Quantitative analysis of riparian herbaceous community in Liaohe River Conservation Area and its tributaries北大核心CSCD

Research on community characteristics of riparian herbs is an important scientific basis of riparian vegetation rehabilitation. This study aimed to investigate the species diversity and quantitative characteristics of riparian herbs in Liaohe River Conservation Area and its tributaries. Herbaceous communities were investigated by sample line method. Group average clustering analysis and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) were used to find the major environmental factors affecting the distribution pattern of riparian herbaceous communities. The result showed altogether 154 herbaceous species, belonging to 40 families and 96 genera. The riparian herbaceous species diversity was found to be correlated to river slope, sinuosity and stream order, being lower in rivers of mountain area than in rivers of plain area, and higher in tributaries than in Liaohe River Conservation Area. Clustering analysis classified the herbaceous communities into 23 types, being dominated by hygrophytes including communities of Echinochloa crusgalli, Oenanthe javanica, Polygonum hydropiper, Murdannia keisak, Artemisia selengensis, Scirpus triqueter, Heleocharis soloniensis, Pycreus sanguinolentus, Cyperus fuscus, Phragmites australis, Polygonum amphibium, Carex diandra + Artemisia selengensis and Carex diandra + Rorippa islandica. Correlation analysis between DCA ordination axes and environmental factors showed that the altitude, river slope, sinuosity and stream level were the major environmental factors affecting the distribution pattern of herbaceous communities in the riparian zone of Liaohe River Conservation Area and its tributaries. The results of CCA showed that the contribution ratio of stream level was the highest, followed by altitude and slope, with sinuosity the last. The results suggested that riparian herbaceous characteristics are affected by the comprehensive force of altitude, river slope, sinuosity and stream order, and that Calamagrostis epigeios, Triarrhena sacchariflora and Phragmites australis are suitable species for riparian vegetation rehabilitation.     

可燃物化学性质对燃烧释放PM2.5元素成分的影响

通过自主设计的燃烧装置,对云南省6种典型乔木树种的不同器官(枝、叶、皮)室内模拟阴、明燃两种燃烧过程,收集燃烧排放颗粒物(PM_2.5)并测定K、Mg等8种元素排放因子,比较不同燃烧状态释放PM_2.5中元素含量的差异,同时分析各元素排放因子与可燃物自身元素含量之间的相关性.结果表明:可燃物中K、Mg和Ca元素含量较高,范围为(137.74~4670.70) mg/kg,微量元素Mn含量突出;阔叶可燃物元素含量普遍高于针叶,器官间元素含量差异显著;燃烧释放PM_2.5中K、Na元素排放因子较高,范围为(0.4269~4.9321)~(0.6311~3.0856) mg/kg,微量元素Zn较高、Cu最少,范围为(0.0409~0.3670)~(0.0029~0.0458) mg/kg,常量元素高于微量;树种间元素排放因子表现针叶高于阔叶,器官间较可燃物自身差异增大;燃烧状态对排放因子存在影响,常量元素普遍表现为明燃>阴燃,微量元素无明显规律;PM_2.5与可燃物各元素含量比值中,Na元素最高,其余元素占比普遍0~1%范围,微量元素含量比高于常量,针叶高于阔叶;可燃物的化学性质对其排放特性影响显著,可燃物与PM_2.5的元素间相关性较高,相关水平普遍达0.600以上,器官间不同元素相关水平表现为:常量元素普遍高于微量元素,针叶略高于阔叶,叶>皮>枝,明燃高于阴燃.     

