高效石油降解菌修复石油污染土壤与强化机制分析

利用定向驯化高效石油降解菌系对石油污染土壤进行为期120 d原位修复,考察生物强化修复效果、土壤理化性质和酶活性的变化,结合宏基因组测序及生物信息学分析揭示其强化机制.结果表明,与空白对照组(Ctrl)相比,生物修复组(Exp-BT)总石油烃降解率显著提升,增幅达81.23%; 高效石油降解菌生物强化修复期间土壤pH变化稳定,体系氧化能力提高,电导率处于适宜农业活动范围内; 脂肪酶和脱氢酶在修复期间保持较高活性; 另对初始污染土壤样本(B0)、驯化所得高效石油降解菌系样本(GZ)和生物修复后土壤样本(BT)的分析显示,门水平上变形菌门与放线菌门相对丰度增加17.1%,属水平上Nocardioides、Achromobacter、Gordonia和Rhodococcus等丰度明显上升,COG和KEGG物种与功能贡献度分析证明以上菌属对石油烃降解有重要贡献; 修复后土壤中发现高丰度的石油烃相关代谢酶及5个降解基因:alkM、tamA、rubB、ladA 和alkB,分析表明外源石油烃降解菌群的引入增强了微生物相关酶的代谢活性与相应功能基因的表达.     

塔克拉玛干沙尘暴源区空气微生物群落的代谢特征

采用BIOLOG生态微平板(BIOLOG EcoPlateTM)技术,对采集自塔克拉玛干沙漠南北缘5个地区的空气样品进行研究,目的是了解空气微生物群落碳代谢功能的特点与差异.结果表明,5个地区空气样品的平均吸光度(AWCD)在培养10 d没有达到饱和且差异显著,AWCD值最高的为莎车县,和田县最低,分别为0.24和0.1;碳源利用水平表明这5个地区空气微生物对聚合物类碳源利用率最高,其次是碳水化合物、氨基酸类、羧酸类碳源,而酚类和胺类最低;主成分分析(PCA)发现有20种碳源与PC1显著相关,12种与PC2显著相关,并且这5个地区也被分为两类,和田和皮山聚为一类,乌恰、莎车和轮台聚为一类;典范对应分析(CCA)和相关分析表明一些非生物因素对空气微生物群落碳代谢强度和单一碳源的利用能力具有不同程度的影响,如风速、海拔、湿度等;进一步的研究也表明非生物因素对空气微生物群落利用的能力影响显著,其中β-甲基D-葡萄糖苷、D-半乳糖醛酸和腐胺的光密度值与纬度显著正相关(P<0.05),2-羟苯甲酸和α-D-乳糖与风速显著正相关(P<0.05),D-葡萄胺酸与气压显著正相关(P<0.05)且与海拔为显著负相关(P<0.05).综上可知,塔克拉玛干沙尘暴源区周边地区空气微生物群落碳代谢能力较低,呈现区域性特征,非生物因素显著影响空气微生物群落碳代谢强度及微生物群落对31种单一碳源的利用.     

1株铜绿假单胞菌对芘的降解特性及代谢途径

多环芳烃（PAHs）因其具有"三致"作用对生态系统产生潜在威胁.微生物降解是多环芳烃降解的主要途径之一,筛选出能高效降解多环芳烃的菌株是微生物修复技术的关键.本文采用富集培养的方法从多环芳烃污染的污泥中分离到1株以芘为唯一碳源的菌株LX2,经形态观察、生理生化和16S rDNA鉴定,LX2属于铜绿假单胞菌（Pseudomonas sp.LX2）.菌株在含芘浓度为50 mg·L^-1的无机盐液体培养基中培养21 d对芘的降解效率达32.1%.经GC-MS分析发现,Pseudomonas sp.LX2降解芘的中间代谢产物主要有4,5-二氢芘、2''-羟基苯丙酮、苯酚、原儿茶酚.基于鉴定的代谢产物得出芘通过"萘"和"邻苯二甲酸"两种不同的途径被铜绿假单胞菌（Pseudomonas sp.LX2）降解.     

The Upper and Lower Ecological Limits of Specific Metabolic Power of Different Organisms

It has been demonstrated that bioenergetic properties of plants (independence of productivity from size, proportionality between radial growth of woody plants and plant mass, etc.) and animals are not related to the presumed universal linear relationship between metabolic power and body mass to the power of 3/4. This relationship is not true for plants and endothermic animals. The observed bioenergetic characteristics of these organisms are explained by simple biological and physical laws, including the existence of the lower and upper limits of the specific metabolic power of living matter.     

Expert system application for prioritizing preventive actions for shift work: shift expert

Introduction. Shift patterns, work hours, work arrangements and worker motivations have increasingly become key factors for job performance. The main objective of this article is to design an expert system that identifies the negative effects of shift work and prioritizes mitigation efforts according to their importance in preventing these negative effects. The proposed expert system will be referred to as the shift expert. Methods. A thorough literature review is conducted to determine the effects of shift work on workers. Our work indicates that shift work is linked to demographic variables, sleepiness and fatigue, health and well-being, and social and domestic conditions. These parameters constitute the sections of a questionnaire designed to focus on 26 important issues related to shift work. The shift expert is then constructed to provide prevention advice at the individual and organizational levels, and it prioritizes this advice using a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process model, which considers comparison matrices provided by users during the prioritization process. An empirical study of 61 workers working on three rotating shifts is performed. After administering the questionnaires, the collected data are analyzed statistically, and then the shift expert produces individual and organizational recommendations for these workers.     

