Responses of plant, insect and spider biodiversity to local and landscape scale management intensity in cereal crops and grasslands

The aim of this study was to determine the relative effects of landscape scale management intensity, agroecosystem type, local management intensity and edges on diversity patterns of functional groups of plants, carabid beetles, spiders and grasshoppers. Nine landscapes were selected differing in percent intensively used agricultural area (IAA), each with a pair of organic and conventional winter wheat fields and a pair of organic and conventional mown meadows. Within fields, plants were surveyed in the edge and in the interior. Carabid beetles and spiders were captured by funnel traps, while grasshoppers were sweep-netted in the meadows. Diversity patterns of study organisms were affected both by local variables (local management, agroecosystem type and within-field position) and by landscape scale management intensity. Species richness of grasses, presumably because of sowing low-diversity mixtures, and hunting spiders decreased with percent cover of IAA. Meadows differed from wheat fields in that they had higher species richness of forbs and grasses, as well as higher densities of hunting spiders. In contrast, more carabid individuals, especially of non-carnivore species, were captured in wheat fields. In field edges with their reduced management intensity and increased immigration, species richness of plants, carabids and spiders was higher than in the interiors regardless of agroecosystem type and management. Organic management enhanced forb richness and cover in both agroecosystem types. Organic management also increased grass cover in wheat fields, but not in meadows, and promoted species richness of non-carnivore carabids and hunting spiders, but not grasshoppers. The results show that agri-environmental management needs to be targeted to the agroecosystem's field size, because higher edge area led to higher species richness. Organic management affected several functional groups positively (forbs, non-carnivore carabids, hunting spiders), while lower landscape scale management intensity only increased species richness of grasses and spiders. The great differences in responses of functional groups to local cereal and grassland as well as landscape management suggest implementing more scale and group specific targets for agri-environmental schemes to improve their efficiency.     

Contribution of the Kodama and 4S pathways to the dibenzothiophene biodegradation in different coastal wetlands under different C/N ratios

Dibenzothiophene (DBT) degradation mechanisms and the transformation of pathways during the incubation of three types of coastal sediments with C/N ratios ranging from 1 to 9 were investigated. The DBT degradation efficiencies were clearly improved with increasing C/N ratio in reed wetland sediments, tidal wetlands sediments and estuary wetland sediments. The quantitative response relationships between DBT degradation rates and related functional genes demonstrate that the Kodama pathway-related gene groups were dominant factors at low C/N ratios, while the 4S-related gene groups mainly determined the degradation rate when the C/N ratio was up to 5. Network analysis also shows that the pathway shifts from the Kodama pathway to the 4S pathway occurred through changes in the connections between functional genomes and rates. Furthermore, there were competition and collaboration between the Kodama and 4S pathways. The 4S pathway-related bacteria were more active in estuary wetland sediments compared with reed wetland sediments and tidal wetland sediments. The higher degradation efficiency in estuary wetland sediments may indicate the greater participation of the 4S pathway in the DBT biodegradation reaction. And the effects of ring cleavage of Kodama pathway caused more complete metabolizing of DBT.     

鄂尔多斯周缘地震带中长期地震趋势估计

本文基于一定的地震资料,分别应用最大熵原理、贝努里概型以及计算地震复发周期的经验关系式,对鄂尔多斯周缘地震带进行了中强地震的中长期地震趋势估计。     

基于UAHP的采空区稳定性模糊综合评判

为准确评判矿山采空区稳定性等级,通过分析采空区稳定性各影响因素,确定地质、水文、采空区几何参数、环境等4个2级指标为影响其稳定性的主要因素。运用层次分析法(AHP)并结合模糊数学理论,建立采空区稳定性2级模糊综合评判模型。用区间数表示评判结果,分析处理评判矩阵得到专家评判的相似度和差异度,进而获取专家评判的可信度,建立基于不确定型层次分析法(UAHP)的采空区稳定性模糊评判方法。实例计算结果表明:在Ⅰ级评判指标中,地质构造、周围开采影响、地下水活动程度、跨度对采空区稳定性影响较大;用该采空区的稳定性等级为Ⅱ级。用该方法能得出各影响因素的综合权重,准确评判采空区稳定性等级。     

Social and ecological factors affecting paternity allocation in American robins with overlapping broods

Factors that affect extra-pair mating in birds are likely to vary across the breeding season. Changing densities of active nests may alter the opportunities for extra-pair mating, and parental duties may alter a male’s opportunity to guard his mate from extra-pair mating. The latter affects species with multiple broods, where males care for fledglings from first nests while females initiate second nests. We studied a population of multi-brooded American robins (Turdus migratorius) to assess how seasonal changes in nesting density and changes in mate-guarding opportunity influenced paternity patterns over successive breeding attempts. Extra-pair paternity (EPP) occurred in 71.9% of broods and accounted for 48.1% of young. High nesting densities in the study population may explain the high overall rate of EPP, but seasonal variation in breeding density did not explain patterns of EPP among nests. Contrary to the predictions of the mate-guarding hypothesis, EPP did not increase in the second nests that followed successful first nests, and the percentage of extra-pair young in second nests did not decline as the overlap between successive nests increased. The fact that EPP was actually lower when the interval between clutches was shorter suggests that the sooner the males can assume sole care of first broods and allow their mates to renest (indicative of superior paternal quality), the more paternity they realize in the next nest. These results suggest that mate-guarding opportunity does not influence paternity in this population of American robins and that female robins may allocate paternity based on their assessment of male parental performance at first nests.     

