Habitat Preferences of Butterflies in the Bumbuna Forest, Northern Sierra Leone

The habitat preferences of the butterfly fauna were studied in the Bumbuna Forest Reserve in northern Sierra Leone. The intact forest reserve and a secondary forest regrowth, disturbed as a result of slash-and-burn agriculture, were compared to savanna habitats. Of the 290 specimens collected, 195 butterfly species were included, of which significant proportion were Nymphalidae. Of the 147 forest species, 111 (75.5%) showed preferences for the forest habitats, while 70 (47.6%) and 34 (23.1%) preferred disturbed and savannah habitats, respectively. Numerically, a comparable proportion of savannah species were recorded in the 18 disturbed (73.9%) and 16 savannah habitats (63.2%). Accumulated species richness and diversity indices were lower in the disturbed habitats compared to the forest reserve, but lowest in the savanna habitats. However, a large proportion of forest species, especially those with either a more restricted geographic range or species for which no information on geographic distribution was available, were exclusively captured in the forest patches. The survey indicated the presence of a rich butterfly fauna, which should be systematically collected for further research and study in order to build a good taxonomic database for Sierra Leone

Species richness and relative abundance of birds in natural and anthropogenic fragments of Brazilian Atlantic forest

Bird communities were studied in two types of fragmented habitat of Atlantic forest in the State of Paraná, southern Brazil; one consisted of forest fragments that were created as a result of human activities (forest remnants), the other consisted of a set of naturally occurring forest fragments (forest patches). Using quantitative data obtained by the point counts method in 3 forest patches and 3 forest remnants during one year, species richness and relative abundance were compared in those habitats, considering species groups according to their general feeding habits. Insectivores, omnivores, and frugivores presented similar general tendencies in both habitats (decrease of species number with decreasing size and increasing isolation of forest fragment). However, these tendencies were different, when considering the relative abundance data: the trunk insectivores presented the highest value in the smallest patch while the lowest relative abundance was in the smallest remnant. In the naturally fragmented landscape, time permitted that the loss of some species of trunk insectivores be compensated for the increase in abundance of other species. In contrast, the remnants essentially represented newly formed islands that are not yet at equilibrium and where future species losses would make them similar to the patches.<br>Comunidades de aves foram estudadas em duas regiões fragmentadas de floresta Atlântica no Estado do Paraná, sul do Brasil; uma região é constituída de fragmentos florestais que foram criados como resultado de atividades humanas (remanescentes florestais) e a outra de um conjunto de fragmentos florestais naturais (manchas de floresta). Usando dados quantitativos (o método de contagens pontuais) previamente obtidos em 3 manchas de floresta e em 3 remanescentes florestais durante um ano, a riqueza e a abundância relativa de aves foram comparadas naqueles habitats considerando as espécies pelos seus hábitos alimentares. Insetívoros, omnívoros e frugívoros apresentaram tendências gerais similares em ambos os habitats, diminuindo o número de espécies com o tamanho menor e o isolamento maior do fragmento florestal. Entretanto essas tendências foram diferentes considerando dados da abundância relativa: os insetívoros de tronco mostraram o maior valor na menor mancha enquanto que a menor abundância relativa foi obtida no menor remanescente. Na paisagem naturalmente fragmentada, o tempo permitiu que a perda de algumas espécies de insetívoros de tronco fosse compensada pelo aumento na abundância das outras. Em contraste, os remanescentes representam essencialmente ilhas recém formadas que ainda não atingiram o equilíbrio e onde futuras perdas de espécies as fariam similares às manchas

EXTRACTION OF THE GLUON DENSITY OF THE PROTON AT X RID B-9165-2008 RID C-5889-2009 RID A-4818-2008 RID C-1693-2008

The gluon momentum density xg(x, Q(2)) of the proton was extracted at Q(2) = 20 GeV2 for small values of x between 4 x 10(-4) and 10(-2) from the scaling violations of the proton structure function F-2 measured recently by ZEUS in deep inelastic neutral current ep scattering at HERA. The extraction was performed in two ways. Firstly, using a global NLO fit to the ZEUS data on F-2 at low x constrained by measurements from NMC at larger x; and secondly using published approximate methods for the solution of the GLAP QCD evolution equations. Consistent results are obtained. A substantial increase of the gluon density is found at small x in comparison with the NMC result obtained at larger values of x