黑石顶自然保护区土壤动物功能类群对季节动态的响应

为了解黑石顶自然保护区植被下土壤动物功能类群对季节动态的响应,对4种植被(茶叶、农田、灌丛、乔木)下土壤动物功能类群的类群数、个体数以及多样性、均匀性、优势度、丰富度指标进行研究,结果表明,四季共捕获土壤动物1718只,隶属4门9纲23个类群,并把土壤动物群落按不同功能组成划分为5类,即植食性、腐食性、枯食性、捕食性和杂食性。其中,优势类群为线虫、蜱螨目、弹尾目、等翅目4类;植食性土壤动物占总捕获数的4.07%,腐食性土壤动物占25.96%,枯食性土壤动物占28.7%,捕食性土壤动物占8.67%,杂食性土壤动物占32.6%。不同植被下土壤动物个体数量差异不显著,但茶叶和乔木下土壤动物对季节变化有响应。     

Population control in animals by overloading resources with sterile animals

Sterile animals might be introduced into a population to overload a resource. As a result, some of the original fertile animals might be lost by migration or death. This process could be repeated until the fertile population was eradicated without the mating required by Knipling's models. This method may be of use in ecology and in economic control of populations.     

How animals move: an integrative view

Recent advances in integrative studies of locomotion have revealed several general principles. Energy storage and exchange mechanisms discovered in walking and running bipeds apply to multilegged locomotion and even to flying and swimming. Nonpropulsive lateral forces can be sizable, but they may benefit stability, maneuverability, or other criteria that become apparent in natural environments. Locomotor control systems combine rapid mechanical preflexes with multimodal sensory feedback and feedforward commands. Muscles have a surprising variety of functions in locomotion, serving as motors, brakes, springs, and struts. Integrative approaches reveal not only how each component within a locomotor system operates but how they function as a collective whole.     

Hydrothermal vent animals: distribution and biology

Hydrothermal vent communities characterized by large clams, mussels, and vestimentiferan worms thrive on chemosynthetic microbial production. There are similarities in the animal distributions at vent communities from 20 degrees S to 46 degrees N on the Mid-Ocean Ridge in the Pacific Ocean and at cold sulfide seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. Vent communities, consisting of at least 16 previously unknown families of invertebrates, are at least 200 million years old. Since the life-span of a vent is only tens of years, the species survive by rapid growth and widespread dispersal of larvae with the subsequent colonization of new vents.