地球轨道的变化——冰期的前导

一个多世纪以来,更新世冰盖波动的原因一直是一个引人入胜而又没有解决的科学之谜。由于人们对这个问题感兴趣,所以产生了几种可能的解释。一类学说求助于气候体系之外的因子,包括太阳输出量的变化或者由星际间尘埃浓度变化达到地球的太阳能总量的变化;地球轨道几何变化导致进入地球的辐射有季节和纬度的分布;大气中火山     

硅酸盐矿物中微量含水组份的高温行为

<正> 引言 矿物及其性质的研究通常是在近25℃温度下进行的,这样做起实验来很方便。但是,对于有地质意义的高温状态下矿物的性能来说,常温实验却只能提供很有限的知识。硅酸盐中的微量“水”对矿物的性质可能有重大的影响。由于矿物中的含水组份既能反应又可迁移,高温下含水组份的种属形式及位置可能与室温时的不同。因此,我们用高温红外(IR)光谱对升高温度时的微量含水组份进行了研究,以了解它们的行为,并依此构想在地质条件下微量水的状态。我们使用的术语“微量水”,指的是任何其种属未被确认的含水组份。     

沙河村生态系统能量流分析计算

通过沙河河村的调查分析，建立该村生态系统能量流计算方法。计算结果表明：１９８８～１９９２年间沙河村能量规模小，路径小，流量低，转换能力弱，自行调节能力差，制约全村生产能力与效率的提高，目前需在发展经济的同时，增加投入，调整结构，注意生态环境的建设。     

Cycads: their evolution,toxins, herbivores and insect pollinators

Palaeobiological evidence indicates that gymnosperms were wind-pollinated and that insect pollination began in angiosperms in the Lower Cretaceous (ca. 135 mya) leading to close associations between higher plants and their pollinators. Cycads, which were widespread and pervasive throughout the Mesozoic (250-65 mya) are among the most primitive living seed-plants found today. Because pollination by beetles and by thrips has now been detected in several modern cycads, it is attractive to speculate that some insects and cycads had already developed similar mutualistic interactions in the Triassic (250-205 mya), long before the advent of angiosperms. We also draw attention to another key factor in this insect-plant relationship, namely secondary, defensive plant substances which must always have controlled interspecific interactions. Cycads mainly produce toxic azoglucosides and neurotoxic non-protein amino acids (e.g. BMAA), which apparently are crucial elements in the development and maintenance of mutualism (pollination) and parasitism (herbivory) by cycad-linked herbivores. We now add new results on the uptake and storage of the main toxin, cycasin, of the Mexican cycad Zamia furfuracea by its pollinator, the weevil Rhopalotria mollis, and by a specialist herbivore of Zamia integrifolia, the aposematic Atala butterfly Eumaeus atala.     

瑞士阿尔卑斯山金矿化的新类型——迪森蒂斯金矿化

在瑞士阿尔卑斯山中东部迪森蒂斯发现了金矿化。1983年开始进行地质填图,1986年和1987年进行了地球化学勘探和地球物理勘探,共打了17口钻孔。在塔韦奇地块内圈出了3个性质不同的矿化层以及与其有关的蚀变区域,在戈特哈德地块内发现了一个金矿苗。迪森蒂斯的金矿化主要有两类:(1)由金品位最高达8.5g/t的层状黄铁矿组成的块状硫化物层,厚达5cm;(2)产于片状层内石英岩质岩石中的浸染状硫化物。与金矿化有关的伴生金属矿物,主要有黄铁矿、毒砂、磁黄铁矿、磁铁矿等。     

Settlement decisions in blue tits: difference in the use of social information according to age and individual success

Dispersers are expected to assess breeding habitat quality before settlement. Although cues reflecting habitat quality are well studied, social cues have not been as well evaluated. In this paper, we studied breeding habitat selection during 3 years in a natural population of blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus, breeding in nest-boxes. Our aim was to investigate if this species used conspecific density and/or reproductive success of con- and heterospecifics (i.e., social cues) in settlement decisions. The patterns observed were consistent with the idea that juveniles, when dispersing from their natal patches, did not react to any of the cues that we tested. In contrast, breeders that dispersed seemed to respond to both conspecific mean patch reproductive success (PRS) and breeding density of the settlement patch in the year of dispersal, their response differing according to their own reproductive success. Indeed, failed breeders moved to areas with high PRS and low density relative to source patches, while successful breeders behaved the opposite. The comparison between juveniles and adults might be modulated by the limited time available to juveniles to gather information on PRS and density at the end of the dispersing year. Adults lacking these time constraints, however, seemed to rely on these conspecific cues although limited by their own quality. Additionally, breeders were more likely to be immigrants in patches with relatively low breeding success and density the previous year, suggesting that settlement is influenced by multiple cues, which may reveal information on different aspects of habitat and be available at different moments. Collectively, our results support the importance of social cues for blue tits’ settlement.     

