The impact of biofuel plantation on biodiversity: a review

Because plants convert solar energy into chemical energy stored in organisms, biomass production as an energy source can help to reduce the world＇s reliance on fossil energy and mitigate global warming. Biofuel production is a fast-growing industry that represents a new type of large-scale human disturbance on ecosystems. Thus, the benefits of biofuel production bring environmental risks that include its potential impact on biodiversity, which is still an open question. In this review, we start first with a brief overview of the evolution of biofuel concept; second, we review the state of biofuel production across the continents, with a major emphasis on the main species used and their major feedstock. For which, we found significant differences for land use and environmental cultural management of biofuel plantation between tropical and temperate regions. Third, we summarize the impacts of biofuel plantation on biodiversity at multiple scales, based on the case studied with respect to the corresponding issues. At the genetic level, introgression and contamination by aggressive genotypes are a primary risk. At the species level, habitat pollution, degradation, and disturbance caused by intensive management of biofuel plantation significantly raise the risk of habitat fragmentation, native extinction, and bio-invasion. At the ecosystem level, the large-scale homogeneous landscape of biofuel plantation results in simplified community and food web that severely damage ecosystem services, including ecosystem diversity. Finally, we compare the current and potential benefits and risks of biofuel plantations for the practical application of a biofuel industry of China. We emphasize the land use constraint from food security and biodiversity conservation, and the need for scientific research and systematic monitoring as a critical support for the sustainable development of biofuel production in China.     

常绿阔叶林退化群落的物种多样性特征及影响因子分析

由于土地利用方式改变以及人为砍伐等多种原因的共同作用，导致我国各地的常绿阔叶林均发生了不同程度的退化.本项研究从物种多样性角度出发，首先对浙江天童常绿阔叶林及其退化群落的α多样性进行了对比，进而利用逐步回归的方法，从9种可能影响该地区物种多样性的因子：海拔、坡度、坡向、用地类型、土层厚度、人类干扰强度、与自然植被的距离、同主要道路的距离以及距离村庄远近中，筛选出主要因子，并分析了它们对物种多样性的影响.结果表明：（1）常绿阔叶林的α多样性要显著高于退化群落；（2）对退化群落物种丰富度影响较显著的因子主要是：土层厚度、到自然植被的距离以及用地类型.其中物种丰富度与土层厚度呈正相关，与到自然植被的距离呈负相关，而废弃的人工果园、用材林中植被的物种丰富度相对另两类用地类型要高.（3）通过把前述9个因素划分为生境、景观、人类干扰三大类型后可以发现，它们对退化群落物种丰富度的作用大小存在明显差异.三大类因素对退化群落总体的物种多样性都有显著影响；对于退化的针叶林来说，主要的影响因子是生境和人类干扰；而就退化的灌丛而言，则主要是生境因素.     

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.     

Low host specificity of herbivorous insects in a tropical forest

Two decades of research have not established whether tropical insect herbivores are dominated by specialists or generalists. This impedes our understanding of species coexistence in diverse rainforest communities. Host specificity and species richness of tropical insects are also key parameters in mapping global patterns of biodiversity. Here we analyse data for over 900 herbivorous species feeding on 51 plant species in New Guinea and show that most herbivorous species feed on several closely related plant species. Because species-rich genera are dominant in tropical floras, monophagous herbivores are probably rare in tropical forests. Furthermore, even between phylogenetically distant hosts, herbivore communities typically shared a third of their species. These results do not support the classical view that the coexistence of herbivorous species in the tropics is a consequence of finely divided plant resources; non-equilibrium models of tropical diversity should instead be considered. Low host specificity of tropical herbivores reduces global estimates of arthropod diversity from 31 million (ref. 1) to 4 6 million species. This finding agrees with estimates based on taxonomic collections, reconciling an order of magnitude discrepancy between extrapolations of global diversity based on ecological samples of tropical communities with those based on sampling regional faunas.     

