While dairy goat production, characterized by traditional production on small farms, is an important source of income in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, locally adapted breeds have not been fully ...consolidated over the last 100 years due to large fluctuations in population size and inconsistent breeding programs that allowed for different crossbreeding strategies. Our main objective in this study was therefore to assess the conservation status of 4 Czech (Alpine Goat, White Shorthair, Brown Shorthair and Czech Landrace) and one Slovak (Slovak White Shorthair) local goat breeds, to analyze their population structure and admixture, and to estimate their relatedness to several neighboring breeds. Our analyses included 142 goats belonging to 5 local breeds genotyped with the Illumina 50K BeadChip and 618 previously genotyped animals representing 15 goat breeds from Austria and Switzerland (all analyses based on 46,862 autosomal SNPs and 760 animals). In general, the conservation status of the Czech and Slovak local goat breeds was satisfactory, with the exception of the Brown Shorthair goat, as the analyzed parameters (heterozygosity, haplotype richness, ROH-based inbreeding and effective population size) were mostly above the median of 20 breeds. However, for all 5 Czech and Slovakian breeds, an examination of historical effective population size indicated a substantial decline about 8 to 22 generations ago. In addition, our study revealed that the Czech and Slovakian breeds are not fully consolidated; for instance, White Shorthair and Brown Shorthair were not clearly distinguishable. Considerable admixture, especially in Czech Landrace (effective number of parental clusters equal to 4.2), and low but numerous migration rates from other Austrian and Swiss breeds were found. These results provide valuable insights for future breeding programs and genetic diversity management of local Czech and Slovak goat breeds.
Summary
Impatiens kingdon‐wardii
Nob. Tanaka & T. Sugaw. is illustrated, and the history of its discovery is given. IUCN conservation status is reassessed based on the recent further collections from ...Myanmar. A white flower form of
I. kingdon‐wardii
is described here.
Summary
Furcraea macdougallii Matuda, Falso Maguey Grande, is illustrated (Plate 1053). Its history in cultivation and distribution in Mexico are discussed. Its conservation status: probably extinct ...in the wild.
Eryngium L. incluye ca. 250 especies y se encuentra en todos los continentes, excepto en la Antártida. Las especies del género que habitan Chile son en su mayoría endémicas de ese país y están ...filogenéticamente más relacionadas con especies de la costa oeste de Estados Unidos de América y de Australia. Existen estudios taxonómicos en prensa o en preparación para los linajes norteamericanos y australianos de Eryngium. Sin embargo, las especies de Eryngium de Chile no han sido revisadas taxonómicamente desde hace más de un siglo. Por otra parte, muchas de las especies endémicas de Chile presentan distribuciones restringidas, por lo que merecen particular atención para evaluar si se encuentran en alguna categoría de amenaza para desarrollar políticas de conservación. El objetivo de este estudio es realizar una revisión taxonómica de todas las especies de Eryngium que crecen en Chile, incluyendo un análisis de su estado de conservación. Para ello, se analizó la morfología vegetativa y reproductiva, y la distribución geográfica y hábitat de unos 750 ejemplares de herbario. Además, se evaluaron los estados de conservación de las especies de acuerdo con las categorías y criterios de la Lista Roja de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza. En total, se reconocieron 17 especies de Eryngium que habitan Chile, de las cuales 15 son endémicas de dicho país y dos crecen también en la Argentina. Se proporciona una clave para el reconocimiento de las especies. Para cada una ellas se presentan una lista de los sinónimos aceptados, su descripción morfológica, ilustración, mapa de distribución, hábitats, fenología, nombres vernáculos y usos. Se proponen seis sinónimos nuevos (Eryngium polyrhizum Clos y todas las variedades de E. depressum Hook. & Arn. pasan a la sinonimia de E. depressum, E. amethystinodes Kuntze pasa a la sinonimia de E. rostratum Cav., E. delarocheanum H. Wolff pasa a la sinonimia de E. paniculatum Cav. & Dombey ex F. Delaroche), y se analizan y resuelven problemas nomenclaturales, incluyendo la tipificación de 23 nombres. Se rectifican los rangos de distribución de seis especies (Eryngium anomalum Hook. & Arn., E. coquimbanum Phil. ex Urb., E. depressum, E. humifusum Clos, E. pulchellum Phil. y E. rostratum). Cerca del 60% de las especies de Eryngium que habitan Chile se encuentran en alguna categoría de amenaza, la mayoría en peligro crítico, por lo que deberían ser objetivos especiales para la conservación. Eryngium L. comprises ca. 250 species and is distributed in every continent, except Antarctica. The species of the genus that inhabit Chile are mostly endemic to that country and are phylogenetically closely related to species from the west coast of the United States of America and Australia. Taxonomic studies of the North American and Australian lineages of Eryngium are in press or in preparation. However, the Eryngium species from Chile have not been revised taxonomically for more than a century. Moreover, many of the species of the genus endemic to Chile show restricted distributions and, therefore, deserve particular attention to evaluate if they are in any category