The increasing attention on Bitcoin since 2013 prompts the issue of possible evidence for a causal relationship between the Bitcoin market and internet attention.Taking the Google search volume index as the measure of...The increasing attention on Bitcoin since 2013 prompts the issue of possible evidence for a causal relationship between the Bitcoin market and internet attention.Taking the Google search volume index as the measure of internet attention,time-varying Granger causality between the global Bitcoin market and internet attention is examined.Empirical results show a strong Granger causal relationship between internet attention and trading volume.Moreover,they indicate,beginning in early 2018,an even stronger impact of trading volume on internet attention,which is consistent with the rapid increase in Bitcoin users following the 2017 Bitcoin bubble.Although Bitcoin returns are found to strongly affect internet attention,internet attention only occasionally affects Bitcoin returns.Further investigation reveals that interactions between internet attention and returns can be amplified by extreme changes in prices,and internet attention is more likely to lead to returns during Bitcoin bubbles.These empirical findings shed light on cryptocurrency investor attention theory and imply trading strategy in Bitcoin markets.展开更多
Plant diversity plays key ecological roles in forest ecosystems, including influencing succession, resilience and nutrient cycling. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of livestock grazing and human use...Plant diversity plays key ecological roles in forest ecosystems, including influencing succession, resilience and nutrient cycling. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of livestock grazing and human uses on herbaceous species diversity. We surveyed 50 ha of protected area and 50 ha of unprotected area to evaluate herbaceous species diversity in oriental beech （Fagus orientalis Lipsky） forests in northern Iran. We calculated and compared three indices each of diversity and evenness, and species richness between the two areas. Herbaceous cover was higher in the unprotected area while leaf litter depth and tree canopy cover were higher in the protected area. The diversity indices, H （Shan- non-Wiener index ）, N~ （McArthur index）, N2 （Hill＇s index）, EQ （Modified Nee index）, E,ar （Smith-Wilson index）, E5 （modified index of Hill） and R=S （species richness） and species richness R=S were greater in the protected area than in the unprotected area, suggesting that protection from grazing results in increased numbers of plants and species. The effect of land protection on plant diversity was more pronounced for evenness than for species richness and the positive correlation between diversity and evenness indices was higher than that between diversity and richness.展开更多
This paper conducts a scientometric analysis and systematic literature review to identify the trends in microfinance outcomes from the perspective of their recipients,specifically more vulnerable people,while also foc...This paper conducts a scientometric analysis and systematic literature review to identify the trends in microfinance outcomes from the perspective of their recipients,specifically more vulnerable people,while also focusing on the demand side.Applying the keywords“co-occurrence networks”and“citation networks,”we examined 524 studies indexed on the ISI Web of Science database between 2012 and March 2021.The subsequent content analysis of bibliometric-coupled articles concerns the main research topics in this field:the socioeconomic outcomes of microfinance,the dichotomy between social performance and the mission drift of microfinance institutions,and how entrepreneurship and financial innovation,specifically through crowdfunding,mitigate poverty and empower the more vulnerable.The findings reinforce the idea that microfinance constitutes a distinct field of development thinking,and indicate that a more holistic approach should be adopted to boost microfinance outcomes through a better understanding of their beneficiaries.The trends in this field will help policymakers,regulators,and academics to examine the nuts and bolts of microfinance and identify the most relevant areas of intervention.展开更多
The development of novel drug delivery systems is an essential step toward controlled site-specific administration of therapeutics within the body. It is desirable for delivery vehicles to be introduced into the body ...The development of novel drug delivery systems is an essential step toward controlled site-specific administration of therapeutics within the body. It is desirable for delivery vehicles to be introduced into the body through minimally invasive means and, these vehicles should be capable of releasing drug to their intended location at a controlled rate. Furthermore, it is desirable to develop drug delivery systems that are capable of in vivo to suffer degradation and to deliver the drug completely, avoiding the need to surgically remove the vehicle at the end of its useful lifetime. Hydrogels are of particular interest for drug delivery applications due to their ability to address these needs in addition to their good biocompatibility, tunable network structure to control the diffusion of drugs and, tunable affinity for drugs. However, hydrogels are also limited for drug delivery applications due to the often quick elution of drug from their highly swollen polymer matrices as well as the difficulty inherent in the injection of macroscopic hydrogels into the body. This paper presents an overview to the advances in hydrogels based drug delivery. Different types of hydrogels can be used for drug delivery to specific sites in the gastrointestinal tract ranging from the oral cavity to the colon. These novel systems exhibit a range of several peculiar properties which make them attractive as controlled drug release formulations. Moreover, such materials are biocompatible and can be formulated to give controlled, pulsed, and triggered drug release profiles in a variety of tissues.展开更多
