Karyological analysis of the sea cicada Blepharipoda liberate Shen from the Rizhao intertidal zone,China

Journal of Oceanology and Limnology - Blepharipoda liberate Shen is a commercially valuable seafood species that has important ecological significance in Shandong Province, China. Although B....     

Rainfall interception of typical ecosystems in the Heihe River Basin: Based on high temporal resolution soil moisture data

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Rainfall interception is of great significance to the fully utilization of rainfall in water limited areas. Until now, studies on rainfall partitioning process of...     

Developing a comprehensive evaluation method for Interconnected River System Network assessment: A case study in Tangxun Lake group

Journal of Geographical Sciences - The Interconnected River System Network (IRSN) plays a crucial role in water resource allocation, water ecological restoration and water quality improvement. It...     

A density-based approach for detecting network-constrained clusters in spatial point events

Existing spatial clustering methods primarily focus on points distributed in planar space. However, occurrence locations and background processes of most human mobility events within cities are constrained by the road network space. Here we describe a density-based clustering approach for objectively detecting clusters in network-constrained point events. First, the network-constrained Delaunay triangulation is constructed to facilitate the measurement of network distances between points. Then, a combination of network kernel density estimation and potential entropy is executed to determine the optimal neighbourhood size. Furthermore, all network-constrained events are tested under a null hypothesis to statistically identify core points with significantly high densities. Finally, spatial clusters can be formed by expanding from the identified core points. Experimental comparisons performed on the origin and destination points of taxis in Beijing demonstrate that the proposed method can ascertain network-constrained clusters precisely and significantly. The resulting time-dependent patterns of clusters will be informative for taxi route selections in the future.     

Maximum Entropy and Random Forest Modeling of Mineral Potential: Analysis of Gold Prospectivity in the Hezuo–Meiwu District,West Qinling Orogen,China

Natural Resources Research - This study tested and compared the mineral potential mapping capabilities of the random forest (RF) and maximum entropy (MaxEnt) algorithms using gold deposit...     

Assessing the impacts of ecological-living-productive land changes on eco-environmental quality in Xining City on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China

The Ecological-living-productive land(ELPL) classification system was proposed in an effort to steer China's land pattern to an ecological-centered path, with the development model shifting from a single function into more integrated multifunction land use. The focus is coordinating the man-land contradictions and developing an intensive, efficient and sustainable land use policy in an increasingly tense relationship between humans and nature. Driven by socioeconomic change and rapid population growth, many cities are undergoing urban sprawl, which involves the consumption of cropland and ecological land and threatens the ecological balance. This paper aims to quantitatively analyze the critical effects of ELPL changes on eco-environmental quality according to land use classification based on leading function of ecology, living and production from 1990 to 2015 with a case study of Xining City. Also, four future land use scenarios were simulated for2030 using the Future Land Use Simulation(FLUS) model that couples human and natural effects. Our results show a decrease in productive land(PL) and an increase in ecological land(EL) and living land(LL) in Xining City. Forestry ecological land(FEL) covered the top largest proportion; agriculture productive land(APL) showed the greatest reduction and urban and rural living land(U-RLL) presented a dramatic increase. The eco-environmental quality improved in 1990-2010, mainly affected by the conversion of APL to FEL and GEL. However, the encroachment of U-RLL into APL, other ecological land(OEL) and FEL was the main contributor to the decline in eco-environmental quality in 2010-2015 as well as the primary reason for the increase area of lower-quality. The Harmonious Development(HD)-Scenario, characterized by a rational allocation of LL and PL and a better eco-environment, would have implications for planning and monitoring future management of ELPL, and may represent a valuable reference for local policy-makers.     

Studies on eco-environmental change in source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers of China:present and future

The source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers are important in the field of eco-environmental change research in China because of its distinct alpine ecosystem and cryosphere environment. At present, there are three different concepts on the extent of source areas of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers: hydrological, geographical, and eco-environmental. Over the past decades, annual average air temperature has warmed significantly; moreover, the temperature rise rate increases notably with increase of time of the data series. Annual precipitation has no obvious increase or decrease trend, and the climate has become warm and dry in the source regions. As a result, the cryosphere in the regions has shrunk significantly since 1960 s. A warm and dry climate and changing cryosphere together induced a substantial declination of alpine wetlands, marked decrease in river runoff, significant degradation of alpine grassland, and a reduction of engineering stability.The ecological environment, however, has a tendency for restoration in the regions because the climate has become gradually warm and wet since 2000. Thus, studies on eco-environmental change is transforming from a single element to multidisciplinary integration. Climate change-cryopshere change-physical and socioeconomic impacts/risk-adaptation constitute a chain of multidisciplinary integration research.     

