北极耐冷石油降解菌的筛选、鉴定及其碳源利用广谱性

从北极不同海底沉积物样品中富集、分离得到50株能以石油作为唯一碳源和能源的北极耐冷石油降解菌株,命名为BJ1、BJ2…BJ50,用红外分光光度法测定培养基中剩余油含量,选出降解率较高的菌株BJ1、BJ9和BJ19;通过形态学观察、生理生化试验和16S rDNA序列分析,将BJ1、BJ9和BJ19鉴定为假交替单胞菌属(Pseudoalteromonas,P.);以常见石油产品和石油中典型直链烷烃和芳香烃为唯一碳源培养的结果表明,该三株菌能在低温下利用多种碳源。研究结果表明,BJ1、BJ9和BJ19均为海洋耐冷石油降解菌,且对碳源的利用具有广谱性。     

环渤海区域典型河流下游水体中抗生素赋存状况及风险评估

利用高效液相色谱-串联质谱法分析了环渤海区域典型河流下游水体中6类58种抗生素的赋存特征,采用生态风险模型和人类健康风险模型分别评估了抗生素对生态和人体的健康风险.结果显示:环渤海区域4大典型河流(小凌河、滦河、黄河和大辽河)下游水体中有6类50种抗生素被检出,青霉素G浓度水平最高,最高浓度为353.13ng/L.β-...     

The response of the woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) to relaxation of intraspecific competition: A hybrid modelling approach

The recent rapid growth of the woodpigeon population in the British Isles is a cause for concern for environmental managers. It is unclear what has driven their increase in abundance. Using a mathematical model, we explored two possible mechanisms, reduced intraspecific competition for food and increased reproductive success. We developed an age-structured hybrid model consisting of a system of ordinary differential equations that describes density-dependent mortality and a discrete component, which represents the birth-pulse. We investigated equilibrium population dynamics using our model. The two hypotheses predict contrasting population age profiles at equilibrium. We adapted the model to examine the impacts of control measures. We showed that an annual shooting season that follows the period of density-dependent mortality is the most effective control strategy because it simultaneously removes adult and juvenile woodpigeons. The model is a first step towards understanding the processes that influence the dynamics of woodpigeon populations.     

我国典型土壤上重金属污染对番茄根伸长的抑制毒性效应

采用盆栽试验观测了我国3种典型土壤——黄泥土、褐土、红壤上不同重金属(铜、锌、铅)作用下敏感植物番茄的根伸长,其中黄泥土和褐土上重金属添加量范围为Cu(0～2000mg·kg-1)、Zn(0～4000mg·kg-1)和Pb(0～5000mg·kg-1),红壤上为Cu(0～400mg·kg-1)、Zn(0～750mg·kg-1)和Pb(0～2000mg·kg-1).对不同土壤上Cu、Zn、Pb对番茄的根伸长抑制率进行了比较,以阐明不同土壤上重金属种类及用量对蔬菜根生长的抑制及毒性效应.结果表明,相同Cu、Zn、Pb污染水平(添加量)下,土壤中重金属对番茄的根伸长抑制率大小顺序基本表现为:红壤>黄泥土>褐土.番茄对红壤中的重金属最敏感,其次是黄泥土,再次是褐土.番茄对不同重金属的毒性响应不同,对Cu最敏感,Zn和Pb次之.土壤中有效态重金属含量与番茄根伸长呈显著(p<0.05)或极显著(p<0.01)负相关,表明有效态重金属含量是影响蔬菜根伸长的重要因素.     

Phylogeny, niches, and relative abundance in natural communities

Community structure refers to the number of species in a community and the pattern of distribution of individuals among those species. We use a novel way of representing community structure to show that abundance within closely related pairs of co-occurring tree species in a highly diverse Mexican forest is more equitable than is abundance within more distantly related pairs. This observation is at odds with the fundamental assumption of neutral models of community structure, i.e., that species are interchangeable. The observed patterns suggest niche apportionment, in which interaction is focused pairwise between congeners but falls away from the phylogenetic structure above the genus level. Thus niche processes may significantly affect community structure through regulating relative abundance in a substantial proportion of species, which in turn potentially enhances community stability. One such mechanism of stable coexistence has already been shown to be active in this forest.     