Experience,but not distance,influences the recruitment precision in the stingless bee <Emphasis Type="Italic">Scaptotrigona mexicana</Emphasis>

Recruitment precision, i.e. the proportion of recruits that reach an advertised food source, is a crucial adaptation of social bees to their environment. Studies with honeybees showed that recruitment precision is not a fixed feature, but it may be enhanced by factors like experience and distance. However, little is known regarding the recruitment precision of stingless bees. Hence, in this study, we examined the effects of experience and spatial distance on the precision of the food communication system of the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana. We conducted the experiments by training bees to a three-dimensional artificial patch at several distances from the colony. We recorded the choices of individual recruited foragers, either being newcomers (foragers without experience with the advertised food source) or experienced (foragers that had previously visited the feeder). We found that the average precision of newcomers (95.6 ± 2.61%) was significantly higher than that of experienced bees (80.2 ± 1.12%). While this might seem counter-intuitive on first sight, this “loss” of precision can be explained by the tendency of experienced recruits to explore nearby areas to find new rewarding food sources after they had initially learned the exact location of the food source. Increasing the distance from the colony had no significant effect on the precision of the foraging bees. Thus, our data show that experience, but not the distance of the food source, affected the patch precision of S. mexicana foragers.     

Plant surface wax affects parasitoid’s response to host footprints

The plant surface is the substrate upon which herbivorous insects and natural enemies meet and thus represents the stage for interactions between the three trophic levels. Plant surfaces are covered by an epicuticular wax layer which is highly variable depending on species, cultivar or plant part. Differences in wax chemistry may modulate ecological interactions. We explored whether caterpillars of Spodoptera frugiperda, when walking over a plant surface, leave a chemical trail (kairomones) that can be detected by the parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris. Chemistry and micromorphology of cuticular waxes of two barley eceriferum wax mutants (cer-za.126, cer-yp.949) and wild-type cv. Bonus (wt) were assessed. The plants were then used to investigate potential surface effects on the detectability of caterpillar kairomones. Here we provide evidence that C. marginiventris responds to chemical footprints of its host. Parasitoids were able to detect the kairomone on wild-type plants and on both cer mutants but the response to cer-yp.949 (reduced wax, high aldehyde fraction) was less pronounced. Experiments with caterpillar-treated wt and mutant leaves offered simultaneously, confirmed this observation: no difference in wasp response was found when wt was tested against cer-za.126 (reduced wax, wt-like chemical composition) but wt was significantly more attractive than cer-yp.949. This demonstrates for the first time that the wax layer can modulate the detectability of host kairomones.     

厦门西港海水质量对鱼卵胚胎发育畸形率的影响

以养殖场培育的花尾胡椒鲷受精卵为实验材料测试了厦门西域5个站位的表层水水样对花尾胡椒鲷受精卵的胚胎发育毒性,并运用GC－MS手段分析了水样中的美国EPA优控的16PAHs组分的含量。结果表明：3号站位（厦门市工业和生活污水主要排放口的外侧）和4号站位（厦门西港的港区）的水样对鱼卵的胚胎发育的毒性最强。8号站位（位于主航道并濒临嵩屿电厂）的水样对鱼卵胚胎发良的毒性次之,1号站位（湾口）和5号站位（内港）的水样对鱼卵的胚胎发育的毒性较小。水样中的PAHs含量分析结果表明,仅用水样中的PAHs含量不能全面地反映水样对鱼卵胚胎发育的毒性。最后,对本实验方法应用于海洋环境生物监测的有效性进行了探讨。     

Snake fangs from the Lower Miocene of Germany: evolutionary stability of perfect weapons

There is a general consensus that most of today’s nonvenomous snakes are descendants of venomous snakes that lost their venomous capabilities secondarily. This implies that the evolutionary history of venomous snakes and their venom apparatus should be older than the current evidence from the fossil record. We compared some of the oldest-known fossil snake fangs from the Lower Miocene of Germany with those of modern viperids and elapids and found their morphology to be indistinguishable from the modern forms. The primary function of recent elapid and viperid snake fangs is to facilitate the extremely rapid, stab-like application of highly toxic venoms. Our findings therefore indicate that the other components of the venom-delivery system of Early Miocene vipers and elapids were also highly developed, and that these snakes used their venom in the same way as their modern relatives. Thus, the fossil record supports the view that snakes used their venoms to rapidly subdue prey long before the mid-Tertiary onset of the global environmental changes that seem to have supported the successful radiation of venomous snakes.