We studied the long-term impacts of natural burning on herbaceous species diversity 37 years after a fire occurred in the Roudbar forests of Guilan Province, northern Iran. Numerous studies have examined short-term ch...We studied the long-term impacts of natural burning on herbaceous species diversity 37 years after a fire occurred in the Roudbar forests of Guilan Province, northern Iran. Numerous studies have examined short-term changes in understory vegetation following wildfire; however, very few long-term studies are available or changes inferred from retrospective studies based on chro- nosequences. For this study, 170 ha of forest （85 ha, burned areas; 85 ha, unburned areas） were surveyed. Because the 1000 m2 plots were too large for detailed measurements of herbaceous species, we determined a sub-sample size according to the Whittaker＇s nested plot sampling protocol and minimal areas method. Hence, sub-plots of 32 m2 were used for herbaceous species measurements, which consisted of percent cover of each species based on the Domin criterion. We measured plant diversity （Shannon-Wiener index）, spe- cies richness （Margalef＇s index）, and evenness （Smith-Wilson index）. Mean percent cover, together with diversity, richness and even- ness, increased markedly in burned areas compared to unburned controls. This suggests that the biodiversity of these forests could be restored within 37 years after fire. However, the abundance of invasive species such as Rubus fruticosus and Bromus benekenii increased significantly in burned areas, but these could be controlled by relevant silvicultural operations.展开更多
The destruction of natural ecosystems is an important issue in many parts of the world. In the west of Iran, a vast area of the Zagros Mountain range is covered by typical vegetation including several rare plant speci...The destruction of natural ecosystems is an important issue in many parts of the world. In the west of Iran, a vast area of the Zagros Mountain range is covered by typical vegetation including several rare plant species, of which many are currently considered endangered by anthropogenic activities. Despite the important role of soil seed banks to help conserve these degraded plant communities, the floristic studies in the Zagros forests have only focused on aboveground vegetation. In this study, the characteristics of soil seed banks and above-ground vegetation were examined at two forest sites: an undisturbed control(Un) and a disturbed(D) site. The objectives of this study were 1) to investigate the diversity of above-ground vegetation and soil seed banks in disturbed and undisturbed forests, 2) to examine the soil properties and the germination characteristics of the soil seed bank in disturbed and undisturbed oak forests and 3) to estimate the potential of soil seed banks in the restoration of disturbed sites. The results show that soil properties between Un and D sites were significantly different with higher values of pH, NH 4-N, N tot, CEC, OC, clay and canopy percentage in the Un site than in the D site. The Simpson diversity, Margalef richness and evenness indices differed significantly between sites, either for the soil seed banks or the above-ground vegetation. After a period of 26 weeks, the germination speed and the mean daily number of germinants were significantly different between Un and D sites. Without other conservation measures, soil seed banks alone cannot result in a full recovery after severe disturbances in the oak forests of Zagros.展开更多
Biodiversity has become an issue of global attention because of growing awareness of its importance and its rapid depletion worldwide.Diversity of tree species in relation to environmental and disturbance gradients wa...Biodiversity has become an issue of global attention because of growing awareness of its importance and its rapid depletion worldwide.Diversity of tree species in relation to environmental and disturbance gradients was examined in three managed forests.Trees were randomly sampled in a survey of 75 circular plots(radius=13 m)with 5 subplots(radius=1 m).Generalized linear model analysis was used with a Poisson distribution log link function to understand the effects of variables(organic matter,organic carbon,nitrogen,potassium,pH,elevation and disturbance)on tree species richness.Canonical correspondence analysis was used to explore ecological relationships among plots.Our result found that the stand characteristics was an important influencing factor in the three forests.Our result showed that the variables had a highly positive influence on tree species richness in the three forests.In ordination,the selected variables governed the richness of tree species.Our study can help identify the most important factors that drive tree species richness in the three managed forests in Bangladesh and in similar ecosystems and inform forest management decisions for conservation according to ecological importance.展开更多
