Analyzing factors that influence the folk use and phytonomy of 18 medicinal plants in Navarra

BACKGROUND: This article analyzes whether the distribution or area of use of 18 medicinal plants is influenced by ecological and cultural factors which might account for their traditional use and/or phytonymy in Navarra. This discussion may be helpful for comparative studies, touching as it does on other ethnopharmacological issues: a) which cultural and ecological factors affect the selection of medicinal plants; b) substitutions of medicinal plants in popular medicine; c) the relation between local nomenclature and uses. To analyze these questions, this paper presents an example of a species used for digestive disorders (tea and camomile: Jasonia glutinosa, J. tuberosa, Sideritis hyssopifolia, Bidens aurea, Chamaemelum nobile, Santolina chamaecyparissus...), high blood pressure (Rhamnus alaternus, Olea europaea...) or skin diseases (Hylotelephium maximum, H. telephium, Anagallis arvensis, A. foemina). METHODS: Fieldwork began on January 2004 and continued until December 2006. During that time we interviewed 505 informants in 218 locations in Navarra. Information was collected using semi-structured ethnobotanical interviews, and we subsequently made maps using Arc-View 8.0 program to determine the area of use of each taxon. Each map was then compared with the bioclimatic and linguistic map of Navarra, using the soil and ethnographic data for the region, and with other ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies carried out in Europe. RESULTS: The results clearly show that ecological and cultural factors influence the selection of medicinal plants in this region. Climate and substrate are the most important ecological factors that influence the distribution and abundance of plants, which are the biological factors that affect medicinal plant selection. CONCLUSION: The study of edaphological and climatological factors, on the one hand, and culture, on the other, can help us to understand why a plant is replaced by another one for the same purposes, either in the same or in a different area. In many cases, the cultural factor means that the use of a species is more widespread than its ecological distribution. This may also explain the presence of synonyms and polysemies which are useful for discussing ethnopharmacological data

Vertical distribution of sympagic meiofauna in sea ice in the Canadian Beaufort Sea

This is the first study to determine vertical distribution patterns of sympagic meiofauna, including metazoans, protozoans and eggs <20 μm, in the Amundsen Gulf (southeastern Beaufort Sea, Arctic). Full sea-ice cores were sampled from mid of March to end of May 2008 (Circumpolar Flaw Lead system study). Investigations were performed on first-year ice from three pack- and three fast-ice stations. Additionally, 5-cm bottom-ice sections were sampled at 13 pack-ice and 5 fast-ice stations. The metazoan community was composed of nematodes, rotifers, copepods, copepod nauplii, platyhelminthes and a few rare taxa such as mollusks, cnidarians and nemerteans. High numbers of eggs, between 50 and 2,188 eggs L -1, particularly of nematodes and copepods, were present in the ice. Investigations revealed also eggs of the pelagic species Calanus hyperboreus and Sagitta spp. within the ice, so that further research is needed to clarify whether more organisms than expected might use this habitat as a reproduction ground. Many different morphotypes of protozoans were observed in the samples, especially ciliates of the order Euplotida. The highest abundance was always found in the lowermost 5 cm of the ice cores, nevertheless sympagic meiofauna was not restricted to that part of the ice. Integrated meiofauna abundance ranged between 41 and 4,738 à 10 2 Ind. m -2 and was highest in the fast ice in early May. Differences between pack and fast ice in terms of integrated meiofauna communities and vertical distribution were not significant, while the analysis of the bottom-ice sections indicated both a temporal development and ice-type-specific differences. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Changes in terpene content in milk from pasture-fed cows

International audienc

Biogeochemical Impact of Snow Cover and Cyclonic Intrusions on the Winter Weddell Sea Ice Pack

Sea ice is a dynamic biogeochemical reactor and a double interface actively interacting with both the atmosphere and the ocean. However, proper understanding of its annual impact on exchanges, and therefore potentially on the climate, notably suffer from the paucity of autumnal and winter data sets. Here we present the results of physical and biogeochemical investigations on winter Antarctic pack ice in the Weddell Sea (R. V. Polarstern AWECS cruise, June-August 2013) which are compared with those from two similar studies conducted in the area in 1986 and 1992. The winter 2013 was characterized by a warm sea ice cover due to the combined effects of deep snow and frequent warm cyclones events penetrating southward from the open Southern Ocean. These conditions were favorable to high ice permeability and cyclic events of brine movements within the sea ice cover (brine tubes), favoring relatively high chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations. We discuss the timing of this algal activity showing that arguments can be presented in favor of continued activity during the winter due to the specific physical conditions. Large-scale sea ice model simulations also suggest a context of increasingly deep snow, warm ice, and large brine fractions across the three observational years, despite the fact that the model is forced with a snowfall climatology. This lends support to the claim that more severe Antarctic sea ice conditions, characterized by a longer ice season, thicker, and more concentrated ice are sufficient to increase the snow depth and, somehow counterintuitively, to warm the ice.Peer reviewe