Analyzing Gene Centres with the Help of the Checklist Method – the Case of Syria

The present survey of species diversity of cultivated plants is the first for Syria. Some cultivated species will be added in the future, because due to the civil war in Syria, it was not possible to visit the country in the frame of the present work, as initially planned. Checklists proved to be a useful tool for overviewing the cultivated plants of selected areas and allow a characterization of the state of plant genetic resources of Syria. Syria has experienced several civilizations. Man settled in this productive land since ancient times and used its resources. However, such use has led to changes in vegetation and decline of wildlife through the country, in seashore areas, interior, mountains, and grassland. Plant domestication and growing started more than 10,000 years ago in West Asia. Since then, plentiful of economic plant species were present and used by man and his domesticated animals. Forming a part of the Fertile Crescent, where many of the world’s agricultural plants have evolved, Syria is extremely rich in agrobiodiversity. Wild progenitors of wheat and barley and wild relatives of many fruit trees such as almonds and pistachio as well as forage species are still found in marginal lands and less disturbed areas. These are threatened by a wide range of human activities, notably modern, extensive agriculture, overgrazing, overcutting and urban expansion. Syria is also considered as part of one of the main centres of origin, according to Vavilov, who had collected in Syria in 1926. The first expeditions to crop fields showed the exclusive nature of cultivated plants in Syria with a high number of endemic forms. Furthermore, Syria is a part of a biodiversity hotspot. Several studies have been performed to study agrobiodiversity in different parts of Syria, but usually on wild species. Many collections have been carried out; however, they focussed preferably on cereals and pulses, and particularly on wheat, like Vavilov’s expedition. Only 30 crops make up the major part of the conserved Syrian crop plant material in the genebank, indicating that most of the remaining 7,000 species of cultivated plants and many other valuable genetic resources species have only been included on a limited scale in the genebank collections. Although a small country (185,180 km2), Syria accommodates numerous ecosystems that allow for a large diversity of plant genetic resources for agriculture ranging from cold-requiring to subtropical crops to live and thrive. Only few references are available in this respect. The aim of the present study was to complete a checklist of Syria’s cultivated plants of agriculture and horticulture excluding plants only grown as ornamental or for forestry. Furthermore, plants taken for reforestation have not been included, if they do not have also agricultural or horticultural uses. Therefore, the inclusion of plants into the checklist follows the same principles as “Mansfeld’s Encyclopedia”. Main sources of information were published literature, floras of Syria, Lebanon and the Mediterranean, as well as Syrian printed sources in Arabic and/or English, reports from FAO on agricultural statistics in Syria, and data from ICARDA and Bioversity International. In addition, personal observations gathered during professional work in the General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR) in Syria (since 1989) and participation in projects were taken into account. These were: (1) A project on “Conservation and Sustainable Use of Dry Land Agrobiodiversity in the Near East” with participation of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority, focussing on landraces and wild relatives of barley, wheat, lentil, alliums, feed legumes, and fruit trees (1999–2005). (2) A project for vegetable landraces (1993–1995) in collaboration with the former International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and the UN Development Programme, in which 380 local vegetable accessions were evaluated. For medicinal plants and fruit trees I was in personal contact with departments of GCSAR and the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, as well as with private organizations. The resulting checklist was compared with the catalogues of crop plants of Italy and a checklist of cultivated plants of Iraq. The cultivated plant species are presented in alphabetical order according to their accepted scientific names. Each entry consists of a nomenclatural part, folk names, details of plant uses, the distribution in Syria (by provinces), a textual description, and references to literature. In total, 262 species belonging to 146 genera and 57 families were identified. Within-species (intraspecific) diversity is a significant measure of the biodiversity. Intraspecific diversity for wild plants has been and remains to be well studied, but for crop plants there are only few results. Mansfeld’s method is an actual logical contribution to such studies. Among the families, the following have the highest number of crop species: Leguminosae (34 spp.), Rosaceae (24), Gramineae (18), Labiatae (18), Compositae (14), Cruciferae (14), Cucurbitaceae (11), Rutaceae (10), Malvaceae (9), Alliaceae (7), and Anacardiaceae (7). The establishment of an effective programme for the maintenance of plant genetic resources in Syria started in the mid-1970s. This programme considered ex situ and in situ collection of the genetic resources of various field crops, fruit trees and vegetables. From a plant genetic resources viewpoint, it is clear that the homegarden is an important location for the cultivation of so-called neglected and underutilized species (neglected from a research side and underutilized from a larger economic side). Such species have so far not received much care from ecologists, botanists and agronomists, and they are considerably under-represented in genebanks.