Humidity not only affects soil microbial respiration(SMR) directly, but, indirectly by regulating the availability of soil water and nutrients. However,the patterns of direct and indirect effects of humidity on SMR ov...Humidity not only affects soil microbial respiration(SMR) directly, but, indirectly by regulating the availability of soil water and nutrients. However,the patterns of direct and indirect effects of humidity on SMR over large precipitation gradients remain unclear, limiting our understanding of the effects of precipitation changes on soil C cycle. Here, we investigated the relationships among humidity, soil nutrients, and SMR by identifying stoichiometric imbalances, microbial elemental homeostasis, and microbial C use efficiency along a precipitation gradient at a continental scale. The relationship between SMR and humidity index(HI) corresponded to a Richard’s curve with an inflection point threshold value of approximately 0.7. Soil microbial respiration increased with increasing humidity in drier areas(HI < 0.7), but tended to balance above this threshold. Increasing humidity exacerbated C:P and N:P imbalances across the selected gradient. Severe N and P limitations in soil microbial communities were observed in drier areas, while soil microbes suffered from aggravated P limitation as the humidity increased in wetter areas(HI > 0.7). Soil microbial communities regulated their enzyme production to maintain a strong stoichiometric homeostasis in drier areas;enzyme production, microbial biomass, and threshold elemental ratios were non-homeostatic under P limitation in wetter areas, which further contributed to the increase in SMR. Our results identified a moisture constraint on SMR in drier areas and highlighted the importance of nutrient(especially for P) limitations induced by humidity in regulating SMR in wetter areas. Understanding the modulation of SMR via soil enzyme activity may improve the prediction of soil C budget under future global climate change.展开更多
Background: Over the last decades, many forest simulators have been developed for the forests of individual European countries. The underlying growth models are usually based on national datasets of varying size, obta...Background: Over the last decades, many forest simulators have been developed for the forests of individual European countries. The underlying growth models are usually based on national datasets of varying size, obtained from National Forest Inventories or from long-term research plots. Many of these models include country-and location-specific predictors, such as site quality indices that may aggregate climate, soil properties and topography effects. Consequently, it is not sensible to compare such models among countries, and it is often impossible to apply models outside the region or country they were developed for. However, there is a clear need for more generically applicable but still locally accurate and climate sensitive simulators at the European scale, which requires the development of models that are applicable across the European continent. The purpose of this study is to develop tree diameter increment models that are applicable at the European scale, but still locally accurate. We compiled and used a dataset of diameter increment observations of over 2.3 million trees from 10 National Forest Inventories in Europe and a set of 99 potential explanatory variables covering forest structure, weather, climate, soil and nutrient deposition.Results: Diameter increment models are presented for 20 species/species groups. Selection of explanatory variables was done using a combination of forward and backward selection methods. The explained variance ranged from10% to 53% depending on the species. Variables related to forest structure(basal area of the stand and relative size of the tree) contributed most to the explained variance, but environmental variables were important to account for spatial patterns. The type of environmental variables included differed greatly among species.Conclusions: The presented diameter increment models are the first of their kind that are applicable at the European scale. This is an important step towards the development of a new generation of forest development simulators that can be applied at the European scale, but that are sensitive to variations in growing conditions and applicable to a wider range of management systems than before. This allows European scale but detailed analyses concerning topics like CO2 sequestration, wood mobilisation, long term impact of management, etc.展开更多
The effects of nutrition may have subtantial impact on insect evolution by shaping different components of phenotypes. The key to undestanding this evolutionary process is to know how nutritional condition affects add...The effects of nutrition may have subtantial impact on insect evolution by shaping different components of phenotypes. The key to undestanding this evolutionary process is to know how nutritional condition affects additive and nonadditive components of the phenotype. However, this is poorly understood in outbreaking insects. We investigated the additive and nonadditive variation present in food utilization traits in spruce budworm individuals subjected to chronic nutritional stress. A total of 160 full-sib families of spruce budworm （Choristoneurafumiferana Clem.） were raised under laboratory condi- tions, feeding on 2 diets （high and low energy） during 3 generations. Variables tested were pupal mass, consumption rate （RCR）, growth rate （RGR）, approximate digestibility （AD）, the efficiency of conversion of digested food （ECD） and the efficiency of conversion of ingested food （ECI）. Our results show that all traits tested presented a high percentage of nonadditive effects that modulate phenotype expression. We found a significant impact of family × diet interaction on pupal mass, RGR and ECD. Furthermore, these traits exhib- ited the greatest heritability. There was no evidence of presence of maternal effects. The results revealed that food utilization traits may evolve through epigenetics effects, such as phenotypic plasticity. This information can be used by modellers to improve forecast of spruce budworm population dynamics.展开更多
