应用变性梯度凝胶电泳研究厦门西海域超微型真核浮游生物多样性

应用变性梯度凝胶电泳(DGGE)方法对厦门西海域超微型真核浮游生物的遗传多样性进行周年变化特征研究分析.结果表明,厦门西海域典型测站的超微型真核浮游生物群落具有丰富的多样性组成;厦门西海域超微型真核浮游生物群落遗传结构和主要类群组成季节性变化显著:不同典型测站之间的超微型真核浮游生物群落遗传结构的周年变化特征相似;不同典型测站之间的超微型真核浮游生物群落的类群组成也很相似,由绿藻、Stramenopiles、定鞭金藻、甲藻、未确定类群(unidentified groups)和其他类群组成.     

湖北宣恩七姊妹山天师栗(Aesculus wilsonii)群落特征

天师栗（Aesculus wilsonii）是我国特有的珍稀树种,其天然分布比较零散,极少有大面积的自然群落存在。对湖北宣恩七姊妹山天然分布的天师栗群落采用相邻格子法进行调查,研究了群落的物种多样性、空间格局、群落结构和种群径级结构等群落特征。结果表明：（1）天师栗是群落的主要优势树种,其重要值为22.7,远大于重要值排在第二位的红枝柴（重要值为13.7）,且在群落中呈聚集分布类型;（2）群落物种比较丰富,相对于灌木层和草本层,乔木层丰富度指数和均匀度指数较低,优势度指数较高,说明乔木层物种没有灌木层和草本层多,且分布不均匀,但优势种作用显著,成层现象明显;（3）群落的年龄〖JP2〗结构显示,该群落虽然目前处于稳定阶段,但群落中5个优势种群的幼年个体补充都严重不足,潜在的影响群落以后的生存和发展。应采取保护措施,促进群落的自然演替.     

Are national biodiversity strategies and action plans appropriate for building responsibilities for mainstreaming biodiversity across policy sectors? The case of Finland

The Convention on Biological Diversity's national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) are major mechanisms for mainstreaming biodiversity into national policies. This article examines whether and how the NBSAPs contribute to mainstreaming biodiversity across policy sectors in Finland in order to halt biodiversity loss. We have developed an innovative analytical framework where the concept of responsibility addresses how motivations for mainstreaming can be built, and the concept of social learning outcomes addresses the extent of institutional changes for biodiversity. The Finnish NBSAP processes have been able to build diverse forms of responsibility (liability, accountability, responsiveness and care) in different policy sectors by providing new knowledge, careful process design and developing institutional linkages. Despite pro-biodiversity outcomes in the targeted policy sectors, the responsibilities do not diffuse from the environmental administration to other policy sectors to a sufficient extent. Closing this ‘responsibility gap’ is a key challenge for building effective environmental policies.     

Mitigating urban sprawl effects: a collaborative tree and shade intervention in Phoenix,Arizona, USA

Communities in Phoenix are confronted with numerous challenges that adversely affect human health and safety, with disproportionate impacts on low-income communities. While some challenges are being addressed at the city level, new alliances at the neighbourhood level are initiating community development programmes and projects. This article reports on an intervention study carried out in collaboration with community representatives, city staff, and non-profit organisations to mitigate adverse effects of urban sprawl in the Sky Harbour Neighbourhood in Phoenix. Participatory research was conducted to design and test a tree and shade intervention. Challenges associated with navigating community desires and broader principles of sustainable development are discussed. The study offers a replicable and adaptable intervention research design aimed at empowering communities to meet urban challenges.     

The green dividend of urban biking? Evidence of improved community and sustainable development

As the cost of car ownership has skyrocketed, urban biking has experienced the largest share increase of any transportation mode, rising by 40% between the years 2000 and 2014. Growing attention is being paid to the potential local economic development impacts of urban neighbourhoods becoming more bike-friendly. It is now a green economic development strategy in cities as diverse as Chicago, New York City, Portland, and San Francisco to increase bicycling as a transportation mode. This paper reports the results of a survey of 2032 responses from faculty, staff, and students of a car-dependent, downtown university. We use a mixed methods approach, including data from the American Community Survey, to support our arguments and to inform potential savings and economic benefit calculations that can be achieved from bicycle infrastructure investments and anticipated redistributed spending patterns. We argue that urban biking results in a green dividend that promotes local community development and more importantly results in zero carbon emissions.     

Protected Area Safeguard Tree and Shrub Communities from Degradation and Invasion: A Case Study in Eastern Madagascar

Despite their prevalence in both developed and developing countries, there have been surprisingly few field assessments of the ecological effectiveness of protected areas. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a key protected area in eastern Madagascar, Ranomafana National Park (RNP). We established paired 100 × 4-m vegetation transects (400 m²) within RNP and in remnant forests in the park’s peripheral zone. In each 400-m² plot, all woody stems >1.5 cm in diameter at breast height were measured and identified to species. All species were also identified as native or non-native. We identified utilitarian species within all transects and they were sorted into use category. We calculated plot-level taxonomic biodiversity and functional diversity of utilitarian species; the latter was calculated by clustering the multivariate distances between species based on their utilitarian traits, and all metrics were tested using paired t-tests. Our results showed that there was significantly higher biodiversity inside RNP than in remnant forests and this pattern was consistent across all diversity metrics examined. Forests not located within the park’s boundary had significantly higher non-native species than within RNP. There was no statistically significant difference in functional diversity of utilitarian species inside RNP vs. remnant forests; however, the overall trend was toward higher diversity inside park boundaries. These findings suggested that RNP has been effective at maintaining taxonomic diversity relative to surrounding unprotected areas and restricting the spread of non-native plants. The results also suggested that low functional redundancy of forests outside of RNP might be of concern, because residents in surrounding villages may have few other substitutes for the services provided by species that are of critical importance to their livelihoods. This study highlights the challenges of trying to reconcile biodiversity conservation with human use of natural resources in economically poor, remote areas.     

