Resource Competition and Selective Grazing of Plankton in a Multispecies Pelagic Food Web Model*

Abstract. An idealized mathematical, multispecies model of the pelagic foodweb was used to explore the impact of resource competition, selective grazing, and species composition within each trophic level on the structure and functioning of a foodweb at a variety of light irradiance and nutrient levels. This concept is based on the general assumption that poorly edible species are poor competitors. The concept demonstrates that with increasing eutrophication, specialists in competition will be replaced by generalists and subsequently by poorly edible primary producers. Controlling factors not only determine the growth rate of primary producers but also select predators according to their ability to utilize the energy fixation of the system. Plankton community structure seems to adapt in such a way that the energy fixation rate of the system is optimized at a given set of nutrients and light. Red tides, dense algal blooms in shallow lakes and the varying results of biomanipulation in shallow lakes, can be explained by the concept of selective grazing. If this assumption is correct, the same ecosystem concept may be applicable for terrestrial ecosystems.     

Movement patterns and trajectories of ovigerous blue crabs Callinectes sapidus during the spawning migration

Female blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun) migrate from low salinity estuarine regions to high salinity regions near the ocean to release larvae. During this migration, ovigerous females use ebb-tide transport, a vertical migratory behavior in which they ascend into the water column during ebb tides, to move seaward to larval release areas. In order to determine the relationship of ebb-tide vertical migrations to local currents and the influence of these vertical migrations on the horizontal transport of blue crabs in the estuary, ovigerous females with mature embryos (1–3 days from hatching) were tracked near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina (USA), in July and August 2001 and 2002. Crabs were tagged and tracked using ultrasonic telemetry, and currents near the crabs were measured simultaneously with a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler.During the two seasons, eight crabs were successfully tracked for periods ranging from 3.9–37.0 h and for distances ranging from 1.9–10.6 km. All crabs migrated seaward during the tracking periods. Crabs moved episodically during all tidal phases with periods of movement on the order of minutes to an hour. They moved with local currents in terms of both speed and direction during ebb tides, consistent with ebb-tide transport, and moved down-estuary (seaward) in opposition to local currents during flood tides. The percentage of time that crabs were active was higher during night ebb tides than during day ebb tides or flood tides and increased with increasing ebb-tide current speed. Mean migratory speeds were 0.11, 0.04, 0.08 and 0.02 m s⁻¹ during night ebb, night flood, day ebb and day flood tides, respectively, and net migratory speeds were on the order of 5 km day⁻¹. Due to the episodic nature of the crabs' movements, the total distances that crabs traveled during ebb tides ranged from 10–40% of the distances that passive particles could have traveled under the same conditions.     

Hydrodynamic loads on subsea robots

Free floating subsea robots are often subjected to complex hydrodynamic loads due to waves/currents and wakes from nearby structures. This makes control extremely difficult. Good hydrodynamics data might counteract this. This paper presents hydrodynamics data for two configurations undergoing various combinations of steady translation and approximately steady rotation. The two configurations are: a spherical body with a single fixed link arm and a two link arm without a body. For both configurations neural networks were found to provide a reasonable fit to the data. We believe that such fits could be used to improve control.     

土壤呼吸的温度敏感性

土壤呼吸是指土壤释放CO₂ 的过程,它所释放出的CO₂ 是生物圈向大气圈释放CO₂ 的主要来源之一。土壤呼吸速率对温度变化的敏感性是陆地生态系统碳循环过程中一个十分重要的环节。由于许多大尺度碳循环模型中都涉及土壤呼吸的温度敏感性这一问题,因此对该问题的回答有助于提高对当前陆地生态系统碳通量的估算和对 未来气候变化预测的准确性。本文就目前土壤呼吸速率对温度变化的敏感性的主要问题进行了综述,从温度、水分、呼吸底物的数量和质量、酶促反应动力学等几个不同的方面,概述了土壤呼吸温度敏感性的变异范围较大的原因,以及这些因素对土壤呼吸的温度敏感性影响的机理。土壤呼吸是酶促的化学反应,因此其温度敏感性不仅取决于呼吸底物的质量,同样也取决于底物的有效性。     

HLJCORS系统性能测试与分析

通过定位精度测试、可用性测试和兼容性测试,本文分析评估了HLJCORS的实时和事后定位精度、空间可用性、时间可用性以及兼容性。测试表明,HLJCORS测试精度均达到或优于设计要求,可为黑龙江省建立统一的现代化测绘基准提供重要支撑。     

微型异养鞭毛虫摄食选择性的研究进展

微型异养鞭毛虫(HNF)是海洋微微型浮游生物的重要摄食者,通过摄食作用对后者的种类(或类群)组成、粒径分布、数量结构和营养价值等属性具有重要的影响,而这与HNF的摄食选择性有直接关系。对HNF摄食选择性的研究有助于深入了解HNF在海洋微食物环乃至整个海洋生态系统中的作用。就国际上已开展的HNF摄食选择性相关研究进行了回顾,分析和总结了影响HNF选择性摄食的关键因素,如食物大小、游动性、营养价值及食物细胞表面的生化结构特征等,并重点介绍了HNF摄食选择性形成的主要机制以及HNF的选择性摄食在调节海洋微微型浮游生物群落结构中的作用。