Phenology allows organisms to overcome seasonally variable conditions through life-cycle adjustment. Changes in phenology can drastically modify the evolutionary tra- jectory of a population, while a shift in the repr...Phenology allows organisms to overcome seasonally variable conditions through life-cycle adjustment. Changes in phenology can drastically modify the evolutionary tra- jectory of a population, while a shift in the reproductive time may cause allochronic differentiation. The hypothesis of heritable reproductive time was experimentally tested, by studying a unique population of the pine processionary moth Thaumetopoeapityocampa （Den. ＆ Schiff.） which has a shifted phenology, and however co-occurs with the typical population following the classical life cycle. When populations of both types were reared under controlled conditions, the reproductive time was maintained asynchronous, as ob- served in the field. The shifted population was manipulated in the laboratory to reproduce later than usual, yet the offspring emerged in the next year at the expected dates thus ＂com- ing back＂ to the usual cycle. Hybrids from crosses performed between the 2 populations showed an intermediate phenology. From the emergence times of parents and offspring, a high heritability of the reproductive time （h = 0.76） was observed. The offspring ob- tained from each type of cross was genetically characterized using microsatellite markers. Bayesian clustering analysis confirmed that hybrids can he successfully identified and separated from the parental genetic classes by genotyping. Findings support the hypothesis that, for this particular population, incipient allochronic speciation is due to a heritable shift in the reproductive time that further causes assortative mating and might eventually cause ecological adaptation/maladaptation in response to environmental changes.展开更多
Mediterranean forest ecosystems are characterized by various vascular plant groups with their associated mycor-rhizae and free living soil fungi with various ecological functions.Fire plays a major role in Mediterrane...Mediterranean forest ecosystems are characterized by various vascular plant groups with their associated mycor-rhizae and free living soil fungi with various ecological functions.Fire plays a major role in Mediterranean ecosystem dynamics and impacts both above-and below-ground community structure and functioning.However,studies on the effects induced by altered disturbance regimes(associated with recent land use and climate extremes)on fire ecology and especially on its below-ground impacts are few.The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of different wildfire regimes on soil fungal community structure using two different molecular methods.We investigated the long-term effects of wildfire on soil fungal communities associated with Pinus pinaster forests in central Portugal,by comparing the results of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis(DGGE)-based profiling with those obtained with 454 pyrosequencing.Four forest stands with differing fire history and fire return interval,and vegetation cover(mature forest,early successional stage of pine regeneration,and forest converted to scrubland)were sampled 6 years after the last fire event.The pyrosequencing-based approach indicated ca.eight-fold higher numbers of taxa than DGGE.However,fungal community fingerprinting data obtained for the different study stands with DGGE were congruent with those obtained with pyrosequencing.Both short(7.6 years)and long(24 years)fire return intervals(indicated by the presence of ericaceous shrubs in the understorey)induced a decrease in the abun-dance ratio between basidiomycetes and ascomycetes and appeared to reduce the frequency of ectomycorrhizal fungal species and saprophytes.Wildfire significantly reduced the frequency of late stage successional taxa(e.g.Atheliaceae and Cantharellales)and known or putative saprophytes belonging to the Clavulinaceae and the Archaeorhizomycetaceae.Conversely,early successional fungal species belonging to the Thelephoraceae were favoured by both fire return inter-vals,while the abundance of Cortinarius and Hebeloma,which include several Cistus-specific species,increased with short wildfire return intervals.This last finding highlights the relationship between postfire vegetation composition and cover(vegetation successional stage),and fungal symbionts.We hypothesise that these changes could,in the long term,exhaust the resilience of Mediterranean pine forest vegetation and associated soil fungal communities by preventing pine regeneration.展开更多
基金The paper received financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.71422015,71871213)the National Center for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences.
