[Responses of taxonomic and functional diversity of soil mites to altitudinal changes in forest ecosystems of Lyuliang Mountains, Shanxi, China].

The altitudinal gradient pattern of mountain biodiversity and its formation mechanism are hot topics in ecological research. The altitudinal variations of belowground invertebrates are less understood than aboveground plants and animals. With soil mites as the model soil animals, we investigated their distribution patterns from 1318 m to 2500 m above sea level in three mountains of Lyuliang Mountains based on species diversity and functional diversity.

[Effects of freeze-thaw cycles on soil arthropod in the permafrost region of the Great Hing'an Mountains, Northeast China].

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the impacts of freeze-thaw intensity (-5-5 ℃, -10-5 ℃) and frequency (1, 5, 10, 15 times) on the community structure of soil arthropod in permafrost zone, Great Hing'an Mountains with the 5 ℃ as control. A total of 4198 individuals of soil arthropod were extracted, belonging to 4 classes, 9 orders, 24 families and 33 genera. The results showed that the number of individuals and groups of soil arthropod decreased significantly in the treatment with high frost intensity (-10-5 ℃), while the individuals of some taxa increased in the treatment with low frost intensity (-5-5 ℃) after the first freeze-thaw incubation.

Characterizing the Hourly Variation of Urban Heat Islands in a Snowy Climate City during Summer.

Temporal variation of urban heat island (UHI) intensity is one of the most important themes in UHI studies. However, fine-scale temporal variability of UHI with explicit spatial information is sparse in the literature. Based on the hourly air temperature from 195 meteorological stations during August 2015 in Changchun, China, hourly spatiotemporal patterns of UHI were mapped to explore the temporal variability and the effects of land use on the thermal environment using time series analysis, air temperature profiling, and spatial analysis.

Impact of Farmland Change on Soybean Production Potential in Recent 40 Years: A Case Study in Western Jilin, China.

During the last 40 years, the quantity and spatial patterns of farmland in Western Jilin have changed dramatically, which has had a great impact on soybean production potential. This study used one of the most advanced crop production potential models, the Global Agro-Ecological Zones model, to calculate the soybean production potential in Western Jilin based on meteorological, topography, soil and land use data, and analyzed the impact of farmland change on soybean production potential during 1975⁻2013. The main conclusions were the following: first, the total soybean production potential in Western Jilin in 2013 was 8.