Huddling up in a dry environment: the physiological benefits of aggregation in an intertidal gastropod

In many intertidal gastropods, the formation of aggregations and closing of the opercular opening are behaviors commonly assumed to be associated with water conservation and maintenance of body temperature during tidal emersion periods. In the laboratory, we quantified the relationship between these two behaviors in a littorinid snail common to the north-central shores of Chile, Echinolittorina peruviana, and evaluated any benefit of these behaviors during desiccating conditions. We predicted that solitary individuals would maintain their opercula open for less time than aggregated snails when exposed to drier conditions due, at least in part, to differences in evaporative water loss. In laboratory trials, where relative humidity was manipulated, we observed that aggregated snails maintained their opercula open for longer periods of time than solitary snails under increasingly drier conditions. These results, together with observations of body temperature, suggest that aggregated animals may able to maintain gaseous exchange with their environment for longer periods of time than solitary individuals in response to desiccation stress. Our results suggest an interactive effect of two behaviors that confer physiological benefits when confronted with extreme physical conditions experienced during periods of emersion.     

Impacts of rural to urban migration,urbanization, and generational change on consumption of wild animals in the Amazon

For the first time in history, more people live in urban areas than in rural areas. This trend is likely to continue, driven largely by rural-to-urban migration. We investigated how rural-to-urban migration, urbanization, and generational change affect the consumption of wild animals. We used chelonian (tortoises and freshwater turtles), one of the most hunted taxa in the Amazon, as a model. We surveyed 1356 households and 2776 school children across 10 urban areas of the Brazilian Amazon (6 small towns, 3 large towns, and Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon Basin) with a randomized response technique and anonymous questionnaires. Urban demand for wild meat (i.e., meat from wild animals) was alarmingly high. Approximately 1.7 million turtles and tortoises were consumed in urban areas of Amazonas during 2018. Consumption rates declined as size of the urban area increased and were greater for adults than children. Furthermore, the longer rural-to-urban migrants lived in urban areas, the lower their consumption rates. These results suggest that wild meat consumption is a rural-related tradition that decreases as urbanization increases and over time after people move to urban areas. However, it is unclear whether the observed decline will be fast enough to conserve hunted species, or whether children's consumption rate will remain the same as they become adults. Thus, conservation actions in urban areas are still needed. Current conservation efforts in the Amazon do not address urban demand for wildlife and may be insufficient to ensure the survival of traded species in the face of urbanization and human population growth. Our results suggest that conservation interventions must target the urban demand for wildlife, especially by focusing on young people and recent rural to urban migrants. Article impact statement: Amazon urbanite consumption of wildlife is high but decreases with urbanization, over time for rural to urban migrants, and between generations. Impactos de la Migración del Campo a la Ciudad, la Urbanización y del Cambio Generacional sobre el Consumo de Animales Silvestres en el Amazonas     

Amenity changes,property values,and hedonic prices in a closed city

The effects of changes in amenity levels on the bid prices for land and on the marginal worth of an amenity are examined. The vehicle for analysis is a closed-city urban spatial model containing an explicit utility function and explicitly specified, spatial distributions of amenities. Issues addressed include the behavior of bid price (and property value) schedules in response to amenity changes; the impact of such changes on the utility of renters, under conditions of both identical and disparate tastes; the effect of amenity changes on the amenity's schedule of marginal worth; and the relation of such a schedule in a closed city to that in an open city.     

Differences in kelp morphology between wave sheltered and exposed localities: morphologically plastic or fixed traits?

