Comprehensive assessment on the ecological stress of rapid land urbanization per proportion, intensity, and location

Aiming at assessing the ecological stress of land urbanization comprehensively,three perspectives are considered and combined,i.e.the amount effect with the proportion of construction lands as the indicator,the intensity effect per the density of environmental pollutant emissions,and the location effect based on their spatial distribution in the heterogeneous landscape.The quantitative results of Southern Jiangsu case in Eastern China show the single-perspective ecological stress are spatially different;the proportion effect is higher in city propers which are more densely populated and industrialized.However,the intensity effect is more significant for units along the Yangtze river where heavy industries are gathered,while the location effect is higher in“ecologically suitable”regions.As the integration of proportion,intensity,and location effects,the comprehensive stress differs across Southern Jiangsu and are also different with the single-perspective results.Dominant stressors of each unit are spatially distinct,which benefits policymakers in targeting their objectives as per primary influencing factors.It is concluded that the comprehensive assessment could efficiently reveal the spatial differentiation of the ecological effects of land urbanization and also the differentiated role of different factors for each unit.

Genetic variation at the p53 locus of two ecologically divergent Microtus pine voles:identification of molecular markers for species assignment

The Lusitanian(Microtus lusitanicus)and the Mediterranean(Microtus duodecimcostatus)pine voles are recently diverged sister species endemic of the Iberian Peninsula that can be identified with ecological and morphological characters,but in areas where the 2 species co-occur,species designation may be difficult.Genetic discrimination between M.lusitanicus and M.duodecimcostatus has not been achieved yet possibly because of their estimated re-cent split and an evolutionary history that includes inter-species geneflow.Following our previous observations on exons 5–7 of the p53 gene,here we analyze the potential use of the p53 genomic region as a discrimination marker of these species by extending our analyses to several kb upstream and downstream of the p53 gene and charac-terizing the degree of genetic differentiation in 7 markers within this region.Additionally,we fully sequenced the P53 protein of both species.We observed:(i)generally high differentiation in this region;(ii)M.duodecimcostatus showed in general higher values of nucleotide and haplotype diversities;(iii)the concatenated phylogenetic tree separates the 2 species;(iv)the 2 P53 proteins only differ in 1 amino acid;(v)4 of the markers,2 in p53,one in Atp1b2,and another in Wrap53,contain species-specific genetic variation thus allowing a reliable discrimination between specimens from both species,irrespective of sampling location or introgression status.We provide ad-ditional data on the putative role of p53 in the evolution of these species and present researchers with a fast and cost-effective resource for M.lusitanicus and M.duodecimcostatus identification.

Temporal and Spatial Dynamics Analysis of Grassland Ecosystem Pressure in Kazakhstan

Affected by climate change and policy factors,Kazakhstan is the country with the most severe ecological degradation and grassland conflicts in Central Asia.Therefore,studying the state of grassland carrying resources in Kazakhstan is particularly important for understanding the responses of grassland ecosystems to climate change and human activities.Based on Kazakhstan's remote sensing data and animal husbandry statistics,this study analyzes the patterns of changes in grassland ecosystems in Kazakhstan based on the supply and consumption of these ecosystems.The results show that:1)From 2003 to 2017,the number of livestock raised in Kazakhstan showed a trend of sustained and steady growth.Due to freezing damage,the scale of livestock farming decreased in 2011,but a spatial difference in the livestock farming structure was not obvious.2)The fluctuation of grassland supply in Kazakhstan has increased,while the consumption due to animal husbandry has also continued to increase,resulting in an increasing pressure on the grassland carrying capacity.3)Between 2003 and 2017,the overall grassland carrying status of Kazakhstan have been abundant,but the grassland carrying pressure index has shown a steadily increasing trend,the grassland carrying pressure is growing,and it is mainly determined by grassland productivity.The greater pressure in lower Kyzylorda state,the southern Kazakhstan state of the cultivated land and the northern Kazakhstan state has gradually expanded to include the agro-pastoral zone and the semi-desert zone.