Restauração passiva em pastagens abandonadas a partir de núcleos de vegetação na Mata Atlântica, Brasil

The nuclei of vegetation are structures spontaneously formed by small clusters of individual shrubs and trees that, upon evolving in disturbed pastures can contribute to the ecological succession. In order to understand the evolution of passive restoration processes in tropical ecosystems, after extensive cattle ranching was stopped, environments with low environmental attributes were studied, located in the northern slope of the isolated mounds between floodplain. After 40 years of abandonment, the nuclei of vegetation colonized 20% of the graminoid ecosystems sampled, presenting at a moderate stage of disturbance. The floristic composition of the upper strata and regenerating showed that nuclei with two or more pioneer forest species and anemocoric dispersion syndrome, such as Moquiniastrum polymorphum, present a high probability of having their restoration processes catalyzed in time. Developed nuclei present higher richness and abundance in their regenerating stratum, besides zoological and non-pioneering species, suggesting positive interactions between the ecological processes, a condition that gives sustainability to the advances of the passive forest restoration. The improvement of this information can contribute to the development of models of induced restoration based on the effects of nucleation.Os núcleos de vegetação são estruturas formadas espontaneamente por pequenos agrupamentos de indivíduos arbustivos e arbóreos, que, ao evoluírem em pastagens perturbadas, podem contribuir na sucessão ecológica. Para compreender a evolução dos processos de restauração florestal passiva em ecossistemas tropicais, depois de paralisada a pecuária extensiva, foram estudados ambientes com baixa oferta de atributos ambientais localizados na vertente norte dos morrotes isolados entre planície de inundação. Após 40 anos de abandono, os núcleos de vegetação colonizaram 20% dos ecossistemas graminoides amostrados, apresentando-se em estágio moderado de perturbação. A composição florística dos estratos superior e regenerante evidenciou que núcleos com duas ou mais espécies florestais pioneiras e com síndrome de dispersão anemocórica, como Moquiniastrum polymorphum, apresentam alta probabilidade de terem seus processos de restauração catalisados no tempo. Núcleos desenvolvidos apresentam riqueza e abundância maiores em seu estrato regenerante, além de espécies zoocóricas e não pioneiras, sugerindo interações positivas entre processos ecológicos, condição que confere sustentabilidade aos avanços da restauração florestal passiva. O aprimoramento destas informações pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento de modelos de restauração induzidos com base nos efeitos da nucleação

Composição e estrutura arbórea de um remanescente costeiro de Mata Atlântica no Rio de Janeiro

The Atlantic Forest is one of the richest and most threatened biomes in Brazil. However, the structure and floristic composition of many of its remnants are still unknown. This study assessed the structure and tree composition of the Serra da Tiririca – SET coastal remnant, is the largest remnant in Serra da Tiririca State Park – PESET (Atlantic Forest, RJ). In ten 50 × 20 m plots installed between the edges and the interior of the remnant, we registered 403 trees distributed in 29 families, 59 genera, and 126 species. The richest and most abundant families were Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, and Meliaceae, while the most representative species were Gallesia integrifolia towards the interior of the remnant and Piptadenia gonoacantha towards the edges. The remnant had an average Shannon-Wiener Diversity of 3.69, a total basal area of ​​19.3 m2/ha, and an average diameter and height of 20.42 cm and 11.8 m, respectively. This study shows that the SET remnant is floristically heterogeneous and has distinct structural characteristics and stretches in different successional stages related to edge and interior gradients. Anthropogenic pressures on the remnant are likely to persist and are evidenced mainly by the forest structure.A Mata Atlântica é um dos biomas mais ricos e ameaçados do Brasil. No entanto, a estrutura e composição florística de muitos de seus remanescentes ainda são desconhecidas. Este estudo avaliou a estrutura e a composição arbórea do remanescente costeiro da Serra da Tiririca - SET, o maior remanescente do Parque Estadual da Serra da Tiririca - PESET (Mata Atlântica, RJ). Em dez parcelas de 50 × 20 m instaladas entre as bordas e o interior do remanescente, registramos 403 árvores distribuídas em 29 famílias, 59 gêneros e 126 espécies. As famílias mais ricas e abundantes foram Fabaceae, Myrtaceae e Meliaceae, enquanto as espécies mais representativas foram Gallesia integrifolia para o interior do remanescente e Piptadenia gonoacantha para às bordas. O remanescente apresentou uma diversidade média de Shannon-Wiener de 3,69, uma área basal total de 19,3 m2/ha e diâmetro e altura médios de 20,42 cm e 11,8 m, respectivamente. Este estudo mostra que o remanescente da SET é florísticamente heterogêneo e possui características estruturais distintas e trechos em diferentes estágios sucessionais relacionadas aos gradientes de bordas e interior. De igual forma, este estudo observou que as pressões antrópicas sobre o remanescente tendem a persistir e são evidenciadas principalmente pela estrutura florestal

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location: Amazonia. Taxon: Angiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots). Methods: Data for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega-phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran\u27s eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny. Results: In the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white-sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R$^{2}$ = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R$^{2}$ = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types. Main Conclusion: Numerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long-standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good