[Objective] The purpose of this paper is to explore carbon density and its allocation in young plantation of Platycladus orientalis at different ages using hilly loess in Ning County of Gansu Province as the study area, with an expectation to provide the theoretical basis for evaluation on the ecological benefit of artificial forest in the hilly Loess Plateau.[Method] P. orientalis plantation at different ages of 7, 10, 12 and 14 years were used for this study. Three sample-plots were set up for every stand age, then samples were individually taken from tree, shrub, herb and litter layers, and soil was sampled at a depth of 0-100 cm in each plot. The carbon contents of plant and soil samples were determined by using elemental analyzer Liqui TOCⅡ, the carbon density and its allocation were analyzed in young plantations of P. orientalis in the hilly Loess Plateau in Gansu Province. [Result] The results showed that the carbon content in different organs of P. orientalis ranged from 447.51 to 513.93 g·kg^-1, with an order of cone > leaf > stem > thick-branch > fine-branch > fine-root > stump > bark > thick-root > large-root > medium-root > small-root. The carbon content of root was the lowest in shrub and herb layers, and the carbon content of un-decomposed layer in litter was higher than that of semi-decomposed layer. Significant difference in carbon content was observed among different layers of the ecology system of P.orientalis plantation at different ages. The carbon content in the soil layer (0-100 cm) ranged from 23.31 to 96.08 g·kg^-1, and increased with the increase of stand age but decreased with the increase of soil depth. The carbon density of the tree layer in the vegetation was higher than that of shrub, herb and litter layers. The carbon density in 0-100 cm soil layer was the largest in the ecosystem, showing significant difference with the increase of age. The carbon densities in the ecosystem of P. orientalis plantation at ages of 7, 10, 12 and 14 years were 37.56, 44.67, 50.87 and 56.34 t·hm^-2, respectively. All the carbon densities in tree, shrub, herb, humus , and soil layer increased with the increase of stand age. [Conclusion] The carbon content of tree layer of P. orientalis plantation showed significant(P<0.05)difference among organs of the trees, but no significant difference was observed for the same organ at different ages(P>0.05). Carbon stocks in different layers of the P. orientalis plantation ecosystems were found in the order of soil>tree>herb>litter>shrub. The carbon density of different layers of P. orientalis plantation increased with the increase of age, and the proportion of carbon distribution of tree, shrub, herb, and litter layers increased while that of soil layer decreased with increase of stand ages.

[Objective] Valuation of forest culture in Miaofeng Mountain was intended to provide an example for valuation of forest culture in other areas of China, and to develop approaches to the quantitative assessment of the cultural value of China's forest. [Method] In order to assess the cultural value of forest in Miaofeng Mountain, interviews were conducted to analyze the recognition of forest culture by using Contingent Valuation Method. Factors influencing the willingness to pay of the respondents were analyzed by using stepwise regression method. [Result] Ancient and famous trees, fables and allusions, and legends of sacred mountains are most popular cultural symbols for the respondents. The respondents comprehended forest culture through a variety of ways, and internet and books were the main approach. Fruit collection in forest was the mostly accepted way of participation in practices related to forest. More than 94% of the respondents agreed that the forest has cultural value. The highest recognition by the respondents was relief of depressed mood as the gained benefit (82.32%), followed by physical exercise (62.20%) and entertainment (45.12%). The willingness to pay for the forest culture in Miaofeng Mountain was 100 RMB per capita, and the most important influencing factor was the annual income of individuals, followed by approbation to forest cultural value and educational background of the respondents. Worries about the transparency of the uses of paid fees was the most important reason for rejecting pay. Most respondents (53.05%) expressed willingness to pay for producing arts associated with the Miaofeng forest culture, and donation was the most acceptable way of payment by respondents. [Conclusion] A variety of deviations in understanding, mental account, pattern of payment and starting point of bidding, may cause errors in the contingent valuation. Even as a preliminary estimate, the methods and conclusion in this study could be used to provide the basis for management decisions associated with construction and protection for forest culture. In addition, the key to enhance the forest cultural value was how to improve people's perception of forest culture and degree of participation. Along with the deepening of understanding of forest functions and the changing relationship between human and forest, the connotation of the forest culture was expanded. How to accurately assess the value of the forest culture is a viable and hot issue worldwide and needs to be further studied.

[Objective] Primary photochemical reactions in leaves of Sabina vulgaris seedlings cultured in iron tailings media under various shading conditions were studied to reveal its light protection mechanism, theoretically explain its natural regeneration process, further understand the light stress on S. vulgaris, and finally to be served for the afforestation management in iron tailings wastelands. [Method] The medium taken from the iron tailings of Qianan was used for potting experiments. The fast chlorophyll fluorescence induction dynamics and the JIP-test analysis method were used to detect 8 fluorescence parameters of the leaves under 5 different treatments including 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 90% in shading. [Results] 1) Under full light conditions, Fo increased, Fm decreased, and the quantum yield and the energy distribution ratio (φ_Po, Ψ_o and φ_Eo), specific activity parameters of photosynthetic apparatus in unit area (F_m, ET_o/CS_m, TR_o/CS_m ) and the density of reaction center (RC/CS_m ) were minimum. There were significant or extremely significant differences in the above parameters among the all treatments. The result indicated that the reaction center of photosynthetic system was inactive under full light conditions, but the K and J points of the fast chlorophyll fluorescence induction dynamics curve were higher than those obtained from other shading treatments. The photoinhibition resulted in to a certain degree damages on donor side of PSII (OEC), caused the accumulation of acceptor side of PSII (Q_A^-), and hindered electrons transportation in its electron transport chain. 2) Under full light conditions, φ_Do, F_o and DI_o/CS_m were maximum, and significantly or extremely significantly different from those of shading treatments, suggesting that the photosynthetic apparatus could be protected from damage of excessive solar energy by increasing the heat dissipation through antenna pigments and the dissipation of non radiation energy. 3) With shading ratio increasing, yields or flux ratios (φ_Po, Ψ_o and φ_Eo), phenomenological energy fluxes (ABS/CS_m, ET_o/CS_m and TR_o/CS_m) and the density of reaction centers (RC/CS_m) increased in turn, while absorption flux per CS (ABS/CS_o), quantum yield for energy dissipation (φ_Do) and dissipated energy flux per CS (DI_o/CS_m) decreased. The treatment with 90% shading exhibited the significant light capture characteristic. The average values of F_m and PI_ABS from 50% shading were maximum, suggesting the minimum photoinhibition and maximum photosynthetic capacity of leaves in the shading conditions. There were no significant differences in the other parameters among the diffenrent shading treatments. All the shading treatments did not cause any damages to the acceptor side or the donor side of PSII of S. vulgaris seedlings. [Conclusion] S. vulgaris seedlings were susceptible to light stress without any shading. Therefore, S. cheilophila shrub was selected as nurse plants for the initial stage of natural restoration of S. vulgaris. With growth and development, S. vulgaris gradually achieves its defensive mechanism against photoinhibition through enhancing non radiation energy dissipation, and facilitates the seedlings to well grow under full light conditions without any shading protection. However in in wastelands, some shading treatments were needed in the primary period of afforestation for the higher survival rate.

