Analysis of coprolites from the extinct mountain goat Myotragus balearicus     

Frido Welker  Elza Duijm  Kristiaan J. van der Gaag  Bas van Geel  Peter de Knijff  Jacqueline van Leeuwen  Dick Mol  Johannes van der Plicht  Niels Raes  Jelle Reumer  Barbara Gravendeel 《Quaternary Research》2014

Humans colonized the Balearic Islands 5–4 ka ago. They arrived in a uniquely adapted ecosystem with the Balearic mountain goat Myotragus balearicus (Bovidae, Antilopinae, Caprini) as the only large mammal. This mammal went extinct rapidly after human arrival. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the extinction of M. balearicus. For the present study ancient DNA analysis (Sanger sequencing, Roche-454, Ion Torrent), and pollen and macrofossil analyses were performed on preserved coprolites from M. balearicus, providing information on its diet and paleo-environment. The information retrieved shows that M. balearicus was heavily dependent on the Balearic box species Buxus balearica during at least part of the year, and that it was most probably a browser. Hindcast ecological niche modelling of B. balearica shows that local distribution of this plant species was affected by climate changes. This suggests that the extinction of M. balearicus can be related to the decline and regional extinction of a plant species that formed a major component of its diet. The vegetation change is thought to be caused by increased aridity occurring throughout the Mediterranean. Previous hypotheses relating the extinction of M. balearicus directly to the arrival of humans on the islands must therefore be adjusted.  相似文献   

Understanding and countering the motivated roots of climate change denial     

《Chemie der Erde / Geochemistry》2014

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Measurement of the radial density gradient of cosmic ray in the heliosphere by the GRAPES-3 experiment     

《Astroparticle Physics》2015

A radial anisotropy in the flux of cosmic rays in heliosphere was theoretically predicted by Parker and others within the framework of the diffusion–convection mechanism. The solar wind is responsible for sweeping out the galactic cosmic rays, creating a radial density gradient within the heliosphere. This gradient coupled with the interplanetary magnetic field induces a flow of charged particles perpendicular to the ecliptic plane which was measured and correctly explained by Swinson, and is hereafter referred as ‘Swinson flow’. The large area GRAPES-3 tracking muon telescope offers a powerful probe to measure the Swinson flow and the underlying radial density gradient of the galactic cosmic rays at a relatively high rigidity of ∼100 GV. The GRAPES-3 data collected over a period of six years (2000–2005) were analyzed and the amplitude of the Swinson flow was estimated to be (0.0644 ± 0.0008)% of cosmic ray flux which was an ∼80σ effect. The phase of the maximum flow was at a sidereal time of (17.70 ± 0.05) h which was 18 min earlier than the expected value of 18 h. This small 18 min phase difference had a significance of ∼6σ indicating the inherent precision of the GRAPES-3 measurement. The radial density gradient of the galactic cosmic rays at a median rigidity of 77 GV was found to be 0.65% AU⁻¹.  相似文献   

Polymer dynamics of DOC networks and gel formation in seawater     

《Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography》2010,57(16):1486-1493

The ocean plays a major role in global biogeochemical carbon cycling; it holds an important reservoir of reduced organic carbon, mostly in the form of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and processes about one-half of the total primary production of the planet. Dissolved molecules present between living and assimilable size extremes (∼1000 nm^-1 nm), constitute the most abundant form of remnant biochemicals in the ocean, outweighing the total living biomass by a factor of roughly 200. Because DOC is the fundamental substrate for marine microorganisms, and is primarily composed by small refractory biopolymers, this prompted the idea that the ocean might function as a huge repository of recalcitrant carbon. The missing link that elucidates this paradox and explains how the rich and vast stock of DOC becomes available to bacteria was the discovery that DOC throughout the water column remains in reversible assembly/dispersion equilibrium forming porous microscopic gels (Chin et al., Nature 391, 568-572, 1998). This abiotic DOC-POM shunt yields a microgel pool containing ∼70 gigatons of carbon forming discrete patches of high nutrient concentration that can be readily colonized by microorganisms. The presence of this huge gel mass in seawater extending far into the dark ocean has ramifications that might well scale nonlinearly through the microbial loop to the World Ocean and global climate system and it is fundamentally changing how oceanographers think about processes linking the microbial loop and biological pump to the rest of the biosphere and the geosphere. Even if a small fraction of DOC remains self-assembled, marine scientists will have to revise the rationale of established aquatic paradigms ranging from trace metal chelation, size–reactivity relationships, the microbial loop, the biological pump, colloid pumping, and humification. A ubiquitous, reversible DOC assembly/dispersion process implies a dynamic “patchiness” spanning from the molecular to the micron scale, where the assignment of static bulk features including dimension, concentration, functionalities and vertical fluxes can be open to question. This brief revision illustrates two case studies that show how simple methods and principles of polymer networks theory can be used to advance the understanding of one of the most intriguing and significant processes taking place in the ocean. Namely, the kinetics and thermodynamics of: (a) Ca-driven DOC self-assembly, and (b) hydrophobic bond-driven self assembly of DOC by amphiphilic exopolymers released by marine bacteria.  相似文献   

Simulation of evapotranspiration and carbon dioxide flux in the wheat‐maize rotation croplands of the North China Plain using the Simple Biosphere Model     

