BPCA) method‐specific composition and storage of BC, i.e. BPCA‐BC, in a 0.44 km²‐sized catchment at the forest tundra ecotone in northern Siberia. Furthermore, we assessed the BPCA‐BC export with the stream draining the catchment. The catchment is composed of various landscape units with south‐southwest (SSW) exposed mineral soils characterized by thick active layer or lacking permafrost, north‐northeast (NNE) faced mineral soils with thin active layer, and permafrost‐affected raised bogs in plateau positions showing in part thermokarst formation. There were indications of vegetation fires at all landscape units. BC was ubiquitous in the catchment soils and BPCA‐BC amounted to 0.6–3.0% of OC. This corresponded to a BC storage of 22–3440 g m^?2. The relative contribution of BPCA‐BC to OC, as well as the absolute stocks of BPCA‐BC were largest in the intact bogs with a shallow active layer followed by mineral soils of the NNE aspects. In both landscape units, a large proportion of BPCA‐BC was stored within the permafrost. In contrast, mineral soils with thick active layer or lacking permafrost and organic soils subjected to thermokarst formation stored less BPCA‐BC. Permafrost is, hence, not only a crucial factor in the storage of OC but also of BC. In the stream water BPCA‐BC amounted on an average to 3.9% of OC, and a yearly export of 0.10 g BPCA‐BC m^?2 was calculated, most of it occurring during the period of snow melt with dominance of surface flow. This suggests that BC mobility in dissolved and colloidal phase is an important pathway of BC export from the catchment. Such a transport mechanism may explain the high BC concentrations found in sediments of the Arctic Ocean.     

New insight into the shortening of the collagen fibril D-period in human cornea

Collagen fibrils type I display a typical banding pattern, so-called D-periodicity, of about 67 nm, when visualized by atomic force or electron microscopy imaging. Herein we report on a significant shortening of the D-period for human corneal collagen fibrils type I (21 ± 4 nm) upon air-drying, whereas no changes in the D-period were observed for human scleral collagen fibrils type I (64 ± 4 nm) measured under the same experimental conditions as the cornea. It was also found that for the corneal stroma fixed with glutaraldehyde and air-dried, the collagen fibrils show the commonly accepted D-period of 61 ± 8 nm. We used the atomic force microscopy method to image collagen fibrils type I present in the middle layers of human cornea and sclera. The water content in the cornea and sclera samples was varying in the range of .066–.085. Calculations of the D-period using the theoretical model of the fibril and the FFT approach allowed to reveal the possible molecular mechanism of the D-period shortening in the corneal collagen fibrils upon drying. It was found that both the decrease in the shift and the simultaneous reduction in the distance between tropocollagen molecules can be responsible for the experimentally observed effect. We also hypothesize that collagen type V, which co-assembles with collagen type I into heterotypic fibrils in cornea, could be involved in the observed shortening of the corneal D-period.     

闽南-台湾浅滩渔场地形及水深与中上层鱼类群聚分布的关系

根据闽南－台湾浅滩渔场灯光围网信息船1989－1999年的渔捞纪录,研究闽南－台湾浅滩渔场海底地形,水深与中上鱼类群聚的关系。结果表明,渔场地形起伏,水深变化大,中上层鱼类分布较为密集,但各渔区间的分布不均匀,南北方向上渔获产量分布是由北向南递增,东西方向上渔获产量分布是由浅滩两侧向浅滩的南,北中部靠拢;中上层鱼类主要分布在海峡南部混合水和海峡暖水区,其中心渔场位于上升流终年存在的高盐区,同时群聚于海底断裂区和海底隆起边缘区;中上层鱼类群聚区或中心渔场随海峡南部混合水和海峡暖水的季节变化而变化,不仅与渔场地形,水深有关,还与影响海区季风的风向,风力和不同水系强弱有关;本渔场中上层鱼类在不同季节群聚水深,春,夏季为30－60m,秋,冬季为40－80m。     