The Corticiaceae (Basidiomycetes) in Taiwan

Geographically, Taiwan is an Island and situated in the northeast of Asia, on the western side of the Pacific Basin, at the southeast of main China, south of Japan, and north of the Philippines. The main topographic character is the longitudinally oriented mountainous area. More than 200 peaks rise above 3000 m. They departed Taiwan into two lowland areas, an eastern and western plain. Taiwan is departed into subtropical (north area) and tropical zone (south area), which have a warm and humid climate, due to the Tropic of Cancer passing through. The average annual temperature in the lowland amounts to 28°C (7~38°C). The temperate climate also presents in the mountainous areas. The tropical typhoons usually come in summer and bring heavy rain, while the monsoon seasons have an important effect on the regional rainfall distribution. The mean annual rainfall of Taiwan is about 2600 mm (1000~6700 mm); the mountainous areas receive more rain than the lowlands. In Taiwan, according to different temperature and vegetation, the ecological environments were given rise to vertical biotic zonations, and form five major types: highland snowfield, highland meadow, coniferous forest, deciduous forest, and tropical forest. Six National Parks in Taiwan are located in the mountainous areas, in the north, the south, and on Jinmen Island. The National Parks represent about 8.4% of the country area. In this study, the collection sites are situated in Yangmingshan, Shei-Pa, Yushan, and Kenting National Park. Due to the island isolation, the proportions of endemic species are great in Taiwan, which also presents a high biodiversity. There are 4255 species of vascular plants including 1133 endemic. 5936 species in 1276 genera of fungi are hitherto reported in Taiwan. Among them, 233 Corticiaceae species were recorded, over one third (79 species) of them are known only from Taiwan. The first fungal report in Taiwan is about Phytophthora cyperi, published by the Japanese researcher T. Kawakami in 1904. Therefore, the history of research about fungi in Taiwan is more than one hundred years old. An eminent Japanese mycologist K. Sawada made an intensive survey from 1919 to 1959, and reported 2464 fungi species in his eleven volumes of “Descriptive Catalogue of Formosan Fungi”. However, only a few species (21 species in 9 genera) of Corticiaceae were recorded. From 1973, Chen and Lin resumed the study on Corticiaceae, and also some other foreign mycologists contributed for this field after 1980. The German research group lead by Franz Oberwinkler from Tübingen University collected in Taiwan several times. They published a number of new species and new records. Since 1989, S. H. Wu, a Taiwanese mycologist, has published a great amount of reports on corticioid fungi from Taiwan. Corticioid fungi were made up by the large and heterogeneous unnatural family Corticiaceae and other resupinate fungi belonging to other natural families in the Agaricomycetes. Molecular studies have shown that corticioid genera are distributed across all major clades of Agaricomycetes indicating that the corticioid fungi represent a polyphyletic group. They have resupinate fruitbodies and similar habitats. Species are characterized by simple fruitbody, more or less effused, and present smooth, porioid, grandinioid to odontioid hymenial surface. The fruitbodies are differently colored and usually soft to tough. Most of the Corticiaceae species are wood-saprobic organisms and gain the energy from the decomposing of wood-substrate such as cellulose or lignin. Materials for this study were collected by the author and other mycologists in Taiwan during surveys in April and May 1996, and March 2007, using the spring season with its high humidity and warm climate which are optimal conditions for the development of fungi. For assembling, the convenience sampling method was used in this study. This approach was chosen because it enables to detect a high biodiversity in a short time, and also to find species with rare or patchy distribution. The collecting sites from the North to the South include four National Parks and some preserved forests. They cover many different habitats such as low lands and high mountains. Fresh specimens were dried and analysed with a light microscope. 