Cutting management of multipurpose tree legumes: effects on green herbage production, leaf retention and water-use-efficiency during the dry season in Timor, Indonesia

Edible herbage production and water-use-efficiency of three tree legumes (Leucaena leucocephala cv. Tarramba, L. pallida x L. leucocephala (KX2) and Gliricidia sepium), cut at different times of the year (February, April, June and uncut) were compared in a semi-arid area of Timor Island, Indonesia. Cutting in the early and mid dry-season (April and June) resulted in higher total leaf production (P< 0.05) and water-use-efficiency (P< 0.05), than cutting late in the wet-season (February) or being left uncut. For the leucaena treatments removing leaf in the early to mid dry-season reduced transpiration, saving soil water for subsequent regrowth as evidenced by the higher relative water contents of leaves from these treatments. This cutting strategy can be applied to local farming conditions to increase the supply of feed for livestock during the dry season.

Rethinking regional green space networks in China

Ecological networks are often represented as utopian webs of green meandering through cities, across states, through regions and even across a country (Erickson, 2006, p.28; Fabos, 2004, p.326; Walmsley, 2006). While this may be an inspiring goal for some in developed countries, the reality may be somewhat different in developing countries. China, in its shift to urbanisation and suburbanisation, is also being persuaded to adjust its planning schemes according to these aspirational representations of green spaces (Yu et al, 2006, p.237; Zhang and Wang, 2006, p.455). The failure of other countries to achieve regional goals of natural and cultural heritage protection on the ground in this way (Peterson et al, 2007; Ryan et al, 2006; von Haaren and Reich, 2006) suggests that there may be flaws in the underpinning concepts that are widely circulated in North American and Western European literature (Jongman et al, 2004; Walmsley, 2006). In China, regional open space networks, regional green infrastructure or regional ecological corridors as we know them in the West, are also likely to be problematic, at least in the foreseeable future. Reasons supporting this view can be drawn from lessons learned from project experience in landscape planning and related fields of study in China and overseas. Implementation of valuable regional green space networks is problematic because: • the concept of region as a spatial unit for planning green space networks is ambiguous and undefinable for practical purposes; • regional green space networks traditionally require top down inter-governmental cooperation and coordination which are generally hampered by inequalities of influence between and within government agencies; • no coordinating body with funding powers exists for regional green space development and infrastructure authorities are still in transition from engineering authorities; • like other infrastructure projects, green space is likely to become a competitive rather than a complementary resource for city governments; • stable long-term management, maintenance and uses of green space networks must fit into a ‘family’ social structure rather than a ‘public good’ social structure, particularly as rural and urban property rights are being re-negotiated with city governments; and • green space provision is a performance indicator of urban improvement in cities within the city hierarchy and remains quantitatively-based (land area, tree number and per capita share) rather than qualitatively-based with local people as the focus.

Nurses and teachers : partnerships for green health promotion

Background: The term ‘green health promotion’ is given to health promotion underpinned by the principles of ecological health and sustainability. Green health promotion is supported philosophically by global health promotion documents such as the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) and the ecological public health movement. Green health promotion in schools aims to practice the principles of ecological health and sustainability. Methods: An extended literature review revealed a paucity of literature about green health promotion in schools across disciplines. Literature about nurses and health promotion in schools is generally found in nursing publications. Literature about ecological sustainability in schools is mostly found in teaching publications. Results: This paper explores the nexus between nursing and health promotion, and teachers and ecological sustainability. Collaborative partnerships between health and education do not capitalise on programs such as Health Promoting Schools and the School Based Youth Health Nurse Program in Queensland, Australia. The authors consider how collaborative partnerships between health and education in schools can work towards green health promotion. Conclusion: Nursing’s approach to health promotion and education’s approach to ecological sustainability need to be aligned to enhance green health promotion in schools and promote a new generation of ‘tree huggers and hippies’.

