Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Algal and Animal Communities in a Posidonia oceanica Meadow

Abstract. Investigations were carried out in a Posidonia oceanica meadow at Ischia (Gulf of Naples) along a depth gradient from 1 to 32 m in November 1979 and May 1981.
In these two months, different discontinuities were found at the sampling stations (1, 5, 10, 20, 30 m) at 10 m for leaf features, between 1 and 5 m for the algal community and the vagile fauna. The leaf features (length, surface, and biomass) along the transects show a delay in leaf production toward the deeper stations, below the thermocline.
The algal community shows in both seasons and in all stations a persistence of an encrusting layer, mostly represented by Corallinaceae and the brown alga Myrionema orbiculare , while at the shallowest station (1 m) the community is characterized by a more developed upright layer.
The vagile fauna of the leaf stratum, mostly represented by Polychaeta, Mollusca , and Crustacea (Peracarida and Decapoda) , shows a consistent zonation in both seasons along the transect. A superficial community at I m, characterized by a low number of species and individuals and specialized for high environmental energy levels, and a deeper community, persistent in time and more strictly related to the Posidonia oceanica meadows, are identified.
The influence of environmental factors and the importance of meadow structure for the zonation of the algal and animal communities are discussed.     

红树植物白骨壤叶片衰老过程中叶肉细胞Ca2+水平的变化

用焦锑酸钙沉淀的电镜细胞化学方法，研究了白骨壤叶片衰老过程中叶肉细胞Ca^2 水平的变化．结果表明，在白骨壤幼叶和成熟叶叶肉细胞中，焦锑酸钙沉淀颗粒大量出现在液池和细胞间隙中，细胞壁中也可见少量沉淀，而细胞基质中则看不到焦锑酸钙沉淀．在衰老叶中，细胞基质和细胞膜上焦锑酸钙沉淀增加，而液泡和细胞间隙中的锑酸钙沉淀则显著减少，并且叶绿体外膜部分破损，结构破坏，核膜与液泡膜内部结构模糊，叶绿素含量、净光合速率、气扎手率和蒸腾速率显著下降．Ca^2 的区域性分布的变化与植物叶片衰老密切相关。     

Riparian alder fens — source or sink for nutrients and dissolved organic carbon? — 2. Major sources and sinks

Natural riparian forest wetlands are known to be effective in their ability to remove nitrate by denitrification and sediments with attached phosphorus via sedimentation. On the other hand, litter input and decomposition is a process of crucial importance in cycling of nitrogen and phosphorus in a forest ecosystem.In this study we investigated the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the alder fen ecosystem through leaf litter and its decomposition and the removal capacity of nitrogen and phosphorus by measuring denitrification and sedimentation in the alder fen.We found an average input of leaf litter during fall 1998 of 226 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ DW with nutrient concentration of 0.17% P and 1.6% N. This means a yearly input of 0.4 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ P and 3.6 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ N. The decomposition of leaf litter using litter bags with small and large mesh size resulted in bags with macroinvertebrates (large mesh size) and without macroinvertebrates (small mesh size). After 57 days the litter bags with macroinvertebrates had a decomposition rate of 79%.Denitrification was measured in May and June of 1997 using the acetylene inhibition technique on intact soil cores and slurry-experiments. The average annual denitrification rate was 0.2 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ N using data from the core experiments. The denitrification rate was higher after addition of nitrate, indicating that denitrification in the riparian alder fen is mainly controlled by nitrate supply.The sedimentation rate in the investigated alder fen ranged from 0.47 kg m⁻² yr⁻¹ DW to 4.46 kg m⁻² yr⁻¹ DW in 1998 depending on the study site and method we used. Sedimentation rates were lower in newly designed plate traps than in cylinder traps. The alder fen also showed lower rates than the adjacent creek Briese. Average phosphorus removal rate was 0.33 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ P.Input sources for the surface water of the alder fen are sediment mineralization and decomposition of leaf litter; output sources are sedimentation and denitrification. This study showed that a nutrient input of 24.58 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ N, 8.8 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ P and 419 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ DOC into the surface water of the alder fen is possible. Alder fens cannot improve water quality of an adjacent river system. This is only true for a nearly pristine alder fen with the hydrology of 10 months flooded conditions and 2 months non-flooding conditions a year.     