265 specimens belonging to Corticiaceae were studied in this research. Among them, 50 species in 21 genera including 11 new records and 10 new species were described with text and drawing. Four new species are belonging to Hyphodontia (H. sp. nov. 1, H. sp. nov. 2, H. sp. nov. 3, and H. sp. nov. 4), four to Schizopora (Sch. sp. nov. 1, Sch. sp. nov. 2, Sch. sp. nov. 3, and Sch. sp. nov. 4), one in Trechispora (T. sp. nov. 1), and one in Tubulicrinis (T. sp. nov. 1). Species recorded as new are Aleurodiscus amorphus, Botryohypochnus isabellinus, Hyphodontia cineracea, Hyphodontia palmae, Hypochnicium vellereum, Merulius tremellosus, Metulodontia nivea, Paullicorticium ansatum, Phlebia radiata, Phlebiella ardosiaca, and Xylobolus frustulatus. Besides, Botryohypochnus, Merulius, Metulodontia, Paullicorticium, and Xylobolus are also newly recorded genera in Taiwan. The genus Hyphodontia presents the highest diversity with 20 out of 50 species recorded. The second important genus is Hyphoderma, however with only 5 species. This indicates that Hyphodontia and Hyphoderma have a higher ability to develop in variable environments and approximately shows the predominance of these two genera in Taiwanese Corticiaceae. There are 11 new records out of the 50 species recorded, representing 22%. Some species, e.g. Hypochnicium vellereum and Paullicorticium ansatum were in the past recorded only in Europe and North America with cold and temperate climate. The samples of them are for the first time found in the subtropical belt, and display some difference from those of temperate regions. These collections should be molecularly investigated to clarify if they represent the same species of temperate areas. Patchily distributed species, for example Phlebiella ardosiaca, previously known only in Europe, and Hyphodontia palmae collected only in Brazil, were first recorded in different continents. Two possibilities are indicated by these new records: they are worldwide species but very rare to be found, or the Taiwanese specimens are taxonomically different. More survey from other continents and molecular study for these collections should be done in the future to solve this question. The distribution of Corticiaceae in Taiwan presents the variations in the north, central, and south areas and shows the diversity in lowlands and high mountains. The results of this study provide the evidence that the temperate Corticiaceae species displays a wider distribution. Subtropical and tropical taxa probably have also high dispersal capacities, and could possibly be found in the future in neighboring areas such as China, Japan, Korea or South Asia, but this needs further researches. In the total of 50 species, 10 new taxa were described in this study, giving about 20%. Some new species (e.g. Hyphodontia sp. 1, Hyphodontia sp. 2, and Hyphodontia sp. 3) are very similar to known species (Hyphodontia sambuci and Hyphodontia formosana), and the distinctive characters of Schizopora sp. nov. 1 are intermediate between those of Schizopora paradoxa and Hyphodontia flavipora. Thus, these small differences between the new and known species, suggest that the speciation occurred when the fungi migrated into Taiwan, due to the high diversity of environment, and amounts of the endemic plants. Taiwan is an intermediate place for the south (tropical) fungal species to migrate and adapt to north (temperate) regions. The middle and high altitude environments in Taiwan offer good conditions for the fungal speciation and possibly the occurrence of physiological changes to adapt to the temperate climate. Thus Taiwan has an important position for the biogeography of Asia mycobiota. 5936 known species in Taiwan represent about only 20% of the estimated number (24000) of Taiwanese fungal taxa. In this study, the findings (22% new records and 20% new species) indicate that amounts of unknown fungi species are expected in Taiwan. The lack of knowledge indicates that many new species are awaiting description, and fungal survey in Taiwan remains in a Pioneer phase. The last three wide surveys of Corticiaceae researches took place 20 years before this study (Chen & Lin 1977, Lin & Chen 1989, Wu 1990). After previous important contributions, the present taxonomic study comprising 21 genera is the most extensive on Corticiaceae of Taiwan.