Brave new green world : consequences of a carbon economy for the conservation of Australian biodiversity

Pricing greenhouse gas emissions is a burgeoning and possibly lucrative financial means for climate change mitigation. Emissions pricing is being used to fund emissions-abatement technologies and to modify land management to improve carbon sequestration and retention. Here we discuss the principal land-management options under existing and realistic future emissions-price legislation in Australia, and examine them with respect to their anticipated direct and indirect effects on biodiversity. The main ways in which emissions price-driven changes to land management can affect biodiversity are through policies and practices for (1) environmental plantings for carbon sequestration, (2) native regrowth, (3) fire management, (4) forestry, (5) agricultural practices (including cropping and grazing), and (6) feral animal control. While most land-management options available to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions offer clear advantages to increase the viability of native biodiversity, we describe several caveats regarding potentially negative outcomes, and outline components that need to be considered if biodiversity is also to benefit from the new carbon economy. Carbon plantings will only have real biodiversity value if they comprise appropriate native tree species and provide suitable habitats and resources for valued fauna. Such plantings also risk severely altering local hydrology and reducing water availability. Management of regrowth post-agricultural abandonment requires setting appropriate baselines and allowing for thinning in certain circumstances, and improvements to forestry rotation lengths would likely increase carbon-retention capacity and biodiversity value. Prescribed burning to reduce the frequency of high-intensity wildfires in northern Australia is being used as a tool to increase carbon retention. Fire management in southern Australia is not readily amenable for maximising carbon storage potential, but will become increasingly important for biodiversity conservation as the climate warms. Carbon price-based modifications to agriculture that would benefit biodiversity include reductions in tillage frequency and livestock densities, reductions in fertiliser use, and retention and regeneration of native shrubs; however, anticipated shifts to exotic perennial grass species such as buffel grass and kikuyu could have net negative implications for native biodiversity. Finally, it is unlikely that major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions arising from feral animal control are possible, even though reduced densities of feral herbivores will benefit Australian biodiversity greatly.

Karyotype instability in the ponerine ant genus Diacamma

The queenless ponerine ant Diacamma ceylonense and a population of Diacamma from the Nilgiri hills which we refer to as `nilgiri', exhibit interesting similarities as well as dissimilarities. Molecular phylogenetic study of these morphologically almost similar taxa has shown that D ceylonense is closely related to `nilgiri' and indicates that `nilgiri' is a recent diversion in the Diacamma phylogenetic tree. However, there is a striking behavioural difference in the way reproductive monopoly is maintained by the respective gamergates (mated egg laying workers), and there is evidence that they are genetically differentiated, suggesting a lack of gene flow To develop a better understanding of the mechanism involved in speciation of Diacamma, we have analysed karyotypes of D. ceylonense and `nilgiri' In both, we found surprising inter-individual and intra-individual karyotypic mosaicism. The observed numerical variability, both at intra-individual and inter-individual levels, does not appear to have hampered the sustainability of the chromosomal diversity in each population under study Since the related D. indicum, displays no such intra-individual or inter-Individual variability whatsoever under identical experimental conditions, these results are unlikely to he artifacts. Although no known mechanisms can account for the observed karyotypic variability of this nature, we believe that the present findings on the ants under study would provide opportunities for exciting new discoveries concerning the origin, maintenance and significance of intra-individual and inter-individual karyotypic mosaicism.

Nutritional benefits from domatia inhabitants in an ant-plant interaction: interlopers do pay the rent