[Objective] [Objective] This research was carried out to investigate the photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics and explore the response mechanism in terms of photosynthetic physiology of Nitraria tangutorum under different rain addition treatments. [Method] Field plots were set and a typical desert plant, Nitraria tangutorum, was used as the research object at the eastern margin of the Ulanbuh Desert. The species were subjected to five water regimes by adding extra rainfall (increased 0, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the local mean annual precipitation, respectively). A Li-6400xt portable photosynthesis measurement system was used to determine the dynamic changes of net photosynthetic rate, the light and CO₂ response curve, and the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Total daily photosynthesis and photosynthetic parameter were calculated according to the net photosynthetic rate daily dynamic curve, the light response curve and the CO₂ response curve under five rain addition treatments. [Result] 1) Average and total daily photosynthesis increased significantly under 75% and 100% rain addition treatments. The average daily photosynthesis of N. tangutorum treated with 75% and 100% rain addition was higher than those in control by 32.74% and 37.64%, respectively. The total daily photosynthesis of N. tangutorum with 75% and 100% rain addition was higher than those in control by 32.01% and 38.43%, respectively. The results indicated that photosynthetic capacity and daily photosynthesis accumulation were enhanced after rain addition. 2) With the increase of precipitation, apparent quantum yields (AQY) and light saturation points (LSP) increased gradually. AQY under 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% rain additions were 17.24%, 31.03%, 37.93% and 24.14% higher than control, respectively, and the corresponding LSP increased by 14.6%, 6.0%, 3.0% and 26.1%. These results suggested that rain additions promoted the capacity of utilizing optical energy at low light levels, the utilization of bright light, and conversion efficiency of light energy of N. tangutorum, which would improve the efficiency of photosynthesis. 3) With the increasing of precipitation, carboxylation efficiency (CE) increased gradually. The CE under 100% rain addition was significantly higher than control and the increment rate was 5.73%. The CO₂ saturation points (CSP) were greater in watered plots than in control plots. The CSPs in 50%, 75% and 100% rain additions were approximately 30.31%, 26.56%, and 50.94% higher than control, respectively. These results suggested that rain addition enhanced the activities of photosynthetic carbon cycle enzymes and increased utilization amplitude of high carbon dioxide concentration for the desert plant. 4) Rain addition led to the increase of primary photochemical quantum efficiency (F_v/F_m), PSⅡquantum yield (Ф_PSⅡ), electron transport rate (ETR) and photochemical quenching (q_P) of N. tangutorum. The results indicated that rain addition was conducive to increase the activity and opened proportion of PSⅡ reaction center, which should be beneficial to transform the captured light energy into biochemical energy for N. tangutorum leaves and make more energy used to promote photosynthetic electron transport.[Conclusion] Thus, under global change scenario, N. tangutorum would mediate the function of photosynthetic apparatus, change the physiological characteristics and enhance the ability of utilization environmental resources to adapt to precipitation pattern variation in the future.

[Objective] The sub-irrigation is an effective irrigation method whereby water is moved upward into the growing medium by capillary action, in which water is allowed to be reused through a closed-circuit loop. This method can avoid nutrient leaching loss and whereby reduce environmental contamination and financial cost while producing high quality seedlings. Plant roots, as an important organs absorbing water and nutrients and synthesizing materials, have a direct influence on plant aboveground. However, the study on effects on container seedling cultivation technology with sub-irrigation is less in China. This study aims at finding the best combination treatments of irrigation and fertilization for the growth of Larix principis-rupprechtii container seedlings with sub-irrigation. [Method] In this study, L. principis-rupprechtii, an important forestation species in northern China, was used as the experimental material to study the effects of the sub-irrigation with different water and fertilizer supplies on morphological and physiological indexes of the containerized seedlings, and on pH and EC values of media by setting five irrigation gradients and three fertilization concentrations. The effects of the sub-irrigation with different water and fertilizer supplies on growth, media pH and EC values of containerized L. principis-rupprechtii seedlings were analyzed to determine the best combination treatment of irrigation and fertilization. [Result] The seedling biomass and root morphological index increased and then decreased with the increase of irrigation water gradient and fertilization amount. The root shoot ratio gradually decreased with the moisture gradient increase, and first increased and then decreased with the increase of fertilizer. The results showed that watering with 75% of the field saturated water holding capacity and fertilizing with 100 mg slow release fertilizer (N:P:K=13:13:13) per plant were the best combination in improving the development of containerized L. principis-rupprechtii seedlings. The average seedling biomass reached 0.64 g per plant, the total root length, root surface area and root volume in this watering and fertilizing pattern reached maximum value, and the proportion of fine roots (0.0<D≤0.5 mm) was 82% (length), 62% (surface area), 46% (volume), respectively. The media pH was between 5.5-6.5, and the media EC was between 0.75-2.0 ms·cm^-1, which all was suitable for seedling growth. [Conclusion] Compared with the overhead irrigation method, the sub-irrigation was an more effective way to improve the quality of seedlings. Through comprehensive analysis, it was concluded that the A2B3 treatment had the best effect on L. principis-rupprechtii container seedling growth. This study would provide a theoretical basis for applying the sub-irrigation in the container seedlings cultivation.