Perspectives of Urban Growth Management and Sustainable Development In West Bank, Hebron District as a case Study

The main objective of this PhD research study is to provide a perspective on the urban growth management and sustainable development in Palestine, and more specifically in Hebron district as a case study. Hebron is located 36 km south of Jerusalem, with an overall population size of around 600,000 people living in a total area around1246km2. Hebron is the biggest Palestinian district that has 16 municipalities and 154 localities. The research discusses and analyzes the urban planning system, economical and environmental policies and the solution required to manage and integrate the development elements to develop a sustainable development plan for Hebron. The research provides answers for fundamental questions such as what kind and definition of sustainable development are applicable to the Palestinian case?. What are the sustainability problems there and how the Israeli occupation and unstable political condition affect the sustainable development in Palestine? What are the urban growth management and sustainability policies and actions required from government, public and privets sector in Palestine? The fast urban growth in Palestine is facing many problems and challenges due to the increase in the population size and the resulting impact of this increase including, but not limited to, the demand of new houses, need for more infrastructure services, demands on new industrial, commercial, educational and health projects, which in turn reduces the area of agricultural lands and threatens the natural resources and environment. There are also other associated sustainability problems like the absence of effective plans or regulations that control urban expansion, the absence of sufficient sustainable development plans at the national levels for the district, new job requirements, Israeli restrictions and occupation for more than 60 years, existence of construction factories near residential areas, poor public awareness and poor governmental funds for service projects and development plans. The study consists of nine chapters. Chapter One includes an introduction, study objectives, problems and justifications, while Chapter Two has a theoretical background on sustainability topic and definitions of sustainability. The Palestinian urban planning laws and local government systems are discussed in Chapter Three and the methodology of research is detailed in Chapter Four. As for Chapter Five, it provides a general background on Hebron District including demographical and economical profiles, along with recommendations related to sustainable development for each profile Chapter Six addresses the urban environment, sustainability priorities and policies required. Chapter Seven discusses and analyzes infrastructure services including transportation, water and wastewater. As for Chapter Eight, it addresses the land use, housing and urban expansion beside the cultural heritage, natural heritage with relevant sustainable development polices and recommendations. Finally, Chapter Nine includes a conclusion and comprehensive recommendations integrating all of urban and sustainability event in one map. Hebron has a deep history including a rich cultural heritage aged by thousands of years, with 47% of Hebron district population under 14 years old. Being the biggest Palestinian district, Hebron has thousands of industrial and economical organizations beside a large agricultural sector at Palestine level. This gives Hebron a potential to play major roles in developing a national sustainability plan, as the current urban planning system in Palestine needs urgent reform and development to fulfill the sustainability requirement. The municipalities and ministers should find permanent financial aid for urban planning and development studies so as to face future challenges. The Palestinian government can benefit from available local human resources in development projects; hence Palestinian people have sufficient qualifications in most sectors. The Palestinian people also can invest in the privet sector in Palestine in case businessmen have been encouraged and clear investment laws and plans have been developed. The study provides recommendations associated to the sustainable development in Palestine in general and Hebron, as a case study, in specific. Recommendations include increasing the privet sector as well as the public involvement in urban growth management, and stopping unplanned urban expansion, subjecting granting building permits of new projects to the no-harm environmental impact assessment, increasing the coordination and cooperation between localities and central bodies, protection and renovation of old cites and green areas, increasing the quality and quantity of infrastructure services, establishing district urban planning department to coordinate and organize urban planning and sustainable development activities. Also, among recommendations come dividing Hebron into three planning and administrative areas (north, central and south), and dividing the sustainable development and implementation period (2010 to 2025) into three main phases. Finally, the study strongly recommends benefiting from the same urban development plans in similar districts at national and international levels, also to use new technologies and information systems in urban planning process.

