Otter Why do you like "stacking poop"? Sleeping in seconds may also be a disease? What impact does the melting of the pole ice cap have on humans? Surviving in the highest vegetation zone on the surface, what are the "secret weapons" of the "ice edge plants"?
Gezhilundao·The 19th issue of the Bay Area was recently held at Suyuan School in Huangpu District, Guangzhou. The forum is themed "Natural Kaleidoscope". It invites five guests from the fields of otter protection, ice cap melting, Ice edge belt plants, dinosaur footprints, sleep diseases, etc. to share their stories of exploring mysteries and finding answers in nature.
Zhang Lu: Otters that like "sticks" are the "weather vane" of river ecology
Associate Professor Zhang Lu of the School of Ecology of Sun Yat-sen University is a scientific researcher who studies otters. Why study otters? She said otters are the top predators in freshwater and have an important indicator of the health and integrity of river ecosystems. Although the domestic records of otters have a history of more than two thousand years, few people have studied them and the public does not have much knowledge about them.
There are 13 species of otters all over the world, including Eurasian otter , Asian small-claw otter and river otter . But in life, except for zoos, it is generally difficult for people to have the opportunity to see otters, and river otters have not been discovered for many years. In the last century, otters were hunted in large numbers because of their superior warmth and were once in danger. Although otters are now a secondary key protected animal in my country, serious water pollution and habitat destruction have affected the reproduction and population recovery of otters.
"To protect the otters, you must first understand the living habits and distribution of the otters." Zhang Lu and his team selected the distribution areas of the otters in Sichuan, Tangjiahe in Qinghai, Yushu in Ansai Township, and Shangchuandao in Guangdong, and conducted field sample surveys, collected otter feces, set up infrared camera and laboratory work to confirm the distribution range and population of otters in this area.
team discovered some particularly interesting behaviors of otters through field surveys and infrared camera observations, such as preferring to defecate "stacks" on particularly conspicuous stones to mark territory; the relationship between otters and other species is also very interesting, such as if civets like to eat otter feces, otters and otters and share caves, etc.
Zhang Lu called for, "For the public, rejecting any otter products, protecting the environment and saving water is to contribute to the protection of otters."
Zheng Lei: In the Antarctic, the melting of the ice cap is more serious than imagined.
At present, there are only two ice caps on the earth: the Arctic Greenland ice cap and Antarctic ice cap . " global climate warming causes the ablation of the bipolar ice cap. If the bipolar ice cap completely melts, it will cause the sea level of to rise by 265 meters, which will flood most coastal cities, including Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ." said Zheng Lei, associate professor at the School of Surveying and Mapping Science and Technology of Sun Yat-sen University.
How to monitor the ablation of the ice sheet to achieve an early warning effect? Zheng Lei introduced that one of the efficient observation methods is satellite remote sensing. In 2019, the polar remote sensing team of Sun Yat-sen University promoted the launch of my country's first polar observation small satellite "Ice Road Satellite", and released satellite monitoring data to the world. It is generally believed that the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet mainly flows into the ocean through the bottom melting water, and the effect of surface melting is often neglected. However, in fact, satellite remote sensing is difficult to monitor melting at small scales and changes in melting water inside the ice sheet, and it is impossible to accurately judge the contribution of surface ablation to the stability of the ice sheet.
As a member of China's 38th Antarctic Scientific Expedition Team, Zheng Lei took the Snow Dragon to Antarctica for on-site inspection between November 5, 2021 and April 26, 2022, and found that the melting of the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet cannot be ignored. Today, the length of the surface water system of the Nansen Ice Shelf has exceeded ten kilometers, and it will be discharged directly into the ocean, causing the loss of ice shelf material. The drone monitoring results found that the depth of the ice lake is even more than ten meters. On the other hand, melt water will induce the disintegration of the ice shelf through hydraulic fracturing, indirectly affecting the balance of ice shelf material.
In addition, he mentioned that recent studies show that if global warming is not curbed, global warming exceeds 1.5°C may trigger multiple climate critical points, such as the collapse of Greenland ice sheet and the collapse of West Antarctic ice sheet, etc., resulting in sea level rise. "These situations will be irreversible. Therefore, we must advocate low-carbon living, green travel, and strive to slow the melting of the ice cap," said Zheng Lei.
Xu Bo: The plants on the ice edge belt have "secret weapons"
Ice edge belt, which is the highest vegetation belt on the surface, belongs to the extreme environment for terrestrial living creatures, and is also a zone that is difficult for humans to reach. Therefore, there are less than ten Chinese scholars studying plant diversity in the ice margin zone. Xu Bo, associate professor at , Southwest Forestry University, is one of them. He almost needs to go to the field to investigate every year. It is normal to conduct high-intensity alpine hiking in environments with high altitude, hypoxia, and high solar ultraviolet radiation. Landslides, avalanches, and mountain rocky beaches are also common.
