Universal scaling relations in food webs

The structure of ecological communities is usually represented by food webs. In these webs, we describe species by means of vertices connected by links representing the predations. We can therefore study different webs by considering the shape (topology) of these networks. Comparing food webs by searching for regularities is of fundamental importance, because universal patterns would reveal common principles underlying the organization of different ecosystems. However, features observed in small food webs are different from those found in large ones. Furthermore, food webs (except in isolated cases) do not share general features with other types of network (including the Internet, the World Wide Web and biological webs). These features are a small-world character and a scale-free (power-law) distribution of the degree (the number of links per vertex). Here we propose to describe food webs as transportation networks by extending to them the concept of allometric scaling (how branching properties change with network size). We then decompose food webs in spanning trees and loop-forming links. We show that, whereas the number of loops varies significantly across real webs, spanning trees are characterized by universal scaling relations.     

植物体中多胺代谢及其功能研究进展

多胺广泛参与植物的生长发育以及对各种环境胁迫的响应.综合介绍了多胺的生物合成,多胺的转运与降解过程;同时总结了植物体中多胺功能的研究方法,并对多胺研究的发展前景作以展望.     

高等植物氮素转运蛋白研究进展

土壤中植物所利用的主要外源氮素形态是硝态氮和铵态氮,NRT,AMT转运蛋白分别介导它们在植物根系的吸收及体内的运输,氨基酸、酰脲和多肽类等有机态氮也可在相应的转运蛋白的作用下被植物吸收利用.本文概述了近年来在硝态氮、铵态氮及有机氮素转运蛋白生物学功能与调控及其与植物氮营养等方面的最新研究进展,并对今后关于氮素转运蛋白研究的方向做了展望.     

高等植物硫酸盐吸收与代谢的调控机制

硫酸盐同化是原核生物、真菌和光合生物将无机硫酸盐转化为硫化物的途径,硫酸盐被进一步整合到氨基酸的碳骨架中形成半胱氨酸或同型半胱氨酸.硫酸盐是植物可利用的主要无机硫形式,其能被特定的硫酸盐转运蛋白吸收并转运到质体,特别是叶绿体中,被还原并同化为半胱氨酸.硫酸盐的代谢受需求驱动且被高度调控.然而,在不同生物中硫酸盐的代谢调控的分子机制是不同的.综述了高等植物硫酸盐吸收和代谢调控的分子机制,初步讨论了硫酸盐代谢调控的分子机制中存在的问题及其潜在的研究策略.     

矮牵牛缺氮、缺磷、缺钾植株的形态和生理指标的变化

利用对照的试验方法，探讨了矮牵牛在缺素条件下外部形态和内部生理指标的变化，指出了氮、磷和钾元素不同的生理作用。缺氮处理25d的矮牵牛植株叶色淡绿，下部叶片发黄，叶柄短而纤弱，叶绿素含量较对照植株叶绿素含量减少20％左右；缺磷植株叶片呈暗绿色，部分植株的茎部和叶片出现紫红色，叶子小而狭，叶柄短而纤弱；缺钾植株叶子有缺绿斑和坏死斑出现，叶子变厚，叶柄变短。矮牵牛缺钾植株叶片中可溶性糖含量高于根部；矮牵牛缺磷植株叶片中可溶性糖含量低于根部。     

植物高光胁迫与自由基代谢研究进展

本文综述了植物在高光胁迫下体内自由基引发的伤害,以及植物自由基清除系统对自由基伤害的防御。从自由基代谢的角度来观察植物高光胁迫下的反应     

Fractal geometry predicts varying body size scaling relationships for mammal and bird home ranges

Scaling laws that describe complex interactions between organisms and their environment as a function of body size offer exciting potential for synthesis in biology. Home range size, or the area used by individual organisms, is a critical ecological variable that integrates behaviour, physiology and population density and strongly depends on organism size. Here we present a new model of home range-body size scaling based on fractal resource distributions, in which resource encounter rates are a function of body size. The model predicts no universally constant scaling exponent for home range, but defines a possible range of values set by geometric limits to resource density and distribution. The model unifies apparently conflicting earlier results and explains differences in scaling exponents among herbivorous and carnivorous mammals and birds. We apply the model to predict that home range increases with habitat fragmentation, and that the home ranges of larger species should be much more sensitive to habitat fragmentation than those of smaller species.     

不同密度人工水草对氮、磷去除效果研究

污水处理厂出水作为城市公园景观用水,已成为我国北方缺水城市的通遍做法。由于污水处理厂出水中氮、磷含量相对较高,景观水体极易发生富营养化。本实验利用碳纤维人工水草作为生态基形成生物膜,对景观水体进行脱氮除磷处理效果进行研究。试验共布设2株/m~2、4株/m~2、10株/m~2、16株/m~2、20株/m~2 5种水草密度,通过SPSS进行方差分析,结果显示不同密度人工水草对氮,磷去除效果存在差异,明4株/m~2、10株/m~2,20株/m~2对总氮、氨氮、溶解性磷酸盐具有显著去除效果,对总磷去除效果不明显。叶绿素a浓度与氮、磷去除率呈正相关,表明在流动水体中藻类优势群落的形成对微生物膜快速形成以及污染物的去除有重要影响。     

高寒草甸51种菊科植物种子大小变异及其对种子萌发的影响研究

对青藏高原东缘高寒草甸51种菊科植物的种子大小变异及其对种子萌发的影响进行了研究,结果表明:该植物群落中菊科植物的种子百粒重为0.0034～1.599 g,种子的大小变异接近于3个数量级,种子大小呈现对数正态分布.80%的物种种子百粒重为0.0034～0.4000 g,表明该草地群落菊科植物中小种子植物占绝对优势.种子大小与萌发速度系数(CV)呈极显著负相关;与萌发速率指数(GR)呈显著负相关;种子大小与萌发百分数(G)、萌发时滞(L)以及萌发集中度(CD)没有显著的相关关系.     

Regulation of nitrogen metabolism genes by nifA gene product in Klebsiella pneumoniae

The Klebsiella pneumoniae nifA gene product, which is known to activate expression of the nitrogen fixation (nif) structural genes, is shown here also to be able to substitute for the product of the gene glnG (ntrC) in the regulation of other nitrogen metabolism genes. An evolutionary relationship between the nifA and glnG genes is suggested.     

Universal alignment of hydrogen levels in semiconductors,insulators and solutions

Hydrogen strongly affects the electronic and structural properties of many materials. It can bind to defects or to other impurities, often eliminating their electrical activity: this effect of defect passivation is crucial to the performance of many photovoltaic and electronic devices. A fuller understanding of hydrogen in solids is required to support development of improved hydrogen-storage systems, proton-exchange membranes for fuel cells, and high-permittivity dielectrics for integrated circuits. In chemistry and in biological systems, there have also been many efforts to correlate proton affinity and deprotonation with host properties. Here we report a systematic theoretical study (based on ab initio methods) of hydrogen in a wide range of hosts, which reveals the existence of a universal alignment for the electronic transition level of hydrogen in semiconductors, insulators and even aqueous solutions. This alignment allows the prediction of the electrical activity of hydrogen in any host material once some basic information about the band structure of that host is known. We present a physical explanation that connects the behaviour of hydrogen to the line-up of electronic band structures at heterojunctions.