Floristic inventories of six rain forest fragments on Holy Hills of Dai people in Xishuangbanna , southern Yunnan , were made. Change in floristic composition of the fragments was analyzed based on the comparison with the continuous primary rain forest of the region. With fragmentation and growing disturbances on the rain forest fragments , some plant families , such as Papilionaceae , Rutaceae and Euphorbiaceae , conspicuously increased in relative number of species or species percentage , while some families such as Ochidaceae , Lauraceae , Annonaceae and Urticaceae , decreased in relative number of species , i.e. their former dominance faded owing to the invasion of a lot of pioneers and declination or extinction of shande tolerant and climax species. In composition of geographical elements of the flora of fragments , the elements of pantropicand tropical Asia to tropical Africa distributions increased in percentage at genus level and those of wide distri- bu tion increased , while those of the usually limited or local distribution decreased at species level.

In the present study , the 16S rDNA of Bif idobacterium inopinatum with low GC content and B . thermacidophilum sp. nov. was sequenced. A phylogenetic dendrogram was constructed using the two sequences and other 16S rDNA sequences of 19 Bif idobacterium spp. and eight related genera obtained from DNA databases. The results showed that except for B . inopinutum , all the bifidobacteria were clustered at similarity levels( ≥92 %) of 16S rDNA sequences. Although B . inopinutum showed a relatively lower similarity (87 %～89 %) with the other bifidobacteria , it was closely related to the Bif idobacterium spp. rather than to other gram-positive bacteria with similar GC content . This study did not reveal the evolutionary pattern from low GC to high GC content in the gram-positive bacterial phylum. In addition , the divergence between 16S rDNA sequence and genomic DNA GC content in the study of bacterial phylogenetics has to be resolved using other conserved macrobiological moleculars.

Jiangsu Province is located along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the northern part of the subtropical zone. Its plain has been cultivated , and the hilly and mountainous land makes up 15 % of the total area , and its great majority is widely brought under cultivation with artificial forests and woody economic crops such as Phyllostachys pubescens , Camellia sinensis , Castanea mollissima , Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus massoniana ,etc. Natural vegetation is formed by deciduous broad-leaved forest that contains evergreen broad-leaved elements , which can be found only in the ridge of some hills and the fringe of some gullies , and have been classified as a framentational distribution type. There are 17 species of rare and endangered plants in Jiangsu. Of them , Parrotia subaequalis , Magnolia zenii , Magnolia ameona , Pseudolarix amabilis , Changnienia amoena , Ulmus chenmoui , Glehnia littoralis and Cinnamomum camphora are distributed in sporadic area and have become rare. Sinojackia xylocarpa , Emmenopterys henryi , Isotes sinensis and Ceratopteris thalict roides were found in some areas , but seemed extinct in recent years. Because of over- utilization , the habitats of Pteroceltis tatarinowii , Zelkova schneideriana and Changium smyrnioides have been rapidly deteriorated. B rachystachyum densif lorum and Glycine soja have often been found in their suitable habitats. These species are classified into 16 genera of 13 families. Of them , the antique floristic elements — Parrotia , Changium , Sinojackia , Emmenopterys , Pseudolarix , Pteroceltis , Glehnia and Changnienia are monotypic genera or oligotypic genera with an isolated position in phylogenies. Most of the rare and endangered plants are distributed in the south of Jiangsu , while some of them , such as Emmenopterys henryi , Pseudolarix amabilis and Magnolia ameona , are located on the northern fringe of their distribution area. The habitat fragmentation caused by human activities , the edge-effects of their marginal distribution and human destruction have synthetically led to the degeneration of primary habitats , reduction of population sizes and endangerment of these species.

Wetland ecosystem is the living and breeding area of fish. Because its special location , the study and conservation of fish diversity of Yunnan are very important not only for China , but for neighboring districts and countries. So it should be paid great attention by biologists and conservation organizations. There are many characteristics in fish fauna of Yunnan , such as abundant species and endemic species , complex fauna and diverse species types and small population size. The following factors affect fish living and breeding : habitats damaged by reclaiming land from lakes and swamping , competition for space and food from introduced species , worsening environment quality by pollution , population decrease or extinction resulted from over-fishing , water environment changes by dam and power station , influence from water resources exhaustion and forest declination. All groups of living things and the internal extinctive mechanism of fish species should be studied for conserving organisms in wetland ecosystem. The law of species introduction should be legislated immediately.

The present paper reported the species diversity of beetles of Wutongshan Mountain. It was found that emergence peak of beetle adults fell in J une and J uly. Species abundance and species diversity were analyzed using Margalef species abundance model and Shannon-Wiener biodiversity index , respectively. The result indicates that the species are abundant and the ecosystem of Mt . Wutongshan is rather intact .

As one of the elements contributing to landscape , patches have direct effects on the spatial patterns of landscape and functional interactions among the landscape cells. Patch dynamics leads to the change in landscape patterns. Heterogeneous patches commonly occur in tropical forests. This is to say , climax forest also maintains patches of different species composition and community structure. Forest growth cycle induced by natural events or human disturbance brings about the spatial mosaic of different patches. In any spot of forest , the patches at different growth phases , i. e. , gap phase , building phase and mature phase , turn over. In the process of the growth cycle , the replacement of floristic elements takes place , too. These patches , on the other hand , shift on the forest background. The species diversity of tropical forests is maintained in the dynamics of forest patches.