1. How a symbiosis originates and is maintained are important evolutionary questions. Symbioses in myrmecophytes (plants providing nesting for ants) are believed to be maintained by protection and nutrients provided by specialist plant-ants in exchange for nesting spaces (called domatia) and nourishment offered by ant-plants. However, besides the benefits accrued from housing protective ants, the mechanisms contributing to the fitness advantages of bearing domatia have rarely been examined, especially because the domatia trait is usually constitutively expressed, and many myrmecophytes have obligate mutualisms with single ant species resulting in invariant conditions. 2. In the unspecialized ant-plant Humboldtia brunonis (Fabaceae) that offers extrafloral nectar to ants, only some plants produce domatia in the form of hollow internodes. These domatia have a self-opening slit making them more prone to interlopers and are occupied mostly by non-protective ants and other invertebrates, especially arboreal earthworms. The protection mutualism with ants is restricted in geographical extent, occurring only at a few sites in the southernmost part of this plant's range in the Western Ghats of India. 3. We examined nutrient flux from domatia residents to the plant using stable isotopes. We found that between 9% (earthworms) and 17% (protective or non-protective ants) of nitrogen of plant tissues nearest the domatium came from domatia inhabitants. Therefore, interlopers such as earthworms and non-protective ants contributed positively to the nitrogen budget of localized plant modules of this understorey tree. N-15-enriched feeding experiments with protective ants demonstrated that nutrients flowed from domatia inhabitants to nearby plant modules. Fruit set did not differ between paired hand-pollinated inflorescences on domatia and non-domatia bearing branches. This was possibly due to the nutrient flux from domatia to adjacent branches without domatia within localized modules. 4. This study has demonstrated the nutritive role of non-protective ants and non-ant invertebrates, hitherto referred to as interlopers, in an unspecialized myrmecophyte. Our study suggests that even before the establishment of a specialized ant-plant protection mutualism, nutritional benefits conferred by domatia inhabitants can explain the fitness benefits of bearing domatia, and thus the maintenance of a trait that facilitates the establishment of a specialized ant-plant symbiosis.

A Plant Needs Ants like a Dog Needs Fleas: Myrmelachista schumanni Ants Gall Many Tree Species to Create Housing

Hundreds of tropical plant species house ant colonies in specialized chambers called domatia. When, in 1873, Richard Spruce likened plant-ants to fleas and asserted that domatia are ant-created galls, he incited a debate that lasted almost a century. Alth

Fuzzy rules from ant-inspired computation

M. Galea and Q. Shen. Fuzzy rules from ant-inspired computation. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, pages 1691-1696, 2004.

Simultaneous ant colony optimisation algorithms for learning linguistic fuzzy rules

M. Galea and Q. Shen. Simultaneous ant colony optimisation algorithms for learning linguistic fuzzy rules. A. Abraham, C. Grosan and V. Ramos (Eds.), Swarm Intelligence in Data Mining, pages 75-99.

Species boundaries and phylogenetic relationships within the green algal genus Codium (Bryopsidales) based on plastid DNA sequences

Despite the potential model role of the green algal genus Codium for studies of marine speciation and evolution, there have been difficulties with species delimitation and a molecular phylogenetic framework was lacking. In the present study, 74 evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) are delimited using 227 rbcL exon 1 sequences obtained from specimens collected throughout the genus' range. Several morpho-species were shown to be poorly defined, with some clearly in need of lumping and others containing pseudo-cryptic diversity. A phylogenetic hypothesis of 72 Codium ESUs is inferred from rbcL exon 1 and rps3-rp/16 sequence data using a conventional nucleotide substitution model (GTR + Gamma + I), a codon position model and a covariotide (covarion) model, and the fit of a multitude of substitution models and alignment partitioning strategies to the sequence data is reported. Molecular clock tree rooting was carried out because out-group rooting was probably affected by phylogenetic bias. Several aspects of the evolution of morphological features of Codium are discussed and the inferred phylogenetic hypothesis is used as a framework to study the biogeography of the genus, both at a global scale and within the Indian Ocean. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Green Island.

Pertenece a un amplio programa infantil de lectura que abarca distintos niveles de edad y, por tanto, de conocimientos. Se abordan las necesidades de lectura en los niños y la amplia variedad de habilidades que necesitan adquirir para su aprendizaje y, se destaca, también, la importancia de la narración en las historias. Aparecen dos nuevos personajes, Nadim y Anneena, que junto con Biff, Chip y Kipper colaboran para evitar la contaminación de la isla verde.

