The alpine grassland vegetation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is composed of plant patches in varied sizes.It remains uncertain whether vegetation recovery following grazing exclusion(GE)in degraded grasslands is drive...The alpine grassland vegetation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is composed of plant patches in varied sizes.It remains uncertain whether vegetation recovery following grazing exclusion(GE)in degraded grasslands is driven by increases in patches number(NP),patch size(PS),or both.We based our predictions on two hypotheses:GE intensifies plant competition,and facilitation prevails near patches while competition prevails in interpatch spaces.We predicted that the NP would remain stable or decrease and PS would increase under GE treatment.To evaluate these predictions,we conducted a study in six lightly degraded alpine grasslands under free grazing(FG)conditions in Bangor County,Xizang Autonomous Region,China,with corresponding GE treatments using transects in 2017 and 2018.Results revealed that four sites in 2017 and five sites in 2018 had reduced NP and increased PS,with probabilities of 0.033(2017)and 0.004(2018),respectively,and a joint probability of 0.0001 under the null hypothesis that GE does not affect NP or PS.The NP reduction was solely due to the decrease in small patch sizes.An increase in PS was common across species,and a predominant tendency for NP reduction was observed among species across the sites.The overall changes in NP and PS were primarily driven by the three most abundant species(contributing more than 60%in both years),rather than by shifts in floristic composition.Our findings highlight that vegetation recovery in Bangor alpine steppes following GE relies solely on the expansion of existing patches rather than the recruitment of new ones in interpatch gaps.We recommend prioritizing growth-promoting measures,such as nutrient or water management,over seed addition when assisting with GE for restoring lightly degraded grasslands.展开更多
The problem of habitat fragmentation is recently an important issue in ecological research as well as in the practical approach of nature conservation. According to the most popular approaches, habitats are considered...The problem of habitat fragmentation is recently an important issue in ecological research as well as in the practical approach of nature conservation. According to the most popular approaches, habitats are considered as the homogenous parts of the landscape. Also the metapopulation concept problem of the inert habitat heterogenity is considered quite seldom. These approaches have some weak points resulting from the assumption that the border between habitat patches and the metapopulation matrix is fairly sharp. This paper presents a resource-based concept of habitats, based on mathematical theory of point processes, which can be easily applied to analysing the problem of uneven distribution of resources. The basic assumption is that the random distribution of resources may be mathematically described as the realisation of a certain point process. According to our method, it is possible to calculate the expected quantities of available resources as well as the minimum area of habitat that includes the expected abundance of the resource. This approach may be very useful to understand some crucial phenomena in landscape ecology, such as the patch size effect and its connection to habitat loss and fragmentation.展开更多
Forest disturbances have been altering the ecological properties of ecosystems;meanwhile,disturbance events of varying sizes create different structures and functions for a forest landscape.Therefore,size and frequenc...Forest disturbances have been altering the ecological properties of ecosystems;meanwhile,disturbance events of varying sizes create different structures and functions for a forest landscape.Therefore,size and frequency are important attributes of disturbances,and their relationship should be studied.We present a hierarchical method through the modeling of the overall trend of the size–frequency distribution and the characterization of the non-constant variances of disturbance sizes at each frequency level.This method was demonstrated to accurately model the sizes as well as the corresponding frequencies;thus,the total disturbed area and number of disturbance patches were both accurately estimated.By applying the method to 13 provinces in China,consistent patterns were revealed by the modeling results and remote-sensing-based product,showing that between 2000 and 2005,forests in most provinces were dominated by moderate disturbances(10 ha<size<100 ha).Southeastern provinces contain the largest proportion of small disturbances(size<10 ha),whereas most of the very large disturbances(size>1000 ha)occurred in the northeastern and northwestern provinces.This study concludes that the proposed method can improve the representation of the size–frequency distribution of forest disturbances.展开更多