文摘The increasing attention on Bitcoin since 2013 prompts the issue of possible evidence for a causal relationship between the Bitcoin market and internet attention.Taking the Google search volume index as the measure of internet attention,time-varying Granger causality between the global Bitcoin market and internet attention is examined.Empirical results show a strong Granger causal relationship between internet attention and trading volume.Moreover,they indicate,beginning in early 2018,an even stronger impact of trading volume on internet attention,which is consistent with the rapid increase in Bitcoin users following the 2017 Bitcoin bubble.Although Bitcoin returns are found to strongly affect internet attention,internet attention only occasionally affects Bitcoin returns.Further investigation reveals that interactions between internet attention and returns can be amplified by extreme changes in prices,and internet attention is more likely to lead to returns during Bitcoin bubbles.These empirical findings shed light on cryptocurrency investor attention theory and imply trading strategy in Bitcoin markets.
文摘Plant diversity plays key ecological roles in forest ecosystems, including influencing succession, resilience and nutrient cycling. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of livestock grazing and human uses on herbaceous species diversity. We surveyed 50 ha of protected area and 50 ha of unprotected area to evaluate herbaceous species diversity in oriental beech （Fagus orientalis Lipsky） forests in northern Iran. We calculated and compared three indices each of diversity and evenness, and species richness between the two areas. Herbaceous cover was higher in the unprotected area while leaf litter depth and tree canopy cover were higher in the protected area. The diversity indices, H （Shan- non-Wiener index ）, N~ （McArthur index）, N2 （Hill＇s index）, EQ （Modified Nee index）, E,ar （Smith-Wilson index）, E5 （modified index of Hill） and R=S （species richness） and species richness R=S were greater in the protected area than in the unprotected area, suggesting that protection from grazing results in increased numbers of plants and species. The effect of land protection on plant diversity was more pronounced for evenness than for species richness and the positive correlation between diversity and evenness indices was higher than that between diversity and richness.
基金support of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(UBI PTDC/EGE/OGE/31246/2017,UIDB/04630/2020,UIDB/04728/2020,UIDB/04105/2020)。
文摘This paper conducts a scientometric analysis and systematic literature review to identify the trends in microfinance outcomes from the perspective of their recipients,specifically more vulnerable people,while also focusing on the demand side.Applying the keywords“co-occurrence networks”and“citation networks,”we examined 524 studies indexed on the ISI Web of Science database between 2012 and March 2021.The subsequent content analysis of bibliometric-coupled articles concerns the main research topics in this field:the socioeconomic outcomes of microfinance,the dichotomy between social performance and the mission drift of microfinance institutions,and how entrepreneurship and financial innovation,specifically through crowdfunding,mitigate poverty and empower the more vulnerable.The findings reinforce the idea that microfinance constitutes a distinct field of development thinking,and indicate that a more holistic approach should be adopted to boost microfinance outcomes through a better understanding of their beneficiaries.The trends in this field will help policymakers,regulators,and academics to examine the nuts and bolts of microfinance and identify the most relevant areas of intervention.
基金This work was financially supported by a Grant(Praxis SFRH/BD/48324/2008)from FCT(Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia,Portugal).
文摘The development of novel drug delivery systems is an essential step toward controlled site-specific administration of therapeutics within the body. It is desirable for delivery vehicles to be introduced into the body through minimally invasive means and, these vehicles should be capable of releasing drug to their intended location at a controlled rate. Furthermore, it is desirable to develop drug delivery systems that are capable of in vivo to suffer degradation and to deliver the drug completely, avoiding the need to surgically remove the vehicle at the end of its useful lifetime. Hydrogels are of particular interest for drug delivery applications due to their ability to address these needs in addition to their good biocompatibility, tunable network structure to control the diffusion of drugs and, tunable affinity for drugs. However, hydrogels are also limited for drug delivery applications due to the often quick elution of drug from their highly swollen polymer matrices as well as the difficulty inherent in the injection of macroscopic hydrogels into the body. This paper presents an overview to the advances in hydrogels based drug delivery. Different types of hydrogels can be used for drug delivery to specific sites in the gastrointestinal tract ranging from the oral cavity to the colon. These novel systems exhibit a range of several peculiar properties which make them attractive as controlled drug release formulations. Moreover, such materials are biocompatible and can be formulated to give controlled, pulsed, and triggered drug release profiles in a variety of tissues.
