The use of herders’ accounts to map livestock activities across agropastoral landscapes in Semi-Arid Africa

Improved understandings of the agricultural and range ecologies ofsemi-arid Africa require better information on the spatiotemporal distributionof domestic livestock across agropastoral landscapes. An empirical GIS-basedapproach was developed for estimating distributions of herded livestock acrossthree agropastoral territories (around 100 km² each)over a two-year period. Algorithms developed from regression analyses of herdtracking data (with R²s 0.67) are used to transform a morecomprehensive but incomplete set of data generated from herders accounts oftheir herds grazing itineraries (400 herds following 6500 itineraries). Theresulting characterization registers 40 000 days of livestock activitiesacross694 land units (averaging 70 ha) over the study period. This studydemonstrates that rural producers knowledge of their daily extractionpracticescan be translated to fine-grained characterizations of extraction densitiesacross mixed landscapes. The spatiotemporal distribution of livestock that isrevealed by this approach diverges strongly from that predicted bycommonly-usedpoint-diffusion estimation procedures. Instead, the distribution reflects localpatterns of land use, topography, vegetation, settlements, and water points.Grazing and nongrazing times spent in land units are not spatially correlatedand the seasonality of grazing pressure is spatially variable. Therefore, theecological impacts of livestock grazing are spatially variable at fine scalesand there is a significant potential for livestock-mediated nutrient transfersacross agropastoral landscapes. The georeferenced data produced by thisapproachnot only will help evaluate the impact and sustainability of differentmanagement practices but also provides a strong empirical base for improvedspatial modeling of herded livestock.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Scale dependence of tree abundance and richness in a tropical rain forest,Malaysia

Abundance and richness are the two fundamental components of speciesdiversity. They represent two distinct types of variables of which the formerisadditive when aggregated across scales while the latter is nonadditive. Thisstudy investigated the changes in the spatial patterns of abundance andrichnessof tree species across multiple scales in a tropical rain forest of Malaysiaandtheir variations in different regions of the study area. The results showedthatfrom fine to coarse scales abundance had a gradual and systematic change inpattern, whereas the change in richness was much less predictable and ahotspot in richness at one scale may become acoldspot at another. The study also demonstrated that differentmeasures of diversity variation (e.g., variance and coefficient of variation)can result in different or even contradictory results which further complicatedthe interpretation of diversity patterns. Because of scale effect the commonlyused measure of species diversity in terms of unit area (e.g.,species/m²) is misleading and of little use in comparing speciesdiversitybetween different ecosystems. Extra care must be taken if management andconservation of species diversity have to be based on information gathered at asingle scale.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

免疫应激对仔猪理想氨基酸平衡模式影响的研究

采用氨基酸部分扣除法研究了人工诱导免疫应激条件下仔猪可消化赖氨酸（DLys）、蛋氨酸（DMet）、色氨酸（DTrp），苏氨酸（DThr）之间的平衡比例。结果表明：仔猪处于正常和免疫应激条件下的理想氨基酸模式存在差异，应激条件下，以可消化氨基酸为基础的这4种氨基酸的平衡比例为DLys100、DMet27、DTrp29、DThr59；正常条件下为DLys100、DMet30、DTrp21、DThr61。     

西南地区农田主要种植草种及种植模式探讨

利用南方农区丰富的农田资源,大力发展草地畜牧业,引草入田,是发挥草业优势,突破农村发展瓶颈,增加农民收入的一项重要措施。探讨了西南地区农田的主要种植草种以及适宜西南地区的种植利用模式。     

辽东半岛结缕草无性系种群构件生物量相关模型及形成规律

按生物构件的理论,分析了辽东半岛结缕草无性系种群叶片、叶鞘、分株、匍匐茎各构件生物量以及总生物量间的相关模型和构件生物量的分配、形成规律,探讨了其不同生物量基于种群大小(密度)的形成规律。结果表明,辽东半岛结缕草无性系种群的总生物量及各构件生物量均随着种群密度的增大而以线性函数增加,各构件生物量与总生物量以及各构件生物量间亦均以线性函数增加,生物量增加比率均表现为:分株>匍匐茎,叶鞘>叶片,总生物量增量的27.2%分配给叶片,29.2%分配给叶鞘,43.6%分配给匍匐茎,叶片,叶鞘和匍匐茎构件生物量的积累是按1∶1.1∶1.6比例形成。     

