Dynamical Artificial Bee Colony for Energy-Efficient Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling with Additional Resources and Maintenance

Unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem(UPMSP)is a typical scheduling one and UPMSP with various reallife constraints such as additional resources has been widely studied;however,UPMSP with additional resources,maintenance,and energy-related objectives is seldom investigated.The Artificial Bee Colony(ABC)algorithm has been successfully applied to various production scheduling problems and demonstrates potential search advantages in solving UPMSP with additional resources,among other factors.In this study,an energy-efficient UPMSP with additional resources and maintenance is considered.A dynamical artificial bee colony(DABC)algorithm is presented to minimize makespan and total energy consumption simultaneously.Three heuristics are applied to produce the initial population.Employed bee swarm and onlooker bee swarm are constructed.Computing resources are shifted from the dominated solutions to non-dominated solutions in each swarm when the given condition is met.Dynamical employed bee phase is implemented by computing resource shifting and solution migration.Computing resource shifting and feedback are used to construct dynamical onlooker bee phase.Computational experiments are conducted on 300 instances from the literature and three comparative algorithms and ABC are compared after parameter settings of all algorithms are given.The computational results demonstrate that the new strategies of DABC are effective and that DABC has promising advantages in solving the considered UPMSP.

Effects of resource additions on species richness and ANPP in an alpine meadow community

Aims Theories based on resource additions indicate that plant species richness is mainly determined by the number of limiting resources.However,the individual effects of various limiting resources on species richness and aboveground net primary productivity(ANPP)are less well understood.Here,we analyzed potential linkages between additions of limiting resources,species loss and ANPP increase and further explored the underlying mechanisms.Methods Resources(N,P,K and water)were added in a completely randomized block design to alpine meadow plots in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.Plant aboveground biomass,species composition,mean plant height and light availability were measured in each plot.Regression and analysis of variance were used to analyze the responses of these measures to the different resource-addition treatments.Important Findings Species richness decreased with increasing number of added limiting resources,suggesting that plant diversity was apparently determined by the number of limiting resources.Nitrogen was the most important limiting resource affecting species richness,whereas Pand K alone had negligible effects.The largest reduction in species richness occurred when all three elements were added in combination.Water played a different role compared with the other limiting resources.Species richness increased when water was added to the treatments with N and P or with N,P and K.The decreases in species richness after resource additions were paralleled by increases in ANPP and decreases in light penetration into the plant canopy,suggesting that increased light competitionwas responsible for the negative effects of resource additions on plant species richness.

Resource enrichment combined with biomass removal maintains plant diversity and community stability in a long-term grazed grassland

Aims Long-term heavy grazing reduces plant diversity and ecosystem function by intensifying nitrogen(N)and water limitation.In contrast,the absence of biomass removal can cause species loss by elevating light competition and weakening community stability,which is exacerbated by N and water enrichment.Hence,how to maintain species diversity and community stability is still a huge challenge for sustainable management of worldwide grasslands.Methods We conducted a 4-year manipulated experiment in six long-term grazing blocks to explore combination of resource additions and biomass removal(increased water,N and light availability)on species richness and community stability in semiarid grasslands of Inner Mongolia,China.Important Findings In all blocks treated with the combination of resource additions and biomass removal,primary productivity increased and species richness and community stability were maintained over 4 years of experiment.At both species and plant functional group(PFG)levels,the aboveground biomass of treated plants remained temporally stable in treatments with the combination of N and/or water addition and biomass removal.The maintenance of species richness was primarily caused by the biomass removal,which could increase the amount of light exposure for grasses under resource enrichment.Both species asynchrony and stability of PFGs contributed to the high temporal stability observed in these communities.Our results indicate that management practices of combined resource enrichment with biomass removal,such as grazing or mowing,could not only enhance primary productivity but also maintain plant species diversity,species asynchrony and community stability.Furthermore,as overgrazing-induced degradation and resource enrichment-induced biodiversity loss continue to be major problems worldwide,our findings have important implications for adaptive management in semiarid grasslands and beyond.