Continental-scale patterns of canopy tree composition and function across Amazonia

The world's greatest terrestrial stores of biodiversity and carbon are found in the forests of northern South America, where large-scale biogeographic patterns and processes have recently begun to be described. Seven of the nine countries with territory in the Amazon basin and the Guiana shield have carried out large-scale forest inventories, but such massive data sets have been little exploited by tropical plant ecologists. Although forest inventories often lack the species-level identifications favoured by tropical plant ecologists, their consistency of measurement and vast spatial coverage make them ideally suited for numerical analyses at large scales, and a valuable resource to describe the still poorly understood spatial variation of biomass, diversity, community composition and forest functioning across the South American tropics. Here we show, by using the seven forest inventories complemented with trait and inventory data collected elsewhere, two dominant gradients in tree composition and function across the Amazon, one paralleling a major gradient in soil fertility and the other paralleling a gradient in dry season length. The data set also indicates that the dominance of Fabaceae in the Guiana shield is not necessarily the result of root adaptations to poor soils (nodulation or ectomycorrhizal associations) but perhaps also the result of their remarkably high seed mass there as a potential adaptation to low rates of disturbance.     

Human population in the biodiversity hotspots

Biologists have identified 25 areas, called biodiversity hotspots, that are especially rich in endemic species and particularly threatened by human activities. The human population dynamics of these areas, however, are not well quantified. Here we report estimates of key demographic variables for each hotspot, and for three extensive tropical forest areas that are less immediately threatened. We estimate that in 1995 more than 1.1 billion people, nearly 20% of world population, were living within the hotspots, an area covering about 12% of Earth's terrestrial surface. We estimate that the population growth rate in the hotspots (1995-2000) is 1.8% yr(-1), substantially higher than the population growth rate of the world as a whole (1.3% yr(-1)) and above that of the developing countries (1.6% yr(-1)). These results suggest that substantial human-induced environmental changes are likely to continue in the hotspots and that demographic change remains an important factor in global biodiversity conservation. The results also underline the potential conservation significance of the continuing worldwide declines in human fertility and of policies and programs that influence human migration.     

Increased damage from fires in logged forests during droughts caused by El Niño

In 1997-98, fires associated with an exceptional drought caused by the El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) devastated large areas of tropical rain forests worldwide. Evidence suggests that in tropical rainforest environments selective logging may lead to an increased susceptibility of forests to fire. We investigated whether this was true in the Indonesian fires, the largest fire disaster ever observed. We performed a multiscale analysis using coarse- and high-resolution optical and radar satellite imagery assisted by ground and aerial surveys to assess the extent of the fire-damaged area and the effect on vegetation in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. A total of 5.2 +/- 0.3 million hectares including 2.6 million hectares of forest was burned with varying degrees of damage. Forest fires primarily affected recently logged forests; primary forests or those logged long ago were less affected. These results support the hypothesis of positive feedback between logging and fire occurrence. The fires severely damaged the remaining forests and significantly increased the risk of recurrent fire disasters by leaving huge amounts of dead flammable wood.     

Recuperation of nitrogen cycling in Amazonian forests following agricultural abandonment

Phosphorus (P) is generally considered the most common limiting nutrient for productivity of mature tropical lowland forests growing on highly weathered soils. It is often assumed that P limitation also applies to young tropical forests, but nitrogen (N) losses during land-use change may alter the stoichiometric balance of nutrient cycling processes. In the Amazon basin, about 16% of the original forest area has been cleared, and about 30-50% of cleared land is estimated now to be in some stage of secondary forest succession following agricultural abandonment. Here we use forest age chronosequences to demonstrate that young successional forests growing after agricultural abandonment on highly weathered lowland tropical soils exhibit conservative N-cycling properties much like those of N-limited forests on younger soils in temperate latitudes. As secondary succession progresses, N-cycling properties recover and the dominance of a conservative P cycle typical of mature lowland tropical forests re-emerges. These successional shifts in N:P cycling ratios with forest age provide a mechanistic explanation for initially lower and then gradually increasing soil emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N(2)O). The patterns of N and P cycling during secondary forest succession, demonstrated here over decadal timescales, are similar to N- and P-cycling patterns during primary succession as soils age over thousands and millions of years, thus revealing that N availability in terrestrial ecosystems is ephemeral and can be disrupted by either natural or anthropogenic disturbances at several timescales.     

