Adaptive peaks and alternative foraging tactics in brook charr: evidence of short-term divergent selection for sitting-and-waiting and actively searching

Some recently emerged brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis) inhabiting still-water pools along the sides of streams are sedentary and eat crustaceans from the lower portion of the water column. Others are more active and eat insects from the upper portion of the water column. We provide evidence that this divergent foraging behavior reflects short-term divergent selection brought about by intraspecific competition in the presence of alternative food sources. Rates of encounters and interactions between individuals were density dependent, and encounter and interaction events were closely timed with prey capture attempts. In addition, aggressive fish made more foraging attempts per minute than nonaggressive fish. Aggressive fish were also either inactive or very active, while nonaggressive fish exhibited intermediate levels of activity. Growth rate potential, an important component of fitness during the early life stages of brook charr, was assessed using tissue concentrations of RNA and found to be highest for sedentary fish and for active fish making frequent foraging attempts, and lower for fish exhibiting intermediate levels of activity. Our findings support contentions that individual behavior plays an important role during initial steps in the evolution of resource polymorphisms. Received: 27 July 1998 / Accepted after revision: 16 November 1998     

Novel perspective for urban water resource management: 5R generation

• 5R (Recover, Reduce, Recycle, Resource and Reuse) approaches to manage urban water. • 5R harvests storm water, gray water and black water in several forms. • 5R offers promise for moving solutions for urban water scarcity in practice. Demand for water is expanding with increases in population, particularly in urban areas in developing countries. Additionally, urban water system needs a novel perspective for upgradation with urbanization. This perspective presents a novel 5R approach for managing urban water resources: Recover (storm water), Reduce (toilet flushing water), Recycle (gray water), Resource (black water), and Reuse (advanced-treated wastewater). The 5R generation incorporates the latest ideas for harvesting storm water, gray water, and black water in its several forms. This paper has briefly demonstrated each R of 5R generation for water treatment and reuse. China has the chance to upgrade its urban water systems according to 5R principles. Already, a demonstration project of 5R generation has been installed in Qingdao International Horticultural Exposition, and Dalian International Convention Center (China) has applied 5R, achieving over 70% water saving. The 5R offers promise for moving solutions for urban water scarcity from “hoped for in the future” to “realistic today”.     

基于T-RFLP和因子分析的香蒲根际细菌群落研究

以北京市永定河王平湿地为研究对象,应用末端限制性片段长度多态性(T-RFLP)对王平湿地再生水补水口及其远离补水口的香蒲根际细菌和氨氧化细菌(AOB)的群落结构及多样性变化进行分析,在此基础上结合MiCA3比对、典范对应分析(CCA)和多元统计中因子分析(FA),解析湿地不同空间细菌群落功能特性的变化.结果显示再生水补水口细菌群落各多样性指数均明显低于远离补水口细菌群落,而氨氧化细菌群落则呈现相反趋势.基于传统的T-RFLP片段MiCA3比对、CCA和FA相结合的分析表明:对细菌群落,占再生水补水口细菌群落总丰度55.6%的菌群与150bp代表的鞘氨醇单胞菌(Sphingomonas sp.)具相似净化功能,并与总有机碳生物化学循环过程具密切关系,其次占再生水补水口上游细菌群落总丰度75.5%的菌群与81bp为代表的假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas sp.)和Geitlerinema sp.具相似净化功能,并与氮的生物化学循环过程具密切关系.占再生水补水口下游细菌群落总丰度68.7%的菌群与138bp代表的小单孢菌属(Micromonospora sp.)具相似净化功能,同时与重金属Cu、V、和Ti生物化学循环具密切关系.对氨氧化细菌,266bp受铵态氮影响较大,占再生水补水口氨氧化细菌群落总丰度65.5%的菌群与266bp代表的Nitrosomonas sp.具相似的生境特征,适合在高氨环境中生长;与58bp所代表的Nitrosospira sp.具相似功能特性菌群丰度在远离补水口样点中较前者呈现显著增加趋势,表征该类菌群适合在相对低氨环境中生长.     