Accumulation, distribution and cellular partitioning of mercury in several halophytes of a contaminated salt marsh

This work evaluates the role of a plant community in mercury (Hg) stabilization and mobility in a contaminated Portuguese salt marsh. With this aim, the distribution of Hg in below and aboveground tissues, as well as the metal partitioning between cellular fractions (soluble and insoluble) in four different species (Triglochin maritima L., Juncus maritimus Lam, Sarcocornia perennis (Miller) A.J. Scott, and Halimione portulacoides (L.) Aellen) was assessed. Mercury accumulation, translocation and compartmentation between organs and cellular fractions were related to the plant species.Results showed that the degree of Hg absorption and retention was influenced both by environmental parameters and metal translocation/partitioning strategies. Different plant species presented different allocation patterns, with marked differences between monocots (T. maritima and J. maritimus) and dicots (S. perennis, H. portulacoides). Overall, the two monocots, in particular T. maritima showed higher Hg retention in the belowground organs whereas the dicots, particularly S. perennis presented a more pronounced translocation to the aboveground tissues. Considering cellular Hg partitioning, all species showed a higher Hg binding to cell walls and membranes rather than in the soluble fractions. This strategy can be related to the high degree of tolerance observed in the studied species. These results indicate that the composition of salt marsh plant communities can be very important in dictating the Hg mobility within the marsh ecosystem and in the rest of the aquatic system as well as providing important insights to future phytoremediation approaches in Hg contaminated salt marshes.     

DGGE、T-RFLP 、LH-PCR对两种活性污泥的微生物种群多样性分析的比较

采用基于PCR扩增的分子生态技术DGGE、T-RFLP和LH-PCR,对2种典型污水处理系统中的活性污泥（生活污泥、焦化污泥）进行微生物种群多样性分析;并以此比较3种技术的优劣,提出不同应用条件下研究方法的选择依据。根据实验结果：DGGE得到的条带较多,但误差来源也最多;T-RFLP技术较为灵敏,但需要选择适当的内切酶,严格控制酶切条件,并且文库比对误差较大;而LH-PCR操作简单,结果稳定性较高。虽然目前尚无法判断3种方法的准确性,但LH-PCR在活性污泥的微生物种群多样性分析中已显示出潜在优势。     

A New Approach to Plant Diversity Assessment Combining HPLC Data, Simplex Mixture Design and Discriminant Analysis

The quantitative assessment of plant diversity and its monitoring with time represent a key environmental issue for management and conservation of natural resources. Assessment of plant diversity could be based on chemical analyses of secondary metabolites (e.g. flavonoids, terpenoids), because of the substantial quantitative and qualitative between-individual variability in such compounds. At a geographical scale, the plant populations become widely dispersed, and their monitoring from numerous routine individual analyses could become restricting. To overcome such constraint, this study develops a multivariate calibration model giving the relative frequency of a particular taxon from a simple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of a plant mixture. The model was built from a complete set of mixtures combining different taxons, according to an experimental design (Scheffé’s matrix). For each mixture, a reference HPLC pattern was simulated by averaging the individual HPLC profiles of the constitutive taxons. The calibration models, based on Bayesian discriminant analysis (BDA), gave statistical relationships between the contributions of each taxon in mixtures and reference HPLC patterns of these mixtures. Finally, these models were validated on new mixtures by using outside plants. This new biodiversity survey approach is illustrated on four chemical taxons (four chemotypes) of Astragalus caprinus (Fabaceae). The more differentiated the taxon, the better predicted its contributions (in mixtures) were by BDA calibration model. This new approach could be very useful for a global routine survey of plant diversity.     

Integrated biomonitoring of air quality with plants and lichens: a case study on ambient ozone from central Italy

A biennial integrated survey, based on the use of vascular plants for the bioindication of the effects of tropospheric ozone together with the use of automatic analysers of ozone, as well as the mapping of lichen biodiversity was performed in the area of Castelfiorentino (Tuscany, central Italy). Photochemically produced ozone proved to be a fundamental presence during the warm season, with maximum hourly means reaching 114 ppb, exceeding the information threshold as fixed by EU: the use of supersensitive tobacco Bel-W3 confirmed the opportunity of carrying out detailed cost-effective monitoring surveys. The potential for didactical and educational implications of this methodology are appealing. Critical levels set up for the protection of vegetation have exceeded considerably. The comparison of biomass productivity in sensitive and resistant individuals (NC-S and NC-R white clover clones, in the framework of an European network) provided evidence that ambient ozone levels are associated with relevant reduction (up to 30%) in the performance of sensitive material; effects on flowering were also pronounced. The economic assessment of such an impact deserves attention. Mapping of epiphytic lichen biodiversity – which has been used to monitor air quality worldwide – was not related to ozone geographical distribution as depicted by tobacco response.