Organic litter: dominance over stones as a source of interrill flow roughness on low‐gradient desert slopes at Fowlers Gap,arid western NSW,Australia

Thirty‐six runoff plot experiments provide data on flow depths, speeds, and Darcy–Weisbach friction coefficients (f) on bare soil surfaces, and surfaces to which were added sufficient extra plant litter or surface stones to provide projected cover of 5, 10 and 20 per cent. Precision flow depth data were derived with a computer‐controlled gantry and needle gauge for two different discharges for each plot treatment. Taking a fixed flow intensity (Reynolds number, Re = 150) for purposes of comparison shows means of f = 17·7 for bare soil surfaces, f = 11·4 for added stone treatments, and f = 23·8 for added litter treatments. Many individual values of f for stone treatments are lower than for the bare soil surface, but all litter treatments show increases in fcompared to bare soil. The lowering of f in stone treatments relates to the submerged volume that the stones occupied, and the associated concentration of flow onto a smaller part of the plot surface. This leads to locally higher flow intensities and lower frictional drag along threads of flow that the obstacles create. Litter causes higher frictional drag because the particles are smaller, and, for the same cover fraction, are 100 times more numerous and provide 20 times the edge or perimeter length. Along these edges, which in total exceed 2·5 m g^?1 (equivalent to 500 m m^?2 for a loading of 2 t ha^?1), surface tension draws up water from between the litter particles. This reduces flow depth there, and as a consequence of the lower flow intensity, frictional drag rises. Furthermore, no clear passage remains for the establishment of flow threads. These findings apply to shallow interrill flows in which litter is largely immobile. The key new result from these experiments is that under these conditions, a 20 per cent cover of organic litter can generate interrill frictional retardation that exceeds by nearly 41 per cent that of a bare soil surface, and twice that contributed by the same cover fraction of surface stones. Even greater dominance by litter can be anticipated at the many dryland sites where litter covers exceed those tested here. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

利用光谱反射率估算叶片生化组分和籽粒品质指标研究

对可见光至短波红外波段(350—2500nm)冬小麦田间冠层光谱反射率与叶片含氮量间的关系进行了相关分析。结果表明，820—1100nm波段的光谱反射率与叶片含氮量极显著正相关；1150—1300hm波段的光谱反射率与叶片含氮量显著正相关，以上两波段为叶片全氮的敏感波段。对各生育时期叶片全氮与其他生化组分的关系进行了回归分析，并建立了相关的回归方程，显著性检验结果表明，方程具有较高的可靠性。小麦的叶片含氮量可以估算其它生化组分及干物质指标含量，开花期叶片含氮量可用来估测籽粒蛋白质和干面筋等品质指标含量。     

太原东山二叠纪地层中发现最古老大孢子“球果”及其进化意义

与轴相连的苏铁大孢子叶第一次发现太原东册的下二叠系地层中，它出现如此之早，表明这种球果状的结构可能是所有苏铁类雌性生殖器官的祖先形式，苏铁也可能通过古地中海洋流从华北迁移到欧洲。     

Geostatistical simulation of random fields with bivariate isofactorial distributions by adding mosaic models

This work deals with the geostatistical simulation of a family of stationary random field models with bivariate isofactorial distributions. Such models are defined as the sum of independent random fields with mosaic-type bivariate distributions and infinitely divisible univariate distributions. For practical applications, dead leaf tessellations are used since they provide a wide range of models and allow conditioning the realizations to a set of data via an iterative procedure (simulated annealing). The model parameters can be determined by comparing the data variogram and madogram, and enable to control the spatial connectivity of the extreme values in the realizations. An illustration to a forest dataset is presented, for which a negative binomial model is used to characterize the distribution of coniferous trees over a wooded area.     

Climatic response of thick leaf spruce (Picea crassifolia) tree-ring width at different elevations over Qilian Mountains, northwestern China

Tree-ring cores of thick leaf spruce (Picea crassifolia) taken from four sites at different elevations, in the middle of the Qilian Mountains, in the arid and semi-arid region of northwestern China, were used to develop four tree-ring width chronologies using standard dendrochronological methods. Results indicate that with increasing altitude the chronologies’ year-to-year variations decreased. Hence, the sensitivity of the tree-ring chronologies to climate decreases with altitude. Further analysis showed that the significant limiting factor on tree growth is spring precipitation. Measurements of stomata density and leaf dry weight suggest the species’ ecological adaptation strategy changes with elevation. At high elevation the metabolic rate of thick leaf spruce decreases, thus showing the effect of the climate.     

内蒙古河套灌区春玉米作物系数试验研究

作物系数曲线是估算作物生长季耗水量变化的重要参数。基于2013年4—9月内蒙古巴彦淖尔市临河区田间水分试验和1994—2013年气象站观测资料,利用水量平衡法反求春玉米作物系数,分析生长季内的变化规律, 建立动态模拟方程,并与联合国粮农组织 (FAO) 分段直线法结果进行比较, 提出胁迫条件下作物系数的叶面积修正方法。结果表明:玉米作物系数随发育进程可用三项式曲线描述,变化趋势与产量水平无关, 但随产量增高而变幅增大;以出苗后相对积温为时间变量建立模拟方程效果较好,决定系数 (R2) 均在0.92以上;模拟计算出各站点最大 (1.30~1.48) 和平均 (0.831~0.919) 作物系数,与FAO分段直线法计算的典型值和区间值基本一致,生长中期平均相对误差为3.4%~7.2%;提出利用相对叶面积指数修正作物系数的计算方法;通过2014年实例检验,土壤水分模拟值与实测值的平均相对误差为6.3%,相对误差小于15%的占95.8%。