文摘We studied the long-term impacts of natural burning on herbaceous species diversity 37 years after a fire occurred in the Roudbar forests of Guilan Province, northern Iran. Numerous studies have examined short-term changes in understory vegetation following wildfire; however, very few long-term studies are available or changes inferred from retrospective studies based on chro- nosequences. For this study, 170 ha of forest （85 ha, burned areas; 85 ha, unburned areas） were surveyed. Because the 1000 m2 plots were too large for detailed measurements of herbaceous species, we determined a sub-sample size according to the Whittaker＇s nested plot sampling protocol and minimal areas method. Hence, sub-plots of 32 m2 were used for herbaceous species measurements, which consisted of percent cover of each species based on the Domin criterion. We measured plant diversity （Shannon-Wiener index）, spe- cies richness （Margalef＇s index）, and evenness （Smith-Wilson index）. Mean percent cover, together with diversity, richness and even- ness, increased markedly in burned areas compared to unburned controls. This suggests that the biodiversity of these forests could be restored within 37 years after fire. However, the abundance of invasive species such as Rubus fruticosus and Bromus benekenii increased significantly in burned areas, but these could be controlled by relevant silvicultural operations.
文摘The destruction of natural ecosystems is an important issue in many parts of the world. In the west of Iran, a vast area of the Zagros Mountain range is covered by typical vegetation including several rare plant species, of which many are currently considered endangered by anthropogenic activities. Despite the important role of soil seed banks to help conserve these degraded plant communities, the floristic studies in the Zagros forests have only focused on aboveground vegetation. In this study, the characteristics of soil seed banks and above-ground vegetation were examined at two forest sites: an undisturbed control(Un) and a disturbed(D) site. The objectives of this study were 1) to investigate the diversity of above-ground vegetation and soil seed banks in disturbed and undisturbed forests, 2) to examine the soil properties and the germination characteristics of the soil seed bank in disturbed and undisturbed oak forests and 3) to estimate the potential of soil seed banks in the restoration of disturbed sites. The results show that soil properties between Un and D sites were significantly different with higher values of pH, NH 4-N, N tot, CEC, OC, clay and canopy percentage in the Un site than in the D site. The Simpson diversity, Margalef richness and evenness indices differed significantly between sites, either for the soil seed banks or the above-ground vegetation. After a period of 26 weeks, the germination speed and the mean daily number of germinants were significantly different between Un and D sites. Without other conservation measures, soil seed banks alone cannot result in a full recovery after severe disturbances in the oak forests of Zagros.
基金funded by SUST Research Center,Shahjalal University of Science and Technology,Sylhet-3114,Bangladesh(Grant Number:FES/2013/06)
文摘Biodiversity has become an issue of global attention because of growing awareness of its importance and its rapid depletion worldwide.Diversity of tree species in relation to environmental and disturbance gradients was examined in three managed forests.Trees were randomly sampled in a survey of 75 circular plots(radius=13 m)with 5 subplots(radius=1 m).Generalized linear model analysis was used with a Poisson distribution log link function to understand the effects of variables(organic matter,organic carbon,nitrogen,potassium,pH,elevation and disturbance)on tree species richness.Canonical correspondence analysis was used to explore ecological relationships among plots.Our result found that the stand characteristics was an important influencing factor in the three forests.Our result showed that the variables had a highly positive influence on tree species richness in the three forests.In ordination,the selected variables governed the richness of tree species.Our study can help identify the most important factors that drive tree species richness in the three managed forests in Bangladesh and in similar ecosystems and inform forest management decisions for conservation according to ecological importance.