Environmental consequence analysis for resource depletion

Resource depletion is of concern to both present and future generations in terms of access to resources. It is a prominent impact category within life cycle assessment (LCA) and sustainability assessment. This paper examines existing resource depletion approaches and indicators in the context of natural gas depletion, and their limitations in modelling the wider environmental consequences of resource consumption. Some existing models assume substitution of scarce fossil fuels with an alternative fossil fuel or mix, but do not consider all of the subsequent change in impacts. An additional methodology is proposed to measure the impact changes when fossil fuel substitution occurs as a result of scarcity. The methodology will demonstrate the effect of resource scarcity for individual processes but also multiple processes which operate at different levels of resource consumption with varying degrees of impacts. The methodology is applied to a scarcity situation of natural gas in Australia, where black coal is substituted for gas. It is first applied to natural gas consumed for electricity generation only. In the second case, the methodology is applied to the substitution of natural gas for both electricity generation and hydrogen production. The varying impacts on emissions to air and water, together with solid waste generation and water depletion, as a result of the substitution are used to reflect the consequences of fossil fuel depletion. The indicators also provide information on the impacts of substitution in each product, thus enabling users to prioritise products based on the impacts produced during natural gas allocation.     

Is a negative correlation between resource abundance and growth sufficient evidence that there is a “resource curse”?

Evidence from cross-sectional growth regressions suggests that economies dependent on natural resource exports have had slower growth than resource scarce economies. Explanations for this “curse of resources” focus on institutional and market failures caused by resource abundance. With a simple two sector model exhaustible resource model, we demonstrate that the correlation between growth and natural resource abundance can be negative in the absence of market and institutional failures. Since there is no way to distinguish between efficient and inefficient equilibria on the basis of the negative correlation between growth and resource abundance, finding that correlation is not sufficient to conclude resources are a curse, nor is it necessary to find a positive correlation between growth and resources to overturn the resource curse interpretation. We show whether resources are a curse or a blessing for an economy can only be determined by an investigation of the correlation between resource abundance and income levels. Using panel data for U.S. states for the period 1970-2001, we show that resource abundance is negatively correlated with growth rates but positively correlated with income levels.     

Location set covering for waste resource recycling centers in Taiwan

The efficiency of Taiwan's waste management and resource recycling systems has been well recognized in recent years, but the present model used to locate recycling centers and to assign collection depots to those centers continues to show low efficiency. To address this issue, the study herein suggests implementing a new location-planning and assignment model to reduce the number of existing recycling centers. Such a reduction would reduce the use of land resources. Moreover, the total transportation distance would decrease through the efficient assignment of collection depots to recycling centers. On the basis of results from previous studies, this study proposes a 2-stage location set covering problem-P-median integrated model that obtains exact solutions using heuristic algorithms on the basis of set operations. The results of numerical analyses show that the model introduced in this study is effective in solving the problems stated above as well as in improving the layout of Taiwan's existing recycling centers.     

Predicting future quantities of obsolete household appliances in Nanjing by a stock-based model

China has become one of the largest producers of obsolete household appliances (HAs) in the world. However, information on discarded HAs in China is deficient owing to the unavailability of reliable data. The estimation of future obsolete streams is a crucial issue for the establishment of efficient waste collection and recycling systems. The present study describes a prediction model to forecast future obsolete HAs on the basis of information of in-use stocks of HAs in households. The model was applied to a forecasting analysis of quantities of obsolete HAs from 2009 to 2050 in Nanjing, China. The results show that a total of about 76 million units (2.8 million tonnes) of obsolete HAs will be generated in Nanjing over the next 40 years. Discarded air conditioners, color TV sets, and personal computers will be the major contributors. The total discarded amount of major kinds of HAs will increase from nearly 1.0 million units in 2009 to a maximum of 2.1 million units in 2040, and then decrease slightly to 2.0 million units in 2050. Urban households will generate significantly more obsolete HAs (about 56 million units) than rural households, due to the difference in their HA possession levels. The results of this study should help the Nanjing municipality to develop the collection and recycling systems and facilities needed for the obsolete HAs generated in the future. From a methodological perspective, the stock-based model provides a suitable tool to predict the generation of discarded HAs in the future.     