The Chinese Grouse (Tetrastes sewerzowi) is a rare, endemic bird in China, inhabiting conifer-dominated mountain forests. Both the natural fragmentation and heavy cutting of mature forests have resulted in patchy grou...The Chinese Grouse (Tetrastes sewerzowi) is a rare, endemic bird in China, inhabiting conifer-dominated mountain forests. Both the natural fragmentation and heavy cutting of mature forests have resulted in patchy grouse habitats. We used SPOT (XS-sensor) satellite imagery to discriminate between open land and conifer or broadleaf forests. The area analyzed is about 120000 ha in size and includes the Lianhuashan Nature Reserve and the Yeliguan Forestry Park. We identiifed 4111 ha of mature coniferous forests in 229 patches (maximum 332 ha, mean 18 ha) as the habitat used by Chinese Grouse throughout the year. We examined 31 forest islands of different sizes and degrees of isolation for the presence of Chinese Grouse. We used generalized linear models (GLM) with binomial error structure and logit link function to estimate the probability of Chinese Grouse occupancy in a forest fragment. Habitat patch size (hs) and distance to the next occupied fragment (doc) were used as predictor variables, important for occupancy. Small habitat islands were disproportionately less likely to be occupied than large, nearby habitats. There was a clear speciifc habitat size of about 40 ha, above which habitat fragments were occupied more often. Suitable habitat fragments isolated by more than 2 km appeared to be inaccessible to Chinese Grouse. The results have been used in reforestation projects to establish linking corridors in the study area.展开更多
In this paper, the resonance and radiation characteristics of patch antennas fabricated with two different types of dielectric substrates have been investigated and compared at GSM 1800 MHz band. At first, the above-s...In this paper, the resonance and radiation characteristics of patch antennas fabricated with two different types of dielectric substrates have been investigated and compared at GSM 1800 MHz band. At first, the above-stated characteristics of a patch antenna loaded with conventional plastic substrate have been investigated. Later a high permittivity dielectric material (barium titanate) has been used as the antenna substrate. The main goal here is to reduce the antenna size with a high permittivity dielectric material and then to compare its resonance and radiation performance with the earlier low permittivity substrate loaded prototype. It is found that with the use of high permittivity substrate the antenna volume gets smaller (about 6% of the plastic substrate prototype) although the gain decreases by around 2.5 dB.展开更多
基金financially supported by the Science and Technology Bureau of Ali Prefecture,project named“Assessing the Carbon Sequestration and Carbon Sink Enhancement Potential of Natural Ecosystems in Ali Region(QYXTZX-AL2022-05)”。
文摘The alpine grassland vegetation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is composed of plant patches in varied sizes.It remains uncertain whether vegetation recovery following grazing exclusion(GE)in degraded grasslands is driven by increases in patches number(NP),patch size(PS),or both.We based our predictions on two hypotheses:GE intensifies plant competition,and facilitation prevails near patches while competition prevails in interpatch spaces.We predicted that the NP would remain stable or decrease and PS would increase under GE treatment.To evaluate these predictions,we conducted a study in six lightly degraded alpine grasslands under free grazing(FG)conditions in Bangor County,Xizang Autonomous Region,China,with corresponding GE treatments using transects in 2017 and 2018.Results revealed that four sites in 2017 and five sites in 2018 had reduced NP and increased PS,with probabilities of 0.033(2017)and 0.004(2018),respectively,and a joint probability of 0.0001 under the null hypothesis that GE does not affect NP or PS.The NP reduction was solely due to the decrease in small patch sizes.An increase in PS was common across species,and a predominant tendency for NP reduction was observed among species across the sites.The overall changes in NP and PS were primarily driven by the three most abundant species(contributing more than 60%in both years),rather than by shifts in floristic composition.Our findings highlight that vegetation recovery in Bangor alpine steppes following GE relies solely on the expansion of existing patches rather than the recruitment of new ones in interpatch gaps.We recommend prioritizing growth-promoting measures,such as nutrient or water management,over seed addition when assisting with GE for restoring lightly degraded grasslands.
基金funded by Institute of Nature Conservation PASpartly by a Polish State Committee for Scientific Research/National Science Centre grant No.N N304 325836.
