ABSTRACT
We studied germination behaviors and persistence mechanism of wild Glehnia littoralis, a typical coastal species at temperate sandy coasts of the North Pacific Ocean, and tested the hypothesis that the coastal plants may have evolved special seeds adapting to the coasts, by which they recruit and persist easily, occupying the coasts as ideal habitats. In the Shandong Peninsula, China, we investigated temperature and moisture conditions of coast sand in relation to germination and evaluated effects of sand burial, seawater immersion and sowing time on germination. When germination began, daily dawn temperatures of sand were about 10 °C and daily noon temperatures were about 25 °C; the temperatures were not different in the sand <8 cm deep. The sand at these depths showed a significant difference in moisture contents. The seeds exhibited large germination rates if sand burial was at depths >= 3 cm and winter freezing was kept longer than 2.5 months. Seeds experiencing seawater immersion were able to germinate well. These evidences suggest that G. littoralis has evolved special seeds adapting to seawater dispersal and specific season rhythm. By the seeds, G. littoralis occupies temperate sandy coasts as ideal habitats to persist.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Physiological , Apiaceae/physiology , Ecosystem , Apiaceae/growth & development , GerminationABSTRACT
The importance of cysteine (Cys) in biological systems has stimulated a great deal of efforts in the development of analytical methods for the determination of this amino acid. In this work, a novel fluorescent probe for Cys based on citrate (Cit)-capped CdS quantum dots (QDs) is reported. The Cit-capped CdS QDs fluorescent probe offers good sensitivity and selectivity for detecting Cys. A good linear relationship was obtained from 1.0 × 10(-8)mol L(-1) to 5.0 × 10(-5)mol L(-1) for Cys. The detection limit was calculated as 5.4 × 10(-9)mol L(-1). The proposed method was applied to detect Cys in human urine samples, which showed satisfactory results. This assay is based on both the lability of Cit and the strong affinity of thiols to the surface of CdS QDs. The addition of Cys improved the passivation of the surface traps of CdS QDs and enhanced the fluorescence intensity.
Subject(s)
Cadmium Compounds/chemistry , Chemistry Techniques, Analytical/instrumentation , Citrates/chemistry , Cysteine/analysis , Quantum Dots , Sulfides/chemistry , Cysteine/chemistry , Fluorescent Dyes/chemistry , Humans , Limit of Detection , Spectrometry, FluorescenceABSTRACT
Based on field survey, the effects of artificial Ulmus pumila forest on the species diversity of temperate grassland in Siziwang Banner of Inner Mongolia were studied. The results showed that U. pumila forest had obvious effects on the species diversity of grassland. With increasing density of U. pumila, the Patrick's richness, Pielou's evenness and Shannon-Wiener index of grass species under the forest had a decreasing trend, and were higher nearby the forest than far from the forest. The habitat inside the forest was favorable to Silene jenisseensis, while that nearby the forest was favorable to Heteropappus altaicus, Pocockia ruthenia, Potentilla bifurca, Leymus secalinus and Cleistogenes squarrosa, suggesting that to blindly exclude forestation on grassland could be less scientific, while properly afforesting U. pumila on the sides with relatively abundant soil moisture should be available to the conservation of plant diversity in temperate grassland regions.