The ability of algae to change the shape of their thallus in response to the environment may be of functional and ecological importance to the alga, with many species of macroalgae exhibiting a great range of morphological variation across wave exposure gradients. However, differences in morphology detected between sheltered and exposed environments cannot determine whether such differences represent plastic responses to the local environment or whether morphology is genetically fixed. This study tested for differences in the morphology of the common kelp, Ecklonia radiata, between wave sheltered and exposed environments, and reciprocally transplanted juveniles to distinguish the nature of such differences (i.e. plastic vs fixed traits). Differences between exposure environments were consistent with known effects of exposure (i.e. a wide, thin thallus at sheltered sites and a narrow, thick thallus with a thick stipe at exposed sites). The reciprocal transplant experiment confirmed that morphological plasticity was the mechanism enabling this alga to display different patterns in morphology between exposure environments. Individuals transplanted to the exposed environment underwent a rapid and extreme response in morphology, which was not apparent in individuals transplanted to the sheltered environment that responded more slowly. These results suggest that stressors typical of sheltered environments (i.e. diffusion stress) may not be as influential (if at all) compared to stressors typical of exposed environments (i.e. breakage, dislodgement) in differentiating morphological characters between exposure environments.     

Is there a double-dividend from anti-sprawl policies?

This paper examines the welfare effects of anti-sprawl policies, such as development tax, in a simple spatial explicit urban model with two market failures - urban decline at the city core and underprovision of open space amenities at the urban fringe - and pre-existing distortionary property tax, used to fund public services and improvements to mitigate urban decline. Consistent with prior double-dividend literature, there is a tax interaction effect that occurs between the development tax and the pre-existing property tax. However, there are two fundamental differences between the tax interaction effect identified here and that of prior literature. Ours one has two components: First, there is a cost-side tax interaction effect that is ‘spatially’ concentrated at the urban fringe, as only agents at the urban fringe alter their behavior in response to the development tax. Second, there is also a benefit-side tax interaction effect, as increases in open space at the urban fringe are capitalized into housing prices throughout the city. In contrast to prior literature, we find that the empirical importance of the combined tax interaction effect is of substantially less importance and, as a consequence, the likelihood of a ‘double-dividend’ is higher than in prior studies. Further, we show that the development tax should be part of the local tax system, even in the absence of open space benefits.     

全氟十二烷酸(PFDoA)慢性暴露干扰大鼠肝脏磷酸化蛋白质水平

全氟烷基类化合物(PFASs)是一类新型持久性有机污染物,因其独特的理化性质被广泛应用于工业和商业领域,对生物体具有一定的毒性作用。为探究全氟十二烷酸(PFDo A)致肝脏毒性作用机制,选择雄性大鼠为受试生物,采用2-DE蛋白质组学技术与Pro Q Diamond dye磷酸化蛋白染色结合的方法初步研究了不同剂量PFDo A暴露110 d后大鼠肝脏蛋白磷酸化水平的变化。结果表明,30个磷酸化蛋白表达水平在PFDo A处理后发生显著变化,其中,经过MALDI-TOF/TOF质谱分析,成功鉴定18个蛋白点。经过生物信息学分析,发现这些蛋白主要涉及糖脂代谢、氨基酸代谢、应激防御及电子传递等途径。以上结果有助于进一步从翻译后修饰水平了解PFDo A的肝脏毒性作用。     

Effects of pollution on hormone content of ornamental trees

Elm and black locust samples were collected in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece from a number of locations with different pollutant concentrations and the hormonal content was determined using radioimmunoassay tests. In both tree species, a considerable decrease in endogenous cytokinins was detected in symptomless leaves from the polluted city center, suggesting latent senescence and thus latent injury. Similarly, cytokinin content was found to be lower in seedlings exposed to SO₂‐O₃ fumigation than in controls. Thus cytokinin levels may serve as useful indicators of the onset of pollution stress and/or of the degree of stress experienced by urban trees.

Several environmental stresses were reported to promote an ABA increase. An increased ABA content in black locust samples from the polluted city center was also detected. This observation did not hold in elm, where comparable ABA levels were detected in trees in the city center, the suburbs, and in controls grown in filtered air. Hence ABA content cannot serve as an unequivocal indicator of pollution‐induced latent plant senescence.     