中国亚热带森林土壤呼吸的基本特点

中国亚热带森林在全球森林生态系统中具有独特的植被类型及结构,长期受人类活动干扰(毁林、造林等),森林土壤碳呼吸特征不明确,较难准确估算土壤碳的分配情况.分析了我国亚热带森林土壤呼吸在不同森林类型、不同退化和恢复演替阶段,以及造林再造林等的影响条件下的变化规律.结果表明:我国亚热带区域中的天然林的土壤呼吸通常表现为针叶林(如马尾松林)<松阔或针阔混交林<季风常绿阔林;马尾松与杉木人工林广布中国亚热带地区,两种林分的CO2年通量相当,中龄林较之幼龄林,土壤有机碳库呈现减少趋势;不同研究区域相同林分的土壤呼吸效率初步表现为南强北弱;我国亚热带森林的土壤呼吸通量与世界其他地区的热带森林土壤呼吸通量相差无己,其释放的碳量对全球碳通量的影响应加以重视.     

Host specificity of Lepidoptera in tropical and temperate forests

For numerous taxa, species richness is much higher in tropical than in temperate zone habitats. A major challenge in community ecology and evolutionary biogeography is to reveal the mechanisms underlying these differences. For herbivorous insects, one such mechanism leading to an increased number of species in a given locale could be increased ecological specialization, resulting in a greater proportion of insect species occupying narrow niches within a community. We tested this hypothesis by comparing host specialization in larval Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) at eight different New World forest sites ranging in latitude from 15 degrees S to 55 degrees N. Here we show that larval diets of tropical Lepidoptera are more specialized than those of their temperate forest counterparts: tropical species on average feed on fewer plant species, genera and families than do temperate caterpillars. This result holds true whether calculated per lepidopteran family or for a caterpillar assemblage as a whole. As a result, there is greater turnover in caterpillar species composition (greater beta diversity) between tree species in tropical faunas than in temperate faunas. We suggest that greater specialization in tropical faunas is the result of differences in trophic interactions; for example, there are more distinct plant secondary chemical profiles from one tree species to the next in tropical forests than in temperate forests as well as more diverse and chronic pressures from natural enemy communities.     

Density-dependent mortality and the latitudinal gradient in species diversity

Ecologists have long postulated that density-dependent mortality maintains high tree diversity in the tropics. If species experience greater mortality when abundant, then more rare species can persist. Agents of density-dependent mortality (such as host-specific predators, and pathogens) may be more prevalent or have stronger effects in tropical forests, because they are not limited by climatic factors. If so, decreasing density-dependent mortality with increasing latitude could partially explain the observed latitudinal gradient in tree diversity. This hypothesis has never been tested with latitudinal data. Here we show that several temperate tree species experience density-dependent mortality between seed dispersal and seedling establishment. The proportion of species affected is equivalent to that in tropical forests, failing to support the hypothesis that this mechanism is more prevalent at tropical latitudes. We further show that density-dependent mortality is misinterpreted in previous studies. Our results and evidence from other studies suggest that density-dependent mortality is important in many forests. Thus, unless the strength of density-dependent mortality varies with latitude, this mechanism is not likely to explain the high diversity of tropical forests.     

热带森林碳通量研究综述

综述了热带森林碳通量的研究结果，指出随着电子测量和存储技术的发展，微气象涡度相关法已应用于森林碳通量的测量和研究；热带森林是碳源还是碳汇仍是一个存在争议的问题，热带森林的利用方式以及森林火灾在很大程度上决定了热带森林是碳源还是碳汇。夜间通量测量的不准确性，水平平流以及垂直平流都会在一定程度上影响碳通量测量的准确性，因此只有尽量减小测量误差，提高数据分析及处理技术，才能更准确地了解热带森林的作用。     

尖峰岭次生林和原始林林下灌木叶氨基酸对氮添加的响应

为了深入地了解热带山地雨林原始林与次生林叶氨基酸对氮添加的响应和适应机制, 以海南尖峰岭热带山地雨林原始林和次生林的林下常见植物为研究对象, 通过设置对照CK (0 kg N/(ha·a))、中氮添加M (50 kg N/(ha·a))和高氮添加H (100 kg N/(ha·a)) 3种氮添加处理的实验, 探究氮添加对林下灌木叶片氨基酸含量的影响。实验结果表明, 无氮添加时, 原始林与次生林的总氨基酸含量和水解氨基酸含量无显著差异, 原始林游离氨基酸总含量显著高于次生林; 中氮添加时, 次生林林下灌木叶氨基酸含量的响应程度高于原始林; 高氮添加时, 次生林与原始林林下灌木水解氨基酸的响应程度无显著差异, 原始林林下灌木游离氨基酸的响应程度高于次生林。     