Huimin Lei  Dawen Yang  Yanjun Shen  Yu Liu  Yucui Zhang 《水文研究》2011,25(20):3107-3120

The North China Plain, which is critical for food production in China, is encountering serious water shortage due to heavy agricultural water requirement. The accurate modelling of carbon dioxide flux and evapotranspiration (ET) in croplands is thus essential for yield prediction and water resources management. The land surface model is powerful in simulating energy and carbon dioxide fluxes between land and atmosphere. Some key processes in the Simple Biosphere Model (Version 2, SiB2) were parameterized based on the observations. The simulated fluxes were tested against the eddy covariance flux measurements over two typical winter wheat/maize double cropping fields. A simple diagnostic parameterisation of soil respiration, not included in SiB2, was added and calibrated using the observations to model the carbon budget. The Ball‐Berry stomatal conductance model was calibrated using observed leaf gas exchange rate, showing that the original SiB2 could significantly underpredict the ET in the wheat field. SiB2 significantly underpredicted soil resistance at the Weishan site, leading to overpredict the ET. Overall, there was a close agreement between the simulated and observed latent heat fluxes and net CO₂ exchange using the re‐parameterized SiB2. These findings are important when the model is used for the regional simulation in the North China Plain. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Soil seed bank and among-years genetic diversity in arid populations of Eruca sativa Miller (Brassicaceae)     

《Journal of Arid Environments》2013

Populations of Eruca sativa from arid environments exhibit greater physiological dormancy than those that originated in more favorable ones. We tested the possible relative contribution of the soil seed bank (SSB) to the aboveground cohorts in desert and semiarid populations. Seedlings that emerged from the SSB under controlled irrigation were distinguished from those that emerged after exposure of the remaining ungerminated SSB to gibberellic acid as constituting non-dormant and dormant SSBs, respectively. On average, the total SSB was significantly larger in the semiarid than in the desert population. In both sites, the aboveground and SSB cohorts exhibited closely similar genetic diversity, and in the aboveground cohorts similar year-to-year genetic diversity was found. These results indicate continuous recruitment from the SSB to the aboveground cohorts. Nevertheless, Ne estimates indicated that the SSB can contribute to enlarging the aboveground effective populations in both habitats. Furthermore, Nei's genetic distances suggested that the non-dormant SSB contributed more than the dormant SSB to the aboveground cohorts. These results highlight the potential of the SSB to maintain a genotype reservoir that protects annual populations in arid environments.  相似文献   

Molecular identification of scallop planktonic larvae using species-specific microsatellites   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

ZHAN Aibin  HU Xiaoli  BAO Lisui  LU Wei  PENG Wei  WANG Mingling  HU Jingjie 《海洋学报(英文版)》2008,27(5):134-146

The identification of scallop larvae is essential to understand the population structure and community dynamics and to assess the potential environmental impacts caused by scallop larvae released or escaped. However, the larvae identification by morphological characteristics is notoriously difficult, mainly due to the small size （usually being less than 150 μm） and vague morphological characteristics among different scallop species. A simple and accurate molecular method was developed to identify four economically farmed scallop species, the Zhikong scallop Chlamys farreri, the noble scallop C. nobilis, the bay scallop Argopecten irradians and the Yesso scallop Mizuhopecten yessoensis. The tests used the high degree of species-specific microsatellite markers, which was specified by transferability analyses, assessed by reference individuals and evaluated by BLAST searches. The sensitivity test indicated that the species-specific microsatellites were sensitive enough for the detection of 1% -2% larvae in mixed plankton samples. Larvae collected from scallop hatcheries and their effluents and from the artificially controlled crosses were well identified to the species/hybrid level. The results demonstrated that the one-step PCR-based assay was technically simple, inexpensive and robust in identification analyses, and also less sensitive to initial quality of template DNA extracted from the ethanol-preserved samples for several years.  相似文献   

Modeling demand/supply of water resources in the arid region of northwestern China during the late 1980s to 2010     

LIU Xingran  SHEN Yanjun  GUO Ying  LI Shuo  GUO Bin 《地理学报(英文版)》2015,25(5)

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Industry-academe linkages in the Philippines: Embedding foreign investors,capturing institutions?     

《Geoforum》2015

The global sourcing of services from developing countries has made human capital a key local asset for attracting foreign direct investment. This paper analyses to what extent individual companies engage in linkages and collaborations with universities and how the education sector responds to the new demands of the knowledge economy. Offshore services are generally recognised as ‘footloose’ investments with limited local linkages. A case study of industry-academe linkages in the growing business process outsourcing sector in the Philippines finds that foreign investors engage in active embedding and develop linkages with human resource providers, leading to increased territorial embeddedness. This paper investigates the kind of linkages created, which actors engage in them and their motivations, to understand the resulting implications for local economic development. Interviews with foreign investors and higher education institutions reveal that most collaboration is initiated by large call centre companies and focuses on entry-level skills development for their operations. I argue that multinational corporations have been able to capture local institutions and introduce changes in the education system to supply mainly lower-end skills. While increasing the available talent pool and raising the competitiveness for further investments, this presents challenges for upgrading into higher value-added services and potentially transforms the country into a dependent market economy.  相似文献   

The distribution of transferrin alleles in haddock stocks     

Jamieson  A.; Birley  A. J. 《ICES Journal of Marine Science》1989,45(3):248-262

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