[Objective] Analysis was made based on the cause of increase in electrolyte leakage from plant cells during tissue dehydration, on the relationships between the changes in the permeability of cell membrane and high oxygen stress, as well as on the ratio of cell dehydration and cell electrolyte leakage in terms of the irreversible thermodynamics, in order to investigate if there would be any link between the permeability of cell membrane and the dehydration induced injury during tissue dehydration. [Method] The water relations of leaves in Vitex trifolia. var. simplicifolia Cham was measured according to the P-V curve with a pressure bomb, and the expressed cell sap between different pressure range was collected and analysed for potassium and sodium content with an atomic spectrophotometer, thus yielding the changes in cell permeability during cell dehydration. [Results] The results showed that along with the progression in cell dehydration and high oxygen stresses, the cumulative ion content in the expressed xylem sap increased steadily, but the rate of ion accumulation in the expressed xylem sap decreased with the increase in cell dehydration and high oxygen stresses. Similarly, the cumulative ion content in the expressed xylem sap also increased steadily against the pressure increase. This implies that the progression in cell dehydration and high oxygen stresses did not result in the increase in the permeability of the cell membrane to ions. The cumulative amount of sodium and potassium ions in the expressed xylem sap increased almost linearly with the increase in the pressure, meaning that the permeability of the cell membrane was not obvious altered by the high oxygen pressure. A biphasic linear curve with different slops was observed between the cumulative ion content and the cumulative volume of the expressed xylem sap. The first was a faster phase of ion content increase in the lower pressure region, followed by a slower phase of ion content increase in the higher pressure region. The former may have represented the xylem sap from the root with a higher ion concentration, and the latter may have represented the sap expressed from the leaf cells ultrafiltrated by the cell membrane with a lower ion concentration. [Conclusions] In the experimented pressure range, neither the progression of cell dehydration, nor the great increase in the partial pressure of oxygen (as high as 25 times the partial pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere), resulted in the increase in the permeability of the cells to either sodium or potassium ions. The results showed that the permeability of the cell membrane was relatively stable. Therefore it is suggested that more caution must be taken in drawing the conclusions that dehydration results in the increase in the permeability of the cell membrane, when just the relative conductivity method was used without other evidences.

[Objective] This study aims to get insight of the systematic position of Glyptostrobus pensilis and to explore developmental abnormalities of seeds of this species based on its reproductive developmental anatomy. Further to enrich and complement the current understanding of G. pensilis in reproductive biology and to provide a theoretical basis for designing conservation strategies for this species.[Method] During the period of three years from September, 2011 to September, 2013, we observed morphological changes from cone buds emergence to seed cones formation and internal changes during megasporogenesis, gametophyte development, and embryogenesis using paraffin-embedded-sectioning and hematoxylin-staining. [Result] From September to November, the bud scales differentiated into young ovulate cones, and ovulate cones developed from December to May of following year. Fertilization took place in June. The proembryony development was from late June to July; early embryo development was during August; mature embryo development was during September. The meiotic division of the megasporocyte produced four megaspores in a linear tetrad formation. The three megaspores near the micropyle disintegrated, while the megaspore near the chalaza developed into a functional megaspore. The archegonia complex consisting of 6 to 17 archegonia covered by a layer of jacket cells with two nucleuses, were positioned terminally or few laterally. The layer of jacket cells had obvious polarity distribution. The central cell did not divide to form the egg nucleus and ventral canal nucleus. Instead, the central cell directly developed into a mature egg cell. The sperm cell enters archegonium without damage to the neck cells. The fertilization mainly occurred in the center, and occasionally upper or lower part of the archegonium. During the sperm-egg fusion process, the nucleolus of sperm nucleus broken down and gradually disappeared, then become apparent after fused with the egg nucleus. The zygote gradually moved to the bottom of the archegonia, and undergoing mitosis to form proembryony free nuclei. The fertilization is the type of pre-mitotic syngamy. The proembryony belongs to the standard type of coniferales, and has simple polyembyrony pattern. The proembryony only developed into the prosuspensor but not formed the primary suspensor. It has been observed that severe insufficient pollination during fertilization.[Conclusion] The gametophyte development and embryogenesis in G. pensilis, such as number of free nuclei of megagametophyte, archegonia and neck cells, the type and position of archegonia, development process of central cell and proembryony, were quite similar to genera Taiwania, Metasequoia, Cryptomeria, Taxodium, reflecting a closer taxonomic relationship to these genera than to genus Cunninghamia. Insufficient pollination might be an important cause for ‘empty seeds' in G. pensilis.

