The grass-free lawn: floral performance and management implications

Grass lawns are a ubiquitous feature of urban green-space throughout much of the temperate world. Species poor and intensively managed, lawns are ecologically impoverished, however environmentally aware lawn owners are reluctant to implement alternatives due to aesthetic concerns. Developing an alternative lawn format which is both biodiversity friendly and aesthetically pleasing is an imperative for urban greening. We suggest that such an alternative can be provided by replacing the grass lawn by a forb-based mix. To advance this, we tested the floral performance of three groups of clonal perennial forbs (native, non-native and mixed), each maintained using standard lawn management mowing regimes. Our findings show that both the frequency of mowing and the height at which mowing is applied influence floral performance and lawn aesthetics. Species origin was found to influence floral productivity, floral visibility and floral variety within grass-free lawns, with native species providing the greatest floral performance. The behaviour and management of grass lawns was not found to be a suitable analogue for the management of grass-free lawns and grass-free lawns are sufficiently different from grass lawns to require an entirely original management approach. We suggest that the grass-free lawn can provide an aesthetically and environmentally relevant replacement for the ubiquitous and ecologically-poor grass lawn.

Phytophagous insect fauna tracks host plant responses to exotic grass invasion

The high dependence of herbivorous insects on their host plants implies that plant invaders can affect these insects directly, by not providing a suitable habitat, or indirectly, by altering host plant availability. In this study, we sampled Asteraceae flower heads in cerrado remnants with varying levels of exotic grass invasion to evaluate whether invasive grasses have a direct effect on herbivore richness independent of the current disturbance level and host plant richness. By classifying herbivores according to the degree of host plant specialization, we also investigated whether invasive grasses reduce the uniqueness of the herbivorous assemblages. Herbivorous insect richness showed a unimodal relationship with invasive grass cover that was significantly explained only by way of the variation in host plant richness. The same result was found for polyphagous and oligophagous insects, but monophages showed a significant negative response to the intensity of the grass invasion that was independent of host plant richness. Our findings lend support to the hypothesis that the aggregate effect of invasive plants on herbivores tends to mirror the effects of invasive plants on host plants. In addition, exotic plants affect specialist insects differently from generalist insects; thus exotic plants affect not only the size but also the structural profile of herbivorous insect assemblages.

Wirklichkeit und Fiktion in Günter Grass Im Krebsgang : Eine erzähltheoretische Analyse

Die Novelle, Im Krebsgang, von Günter Grass ist eine Mischung aus Zeitgeschichte, persönlicher Biografie des Autors und lebhafter Fantasie. Diese Komponenten auseinanderzuhalten könnte die Verständigung der Novelle verbessern. Nach den Annahmen, dass der engste Personenkreis um die Familie Pokriefke Fiktion ist, und die Geschichten um den U-Boot-Kommandanten Marinesko, den Medizinstudenten Frankfurter, den Nationalsozialisten Gustloff und das KdF-Schiff Wilhelm Gustloff faktual sind, wurden sechs Textabschnitte ausgewählt. Durch eine literaturwissenschaftliche Analyse dieser Textabschnitte wurden sechs Punkte gefunden, die die Trennlinie zwischen den fiktionalen und faktualen Textabschnitten identifizieren. Gefunden wurde, dass in den faktualen Texten der Erzähler immer auktorial, aus großer Distanz berichtet, und immer von der Fokalisierung getrennt ist. In den fiktionalen Texten aber liegt immer die Fokalisierung beim Erzähler, der stets szenisch erzählt.

Poverty as an Abuse of Human Rights in Ghana. : A grass roots perspective on poverty and human rights.

The study aimed at getting a grass root opinion on poverty and why Ghana is still poor after 50 years of independence in spite of her richness in natural resources, second largest producer of cocoa in the word and appreciable stable political environment. The opinions of the ordinary people in the Bia district and their observed living conditions was analysed in line with theoretical basis of the study and previous studies to justify the stance that poverty should be considered as an abuse of human rights. It was concluded based on position of informants and previous data available that though many factors have been raised by previous scholars as the cause of poverty, the actions and inactions of both internal and external power-holders is the main source of poverty in Ghana. It was proposed that for poverty to be reduced in a sustainable way there should be strong civil society groups and active citizens through civic education to hold power-holders accountable. Until the actions and inactions of power-holders which have subjected many Ghanaians into intergenerational poverty are seen as human rights abuse, the rights of many Ghanaians would be constantly abused. This will eventually defeat the promotion of human rights culture in Ghana.

Aluminum tolerance on genotypes of signal grass

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Half-sib progenies evaluation in velvet grass

O capim-lanudo (Holcus lanatus L.) possui grande potencial de utilização como pastagem de inverno nas regiões subtropicais, devido a seu bom estabelecimento, persistência, produção, resistência ao frio, palatabilidade e capacidade de afilhamento. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estimar a variabilidade genética e a herdabilidade de caracteres agronômicos e identificar progênies superiores. Foram avaliadas 60 progênies de meios-irmãos, para altura (NH) e diâmetro da planta na fase vegetativa, duração do ciclo vegetativo (ciclo), altura final (FH) e número de afilhos. Houve diferença entre progênies para todos os caracteres. As estimativas de herdabilidade foram de 38%, 32%, 92%, 57% e 64% para NH, diâmetro, ciclo, FH e afilhos, respectivamente. O maior ganho genético estimado foi de 30,77 % para o número de afilhos. Existe variabilidade para todos os caracteres e são esperados ganhos na seleção entre progênies.

Emerald zoyzia grass development regarding photosynthetically active radiation in different slopes

Com este trabalho, o objetivo foi estimar a radiação fotossinteticamente ativa (PAR) e correlacioná-la com a massa de matéria seca (MMSPA) da grama-esmeralda (Zoysia japonica Steud.), em superfícies com diferentes exposições e declividades. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida na Bacia Hidrográfica Experimental do Departamento de Engenharia Rural, FCAV/UNESP, Brasil, onde foram utilizadas as superfícies (H; 10 N; 30 N; 50 N; 10 S; 30 S; 50 S; 10 L; 30 L; 50 L; 10 O; 30 O e 50 O). Para a obtenção da radiação solar global, foi instalada uma estação meteorológica automatizada, onde a PAR (variável dependente) foi obtida por meio da equação y = a + bx, e a radiação global foi a independente. Para comparação de médias da MMSPA, utilizou-se o teste de Tukey, a 5% de probabilidade, e para verificar a relação existente PAR/MMSPA, o coeficiente de correlação linear simples. O resultado mostrou que o acúmulo desses efeitos na PAR aumenta com a exposição norte e decresce com a sul, sendo a exposição 50 N a mais indicada para taludes, não havendo correlação entre a PAR e a MMSPA para as superfícies avaliadas para o período estudado.

Macronutrients in Marandu Palisade Grass as Influenced by Lime, Slag, and Nitrogen Fertilization

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)