The role of biotic and abiotic factors in evolution of ant dispersal in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae)

A phylogenetic approach was taken to investigate the evolutionary history of seed appendages in the plant family Polygalaceae (Fabales) and determine which factors might be associated with evolution of elaiosomes through comparisons to abiotic (climate) and biotic (ant species number and abundance) timelines. Molecular datasets from three plastid regions representing 160 species were used to reconstruct a phylogenetic tree of the order Fabales, focusing on Polygalaceae. Bayesian dating methods were used to estimate the age of the appearance of ant-dispersed elaiosomes in Polygalaceae, shown by likelihood optimizations to have a single origin in the family. Topology-based tests indicated a diversification rate shift associated with appearance of caruncular elaiosomes. We show that evolution of the caruncular elaiosome type currently associated with ant dispersal occurred 54.0-50.5 million year ago. This is long after an estimated increase in ant lineages in the Late Cretaceous based on molecular studies, but broadly concomitant with increasing global temperatures culminating in the Late Paleocene-Early Eocene thermal maxima. These results suggest that although most major ant clades were present when elaiosomes appeared, the environmental significance of elaiosomes may have been an important factor in success of elaiosome-bearing lineages. Ecological abundance of ants is perhaps more important than lineage numbers in determining significance of ant dispersal. Thus, our observation that elaiosomes predate increased ecological abundance of ants inferred from amber deposits could be indicative of an initial abiotic environmental function.

Arboreal thorn-dwelling ants use domatia morphology to partition nest sites on the savanna ant-plant, Vachellia erioloba

Nest site selection in arboreal, domatia-dwelling ants, particularly those coexisting on a single host plant, is little understood. To examine this phenomenon we studied the African savannah tree Vachellia erioloba, which hosts ants in swollen-thorn domatia. We found four ant species from different genera (Cataulacus intrudens, Tapinoma subtile, Tetraponera ambigua and an unidentified Crematogaster species). In contrast to other African ant plants, many V. erioloba trees (41 % in our survey) were simultaneously co-occupied by more than one ant species. Our study provides quantitative field data describing: (1) aspects of tree and domatia morphology relevant to supporting a community of mutualist ants, (2) how ant species occupancy varies with domatia morphology and (3) how ant colony size varies with domatia size and species. We found that Crematogaster sp. occupy the largest thorns, followed by C. intrudens, with T. subtile in the smallest thorns. Thorn age, as well as nest entrance hole size correlated closely with ant species occupant. These differing occupancy patterns may help to explain the unusual coexistence of three ant species on individual myrmecophytic trees. In all three common ant species, colony size, as measured by total number of ants, increased with domatia size. Additionally, domatia volume and species identity interact to predict ant numbers, suggesting differing responses between species to increased availability of nesting space. The proportion of total ants in nests that were immatures varied with thorn volume and species, highlighting the importance of domatia morphology in influencing colony structure.

Ant community richness and composition across a gradient from Eucalyptus plantations to secondary Atlantic Forest

As florestas secundárias e plantações de espécies exóticas estão se expandindo nas paisagens tropicais. No entanto, nossa compreensão sobre o valor destas florestas para a conservação da biodiversidade de invertebrados ainda é incipiente. Neste trabalho, usamos a fauna de formigas de serapilheira para avaliar a diversidade desses insetos entre três florestas de Eucalyptus, sendo uma comercial (quatro anos de idade) e duas abandonadas em diferentes idades de regeneração (16 e 31 anos) e uma área de Mata Atlântica secundária. A riqueza total foi mais alta na floresta secundária e nos plantios de Eucalyptus abandonados há mais tempo. A densidade de espécies na floresta secundária foi significativamente maior quando comparado as plantações de Eucalyptus, mas não difere entre eucaliptais; análise de ordenação revelou diferenças na composição de espécies entre as plantações de Eucalyptus com subbosque ausente e com subbosque desenvolvido ou em desenvolvimento. Ainda, foi constatada uma sobreposição acentuada entre amostras de serapilheira das florestas de eucaliptos abandonadas há mais tempo e a floresta secundária. em geral, plantações de eucalipto foram caracterizadas pela presença de espécies generalistas e de ampla distribuição. Nossos resultados indicam que embora o subbosque de plantações de eucaliptos com maior idade de regeneração suporte um conjunto relativamente alto de espécies generalistas de formigas, é improvável que eucaliptais conservem a maioria das espécies de florestas primárias, especialmente predadores especializados, Dacetini e espécies nômades.

Recovery of soil physical properties by green manure, liming, gypsum and pasture and spontaneous native species

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)