[Objective] Stress is one of the main factors affecting growth, development and formation of biological production and quality of plant. As non-coding genes, miRNAs play important roles in regulating plant growth and the processes of stress resistance. To reveal the function of miR397 and miR1432 in bamboo and provide a basis for molecular design of bamboo resilience breeding in future, the structural features of miR397 and miR1432 precursor sequences from Phyllostachys edulis were analyzed, the tissue-specific expression analysis as well as the expression changes of miR397 and miR1432 under abiotic stresses of drought, temperature, light, NaCl and hormone treatment were carried out.[Method] The precursor sequences of miR397 and miR1432 of P. edulis were isolated using stem-loop primer method and RT-PCR technology, online platform Web LOGO was used for the conservation analysis of mature miRNA. MEGA 6.0 software was used for the construction of phylogenetic tree with miRNA precursor sequences. The secondary structure of the two precursors was predicted with the online platform RNAfold WebServer. The sequences of 1500 bp upstream of the precursor of phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432 were direct-downloaded respectively from BambooGDB and acting elements analysis was performed using online platform Plant CARE. Real-time quantitative PCR method was used for the tissue-specific expression analysis of phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432 in bamboo roots, stems, leaves and sheaths, and the expression changes in bamboo leaf after 2 h treatments of darkness, high light intensity (1 500 μmol·m^-2s^-1), high temperature (42 ℃), low temperature (4 ℃), NaCl (250 mmol·L^-1), GA₃ solution (100 μmol·L^-1) and ABA solution (100 μmol·L^-1) respectively.[Result] The isolated precursor sequences of phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432 were all 88 bp, containing 21 bp mature sequences correspondingly. The precursors of phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432 could fold into stable stem-loop structure, and the mature sequences were generated at 5' end of the arm in the stem-loop structure respectively. Overall, the nucleotide conservative in mature sequence of miR1432 family was higher than that of miR397 family. Both are containing the essential elements of promoter, such as TATA-box and CAAT-box, in the regulatory region of the upstream precursors of phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432. At the same time, many stress (light, drought, temperature, etc.) related response elements and hormone-responsive elements were found, indicating phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432 may be regulated by stress and hormone. Both phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432 expressed in leaf sheath with the highest level, while the lowest in young stem for phe-miR397 and in leaf for phe-miR1432. The expression of phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432 in leaf were all down-regulated after 2 h with the treatments of high light intensity , darkness, 42 ℃, 4 ℃ and NaCl. The expression of phe-miR397 was down-regulated under drought treatment as well as ABA, while that of phe-miR1432 was up-regulated. The expression of phe-miR397 was up-regulated and phe-miR1432 was down-regulated for GA₃ treatment.[Conclusion] As two conservative miRNAs in bamboo, the expression of phe-miR397 and phe-miR1432 were either up- or down-regulated under the stress treatments of light, temperature, drought and NaCl, as well as ABA and GA₃ treatments, indicating that they might play important regulatory roles in respond to abiotic stress resilience in bamboo, which were also associated with the regulation of endogenous hormones.

[Objective] The aim of the present study was to elucidate the genetic diversity and relationship among the germplasm accessions of Diospyros kaki in Henan province, meanwhile to identify the germplasms especially those of synonyms and homonyms. [Method] The genetic diversity among 102 germplasms including 93 accessions of D. kaki (18 major cultivars, 55 local varieties and 20 wild persimmons) originating from different areas in Henan and nine materials used as control which belong to five relative species i.e., D. lotus, D. oleifera, D. glaucifolia, D. virginiana and Jinzaoshi (D. spp.), and D. kaki var. sylvestris were analyzed based on the polymorphic SSR (simple sequence repeat) primers selected from those developed for Diospyros in previous reports. [Result] A total of 159 polymorphic DNA fragments i.e., bands, were obtained from the analysis of genetic variation among all 102 accessions by 17 pairs of SSR primers with an average of 9.35 bands per pair of primers ranging from 5 (8125/DC592401) to 14 (ssrDK11/DQ097479 and ssrDK14/DQ097482). The number of band patterns was 508 in total with an average of 29.88 per pair of primers ranging from 8 (5553/DC585710) to 53 (ssrDK11/DQ097479). The total number of unique band patterns was 267 with an average of 15.71 per pair of primers ranging from 2 (5553/DC585710) to 37 (ssrDK11/DQ097479). The rate of unique band patterns ranged from 73.68% to 25.00% and the rate of germplasm identified ranged from 1.96% to 36.27%. The average value of polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.839 7 ranging from 0.466 7 to 0.964 7 and the average Shannon's information index (I) was 2.658 6 ranging from 1.112 1 to 3.596 7. Observed heterozygosity (H_o) ranged from 0.147 1 to 0.960 8 with an average value of 0.777 4. The highest genetic diversity level was found in three loci ssrDK11/DQ097479, ssrDK14/DQ097482 and mDp17/EF567410 by comprehensive comparison. The result obtained from principal coordinate analysis was roughly the same as that from cluster analysis: There were obvious genetic differences among different species. All germplasm accessions of D. kaki were divided into the same group which was clearly different from the samples of other closely related species. Compared with the other related species, the relationship between D. kaki and D. virginiana was relatively distant. All germplasm accessions tested including some homonymous or synonymous cultivars were identified by the 17 loci. [Conclusion] The results in present study revealed high level of genetic diversity among D. kaki germplasm accessions in Henan province with large variations and high heterozygosity. Moreover, the method was proved to be efficient in germplasm identification of D. kaki.

[Objective] By integration the methods of waveform signal processing, spatial information analyzing and re-construction, and the comprehensive information extraction, a novel approach for the inversion of forest stand characteristics, based on the metrics extracted from the small-footprint full-waveform LiDAR data, was explored in this research.[Method] The subtropical secondary forests in the hilly area of southern Jiangsu were set as a research objective, and based on the pre-processing and analysis of small-footprint full-waveform LiDAR data, the voxel spatial framework was firstly decomposed and the waveform amplitude information was extracted to form a pseudo-vertical waveform model; then, the spatial location and geometric variables were extracted to calculated the point-cloud and waveform based metrics, following by an analysis of correlations for selecting metrics; finally, the inversion models were built by coupling the field-measured forest stand characteristics and validated for accuracy. [Result] 1) For all the LiDAR metrics, Lorey's tree height has the highest sensitivity, following by the volume and above-ground biomass. The basal area has the lowest sensitivity. Whereas, the total return amplitude and the number of peaks have a higher sensitivity of basal area than other metrics. In the group of point-cloud metrics, mean height, height percentiles and upper canopy return point cloud density have a relatively higher correlation with each forest stand characteristic than other metrics; whereas in the group of waveform metrics, the average of medium energy, the standard deviation of return waveform width and the canopy roughness have a high relationship with the forest stand characteristics. 2) Lorey's tree height has the highest estimation accuracy (RMSE=7.26% of the mean of field-measured value), whereas volume, above-ground biomass and basal area have a relatively similar low accuracy (RMSE=15.91%-19.82% of the mean of field-measured value). The number of independent variables was less than 3, and the selected metrics were height percentiles, canopy return point-cloud density, return waveform width and the canopy roughness. 3) The fitted results of the field-measured forest stand characteristics and the cross-validated estimated values showed that Lorey's tree height fitted best (R²=0.85), followed by above-ground biomass (R²=0.68) and volume (R²=0.59), whereas basal area has the lowest R²=0.45. 4) Lorey's tree height, volume and above-ground biomass have a similar spatial distribution, which may be attributed to their inner correlations. Compared with other 3 metrics, the spatial distribution of basal area appeared discontinuous, which may be resulted from the low prediction accuracy.[Conclusion] The results and accuracies of the fitted combo regression model of each forest stand characteristic were better and higher than the point-cloud metrics based models, demonstrated that waveform metrics has a potential to extract the information of the medium and lower level of forest stands. The point-cloud metrics described the forest canopy and the upper 3-D structure and density information, whereas the waveform metrics acquired the canopy and the complete vertical distribution and energy information of the lower part forest. The combination of them enhances the inversion accuracy of the forest stand characteristics.