基金sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42277471 and 42307578)the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nos. XDB40000000 and XDA23070201)+3 种基金the Postdoctoral Research Funds of the Shaanxi Province,China(2023BSHYDZZ76)the Open Grant for State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology,the Institute of Earth Environment,Chinese Academy of Sciences (SKLLOG2230)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China (2023HHZX002)the Special Support Plan of Young Talents Project of Shaanxi Province and National Forestry and Grassland Administration in China(No. 20201326015)。
文摘Humidity not only affects soil microbial respiration(SMR) directly, but, indirectly by regulating the availability of soil water and nutrients. However,the patterns of direct and indirect effects of humidity on SMR over large precipitation gradients remain unclear, limiting our understanding of the effects of precipitation changes on soil C cycle. Here, we investigated the relationships among humidity, soil nutrients, and SMR by identifying stoichiometric imbalances, microbial elemental homeostasis, and microbial C use efficiency along a precipitation gradient at a continental scale. The relationship between SMR and humidity index(HI) corresponded to a Richard’s curve with an inflection point threshold value of approximately 0.7. Soil microbial respiration increased with increasing humidity in drier areas(HI < 0.7), but tended to balance above this threshold. Increasing humidity exacerbated C:P and N:P imbalances across the selected gradient. Severe N and P limitations in soil microbial communities were observed in drier areas, while soil microbes suffered from aggravated P limitation as the humidity increased in wetter areas(HI > 0.7). Soil microbial communities regulated their enzyme production to maintain a strong stoichiometric homeostasis in drier areas;enzyme production, microbial biomass, and threshold elemental ratios were non-homeostatic under P limitation in wetter areas, which further contributed to the increase in SMR. Our results identified a moisture constraint on SMR in drier areas and highlighted the importance of nutrient(especially for P) limitations induced by humidity in regulating SMR in wetter areas. Understanding the modulation of SMR via soil enzyme activity may improve the prediction of soil C budget under future global climate change.
基金funded by the SIMWOOD project(Grant Agreement No.613762)of the EU H2020 Programmefacilitated by the Alter For project(Grant Agreement No.676754)+3 种基金the VERIFY project(Grant Agreement No.776810)Co-funding was received from the topsector Agri&Food under No.AF-EU-15002The Dutch National Forest Inventory is funded by the Ministry of Economic AffairsThe regional forest inventory in Piemonte was produced with the support of EU structural funds
文摘Background: Over the last decades, many forest simulators have been developed for the forests of individual European countries. The underlying growth models are usually based on national datasets of varying size, obtained from National Forest Inventories or from long-term research plots. Many of these models include country-and location-specific predictors, such as site quality indices that may aggregate climate, soil properties and topography effects. Consequently, it is not sensible to compare such models among countries, and it is often impossible to apply models outside the region or country they were developed for. However, there is a clear need for more generically applicable but still locally accurate and climate sensitive simulators at the European scale, which requires the development of models that are applicable across the European continent. The purpose of this study is to develop tree diameter increment models that are applicable at the European scale, but still locally accurate. We compiled and used a dataset of diameter increment observations of over 2.3 million trees from 10 National Forest Inventories in Europe and a set of 99 potential explanatory variables covering forest structure, weather, climate, soil and nutrient deposition.Results: Diameter increment models are presented for 20 species/species groups. Selection of explanatory variables was done using a combination of forward and backward selection methods. The explained variance ranged from10% to 53% depending on the species. Variables related to forest structure(basal area of the stand and relative size of the tree) contributed most to the explained variance, but environmental variables were important to account for spatial patterns. The type of environmental variables included differed greatly among species.Conclusions: The presented diameter increment models are the first of their kind that are applicable at the European scale. This is an important step towards the development of a new generation of forest development simulators that can be applied at the European scale, but that are sensitive to variations in growing conditions and applicable to a wider range of management systems than before. This allows European scale but detailed analyses concerning topics like CO2 sequestration, wood mobilisation, long term impact of management, etc.
