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.
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.
The characterization of the elements of geodiversity, through different inventory and quantitative evaluation methods, in the past decades, has allowed the identification of the most representative ...sites of the regional geological evolution of the state of São Paulo. Between 2013 and 2016, the first phase of the inventory of the geological heritage of São Paulo state was carried out. At the end of this stage, 142 geosites integrated into 11 geological categories were defined, which were characterized and quantitatively evaluated according to their scientific value and degradation risk, to establish future management priorities. Between 2017 and 2019, in the second phase of the research, the data obtained in the inventory were submitted to an analysis aiming at the diagnosis of use and protection and the proposal of strategies for management and public use of these geosites. Currently, the inventory of the geological heritage of the state is composed of 143 geosites, of which, based on their scientific value, 57 were evaluated as potential candidates to be integrated into the inventory of the national geological heritage. Despite this, there are still few works that systematically apply the stages of conservation and monitoring of geological sites. In this context, this study presented the initial phase of the definition of a methodology for the assessment of the evolution of the state of conservation of the geological heritage and its application in the state of São Paulo, to subsidize future actions of management and preservation of this heritage. In this stage, 129 state geosites were evaluated based on three defined criteria. This evaluation preliminarily resulted in the identification of 10 priority geosites, which will
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.
Nikaia Antik Kenti'nin günümüze kadar tespit edilebilmiş en büyük nekropol alanı olan İznik'in yaklaşık 1,5 km kuzeydoǧusundaki Hisardere / Bayırdibi mevkiinde açıǧa çıkarılan, son derece iyi ...korunagelmiş Roma Dönemi'ne ait lahitler, sadece bölgenin yerel üretim lahitleri konusunda bilgiler sunmakla kalmayıp, Küçük Asya Roma İmparatorluk Dönemi lahitleri konusuna tipolojik ve ikonografik açıdan yeni bilgiler de eklemektedir. Bu makalede söz konusu nekropol alanında, 2015 yılı sonlarında, İznik Müze Müdürlüǧü tarafından gerçekleştirilen kurtarma kazılarında keşfedilen Dokimeion üretimi bir sütünlu lahdin bilim dünyasına tanıtılması amaçlanmaktadır. Lahit, sandukasının üzerinde bulunan yüksek kabartma olarak işlenmiş betimlemeleri ile hem Dokimeion lahitleri üzerinde nadiren rastlanan kompozisyonlar sunmakta, hem de daha önceden korunma durumu nedeniyle yanlış yorumlanmış bir lahit üzerindeki kabartmanın da eksiksiz bir şekilde tamamlanmasına olanak saǧlamaktadır. Lahdin üzerinde in situ halde bulunan kırma çatı biçimli kapak ise Dokimeion üretimi sütunlu lahitlerinin standart tipine ait bilinen tek örneǧi oluşturmakta ve bu tipin sandukalarını örten kapaklar hakkında günümüze kadar kabul görmüş bazı yargıları da deǧiştirmektedir.
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.