东洞庭湖湿地水鸟群落季节动态格局

为了对东洞庭湖湿地鸟类的继续研究提供数据和理论依据,2005年7月~2006年12月采用样方法和样线法对该湿地水鸟进行了调查,共记录到水鸟89种,并对其季节动态格局进行了研究分析,结果表明,全年水鸟种类和数量均是冬季多,夏季少,特别是数量波动有明显的冬季高峰期和夏季低谷期,季节差异非常显著。     

Applying Local Measures of Spatial Heterogeneity to Landsat-TM Images for Predicting Wildfire Occurrence in Mediterranean Landscapes

In mountainous Mediterranean regions, land abandonment processes in past decades are hypothesized to trigger secondary vegetal succession and homogenization, which in recent years has increased the size of burned areas. We conducted an analysis of temporal changes in landscape vegetal spatial pattern over a 15-year period (1984–1998) in a rural area of 672.3 km² in Eastern Spain to investigate the relationship between local landscape heterogeneity and wildfire occurrence. Heterogeneity was analyzed from textural metrics derived from non-classified remote sensing data at several periods, and was related to wildfire history in the study area. Several neural network models found significant relationships between local spatial pattern and future fire occurrence. In this study, sensitivity analysis of the texture variables suggested that fire occurrence, estimated as probability of burning in the near future, increased where local homogeneity was higher.     

Do coarse resolution U.S. presettlement land survey records adequately represent the spatial pattern of individual tree species?

Presettlement land survey records (PLSRs) are a valuable and unique source of information for the reconstruction of presettlement forest patterns. The purpose of this study was to determine whether coarsely resolved PLSRs are adequate to characterize the spatial patterns of individual tree species over large areas. The General Land Office Survey records of the PLSRs of Minnesota were used and species selected in the analysis were based on their abundances and degrees of clustering. A geostatistical procedure was developed to analyze observations of bearing-tree point-locations, at progressively coarser resolutions from 1×1 mile to 24×24 miles, to create spatially continuous probability surfaces of species occurrences across the landscape. Statistical and visual analyses of the geostatistical predictions indicated that coarsely resolved PLSRs, as coarse as 24×24 miles, can adequately represent the spatial pattern of individual species over large areas. Mean errors in predictions increased as more coarsely resolved data were used, primarily in response to the decreased abundance of a species and minorly in response to the degree of spatial clustering of a species. The results indicate that coarsely resolved township-level data of 6×6 miles can be used for presettlement vegetation reconstruction of large areas of several counties.     

大棚草莓斜纹夜蛾的空间分布型

斜纹夜蛾Spodoptera litura(Fabricius)是大棚草莓生长初期的重要害虫。为明确斜纹夜蛾在草莓上的时空动态,连片调查了草莓上低龄幼虫数、中高龄幼虫数、受害叶片数以及叶片受害率,利用聚集度指标法、Taylor幂法则和IwaoM-m的回归法进行分析。结果表明低龄幼虫呈明显的聚集分布,中高龄幼虫则呈随机分布或均匀分布,受害叶片和受害率呈明显的聚集分布;通过聚集均数(λ)判断低龄幼虫高密度时λ>2,聚集由于成虫产卵块、初孵幼虫成聚集危害引起;低龄幼虫低密度时λ<2,聚集由植株间距等影响初孵幼虫的扩散因子引起;中高龄幼虫呈随机分布的田块的λ<2。*     

贺兰山高山草甸的群落生态学研究

在群落调查的基础上，对贺兰山高山草甸进行数量分析。主要的结果如下：（1）贺兰山高山草甸可分为三个群系，分别为珠芽蓼群系、高山嵩草群系和矮嵩草群系，而高山嵩草群系和矮嵩草群系可进一步划分为两个亚群系，不同群系（或亚群系）的群落结构和环境特征之间存在显著的差异；（2）高山嵩草群系和矮嵩草群系之间的界限约为海拔3200m，而珠芽蓼群系主要分布于研究区的偏阴坡，与海拔关系不大；（3）14个频次大于50％的物种在排序图上的空间分布反映了这些物种最适宜生境的位置，而且与群落类型的空间分布一致。