Opposable spines facilitate fine and gross object manipulation in fire ants

Ants inhabit diverse terrestrial biomes from the Sahara Desert to the Arctic tundra. One factor contributing to the ants’ successful colonization of diverse geographical regions is their ability to manipulate objects when excavating nests, capturing, transporting and rendering prey or grooming, feeding and transporting helpless brood. This paper is the first to report the form and function of opposable spines on the foretarsi of queens and workers used during fine motor and gross motor object manipulation in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. In conjunction with their mandibles, queens and workers used their foretarsi to grasp and rotate eggs, push or pull thread-like objects out of their way or push excavated soil pellets behind them for disposal by other workers. Opposable spines were found on the foretarsi of workers from seven of eight other ant species suggesting that they might be a common feature in the Formicidae.     

铁路两侧划分声环境功能区的讨论

讨论现有标准对铁路两侧声环境功能区划分的适用性,概括与铁路两侧声环境功能区划分相关的研究成果,提出尽快制定铁路两侧声环境功能区划分标准的建议.     

Plant leaf economics and reproductive investment are responsive to gradients of land use intensity

Relationships between functional leaf traits across large sets of plant species emphasized the existence of a major axis describing a trade-off between rapid acquisition and conservation of resources forming the so-called “leaf economics spectrum”. It is uncertain which environmental factors determine the economics spectrum and whether traits associated with reproduction co-vary with the economics spectrum. To determine these trait-environment relationships for agricultural ecosystems, this study was conducted at field, pasture, and heathland sites forming a strong land use gradient in Northwest Germany. The abundance of 49 species was recorded in 85 plots together with their traits (canopy height, specific leaf area, leaf N, leaf N:P, leaf and stem dry matter content, life cycle, reproductive investment (RI) in seed mass and seed number), as well as parameters describing soil resources and land use disturbances. RLQ multivariate analysis of the data set related an environmental table to a species trait table using a species abundance table to extract the joint structure between them. Thereafter, we clustered the species on the RLQ axis to extract functional groups. Traits associated with the leaf economics spectrum were strongly related to soil resources that co-varied with disturbance intensity. A division of the whole land use gradient into agricultural and heathland sites showed that RI was not decoupled from trait-environment relationships although the direction of the RI-environment relationship was opposite in the two subsets. Species were clumped rather than linearly arranged in the trait-environment space and the functional groups broadly corresponded to weed communities, pastures with differing intensities, and heathlands. The trade-off in plant economics responding to soil resources supports predictions of previous theoretical and empirical work. Different RI-environment relationships in agricultural sites and heathlands emphasize the relevance of local scales in trait-environment studies. In general, the results point to some of the biological mechanisms controlling functions and services of agricultural ecosystems.     

Road to full bioconversion of biowaste to biochemicals centering on chain elongation: A mini review

Production of biochemicals from waste streams has been attracting increasing worldwide interest to achieve climate protection goals. Chain elongation(CE) for production of mediumchain carboxylic acids(MCCAs, especially caproate, enanthate and caprylate) from diverse biowaste has emerged as a potential economic and environmental technology for a sustainable society. The present mini review summarizes the research utilizing various synthetic or real waste-derived substrates available for MCCA production. Additionally, the microbial characteristics of the CE process are surveyed and discussed. Considering that a large proportion of recalcitrantly biodegradable biowaste and residues cannot be further utilized by CE systems and remain to be treated and disposed, we propose here a loop concept of bioconversion of biowaste to MCCAs making full use of the biowaste with zero emission. This could make possible an alternative technology for synthesis of value-added products from a wide range of biowaste, or even non-biodegradable waste(such as, plastics and rubbers). Meanwhile, the remaining scientific questions, unsolved problems, application potential and possible developments for this technology are discussed.     

Regeneration performance and carbon consumption of semi-coke and activated coke for SO2 and NO removal

To decrease the operating cost of flue gas purification technologies based on carbon-based materials, the adsorption and regeneration performance of low-price semi-coke and activated coke were compared for SO₂ and NO removal in a simulated flue gas. The functional groups of the two adsorbents before and after regeneration were characterized by a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, and were quantitatively assessed using temperature programmed desorption (TPD) coupled with FTIR and acid–base titration. The results show that semi-coke had higher adsorption capacity (16.2% for SO₂ and 38.6% for NO) than activated coke because of its higher content of basic functional groups and lactones. After regeneration, the adsorption performance of semi-coke decreased because the number of active functional groups decreased and the micropores increased. Semi-coke had better regeneration performance than activated coke. Semi-coke had a larger SO₂ recovery of 7.2% and smaller carbon consumption of 12% compared to activated coke. The semi-coke carbon-based adsorbent could be regenerated at lower temperatures to depress the carbon consumption, because the SO₂ recovery was only reduced a small amount.     

