In this study we present the results from field work in northern Vietnam regarding the occurrence of the warty newt species Paramesotriton deloustali and P. guangxiensis in disturbed and undisturbed habitats and the presence of parasitic water mites of the genus Hygrobates (sg. Lurchibates) (Acari, Hydrachnidia). We report the first evidence of mite parasitism in P. guangxiensis and analyze differences in the infestation rates between both Paramesotriton species and habitat qualities. Furthermore we present the first indication of the detrimental effects of these parasite-host interactions.Our preliminary assessment seems to support the sensitivity of P. guangxiensis to habitat disturbances, as the average number of captured newts per stream was twice as high in undisturbed habitats as in disturbed ones.Until now a very specific parasite-host association was supposed between water mite and newt species. However, our results show the first evidence of a water mite species of the subgenus Lurchibates (Hygrobates forcipifer) parasitizing more than one host species, in this case not only P. deloustali (already known) but also P. guangxiensis (new record). The overall infestation rate was 27 % for P. deloustali and 71 % for P. guangxiensis, from which 100 % and 77 % of the mite-incidence occurred in undisturbed habitats, respectively. Furthermore the parasite load of the newts was clearly higher in prime quality streams: the parasite load in undisturbed habitats was very similar between P. deloustali (19.64 mites per newt) and P. guangxiensis (20.13 mites per newt), however it was significantly lower for P. guangxiensis in disturbed habitats (8.86 mites per newt). Future research should bring more detail on these parasite host associations, especially on the effect of parasitism on the newts. Warty newts are already threatened due to their shrinking natural habitat and overharvesting. We report the first concerns that mite parasitism might be a critical additional stress factor in undisturbed habitats. 相似文献
A model integrating geo-information and self-organizing map (SOM) for exploring the database of soil environmental surveys was established. The dataset of 5 heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb) was built by the regular grid sampling in Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Auxiliary datasets were collected throughout the study area to help interpret the potential causes of pollution. The main findings are as follows: (1) Soil samples of 5 elements exhibited strong variation and high skewness. High pollution risk existed in the case study area, especially Hg and Cd. (2) As and Pb had a similar topo-logical distribution pattern, meaning they behaved similarly in the soil environment. Cr had behaviours in soil different from those of the other 4 elements. (3) From the U-matrix of SOM networks, 3 levels of SEQ were identified, and 11 high risk areas of soil heavy metal-contaminated were found throughout the study area, which were basically near rivers, factories, and ore zones. (4) The variations of contamination index (CI) followed the trend of construction land (1.353) > forestland (1.267) > cropland (1.175) > grassland (1.056), which suggest that decision makers should focus more on the problem of soil pollution surrounding industrial and mining enterprises and farmland.
With recent advances in remote sensing, location-based services and other related technologies, the production of geospatial information has exponentially increased in the last decades. Furthermore, to facilitate discovery and efficient access to such information, spatial data infrastructures were promoted and standardized, with a consideration that metadata are essential to describing data and services. Standardization bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization have defined well-known metadata models such as ISO 19115. However, current metadata assets exhibit heterogeneous quality levels because they are created by different producers with different perspectives. To address quality-related concerns, several initiatives attempted to define a common framework and test the suitability of metadata through automatic controls. Nevertheless, these controls are focused on interoperability by testing the format of metadata and a set of controlled elements. In this paper, we propose a methodology of testing the quality of metadata by considering aspects other than interoperability. The proposal adapts ISO 19157 to the metadata case and has been applied to a corpus of the Spanish Spatial Data Infrastructure. The results demonstrate that our quality check helps determine different types of errors for all metadata elements and can be almost completely automated to enhance the significance of metadata. 相似文献