水库水体热分层的水质及细菌群落分布特征

作为重要的城市饮用水源地,水库是人工筑坝形成的特殊类型的水体,其水质直接影响居民的饮用水安全.为揭示北京市饮用水源地密云水库的秋季分层特征和细菌群落的垂直变化,于水体稳定分层期(秋季)在水库进行采样,应用16S rDNA末端限制性片段长度多态性(T-RFLP)和定量PCR等方法研究了密云水库水体细菌群落的垂直分布特征,并利用聚类分析、多元统计分析揭示细菌群落与环境因子之间的响应关系.结果表明:(1)密云水库水体温跃层位于水深20～30 m处,水温范围在15～19℃,聚类分析将7个采样水层划分为好氧区(上层)和缺氧区(下层)两类,温度、DO、pH在15 m以下逐渐降低,电导率、氨氮、硝态氮、亚硝态氮及总氮在15 m后发生显著变化,水体水质表现出明显的垂直分布特征;(2)RDA分析结果显示,上下水层的溶解氧、pH、电导率、氨氮、硝态氮和亚硝态氮存在较为明显的垂向变化,是影响密云水库细菌群落垂直分布的主要环境因子;(3)总细菌的数量随水深变化的波动较为明显,其中好氧区细菌的Shannon-Wiener指数和T-RFs片段数明显高于缺氧区,说明秋季密云水库水体中细菌群落分布存在显著的分层现象.本研究探究了水体热分层对水库水质及细菌群落的影响,可为预测水质变化和水库管理提供科学依据.     

不同C/N值下亚硝酸盐氧化菌和异养菌混合体系的微生物多样性

采用PCR-RFLP技术研究了不同C/N比下亚硝酸盐氧化菌及异养菌混合体系的微牛物多样性,并探讨了微生物菌群结构与其功能(硝化件能)的关系.C/N=0时,混合体系主要由自养菌和寡营养菌(85.1%)组成,包括亚硝酸盐氧化菌(NOB)、拟杆菌门、α-变形菌纲、浮霉菌门和绿色非硫细菌中的一些菌株.C/N=0.44时,混合体系中的自养菌减少,异养菌(主要是γ-变形菌纲的成员)大量出现.C/N=8.82时,γ-变形菌纲的菌株尤其是反硝化菌Pseudomonas sp.占主导(93.8%),与此同时,随着C/N升高,该混合体系的硝化性能也由专一的亚硝酸盐氧化过程转变为同时硝化反硝化过程.微生物菌群结构的转变较好地解释了其硝化性能的改变.本研究揭示了微生物菌群结构与其功能的内在联系,同时表明PCR-RFLP技术与化学分析相结合是研究微生物菌群结构与功能的有力工具.图3表2参13     

Spatial and seasonal variations in bacterial communities of the Yellow Sea by T-RFLP analysis

Four typical coastal sites (rocky shore, sandy shore, mud flat shore, and artificial harbor) at the Yellow Sea were chosen to investigate the spatial and seasonal variations in bacterial communities. This was accomplished by using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of PCR amplified 16S rDNA fragments. Two kinds of tetrameric restriction enzymes, HhaI and MspI, were used in the experiment to depict the bacterial community diversity in different marine environments. It was found that the community compositions digested by the two enzymes separately were different. However, the results of bacterial community diversity derived from them were similar. The MDA analysis results of T-RFLP profiles coming from HhaI and MspI both exhibited a significant seasonal community shift for bacteria and a relatively low spatial variation among the four locations. With HhaI as the sample, the pair wise T-tests also revealed that variations were minor between each pair of marine environments, with R ranging from 0.198 to 0.349. However, the bacterial community structure in the mud flat site depicted a larger difference than each of the other three sites (R ranging from 0.282 to 0.349).