Levels of community participation and satisfaction with decentralized wildlife management in Idodi-Pawaga Wildlife Management Area,Tanzania

Participatory approaches to conservation are viewed as a plausible alternative to the old ‘fortress conservation’ approach. The design and implementation of these approaches in developing countries have tended to embrace community participation through decentralized governance mechanisms in the past three decades. However, sustainable conservation approaches that maintain community livelihoods while conserving biodiversity are challenged with meeting both objectives. In addressing this challenge, little attention has been given to an empirical analysis of community’s satisfaction levels on how they participated in the design and implementation of this approach. In this article, we use a mixed method approach using both quantitative and qualitative data to examine levels of satisfaction and participation of local communities in the Idodi-Pawaga Wildlife Management Area (WMA), south-western Tanzania. We find that social economic factors (e.g. age, household size, gender, number of years living in the same location and participation/non-participation) influence, in different ways, the satisfaction levels of community’s participation towards the WMA creation. Due to inadequate participation, we find that the WMA design and implementation process failed from the beginning to actively involve the local communities and this has resulted in the near absence of the promised economic benefits from wildlife conservation. We suggest that participation should go beyond the simple information sharing to actively engage the local communities in key planning activities from the beginning of any WMA programme. It is also important to take into consideration their levels of satisfaction with the process of decision-making if meaningful decentralized governance is to be achieved.     

我国环境空间规划制度的研究进展

建立严格的环境空间管控制度,可以破解现阶段城市出现的一系列复合型、区域性和格局性环境问题,对从源头促进"人-城市-自然"和谐发展具有重要意义。为全面梳理环境空间规划制度和弥补其研究发展中的不足,对以环境功能区划、城市环境总体规划和生态保护红线制度为代表的环境空间规划制度的理论、技术与实践进行了较为全面的分析,对现有研究和未来探索提出展望,以期为以环境质量改善和风险防范为指导的环境空间规划制度提供理论依据和实践管理经验,从而全面引导城市的健康可持续发展。     

中国近岸海域环境分区管理方法探讨

为了更加合理地利用海洋能量使海水净化,改善近岸海域的环境质量,保持我国沿海经济的持续发展,文中运用经典自然区划理论,分析研究了我国近岸海域环境功能区划和污水海洋处置度划分等的分区管理特点,进而提出对我国近岸海域环境尽快实施分区管理的建议。      

Chemical composition and source apportionment of PM10 and PM2.5 in different functional areas of Lanzhou, China

To elucidate the air pollution characteristics of northern China, airborne PM_10(atmospheric dynamic equivalent diameter ≤ 10 μm) and PM_(2.5)(atmospheric dynamic equivalent diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) were sampled in three different functional areas(Yuzhong County,Xigu District and Chengguan District) of Lanzhou, and their chemical composition(elements, ions, carbonaceous species) was analyzed. The results demonstrated that the highest seasonal mean concentrations of PM_10(369.48 μg/m~3) and PM_(2.5)(295.42 μg/m~3) were detected in Xigu District in the winter, the lowest concentration of PM_(2.5)(53.15 μg/m~3) was observed in Yuzhong District in the fall and PM_10(89.60 μg/m~3) in Xigu District in the fall.The overall average OC/EC(organic carbon/elemental carbon) value was close to the representative OC/EC ratio for coal consumption, implying that the pollution of Lanzhou could be attributed to the burning of coal. The content of SNA(the sum of sulfate, nitrate,ammonium, SNA) in PM_(2.5)in Yuzhong County was generally lower than that at other sites in all seasons. The content of SNA in PM_(2.5)and PM_10 in Yuzhong County was generally lower than that at other sites in all seasons(0.24–0.38), indicating that the conversion ratios from precursors to secondary aerosols in the low concentration area was slower than in the area with high and intense pollutants. Six primary particulate matter sources were chosen based on positive matrix factorization(PMF) analysis, and emissions from dust, secondary aerosols, and coal burning were identified to be the primary sources responsible for the particle pollution in Lanzhou.     

地理信息系统在水环境功能区划工作中的应用

运用GIS技术对水环境功能区划进行了详细的描述，并对今后环保工作中实际应用进行了探讨。