Animal versus wind dispersal and the robustness of tree species to deforestation

Studies suggest that populations of different species do not decline equally after habitat loss. However, empirical tests have been confined to fine spatiotemporal scales and have rarely included plants. Using data from 89,365 forest survey plots covering peninsular Spain, we explored, for each of 34 common tree species, the relationship between probability of occurrence and the local cover of remaining forest. Twenty-four species showed a significant negative response to forest loss, so that decreased forest cover had a negative effect on tree diversity, but the responses of individual species were highly variable. Animal-dispersed species were less vulnerable to forest loss, with six showing positive responses to decreased forest cover. The results imply that plant-animal interactions help prevent the collapse of forest communities that suffer habitat destruction.     

城市园林绿化及其关键技术

论述了园林学内容、研究现状及其发展趋势，概括了城市园林绿化的概念和作用，阐述了园林与绿化的内在关系，系统地探讨了绿地规划设计、植物造景、植物配置、植物群落构建、良种选育、培育管理等城市园林绿化的关键技术。     

新疆南疆种族的历史变迁与统一多民族格局的形成

新疆自古以来就是中国领土不可分割的一部分,新疆南疆早在3000多年前就有古先民居住。两汉时期,新疆南疆地区多元民族分布格局就已正式形成,经过魏晋南北朝至辽宋金元时期多元民族的发展与变迁,至明清时期,近代多元民族文化格局已成定型,说明今天新疆南疆统一多民族格局是在古西域不同民族经过长时间演变、发展和融合的基础上而形成的。     

The anatomy of the world's largest extinct rodent

Phoberomys is reported to be the largest rodent that ever existed, although it has been known only from isolated teeth and fragmentary postcranial bones. An exceptionally complete skeleton of Phoberomys pattersoni was discovered in a rich locality of fossil vertebrates in the Upper Miocene of Venezuela. Reliable body mass estimates yield approximately 700 kilograms, more than 10 times the mass of the largest living rodent, the capybara. With Phoberomys, Rodentia becomes one of the mammalian orders with the largest size range, second only to diprotodontian marsupials. Several postcranial features support an evolutionary relationship of Phoberomys with pakaranas from the South American rodent radiation. The associated fossil fauna is diverse and suggests that Phoberomys lived in marginal lagoons and wetlands.     

Monte Verde: seaweed, food, medicine, and the peopling of South America

The identification of human artifacts at the early archaeological site of Monte Verde in southern Chile has raised questions of when and how people reached the tip of South America without leaving much other evidence in the New World. Remains of nine species of marine algae were recovered from hearths and other features at Monte Verde II, an upper occupational layer, and were directly dated between 14,220 and 13,980 calendar years before the present ( approximately 12,310 and 12,290 carbon-14 years ago). These findings support the archaeological interpretation of the site and indicate that the site's inhabitants used seaweed from distant beaches and estuarine environments for food and medicine. These data are consistent with the ideas that an early settlement of South America was along the Pacific coast and that seaweeds were important to the diet and health of early humans in the Americas.     

Frequent recombination in a saltern population of Halorubrum

Sex and recombination are driving forces in the evolution of eukaryotes. Homologous recombination is known to be the dominant process in the divergence of many bacterial species. For Archaea, the only direct evidence bearing on the importance or natural occurrence of homologous recombination is anecdotal reports of mosaicism from comparative genomic studies. Genetic studies, however, reveal that recombination may play a significant role in generating diversity among members of at least one archaeal group, the haloarchaea. We used multi-locus sequence typing to demonstrate that haloarchaea exchange genetic information promiscuously, exhibiting a degree of linkage equilibrium approaching that of a sexual population.     

Microbial dehalorespiration with 1,1,1-trichloroethane

1,1,1-Trichloroethane (TCA) is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant because of its widespread use as an industrial solvent, its improper disposal, and its substantial emission to the atmosphere. We report the isolation of an anaerobic bacterium, strain TCA1, that reductively dechlorinates TCA to 1,1-dichloroethane and chloroethane. Strain TCA1 required H2 as an electron donor and TCA as an electron acceptor for growth, indicating that dechlorination is a respiratory process. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that strain TCA1 is related to gram-positive bacteria with low DNA G+C content and that its closest relative is Dehalobacter restrictus, an obligate H2-oxidizing, chloroethene-respiring bacterium.     

A closer look at water-related geologic activity on Mars

Water has supposedly marked the surface of Mars and produced characteristic landforms. To understand the history of water on Mars, we take a close look at key locations with the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, reaching fine spatial scales of 25 to 32 centimeters per pixel. Boulders ranging up to approximately 2 meters in diameter are ubiquitous in the middle to high latitudes, which include deposits previously interpreted as finegrained ocean sediments or dusty snow. Bright gully deposits identify six locations with very recent activity, but these lie on steep (20 degrees to 35 degrees) slopes where dry mass wasting could occur. Thus, we cannot confirm the reality of ancient oceans or water in active gullies but do see evidence of fluvial modification of geologically recent mid-latitude gullies and equatorial impact craters.     

曲霉属真菌发酵提取物对奶牛生产性能影响的试验研究

中低产奶牛生产性能的提高及奶牛体况调整是奶牛生产健康发展的关键。试验在中低产奶牛干奶期、泌乳初期及泌乳高峰前期饲料中添加曲霉属真菌发酵提取物“保增乐”（商品名）；对奶牛干乳期体重、泌乳初期产奶性能改变及奶牛机体代谢情况进行检测。试验结果：饲喂“保增乐”奶牛干乳期体重显著增加（P〈0．05），奶牛泌乳初期产奶性能显著增强（P〈0．05），奶牛泌乳初期隐性酮病状况以及机体代谢内环境的酸碱平衡都有明显的改善。研究表明．添加“保增乐”对奶牛生产性能的提高及机体代谢状况的改善有显著作用。