Changes in individual plant traits and biomass allocation in alpine meadow with elevation variation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Plant traits and individual plant biomass allocation of 57 perennial herbaceous species, belonging to three common functional groups (forbs, grasses and sedges) at subalpine (3700 m ASL), alpine (4300 m ASL) and subnival (>= 5000 m ASL) sites were examined to test the hypothesis that at high altitudes, plants reduce the proportion of aboveground parts and allocate more biomass to belowground parts, especially storage organs, as altitude increases, so as to geminate and resist environmental stress. However, results indicate that some divergence in biomass allocation exists among organs. With increasing altitude, the mean fractions of total biomass allocated to aboveground parts decreased. The mean fractions of total biomass allocation to storage organs at the subalpine site (7%+/- 2% S.E.) were distinct from those at the alpine (23%+/- 6%) and subnival (21%+/- 6%) sites, while the proportions of green leaves at all altitudes remained almost constant. At 4300 m and 5000 m, the mean fractions of flower stems decreased by 45% and 41%, respectively, while fine roots increased by 86% and 102%, respectively. Specific leaf areas and leaf areas of forbs and grasses deceased with rising elevation, while sedges showed opposite trends. For all three functional groups, leaf area ratio and leaf area root mass ratio decreased, while fine root biomass increased at higher altitudes. Biomass allocation patterns of alpine plants were characterized by a reduction in aboveground reproductive organs and enlargement of fine roots, while the proportion of leaves remained stable. It was beneficial for high altitude plants to compensate carbon gain and nutrient uptake under low temperature and limited nutrients by stabilizing biomass investment to photosynthetic structures and increasing the absorption surface area of fine roots. In contrast to forbs and grasses that had high mycorrhizal infection, sedges had higher single leaf area and more root fraction, especially fine roots.

Analysis of arable land loss and its impact on rural sustainability in Southern Jiangsu Province of China

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in southern Jiangsu Province have consumed a huge amount of arable land. Through comparative analysis of land cover maps derived from TM images in 1990, 2000 and 2006, we identified the trend of arable land loss. It is found that most arable land is lost to urbanization and rural settlements development. Urban settlements, rural settlements, and industrial park-mine-transport land increased, respectively, by 87 997 ha (174.65%), 81 041 ha (104.52%), and 12 692 ha (397.99%) from 1990 to 2006. Most of the source (e.g., change from) land covers are rice paddy fields and dryland. These two covers contributed to newly urbanized areas by 37.12% and 73.52% during 1990-2000, and 46.39% and 38.86% during 2000-2006. However, the loss of arable land is weakly correlated with ecological service value, per capita net income of farmers, but positively with grain yield for some counties. Most areas in the study site have a low arable land depletion rate and a high potential for sustainable development. More attention should be directed at those counties that have a high depletion rate but a low potential for sustainable development. Rural settlements should be controlled and rationalized through legislative measures to achieve harmonious development between urban and rural areas, and sustainable development for rural areas with a minimal impact on the ecoenvironment. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Protective immunity induced by CpG ODNs against white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) via intermediation of virus replication indirectly in Litopenaeus vannamei

The worldwide shrimp culture is beset with diseases mainly caused by white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) and suffered huge economic losses, which bring out an urgent need to develop the novel strategies to better protect shrimps against WSSV. In the present study, CpG-rich plasmid pUC57-CpG, plasmid pUC57 and PBS were employed to pretreat shrimps comparatively to evaluate the protective effects of CpG ODNs on shrimps against WSSV. The survival rates, WSSV copy numbers, and antiviral associated factors (Dicer, Argonaute, STAT and ROS) were detected in Litopenaeus vannamei. There were higher survival proportion, lower WSSV copy numbers, and higher mRNA expression of Dicer and STAT in pUC57-CpG-pretreatment shrimps than those in pUC57- and PBS-pretreatment shrimps after WSSV infection. The Argonaute mRNA expression in pUC57-CpG-, pUC57- and PBS-pretreatment shrimps after WSSV infection was significantly higher than that of shrimps post PBS stimulation on the first day. The ROS levels in pUC57-CpG-pretreatment shrimps post secondary stimulation of PBS were significantly higher than those post WSSV infection on the first day. These results together demonstrated that pUC57-CpG induced partial protective immunity in shrimps against WSSV via intermediation of virus replication indirectly and could be used as a potential candidate in the development of therapeutic agents for disease control of WSSV in L. vannamei. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

