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Simple Summary: Understanding diel variations in ground-dwelling invertebrates is an important issue for agricultural ecology, which has been extensively studied at the population level. However, contemporary studies on hourly variations in the field are scarce at the community level owing to the lack of an effective method for collecting hourly data. Therefore, this study used a novel, automatic method using infrared camera traps to photograph a ground-dwelling invertebrate community at 5 min intervals from 31 July to 29 September in farmland in Ningbo City, China. In total, 9 taxa and 1147 individuals were identified across 42 d in 217,728 photographs. The taxonomic richness and abundance of the ground-dwelling invertebrate community did not show significant hourly variations within each day nor significantly preferred active hours. Only millipedes had significant hourly variations within each day, with a significant preference for activity between 1:00 and 4:00. Additionally, slugs, beetles, and grasshoppers showed preferred active hours around sunset and midnight. This study provides a useful method for monitoring hourly changes in ground-dwelling invertebrate communities in farmlands as well as fine temporal resolution data to understand the responses of ground-dwelling invertebrate communities to climate change and human management. We evaluated the hourly dynamics of ground-dwelling invertebrate communities in farmland using infrared camera traps between August and September 2022. No significant variations within 24 h nor between any two time points of each day were observed in the taxonomic richness and abundance of the entire community. However, the periods from 4:00 to 7:00 and 13:00 to 20:00 showed relatively high taxonomic richness, while those from 2:00 to 6:00 and 16:00 to 21:00 showed relatively high abundance. Millipede abundance varied significantly in a 24 h period, with higher abundance from 3:00 to 4:00 and 1:00 to 2:00. Additionally, slug, beetle, and grasshopper abundances were significantly higher from 22:00 to 23:00, 17:00 to 18:00, and 23:00 to 24:00, respectively. The abundance of other taxa did not show significant variations between any two time points of a day. Predominant generalist predators showed positive correlation in their activity times. These results suggest that significant variations within each 24 h period are uncommon at either community or taxa (except for millipedes) levels in farmland ground-dwelling invertebrates. Further, while most taxa had significantly preferred active hours, the total community did not. Therefore, hourly dynamics should be considered to understand biodiversity maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes criteria and indicators to propose a set of sustainable evaluation methods for ecotourism destinations based on perception. The questionnaires are designed according to the index system of sustainable evaluation. Taking Malaysia's Pulau Perhentian and China's Weizhou Island as examples, the method is verified and the coordinated development path of island resource protection and ecotourism in two marine parks is proposed according to the results of sustainability evaluation. In this study, 126 valid questionnaires were gotten from Weizhou Island Marine Park (WZMP) in China and 125 from Pulau Perhentian Marine Park (PPMP) in Malaysia. The outcomes show that PPMP has a higher sustainable development index, and both resource protection index and ecotourism development index are higher than WZMP. To the extent the subtypes of coordinated development are concerned, PPMP is underdeveloped, that is, the broadness and profundity of the tourism industry advancement are insufficient to coordinate its resource level, while WZMP belongs to over-development type. In the decision of development path, WZMP ought to adopt a protection priority mode, while PPMP is suitable for the development priority mode. The effects of this study give valuable information for the planning and management of marine parks and establish a framework for effective management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tundish with channel-type induction heating is one of new technologies adopted widely in China by the steel industry in the recent years, which can supply a constant liquid steel temperature control for the sequenced continuous casting process. For a five-strand tundish with induction heating in service, a kind of novel bifurcated split channel has been designed to solve the poor consistency of temperature and fluid flow for each strand that occurs with the conventional straight channel-type. The temperature distribution and fluid flow behaviors under the two structure modes were compared numerically by an electromagnetic-heat-flow multi-physics field coupling model. The results show that the maximum temperature difference between each strand outlet of the tundish can drop to less than 4 °C upon using the bifurcated channel, as compared to 10 °C under the original straight channel mode. According to the simulated results, case FK-A0 has been chosen as the optimized structure for industrial application. It has been verified through temperature measurements during the casting operation that the novel bifurcated split channel can improve the consistency of steel temperature for every strand of the tundish. The average temperature difference between the edge strand and the middle strand is 4.25 °C lower than the original straight channel, resulting in an upgraded metallurgical