Species Abundance Distribution Patterns of a Toona ciliata Community in Xingdoushan Nature Reserve

With the goal of model fitting species abundance distribution patterns of the tree, shrub and herb layers of the natural Toona ciliata community in Xingdoushan Nature Reserve, Enshi Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei Province, we used the data collected from the field survey and employed different ecological niche models. The models tested were the broken stick model (BSM), the overlapping niche model (ONM) and the niche preemption model (NPM), as well as three statistic models, the log-series distribution model (LSD), the log-normal distribution model (LND) and the Weibull distribution model (WDM). To determine the fitted model most suitable to each layer, the fitting effects were judged by criteria of the lowest value of Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Chi-square and the K-S values with no significant difference (P>0.05) between the theoretical predictions and observed species abundance distribution values. The result showed: (1) The fitting suitability and goodness of fit of the tree, shrub and herb layers by using the three ecological niche models were ranked as: NPM>BSM>ONM. Of the three statistical models, by accepting the fitting results of the three layers, WDM was the best fitting model, followed by LND. By rejecting the fitting tests of the herb layer, LSD had the worst fitting effect. The goodness of the statistical models was ranked as: WDM>LND>LSD. In general, the statistical models had better fitting results than the ecological models. (2) T. ciliata was the dominant species of the tree layer. The species richness and diversity of the herb layer were much higher than those of either the tree layer or the shrub layer. The species richness and diversity of the shrub layer were slightly higher than those of the tree layer. The community evenness accorded to the following order: herb>shrub>tree. Considering the fitting results of the different layers, different ecological niche models or statistical models with optimal goodness of fit and ecological significance can be given priority to in studying the species abundance distribution patterns of T. ciliata communities.     

Evaluation System for Yunnan Cultural Tourism Routes Based on a Five Component Model: Case Study of the Ancient Tea-horse Road in the South of Yunnan

Cultural tourism routes can reveal and protect cultural tourism heritage by means of cultural tourism in the “time category” and the “space category”. The construction of an evaluation system for cultural tourism routes and the evaluation, scoring and grading of existing and potential cultural tourism routes are the key to the protection of heritage, history and culture along these routes, and the key to encouraging the standardization, branding and sustainable development of various formats on the routes. Yunnan cultural tourism routes are diverse and rich in resources, and their developmental foundation is good. However, the tourism development and cultural development activities occur along separate lines and there is a lack of unified management. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct research on information collection, information analysis, problem diagnosis and improvement of status in the local practices of Yunnan cultural tourism routes, and to guide the sustainable development of Yunnan cultural tourism routes. Based on the advanced experience of COE (Council of Europe), UNESCO WHC (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, World Heritage Committee) and ICOMOS(International Council on Monuments and Sites), this paper comprehensively analyzes the decisive criteria for line evaluation by interpreting and summarizing the connotations of cultural tourism routes, and determines that the evaluation of cultural tourism routes should include lines. Five aspects―the theme, the participating subject, the object itself, related activities and multi-party value―are used to construct a five-component model. At the same time, based on the consumer utility function, a complete route evaluation and hierarchical system is constructed. Then, taking the Ancient Tea-horse Road cultural tourism route as an example and using the expert scoring method and the analytic hierarchy process, the actual scores and grades of the Ancient Tea-horse Road cultural tourism route are determined, and countermeasures and suggestions for its sustainable development are proposed. The paper also verifies the applicability and practicability of the evaluation system, and promotes and improves the feedback evaluation system. The aim is to at promote and widely apply the evaluation system of cultural tourism routes, realizing the transformation from individual cases to joint cases, and promoting the standardization and sustainable development of cultural tourism routes.     

黑海参(Holothuria atra)对环境沉积物的摄食选择及消化系统功能适应性研究

黑海参(Holothuria atra)是热带珊瑚礁大型底栖动物群落中的代表种类之一,其摄食活动对珊瑚礁生境底质有机物的循环再利用具有重要作用。本文研究了三亚蜈支洲岛典型热带珊瑚礁海域野生黑海参的沉积物选择特征及其触手和消化系统结构功能的适应性。结果表明,黑海参摄取的沉积物颗粒相对较粗,其中粒径0.25mm部分占到了总重量的96.67%。触手上3—6个乳突形成乳突簇[直径(283.00±40.94)μm],适宜摄取大颗粒沉积物。黑海参胃内含物有机物含量显著高于环境沉积物,证实其对有机物含量的选择性;粒径0.25mm部分有机物含量占摄入总有机物量的75%,与环境沉积物中相同粒度的有机物总量占比接近(76%),表明黑海参选择的沉积物粒径范围有效保证了其高效摄入有机质。黑海参前肠的脂肪酶、淀粉酶、纤维素酶、胰蛋白酶活性最高,同时绝大部分的有机质(98.33%)在前肠被吸收。组织学定量分析表明,黑海参前肠黏膜层厚度最大,占总厚度的56.33%,这与其高效吸收有机质的功能相适应;后肠的肠壁总厚度和黏膜下层、肌层厚度均显著高于前肠和中肠,表明其具有相对更好的弹性和收缩能力,适合于大颗粒有机质的高效输送与排出。研究结果证实,黑海参摄食器官和消化道独特的结构与功能保证了其在珊瑚砂粗颗粒生境中高效摄取有机物。