Scenarios of major terrestrial ecosystems in China

The spatial pattern and mean-center shift of major terrestrial ecosystems, termed Holdridge Life Zones (HLZ), during the periods from 1961 to 1990 (T1), from 2010 to 2039 (T2), from 2040 to 2069 (T3) and from 2070 to 2099 (T4) were analyzed by combining the zonal patterns of climatic change in China and the climatic change scenarios of HadCM2 and HadCM3. The results showed that nival area would decrease rapidly with temperature increase in the future. HadCM2 and HadCM3 predicted that the nival areas might disappear in 552 years and 204 years, respectively. Using both HadCM2 and HadCM3, the five HLZ types with the largest areal extent are nival zone, cool temperate moist forest, warm temperate moist forest, subtropical moist forest and boreal wet forest, which collectively account for more than 50% of China's land mass. Among these five HLZ types, nival zone, warm temperate moist forest and boreal wet forest would decrease continuously, whereas subtropical moist forest and cool temperate forest would increase continuously during the four periods. HLZ diversity and patch connectivity would increase continuously in the 21st century. The shift distances of mean centers of HLZ types simulated using HadCM3 were markedly greater than those simulated using HadCM2, in general. The results from both HadCM2 and HadCM3 showed that boreal wet forest, subtropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, warm temperate moist forest and subtropical wet forest had bigger shift ranges, indicating that these HLZ types are more sensitive to the climatic change scenarios of HadCM2 and HadCM3.     

Ontogenetic habitat shift and risk of cannibalism in the common chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon)

Ontogenetic habitat shifts have been documented in numerous fish and amphibians and in some reptiles. Intraspecific competition together with differential predation, prey size, social interactions, size-related thermal requirements, and morphological constraints on movement are often implicated in this ontogenetic habitat separation. In the current study, we combined field observation with experiments in seminatural arenas to test various hypotheses regarding the ontogenetic habitat shift that we have documented in the common chameleon. Juveniles (mean, 1 g) occupied low grasses and the adults (mean, 35 g) were found on bushes and trees. Overlap in habitat use between these two age classes was minimal. Our field experiments showed that juveniles actively avoid the presence of adults by concealment or flight. Adults readily attacked and consumed juveniles, regardless of their own mass. These results suggest that the risk of cannibalism towards juveniles is an important selective force behind the ontogenetic habitat shift observed in the common chameleon and may be important in other species too.     

Secondary metabolism — evolution and function: Products or processes?

Summary The distinguishing characteristics of secondary metabolism and its associated metabolites are outlined. Current theories relating to the function of secondary metabolism in plants and micro-organisms are enumerated and the view that consideration of the processes rather than the products may best explain the origins of secondary metabolism is discussed.     

Courtship display by great frigatebirds, Fregata minor: an energetically costly handicap signal?

We used detailed time-budget observations, mark-resight data, and doubly labeled water estimates of energy expenditure to test whether energy spent on courtship display by male frigatebirds functions as a sexually selected handicap signal. During a 2-day period of time budget observations, males displayed on average 29.5% of the time (range 0–100% for 15 different males), and this value was correlated with an index of season-long display effort. Season-long display effort was strongly predictive of pairing success. Average field metabolic rate (FMR) during the 2-day time budget period was 676.5 kJ/day (range 464.8–1035.0), substantially lower than the mass-specific FMR predicted from studies of other seabirds during incubation or chick-rearing. Despite a low overall FMR, display effort could function as an energetic handicap, either if FMR correlates positively with the amount of courtship performed or if high-quality males display at a high rate because they pay a lower energy cost per unit of display than do low-quality males. We found no relationship between FMR and display rate, despite good power for doing so. We also did not find a significant difference in energy spent divided by courtship time for males that were or were not chosen by females (inferred to be high- and low-quality males, respectively), though the medians differed in the predicted direction (preferred males having lower relative costs than non-preferred males) and the confidence interval on the difference between groups was very wide. Thus, we found evidence that male courtship effort is predictive of pairing success, we rejected one mechanism by which energetic cost of display could function as a handicap, and our test of the alternate energetic handicap mechanism was equivocal.     

Benefits of protected areas for nonbreeding waterbirds adjusting their distributions under climate warming

Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions and community composition. Many species have a so-called climatic debt, that is, shifts in range lag behind shifts in temperature isoclines. Inside protected areas (PAs), community changes in response to climate warming can be facilitated by greater colonization rates by warm-dwelling species, but also mitigated by lowering extirpation rates of cold-dwelling species. An evaluation of the relative importance of colonization-extirpation processes is important to inform conservation strategies that aim for both climate debt reduction and species conservation. We assessed the colonization-extirpation dynamics involved in community changes in response to climate inside and outside PAs. To do so, we used 25 years of occurrence data of nonbreeding waterbirds in the western Palearctic (97 species, 7071 sites, 39 countries, 1993–2017). We used a community temperature index (CTI) framework based on species thermal affinities to investigate species turnover induced by temperature increase. We determined whether thermal community adjustment was associated with colonization by warm-dwelling species or extirpation of cold-dwelling species by modeling change in standard deviation of the CTI (CTI_SD). Using linear mixed-effects models, we investigated whether communities in PAs had lower climatic debt and different patterns of community change than communities outside PAs. For CTI and CTI_SD combined, communities inside PAs had more species, higher colonization, lower extirpation, and lower climatic debt (16%) than communities outside PAs. Thus, our results suggest that PAs facilitate 2 independent processes that shape community dynamics and maintain biodiversity. The community adjustment was, however, not sufficiently fast to keep pace with the large temperature increases in the central and northeastern western Palearctic. Our results underline the potential of combining CTI and CTI_SD metrics to improve understanding of the colonization-extirpation patterns driven by climate warming.