Distribution Patterns of Synechococcus Indicated Their Environmental Constraints and Related Geochemical Processes in the Yellow Sea

Synechococcus is a widely distributed photosynthetic pico-phytoplankton,which contributes mainly to carbon fixation and maintains the stability of the marine ecosystem.To investigate its distribution patterns in the Yellow Sea,seawater samples were collected during September 2018.Results of flow cytometry analysis showed that the Synechococcus abundance ranged from 6.36×10^(2) to 4.51×10^(4) cells mL^(−1),which correlated with salinity(P<0.01)and temperature(P<0.05).At deeper off-shore sites,Synecho-coccus showed high abundance at the subsurface thermo-halocline,which was in accordance with chlorophyll a(Chl a)content along the vertical column.Based on the high-throughput sequencing data of rpoC1(partial gene encoding RNA polymerase),two Synechococcus subclusters,S5.1 and S5.2,were found to coexist in the studied area.Several clades of S5.1,including Clades I,II,and III,were the dominant components,accounting for 6.63%,26.11%,and 45.5%of the total genus,respectively.Redundancy analysis(RDA)showed that nitrite was the main environmental factor that explained the genus composition among samples.Fur-thermore,co-occurrence network revealed that the main phyla that coexisted with Synechococcus were Proteobacteria,Bacteroidetes,Actinobacteria,Planctomycetes,and Verrucomicrobia,which were involved in the carbon(C),nitrogen(N),sulfur(S),and manga-nese(Mn)cycles.Overall,Synechococcus exhibited biogeographic distribution correlated with temperature-salinity and nitrite in the Yellow Sea,and their geochemical function showed diverse but should be further verified in the future.

Urban expansion and intra-urban land evolution as well as their natural environmental constraints in arid/semiarid regions of China from 2000–2018

Rapid urbanization has occurred in arid/semiarid China,threatening the sustainability of fragile dryland ecosystems;however,our knowledge of natural environmental constraints on multiscale urban lands in this region is still lacking.To solve this issue,this study retrieved 15-m multiscale urban lands.Results indicated that urban area increased by 68%during 2000–2018,and one-third of the increase was contributed by only three large cities.The coverage of impervious surface area(ISA) and vegetated area(VA) increased by 16.6%and 1.38%,respectively.Such land-cover change may be helpful in suppressing wind erosion and sand storms.We also found that the newly urban lands had relatively lower ISA and higher VA than the old urban lands,indicating an improved human settlement environment.Strong environmental constraints on urban expansion were identified,with cities in oasis urban environments(OUEs) that had water supply expanding 150% faster than cities in desert urban environments(DUEs).Urban development was also constrained by terrain,with 73% of the ISA expansion occurring in relatively flat areas.Overall,the aggregated pattern of urbanization and the increase in ISA and VA in the newly urbanized lands have improved water-use efficiency and ecological services and benefited desert ecosystem protection in arid/semiarid China.

Influence of local environmental target constraints on enterprise OFDI

By collecting the environmental target constraints in the annual government work report of prefecture-level cities,this paper studies its impact on local enterprises’OFDI.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)Both direct and indirect constraints have a significant positive impact on enterprises’OFDI,and the degree of direct constraints is stronger than that of indirect constraints.(2)Environmental target constraints of local governments will affect corporate OFDI behavior by affecting production costs,local economic development level and local openness,and(3)There are regional heterogeneity and investment type heterogeneity in the impact of environmental goal constraints on corporate OFDI.The suggestions are as follows:government departments can appropriately strengthen the constraint intensity of environmental targets and formulate specific restraint rules for industries with different levels of pollution,so as to effectively make use of the technology spillover effects brought about by OFDI to promote the upgrading of domestic industrial structure.When making OFDI,enterprises should clarify the investment motivation,strengthen corporate social responsibility,and make use of technology spillover effect to promote the upgrading and development of home country industry while being beneficial to their own development.

Beyond biogeographic patterns:Processes shaping the microbial landscape in soils and sediments along the Yangtze River

Deciphering biogeographic patterns of microorganisms is important for evaluating the maintenance of microbial diversity with respect to the ecosystem functions they drives.However,ecological processes shaping distribution patterns of microorganisms across large spatial‐scale watersheds remain largely unknown.Using Illumina sequencing and multiple statistical methods,we characterized distribution patterns and maintenance diversity of microorganisms(i.e.,archaea,bacteria,and fungi)in soils and sediments along the Yangtze River.Distinct microbial distribution patterns were found between soils and sediments,and microbial community similarity significantly decreased with increasing geographical distance.Physicochemical properties showed a larger effect on microbial community composition than geospatial and climatic factors.Archaea and fungi displayed stronger species replacements and weaker environmental constraints in soils than that in sediments,but opposite for bacteria.Archaea,bacteria,and fungi in soils showed broader environmental breadths and stronger phylogenetic signals compared to those in sediments,suggesting stronger environmental adaptation.Stochasticity dominated community assemblies of archaea and fungi in soils and sediments,whereas determinism dominated bacterial community assembly.Our results have therefore highlighted distinct microbial distribution patterns and diversity maintenance mechanisms between soils and sediments,and emphasized important roles of species replacement,environmental adaptability,and ecological assembly processes on microbial landscape.Our findings are helpful in predicting loss of microbial diversity in the Yangtze River Basin,and might assist the establishment of environmental policies for protecting fragile watersheds.