[Objective] To provide references for the further study of feeding habits of workers and the exploitation of baiting techniques, we investigated the foraging behavior of Odontotermes formosanus (Shiraki) workers to the Pinus massoniana wood powder and the wood powder infected by Gloeophyllum trabeum and the attractive activity of the P. massoniana wood powder infected by G. trabeum to workers. [Method] A feeding device of O. formosanus was constructed by using Y-tube olfactometer as the main part and then foraging behavior of workers was observed. The selective preference of workers to the different wood powder was observed by using Y-tube olfactometer. [Result] The foraging behavior of the workers mainly consists of olfactory reception, exploration and identification of the food, and recruiting other foragers in the feeding device of Y-tube olfactometer. The foraging behavior to the pine wood powder with or without infection by G. trabeum was quite similar, but there were some differences in the time of different behavior processes. The workers appearance, access to the food, and mud shelter appearance in the arm of the pine wood powder were later than those in the arm of the wood powder infected by G. trabeum. The feeding behavior of workers collected from different host trees was ranked in responses as the following order: workers from Liriodendron chinense× L. tulipifera > those from Cinnamomum camphora > those from Metasequoia glyptostroboides. The foragers from different host trees all had two rush hours during the course of foraging in the arm filled with the pine wood powder infected by G. trabeum, but there were some differences in the timing of rush hour. The feeding activity of workers collected from L. chinense × L. tulipifera forest peaked at 0.5-1.5 h and 11.5 h, the workers from C. camphora at 3.5-5.5 h and 12.5 h, and the workers from M. glyptostroboides feed food only at 0.5-5.5 h and 10.5-13.5 h. By contrast, there was no peak in the feeding process of workers to the pine wood powder. The number of foragers visiting the pine wood powder infested by G. trabeum was much more than that visiting the pine wood powder. The selective preferences of workers between the pine wood powder and the wood powder infected by G. trabeum were compared. The workers from different forests all had strong preference to the pine powder infected by G. trabeum. [Conclusion] The studies on the foraging behavior demonstrated that the olfactory sensation played an important role in foraging process of O. formosanus or other cryptic foraging termites. The feeding memory of workers affected foraging behavior, but the degree of performance varied with the original food. The experimental results of termite selection preferences showed that the pine wood powder infested by G. trabeum was of obvious attractive activity to the foraging workers. In other words, there would exist some attractive activity substances in the pine wood powder infested by G. trabeum. The chemical composition of attractive activity substance and the olfactory recept mechanism of workers may be an interesting topic for further research.

[Objective] It is crucial for detection of the pine wood nematode (PWN) to develop a rapid and economic method of DNA extraction from the infested wood samples by Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. This study aims at developing a method for rapidly extracting DNA of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus from the infested pine wood.[Method] In this study, a new method was developed to directly extract the nematode DNA from the infested wood chips by using Chelex-100 combined with alkaline guanidine thiocyanate. The extracted DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). [Result] The Chelex-100 was used to extract the nematode DNA and the factors, including Chelex-100 concentration, freezing and boiling time, affecting the extraction efficiency were optimized. The result showed that the optimum Chelex-100 final concentration was 1.5% (W/V), the optimum thawing time was 5 min, and the optimum boiling time was 8 min. The DNA concentration extracted by the Chelex-100 method was significantly higher than that extracted by CTAB and Proteinase K method under the same condition. The ratios of OD_260/280 of the three methods was in a descending order of CTAB method > Proteinase K ≥Chelex-100 method. The OD_260/280 value of extraction with Chelex-100 method was significantly lower than that with the CTAB method, but slightly lower than, or equal to that with the Proteinase K method, however the low OD_260/280 value did not affect the extracted DNA used for PCR amplification. The electrophoresis strip of the specific PCR amplification of the 75×32 times dilution of the nematode DNA extracted by Chelex-100 method was still clear. The results of PCR and LAMP indicated that the detection of PWN using the Chelex-100-extracted-DNA was sensitive, specific, and stable. With the method the entire infested wood samples by PWN were detected positive, however, the healthy pine samples, including Pinus thunbergii, P. massoniana, P. tabuliformis and Pestalotiopsis microspore, were detected negative. Furthermore, the new method is simple and rapid, with which only 20 minutes are needed without any other special requirements, and the cost was only 3.5 yuan per sample.[Conclusion] The Chelex-100 method is a rapid and valuable method for DNA extraction from PWN-infested wood samples, it can further improve the efficiency, sensitivity and accuracy of the PWN detection together with PCR and LAMP techniques for PWN detection under field conditions.