Factors influencing length of maternal care in brown bears (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ursus arctos</Emphasis>) and its effect on offspring

Length of maternal care, i.e. the interval between successfully raised litters, is the most important factor explaining the variation in reproductive rate among brown-bear (Ursus arctos) populations. In this paper, we examine the variation in length of maternal care in radio-marked brown bears and its effect on their offspring in northern Sweden. Young stayed with their mothers for 1.4–1.5 or 2.4–2.5 (in one case 3.5) years and were weaned with body masses varying from 17 to 69 kg. The probability of yearling litters staying with their mother for a 2nd year increased with decreasing yearling body mass, and was higher for litters with two offspring than for litters with one or three to four offspring. Staying with their mothers for a 2nd year had a positive effect on mass gain in yearlings and this effect was more pronounced in litters with two than three to four offspring. Body mass of 2-year-olds was not related to age of weaning, suggesting that keeping offspring for an additional year mainly compensated for low yearling body mass. If large offspring body mass positively affects later offspring survival and reproduction, mothers may be able to optimize the length of maternal care according to the litter size and the size of their yearlings.Communicated by F. Trillmich     

Resampling from stochastic simulations

To model the uncertainty of an estimate of a global property, the estimation process is repeated on multiple simulated fields, with the same sampling strategy and estimation algorithm. As opposed to conventional bootstrap, this resampling scheme allows for spatially correlated data and the common situation of preferential and biased sampling. The practice of this technique is developed on a large data set where the reference sampling distributions are available. Comparison of the resampled distributions to that reference shows the probability intervals obtained by resampling to be reasonably accurate and conservative, provided the original and actual sample has been corrected for the major biases induced by preferential sampling.Andre G. Journel is a Professor of Petroleum Engineering at Stanford University with a joint appointment in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. He is, also, Director of the Stanford Center for Reservoir Forecasting. Professor Journel has pioneered applications of geostatistical techniques in the mining/petroleum industry and extended his expertise to environmental applications and repository site characterization. Most notably, he developed the concept of non-parametric geostatistics and stochastic imaging with application to modeling uncertainty in reservoir/site characterization. Although the research described in this article has been supported by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under Cooperative Agreement CR819407, it has not been subjected to Agency review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.     

温度对多孔射气介质氡析出影响试验研究

为了研究围岩中温度对氡析出率的影响,选取某铀矿铀尾矿矿砂试样,根据相似准则设计并制作了测量多孔射气介质氡析出率的室内试验装置。采用RAD-7氡测量仪,运用等时间间隔取样方法测量氡浓度。采用对照试验的方法研究了温度对多孔射气介质氡析出率的影响规律。试验结果表明,在自然压力下,在温度为20℃到60℃范围内,随着温度的升高,多孔介质氡析出率逐渐增大,并且氡析出率与温度符合线性函数关系。     

基于最优传递矩阵的层次分析法在桥梁震害评估中的应用

影响桥梁抗震性能的因素众多,鉴于传统的定量方法无法精确权衡各因素的影响程度,因此,考虑将不确定型层次分析法引入桥梁的震害评估中,对区间标度的合理选择作了简要讨论,运用1～9标度采集数据,兼顾10/10～18/2标度的精确性,对初始判断矩阵进行折算。利用最优传递矩阵的概念,对传统的AHP进行改进,直接求出各指标的权重值。并将此方法应用到实例当中,建立基于地震波、墩台基础、支座、结构因素、环境因素等多因素影响下的桥梁震害评估模型,得到桥梁最终的综合评估值。     

基于心态指标的煤矿瓦斯爆炸区间数模糊评价

为了评估煤矿瓦斯爆炸的安全性,根据瓦斯爆炸的形成条件和事故致因理论,建立了评价体系。然后采用一种新的区间数模糊评价方法,建立数学模型。传统的区间数模糊评价方法是根据最大隶属度原则判断该对象的优劣,不能进行多个对象之间的评价。该方法综合考虑了最大隶属度和评语集,提出区间数的内积公式,进而得到每个对象的综合分数,通过比较其大小进行多个对象之间的评价。考虑到决策者不同心态时对决策方案的影响,引入心态指标,通过调节心态指标来比较综合分数,从而得出煤矿之间的安全性大小。最后,将该方法应用到3所煤矿,运用基于中点值的区间数排序方法对综合评判向量进行分析,所得结果与该方法的结果基本一致,从而验证该方法的正确性。