Relationship between species diversity and ecotope diversity

The relationship between species diversity and ecotope diversity has long been debated. But these debates seem meaningless because most of them were based on different definitions. In this paper, diversity has two components: richness based on the total number and evenness based on the relative abundance. Species diversity is distinguished into individual-counting diversity and biomass-based diversity. Ecotope diversity is divided into individual ecotope-counting diversity and ecotope-area based diversity. Under this definition, we make a comprehensive investigation into Dongzhi tableland of Loess Plateau by cooperating with local technicians. We find that individual-counting diversity is significantly correlated with biomass-based diversity in grassland ecosystems; individual ecotope-counting diversity and ecotope-area based diversity have a significant correlation. Therefore, it is unnecessary to divide species diversity into individual-counting diversity and biomass-based diversity in grassland ecosystems and to distinguish ecotope diversity into individual ecotope-counting and ecotope-area based diversity for the issues that have no special requirement for accuracy. But the analyses of the investigation data demonstrate that species diversity has no significant correlation with ecotope diversity.

H5N1 avian influenza re-emergence of Lake Communication Qinghai: phylogenetic and antigenic analyses of the newly isolated viruses and roles of migratory birds in virus circulation

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus has swept west across the globe and caused serious debates on the roles of migratory birds in virus circulation since the first large-scale outbreak in migratory birds of Lake Qinghai, 2005. In May 2006, another outbreak struck Lake Qinghai and six novel strains were isolated. To elucidate these QH06 viruses, the six isolates were subjected to whole-genome sequencing. Phylogenetic analyses show that QH06 viruses are derived from the lineages of Lake Qinghai, 2005. Five of the six novel isolates are adjacent to the strain A/Cygnus olor/Croatia/1/05, and the last one is related to the strain A/duck/Novosibirsk/ 02/05, an isolate of the flyway. Antigenic analyses suggest that QH06 and QH05 viruses are similar to each other. These findings implicate that QH06 viruses of Lake Qinghai may travel back via migratory birds, though not ruling out the possibility of local circulation of viruses of Lake Qinghai.