of threat in order to develop conservation policies. The objective of this study is to perform a taxonomic revision of the species of Eryngium from Chile, including an analysis of their conservation status. For this purpose, the vegetative and reproductive morphology and the geographic distribution and habitat of ca. 750 herbarium specimens were analyzed. In addition, the conservation status of the species was evaluated following the Red List categories and criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In total, 17 species of Eryngium were recognized in Chile, of which 15 are endemic to that country and two also grow in Argentina. A key for the recognition of species is provided. For each species, a list of accepted synonyms, a morphological description, illustration, distribution map, habitats, phenology, and vernacular names are presented. Six new synonyms are proposed (Eryngium polyrhizum Clos and all varieties of E. depressum Hook. & Arn. are synonymized with E. depressum, E. amethystinodes Kuntze is synonymized with E. rostratum Cav., and E. delarocheanum H. Wolff is synonymized with E. paniculatum Cav. & Dombey ex F. Delaroche), and nomenclature problems were analyzed and resolved, including the typification of 23 names. The distribution ranges of six species (Eryngium anomalum Hook. & Arn., E. coquimbanum Phil. ex Urb., E. depressum, E. humifusum Clos, E. pulchellum Phil., and E. rostratum) are rectified. Aproximately 60% of the Eryngium species from Chile belong to a category of threat, and most of them are critically endangered, so they should be special targets for conservation.
We report for the first time the occurence of Hyphaene guineensis Schumach. & Thonn. (Arecaceae) in the flora of Benin at Grand-Popo. We describe this species using stem, leaf, and fruit ...morphological traits from field observations, specialized keys, historical and modern herbarium vouchers. Demographic and phenological observations are also provided, and a key is proposed for differentiating H. guineensis from the other species of Hyphaene known from Benin. This work contributes to the knowledge of the geographical distribution, the ecology, and the conservation of H. guineensis in tropical Africa.
For this article, I reviewed empirical studies finding significant ecological responses to habitat fragmentation per se-in other words, significant responses to fragmentation independent of the ...effects of habitat amount (hereafter referred to as habitat fragmentation). I asked these two questions: Are most significant responses to habitat fragmentation negative or positive? And do particular attributes of species or landscapes lead to a predominance of negative or positive significant responses? I found 118 studies reporting 381 significant responses to habitat fragmentation independent of habitat amount
.
Of these responses, 76% were positive. Most significant fragmentation effects were positive, irrespective of how the authors controlled for habitat amount, the measure of fragmentation, the taxonomic group, the type of response variable, or the degree of specialization or conservation status of the species or species group. No support was found for predictions that most significant responses to fragmentation should be negative in the tropics, for species with larger movement ranges, or when habitat amount is low; most significant fragmentation effects were positive in all of these cases. Thus, although 24% of significant responses to habitat fragmentation were negative, I found no conditions in which most responses were negative. Authors suggest a wide range of possible explanations for significant positive responses to habitat fragmentation: increased functional connectivity, habitat diversity, positive edge effects, stability of predator-prey host-parasitoid systems, reduced competition, spreading of risk, and landscape complementation. A consistent preponderance of positive significant responses to fragmentation implies that there is no justification for assigning lower conservation value to a small patch than to an equivalent area within a large patch-instead, it implies just the opposite. This finding also suggests that land sharing will usually provide higher ecological value than land sparing.
We report the first record of Vitex orinocensis Kunth (Lamiaceae) from Ceará state, northeastern Brazil. This species was collected in an upland Semideciduous Seasonal Forest. This occurrence ...adds new information about the flora of Ceará and expands the geographic range of this species in Brazil, which is important for its conservation. We provide taxonomic information, distribution map, implications for its conservation status, photographs, and a identification key for the Vitex Tour. ex L. species from Ceará.
Se describe e ilustra una nueva especie del género Pleurothallis para la región Andina colombiana llamada P. villahermosae, perteneciente a la subsección Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae. La nueva especie ...es morfológicamente similar a Pleurothalis callosa, de la cual se diferencia por tener el sépalo dorsal y el sinsépalo ovado-elíptico; pétalos falcado-lanceolados, acuminados y el labelo cuadrangular-ovado con presencia de 2 callos basales que ocupan un tercio de la longitud del labelo (vs. sépalo dorsal elíptico y sinsépalo ampliamente ovado y labelo unguiculado con 2 callos basales que se extienden hasta la mitad de la longitud del labelo en P. callosa). Se proporciona información geográfica, características ecológicas y estado de conservación de la nueva especie.
