In many arid ecosystems, vegetation frequently occurs in high-cover patches interspersed in a matrix of low plant cover. However, theoretical explanations for shrub patch pattern dynamics along climate gradients remain unclear on a large scale. This context aimed to assess the variance of the Reaumuria soongorica patch structure along the precipitation gradient and the factors that affect patch structure formation in the middle and lower Heihe River Basin (HRB). Field investigations on vegetation patterns and heterogeneity in soil properties were conducted during 2014 and 2015. The results showed that patch height, size and plant-to-patch distance were smaller in high precipitation habitats than in low precipitation sites. Climate, soil and vegetation explained 82.5% of the variance in patch structure. Spatially, R. soongorica shifted from a clumped to a random pattern on the landscape towards the MAP gradient, and heterogeneity in the surface soil properties (the ratio of biological soil crust (BSC) to bare gravels (BG)) determined the R. soongorica population distribution pattern in the middle and lower HRB. A conceptual model, which integrated water availability and plant facilitation and competition effects, was revealed that R. soongorica changed from a flexible water use strategy in high precipitation regions to a consistent water use strategy in low precipitation areas. Our study provides a comprehensive quantification of the variance in shrub patch structure along a precipitation gradient and may improve our understanding of vegetation pattern dynamics in the Gobi Desert under future climate change.
The simplification of 3D building models to effectively reduce model complexity and improve rendering efficiency is an important component of 3D GIS. To reduce the data volume while preserving the model appearance, this article proposes a novel simplification method for complex 3D building models. Texture discontinuities are addressed by developing a new data model that records the mapping relation between the texture coordinates of each vertex and its neighboring triangles. The surface mesh of the building model is then segmented into regions, guided by topology and appearance. Finally, the mesh segmentation information is used to derive an improved error metric that considers both geometric and texture errors, and the texture coordinates are adjusted after each simplification operation. A series of comparative experiments alongside traditional methods demonstrates that our approach achieves a good balance between geometric fidelity and texture preservation, and produces simplified 3D building models with better visual quality. 相似文献
Cnidarians, being regarded as ‘basal' metazoan animals, are considered to have relatively high plasticity in terms of sex reversal. In this study we used an experimental approach to demonstrate sexual diff erentiation and plasticity in benthic polyps and pelagic medusae of A urelia sp.1 maintained at dif ferent temperatures. Results indicated that in A urelia sp.1, sex diff erentiation has been determined at the polyp stage and that all medusae originating from a given polyp are, phenotypically, of the same sex. In addition, the sex of polyps budding from the same clone(either male or female) at dif ferent temperatures appears to be the same as that of the parent. The sex of medusae that had originated from a known-sex polyp was observed to remain the same as that of the parent, irrespective of differences in strobilation or rearing temperatures. These results indicate that the mechanism of sex determination of Aurelia sp.1. is not influenced by prevailing temperature regimes. A comparison of variability in terms of sexual plasticity of A urelia sp.1 with that of Hydrozoa and Anthozoa suggests that species characterized by a free-swimming medusa life stage have a high dispersal potential, which probably results in a lower rate of sex reversal. 相似文献