安顺大气降水中低分子有机酸及其与贵州其它地区对比研究

低分子有机酸是对流层大气的重要组成成分，广泛分布于大气中的气相、液相、气溶胶中。本文以贵州省安顺作为研究区域，在 2007 年 6 月~2008年 6月期间，收集大气降水样品118个，对降水中主要成份尤其是低分子有机酸及其对自由酸度的贡献进行了为期一年的研究。并通过与贵州其它3个地区的对比，重点讨论了大气降水中低分子有机酸时间和空间的变化规律、成因机制、对降水自由酸度的贡献以及来源等关键问题。得出的主要结论如下： （1） 安顺降水总体呈酸性，pH雨量加权平均值为 4.89，范围在3.57～7.09，酸雨频率为 57.0%。降水的电导率平均值为46.52μs•cm-1，变化范围为6.01～298.00 μs•cm-1，该值远远高于降水背景站点，表明该地区受到了明显的人为活动影响。 （2） 安顺大气降水中离子浓度的顺序依次为SO42->Ca2+>NH4+>NO3-> Mg2+>K+>Na+>Cl->H+>HCOOHt>CH3COOHt >(COOH)2(t)2-。大气降水中最重要的离子为SO42-、NO3-（阴离子）和Ca2+、NH4+ 和Mg2+（阳离子），平均浓度依次为140.9、46.1、124.2、45.4和36.2µmol/L。相关性分析和聚类分析表明，安顺SO2和NOx具有同源特征，且进入降水的途径相同。大气中的铵主要以硫酸铵与硝酸铵的形式存在于大气中，成为大气中重要的酸性气溶胶。另外，CaSO4、NaCl、MgCl2、(NH4)2SO4、NH4NO3、KNO3、H2SO4、HNO3是降水的主要化学组分。降水中Ca2+、NH4+、Mg2+和K+的中和因子分别为0.38、0.14、0.22、0.05，表明降水中最重要的中和物质是Ca2+，其次是Mg2+和NH4+。源分析表明，安顺大气降水中的K+和Ca2+主要来自以岩石和土壤为主的陆相输入，而SO42-和NO3-主要来自人为活动的贡献，其人为贡献量高达97.0%和94.3%。Mg2+主要来自陆源输入，仅有9.1%来自海水的贡献。Cl-属于海盐性离子，但在安顺降水中，仅有57.3%来自海相输入，小部分（1.3%）来自岩石和土壤风化的贡献，人类活动排放的Cl-也是该地区一个重要来源。 （3） 安顺大气降水中共检测出7种低分子有机酸，含量最高的有机酸组成依次是甲酸(HCOO-)、乙酸(CH3COO-)和草酸（(COO)22-），雨量加权平均浓度分别为8.77、6.90和2.84µmol/L。降水中所测有机酸的平均总含量为19.00µmol/L，对阴离子总和的贡献为12.6%。对于 pH<5 的降水，甲酸、乙酸和草酸对自由酸度的平均贡献值（按最大贡献率法计算）分别为 19.2%、5.9和7.8%，总有机酸（三者之和）对自由酸度的平均贡献值为32.9%。这些事实表明，安顺大气降水中的有机酸是降水化学物质的重要组成部分，会对降水的物理和化学特征产生重要的影响。采样期间，安顺甲酸、乙酸和草酸的湿沉降通量分别为10.81、10.46和3.94 mmol/m2/year。根据气液平衡理论，估算出甲酸和乙酸的干沉降量，分别为4.78和1.63mmol/m2/year。 （4） 安顺降水有机酸浓度存在着明显的季节性变化，四季的有机酸浓度由高到低分别为：冬季>春季>夏季>秋季；非生长季节>生长季节。这种季节变化特征显然与植物生长的季节变化特征不一致。表明安顺大气中的有机酸浓度的影响因素非常复杂；植物生长、降雨量（降雨强度和持续时间）和人为活动等因素的季节变化都会影响大气有机酸的组成和分布特征。在连续降雨过程的监测中发现甲酸和乙酸的浓度是随降雨过程（时间）同步变化，这说明甲酸与乙酸很可能存在相同的来源或者相似的源强，它们在大气中的清除方式也可能相同。而草酸的浓度与日照强度和温度有关，与降雨发生的时间有很重要的关系，表明草酸多来源于光化学反应为主的间接来源。另外，还发现降雨初期降水酸性要强于降雨后期，这表明降雨对大气中污染物质有明显的清除和稀释作用。 （5） 相关性分析表明，甲酸和乙酸之间存在显著的相关关系，相关系数为0.80，这种强烈的正相关表明甲酸和乙酸具有相似的排放源或者排放源不同但有相似的排放强度；草酸与甲酸和乙酸也都具有显著相关关系,这可能是因为草酸与甲酸和乙酸具有相同的排放源或者是草酸的前体物如甲醛与甲酸、乙酸具有相似的排放源；甲酸与NH4+、NO3- 和NO2-的相关关系也很高，表明甲酸的主要来源是农业活动或者生物质燃烧和汽车尾气排放等。乙酸和草酸的情况与甲酸类似。论文建立了甲酸与乙酸分析浓度比值(F/A)T的判定方程曲线，结果表明安顺有机酸主要来源于直接来源，包括植物直接释放，生物质燃烧，汽车尾气排放等；间接来源如不饱和碳烃化合物（如烯烃和异戊二烯）和醛类物质(如甲醛）的光化学氧化不是该地区有机酸的主要来源。 （6） 对比贵州其它3个监测站点的降雨数据后，发现大气降水对降水酸度的贡献，偏远地区（尚重）要远大于工业城市。另外，安顺和尚重大气有机酸以直接来源为主。其中，尚重有机酸的主要来源是植物释放，而安顺有机酸的主要来源是生物质燃烧、汽车尾气等人类活动的释放。贵阳市有机酸的主要来源是间接来源，即有机酸前体物的光化学氧化。遵义有机酸的来源具有明显的季节周期性，在夏秋以直接释放为主，而春冬季节以间接释放为主。