33 research outputs found
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Absence of botanical European Palaeolithic cave art â what can it tell us about plant awareness disparity?
Cave art has been an integral part of human history, providing a glimpse into the lives and cultures of our ancestors. Prehistoric botanical art is an important medium that can help us to redefine our intimate relationship with plants. The findings from our work provide some evidence from the European Palaeolithic period that modern plant awareness disparity (PAD) might be more deeply rooted in our past. By inspiring a deeper appreciation and understanding of the natural world, cave art can help people to reconnect with plants, thus tackling PAD
Long term post-fire vegetation dynamics in north-east Mediterranean ecosystems. The case of Mount Athos Greece
Fire is an ecological and disturbance factor with a significant historical role in shaping the landscape of fire-prone environments. Despite the large amount of literature regarding post-fire vegetation dynamics, the north-east Mediterranean region is rather underrepresented in the literature. Studies that refer to the early post fire years and long term research are rather scarce. The current study is conducted in the socially and geographically isolated peninsula of Mount Athos (Holly Mountain) in northern Greece, and it studies vegetation dynamics over a period of 30 years since the last fire. Field data were collected 11 years since the event and were used to identify the present plant communities in the area, using TWINSPAN, and the factors affecting their distribution using CART. Four Landsat (TM, ETM, OLI) images are employed for the calculation of NDVI, which was found effective in detecting the intercommunity variation in the study area, and it is used for long term monitoring. The study includes four communities, from maquis to forest which are common in the Mediterranean region covering a wide altitudinal range. The results suggest that fire affects the various communities in a different way and their recovery differs significantly. While forest communities recover quickly after fire, maintaining their composition and structure, the maquis communities may need several years before reaching the pre-fire characteristics. The dry climatic conditions of the study area are probably the reason for the slow recovery of the most fire prone communities. Given that climate change is expected to make the conditions even drier in the region, studies like this emphasize the need to adopt measures for controlling wildfires and preventing ecosystem degradation
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Mid-term effects of fire on soil properties of North-East Mediterranean ecosystems
Fire is a fundamental ecological process with a long history on Earth, determining the distribution of vegetation formations across the globe. Fire, however, does not only affect the vegetation but also the soil on which vegetation grows, creating a post-fire environment that differs significantly in terms of soil chemical and physical properties from the pre-fire environment. The duration of these alterations remains largely unknown and depends both on the vegetation condition and the fire characteristics. In the current study, we investigate the effect of fire on some chemical and physical properties 11 years after the event in four plant communities. Two of them constitute typical Mediterranean fire-prone plant communities, dominated by sclerophyllous Mediterranean shrubs, such as Quercus coccifera and Q. ilex, while the other two are not considered fire prone and are dominated by deciduous broadleaved species such as Q. petraea and Castanea sativa, respectively. The results indicate that fire affects the soil properties of the various communities in a different manner. Burned sites in the Q. coccifera community have a significantly lower concentration of organic matter, total nitrogen, and available magnesium. At the same time, they have a significantly higher concentration of sand particles and a lower concentration of clay particles. The effect of fire on the soil properties of the other three communities is less dramatic, with differences only in total phosphorus, organic matter, and total nitrogen. The results are discussed in relation to the site conditions and the post-fire regeneration of plant communities
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The botanical education extinction and the fall of plant awareness
Civilization is dependent upon plants for survival. Plants permeate our every moment and our relationship with them will dictate how we will manage the threats of climate change and ecological collapse defining the Anthropocene. Yet, despite the significance of plants and the critical role they have played in shaping ecosystems, civilizations, and human cultures, many people are now disconnected from the botanical world. Students are presented with little plant content, particularly identification, compared with animal content. Consequently, we are producing few plant scientists and educating fewer scientists about plants. This drives a self-accelerating cycle we term . A process of knowledge erosion, that in this instance contributes to our separation from the natural world, makes us blind to the biodiversity crisis and inhibits our ability to restore it. We argue that neglecting the importance of plants within education threatens the foundations of industries and professions that rely on this knowledge. Furthermore, this extinction of botanical education creates an existential threat: Without the skills to fully comprehend the scale of and solutions to human-induced global change, how do we as a society combat it? We present key research agendas that will enable us to reverse the extinction of botanical education and highlight the critical role plants play on the global stage
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Heteropogon â Themeda grasses evolve to occupy either tropical grassland or wetland biomes
Species of the HeteropogonâThemeda clade are ecologically important grasses distributed across the tropics, including widespread species, such as the pantropical Heteropogon contortus and Themeda triandra, and rangeârestricted species such as Heteropogon ritchiei and Themeda anathera. Here, we examine habitat preferences of the grassland/savanna and wetland species by describing bioclimatic niche characteristics, characterizing functional traits, and investigating the evolution of functional traits of 31 species in the HeteropogonâThemeda clade in relation to precipitation and temperature. The climatic limits of the clade are linked to mean annual precipitation and seasonality that also distinguish seven wetland species from 24 grassland/savanna species. Tests of niche equivalency highlighted the unique bioclimatic niche of the wetland species. However, climatic factors do not fully explain species geographic range, and other factors are likely to contribute to their distribution ranges. Trait analyses demonstrated that the wetland and grassland/savanna species were separated by culm height, leaf length, leaf area, awn length, and awn types. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the wetland species had tall stature with long and large leaves and lack of hygroscopic awns, which suggest selective pressures in the shift between savanna/grassland and wetland. The two most widespread species, H. contortus and T. triandra, have significantly different bioclimatic niches, but we also found that climatic niche alone does not explain the current geographic distributions of H. contortus and T. triandra. Our study provides a new understanding of the biogeography and evolutionary history of an ecologically important clade of C4 tropical grasses
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The influence of seed addition and cutting regime on the success of grassland restoration on former arable land.