北京城近郊区园林绿地多目标规划

北京市城近郊区人口密集,经济活动频繁,作为改善城市空气质量的重要环境资源之一,园林绿地提供了不可或缺的生态服务功能。针对研究区降尘大、SO_2浓度高以及生产生活耗氧量大等主要环境问题,以满足城市居民环境质量基本要求为目标,通过一系列决策变量与约束条件的设定,建立起北京城近郊区园林绿地多目标线性规划模型。应用Lingo 8．0软件对规划模型求解,结果表明,规划期(2020年)不同种类园林绿地面积分配较基期(2000年)更为合理,强调通过乔灌草相结合提高园林绿地整体生态服务功能,为北京建设生态城市提供了规划依据。     

Wirkung subakuter PCB-Exposition (Aroclor 1254) auf Sauerstoffverbrauch, Schwimmbewegung und Biotransformation (GST-Aktivität) des Karpfens (Cyprinus carpio)

Objective and Background

PCB (polychlorinated biphenyle) are typical man-made environmental pollutants that cause a broad spectrum of effects in vertebrates. Although a lot has been studied about the toxic effects of xenobiotic substances on aquatic organisms, their subacute effects are not yet well known. Fish occupies a central position in freshwater food webs and therefore, carp was chosen to be our test organism. The aim of our study was the investigation of subacute effects of Aroclor 1254 (22μg ^l?1) on respiration, swimming activity, and biotransformation, allowing discussion of changed interaction between the available energy resources.

Methods

The respiration experiments under controlled laboratory conditions were run for 29 days (5 d before, 16 d with and 8 d after chemical exposure) with exposed carp compared to the non-exposed fish. Furthermore, the BehavioQuant system quantitatively monitors the positions of each individual fish before (8 d) and during (21 d) PCB exposure and swimming activity (number of horizontal turnings s^?1) of animals was calculated. Thereafter, liver samples were taken from animals for analysis of the phase 2 enzyme activity (glutathione-S-transferase). In the respiration experiments were 6 exposure, 6 controll, and 3 solubilizer controll groups (12 animals each group); in the behavioral experiments were 9 exposure, 6 controll- und 3 solubilizer controll groups (6 animals each group), and in the enzyme activity measurements were 9 exposure, 6 controll and 3 solubilizer controll groups (6 animals each group) examined.

Results and Discussion

A clearly increased (33%) oxygen consumption due to the PCB-exposure is found to be reversible; after the exposure period the respiration of carp shows a level comparable to the oxygen consumption during non-exposure time. By evaluating quantitative behavioral parameters of animals, it becomes evident that the exposure to PCB also causes a reversible change in their swimming behavior. Chemical stress leads to a decrease of mean daily swimming activity combined with an increase of the mean number of turnings during the night. Thereafter, the swimming activity shifts to the circadian swimming behavior under control conditions. Furthermore, our measurement of soluble and microsomal glutathione-S-transferase activity of fish liver shows a significant elevation after exposure period.

Conclusion

Our results prove that it was feasible to detect sublethal effects of PCB-mixture on all parameters under these conditions successfully. Our findings imply that fish are able to cope with the chemicals and we purse the hypothesis that the higher physiological energy demand caused by increased activity of enzymes, which are involved in biotransformation of foregin substances, may be related to a higher respiration of fish stressed by xenobiotics.

Recommendation and Outlook

Further experiments should investigate the effects of PCB on ecophysiological parameters of carp fed with exposed natural food allowing discussion of ecological consequences.     