[Objective] Lignocellulose is an important renewable resource in the world, and white-rot fungi have special advantages in degradation of this resource. We studied the biological characteristics, enzymatic activity and genetic diversity of fungi, and analyzed systematically the relationship between woody cellulase expression and the related gene polymorphism, in order to provide a theoretical basis of breeding and molecular mechanisms of white-rot fungi. [Method] Three white-rot fungi, Trametes versicolor, Phellinus igniarius and Ganoderma tsugae, were used to study the growth rate in solid medium under different culture conditions and the biomass in liquid medium. Colorimetric methods were used to measure activities of five kinds of cellulose enzymes, and the target region amplification polymorphism (TRAP) was applied to analyze polymorphisms of three kinds of lignocellulose-degrading enzyme genes. [Result] The results showed that growth rate of the three white-rot fungi was successively Trametes versicolor > Phellinus igniarius > Ganoderma tsugae at different temperatures (23°C and 28°C) on the PDA medium. The growth rate of Trametes versicolor and Phellinus igniarius was higher at 28°C than at 23°C, while this was inverse for Ganoderma tsugae. The biomass of Trametes versicolor in the liquid medium was highest among the three fungi. Spectrophotometry was used to detect the activities of the five ligocellulose enzymes produced by three fungi. Sawdust could markedly increase ligninase activities, however cellulose activity induced by maize straw was higher than that by sawdust as carbon source. The activity of laccase was highest in all the three ligninases, manganese peroxidase was the second and lignin peroxidase was the last. There was no significant difference in the cellulases activities among the three fungi, but exo-cellulase was significantly higher than endo-cellulase. Trametes versicolor had the highest ligninase activity, and the others produced higher cellulase activity. In addition, a total of 109 bands were amplified by 6 primers related to ligninase gene, including 79 polymorphic bands, and the polymorphism ratio was 71.34%. With 11 primers related to cellulase gene, 198 fragments were obtained, of which 140 were polymorphic bands (70.70%). [Conclusion] There existed relatively high genetic differences among these three kinds of white-rot fungi using the detection of growth rate, biomass, enzyme activities and molecular marker. The values of enzyme activities had no corresponding relationship with enzyme gene polymorphism. However, cellulose activities were consistent among fungi, and the same in gene polymorphism. These results would be helpful for the study on mechanism of wood decayed by white-rot fungi.

Pine wood nematodes damage pine forest resources and cause seriously economic losses. The disease transmission and spread are closely related to climate change. This study analyzed and predicted the suitable scope of pine wood nematodes with climate simulation and geographic information system, which is of great significance for prediction of epidemic disaster in different regions, accurate risk assessment of the harm in China, and provides scientific theory basis for its quarantine and control. Based on the MIROC_RegCM model, 130 years (1971-2100) climate data in China were simulated under the global climate change scenario A1B. According to the thresholds of six key weather and natural geographical factors which play predominant roles in constraint of pine wilt disease distribution, 11 geographic patterns of potential distribution region of pine wilt disease in China were generated by means of comprehensive assessment of data with fuzzy mathematics, geographical information system (GIS) and geostatistics. During the period of 1971-2100, the extremely suitable area increases from 148.17 to 243.08 ten thousands km², the suitable area has increased from 72.16 to 189.00 ten thousands km², and the unsuitable area and very unsuitable area reduce from 165.14 to 110.13 ten thousands km² and from 498.89 to 287.33 ten thousands km², respectively. There is a trend that the potential suitable distribution area of pine wood nematode is mainly concentrated in the south of the north latitude 37°. With the further climate change at large scale, potential distribution are suitable to pine wood nematode would expand to north and west; mildly suitable area would expand to the north latitude 43°, such as central Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Hebei, Qinghai, and Gansu; The edge distribution area would extend to the north latitude 46°, such as the north of Xinjiang, northeast of Inner Mongolia, and the south of Jilin. However the north of Jilin, Heilongjiang, large parts of Tibet are too cold and drought to be suitable to pine wood nematode.

[Objective] The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of wood shear fracture, fracture orientation and shear fracture fractal curves, and calculate the fractal dimension of the shear fracture; The shear strength of the test timbers were measured, using linear regression analysis, the relationship of transverse/longitudinal shear strength of test timbers and fractal dimension were also discussed. [Method] Five tree species distributed in Heilongjiang Province, those are: Abies holophylla, Populus alba, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica, Betula platyphylla and Tilia amurensis were selected as testing materials. Shear strength testing specimens were produced according to the sizes requirements of raw wooden material during the production of fiberboard and GB/T 7909—1999 paper chips and the sawing-testing methods of GB/T 1929—2009 physical and mechanical wood samples. Fracture morphology of wood, fracture fractal curves were gathered and the forces required to break test timbers were measured by shearing fracture of the testing specimens on mechanical testing bench. [Result] When specimens were sheared in the transverse directions: A varying fracture surface was exhibited regardless of the specimen softened or not. Unsoften-softwoods were fractured with bigger curves, hardwood specimens were fractured with flatter curves and the fracture surface were more smooth; Soften-softwood were fractured with small curves while hardwood were fractured with largish curves with avulsion in some samples. When specimens were sheared in the longitudinal direction in softened conditions: they were fractured in rectilinear line in shear directions; No obvious differences in fracture characteristics between softwood and hardwood were found. The fractal curve of transverse sheering fractures were showed the shape of serration or zigzag, fractal curves of soften-specimens were more complicated than that of the unsoftened. The longitudinal shear fractal curves of soften-samples were less complicated than that of the transverse shear fractal curves, regardless of softened or not. The fractal dimensions on the shear fracture of the testing samples for five wood species were 2.047-2.133. The transverse shear strength of soften-samples was the lowest while the longitudinal shear strength of soften-samples was still enormously stronger than that of unsoften-samples.[Conclusion] The transverse shearing soften-samples were generally shown curved fracture while linear fractures emerge along fiber direction. When soften-samples were sheared in longitudinal direction, linear fracture was presented with flatter curves or fractured in a near-gradient straight line. The fractal curves of transverse and longitudinal fracture in softened situation were more complicated with the shape of serration or zigzag. The fracture structure had irregular self-similarity and it was more complicated for the soften-samples compared to the unsoften-samples. The longitudinal fractal curves of soften-samples were simpler than that of transverse fracture, no matter softened or not. No significant correlation was found between longitudinal shear strength of soften-samples and fracture fractal dimension. While it revealed a linear correlation between the transverse shear strength and the fractal dimensions. Transverse shear strength was the lowest for soften-samples. It was suggested to soften the timber before grinding dissociation chips with transverse shearing in order to minimize energy consumption.