土地集约利用程度对华北潮土农田土壤微生物群落丰度和死生物物质积累的影响

土壤微生物决定着土壤生态系统的养分周转状况,其死生物物质在土壤有机碳(SOC)积累中发挥关键作用.然而,目前缺乏对土壤微生物群落丰度及其死生物物质如何响应农业土地集约利用程度调整的了解.为弥补这一知识缺口,基于土地集约化利用程度,设置小麦-玉米周年轮作(CC)、临时草地与小麦种植交替(TG)和多年生草地(PG)这3个处理开展长期定位试验,采用基于数字PCR和微生物标志物氨基糖的检测技术,以探究农业土地集约利用程度调整对土壤细菌和真菌数量,以及细菌、真菌和总微生物死生物物质C积累及其对土壤SOC封存贡献的影响,进一步明确驱动细菌、真菌和总微生物死生物物质C积累的关键因子.结果表明,与土壤细菌群落丰度相比,真菌群落丰度受到农业土地集约利用程度调整的强烈影响,随土地集约利用程度的降低而增加.在3种土地集约利用程度处理下,土壤总微生物死生物物质C均主导SOC积累,对SOC的贡献率分别达到52.78%、 58.36%和68.87%,呈现随土地集约利用程度降低而升高的趋势;真菌死生物物质C占总微生物死生物物质C的比例均大于80%,说明其对总微生物死生物物质C的绝对主导地位,且受土地集约利用程度降低...     

The influence of odour on the oviposition behaviour of the cabbage root fly

Summary. Host plant odours are known to be important in long-range host location by the cabbage root fly, whereas at short distances orientation is mainly visual. We show that olfaction also plays a significant role after a fly lands on a plant and before it moves down onto the soil to oviposit. Host plant acceptance by the cabbage root fly seems to result from a synergistic response to simultaneously perceived olfactory and contact chemostimulation. Received 12 May 1999; accepted 24 July 1999     

Environmental Awareness, Economic Orientation, and Farming Practices: A Comparison of Organic and Conventional Farmers

/ This study examines similarities and differences between organic and conventional farmers. We explore the factors that underlie farmers' conservation attitudes and behaviors, including demographic and farm characteristics, awareness of and concern for environmental problems associated with agriculture, economic orientation toward farming, and self-reported conservation practices. A series of intensive personal interviews was conducted with 25 farmers in Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA, using both qualitative and quantitative survey methods. The findings indicate that both groups of farmers share a concern for the economic risks associated with farming, although the organic farmers reported a significantly greater concern for long-term sustainability and a greater willingness to incur present risk to gain future benefits. Organic farmers expressed a greater awareness of and concern for environmental problems associated with agriculture. Organic farmers also scored significantly higher on a multifaceted measure of conservation practices, although both groups had a fairly high adoption rate. Implications of these findings are discussed, relative to economic risks of farming, implications for new farmers, effectiveness of conservation education and government programs, and impact of farm size and crop diversity.KEY WORDS: Environmental attitudes; Conservation behaviors; Organic farming; Agricultural sustainability     

RESEARCH: Optimizing the Mix of Strategies for Control of Vehicular Emissions

/ A number of strategies for the control of vehicular emissions are being considered by the Philippine government to address Metropolitan Manila's air quality problem. An analytical tool is needed for optimizing criteria pollutant reductions given the budgetary constraints. The simplest approach is to take costs and pollutant removals to be linear with each strategy's scale of activity, and this is readily solved as a linear programming problem. Another approach is to use a dynamic system of weights which shift with progressive improvements in pollutant emissions. The two approaches yield somewhat different results, suggesting the sensitivity of the solution to the assumed weights. The study also illustrates the importance of a sound methodology for evaluating priorities given to different air quality goals. One such methodology may involve a polling of expert panels and the public to gain insight into the relative importance given to competing emissions reduction goals. An informal polling of resource agency staff was conducted and discussed in this paper. The authors take the position that proper planning involves tracing intermediate steps to the final outcome and not just focusing on the latter.KEY WORDS: Vehicular emissions; Urban air quality; Emissions control; Optimization; Manila; Environmental systems analysis     