Questions: Can seed addition enhance the success of establishing species-rich grassland on former arable land? Are sowing date and cutting regime important in determining success?
Location: Aberdeen and Elgin, northeast Scotland, United Kingdom. Methods: A field experiment was conducted at two sites to assess the effect of seed addition, sowing date and cutting regime on the vegetation developing on former arable land, the aim being to compare the success of different treatments at producing a species-rich grassland.
Results: Sowing a seed mix resulted in the establishment of vegetation very distinct from the species-poor vegetation dominated by perennial grasses which otherwise developed, though establishment success of the sown grassland species was highly variable between sites. Where establishment of the sown species was poor, sowing date had no significant effect on species composition, whereas the cutting regime was very important. Cutting the vegetation significantly increased both the number and abundance of sown species compared with the uncut control. Conversely, where establishment had been good, the cutting regime in the first year had little effect on species composition. Cutting the vegetation at least twice a year appeared to be the most effective management over the length of the experiment.
Conclusions: Sowing a seed mixture significantly reduced the abundance and number of naturally colonising species, effectively controlling problem weed species such as Senecio jacobaea and Cirsium vulgare, highlighting the agronomic value of sowing seed mixtures on fallow farmland. The sowing of a seed mix on former arable land has demonstrated that it is feasible to create vegetation similar in character to that of species-rich grasslands
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Drivers of change in mountain farming in Slovakia: from socialist collectivisation to the Common Agricultural Policy
The transformations in Slovak agriculture from the 1950s to the present day, considering both the generic (National and EU) and site-specific (local) drivers of landscape change, were analysed in five mountain study areas in the country. An interdisciplinary approach included analysis of population trends, evaluation of land use and landscape change combined with exploration of the perceptions of local stakeholders and results of previous biodiversity studies. The generic processes active from the 1950s to 1970s were critical for all study areas with impacts lasting right up until the present day. Agricultural collectivisation, agricultural intensification and land abandonment had negative effects in all study areas. However, the precise impacts on the landscape were different in the different study areas due to site-specific attributes (e.g. population trends, geographic localisation and local attitudes and opportunities), and these played a decisive role in determining the trajectory of change. Regional contrasts in rural development between these territories have increased in the last two decades, also due to the imperfect preconditions of governmental support. The recent Common Agricultural Policy developments are focused on maintenance of intensive large-scale farming rather than direct enhancement of agro-biodiversity and rural development at the local scale. In this context, local, site-specific attributes can and must form an essential part of rural development plans, to meet the demands for management of the diversity of agricultural mountain landscapes and facilitate the multifunctional role of agriculture
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A field experiment to recreate species rich hay meadows using regional seed mixtures
Species rich semi-natural grasslands are an important but threatened habitat throughout Europe and much of the former area has been lost since the 1950s. However, in some countries large areas have been preserved and the demand for meadow recreation by sowing seed mixtures is increasing. In the White Carpathians Protected Landscape Area (Czech Republic) the use of commercial seed mixtures is undesirable and the use of regional mixtures has been investigated. The costs for seeding large areas are high and lower cost techniques are needed. In 1999 a field experiment was set up to investigate the establishment of hay meadow vegetation comparing sowing a regional mixture all over a plot with sowing narrow 2.5 In strips of regional seed mixtures into a matrix of a commercial grass mixture or into natural regeneration. The results after five seasons showed good establishment of the sown species in the meadow treatment. Spread of sown species from the sown strips into the surrounding matrix occurred but the cover of species was lower in the commercial grass matrix compared with the natural regeneration matrix. Colonisation of some plots by unsown desirable grassland species from adjacent grassland habitats also occurred, but more species colonised the natural regeneration matrix than the commercial grasses or the sown meadow matrix itself. Overall, the results indicate that, in appropriate situations, sown strips can provide a lower cost but slower and longer-term alternative to field scale sowing of regional seed mixtures for recreation of hay meadow vegetation. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved