Resource allocation in two species systems: Is it worth acknowledging species interactions?

It is becoming increasingly popular to consider species interactions when managing ecological foodwebs. Such an approach is useful in determining how management can affect multiple species, with either beneficial or detrimental consequences. Identifying such actions is particularly valuable in the context of conservation decision making as funding is severely limited. This paper outlines a new approach that simplifies the resource allocation problem in a two species system for a range of species interactions: independent, mutualism, predator-prey, and competitive exclusion. We assume that both species are endangered and we do not account for decisions over time. We find that optimal funding allocation is to the conservation of the species with the highest marginal gain in expected probability of survival and that, across all except mutualist interaction types, optimal conservation funding allocation differs between species. Loss in efficiency from ignoring species interactions was most severe in predator-prey systems. The funding problem we address, where an ecosystem includes multiple threatened species, will only become more commonplace as increasing numbers of species worldwide become threatened.     

基于配额指标重要性视角的中国碳排放配额再分配

提出用与碳排放“同步变化程度”来衡量配额指标重要性的思想,对中国各省份碳排放配额进行再分配.首先在公平和效率原则基础上选取碳排放的影响因素作为分配指标,其次采用灰色关联分析法分别测算出各地区各指标与碳排放量的同步变动程度,以得到各地区各指标在配额分配中的比重.最后测算出我国29个省区2020~2030年的碳排放配额与排放空间.结果表明,人口基数及经济发展指标对各地碳排放有较强的同步变动关联性,因此应该被赋予更高的权重;配额最多的地区包括广东、北京、江苏、山东、上海,最少的地区则包括宁夏、贵州、青海、吉林、新疆.盈余分析发现,北京地区的碳排放空间有较多盈余;浙江等5个省区已达较饱和状态;山东等4个省区则处于较严重的溢出状态,在未来10年内需承担较重的减排压力.     

Pheromone-based female mate choice and its effect on reproductive investment in a spitting spider

Numerous studies have focused on whether organisms can signal or perceive pheromones and use chemical signals in species and mate recognition. Recently, there have been an increasing number of studies investigating whether pheromones are used in mate choice. Yet, little attention has been paid in exploring the effects of pheromone-based mate choice on reproductive investment. We first tested this hypothesis by providing virgin Scytodes sp. females with a choice between two virgin males in the presence of chemical signals alone and found strong evidence of an odor-based mate preference. We then examined the consequences of the odor-based mate choice by allowing female Scytodes sp. that had previously made an odor-only mate choice to mate with preferred and non-preferred males, respectively. We measured the success of copulation, mortality of male, pre-oviposition interval, egg-sac weight, egg weight, fecundity, fertility, embryonic period, and size of offspring at hatching. Females that mated with the preferred males produced significantly heavier egg sacs that contained more and larger eggs with a greater fertility. Significantly more non-preferred males than preferred males were killed by spitting. However, pre-oviposition interval, embryonic period, and hatchling size were not affected by female mate choice. This study is the first to demonstrate that female spiders are able to regulate their highly valuable reproductive investment based solely on chemical signals.     

青山水库底泥磷释放与库区水体磷浓度的关系

通过对青山水库底泥磷释放特性的实验结果分析,对照库区水体浓度监测的数据,确定了库区各测点底磷释放量与水体浓度之间的关系,进而为库区环境总量控制与各支流的分配计算提供了依据。同时也为防止水库的进一步富营养化,进而改善水质提供了新的思路。     

小东江底泥中挥发酚的垂向分布研究

将沿小东江流域布点采集到的底泥样,根据其理化性质,从上到下分为A(0～10cm)、B(10～20cm)、C(20～35cm)、D(35～65cm)层,分析发现:挥发酚含量B>A>C>D层;A～D层挥发酚含量最高点分别对应的是细砂土、面砂土、砂粘土和面砂土.      

Optimal biomass allocation in heterogeneous environments in a clonal plant—Spatial division of labor

When interconnected ramets of clonal plants are growing in heterogeneous environments, ramets may specialize to uptake locally abundant resources rather than scarce resources. This biomass allocation pattern may result in more efficient sharing of resources through physiological integration and an overall benefit to the plants (spatial division of labor; DoL).     

Influences of divergent behavioral strategies upon risk allocation in juvenile flatfishes

Animals balance feeding and anti-predator behaviors at various temporal scales. When risk is infrequent or brief, prey can postpone feeding in the short term and temporally allocate feeding behavior to less risky periods. If risk is frequent or lengthy, however, prey must eventually resume feeding to avoid fitness consequences. Species may exhibit different behavioral strategies, depending on the fitness tradeoffs that exist in their environment or across their life histories. North Pacific flatfishes that share juvenile rearing habitat exhibit a variety of responses to predation risk, but their response to risk frequency has not been examined. We observed the feeding and anti-predator behaviors of young-of-the-year English sole (Parophrys vetulus), northern rock sole (Lepidopsetta polyxystra), and Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis)—three species that exhibit divergent anti-predator strategies—following exposure to three levels of predation risk: no risk, infrequent (two exposures/day), and frequent (five exposures/day). The English sole responded to the frequent risk treatment with higher feeding rates than during infrequent risk, following a pattern of behavioral response that is predicted by the risk allocation hypothesis; rock sole and halibut did not follow the predicted pattern, but this may be due to the limited range of treatments. Our observations of unique anti-predator strategies, along with differences in foraging and species-specific ecologies, suggest divergent trajectories of risk allocation for the three species.     

九寨沟自然保护区4种水深梯度下芦苇分株地上生物量的分配与生长

芦苇是世界自然遗产--九寨沟自然保护区的一种重要的湿地植物.本文对该地区芦苇海4个不同水深梯度下芦苇的无性系地上分株的生物量分配、生长与繁殖策略进行了比较研究.结果表明,在47 cm (水在土层表面上)水深环境中,芦苇单株的平均生物量(4.2 g)最大.在-15 cm (水在土层表面下15 cm)的生境中,叶生物量百分比(叶生物量占单株总生物量的百分比, 46.1%)最大.芦苇地上分株高度、地上分株有分枝的单株百分比(茎上有分枝的分株占样地总分株的百分数)也存在明显的差别.茎的生物量分配百分比和生长速率随水深的增加而增加.在滩地生境中,开花率、花序的生物量百分比明显大于水较深的生境.分株株高与分株生物量、茎生物量与叶生物量都表现出较明显的幂指数异速生长规律.在-15 cm水深的生境中,叶生物量的生长快于茎的增长;在其他水深梯度的生境中,则是茎生物量的增加快于叶生物量的增加.     

长白山树线交错带的生物量分配和净生产力

随山地垂直带海拔上升,环境恶化会影响到植物生物量的绝对量和相对量的分配,进而影响到生态系统的碳平衡。测定了位于长白山北坡海拔1900m树线交错带的两个林分:长白落叶松混交林和岳桦林的生物量分配和净生产力,并与低海拔相似林分进行了比较,探讨树线特殊环境下树木的生长反应和生态系统的碳投资策略。树线交错带林分生物量和生产力都出现急剧降低,冠层树干生物量比例急剧降低,而枝、叶生物量比例有显著增加。而根系比例和地下/地上生物量比在两种林分表现出不同的反应,树线落叶松混交林出现急剧增加,而树线岳桦林与低海拔岳桦林相比没有显著差别。枝、叶生物量比例增加,特别是叶生物量分配增加有利于在树线恶劣环境的碳吸收和碳平衡,是对树线交错带大风、积雪等恶劣气候的可塑性适应,树木在树线出现多分枝、矮曲生长型。树线地带落叶松混交林和岳桦林的净生产量也出现急剧降低,但根系生产量比例则较低海拔同类林分高,有利于对土壤中水分和养分的吸收。     

Effects of Flow Augmentations in the Snake River Basin on Farms Profitability1

Abstract: For over 10 years, several species of salmon have been identified as either threatened or endangered in the Snake River Basin of Idaho. The United States Bureau of Reclamation, in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service, has proposed a variety of plans to increase stream flows in the Snake River Basin to facilitate movement by juvenile salmon smolts to the ocean. This research examines two of the flow augmentation plans proposed by the Bureau of Reclamation as well as two alternative plans, one founded purely on existing priority‐based water rights and another geared toward minimizing the effects of flow augmentations on farms profitability. Results from a basin‐wide model of agricultural production in the Snake River Basin, the Snake River Agricultural Model, present evidence that (1) older water rights are used towards production of less valuable crops, (2) flow augmentation scenarios have unequal effects on farms profitability across agricultural regions within the basin, and (3) irrigation water is valued from US$4 to US$59 an acre‐foot.