Local perception of ecosystem services provided by bats and bees and their conservation in Bénin, West Africa

Indigenous perception on ecosystem services provided by honey bees and fruit bats were assessed in Bénin to find out whether the communities value these services and to appreciate if there is any chance to conserve them locally. Farmers were interviewed with questionnaire in three regions of Bénin to report their perception on bats and bees’ value in nature, for human, the trend of their populations and the chance to conserve them. We reported that the communities valued more and more bees’ services in nature from the Southern to the Northern of the country (3 vs. 52%). Bees were threatened according to 35% (South), 89% (Centre) and 99% (North) of interviewees’ declarations. 26-41% persons stated there is chance to conserve them. Bats’ seed dispersal was better recognized in the North (91%) than in the Central zone (76%) and in the South (19%). Bats were threatened mainly by their use as bush meat (52-93% of interviewees) and there is some chance to conserve them mainly in the South, according to percentage of respondents. Population regression was declared for these two animals everywhere. We concluded that ecosystem services provided were overall well known giving thereby some chance to promote actions to conserve them.Keywords: Bats, bees, conservation, ecosystem services, local communitie

Uso da técnica EPG para monitoramento do comportamento alimentar de afídeos nas cultivares de trigo Embrapa 16 e BRS Timbaúva.

Editores técnicos: Joseani Mesquita Antunes, Ana Lídia Variani Bonato, Márcia Barrocas Moreira Pimentel

Biologia de Rhopalosiphum Padi (Hemiptera:Aphididae) em diferentes temperaturas e cultivares de trigo.

Editores técnicos: Joseani Mesquita Antunes, Ana Lídia Variani Bonato, Márcia Barrocas Moreira Pimentel

Djehuty: A Code for Modeling Whole Stars in Three Dimensions

The DJEHUTY project is an intensive effort at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to produce a general purpose 3-D stellar structure and evolution code to study dynamic processes in whole stars.Comment: 2 pages, IAU coll. 18

The Cauchy problem on a characteristic cone for the Einstein equations in arbitrary dimensions

We derive explicit formulae for a set of constraints for the Einstein equations on a null hypersurface, in arbitrary dimensions. We solve these constraints and show that they provide necessary and sufficient conditions so that a spacetime solution of the Cauchy problem on a characteristic cone for the hyperbolic system of the reduced Einstein equations in wave-map gauge also satisfies the full Einstein equations. We prove a geometric uniqueness theorem for this Cauchy problem in the vacuum case.Comment: 83 pages, 1 figur