Agri-environmental evaluation of traditional and alternative corn production systems in Chiapas, Mexico

This study evaluates the effects of environmental variables on traditional and alternative agroecosystems in three Ejidos (communal lands) in the Chiapas rainforest in Mexico. The tests occurred within two seasonal agricultural cycles. In spring-summer, experiments were performed with the traditional slash, fell and burn (S-F-B) system, no-burn systems and rotating systems with Mucuna deeringiana Bort., and in the autumn-winter agricultural cycle, three no-burn systems were compared to evaluate the effect of alternative sowing with corn (no-burn and topological modification of sowing). The results show a high floristic diversity in the study area (S_S = 4 - 23%), with no significant differences among the systems evaluated. In the first cycle, the analysis of the agronomical variables of the corn indicated better properties in the fallowing systems, with an average yield of 1950 kg ha^‑1, but there was variation related to the number of years left fallow. In the second cycle, the yields were positive for the alternative technology (average yield 3100 kg ha^‑1). The traditional S-F-B systems had reduced pests and increased organic matter and soil phosphorous content. These results are the consequence of fallow periods and adaptation to the environment; thus, this practice in the Chiapas rainforest constitutes an ethnocultural reality, which is unlikely to change in the near future if the agrosystems are managed based on historical principles.

Strategies for coping with feed scarcity among urban and peri-urban livestock farmers in Kampala, Uganda

Livestock keeping is increasingly becoming more popular in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. However, lack of feed is a real challenge. Inadequate feed supply in urban areas is due to many interacting factors, which include among others land shortage, high cost of feeds, climate risks and poor quality of feeds. The objective of this study was to identify and examine the effectiveness of the strategies adopted by livestock farmers in urban and peri-urban areas of Kampala, Uganda to cope with feed scarcity. A total of 120 livestock farmers from Kampala were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Dairy cattle (48.3%) and chickens (37.5%) were the most common species, followed by pigs (34.2%), goats (26.7%) and sheep (3.3%). Farm size was generally small both in terms of herd size and total landholding. Cattle and pig farmers in urban and peri-urban areas of Kampala ranked feed scarcity as their first major constraint, while chicken farmers had high cost of feeds. These farmers have adopted several strategies for coping with feed scarcity. Among the major coping strategies adopted were: changing of feed resources based on availability and cost (37.5%), purchasing of feed ingredients in bulk (29.7%), using crop/food wastes (26.6%), harvesting of forages growing naturally in open access lands (23.4%) and reducing herd size (17.2%). However, most of the coping strategies adopted were largely aimed at dealing with the perennial challenge of feed scarcity on a day-by-day basis rather than dealing with it using sustainable and long-term strategies.

Socio-economic characterization of integrated cropping systems in urban and peri-urban agriculture of Faisalabad, Pakistan

Faisalabad city is surrounded by agricultural lands, where farmers are growing vegetables, grain crops, and fodder for auto-consumption and local marketing. To study the socioeconomic impact and resource use in these urban and peri-urban agricultural production (UPA) systems, a baseline survey was conducted during 2009–2010. A total of 140 households were selected using a stratified sampling method and interviewed with a structured questionnaire. The results revealed that 96 % of the households rely on agriculture as their main occupation. Thirty percent of the households were owners of the land and the rest cultivated either rented or sharecropped land. Most of the families (70 %) were headed by a member with primary education, and only 10 % of the household head had a secondary school certificate. Irrigationwater was obtained from waste water (37 %), canals (27 %), and mixed alternative sources (36 %). A total of 35 species were cultivated in the UPA systems of which were 65% vegetables, 15% grain and fodder crops, and 5% medicinal plants. Fifty-nine percent of the households cultivated wheat, mostly for auto-consumption. The 51 % of the respondents grew cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L.) and gourds (Cucurbitaceae) in the winter and summer seasons, respectively. Group marketing was uncommon and most of the farmers sold their produce at the farm gate (45 %) and on local markets (43 %). Seeds and fertilizers were available from commission agents and dealers on a credit basis with the obligation to pay by harvested produce. A major problem reported by the UPA farmers of Faisalabad was the scarcity of high quality irrigation water, especially during the hot dry summer months, in addition to lacking adequate quantities of mineral fertilizers and other inputs during sowing time. Half of the respondents estimated their daily income to be less than 1.25 US$ and spent almost half of it on food. Monthly average household income and expenses were 334 and 237 US$, respectively.

