Nest survival rate of Reeves＇s pheasant(Syrmaticus reevesii) based on artificial nest experiments

To explore the nest survival rate of Reeves＇ s pheasant（Syrmaticus reevesii） and the nest-site factors that affect it, we conducted artificial nest experiments with reference to natural nests at Dongzhai National Nature Reserve（DNNR）, Henan Province and Pingjingguan, Hubei Province from April to June 2014 simulating the situation in its early and later breeding season. We also determined distance characteristics of the nest sites by Arc GIS 10.0. Nest survival models were constructed in Program MARK for data analysis. Results indicated that in the early breeding season, the apparent survival rate（ASR） in DNNR（52.4%） was significantly greater than that in Pingjingguan（13.5%）, and the ASR in the later breeding season in DNNR（26.7%） was not indistinctively correlated with Pingjingguan（3.2%）. The daily survival rate（DSR） in the later breeding season was 93.8% in DNNR and 92.0% in Pingjingguan, respectively. The DSRs were both negatively correlated with nest distance to forest edges and settlements. The DSR in Pingjingguan was positively correlated with nest distance to paths and negatively correlated with nest distance to water sources. However, the DSR in DNNR was negatively correlated with nest distance to paths but positively correlated with nest distance to water sources.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS BY NESTING HYDROLOGY MODEL DHSVM WITH REGIONAL CLIMATE MODEL RegCM2/CHINA

Based on improvement of a distributed hydrology-soil-vegetation model (DHSVM for short) and its application to North China,a nested regional climatic-hydrologic model system is developed by connecting DHSVM with RegCM2/China.The simulated climate scenarios,including control and 2×CO_2 outputs,are downscaled to 8 stations in Luanhe River and Sanggan River Basins to drive the hydrology model.According to simulation results,under double CO_2 scenarios,annual mean temperature and evapotranspiration will increase 2.8C and 29 mm,respectively; precipitation also increase but with different value for each basin,6 mm for Luanhe River Basin while 46 mm for Sanggan River Basin;runoff change for the two basins is different too,27 mm decrease for Luanhe River Basin while 26 mm increase for Sanggan River Basin.As a result,the runoff in future for Luanhe River Basin and Sanggan River Basin will be 74 mm and 71 mm, respectively,which is approximately a quarter of annual mean runoff(284 mm)of the whole country.Total streamflow for the two basins will decrease about 2.5×10~8m^3.All these indicate that the warm and dry trend will continue in the two river basins under double CO_2 scenarios.The nested model system,with both climatic and hydrologic prediction ability,could also be applied to other basins in China by parameter adjustment.

Parental dependence on the nest's spatial cues in offspring recognition decreases with nestling growth in the azure-winged magpie

In altricial birds,to address which cues are used by parents to recognize their offspring,and when they switch between cues during reproduction,it has not been well determined.In this study,we address this questi on in a Tibetan populatio n of the azure-winged magpie Cyanopica cyan us f by examining the dependence of parents on a nest's spatial position in offspring recognition.During the egg and nestling phases,azure-winged magpie nests were translocated to new positions across various distances from their original site,and parental responses to the translocated nests were investigated.Our findings show that a nesfs spatial position is not connected with the survival of its young,but might be used as a cue in parental offspring recognition.When nests are translocated to a new position within a certain distance,parents could recognize their nests and returned to resume their parenting behaviors.Parental dependence on the nest's spatial position in offspring recognition is higher during the egg phase than during the nestling phase,and it decreases with the growth of nestlings.After nestlings reach a certain age,the nest's spatial position was no longer used by pare nts as the single cue for offspring recog nition.These findings suggest that azure-winged magpies switch their cues in offspring recog nition during the differe nt stages of reproduction.After parent-offspring communication has been established,the offspring's phenotypic traits may become a more reliable cue than the nests spatial position in offspring recognition.