The Shaqadud Archaeological Project (Sudan): exploring prehistoric cultural adaptations in the Sahelian hinterlands

The authors present preliminary results from a new research project based in Jebel Shaqadud, Sudan. Their findings highlight the potential for this region's archaeological record to expand our understanding of the adaptation strategies used by human groups in arid north-east African environments away from rivers and lakes during the Holocene. Furthermore, they present exceptionally early radiocarbon dates that push postglacial human occupation in the eastern Sahel back to the twelfth millennium BP

Rethinking resilience: home gardening, food sharing and everyday resistance

Resilience and food self-provisioning (FSP), terms that until recently were deployed primarily in the study of livelihoods in the Global South, are now attracting attention from alternative food scholarship in the Global North. Drawing on a large-scale survey conducted in the Czech Republic, this article investigates FSP as a social resilience-enhancing set of practices. In addition to the traditional reading of FSP as a passive, defensive and crisis-deflecting form of resilience, this article puts forward an alternative conceptualisation of resilience as a proactive, preventative, future-oriented and transformation-enabling capacity that runs counter to the tenets of neoliberalism

Plant trait and vegetation data along a 1314 m elevation gradient with fire history in Puna grasslands, Perú

Alpine grassland vegetation supports globally important biodiversity and ecosystems that are increasingly threatened by climate warming and other environmental changes. Trait-based approaches can support understanding of vegetation responses to global change drivers and consequences for ecosystem functioning. In six sites along a 1314 m elevational gradient in Puna grasslands in the Peruvian Andes, we collected datasets on vascular plant composition, plant functional traits, biomass, ecosystem fluxes, and climate data over three years. The data were collected in the wet and dry season and from plots with different fire histories. We selected traits associated with plant resource use, growth, and life history strategies (leaf area, leaf dry/wet mass, leaf thickness, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf C, N, P content, C and N isotopes). The trait dataset contains 3,665 plant records from 145 taxa, 54,036 trait measurements (increasing the trait data coverage of the regional flora by 420%) covering 14 traits and 121 plant taxa (ca. 40% of which have no previous publicly available trait data) across 33 families

The influence of distillers dried grains with solubles in broiler’s feed mixtures on their growth parameters

The effect of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in broiler feed mixtures on the performance was studied in an experiment with 1000 male broiler chickens Ross 308 from 12 to 35 days of age. DDGS were produced from wheat (90 %) and triticale (10 %). Cockerels were divided into 5 groups and were housed on deep litter. Experimental feed mixtures were formulated to contain: 0, 10, 15, 20 and 25 % DDGS and were calculated as iso-nitrogenous. Weighing of chickens was realized at the 12th, 26th and 35th day of age. Control group of cockerels (0 % DDGS) had the highest final live weight and its average daily weight gain was significantly higher (P < 0.01) than in birds from groups with 10, 15 and 25 % DDGS. Broilers from control group (0 % DDGS) had the highest consumption of dry matter of feed mixture per bird. There were no significantly differences in feed consumption per bird and in feed conversion between groups. The results show that incorporation from 10 to 25 % DDGS decreased final weights and weight gains however there were no significantly differences in feed consumption and feed conversion