Widespread contribution of methane-cycle bacteria to the diets of lake profundal chironomid larvae

Reports of unexpectedly 13C-depleted chironomid larvae in lakes have led to an hypothesis that significant transfer of detrital organic matter to chironomid larvae may occur via methane-cycle bacteria. However, to date little is known of how such transfer might vary across species and lakes. We gathered data from 87 lakes to determine how widespread this phenomenon might be and to define boundaries for its likely magnitude. Carbon stable isotope values of chironomid larvae varied greatly between taxa. Very marked 13C-depletion was evident only in certain taxa, especially Chironomus plumosus, C. anthracinus, and C. tenuistylus, all characteristic of eutrophic or dystrophic lakes and known to be tolerant of low oxygen conditions. Furthermore, marked 13C-depletion was only found in larvae from lakes in which late-summer hypolimnetic oxygen depletion near the sediment surface was below an apparent threshold concentration of 2-4 mg O2/L. Similarly, application of a two-source mixing model suggested that methanotrophic bacteria made the greatest contribution to profundal chironomid growth (0-70% of larval carbon) when the late-summer oxygen concentration dropped below approximately 2 mg O2/L. Our study demonstrates that methane-derived carbon is an important, but often neglected, contribution to the flux of carbon through the food webs of many productive or dystrophic lakes.     

Variation in offspring sex ratio among individual Weddell seal (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Leptonychotes weddellii</Emphasis>) females of different quality

The Trivers–Willard model predicts that in polygynous species, superior-quality females will maximize their fitness by producing male offspring. Using a sample of 1,780 Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) pups recorded over 31 years, we investigated relationships between offspring sex ratio and maternal age, reproductive experience, an index of maternal lifetime reproductive output, and annual environmental variations. We found evidence that females with higher index of lifetime reproductive output were more likely to produce male than female offspring but found only weak evidence that large-scale environmental variations influenced sex ratios. Our results suggest that mothers manipulate offspring sex to maximize their own fitness, and inherent maternal quality may influence offspring sex. These findings support the Trivers–Willard sex-allocation model. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

The effect of repeated vibration signals on worker behavior in established and newly founded colonies of the honey bee, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Apis mellifera</Emphasis>

Communication signals used in animal social interactions are frequently performed repetitively, but the function of this repetition is often not well understood. We examined the effects of signal repetition by investigating the behavior of worker honey bees that received differing numbers of vibration signals in established and newly founded colonies, which could use signal repetition differently to help adjust task allocations to the labor demands associated with the different stages of colony development. In both colony types, more than half of all monitored workers received more than one vibration signal, and approximately 12% received ≥5 signals during a given 20-min observation period. Vibrated recipients exhibited greater activity and task performance than same-age non-vibrated controls at all levels of signal activity. However, vibrated workers showed similar levels of task performance, movement rates, cell inspection rates, and trophallactic exchanges regardless of the number of signals received. Thus, the repeated performance of vibration signals on individual bees did not cause cumulative increases in the activity of certain workers, but rather may have functioned to maintain relatively constant levels of activity and task performance among groups of recipients. The established and newly founded colonies did not differ in the extent to which individual workers received the different numbers of vibration signals or in the levels of activity stimulated by repeated signals. Previous work has suggested that compared to established colonies, newly founded colonies have a greater number of vibrators that perform signals on a greater proportion of the workers they contact. Taken in concert, these results suggest that vibration signal repetition may help to adjust task allocations to the different stages of colony development by helping to maintain similar levels of activity among a greater total number of recipients, rather than by eliciting cumulative effects that cause certain recipients to work harder than others.     

Network structure and prevalence of Cryptosporidium in Belding’s ground squirrels

Although pathogen transmission dynamics are profoundly affected by population social and spatial structure, few studies have empirically demonstrated the population-level implications of such structure in wildlife. In particular, epidemiological models predict that the extent to which contact patterns are clustered decreases a pathogen’s ability to spread throughout an entire population, but this effect has yet to be demonstrated in a natural population. Here, we use network analysis to examine patterns of transmission of an environmentally transmitted parasite, Cryptosporidium spp., in Belding’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi). We found that the prevalence of Cryptosporidium was negatively correlated with transitivity, a measure of network clustering, and positively correlated with the percentage of juvenile males. Additionally, network transitivity decreased when there were higher percentages of juvenile males; the exploratory behavior demonstrated by juvenile males may have altered the structure of the network by reducing clustering, and low clustering was associated with high prevalence. We suggest that juvenile males are critical in mediating the ability of Cryptosporidium to spread through colonies, and thus may function as “super-spreaders.” Our results demonstrate the utility of a network approach in quantifying mechanistically how differences in contact patterns may lead to system-level differences in infection patterns.