Industrial structural changes in Hong Kong, China under one country, two systems framework

Hong Kong has undergone substantial economic transformations and developed into a sophisticated business and financial center in the Asia-Pacific region,since the return of sovereignty to China as a Special Administrative Region under the One Country Two Systems (OCTS) in 1997.This paper discusses and analyzes the industrial structural changes of Hong Kong in recent decades as well as its future challenges and opportunities.The data and finding reveal that even though Hong Kong will face fierce competition from the Mainland’s cities as the rise of China,the important role as a bridge between China and the rest of the world will brace Hong Kong itself under the OCTS for developing into a service hub for business and trade in the Asia-Pacific region.     

Phytoplanktonic desmids community in Donghu Lake, Wuhan,China

1 INTRODUCTION Donghu Lake (30o33′N, 114o23′E) is a shallow medium sized freshwater lake in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China and about 5 kilometers away from the Changjiang (Yangtze) River. Before the 1960s, the water surface area was about 27.8 km2. The lake water was clear and the pH ranged from 6 to 7. The shallow area of the lake abounded with macrophytes. The phytoplanktonic and peripheral desmids were very abundant also in this lake. In the late 1960s, Donghu Lake with tota…     

Study of phytoplankton community in the channel from Dongting Lake to Changjiang River, China

1 INTRODUCTION Dongting Lake (28°18'–29°45'N, 111°35'– 113°18'E) is the second largest freshwater lake in China, and directly connected with the Changjiang River (Yangtse River) through the channel. The sur- face area was about 2 740 km2 (at the low     

Vegetation traits and soil properties in response to utilization patterns of grassland in Hulun Buir City,Inner Mongolia,China

Numerous studies have focused on vegetation traits and soil properties in grassland, few of which concerned about effects of human utilization patterns on grassland yet. Thus, this study hypothesized that human disturbance （e.g., grazing, mowing and fencing） triggered significant variation of biomass partitioning and carbon reallocation. Besides, there existed some differences of species diversity and soil fertility. To address these hypotheses of grassland with diverse utilization patterns in Hulun Buir City, Inner Mongolia, China, we sampled in situ about aboveground biomass （AGB） and belowground biomass （BGB） to evaluate their biomass allocation. Species diversity and soil properties were also investigated. Subsequently, we discussed the relationship of species diversity with environmental conditions, using data collected from 23 sites during the ecological project period of Returning Grazing Lands to Grasslands （RGLG） program. The results were as follows： 1） both AGB and BGB were lower on grazing regime than those on fencing and mowing, but the ratio of root-to-shoot （R/S） was higher on grazing regime than the other two utilization patterns; 2） neither of evenness and Simpson Index was different significantly among all grassland utilization patterns in desert, typical, and meadow grassland at 0.05. In meadow grassland, species richness of fencing pattern was significantly higher than that of grazing pattern （p 〈 0.05）; 3） both of soil organic carbon content and soil available phosphorous content were increased significantly on fencing pattern than grazing pattern （p 〈 0.05） in desert grassland, and mowing patterns increased the soil nutrients （soil organic carbon, soil total phosphorous, soil available phosphorous, and soil total nitrogen） significantly compared with grazing patterns （p 〈 0.05） in typical grassland. However, there were no significant differences among utilization patterns in meadow grassland. In conclusion, both of AGB and BGB were increased s     

SPECIES COMPOSITION, HORIZONTAL DISTRIBUTION AND SEASONAL SUCCESSION OF PHYTOPLANKTON IN THE CHANNEL FROM DONGTING LAKE TO THE CHANGJIANG RIVER, CHINA