Earthquake Planning for Government Continuity

/ The problem of assuring government operational continuity following earthquakes has been given little research attention. Recent earthquake experience has documented that government organizations without a public safety mission do incur damaged facilities and routinely see increases in public demands following an earthquake. Impediments to service delivery associated with such dam-ages can be minimized if agencies address earthquake plan elements likely to enhance postimpact functioning, including: the potential to relocate operations, protection for the workplace, possession of an organizational inventory, emergency instructions for employees, the ability to use volunteers, and communication capacity. Factors associated with the adoption of these plan elements were studied in one county government and its municipal county seat in the southwestern United States. A census of departments within these jurisdictions was asked to complete a questionnaire reporting the level of planning activity relative to each of these plan elements. It was found that the overall level of preparedness was low, but statistically significantly related to agency size, perceived risk, and information seeking. The implications of these findings underscore the potential for disruption to government service delivery and permit the identification of potential avenues for increasing levels of preparedness.KEY WORDS: Emergency planning; Earthquakes; Government preparedness     

Trisomy 2 due to a 3:1 segregation in an abortion studied by QF-PCR and CGH

Balanced reciprocal translocation is one of the known causes of recurrent spontaneous abortions. Cytogenetic studies of unbalanced miscarriages are difficult due to the growth failure of early loss and usually macerated abortions. We present a molecular study of an abortion in which the father carries a balanced reciprocal translocation t(2;17)(q32.1;q24.3) using QF-PCR and CGH techniques. DNA analysis showed the presence of a trisomy 2 due to a 3:1 interchange segregation. Recombinant events could also be investigated by comparing DNA samples from the family. We propose QF-PCR in addition to CGH as an efficient diagnostic method to improve our knowledge of unbalanced offspring in balanced translocation carriers. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of land management on soil microbial N supply to crop N uptake in a dry tropical cropland in Tanzania

In Sub-Saharan Africa, conservation of available soil N during early crop growth, when N loss by leaching generally occurs, is important to improve crop productivity. In a dry tropical cropland in Tanzania, we assessed the potential role of soil microbes as a temporal N sink-source to conserve the available soil N until later crop growth, which generally requires substantial crop N uptake. We evaluated the effect of land management [i.e., no input, plant residue application before planting (P plot) with or without fertilizer application, fertilizer application alone, and non-cultivated plots] on the relationship between soil N pool [microbial biomass N (MBN) and inorganic N] and crop N uptake throughout the ∼120-d crop growth period in two consecutive years. In the P plot, MBN clearly increased (∼14.6-29.6 kg N ha⁻¹) early in the crop growth period in both years because of immobilization of potentially leachable N, and it conserved a larger soil N pool (∼10.5-21.2 kg N ha⁻¹) than in the control plot. Especially in one year in which N leaching was critical, increased MBN maintained a larger soil N pool in the P plot throughout the experimental period, and a delay of increased MB C:N ratio and a substantial decrease in MBN was observed, indicating better soil microbial N supply for crop N uptake during later crop growth. Therefore, plant residue application before planting should enhance the role of soil microbes as a temporal N sink-source, leading to the conservation of potentially leachable N until later phase of crop growth, especially in years in which N leaching is relatively severe. Although further studies are necessary, our results suggest that plant residue application before planting is a promising option to achieve better N synchronization.     

实时合成水滑石分离模拟放射性核素锶的研究

采用实时合成水滑石的方法从高放废液中分离模拟放射性核素锶,通过单因素实验并借助XRD分析确定了最佳分离实验条件,同时,运用FTIR、SEM等技术手段对合成的含锶水滑石的结构、形貌进行了分析.结果表明,当Sr2+初始浓度为70mg.L-1、pH值为10.5、n(Mg+Sr)/n(Al)为3时,锶的去除率最高可达95%以上;XRD和SEM分析结果表明,锶嵌入了水滑石的晶格中,合成的含锶水滑石形貌为层状六边形;含锶水滑石煅烧产物主要为尖晶石,且煅烧产物中未见氧化锶,表明嵌入到水滑石晶格中的锶在煅烧后存在于尖晶石的晶体结构中.