EcoTroph: Modelling marine ecosystem functioning and impact of fishing

EcoTroph (ET) is a model articulated around the idea that the functioning of aquatic ecosystems may be viewed as a biomass flow moving from lower to higher trophic levels, due to predation and ontogenetic processes. Thus, we show that the ecosystem biomass present at a given trophic level may be estimated from two simple equations, one describing biomass flow, the other their kinetics (which quantifies the velocity of biomass transfers towards top predators). The flow kinetic of prey partly depends on the abundance of their predators, and a top-down equation expressing this is included in the model. Based on these relationships, we simulated the impact on a virtual ecosystem of various exploitation patterns. Specifically, we show that the EcoTroph approach is able to mimic the effects of increased fishing effort on ecosystem biomass expected from theory. Particularly, the model exhibits complex patterns observed in field data, notably cascading effects and ‘fishing down the food web’. EcoTroph also provides diagnostic tools for examining the relationships between catch and fishing effort at the ecosystem scale and the effects of strong top-down controls and fast-flow kinetics on ecosystems resilience. Finally, a dynamic version of the model is derived from the steady-state version, thus allowing simulations of time series of ecosystem biomass and catches. Using this dynamic model, we explore the propagation of environmental variability in the food web, and illustrated how exploitation can induce a decrease of ecosystem stability. The potential for applying EcoTroph to specific ecosystems, based on field data, and similarities between EcoTroph and Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) are finally discussed.     

西安市生态文明建设度评价

根据生态文明的内涵和本质特征,提出了一个3层、6个维度(经济潜力、生态环境、民生改善、基础设施、生态文化及廉洁高效)和33个单项评价指标的生态文明建设度评价指标体系。通过对2004-2008年西安市及其区县生态建设度的评价研究,表明西安市生态、环境和社会经济条件都有一定程度的改善,生态文明建设度有所发展,但整体上发展过于缓慢,各部分发展不均衡。     

SPATIAL VARIATIONS OF WATER LOSS DURING DROUGH A CASE STUDY1

ABSTRACT: A regional water conservation system for drought management involves many uncertain factors. Water received from precipitation may stay on the ground surface, evaporate back into the atmosphere, or infiltrate into the ground. Reliable estimates of the amount of evapotranspiration and infiltration are not available for a large basin, especially during periods of drought. By applying a geographic information system, this study develops procedures to investigate spatial variations of unavailable water for given levels of drought severity. Levels of drought severity are defined by truncated values of monthly precipitation and daily streamflow to reflect levels of water availability. The greater the truncation level, the lower the precipitation or streamflow. Truncation levels of monthly precipitation are recorded in depth of water while those of daily streamflow are converted into monthly equivalent water depths. Truncation levels of precipitation and streamflow treated as regionalized variables are spatially interpolated by the unbiased minimum variance estimation. The interpolated results are vector values of precipitation and streamflow at a grid of points covering the studied basin. They are then converted into raster‐based values and expressed graphically. The image subtraction operation is used to subtract the image of streamflow from that of precipitation at their corresponding level of drought severity. It is done on a cell‐by‐cell basis resulting in new attribute values to form the spatial image representing a spatial distribution of potential water loss at a given level of drought severity.     

三峡库区消落带土壤中重金属铬调查与分析

报道了三峡库区长江干流及小江支流消落带土壤重金属铬含量背景值调查结果。结果表明目前土壤未被重金属铬污染。     

巷道放顶煤人-机-环境系统可靠性研究

应用系统可靠性和人 -机工程学理论 ,建立了急倾斜煤层巷道放顶煤人 -机 -环境系统可靠性模型 ,给出了系统可用度和生产能力的计算公式。结合开滦马家沟矿 972 3工作面人 -机-环境系统分析 ,探讨了提高系统可靠性和生产能力的有效途径。理论分析及实例计算结果表明 ,所建立的模型能简便地找出系统的薄弱环节 ,准确预测系统可用度和生产能力 ,从而为指导矿井设计和生产提供科学依据     

多因素作用下同庭湖洪水调蓄量的变化

用实测资料分析比较了出口水位31．0m时,洞庭湖调蓄量的变化趋势及影响调蓄量的各种因素。用多元线性回归方法建立了调蓄量经验公式,并用该公式计算分析了各因素对调蓄量变化的影响。结果表明,该公式能够较全面地反映调蓄量变化的原因,且能够近似区分淤积和围垦对调蓄量的影响。     

GIS支持下乡镇域土壤肥力评价与分析

在地理信息系统支持下,以鄂南典型红壤丘陵区为例,研究了乡镇域土壤肥力评价的方法和过程,分析了土壤肥力变化原因。结果表明,应用GIS对乡镇域土壤肥力进行评价能克服速度慢、数据更新不方便的缺点,避免乡镇农业决策者主观判断土壤肥力等级的弊病,为生产布局和用地决策提供准确的科学依据。试区土壤肥力与土壤养分、土地利用和区域经济有关,肥力等级有向中等级变化的趋势。     

The role of internal and external information in foraging decisions of Melipona workers (Hymenoptera: Meliponinae)

Social insect foragers have to make foraging decisions based on information that may come from two different sources: information learned and memorised through their own experience (“internal” information) and information communicated by nest mates or directly obtained from their environment (“external” information). The role of these sources of information in decision-making by foragers was studied observationally and experimentally in stingless bees of the genus Melipona. Once a Melipona forager had started its food-collecting career, its decisions to initiate, continue or stop its daily collecting activity were mainly based upon previous experience (activity on previous days, the time at which foraging was initiated the day(s) before, and, during the day, the success of the last foraging flights) and mediated through direct interaction with the food source (load size harvested and time to collect a load). External information provided by returning foragers advanced the start of foraging of experienced bees. Most inexperienced bees initiated their foraging day after successful foragers had returned to the hive. The start of foraging by other inexperienced bees was stimulated by high waste-removal activity of nest mates. By experimentally controlling the entries of foragers (hence external information input) it was shown that very low levels of external information input had large effect on the departure of experienced foragers. After the return of a single successful forager, or five foragers together, the rate of forager exits increased dramatically for 15 min. Only the first and second entry events had large effect; later entries influenced forager exit patterns only slightly. The results show that Melipona foragers make decisions based upon their own experience and that communication stimulates these foragers if it concerns the previously visited source. We discuss the organisation of individual foraging in Melipona and Apis mellifera and are led to the conclusion that these species behave very similarly and that an information-integration model (derived from Fig. 1) could be a starting point for future research on social insect foraging. Received: 16 April 1997 / Accepted after revision: 30 August 1997     

大气CO2浓度增高对不同供氮水平下水稻生长和化感物质释放的影响

利用开放式空气CO2浓度升高(free air carbon-dioxide enrichment,FACE)平台中的水培试验,研究了低氮(LN:10 mg·L-1)和高氮(HN:30 mg·L-1)水平下,大气CO2浓度升高对化感与非化感水稻(Oryza sativa L.)品种的生长、碳氮比(C/N)和化感物质含量的影响,并分析了CO2浓度升高条件下水稻C/N和化感物质含量间的相互关系.结果表明:CO2浓度升高对化感(PI)与非化感水稻品种(秀水)的生长均有极显著促进作用.CO2浓度升高后,LN条件下水稻C/N显著增加,HN条件下则无显著变化.CO2浓度升高后化感水稻品种次生代谢物质含量增加,特征化感物质含量增加,非化感品种的这种变化不显著.化感水稻品种C/N分别与次生代谢物质含量和特征化感物质含量之间呈显著正相关关系.