南海台风"悟空2000"生成及发展的数值模拟

应用NCAR/PSU中尺度非静力模式MM5模拟了南海台风"悟空2000"从一个热带扰动发展为强台风的过程。模拟结果表明,MM5模式能够很好地模拟出"悟空2000"台风的强度和最大风速,清晰显示出南海台风发展中具有的阶段性和爆发性。从水汽和位涡等诊断量的分析出发,分析了模拟的台风结构和台风眼生成的可能影响因素。敏感性试验结果显示,南海海面温度对台风发生发展有至关重要的作用:如果海表温度降低1℃,模拟的台风最大风速将降低近10m/s,风速达到台风级别(32.8m/s)的时间推迟约7个小时;如果海表温度降低2℃(SST仍高于26.5℃),该热带扰动将不能发展到台风的强度。     

Thresholds and the resilience of Caribbean coral reefs

The deteriorating health of the world's coral reefs threatens global biodiversity, ecosystem function, and the livelihoods of millions of people living in tropical coastal regions. Reefs in the Caribbean are among the most heavily affected, having experienced mass disease-induced mortality of the herbivorous urchin Diadema antillarum in 1983 and two framework-building species of coral. Declining reef health is characterized by increases in macroalgae. A critical question is whether the observed macroalgal bloom on Caribbean reefs is easily reversible. To answer this question, we must resolve whether algal-dominated reefs are an alternative stable state of the ecosystem or simply the readily reversible result of a phase change along a gradient of some environmental or ecological parameter. Here, using a fully parameterized simulation model in combination with a simple analytical model, we show that Caribbean reefs became susceptible to alternative stable states once the urchin mortality event of 1983 confined the majority of grazing to parrotfishes. We reveal dramatic hysteresis in a natural system and define critical thresholds of grazing and coral cover beyond which resilience is lost. Most grazing thresholds lie near the upper level observed for parrotfishes in nature, suggesting that reefs are highly sensitive to parrotfish exploitation. Ecosystem thresholds can be combined with stochastic models of disturbance to identify targets for the restoration of ecosystem processes. We illustrate this principle by estimating the relationship between current reef state (coral cover and grazing) and the probability that the reef will withstand moderate hurricane intensity for two decades without becoming entrained in a shift towards a stable macroalgal-dominated state. Such targets may help reef managers face the challenge of addressing global disturbance at local scales.     

云南松林在云南的分布研究

采用云南省森林资源连续清查样地数据,对云南松林的水平分布、垂直分布、土壤分布、坡向分布、坡位分布等进行了系统研究.结果表明:在云南省境内,云南松林水平分布范围北至28°23′33″N,南至23°01′20″N,东至97°46′39″E,西至105°54′05″E;垂直分布海拔跨度在710～3320m之间,其中分布面积最多的海拔区间为1500～2500m,占云南松林总面积的66.66%;云南松林下的土壤包括8个土类,其中红壤分布面积最多,占61.58%,其次为紫色土和黄棕壤;就分布的坡向而言,在阳坡的分布多于阴坡,前者占58.29%,后者占41.71%,但分布于阴坡的云南松林质量总体上优于阳坡,前者平均单位面积蓄积量为79.1m3/hm2,后者平均为74.0m3/hm2;坡位分布方面,分布于中坡位的云南松林最多,其次为上坡位,下坡位的居第3,分布于山脊的居第4;从林分质量上看,山脊上的优于上坡位的,上坡位的优于下坡位的,出现了林分质量与立地质量相背离的情况,但下坡位到山脊受到的人为干扰不断减少.这表明在现存云南松林中,人为干扰因素取代立地质量等自然因素,成为影响云南松林质量的主导因素.     