An integrated assessment of resource use strategies in the Borana pastoral system of southern Ethiopia

In the pastoral production systems, mobility remains the main technique used to meet livestock’s fodder requirements. Currently, with growing challenges on the pastoral production systems, there is urgent need for an in-depth understanding of how pastoralists continue to manage their grazing resources and how they determine their mobility strategies. This study examined the Borana pastoralists’ regulation of access to grazing resources, mobility practices and cattle reproductive performances in three pastoral zones of Borana region of southern Ethiopia. The central objective of the study was to contribute to the understanding of pastoral land use strategies at a scale relevant to their management. The study applied a multi-scalar methodological approach that allowed zooming in from communal to individual herd level. Through participatory mapping that applied Google Earth image print out as visual aid, the study revealed that the Borana pastoralists conceptualized their grazing areas as distinctive grazing units with names, borders, and specific characteristics. This knowledge enables the herders to communicate the condition of grazing resources among themselves in a precise way which is important in management of livestock mobility. Analysis of grazing area use from the participatory maps showed that the Borana pastoralists apportion their grazing areas into categories that are accessed at different times of the year (temporal use areas). This re-organization is an attempt by the community to cope with the prevailing constraints which results in fodder shortages especially during the dry periods. The re-organization represents a shift in resource use system, as the previous mobility practice across the ecologically varied zones of the rangelands became severely restricted. Grazing itineraries of 91 cattle herds for over 16 months obtained using the seasonal calendar interviews indicated that in the areas with the severest mobility constraints, the herders spent most of their time in the year round use areas that are within close proximity to the settlements. A significant change in mobility strategy was the disallowing of foora practice by the communities in Dirre and Malbe zones in order to reduce competition. With the reduction in mobility practices, there is a general decline in cattle reproductive parameters with the areas experiencing the severest constraints showing the least favourable reproductive performances. The study concludes that the multi-scalar methodology was well suited to zoom into pastoral grazing management practices from communal to individual herd levels. Also the loss of mobility in the Borana pastoral system affects fulfilment of livestock feed requirements thus resulting in reduced reproductive performances and herd growth potentials. While reversal of the conditions of the situations in the Borana rangelands is practically unfeasible, the findings from this research underscore the need to protect the remaining pastoral lands since the pastoral production system remains the most important livelihood option for the majority of the Borana people. In this regards the study emphasises the need to adopt and domesticate regional and international policy frameworks such as that proposed by the African Union in 2010.

An analysis of household farm investment decisions under varying land tenure arrangements in Ghana

Land tenure insecurity is widely perceived as a disincentive for long-term land improvement investment hence the objective of this paper is to evaluate how tenure (in)security associated with different land use arrangements in Ghana influenced households’ plot level investment decisions and choices. The paper uses data from the Farmer-Based Organisations (FBO) survey. The FBO survey collected information from 2,928 households across three ecological zones of Ghana using multistaged cluster sampling. Probit and Tobit models tested the effects of land tenancy and ownership arrangements on households’ investment behaviour while controlling other factors. It was found that marginal farm size was inversely related to tenure insecurity while tenure insecurity correlate positively with value of farm land and not farm size. Individual ownership and documentation of land significantly reduced the probability of households losing uncultivated lands. Individual land ownership increased both the probability of investing and level of investments made in land improvement and irrigation probably due to increasing importance households place on land ownership. Two possible explanations for this finding are: First, that land markets and land relations have changed significantly over the last two decades with increasing money transaction and fixed agreements propelled by population growth and increasing value of land. Secondly, inclusion of irrigation investment as a long term investment in land raises the value of household investment and the time period required to reap the returns on the investments. Households take land ownership and duration of tenancy into consideration if the resource implications of land investments are relatively huge and the time dimension for harvesting returns to investments is relatively long.