Ecological quality is defined as the stability, adaptability and resilience of an ecosystem. Monitoring and assessing ecological quality are important bases for China’s ecological civilization construction. The natio...Ecological quality is defined as the stability, adaptability and resilience of an ecosystem. Monitoring and assessing ecological quality are important bases for China’s ecological civilization construction. The national key research and development program "Technologies and guidelines for monitoring ecological quality of terrestrial ecosystems in China", launched in July 2017, includes plans to study the observation technologies and provide guidelines on the ecological in-situ observation, the regional biodiversity and ecosystem function monitoring and its applications, all of which contribute to national ecological quality assessment. A year after its implementation,some important progress has been achieved, such as building the indicator system for comprehensive monitoring of ecological quality and improvement of the methods, mass data transmission, infrared camera-based monitoring of biodiversity, multi-angle automatic spectral observation systems, and unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) based desert monitoring. We have organized this special issue and attempted to introduce the monitoring techniques and assessment methods on ecological quality from different perspectives in order to further promote the development of ecology and its observation methods.展开更多
Song repertoire size is the number of distinct syllables, phrases, or song types produced by an individual or population. Repertoire size estimation is particularly difficult for species that produce highly variable s...Song repertoire size is the number of distinct syllables, phrases, or song types produced by an individual or population. Repertoire size estimation is particularly difficult for species that produce highly variable songs and those that produce many song types. Estimating repertoire size is important for ecological and evolutionary studies of speciation, studies of sexual selection, as well as studies of how species may adapt their songs to various acoustic environments. There are several methods to estimate repertoire size, however prior studies discovered that all but a full numerical count of song types might have substantial inaccuracies associated with them. We evaluated a somewhat novel approach to estimate repertoire size--rarefaction; a technique ecologists use to measure species diversity on individual and population levels. Using the syllables within American robins＇ Turdus migratorius repertoire, we compared the most commonly used techniques of estimating repertoires to the results of a rarefaction analysis. American robins have elaborate and unique songs with few syllables shared between individuals, and there is no evidence that robins mimic their neighbors. Thus, they are an ideal system in which to compare techniques. We found that the rarefaction technique results resembled that of the numerical count, and were better than two alternative methods （behavioral accumulation curves, and capture-recapture） to estimate syllable repertoire size. Future estimates of repertoire size, particularly in vocally complex species, may benefit from using rarefaction techniques when numerical counts are unable to be performed [Current Zoology 57 （3）： 300-306, 2011].展开更多
基金The National Key Basic Research and Development Program(2017YFC0503800)
文摘Ecological quality is defined as the stability, adaptability and resilience of an ecosystem. Monitoring and assessing ecological quality are important bases for China’s ecological civilization construction. The national key research and development program "Technologies and guidelines for monitoring ecological quality of terrestrial ecosystems in China", launched in July 2017, includes plans to study the observation technologies and provide guidelines on the ecological in-situ observation, the regional biodiversity and ecosystem function monitoring and its applications, all of which contribute to national ecological quality assessment. A year after its implementation,some important progress has been achieved, such as building the indicator system for comprehensive monitoring of ecological quality and improvement of the methods, mass data transmission, infrared camera-based monitoring of biodiversity, multi-angle automatic spectral observation systems, and unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) based desert monitoring. We have organized this special issue and attempted to introduce the monitoring techniques and assessment methods on ecological quality from different perspectives in order to further promote the development of ecology and its observation methods.
文摘Song repertoire size is the number of distinct syllables, phrases, or song types produced by an individual or population. Repertoire size estimation is particularly difficult for species that produce highly variable songs and those that produce many song types. Estimating repertoire size is important for ecological and evolutionary studies of speciation, studies of sexual selection, as well as studies of how species may adapt their songs to various acoustic environments. There are several methods to estimate repertoire size, however prior studies discovered that all but a full numerical count of song types might have substantial inaccuracies associated with them. We evaluated a somewhat novel approach to estimate repertoire size--rarefaction; a technique ecologists use to measure species diversity on individual and population levels. Using the syllables within American robins＇ Turdus migratorius repertoire, we compared the most commonly used techniques of estimating repertoires to the results of a rarefaction analysis. American robins have elaborate and unique songs with few syllables shared between individuals, and there is no evidence that robins mimic their neighbors. Thus, they are an ideal system in which to compare techniques. We found that the rarefaction technique results resembled that of the numerical count, and were better than two alternative methods （behavioral accumulation curves, and capture-recapture） to estimate syllable repertoire size. Future estimates of repertoire size, particularly in vocally complex species, may benefit from using rarefaction techniques when numerical counts are unable to be performed [Current Zoology 57 （3）： 300-306, 2011].