There are nine crane species in China. Among them , five species breed in China , namely the Common Crane ( Grus grus) , Black- necked Crane ( G.nigricollis) , Red-crowned Crane ( G.japonensis) , Whitenapped Crane ( G.vipio) , Sarus Crane ( G.antigone) and Demoiselle Crane ( Anthropoides virgo) . As to the wintering cranes of the world , over 70 % of the Black- necked Cranes , about 14 % of the Hooded Cranes ( Grus monacha) , more than 50 %of the Red-crowned Cranes and White- napped Cranes , and close to 99 %of Siberian White Cranes ( Grus leucogeranus) lived in China. This paper analyzed quantity and status of cranes , and presented protecting strategy for cranes in China.

Mangroves are woody plant communities which occur in the intertidal zones on tropical and subtropical coast . To adapt itself to the habitat , this plant species has developed special morphological , physiological and reproductive characters. Therefore , it is an important swamp along coastline. In this paper , current progress in studies of mangroves species diversity , adaptation , phenology and molecular diversity was described.

Three species of wild rice , i.e. ,Oryza rufipogon , Oryza of ficinalis and Oryza meyeriana , were found in China , and had been listed as the national second-grade protected plants ( gradually endangered species) of China. It was investigated that Chinese wild rice have been in imminent danger due to rapid loss of their natural community. Oryza rufipogon is in most imminent danger , while Oryza officinalis and Oryza meyeriana are less imminent . The main cause is economic activities which led to the loss of habitat , continuous deterioration of habitat quality , sustained reduction of habitat and invasion of exotic species. At present , some measures have been taken to protect Chinese wild rice , such as in situ conservation (on-site maintenance) and ex situ conservation (off-site maintenance) . Ex situ conservation includes seed-preserved genebank ,whole plant-preserved field genebank and callus-conserved cryopreservation. Chinese wild rice species possess many excellent characteristics , such as extreme cold-tolerance , high resistance to diseases and pests , good quality and high content of protein , senescence-tolerance of functional leaves , strong regenerating capability , good quality of lush growth , good growing dominance , which have been widely used in conventional rice breeding and hybrid rice breeding , and huge social and economic benefits have been achieved. Rapid progress has been made in biotechnology of Chinese wild rice , especially in anther culture , protoplast culture , somatic cell hybridization and gene transfer. It can be expected that Chinese wild rice resources will play more and more important role in rice breeding.

Priority setting for biodiversity conservation is a major concern for funding agencies and conservationists. Hot spot analysis and GAP analysis are two kinds of methods for priority setting. Hot spot analysis attempts to protect maximum biodiversity under limited funding supports based on species richness and endemism. GAP analysis was developed as a coarse-filter approach to protect biodiversity , provided an overview of the distribution of terrestrial vertebrates and land cover types , relative to special management areas and land ownership . GAP analysis seeks to identify“gaps”(i.e., vegetation types or species not adequately represented in areas managed for long- term maintenance or natural system) that may be filled through changes in land management practices. This concepts , assumptions , basic steps and applications of hot spot analysis and GAP analysis were discussed in this paper.

This paper discussed the scientific concept of species and the biological nature of species as a natural group. It is high diversity of species that makes it impossible to produce general , applicable and theoretically significant species concepts for all the organisms existing or once existed on the earth. Species communities of composition diversity should have characters which correspond with different biological aspects of individual species , i. e. species diversity should acturally be the biological diversity of species. There are many different methods to measure the degree of species diversity , but the total number of species should be the most explicit and direct one. A lot of studies in the last decade tried to value how many species exist in the world. The origin of species diversity is through speciation , and its loss through species extinction. The model and mechanism of speciation and extinction and the possible causes were briefly discussed. The author strongly argues that there exists a close relationship between biogeographic analysis and species diversity researches. Pattern identification and component analysis on fauna and flora should be an important part of species diversity researches on a relatively large scale.

Gansu Province lies in the interface of Loess plateau , Inner Mongolia plateau and Qingzang plateau in the northwest of China. It has abundant animal andplant resources. An incomplete investigation shows that 924 vertebrate species and subspecies , accounting for 19.01% of 4865 in China , 3867 species of seed plants , accounting for 12.9% of 30000 in China , are distributed in Gansu. Because of environment destruction and over-hunting , plenty of animals and plants have been extinct and many species endangered. Five strategies for sustainable development of animal and plant resources were suggested in this paper : 1) strengthen investigation on resources and research on biodiversity ; 2) improve the ecological consciousness of the people , make special reward and punishment statute and strengthen the education for animal and plant resources protection ; 3) re2 inforce the construction and management of the nature reserves and establish protection funds for all-leveled re2 serves ; 4) utilize soil resources completely according to the condition of Gansn , and 5) protect the habitats of animals and plants.

Shanghai biodiversity information management system (http :/ / www. ibsfu. fudan. edu. cn) , a web database published on Internet , can be retrieved via a browser such as IE or Netscape. The databases available include two organism biodiversity background database : database of birds , database of Amphibia , Reptilia and Mammalia. Five specific biodiversity databases include : database of anti-pollution plants and pollution-indicator plants , database of ornamental plants , database of pests and harmful animals , database of wetland biodiversity. The design and realization of the system was introduced in the present paper. At last , the author put forward some viewpoints about the problems in the construction of biodiversity information system.

GENEPOP is a software package used to analyse data of population genetics. It is able to perform three major tasks , i. e. , exact test for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium , population differentiation and genotypic disequilibrium among pairs of loci , estimation of classical population parameters , such as Fst and other correlations , allele frequencies , etc. , convering the input GENEPOP files to formats used by other programs , like BIOSYS, FSTAT and L INKDOS. It has some advantages over other population genetics software such as BIOSYS in statistics test , data type and input files.