文摘The problem of habitat fragmentation is recently an important issue in ecological research as well as in the practical approach of nature conservation. According to the most popular approaches, habitats are considered as the homogenous parts of the landscape. Also the metapopulation concept problem of the inert habitat heterogenity is considered quite seldom. These approaches have some weak points resulting from the assumption that the border between habitat patches and the metapopulation matrix is fairly sharp. This paper presents a resource-based concept of habitats, based on mathematical theory of point processes, which can be easily applied to analysing the problem of uneven distribution of resources. The basic assumption is that the random distribution of resources may be mathematically described as the realisation of a certain point process. According to our method, it is possible to calculate the expected quantities of available resources as well as the minimum area of habitat that includes the expected abundance of the resource. This approach may be very useful to understand some crucial phenomena in landscape ecology, such as the patch size effect and its connection to habitat loss and fragmentation.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China[grant number 41901300]the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities[grant number CCNU19TD002]the Scientific Research Project of Department of Natural Resources of Hubei Province[grant number ZRZY2020KJ01].
文摘Forest disturbances have been altering the ecological properties of ecosystems;meanwhile,disturbance events of varying sizes create different structures and functions for a forest landscape.Therefore,size and frequency are important attributes of disturbances,and their relationship should be studied.We present a hierarchical method through the modeling of the overall trend of the size–frequency distribution and the characterization of the non-constant variances of disturbance sizes at each frequency level.This method was demonstrated to accurately model the sizes as well as the corresponding frequencies;thus,the total disturbed area and number of disturbance patches were both accurately estimated.By applying the method to 13 provinces in China,consistent patterns were revealed by the modeling results and remote-sensing-based product,showing that between 2000 and 2005,forests in most provinces were dominated by moderate disturbances(10 ha<size<100 ha).Southeastern provinces contain the largest proportion of small disturbances(size<10 ha),whereas most of the very large disturbances(size>1000 ha)occurred in the northeastern and northwestern provinces.This study concludes that the proposed method can improve the representation of the size–frequency distribution of forest disturbances.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.31270468,30620130110)
文摘The Chinese Grouse (Tetrastes sewerzowi) is a rare, endemic bird in China, inhabiting conifer-dominated mountain forests. Both the natural fragmentation and heavy cutting of mature forests have resulted in patchy grouse habitats. We used SPOT (XS-sensor) satellite imagery to discriminate between open land and conifer or broadleaf forests. The area analyzed is about 120000 ha in size and includes the Lianhuashan Nature Reserve and the Yeliguan Forestry Park. We identiifed 4111 ha of mature coniferous forests in 229 patches (maximum 332 ha, mean 18 ha) as the habitat used by Chinese Grouse throughout the year. We examined 31 forest islands of different sizes and degrees of isolation for the presence of Chinese Grouse. We used generalized linear models (GLM) with binomial error structure and logit link function to estimate the probability of Chinese Grouse occupancy in a forest fragment. Habitat patch size (hs) and distance to the next occupied fragment (doc) were used as predictor variables, important for occupancy. Small habitat islands were disproportionately less likely to be occupied than large, nearby habitats. There was a clear speciifc habitat size of about 40 ha, above which habitat fragments were occupied more often. Suitable habitat fragments isolated by more than 2 km appeared to be inaccessible to Chinese Grouse. The results have been used in reforestation projects to establish linking corridors in the study area.
文摘In this paper, the resonance and radiation characteristics of patch antennas fabricated with two different types of dielectric substrates have been investigated and compared at GSM 1800 MHz band. At first, the above-stated characteristics of a patch antenna loaded with conventional plastic substrate have been investigated. Later a high permittivity dielectric material (barium titanate) has been used as the antenna substrate. The main goal here is to reduce the antenna size with a high permittivity dielectric material and then to compare its resonance and radiation performance with the earlier low permittivity substrate loaded prototype. It is found that with the use of high permittivity substrate the antenna volume gets smaller (about 6% of the plastic substrate prototype) although the gain decreases by around 2.5 dB.
