Gap Dynamics and Tree Species Diversity in a Tropical Montane Rain Forest of Hainan Island,China

Based on investigation of 53 gaps and 25 quadrats (15m×15m each) of non-gap closed stand in an old-growth tropical montane rain forest of Hainan Island, China, canopy disturbance regimes and gap regeneration were studied. Gaps were elliptical in horizontal form, the ratio of long axis /short axis was about 1.4. Percentage of expanded gaps (EG) and canopy gaps (CG) area in the landscape were 53.5% and 25.2% respectively. EG ranged from 31.4 m2 to 488.2m2 and CG/rom 14.9m2 to 354.2m2, their average sizes ...

A review of the roles of forest canopy gaps

Treefall gap, canopy opening caused by the death of one or more trees, is the dominant form of disturbance in many forest systems worldwide. Gaps play an important role in forest ecology helping to pre- serve bio- and pedo-diversity, influencing nutrient cycles, and maintain- ing the complex structure of the late-successional forests. Over the last 30 years, numerous reviews have been written describing gap dynamics. Here we synthesize current understanding on gap dynamics relating to tree regeneration with particular emphasis on gap characteristics consid- ered critical to develop ecologically sustainable forest management sys- tems and to conserve native biodiversity. Specifically, we addressed the question： how do gaps influence forest structure？ From the literature re- viewed, the size of gaps induces important changes in factors such as light intensity, soil humidity and soil biological properties that influence tree species regeneration and differ in gaps of different sizes. Shade- tolerant species can colonize small gaps; shade-intolerant species need large gaps for successful regeneration. Additionally, gap dynamics differ between temperate, boreal, and tropical forests, showing the importance of climate differences in driving forest regeneration. This review summa- rizes information of use to forest managers who design cutting regimes that mimic natural disturbances and who must consider forest structure, forest climate, and the role of natural disturbance in their designs.

Dynamic Control of Defective Gap Mode Through Defect Location

A one dimensional model is developed for defective gap mode（DGM）with two types of boundary conditions：conducting mesh and conducting sleeve.For a periodically modulated system without defect,the normalized width of spectral gaps equals to the modulation factor,which is consistent with previous studies.For a periodic system with local defects introduced by the boundary conditions,it shows that the conducting-mesh-induced DGM is always well confined by spectral gaps while the conducting-sleeve-induced DGM is not.The defect location can be a useful tool to dynamically control the frequency and spatial periodicity of DGM inside spectral gaps.This controllability can be potentially applied to the interaction between gap eigenmodes and energetic particles in fusion plasmas,and optical microcavities and waveguides in photonic crystals.

Seed Dynamics in Relation to Gaps in a Tropical Montane Rainforest of Hainan Island,South China:(II)Seed Bank

Spatial and temporal patterns of seed bank dynamics in relation to gaps in an old growth tropical montane rainforest of Hainan Island, South China, were studied over two consecutive years. From June 2001 to June 2003, soil seed bank sampling blocks were taken near each of the four sides of each seed trap and immediately put into a nursery for observation of seedling emergence dynamics in four seasons （each experiment in each season）. The abundances of seedlings that emerged from seed banks showed the trend of vine functional group （VFG） 〉 shrub functional group （SFG） 〉 tree functional group （TFG） 〉 herb functional group （HFG）, but the trend in species richness of seedlings that emerged from the soil seed banks was TFG 〉 VFG 〉 SFG 〉 HFG. The abundances of seedlings that emerged from seed banks in the three gap zones showed no significant differences, but significant differences did exist for the species richness. The time of sampling or seasons of experiments had significant influences on both the species richness and seedling abundances. The seedling emergence processes of each experiment all revealed the unimodal patterns. Few emergences occurred 1 year after each experiment. Compared with those under closed canopies, the recruitment rates from seed to seedlings and from seedlings to saplings In gaps were higher, but the mortality rates from saplings to big trees were also higher in the gaps.

Seed Dynamics in Relation to Gaps in a Tropical Montane Rainforest of Hainan Island,South China:(Ⅰ)Seed Rain

Seed dynamics is an important part of stand dynamics in forest ecosystems. In this paper, 26 gaps were randomly selected to study the influence of gaps on the spatial and temporal patterns of seed rains in a tropical montane rainforest of Hainan Island, South China. Three zones for each gap, including outside gap zone （Non-gap）, transitional gap zone （EG-CG）, and central gap zone （CG）, were designed, and fourseed traps （each lm x lm in size） were placed in each zone. Seed rains were collected by these traps every 10 days from June 2001 to May 2002. Seed rain varied greatly with season and generally exhibited a pattern of unimodal change during the study period： seed abundance and species richness were both greater in the wet season than in the dry season. Gaps significantly influenced the temporal patterns of both species richness and density of seed rains. Gaps had no significant influences on the spatial distribution patterns of seed rain species richness, but significantly affected the spatial distribution pattern of seed rain densities. Among the three different zones of gaps, the outside gap zone generally received more seeds inputs than the two other gap zones.

Dynamical mass generation in QED_3 beyond the instantaneous approximation

In this paper, we investigate dynamical mass generation in（2＋1）-dimensional quantum electrodynamics at finite temperature. Many studies are carried out within the instantaneous-exchange approximation, which ignores all but the zero-frequency component of the boson propagator and fermion self-energy function. We extend these studies by taking the retardation effects into consideration. In this paper, we get the explicit frequency n and momentum p dependence of the fermion self-energy function and identify the critical temperature for different fermion flavors in the chiral limit. Also, the phase diagram for spontaneous symmetry breaking in the theory is presented in Tc-Nf space. The results show that the chiral condensate is just one-tenth of the scale of previous results, and the chiral symmetry is restored at a smaller critical temperature.