山地小气候模拟研究进展

山地气候是最为复杂的气候类型之一,加上观测点少,气象资料比较缺乏,研究的难度很大,采用模型模拟的方法对山地气候进行研究是气象和生态学的交叉领域,得到气象和生态学者的广泛重视.目前,山地小气候模型模拟已得到很大的发展,作者从温度、降水、湿度、太阳辐射和风场5个方面综述了国内外在这方面的研究进展1)温度场的模拟主要是以分离-综合法改进后的多元回归法为主;2)降水模拟的方法主要有地形因子相关法(又可分为单要素、双要素、三要素和多要素)和趋势面法;3)关于湿度,一般气象站只观测水汽压和相对湿度,但一般的生态系统模型却是以水气压饱和差来表征湿度的,用湿度-辐射循环法模拟;4)太阳辐射的模拟很复杂,主要以直接辐射、散射辐射、反射辐射和总辐射分别来模拟;5)风场主要模拟方法有诊断方法和预报方法.以上对山地小气候的模型模拟总的特点为区域性强、经验性大、普适性(理论性)差.同时,我们根据实际研究工作,展望了未来山地气候中小尺度模拟研究的两个侧重点1) 今后要综合、动态地模拟山地小气候系统,用现代理论尤其是非线性理论来研究山地气候,以加强理论方面的研究;2) 加强对先进技术(例如GIS、RS等)的吸收利用.     

Correlates of species richness in North American bat families

Aim A near universal truth in North America is that species richness increases from the Arctic Circle to the Central American tropics. Latitude is regarded as a major explanatory variable in species density, although it is only a surrogate for underlying ecological variables. I aimed to elucidate those underlying ecological variables that are associated with variation in bat species richness across the entire North American continent, providing a portrait of the macroecology of the order Chiroptera and its familial components. Methods I determined the number of bat species recorded for every state in Mexico and the United States, every province or territory in Canada, and every country in Central America. For each of these entities (n = 99), I also gathered basic data on mean annual precipitation, variation across the year (July vs. January) in mean temperature, mean January temperature, range in elevation (topographic relief), per cent vegetative cover and median latitude. Using a variety of linear regression and model‐fitting techniques, I analysed the strength and direction of the relationship between species richness and environmental variables for the order Chiroptera as a whole and separately for each of four familial groups: Molossidae (free‐tailed bats), Phyllostomidae (New World leaf‐nosed bats), Vespertilionidae (evening bats), and a set of six families (the Desmodontidae, Emballonuridae, Furipteridae, Natalidae, Noctilionidae, and Thyropteridae) represented in North America relatively poorly. Results and main conclusions Save for the Vespertilionidae, species richness of bats increased towards the Panamanian Isthmus. The Phyllostomidae and the set of miscellaneous families are particularly speciose in tropical Central America, with many fewer species occurring through subtropical Mexico into (in some cases) the southernmost United States. The Molossidae extends farther north, sparingly into the middle of the United States. Species density of the Vespertilionidae peaks in central and western Mexico and the southernmost United States, declining south through tropical southern Mexico and Central America and north through the central United States into Canada. Annual precipitation, January temperature, and topography are good predictors of species richness in the Chiroptera and the Molossidae, precipitation, topography, and temperature range in the Phyllostomidae, January temperature and topography in the Vespertilionidae, and precipitation alone in the collection of families. Vegetative cover explained little variation in the Chiroptera as a whole or in any family. After accounting for the effects of the environmental variables, latitude explained an insignificant amount of the residual variation in species richness. Bat families differ in their ecology, so studies of bat biogeography in North America may be misleading if they are examined only at the ordinal level.     

台风“布拉万”对东北近天然落叶松云冷杉试验林的影响

台风是重要的森林干扰因子之一,会对森林生态系统的结构和功能产生较大的影响。2012年的台风"布拉万"对我国东北地区局部森林造成了严重的破坏。以受灾最重的吉林省汪清林业局的近天然落叶松云冷杉林为对象,采用方差分析和相关分析方法,研究林分结构和地形条件对林木株数损伤率的影响。结果表明:(1)林木损伤类型可分为折断、连根拔起、搭挂、压弯4种,其中连根拔起为最主要的损伤类型,占总损伤株数的52%,台风灾害造成的林木株数损伤率平均为14.09%。(2)径级大小对林木株数损伤率的影响显著。损伤主要发生于径级较小林分处,径级越大,其株数损伤率越小。(3)林木株数损伤率随林分密度的增加有减小的趋势,但在统计学上它们的关系不显著。(4)不同树种间的林木株数损伤率差异显著,落叶松、冷杉等针叶树种损伤株数最多。(5)林分的树种多样性指数与林木株数损伤率无显著的相关性。(6)海拔、坡度和坡位对林木株数损伤率的影响不显著,但坡向的影响显著,东北坡向林分的林木株数损伤率最大。研究结果可以为灾后森林恢复和减少风灾影响的森林培育措施提供依据。