Nocturnal fish movement and trophic flow across habitat boundaries in a coral reef ecosystem (SW Puerto Rico)

Few studies have quantified the extent of nocturnal cross-habitat movements for fish, or the influence of habitat adjacencies on nutrient flows and trophodynamics. To investigate the patterns of nocturnal cross-boundary movements of fish and quantify trophic connectivity, fish were sampled at night with gillnets set along the boundaries between dominant habitat types (coral reef/seagrass and mangrove/seagrass) in southwestern Puerto Rico. Fish movement across adjacent boundary patches were equivalent at both coral reefs and mangroves. Prey biomass transfer was greater from seagrass to coral reefs (0.016 kg/km) and from mangroves to seagrass (0.006 kg/km) but not statistically significant, indicating a balance of flow between adjacent habitats. Pelagic species (jacks, sharks, rays) accounted for 37% of prey biomass transport at coral reef/seagrass and 46% at mangrove/seagrass while grunts and snappers accounted for 7% and 15%, respectively. This study indicated that coral reefs and mangroves serve as a feeding area for a wide range of multi-habitat fish species. Crabs were the most frequent prey item in fish leaving coral reefs while molluscs were observed slightly more frequently than crabs in fish entering coral reefs. For most prey types, biomass exported from mangroves was greater than biomass imported. The information on direction of fish movement together with analysis of prey data provided strong evidence of ecological linkages between distinct adjacent habitat types and highlighted the need for greater inclusion of a mosaic of multiple habitats when attempting to understand ecosystem function including the spatial transfer of energy across the seascape.

Demographic assessment of the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) in Chesapeake Bay using extractable lipofuscins as age markers

The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) plays an important economic and ecological role in estuaries and coastal habitats from the Gulf of Mexico to the east coast of North America, but demographic assessments are limited by length-based methods. We applied an alternative aging method using biochemical measures of metabolic byproducts (lipofuscins) sequestered in the neural tissue of eyestalks to examine population age structure. From Chesapeake Bay, subsamples of animals collected from the 1998–99 (n=769) and 1999–2000 (n=367) winter dredge surveys were collected and lipofuscin was measured. Modal analysis of the lipofuscin index provided separation into three modes, whereas carapace-width data collected among the same individuals showed two broad modes. Lipofuscin modal analysis indicated that most adults (carapace width >120 mm) were <2 years old. The results indicate that use of extractable lipofuscin can provide a more accurate and better resolved estimation of demographic structure of blue crab populations in the field than size alone.

锡林河流域一个放牧草原群落土壤呼吸及其影响因子的研究

本文综述了草原群落土壤呼吸研究的理论、方法、最新进展和主要成果。从2001年6月5日到10月15日，在内蒙古锡林河流域的一个典型草原群落放牧地段用气相色谱法对土壤呼吸进行了测定，并同期观测相应的环境因子，分析了它们之间的相互关系，并根据根系生物量和土壤呼吸的相关性外推出根系呼吸占土壤总呼吸的比例。同时，采用碱液吸收法对该草原群落和一个沼泽化草甸群落的土壤呼吸进行了比对测定，比较在不同生境下土壤呼吸速率的差异。另外，重点比较了两种常用的土壤呼吸测量方法——碱液吸收法和气相色谱法对典型草原群落土壤呼吸的测量效果。主要研究成果如下： 1．在草原群落，生物量（包括地上和地下生物量）、温度（包括气温和土壤温度）和水分及土壤呼吸的季节变化均呈不规则的波动曲线;土壤呼吸与土壤湿度高度相关，与温度尤其是土壤温度以及地下生物量之间存在着一定的相关性，但和地上生物量及绿色生物量之间几乎没有关系。 2．草原群落和草甸群落土壤呼吸的季节动态基本一致，均出现了两个峰值，分别出现在6月底和7月底，它们的变化范围分别为312.8~1738.9 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1 和 354.6 ~2235.6 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1，日平均土壤呼吸速率分别为785.9 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1 和1349.6 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1，草甸群落的土壤呼吸速率明显高于草原群落; 3．土壤水分是草原群落土壤呼吸的主要限制因子，但对草甸群落的土壤呼吸变化却基本没有影响;草甸群落中，地上总生物量与土壤呼吸速率间没有显著的相关关系，但地上部分绿色生物量与土壤呼吸间存在着显著的幂函数关系，而在草原群落中，土壤呼吸速率与地上活生物量或地上总生物量的相关关系均很弱。 4．在草原群落，根系呼吸占土壤总呼吸的比例为60.7% - 93.3%，平均为82%; 5．碱液吸收法和气相色谱法的测定结果具有很高的相关性（R2=0.7563），它们的季节动态基本一致，变化范围分别为从249.3~1795.1 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1和从312.8~1738.9 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1，平均值分别为634.2 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1和802.7 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1，碱液吸收法的测量值是气相色谱法的约1.4倍。