effect for the induction heated tundish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent increase in the frequency of extreme weather events and declining soil biodiversity in global agricultural ecosystems make it crucial to assess the daily dynamics of soil communities in fields. To elucidate the daily dynamics of ground-dwelling invertebrate communities, their communities were monitored temporally using infrared camera traps in field farmland during and following an extremely high-temperature (EHT) event in summer 2022 in Ningbo City, China. Nine taxa and 1,147 individuals of the ground-dwelling invertebrate community were photographed in the 176,256 images. There were no significant differences in the taxonomic richness and abundance of the total ground-dwelling invertebrate communities during and following the EHT event. The abundance of ants was significantly decreased following the EHT event, whereas the abundance of other taxa was not. Significantly daily dynamics and obvious differences between each day in taxonomic richness, abundance of ground-dwelling invertebrate community, and abundance of each taxon were not observed during and following the EHT event. The results of this study showed that the daily dynamics of richness and abundance of the ground-dwelling invertebrate community and the abundance of each taxon were not significant during and following the EHT event. Overall, this study provides a useful monitoring method to observe the daily dynamics of ground-dwelling invertebrates in field farmlands and suggests that the daily dynamics of soil fauna communities should be further studied when assessing the effects of climate change on soil biodiversity., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Gao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The spatial patterns of field arthropod communities are an essential part of ecology and can provide fundamental data regarding field ecological processes and reveal the mechanism of ecosystem biodiversity maintenance. This study investigated the spatial distribution pattern of field insect communities to detect the spatial relationships between insect communities in farmland. The study site was located at the Dehui Agro-ecological Experimental Station of Black Soil, Jilin, China. Insect communities and environmental factors were sampled at 121 uniformly distributed points in a 400 × 400 m plot in August, September, and October 2015. The analysis revealed that insect communities from June to October demonstrated significant spatial correlation, and 6085 samples of 47 species and 47 families in 11 orders were collected from the insect community in the farmland. The farmland insect community structure changes and dynamic changes of nutritional function groups occur with time. According to the 400 x 400 m plot, the diversity of farmland insect communities and functional groups is maintained at a relatively high and stable level. In this study, a total of 6085 samples of corn farmland insects were obtained using the fluke method and direct observation method, including 11 orders, 26 families and 47 species, 4 absolute dominant populations, 6 main dominant populations, and 37 other populations. These studies can provide help for pest control in the spring corn area of Northeast China., Competing Interests: There are no potential competing interests in our paper. And all authors have seen the manuscript and approved to submit to your journal. We confirm that the content of the manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.

Spatial distribution is an important topic in community ecology and a key to understanding the structure and dynamics of populations and communities. However, the available information related to the spatial patterns of soil mite communities in long-term tillage agroecosystems remains insufficient. In this study, we examined the spatial patterns of soil mite communities to explain the spatial relationships between soil mite communities and soil parameters. Soil fauna were sampled three times (August, September and October 2015) at 121 locations arranged regularly within a 400 m × 400 m monitoring plot. Additionally, we estimated the physical and chemical parameters of the same sampling locations. The distribution patterns of the soil mite community and the edaphic parameters were analyzed using a range of geostatistical tools. Moran's I coefficient showed that, during each sampling period, the total abundance of the soil mite communities and the abundance of the dominant mite populations were spatially autocorrelated. The soil mite communities demonstrated clear patchy distribution patterns within the study plot. These patterns were sampling period-specific. Cross-semivariograms showed both negative and positive cross-correlations between soil mite communities and environmental factors. Mantel tests showed a significant and positive relationship between soil mite community and soil organic matter and soil pH only in August. This study demonstrated that in the cornfield, the soil mite distribution exhibited strong or moderate spatial dependence, and the mites formed patches with sizes less than one hundred meters. In addition, in this long-term tillage agroecosystem, soil factors had less influence on the observed pattern of soil mite communities. Further experiments that take into account human activity and spatial factors should be performed to study the factors that drive the spatial distribution of soil microarthropods., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.