Standardized regression coefficients of fitness metrics of traits (α) and plasticity of traits (β) under control and shade treatment.

<p>All values are based on genotypic values and fitness was measured as biomass. Benefit of traits and plasticity of traits are indicated via positive regression coefficients.</p

Effect of shade treatment on root biomass (a), shoot biomass (b), total biomass (c), and root/shoot ratio (d) of <i>S</i>. <i>canadensis</i>.

<p>*, ***, indicate significant differences between control and shade treatment at <i>p</i> < 0.05 and <i>p</i> < 0.001, respectively.</p

Effect of shade treatment on the increase rate of the number of leaves (a) and plant height (b) of <i>S</i>. <i>canadensis</i>.

<p>*** indicates a significant difference between control and the shade treatment at <i>p</i> < 0.001.</p

Mean forest area.

<p>Comparison of mean forest area (ha) between 2000 and 2010 across different sampling plots of 100 ha on Hainan Island (Group 1: inside nature reserves, Group 2: in adjacent 10-km unprotected areas, Group 3: in the wider unprotected landscape).</p>a<p>Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test (2-tailed).</p

Effectiveness of Nature Reserve System for Conserving Tropical Forests: A Statistical Evaluation of Hainan Island, China

<div><p>Evaluating the effectiveness of existing nature reserve systems for the conservation of tropical forests is an urgent task to save the remaining biodiversity. Here, we tested the effectiveness of the reserve system on Hainan Island by conducting a three-way comparison of changes in forest area in locations within the reserves, adjacent to the reserves, and far outside of the reserves. We used a general linear model to control for the effects of covariates (historical forest area, elevation, slope, and distance to nearest roads), which may also be correlated with the changes in forest area, to better explain the effectiveness of the reserve system. From 2000 to 2010, the forest area inside Hainan’s nature reserve system showed an increase while adjacent unprotected areas and the wider, unprotected landscape both experienced deforestation. However, the simple inside-outside comparisons may overestimate the protective effect of the reserve system. Most nature reserves (>60%) showed increasing fragmentation. And the risk of rapid deforestation remained high at low elevations, where remaining forests tend to be easily logged and converted to commercial plantations. Future conservation efforts should pay more attention to those sites with less challenging environmental conditions.</p> </div

Responses of the net changes in the growing season atmospheric CO₂ concentrations (abbreviated as ΔCO₂) at Point Barrow, Alaska to climate in 1979–2009.

<p>(A) The relationships between ΔCO₂ and the growing season temperature. (B) The relationships between ΔCO₂ and the growing season precipitation. The dotted lines were produced from linear regressions of ΔCO₂ versus the growing season temperature and precipitation, which are not significant at a level of p<0.05 (p = 0.75 and p = 0.94, respectively). The growing season temperature and precipitation were averaged over the NH north of 30°N.</p

Nature reserve system of Hainan Island.

<p>The nature reserve system, adjacent unprotected areas (surrounding lands within 10 km of the nature reserve boundaries) and wider unprotected landscape (more than 10 km away from the nature reserve boundaries) overlaid with natural forest cover in 2010 and digital elevation model (DEM) of Hainan Island, China.</p

Changes in tropical forests across Hainan Island.

<p>Changes in the area of tropical forests inside nature reserves, in adjacent unprotected areas (within 10 km of nature reserves’ boundaries), and in the wider unprotected landscapes (>10 km from nature reserves’ boundaries) in Hainan, China, from 2000 to 2010.</p

The temperature sensitivity of NDVI over the Northern Hemisphere north of 30°N over the period of 1982–2009.

<p>The error bar represents one standard error of the temperature sensitivity produced from a linear regression of NDVI versus temperature. Annotations of asterisks indicate the significance levels of linear regressions (“**” for p<0.01 and “*” for p<0.05). Wet and dry years are simply defined as years of positive and negative precipitation anomalies, as described in <i>Data and Methods</i>.</p

Reactive Superhydrophobic Surface and Its Photoinduced Disulfide-ene and Thiol-ene (Bio)functionalization

Reactive superhydrophobic surfaces are highly promising for biotechnological, analytical, sensor, or diagnostic applications but are difficult to realize due to their chemical inertness. In this communication, we report on a photoactive, inscribable, nonwettable, and transparent surface (PAINTS), prepared by polycondensation of trichlorovinylsilane to form thin transparent reactive porous nanofilament on a solid substrate. The PAINTS shows superhydrophobicity and can be conveniently functionalized with the photoclick thiol-ene reaction. In addition, we show for the first time that the PAINTS bearing vinyl groups can be easily modified with disulfides under UV irradiation. The effect of superhydrophobicity of PAINTS on the formation of high-resolution surface patterns has been investigated. The developed reactive superhydrophobic coating can find applications for surface biofunctionalization using abundant thiol or disulfide bearing biomolecules, such as peptides, proteins, or antibodies