The species composition, horizontal distribution and seasonal succession of the phyto-plankton at five sampling stations in the channel between Dongting Lake and the Changjiang River, China were studied from May 1995 to December 1997. A total of 416 taxa were observed; diatoms comprised the most diverse taxonomic group representing 58.2 % of the total species. The β-mezotrophic indicators were 92 taxa or 22 % of the total, the a-mezotrophic or α, β-eutrophic indicators decreased distinctly to 20 taxa or 4.8 % of the total. The species number and composition of various phyla were approximately similar at Stations 1, 2, 3 and 4, but at Station 5 the number of species was the minimum and the ratio of diatoms to total phytoplankton in the number of species was the highest. In seasonal succession of the phytoplank-ton species, the number was the highest in May and June, lower in December, January, March and July in the channel. The dominant species were different in different months. The ratio of diatoms species number to blue green algae and green algae species number diminished gradually from winter to summer and autumn, and then increased gradually from autumn to winter and early spring in the annual cycle. Margalef, Simpson and Shannon—Weaver diversity indices changed in different months, their values were higher in winter, lower in summer. Nygaard‘s diatoms quotients were lower in winter, then in spring and autumn, higher in summer. These results indicated that the water quality was the best in winter, better in spring and autumn than in summer. The relationship between the structure of the phytoplankton communi-ty and the water environmental quality was discussed.     

Road lateral disconnection and crossing impacts in river landscape of Lancang River Valley in Yunnan Province, China

Roads are conspicuous components in a river landscape;however,their impacts on river landscape patterns and ecological processes have not been systematically studied at the watershed scale.In this paper,the Lancang River Valley in Yunnan Province,China was selected as a case to study road lateral disconnection and crossing impacts and identify river-road network interaction.This study was primarily focused on the road impacts on soil erosion intensity and patch density by using GIS analysis at different scales and explored their distribution with terrain factors.The results showed that river density revealed spatial autocorrelation although both of the roads and rivers were distributed unevenly in the valley.The lateral road(road curvature≥1.1)proportion correlated with soil erosion intensity(p 0.01)at the small sub-basin scale.Soil erosion intensity decreased with increasing lateral road buffer width.Light erosion generally accounted for a large proportion of the erosion in the lateral road buffer zones(1.0–4.0 km),while higher class lateral roads imposed greater impacts on soil erosion than lower class roads,which primarily had a moderate erosion level.In addition,the results of road-river intersection density indicated that road crossing impacts were significantly correlated with patch density at the small sub-basin scale.Topography factor(percent of slope25°in each sub-basin had a close relationship with the ratio of total length of road line with curvature value≥1.1 to the total number of intersections.The correlation(p 0.01)between road impacts and terrain factor revealed that topography affected the road impact distribution in the Lancang River Valley.     

Response of regeneration diversity of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Carex Lasiocarpa</Emphasis> community to different water levels in Sanjiang Plain,China

The species diversity at the regeneration stage, inflenced by different water levels, is important for community composition in the later growing season. Regeneration diversity of Carex lasiocarpa community under different water levels was studied at two stages, recruitment and adult, in the Sanjiang Plain, Heilongjiang Province, China. The results showed that, at the two growing stages, important value of C. lasiocarpa population and species richness of the community decreased with the increasing water level, while the Simpson and Shannon-Wiener diversity indexes and Pielou evenness index increased. Under different water levels, community diversities were higher at the recruitment stage, while population important values of C. lasiocarpa were higher at the adult stage. Indexes in vegetation evaluation must be chosen prudentially for successful restoration and effective management of wetlands, and especially for wetland restoration, the optimal time should be selected according to the restoration objectives and costs.     

The occurrence of an exotic bisexual Artemia species, Artemia franciscana , in two coastal salterns of Shandong Province, China

The alien halophilous Artemia species, Artemia franciscana, was found in Chengkou Saltern and Yangkou Saltern of Shandong Province, P.R. China. Although the indigenous parthenogenetic Artemia is detectable, the exotic species is dominant in both salterns. The cross-breeding tests between the exotic A. franciscana and 5 bisexual Artemia species were conducted. The results of hybridization and morphological observations on the exotic A. franciscana are briefly presented in this short communication.