Amazonia

The Amazonia series interweaves scientific, aesthetic and cultural paradigms to offer insights into the huge diversity of living organisms and the space they occupy in the planet’s evolution. It resulted from research conducted in the Natural History Museum, London and a field expedition to the Peruvian Amazon. The primary inquiry, based on the theory of operational aesthetics, was to investigate how contemporary art can act as a trigger to provoke a deeper appreciation of the natural world and to understand the importance of biodiversity and the effects its loss will have on climate change. The thirty-seven commissioned artefacts in different media and formats were specifically created for the Jerwood Gallery at the Natural History Museum to stimulate different sensations and provoke different audience responses. The artworks focused attention on the myriad of species that depend on the eco-equilibrium of the Amazon and prompted the public to reflect on the fragile balance and coexistence of this environment. As part of the commissioning process the researchers engaged with the museum collections including entomology, botany, palaeontology and the library archive as well as accompanying scientists on the field trip to the Amazon. This led to a distinctive range of approaches, including macrophotographs, a diptych video projection, and three 1:1 porcelain sculpture casts of dinosaur fossils. The exhibition was funded by the Natural History Museum of London Contemporary Art Program to coincide with the International Year of Biodiversity

Pattern and process in Amazon tree turnover, 1976-2001

Previous work has shown that tree turnover, tree biomass and large liana densities have increased in mature tropical forest plots in the late twentieth century. These results point to a concerted shift in forest ecological processes that may already be having significant impacts on terrestrial carbon stocks, fluxes and biodiversity. However, the findings have proved controversial, partly because a rather limited number of permanent plots have been monitored for rather short periods. The aim of this paper is to characterize regional-scale patterns of 'tree turnover' (the rate with which trees die and recruit into a population) by using improved datasets now available for Amazonia that span the past 25 years. Specifically, we assess whether concerted changes in turnover are occurring, and if so whether they are general throughout the Amazon or restricted to one region or environmental zone. In addition, we ask whether they are driven by changes in recruitment, mortality or both. We find that: (i) trees 10 cm or more in diameter recruit and die twice as fast on the richer soils of southern and western Amazonia than on the poorer soils of eastern and central Amazonia; (ii) turnover rates have increased throughout Amazonia over the past two decades; (iii) mortality and recruitment rates have both increased significantly in every region and environmental zone, with the exception of mortality in eastern Amazonia; (iv) recruitment rates have consistently exceeded mortality rates; (v) absolute increases in recruitment and mortality rates are greatest in western Amazonian sites; and (vi) mortality appears to be lagging recruitment at regional scales. These spatial patterns and temporal trends are not caused by obvious artefacts in the data or the analyses. The trends cannot be directly driven by a mortality driver (such as increased drought or fragmentation-related death) because the biomass in these forests has simultaneously increased. Our findings therefore indicate that long-acting and widespread environmental changes are stimulating the growth and productivity of Amazon forests

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors

ANALISIS KANDUNGAN LOGAM TIMBAL (Pb) DAN LAJU KONSUMSI AMAN KERANG KEPAH (Polymesoda erosa) DI SUNGAI DONAN CILACAP

ABSTRACT One of the content that contained in Donan River is known as a lead (Pb). Lead that contained in the water will accumulate in the body of water organisme, one of which is the body shells (Polymesoda erosa). This type of research is a descriptive study and use the test "one sample t test". Based on the results of research on three stations in the River Donan is in the vicinity of Tritih Kulon, around the industrial area and around the Port Crossing Sleko, indicate that the sample (Polymesoda erosa) examined showed a significant difference to the standard used, SNI No. 7387 Year of 2009. The results of analysis using the "one-sample t test" indicates p value at stations I is 0,028, station II is 0,031 and 0,034 for station III, where a significance value less than 0,05 which indicates there is a significant difference between Pb content in the body of shells in River Donan with standard that used. The results of the calculation of the rate of consumption is safe for the shellfish mussel in the River Donan at station I that is equal to 0.00372 kg/day, the station II of 0.00367 kg/day and station III of 0.0037 kg/day. For the public should not consume mussel shells (Polymesoda erosa) from River Donan Cilacap in quantities of more than 0.004 grams/day to avoid the accumulation of Pb in the body. Keyword: Metal Content of Lead (Pb), flesh shells (Polymesoda erosa), The Rate of Safe Consumption  Kesmasindo, Volume 6, Nomor 2, Juli 2013, Hal 85-9

Package betaper

Documentation for the R-package "betaper