Observations of increased tropical rainfall preceded by air passage over forests

Vegetation affects precipitation patterns by mediating moisture, energy and trace-gas fluxes between the surface and atmosphere. When forests are replaced by pasture or crops, evapotranspiration of moisture from soil and vegetation is often diminished, leading to reduced atmospheric humidity and potentially suppressing precipitation. Climate models predict that large-scale tropical deforestation causes reduced regional precipitation, although the magnitude of the effect is model and resolution dependent. In contrast, observational studies have linked deforestation to increased precipitation locally but have been unable to explore the impact of large-scale deforestation. Here we use satellite remote-sensing data of tropical precipitation and vegetation, combined with simulated atmospheric transport patterns, to assess the pan-tropical effect of forests on tropical rainfall. We find that for more than 60 per cent of the tropical land surface (latitudes 30 degrees south to 30 degrees north), air that has passed over extensive vegetation in the preceding few days produces at least twice as much rain as air that has passed over little vegetation. We demonstrate that this empirical correlation is consistent with evapotranspiration maintaining atmospheric moisture in air that passes over extensive vegetation. We combine these empirical relationships with current trends of Amazonian deforestation to estimate reductions of 12 and 21 per cent in wet-season and dry-season precipitation respectively across the Amazon basin by 2050, due to less-efficient moisture recycling. Our observation-based results complement similar estimates from climate models, in which the physical mechanisms and feedbacks at work could be explored in more detail.     

放牧对荒漠草原群落多样性的影响

退化草地生态系统中物种多样性的严重丧失及其后果,至今仍缺乏有代表性的实验结论.放牧是人类施加于草原生态系统最主要的干扰因素,从荒漠草原群落多样性、植物功能群多样性以及物种多样性与生产力的关系3个方面综述相关研究进展.提出不同放牧制度对荒漠草原群落多样性、植物功能群多样性的影响过程和作用机制是研究荒漠草原利用与保护平衡的...     

西双版纳主要林型冠层球蛛多样性比较

为比较西双版纳热带地区不同林型冠层蜘蛛多样性的差异,2007年7-8月,采用冠层喷雾法收集冠层蜘蛛,并以冠层球蛛科蜘蛛为代表进行多样性分析,并以球蛛的种类和数量分布为属性进行典范对应分析（CCA）和聚类分析,探讨不同类型植被与冠层蜘蛛多样性的关系.选择西双版纳勐仑镇5种主要林型（热带季节雨林、石灰山季节雨林、山地常绿阔叶林、人工纯林和橡胶林）为研究样地,每种林型设置4个样方,共计20个样方.共采集成熟球蛛标本944头121种,其中热带季节雨林66种,石灰山季节雨林63种,山地常绿阔叶林48种,人工纯林39种,橡胶林27种.研究结果表明,不同林型冠层球蛛物种数量随植被受干扰程度的增加而减少,而个体密度、多样性指数和丰富度指数随着植被群落结构的简化和人为干扰的加强而呈现出先升高再降低的趋势,说明森林简单化和严重的人为干扰会降低冠层蜘蛛的物种多样性.因此,我国热带地区橡胶林的快速增长将阻碍冠层蜘蛛物种扩散与基因交流,增加物种局部灭绝的风险,对生物多样性造成威胁.而适当增加橡胶林的植被群落结构（如：橡胶林种植茶树）,保留地表植被,减少人为干扰,对保持冠层蜘蛛多样性具有重要意义.     

两种不同起源华北落叶松林空间点格局及植物多样性

【目的】分析山西省黑茶山国家级自然保护区两种不同起源类型落叶松人工林和天然林径级和林层特征,并对落叶松种群空间分布点格局特征和种群对邻域物种多样性的影响效应进行研究。【方法】 采用g(r)函数点格局方法对优势种群落叶松不同生长阶段个体(小树、中树和大树)的空间分布点格局进行研究; 用单物种-面积关系模型(mISAR模型)分析样地中乔木树种对局域群落多样性的影响。【结果】两种不同起源的落叶松林内落叶松种群呈正态分布,根据林木胸径(DBH)将落叶松分为小(5 cm≤DBH<10 cm)、中(10 cm≤DBH<30 cm)、大(DBH≥30 cm)3个阶段。人工林和天然林小、中、大3个不同阶段的株数比分别为10:3:4和10:3:6,树种多样性分别为0.96、0.54、0.52和1.27、0.94、0.63。两种起源落叶松林空间点格局分布总体均表现为小尺度上的聚集分布和中大尺度上的随机分布。此外,两种起源的落叶松林内物种在调查尺度范围内均表现为单物种所有个体对邻域全部树种的丰富度起到促进作用。【结论】研究区长期的干扰使两种起源类型的落叶松林具有较为相似的水平结构和垂直结构,中径级林木个体多但小径级和大径级较少,种群难以实现世代交替。