[Objective] Wood as well as wooden decorative materials produced by dyeing or/and color modulation are easy to be discoloration and degradation when exposed to light radiation. These will decrease its decorative effect and shorten the service life. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of acetylation treatment on light fastness and thermal stability of plantation wood, and provide a theoretical basis for wood color regulation technology and the development of high light stability dyed wood. [Method] The Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica wood powder was reacted with acetic anhydride and xylene solution under the temperature of 120 ℃ for 5, 10, 20, 40 and 60 min, respectively. The effect of acetylating time on weight gain rate of wood powder was tested. One gram untreated wood powder and wood powder treated by different acetylating time, respectively, were irradiated in a UV light source accelerated aging tester for 100 h. Then, the changes of chemical functional groups, thermal stability and morphology for the acetylated wood powder before and after UV radiation were characterized by FTIR, TGA and SEM.[Result] The weight gain rate of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica wood powder was increased firstly and then reduced as the time of acetylation reaction prolonged and reached the maximum at acetylating 40 min. The characteristic absorption peak intensity of acetylated wood powder at 1 741 cm^-1 and 1 385 cm^-1, respectively, standing for C O and C—H was greater than those of the control, and reached the maximum at acetylating 40 min. After UV irradiation, the characteristic absorption peak intensity at 1 508 cm^-1 for lignin benzene ring of acetylated wood powder was significantly higher than that of the control, and also reached the maximum at 40 min acetylation, indicating that acetylation treatment effectively enhanced the light fastness of wood powder. TGA result showed that the thermal stability of acetylated wood powder was improved due to the temperature of thermal decomposition increased significantly. SEM images showed that acetylation treatment can enhance the ability of wood powder's microscopic structure to resist photo-degradation.[Conclusion] Acetylation treatment is an effective method to inhibit the photo-degradation of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica wood and increases its thermal stability.

[Objective] Forestry production factors such as the woodland forest property enter the market and improve the land utilization through forest property circulation, which push forestry sustained, rapid and healthy development, and meet the various forestry needs of national economy and social benefit. Forest property orderly circulation is inseparable from the rights and responsibilities of participation subjects in forest property circulation. It has already restricted the further development of forest property circulation for lacking of relevant provisions in existing legislation. Dividing and restricting the responsibilities of participant form the overall strength and close collaboration and cooperation among the competent forestry authorities, parties and the service department, for the purpose of promoting forest property circulation having a healthy and steady development in China, and protecting the function of forestry ecology. [Method] Forest property is a property attribute among the equal subjects while the rights of forest property or woodland are exchanged among citizens, legal persons and other organizations, which follow the autonomy, the honest credit principle and even bargain, thus both trade parties of forest property circulation are civil subjects, including the transferor and the transferee, whose rights should be defined from the perspective of civil law. It is public welfare to make the government's role become indispensable in forest right transfer, therefore, the competent forestry authorities ought to act as the administrative management subjects, and their functions should be conducted under the public law. Centers for forest property exchange are the service principals, who are temporarily guided by governments, but in the future they may turn to market intermediaries with the nature of civil law, and provide comprehensive transaction service platform. [Result] The transferors enjoy the right of transferring autonomy, the right of proceeds, the right of supervision on transferee management according to law, and the rights of recovering the forest right management when the time limit expires; the transferees enjoy the right of management autonomy, the right of disposing the operation rights, the right of compensation on the termination of the contract. In the circulation behavior management, the government takes the task of formulation market rules of forest right circulation, maintaining the market order, and promoting fair competition. The forestry departments shall also undertake these functions, which comprise guiding forest property circulation, constraining illegal behavior of forest property circulation, providing supporting services for forest property circulation, confirmation of the right and mediating the forest rights disputes. Centers for forest property exchange assume the functions which include providing intermediary trading platform for forest property circulation, supplying a service platform for forestry financial, furnishing follow-up services for mortgage, insurance and other woodland forest circulation, offering assessment for the forest resources assets and providing forest right registration service for the parties of transaction. [Conclusion] In order to realize the function of forest property circulation, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship of responsibilities among the parties, the competent forestry authorities and service department, mobilize the enthusiasm of the forest property circulation parties, free management right, implement the right of disposal, and ensure usufruct; the competent forestry authorities should play a leading role to supervise, guide, management, security, and maintain market order, and protect the legitimate interests of parties; centers for forest property exchange should play a service part to built a service platform on intermediary transactions, financial services, assets evaluation and registration for forest property circulation.

