Loss of preferred habitat and pollen limitation threatens reproduction in a rare mountain <Emphasis Type="Italic">Paeonia delavayi</Emphasis>

Paeonia delavayi is a wild tree peony species endemic to high-altitude regions in southwestern China. Recent agricultural land expansion, however, not only causes its dwindling population size, but also poses a severe threat to its long-term persistence. Since our knowledge of the reproductive biology of P. delavayi is very limited, and some management misconceptions have further exacerbated the already worrisome situation, the aim of the present study is to provide some scientific evidence regarding habitat preference and breeding system of P. delavayi, and to help correct some management misconceptions. Specifically, morphological traits of P. delavayi populations growing in two different habitats (i.e., the open area versus forest understory), including basal stem diameter, plant height and flower numbers per plant, were measured and compared with each other. A range of floral manipulation experiments was further conducted to study the extent of self-compatibility and pollen limitation. The results showed that P. delavayi preferred the open habitat over forest understory as it generally grew bigger with thicker stems, and produced a higher number of flowers in the former habitat. Therefore, the open habitat should receive immediate priority for conservation action instead of being converted to agricultural land; also, P. delavayi is pollen limited, as evidenced by the fact that experimental flowers receiving supplemental non-self pollen generally displayed elevated seed production than flowers subjected to other treatments (e.g., non-supplemental self pollen, non-supplemental non-self pollen and supplemental self pollen), which is consistent with reported observations that alpine plants are more likely to be pollen-limited than lowland plants. We suggest that human intervention might be necessary to guarantee the long-term persistence of P. delavayi as harsh alpine environment, intense competition for pollinators and different anthropogenic perturbations co-limit its reproductive success.     

A review of heavy metal adsorption by marine algae

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The influence of key environmental variables on phytoplankton community structure in the estuary of tidal rivers around Luoyuan Bay,China

A total of 348 species belonging to 8 phyla and 125 genera were observed in seasonally sampled phytoplankton of tidal rivers from 13 sampling sites around Luoyuan Bay, and all field samplings were carried out in productive period(March/June/August/December) at ebb tide. Bacillariophyta species were the most abundant species, followed by Chlorophyta, Cyanophytes, Euglenophyta, Cryptophyta, Dinophyta, Xanthophyta and Chrysophytas. Seasonal distribution index(SDI) value ranged from 0.63 to 0.86, which meant that species found at those sites in 4 seasons tended to be largely different. Phytoplankton individuals ranged from 5.939×10~4 ind L~(-1) in winter to 75.31×10~4 ind L~(-1) in autumn. Phytoplankton biomass ranged from 0.620 mg L~(-1) in summer to 2.373 mg L~(-1) in autumn. The grey correlation analysis(GCA) showed that the nutrient variables played an important role in the influence on phytoplankton community in every season. The canonical correspondence analysis(CCA) revealed impact of environmental variables on the different species, most of Bacillariophyta species were negative correlation with nutrients(TP and NH_3-N) in the four seasons, Chlorophyta species and Cyanophyta species did not show obvious correlation with environment variables in every season. The combination of GRA analysis and CCA analysis provided a method to quantitatively reveal the correlation between phytoplankton community and environmental variables in water body of tidal rivers at this region.     

Research on the Method of Orbit Determination Based on the Self-adaptive Stable Least p-norm Estimate

The traditional least square estimation (LSE) method for orbit determination will not be optimal if the error of observational data does not obey the Gaussian distribution. In order to solve this problem, the least p-norm (Lp) estimation method is presented in this paper to deal with the non-Gaussian distribution cases. We show that a suitable selection of parameter p may guarantee a reasonable orbit determination result. The character of Lp estimation is analyzed. It is shown that the traditional Lp estimation method is not a robust method. And a stable Lp estimating based on data depth weighting is put forward to deal with the model error and outlier. In the orbit determination process, the outlier of observational data and coarse model error can be quantitatively described by their weights. The farther is the data from the data center, the smaller is the value of data depth and the smaller is the weighted value accordingly. The result of the new Lp method is stabler than that of the traditional Lp estimation and the breakdown point could be up to 1/2. In addition, the orbit parameter is adaptively estimated by residual analysis and matrix estimation method, and the estimation efficiency is enhanced. Finally, by taking the Space-based Space Surveillance System as an example and performing simulation experiments, we show that if there are system error or abnormal value in the observational data or system error in satellite dynamical model and space-based observation platform, LSE will not be optimal even though the observational data obeys the Gaussian distribution, and the orbit determination precision by the self-adaptive robust Lp estimation method is much better than that by the traditional LSE method.     