城市绿地滞尘作用机理和规律的研究进展

城市绿地的滞尘作用是城市绿地重要的生态功能之一。综述了城市绿地的滞尘机理、变化规律。城市绿地的滞尘机理主要分为3种方式：滞留、附着和粘附;城市绿地滞尘能力与滞尘时间、城市环境、植物种、植物群落结构等因素存在密切的联系。不同植物滞尘能力的差异很大,总体规律表现为乔木植物〉灌木植物〉草本植物;但就单位叶面积来说,滞尘能力均以草本植物〉灌木植物〉乔木植物〉藤本植物;主要原因是垂直高度不同,灌草能有效截留地面的扬尘（城市中灰尘的主要来源）。研究表明,同种类植物种在封闭式环境条件下叶片滞尘量明显低于开敞式环境条件下的滞尘量,因此,在城市不同环境中的植物滞尘能力表现为工业区〉商业交通区〉居住区〉清洁区。随着季节和滞尘时间的变化,每种植物都存在一个滞尘限度,如果无雨水或人为干扰,最终达到一个动态平衡。从城市绿地群落的垂直结构看,乔—灌—草型的绿地具有相对较好的滞尘作用,是目前较为理想的绿地类型;另外,在城市绿地面积明显不足的情况下,以藤本植物为主的垂直绿化将成为城市绿化发展的新方向。同时,在城市绿地滞尘机理、规律以及植物滞尘能力评价等方面仍需要进一步深入研究。     

BALB／C鼠睾丸组织中冷诱导RNA结合蛋白的cDNA克隆与序列分析

冷诱导RNA结合蛋白(Cold inducible RNA-binding protein,CIRP)在多种冷应激细胞(包括重组中国仓鼠卵巢细胞)中被发现.迄今为止,冷应激对活体生物基凶表达的影响还未见报道.和细胞相比,生物体具有更加复杂的冷应激调节机制.本研究以冷处理的BALB/C鼠为实验动物,从其睾丸组织巾克隆出了CIRP的cDNA.结果表明,CIRP在生物体中能够被低温诱导,可能防止生物体遭受冷损伤.根据克隆的cDNA所推测的氨基酸序列与GenBank上公布的小鼠、大鼠、人类、牛蛙、美西螈、非洲爪蟾胚胎细胞和卵母细胞的CIRP氨基酸序列同源性分别为100%、99.40%、95.5%、67.4%、58.4%、76.9%和79.1%.这表明CIRP在生物进化过程中是高度保守的,可能具有多种生理功能.因此,这一研究将为探索人类和动物冷应激分子机制创立系统试验模型和奠定新的实践基础.图5参14     

低纬高原城市区域冬季的大气环境与不同波长辐射特征

本文以低纬高原城市昆明市为研究对象，利用城市内外不同波长辐射的实测资料，分析了颥人、外不同波长辐射的分布特征、变化规律及共差异以及与大气环境的相互关系，探讨了城市及大气环境对太阳辐射的影响为城市气候的深入研究以及城市建筑的规划、设计、环境污染防治提供依据，并可为其它地区的同类研究提供参考。     

Urban development and landscape change in the Yangtze River Delta region in China

The impact of large-scale urban development on land resources has long been debated by urban planners and designers. This study investigated the extent to which different urban characteristics are associated with land-cover change. The Yangtze River Delta region in China, forming one of the largest sprawling urban landscapes among the regions around the world, was chosen for the study area. Spatial analysis and multiple regression methods were applied to empirically investigate the pattern of resource sites lost to urban development in the area between the 1950s and 2017. The results showed that contrary to the widespread notion that large-sized cities are predominantly responsible for a region’s environmental degradation, city size was not a significant factor in determining the rate of resource loss. Large-sized cities gained their populations with far lesser impacts on land than small-sized cities and towns if normalized to the same number of populations. One explanation for the diminishing effect of city size on land-cover change relates to the degree of spatial dispersion of urban development and local differences in social valuation of diversified lands by cities.     

城市生态的氧平衡研究：以南京市为例

城市化地区人的生态及其产业活动强度大、范围广，对氧的收支关系反应敏感。空气中氧的平衡能力及其可持续性，是促进城市社会经济与环境协调发展的基本条件，按南京总体规划确定的主城．中心城市围及市域三个层次的格局，主城的氧亏可从城乡结合部的制氧空间得到足够的补偿。中心城市圈自身耗氧低，对主城的外延发展，卫呈城镇的工业化，新增大型耗能企业的布点均有较强的氧平衡能力，维护城市生态氧平衡的关键措施是建设城市生态防     

Increased sedentariness in European Blackbirds following urbanization: a consequence of local adaptation?