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has the richest plant diversity in the world. According to research statistics from Xu Bo and others, there are 942 species in , Hengduan Mountains, including 587 endemic species in China, accounting for 62%. Xu Bo introduced many unique ice margin plants in China, where the plants here have unique genes such as cold resistance and ultraviolet resistance. For example, the gentian horse artemisia is varied and bright in color. It can not only attract the few pollinator insects , but also absorb strong ultraviolet rays and reduce damage to itself. In order to better survive in a high-altitude environment, plants in the ice margin zone have also evolved special adaptive structures, such as cushion-shaped plant represents cyst planting grass, wool plants represent snow rabbit , greenhouse plants represent tower yellow , hidden color plants represent cyst space purple corundum, and drooping head plants represent cyst stem drooping chrysanthemum, etc. In addition, many rare plants were discovered for the first time, such as Dingri Snow Rabbit, Artemisia genus, and Bellflower. Among them, Artemisia genus is perennial and only blossoms and bears fruit once in a lifetime. With more than ten years of research accumulation, Xu Bo published China's first monograph on ice bridles, " Hengduan Mountain Alpine Ice bridles seed plant ".
"The alpine ice edge has a large number of precious medicinal resources and a treasure house of stress-resistant genes. It is still to be developed and utilized. It is also one of the most sensitive areas to global climate change. Global warming may lead to the more fragmented and even loss of habitats here, and we need to protect them." Xu Bo emphasized.
Dai Hui: Mountain City Dragon Trace - a city built on the back of dinosaurs
Carrying a big bag, wearing a straw hat, holding drawings and pens, carrying instruments and equipment, walking on the hills and villages of Chongqing. This is a portrayal of Dai Hui, deputy chief engineer of the 208 geological team of Chongqing Geological Exploration Bureau, and co-construction of Sichuan and Chongqing, Paleobiology 2 and the coordinated evolution of the paleoenvironment Chongqing Key Laboratory, and his companions tracking dinosaurs.
Dai Hui said that in most cases, the remains of dinosaur fossils are very poor, and the "puzzle" must be performed based on extremely limited parts. Each fossil needs to be packaged, unpacked, roughly repaired, refined, restored, molded, and remade models before it can be combined and assembled into the dinosaur model seen in the museum.
From 2015 to the present, Dai Hui and his team have sorted and repaired more than 10,000 fossils in the Yunyang Pu'an dinosaur fossil group, and have excavated the largest dinosaur mounted in Chongqing, Mamenxis, Dashi Street, Hechuan. They have also excavated and formed a 150-meter-long world-class Jurassic dinosaur original site fossil wall. Four new species of dinosaurs were found: Pu'an Yunyang Dragon, Modaoxi Three Gorges Dragon, Samantabha Emei Dragon and Yuanshi Bashan Dragon. This fills the gap in the missing Jurassic Xintiangou Formation dinosaur fossil group around the world, and is unanimously recognized by the academic community as a "world-class dinosaur fossil group".
Dai Hui also mentioned that the naming of dinosaurs was previously named based on place names, people's names and characteristics, and generally they were named with Latin suffixes. But now, China's scientific research on dinosaur fossils is at the forefront of the world, so there are many dinosaurs named in Chinese Pinyin. As a basic research, dinosaur research not only has scientific research value, social value and economic value, but also has great significance for the survival and development of human beings."HTM1 dinosaurs have ruled the earth for more than 160 million years before they became extinct in , but humans have only appeared for millions of years. We should learn from it and think about how to continue," he said.
Zhang Bin : Sleeping in seconds may also be a disease? Note that the high incidence is
According to statistics, more than 300 million people in my country have sleep disorder . Children who lack sleep time during adolescence, adults with unclear circadian rhythms, and elderly people with reduced sleep regulation are all prone to excessive daytime thinking. "This will cause great trouble to work and life and cause various accidents." Zhang Bin, director of the Department of Psychology (Sleep Medicine) of Southern Hospital of Southern Medical University, said, "If it is just daily excessive daytime thinking, it can be relieved by improving sleep habits and prolonging sleep time."
If it cannot be relieved, you must consider whether you have narcolepsy. Zhang Bin explained that generally speaking, under the action of hypothalamic secretin, sleep and awakening are continuous and there will be transitional transitions in healthy individuals; and narcolepsy is abnormal function of hypothalamic secretin, and the onset of the patient will experience sudden transitions between sleeping and waking up, such as symptoms such as instant sleep, catastrophic falls, sleep paralysis (commonly known as "ghost pressing"), and hallucinations before going to bed. 700,000 people in China suffer from this disease, especially in adolescents. They usually start to develop at the age of 10-20. With time, the symptoms will not improve on their own and require lifelong treatment, which causes most teenage patients to be unable to receive education normally.
Although narcolepsy cannot be cured, it can relieve the condition through medication and non-drugs. Zhang Bin also mentioned that drug treatment is not the only one, and non-pharmaceutical intervention is also very important, and the condition is relieved through regular daytime naps, good living habits and psychological support.
text/Guangzhou Daily·New Flower City Reporter: Fang Qing
Photo/Guangzhou Daily·New Flower City Reporter: Wang Yan
Correspondent: Lei Jinping
Guangzhou Daily·New Flower City Editor: Long Chengliu
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