斜压大气中双涡自组织与台风形成的初步研究

从数值研究和个例分析两个方面讨论了斜压大气中双涡自组织与台风形成的关系.首先,利用PSU/NCAR 第五代数值天气预报模式(MM5),设计了6个弱环境流场下的理想试验,研究斜压大气中双涡自组织对台风形成的影响,结果表明:斜压大气中双涡自组织存在一个临界距离dc,其值在380 km左右.当双涡间距d≤dc时,双涡可以自组织形成台风环流,当d>dc时,自组织现象不能发生.其次,选取一个对我国有重要影响典型台风个例,分析双涡自组织对其形成的影响,结果表明双涡自组织过程是对我国有重要影响台风形成的典型方式之一.     

A rigorous method of calculating the deflection of light in the gravitational field of the sun

Starting from the equation for the path of a photon in a gravitational field, we give a method of calculating the deflection of starlight in the solar field. The transformation from the non-inertial system at the Sun to the locally inertial system of the observer is considered. Calculation was made under the Schwarzschild metric. Our calculated results for the deflection before making coordinate transformation agree well with the results according to the IAU formulae, but when an accuracy of 0'.'001 is required, then the coordinate transformation must be included.     

Emission Line Profiles and Images of Geometrically Thin and Optically Thick Accretion Disks

Under the assumption that the accretion disk around a Kerr (spinning) black hole is geometrically thin and optically thick, the trajectories of photons in Kerr metric are calculated by using the photon tracing method. And by numerical calculations, we have made a study on the relativistic iron line profiles and images of thin accretion disks. The result shows that viewing at large inclination angles, because of the contribution of the photons from the lower surface of the accretion disk, the line profile becomes double-peaked and the flux image is also significantly modified.     

The evolution of the z distribution of normal neutron stars in the Galaxy

Under the two initial 1‐D one parameter velocity distribution forms (one is normal, the other is exponential), the z direction scale height evolution of normal neutron stars in the Galaxy is studied by numerical simulation. We do statistics for the cases at different time segments, also do statistics for the cumulative cases made of each time segment. The results show in the cumulative cases the evolution curves of the scale heights are smoother than in the each time segment, i.e., the cumulation improve the signal‐to‐noise ratio. Certainly the evolution cases are different at different Galactic disk locations, which also have very large difference from the average cases in the whole disk. In the initial stages of z evolution of normal neutron stars, after the beginning transient states, the cumulative scale heights increase linearly with time, and the cumulative scale height increasing rates have linear relationship with the initial velocity distribution parameters, which have larger fluctuation in the vicinity of the Sun than in the whole disk. We utilize the linear relationship of the cumulative scale height increasing rates vs. the initial velocity distribution parameters in the vicinity of the Sun to make comparison with the observation near the Sun. The results show if there is no magnetic decay, then the deserved initial velocity parameters are obvious lower than the present well known results from some authors; whereas if introducing magnetic decay, for the 1‐D normal case we can make consistence among concerning results using magnetic decay time values which are supported by some authors, while for the 1‐D exponential case the results show the lackness of young pulsar samples in the larger z in the vicinity of the Sun (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Immunotoxicity effect of benzo[α]pyrene on scallop Chlamys farreri

The toxic effects of benzo[α]pyrene (B[α]P) at different concentrations (0.1, 0.5, 1, 2.5 and 7.5 μgL⁻¹) on scallop (Chlamy farreri) immune system were studied. The results showed that B[α]P had significant toxic effects on the haemocyte counts, neutral red uptake, phagocytosis, bacteriolytic and antibacterial activity (P<0.05), while the seawater control and acetone control had no significant differences. The haemocyte counts, neutral red uptake, phagocytosis and bacteriolytic activity in all B[α]P treatment groups as well as antibacterial activity in groups of 0.5, 1, 2.5 and 7.5 μgL⁻¹ B[α]P decreased significantly (P<0.05). Some of these indices tended to be stable on the sixth day and others on the ninth day, and the indices showed clear time- and concentration-response to B[α]P. Bacteriolytic activity in 0.1μgL⁻¹ B[α]P treatment group and antibacterial activity in 0.1 μgL⁻¹ and 0.5 μgL- B[α]P treatment groups increased at the beginning of exposure and reached their peaks on day 1 and day 6, respectively. Following that, both activities decreased gradually and became stable after day 9. When all the indices reached stability, they were significantly lower than those in control group (P<0.05), except for antibacterial activity in 0.1 μgL⁻¹ B[α]P treatment group (P>0.05). Thus, B[α] has evident toxic effects on scallop immune system, which supports the view that a relationship exists between pollution and immunomodulation in aquatic organisms.