Lichen Conservation in Heavily Managed Boreal Forests

Lichens are an important component of the boreal forest, where they are long lived, tend to accumulate in older stands, and are a major food source for the threatened woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). To be fully sustainable, silvicultural practices in the boreal forest must include the conservation of ecological integrity. Dominant forest management practices, however, have short‐term negative effects on lichen diversity, particularly the application of herbicides. To better understand the long‐term effects of forest management, we examined lichen regeneration in 35 mixed black spruce (Picea mariana) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana) forest stands across northern Ontario to determine recovery following logging and postharvest silvicultural practices. Our forest stands were 25–40 years old and had undergone 3 common sivilcultural treatments that included harvested and planted; harvested, planted, and treated with N‐[phosphonomethyl] glycine (glyphosate); and harvested, planted, and treated with 2,4‐dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4‐D). Forest stands with herbicide treatments had lower lichen biomass and higher beta and gamma diversity than planted stands that were not treated chemically or control stands. In northwestern Ontario, planted stands that were not treated chemically had significantly greater (p < 0.05) alpha diversity than stands treated with herbicides or control stands. Our results show that common silvicultural practices do not emulate natural disturbances caused by wildfires in the boreal forest for the lichen community. We suggest a reduction in the amount of chemical application be considered in areas where lichen biomass is likely to be high and where the recovery of woodland caribou is an objective. Conservación de Líquenes en Bosques Boreales Manejados Intensivamente     

基于协调发展视角的区域发展差异研究

20世纪90年代以来，区域差异研究成为学术界和政府管理者关注的热点领域。长期以来学者们主要以单一经济指标或复合经济指标作为衡量因子，分析区域经济差异时空演变及差异背后的自然、社会、经济驱动机理。从可持续发展的角度看，区域发展不单是区域经济的发展，而应是社会、经济与资源环境三方面的协调。基于这一理解，从可持续协调发展入手，建立了区域发展综合评价指标体系，选取了表征社会进步、经济发展和资源环境支持3个方面的27个因素作为评价指标，分析了区域综合发展的测算方法，提出了综合发展指数和发展协调指数。在案例分析中运用所设计的测度方法对江苏省内县级行政单位的综合发展进行了评价和分析。     

Ecotypes in Graylings (Thymallidae,Salmoniformes)

The ecotypic structure of two grayling species in Eurasia is considered. Based on original and published data, the development of ecological forms in water bodies of different kinds is analyzed. Parallelism in the emergence of highly similar forms in different sites of the ranges is demonstrated. Distinctive features of ecotypes and their internal structure are described. The causes and rate of establishment of forms with a short life cycle are discussed.     

中国城市化发展决定因素的地区差异

城市化的发展与地方经济发展水平和劳动力迁移密切相关，中重城市化进程中的一个显著特征是区域差异非常明显，其根源是在国内经济发展水平不同的各地区，影响城市化发展的诸因素之发育程度及所起作用不同。本文运用平行数据《panal》模型，对影响中国各省、直辖市和自治区城市化发展的请因素进行了实证分析。主要结论为：①各地区之间，特别是沿海与内地之间。城市化进程的差异非常显著。②在中部地区，第二产业的发展对当地城市化水平的提高起推动作用；而在沿海地区，则由第三产业扮演着更为重要的角色。③对外开放政策对推动中国的城市化发展起了显著作用，在沿海省份表现尤为突出。由此可以推断。中、西部开放力度的加大将推动当地城市化的发展。④农村非农产业的发展在城市化进程中发挥着双重作用：在沿海和西部地区，农村非农产业对城市化起补充作用；而在中部地区，则起替代作用。     

Analysis and Modeling on the Spatial Structure of Urban Land Use: A Case of Jinan, China

Based on the data of urban land use obtained by remote sensing interpretation from aero images in 1986 and 2004, the spatial structure of Jinan is studied in this paper with the method of Geographic Information System (GIS). According to the proportion of land for residence, industry and commerce, the urban district can be distinguished into three rings. Compared with the traditional theory of the ring structure in Western coun- tries, they have many distinctive characteristics. The main func- tions of the inner ring include residence, business and banking, but the proportion of residential land (more than 50%) is considerably higher than that of the cities in Western countries. The land proportion for residence and industry in the intermediate ring is equal on the whole. The main land of the outside ring is for industrial use. From 1986 to 2004, great changes have taken place on the land proportion of different types of use. In the inner ring, the land for residential and industrial use has shrunk much while the land for commercial use has increased. In the intermediate ring, the changes of the three types of land use were not very much and the temporal variation was relatively stable. On the contrary, the structure in the outside ring varies acutely. Though most of it is also for industrial use, the proportion of residential land has in- creased much. The three rings can also be divided into several sectors respectively, according to the function of land use clusters. New trends and mechanisms of the changes of land use impacting the urban structure were proposed in the end of the paper.     