[Objective] Growth of trees is strongly influenced by climatic factors. The changes of xylem cells of trees record more detailed information compared to the tree-ring widths, and could enrich the present knowledge extracted from the traditional dendroclimatological or dendroecological studies. Our aim is to provide a reference for studying the global change using the characteristics of trees xylem cells. [Method] This paper summarizes the process of xylem formation, the research methods of studying the responses of xylem growth to climatic factors and the effect of climatic change (temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, photoperiod and increasing atmospheric CO₂) on trees cambial activity and xylem growth. [Result] At present, there are two methods to study the response of xylem growth to climatic factors at cell level: pinning and microcoring. Pinning was mainly used to study the response of cambium to injury or records the xylem growth increment of tropical trees, and microcoring can be used to observe the changes of the number of cambium cells in different stages and the xylem formation process. Recent research demonstrated that the formation of xylem went through four stages: cambial reactivation, cell radial enlargement, secondary wall thickening and lignification, the formation of mature xylem cells, and each stage was affected by climatic factors. The changes of xylem growth of trees were significantly correlated with some climatic factors, such as temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, photoperiod and increasing atmospheric CO₂. Temperature mainly affects the cambium activity at early stage of tree growth, and changes the time of reactivation of the cambium, cell division rate and active period. But temperature will not change the sequence of xylem cell differentiation and seasonal growth pattern. Precipitation mainly affects the rate of the cambium cell division, the duration of cambium cell division in the growing season and the tracheid diameter. Inadequate precipitation could reduce the rate of cell division, shorten the time of cell differentiation, and result in a decrease in the duration of cambium activity. Meanwhile, precipitation shortage could inhibit cell stretch, and the lumen diameter become small. Light intensity affects indirectly the activity of cambium cells through affecting photosynthesis. Photoperiod mainly controls the maximum growth rate of xylem cells and the end of growing period. Up to now, no consistent conclusions was reported about the relationship between the growth of xylem cells and the increasing atmospheric CO₂. Some studies suggested that elevated CO₂ concentrations affect the rate of the cell division and cell expansion rather than the secondary cell wall thickening, and result in a significant increase in the width of early wood growth ring. Some experimental evidences also showed that elevated CO₂ concentrations did not cause larger changes of early wood cell structure. Conversely, the width of late wood growth ring increased obviously. [Conclusion] With the development of research theory and technology, the growth characteristics of xylem cells under extreme climate, the growth responses of xylem cells in different tree species to climate change and the comprehensive effect of a variety of climate factors on trees xylem growth will become the main direction of future research.

[Objective] Soil microbial community is a sensitive indicator of changes in soil quality and soil ecosystem. The changes in soil microbe community structure in response to simulated nitrogen deposition were investigated by phospholipids fatty acids (PLFA) biomarkers. This study can be accurate to understand the effects of short-term nitrogen deposition on soil ecosystem, and hence predict the change of soil properties and plant growth. This study aims at providing microbial parameters and indicators for the sustainable management of artificial forest under nitrogen saturation condition, and would have guiding significance for the real-time control and governance of nitrogen deposition. [Method] In May 2013, we established 30 plots of 1 m × 1 m in a hectare of young Chinese fir forest, at the Shanxia forest farm in Fenyi, Jiangxi Province. Nitrogen loadings were designed at 5 levels such as N0, N1, N2, N3 and N4 at the doses of 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 kg N·hm^-2 a^-1, respectively, with 2 nitrogen forms of NH₄⁺-N (I) and NO₃^--N (II). After one year treatment, soil samples were collected with a soil drill. The fatty acid phospholipid was extracted with potassium hydroxide-methyl methanol solution, and assayed by Agilent 6850N with nineteen alkyl acid as internal standard. PLFA pattern was analyzed with the Sherlock MIS4.5 system, before the fatty acid content was converted into the number of nmol·g^-1 dry soil. [Result] A total of 72 PLFAs were detected, and among them the characteristic fatty acids were 36 kinds. The analysis on type and content of the characteristic fatty acids indicated that prokaryotic microorganism was the predominant group in the plot soil treated with all nitrogen treatments. In different nitrogen treatment plots, the range of soil microbial biomass with characteristics of total PLFAs content was 20-44 nmol·g^-1. In deposition of ammonium nitrogen, the amount of total PLFAs, Gram-positive bacterial PLFAs and Gram-negative bacterial PLFAs in the soil were higher compared with control group. The bacterial PLFAs, fungal PLFAs, actinomycete PLFAs and protozoa PLFAs had a same trend under the treatments of ammonium nitrogen. The NH₄⁺-N N4 was the optimal concentration for the growth of microorganisms. In the NH₄⁺-N N2 treatment, the PLFAs of soil microorganisms had the highest quantity and diversity. However, along with the increased rates of nitrate nitrogen deposition, the amount of total PLFAs, Gram-positive bacterial PLFAs and Gram-negative bacterial PLFAs showed a trend that they first increased and then decreased, with the peaks occurred at the NO₃^--N N2 treatment. Bacterial PLFAs had a same trend as actinomycete PLFAs. Moreover, the PLFAs in the NO₃^--N N4 treatment had the highest diversity, while the microbial fatty acids in NO₃^--N N2 treatment had the highest content. According to the Canonical Correlations, ammonium nitrogen in soil was positively correlated with the bacteria and actinomycetes, while nitrate nitrogen and soil moisture were most significantly correlated with bacterial. [Conclusion] When the nitrogen deposition amount was less than 80 kg N·hm^-2 a^-1, both ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen treatments could promote the growth of microorganisms, but the growth rate was different. The nitrogen treatments of the highest ammonium nitrogen concentration and the medium nitrate nitrogen were more conducive to the total soil microorganism growth, whereas treatments with the medium ammonium nitrogen and the highest nitrate nitrogen were more conducive to increase soil microbial diversity. Ammonium nitrogen in soil was correlated with the bacteria and actinomycetes, while the nitrate nitrogen and soil moisture is most significantly correlated with bacterial.

The ‘Xiaguang' is a new variety of Cinnamomum camphora, and it is a variation of the variety of Cinnamomum camphora ‘Yongjin'. The ‘Xiaguang' has red leaves and yellow flowers. The shoot is red when it is young, and turns to pink after semi-lignified, then becomes bright red. The young fruit peel is light yellow, and the pedicel and fruit carpopodium are yellow. The leaves and flowers of this variety are vivid, and the trunks and branches are dazzling, with seasonal changes of the colors. The variety can be used in gardens, courtyards, streets and all around, with high ornamental value and application prospect.

An elite variety ‘Zongqiu' was bred by seedling breeding and clone selection. Its parents are Hippophae rhamnoides subsp. mongolica ‘Chuyi' which was introduced from Russia. ‘Zongqiu' has no or few thorns, average stem fruit yield per individual ranges from 2 to 4 kg at full fruit stage, and fruit yield per unit area can arrive at 6 000 kg·hm^-2.