文摘The effects of nutrition may have subtantial impact on insect evolution by shaping different components of phenotypes. The key to undestanding this evolutionary process is to know how nutritional condition affects additive and nonadditive components of the phenotype. However, this is poorly understood in outbreaking insects. We investigated the additive and nonadditive variation present in food utilization traits in spruce budworm individuals subjected to chronic nutritional stress. A total of 160 full-sib families of spruce budworm （Choristoneurafumiferana Clem.） were raised under laboratory condi- tions, feeding on 2 diets （high and low energy） during 3 generations. Variables tested were pupal mass, consumption rate （RCR）, growth rate （RGR）, approximate digestibility （AD）, the efficiency of conversion of digested food （ECD） and the efficiency of conversion of ingested food （ECI）. Our results show that all traits tested presented a high percentage of nonadditive effects that modulate phenotype expression. We found a significant impact of family × diet interaction on pupal mass, RGR and ECD. Furthermore, these traits exhib- ited the greatest heritability. There was no evidence of presence of maternal effects. The results revealed that food utilization traits may evolve through epigenetics effects, such as phenotypic plasticity. This information can be used by modellers to improve forecast of spruce budworm population dynamics.
文摘Phenology allows organisms to overcome seasonally variable conditions through life-cycle adjustment. Changes in phenology can drastically modify the evolutionary tra- jectory of a population, while a shift in the reproductive time may cause allochronic differentiation. The hypothesis of heritable reproductive time was experimentally tested, by studying a unique population of the pine processionary moth Thaumetopoeapityocampa （Den. ＆ Schiff.） which has a shifted phenology, and however co-occurs with the typical population following the classical life cycle. When populations of both types were reared under controlled conditions, the reproductive time was maintained asynchronous, as ob- served in the field. The shifted population was manipulated in the laboratory to reproduce later than usual, yet the offspring emerged in the next year at the expected dates thus ＂com- ing back＂ to the usual cycle. Hybrids from crosses performed between the 2 populations showed an intermediate phenology. From the emergence times of parents and offspring, a high heritability of the reproductive time （h = 0.76） was observed. The offspring ob- tained from each type of cross was genetically characterized using microsatellite markers. Bayesian clustering analysis confirmed that hybrids can he successfully identified and separated from the parental genetic classes by genotyping. Findings support the hypothesis that, for this particular population, incipient allochronic speciation is due to a heritable shift in the reproductive time that further causes assortative mating and might eventually cause ecological adaptation/maladaptation in response to environmental changes.
基金supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology(FCT)through a Ph.D.grant for E.B.(SFRH/BD/21730/2005).
文摘Mediterranean forest ecosystems are characterized by various vascular plant groups with their associated mycor-rhizae and free living soil fungi with various ecological functions.Fire plays a major role in Mediterranean ecosystem dynamics and impacts both above-and below-ground community structure and functioning.However,studies on the effects induced by altered disturbance regimes(associated with recent land use and climate extremes)on fire ecology and especially on its below-ground impacts are few.The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of different wildfire regimes on soil fungal community structure using two different molecular methods.We investigated the long-term effects of wildfire on soil fungal communities associated with Pinus pinaster forests in central Portugal,by comparing the results of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis(DGGE)-based profiling with those obtained with 454 pyrosequencing.Four forest stands with differing fire history and fire return interval,and vegetation cover(mature forest,early successional stage of pine regeneration,and forest converted to scrubland)were sampled 6 years after the last fire event.The pyrosequencing-based approach indicated ca.eight-fold higher numbers of taxa than DGGE.However,fungal community fingerprinting data obtained for the different study stands with DGGE were congruent with those obtained with pyrosequencing.Both short(7.6 years)and long(24 years)fire return intervals(indicated by the presence of ericaceous shrubs in the understorey)induced a decrease in the abun-dance ratio between basidiomycetes and ascomycetes and appeared to reduce the frequency of ectomycorrhizal fungal species and saprophytes.Wildfire significantly reduced the frequency of late stage successional taxa(e.g.Atheliaceae and Cantharellales)and known or putative saprophytes belonging to the Clavulinaceae and the Archaeorhizomycetaceae.Conversely,early successional fungal species belonging to the Thelephoraceae were favoured by both fire return inter-vals,while the abundance of Cortinarius and Hebeloma,which include several Cistus-specific species,increased with short wildfire return intervals.This last finding highlights the relationship between postfire vegetation composition and cover(vegetation successional stage),and fungal symbionts.We hypothesise that these changes could,in the long term,exhaust the resilience of Mediterranean pine forest vegetation and associated soil fungal communities by preventing pine regeneration.
