In this paper, we argue that the metaphor form of a comparison (i.e., a topic-vehicle pair) is preferred over, and more comprehensible than, the simile form when the interpretive diversity for that comparison is high. Interpretive diversity refers to the richness of the figurative meaning of a comparison; it is high to the extent that more features or properties are related to the figurative me...

Forests are biologically diverse systems, representing some of the richest biological areas on Earth. They offer a variety of habitats for plants, animals and micro-organisms. However, forest biodiversity is increasingly threatened as a result of deforestation, fragmentation, climate change and other stressors. Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or on t...

Multitrophic interactions play key roles in the origin and maintenance of species diversity, and the study of these interactions has contributed to important theoretical advances in ecology and evolutionary biology. Nevertheless, most biodiversity inventories focus on static species lists, and prominent theories of diversity still ignore trophic interactions. The lack of a simple interaction me...

Species diversity is one of the most important indices used for evaluating the sustainability of forest communities. This study aims to characterize the forest communities and to identify and compare the plant species diversity in the study area. For this purpose, 152 relevés were sampled by a randomized-systematic method, using the Braun-Blanquet scale. Classification of the vegetation was con...

We link genetic diversity in the country of origin of the firms’ board members with corporate performance via board members’ nationality. We hypothesize that our approach captures deep-rooted differences in cultural, institutional, social, psychological, physiological, and other traits that cannot be captured by other recently measured indices of diversity. Using a panel of firms listed in the ...

2 Abstract. Ecological studies have now gone beyond measures of species turnover towards measures of phylogenetic and functional dissimilarity. This change of perspective has a main objective: disentangling the processes that drive species distributions from local to broad scales. A fundamental difference between phylogenetic and functional analyses is that phylogeny is intrinsically dependent ...

Impacts of effluent from fish farming activities on fluvial ecosystems lead to deterioration of water quality and changes in the macroinvertebrates assemblage. In this study, the influence of fish farm effluents on water quality and macroinvertebrates communities of Tajan River was investigated to evaluate the suitability of macroinvertebrates based on biological metrics and indices. Benthic...

Little attention has been devoted to lichens of Kerman province (Iran). This study was conducted to identify lichens in the Kuh-Asiab protected area of Kubanan located in the northernmost part of Kerman province. In this study, eight sites were chosen in the area. Sampling was carried out according to Random method. Height data were obtained from each site along with the abundance of lichen spe...