Urbanization changes local environmental conditions and may lead to altered selection regimes for life history traits of organisms thriving in cities. Previous studies have reported changes in breeding phenology and even trends toward increased sedentariness in migratory bird species colonizing urban areas. However, does the change in migratory propensity simply represent a phenotypic adjustment to local urban environment, or is it genetically based and hence the result of local adaptation? To test this, we hand-raised European Blackbirds (Turdus merula) from urban and forest populations, quantified their nocturnal activity and fat deposition covering two complete migratory cycles and examined the consequences of a reduced migratory propensity for the timing of gonadal development (a physiological measure of the seasonal timing of reproduction). Although nocturnal activities differed strikingly between fall and spring seasons, with low activities during the fall and high activities during the spring seasons, our data confirm, even in birds kept from early life under common-garden conditions, a change toward reduced migratoriness in urban blackbirds. The first score of a principal component analysis including amount of nocturnal activity and fat deposition, defined as migratory disposition, was lower in urban than in forest males particularly during their first year, whereas females did not differ. The results suggest that the intrinsic but male-biased difference is genetically determined, although early developmental effects cannot be excluded. Moreover, individuals with low migratory disposition developed their gonads earlier, resulting in longer reproductive seasons. Since urban conditions facilitate earlier breeding, intrinsic shifts to sedentariness thus seem to be adaptive in urban habitats. These results corroborate the idea that urbanization has evolutionary consequences for life history traits such as migratory behavior.     

城市河流在城市生态建设中的意义和应用方法

城市河流是城市生态系统的重要组分之一。本文分析了城市河流在城市生态建设中的水源地,减弱城市热岛效应和洪涝灾害,绿地建设基地,景观多样性的组成,物种多样性保护,组成捷交通,亲近自然场所,自然教育标本等方面的多种意义,指出保持河流的自然地貌特征,维持自然水文过程,控制城市河流水污染,综合规划城市河流与城市建设的关系是发挥城市河流在城市生态系统中作用的基本方法。     

干旱区的城市生境特征与绿洲化对策

干旱地区的城市亦被称为绿洲。从其发生与生境状况分析,注意到近期城市的扩展已脱离绿洲型的发展轨道,而与全球城市模式类同,亦具城市化的共有弊病。又因所处区位受到荒漠气候的强烈影响,较其它地带的城市,其生境更加恶劣。干旱区居民长期凭借绿洲生境而生息劳动,早期出现的城市亦脱胎于绿洲。目前仍沿用绿洲以称城市,但与绿洲的生境相比较已面目全非,实质是以现代设施在荒漠中建立的水泥荒漠。目前全球范围正展开以改善城市生境为目标的生态城市建设,位处干旱区的城市应从其所在区位出发,以绿洲化作为生态城市建设目标,切实改善居民生存环境质量。应仿照绿洲,在外围营造阻隔荒漠气候侵袭的防护林,在市区通过营造片林与行道树,形成类似条田林网格局,以一定植被规模重构绿洲化城市,形成绿洲生境以改善城市居民生存条件,回归干旱区居民世世代代依存的绿洲空间。     

论郊区农业生态环境建设的几个问题

在对郊区环境组成、结构、生态环境特征等区域研究的基础上 ,以边缘效应的理论为出发点 ,深入分析了城乡交错带的几个生态环境建设问题。认为郊区生态建设应以 (1)城市废弃物的再生地 ,(2 )生态旅游与农业文化的消费地 ,(3)现代持续农业的先导区等为目标。最后分析了城乡交错面 (边缘界面 )对城乡复合生态系统中环境应力的聚合放大效应 ,指出效区农业生态环境的调控是防止城乡矛盾激化的根本措施