Structure of pathways in ecological networks: relationships between length and number

In ecosystems network, structure determines adjacent (direct) and non-adjacent (indirect) pathways over which energy, matter, and information can flow. The more pathways, the more possible ways the conservative substance can move in zero-sum transactions between network nodes that the pathways interconnect, and the more possible non-conservative, nonzero-sum relations can be secondarily derived from these. Structural analysis is a tool we employ, from a family of input–output methods for exploring zero- and nonzero-sum attributes of environmental networks, to count pathways of varying length between network nodes. In this paper, we examine the relationship between pathway length (k) and number (P_k) as determined by system size (n, number of nodes) and extent and pattern of connectance (C). We develop a measure (m_a) of pathway growth in numbers with increasing length, and then normalize this to the maximum rate possible (m_a/m_c) for a given system size. These measures apply to two pathway types—paths, m_a(0) and m_a(0)/m_c(0), which forbid adjacent node repetitions, and walks, m_a(1) and m_a(1)/m_c(1), which allow them. We find that network size has a curvilinear effect on the pathway number versus length relationship, and extent and pattern of connectance are convolved. Values computed for the paths and walks of three ecosystem models (oyster reef, freshwater marsh, and reservoir cove) are used to compare their pathway structure.     

Mechanisms of changes in population numbers of Caucasian red deer (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cervus elaphus maral</Emphasis>) in the northwestern Caucasus

Mechanisms of changes in the numbers of red deer in the Caucasian State Biosphere Reserve (the northwestern Caucasus) were studied from 1958 to 2004 using simulation models developed on the basis of concepts concerning the combined effect of density-dependent and density-independent factors. The results show that changes in population numbers are accounted for by larger (more numerous) local subunits, with small groups remaining relatively stable. In the periods of depression, such a mechanism provides for the maintenance of the spatial population structure.     

Understanding Trait‐Dependent Community Disassembly: Dung Beetles,Density Functions,and Forest Fragmentation

Abstract: Anthropogenic disturbances such as fragmentation are rapidly altering biodiversity, yet a lack of attention to species traits and abundance patterns has made the results of most studies difficult to generalize. We determined traits of extinction‐prone species and present a novel strategy for classifying species according to their population‐level response to a gradient of disturbance intensity. We examined the effects of forest fragmentation on dung beetle communities in an archipelago of 33 islands recently created by flooding in Venezuela. Species richness, density, and biomass all declined sharply with decreasing island area and increasing island isolation. Species richness was highly nested, indicating that local extinctions occurred nonrandomly. The most sensitive dung beetle species appeared to require at least 85 ha of forest, more than many large vertebrates. Extinction‐prone species were either large‐bodied, forest specialists, or uncommon. These explanatory variables were unrelated, suggesting at least 3 underlying causes of extirpation. Large species showed high wing loading (body mass/wing area) and a distinct flight strategy that may increase their area requirements. Although forest specificity made most species sensitive to fragmentation, a few persistent habitat generalists dispersed across the matrix. Density functions classified species into 4 response groups on the basis of their change in density with decreasing species richness. Sensitive and persistent species both declined with increasing fragmentation intensity, but persistent species occurred on more islands, which may be due to their higher baseline densities. Compensatory species increased in abundance following the initial loss of sensitive species, but rapidly declined with increasing fragmentation. Supertramp species (widespread habitat generalists) may be poor competitors but strong dispersers; their abundance peaked following the decline of the other 3 groups. Nevertheless, even the least sensitive species were extirpated or rare on the smallest and most isolated islands.     

乌江干流中上游水电梯级开发水温累积效应

以乌江流域洪家渡库尾至乌江渡坝下的水电工程干扰典型段为研究区域，利用建坝前后的水温实测资料，采用建坝前天然水温和建坝后下泄水温比较法，对乌江干流梯级水库水温时空分布特征进行分析。研究结果表明：对天然水温改变最大的电站为洪家渡和乌江渡，前者是受水库水温结构自身影响，后者是梯级联合运行的结果；梯级联合运行使库区水温分层有所减弱，随着时间的推移或上游梯级电站的建成，电站下泄水温年变化过程趋于均化，与天然水温的延迟也越加明显；不同的水库水温结构对水温累积效应的影响也各不相同，稳定分层型水库对水温累积具有正效应，混合型水库具有负效应，过渡型水库处于两者之间，体现了梯级电站的水温累积影响，为研究减缓下泄低温水的对策措施提供依据和参考。     

甘肃省作物布局演变及其对区域气候变暖的响应

根据甘肃省1985-2005年的气候资料和同时期主要作物播种面积等统计资料,利用快速聚类分析方法分析了气候变暖背景下甘肃省主要作物的种植格局和种植界限演变情况。结果表明:过去20 a里特别是进入20世纪90年代,在河西地区,玉米和棉花播种范围扩张趋势明显,种植面积比重显著增加,春小麦种植面积比重快速降低,种植范围大幅向祁连山浅山区退缩,种植结构的这种调整使玉米和棉花逐渐取代小麦成为河西主要作物,并最终导致该区主要作物种植格局从以小麦为主转变为以玉米和棉花为主;在中部地区,春小麦面积逐年缩小,冬小麦和杂粮种植扩张,玉米的种植比例逐年上升,马铃薯种植逐渐形成规模,形成了以小麦和玉米为主的种植格局;在东南部地区,春小麦和冬小麦面积逐年缩小,玉米、冬油菜和其他喜温的经济作物种植比例逐年上升。相关分析表明,上述作物种植格局的变化与气候变暖带来的积温增加及积温带北移东扩密切相关。