Abstract:The conservation of migratory songbirds in China faces challenges similar to those in other parts of the world such as Europe and North America. Migratory songbirds have a complex life history and are associated with large spatial scale. Events that occur during migration play a vital role in determining population status. Little is known about the stopover behavior of migratory songbirds in China during their passage, including stopover duration, energetic condition (e.g., the amount of fat stores), and the habitat of these birds. We investigated migration timing, stopover duration, change of energetic condition and sex-related variations among Red-flanked Bush Robins (Tarsiger cyanurus) at a stopover site in Northeast China. A total of 1 751 Red-flanked Bush Robins were captured in the fall of 2002, with further 684 captured in the spring of 2003. The body mass of the fall birds was higher than that of the spring ones. The condition index (i.e., body mass adjusted for body size) was lowest among spring females. Birds were more likely to stay longer in fall than in spring. We detected a positive relationship between the time of initial capture and condition index regardless of season or sex, suggesting that the birds were able to replenish energy stores. The net daily mass gain was the highest among males in the fall (3% of body mass). The net daily mass gain would sustain a flight of 0.6 hours for females and 3.1 hours for males in the fall. The stopover biology of Red-flanked Bush Robins is similar to that of some migratory songbirds in Europe and North America. For example, the spring passage time and fat store variation between the sexes concurs with the hypothesis that males are selected to arrive at their breeding grounds as early as food resources or climatic conditions are adequate in the spring. Further research on stopover ecology is urgently required in China to achieve a better understanding of migratory behavior and ensure the conservation of these migratory songbirds.

Abstract:Over the last century urbanization on the landscape has increased and intensified. Urban development has a great impact on the environment at the local, regional and even global levels. As a driving force in global change, the need to understand the dynamics of urban pattern and its change in an accurate and efficient manner is ever more pressing. Based on aerial color infrared photography in 1985 and QuickBird satellite imagery in 2004 and according to the standard for plan and construction of city land use, the landscape of Guigang City was divided into 11 types. In the landscape classification maps, 31 buffer zones, each being 200 m wide, were divided. With the aid of GIS software ArcView 3.2 and landscape pattern analysis software FRAGSTATS 3.3, the landscape spatial patterns of each buffer zone were analyzed at the landscape level and class level. The landscape indices, such as patch size, patch fractal dimension, diversity index and evenness index, were calculated. The results indicated the following: The total area of the residential land and the communal land in 2004 covered 46.3% of the entire constructed area of Guigang City and the sum of the patch number of the two patch types occupied about 39.7% of the total patch number, while the percentages were respectively 48.2% and 45.4% in 1985. This showed that the mosaic landscape with the residential land and communal facilities land became increasingly unclear following urban development and landscape diversity. Based on the gradient analysis with the landscape-level index and the class-level index, there were two business and finance centers in the constructed area. One was located in the urban center with a range of 0.8 km; the other was from the 10^th to the 16^th zone. In each buffer zone, the mean patch size was larger and the landscape shape was more regular in 2004 than in 1985. Furthermore, the Shannon diversity index of each buffer zone rose in 2004 with patch richness and evenness increasing. The landscape index computed for the main landscape types (communal facilities land, industrial estate land, residential land and farmland) in the middle of the buffer zones clearly indicated the changes taking place in urbanization. The patch size and the patch number of industrial estate land and farmland also pointed to these changes, while communal facilities land and residential land assumed another similar tendency towards changes. In each gradient zone, industrial estate land had the most complex shape, the lowest area percentage of each zone and the biggest mean patch size, whereas communal facilities land and residential land were opposite to industrial estate land. Farmland had a steady percentage along the buffer zone and its continuous distribution had an important impact on the urban eco-environment. The question of how to relate the pattern of changing characteristics along the buffer zone to the urban ecological process and urban ecological planning remains to be studied further in the future.

Abstract:Quantitative analysis of ecological relationships between vegetation and the environment has become an essential means in the field of research of modern vegetation ecology. In this article, based on data from 84 quadrates, forest communities in this reserve were investigated using TWINSPAN, DCA and DCCA. The results will be helpful in the construction and development of Pangquangou National Nature Reserve. Using TWINSPAN, the forest communities were classified into seven types. The distribution pattern of vegetation reflects the comprehensive influence of environments. The results of DCA and DCCA clearly reflect the relationship between the pattern of forest communities and environmental gradients. The ordination result of DCCA indicates that altitude is more important than other environmental factors because the change of altitude gradient will lead to changes in the temperature and humidity gradients. The first of the DCA ordination axes indicates the humidity gradient, and the second indicates the temperature gradient. All these results show that the main factors restricting the distribution of communities in this reserve are temperature and humidity. The ecological meaning of the ordination axis in DCCA is much clearer than that in DCA, and the species-environment correlation of DCCA is more obvious than DCA. The first DCCA axis indicates the altitude gradient among the communities, while the second is the gradient in aspect and slope among the communities. DCCA ordination can simultaneously express similarities of species and environment. Therefore, the quadrat location in the DCCA ordination figure is much closer than in the DCA.

Abstract:Gas exchange characteristics, Pn-PAR and/or Pn-CO₂ response parameters of rape (Brassica napus L) were studied in the field under different O₃ concentrations (CF, 50 nl·L^-1 and 100 nl·L^-1) and fumigation regimes (constant concentration and dynamic varying concentrations) with a portable photosynthetic system (CIRAS-1). Results indicated: (1) Relatively to CF, higher ozone concentration decreased in Tr and increased in WUE under a constant concentration fumigation regime. In addition, an increase in Tr and decreases in Pn, Gs and WUE were found in the dynamic ozone exposure regime; (2) In the constant concentration exposure regimes, AQY, LSP and P_max were markedly reduced and Rp and Γ were enhanced with an increase in ozone concentration (100 nl·L^-1). There were significant differences in the parameters such as Rd, LCP, LSP, P_max and CE between O₃ exposure regimes; (3) Regardless of the exposure regimes which were imposed, the increase of O₃ concentration induced significant decreases in Fv/Fo and Fv/Fm of the eighth leaves from the top canopy, but it had no effect on the fifth full-spread leaves. It can be concluded that the dynamic ozone exposure regime has greater detrimental effects on the photosynthesis of rape in spite of equal exposure dose, and thus is unfavorable for plant growth and the accumulation of dry matter.

Abstract:In this article, RAPD was employed to detect the DNA polymorphism of Carchesium polypinum in three lakes: Nanhu Lake (N), Shahu Lake (S) and Donghu Lake (D). The results were used to deduce the definition of the populations: (1) The 20 primers produced 172 clear bands with an average of 8.6 fragments ranging from 100bp to 1600bp. The other 11 primers produced 59 legible bands with an average of 5.4 fragments ranging from 100bp to 1 500bp; (2) SPSS 12.0 and RAPDistance 1.04 that had similar trees were composed of two parallel main branches. Samples from Shijizhong (Z) of D, Shuiguohu (H) of D and N clustered into a branch and another sample from D — Fengguangcun (F) — gathered with S or made another main branch itself. The result that the three samples from D were separated by the samples from other lakes suggested that the individuals of C. polypinum in D belong to several populations. This discovery will promote micro-hydrobiont population ecology research. In addition, it will help in the study of the essence of the transitional zone and its dispersal and vicariance behavior. We believe that this study will contribute to the study of population differentiation and the mechanism of speciation.