The Cerrado is a biome that corresponds to 24% of Brazil's territory. Only recently microbial communities of this biome have been investigated. Here we describe for the first time the diversity of archaeal communities from freshwater lake sediments of the Cerrado in the dry season and in the transition period between the dry and rainy seasons, when the first rains occur. Gene libraries were con...

Background. We performed 2 cross-sectional studies in Ménaka in the Northeastern Mali across 9 sites in different ecological settings: 4 sites have permanent ponds, 4 without ponds, and one (City of Ménaka) has a semipermanent pond. We enrolled 1328 subjects in May 2004 (hot dry season) and 1422 in February 2005 (cold dry season) after the rainy season. Objective. To examine the seasonality of ...

This study compared leaf gas exchange, leaf hydraulic conductance, twig hydraulic conductivity and leaf osmotic potential at full turgor between two drought-deciduous trees, Vitex peduncularis Wall. and Xylia xylocarpa (Roxb.) W. Theob., and two evergreen trees, Hopea ferrea Lanessan and Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels, at the uppermost canopies in tropical dry forests in Thailand. The aims were to...

The effects of dry and wet seasons on the blood profiles of the Nigerian duck were determined. This is with a view of elucidating any seasonal variations in these parameters. The haematological values studied included the erythrocyte values (RBC, PCV, Hb., MCH, MCHC and MCV) and the leucocyte values (total and differential leucocyte counts). In the dry season, the duck had higher (p<0.01) RBC c...

Leaf gas exchange and leaf water (18)O enrichment (Delta(18)O(L)) were measured in three Clusia species under field conditions during dry and wet seasons and in Miconia argentea during the dry season in the Republic of Panama. During the dry season, all three Clusia species used crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM); during the wet season Clusia pratensis operated in the C(3) mode, while Clusia uv...

As a more detailed continuation of a previous study, faecal samples for worm egg counts were collected per rectum from ten marked adult animals in selected flocks of goats, in each of six villages evenly spread out in the communal farming district of Okakarara in eastern Namibia. The study was conducted on a monthly basis from August 1999 to July 2000. Average faecal worm egg counts (FECs) were...

The presence of cyathostomin larvae is directly associated to climatic conditions of each region. This study aimed to evaluate the ecology of infective larvae on Brachiaria humidicola during the dry and rainy seasons from October 2007 to September 2008 in a tropical region, Rio de Janeiro state, southeastern Brazil. Stools were collected from the rectum of horses naturally infected with cyathos...

Prolonged carriage of Plasmodium falciparum in humans during the dry season is critical for parasite survival, as the infected subjects constitute a major reservoir in the absence of transmission. Yet, very little is known about the host/parasite interactions contributing to parasite persistence. In order to study the characteristics of P. falciparum infections during the dry season, we have ge...

Evapotranspiration is a reliable indicator of wetland health. Wetlands are an important and valuable ecosystem on the South Florida landscape. Accurate wetland Actual Evapotranspiration (AET) data can be used to evaluate the performance of South Florida’s Everglades restoration programs. However, reliable AET measurements rely on scattered point measurements restricting applications over a larg...

Vegetative propagation potentials of stem cuttings of different physiological ages of Gongronema latifolia highly valued for its nutritional and medicinal properties in South-eastern Nigeria was studied during two seasons in Nsukka. A single source of stem cuttings of the different physiological ages (hardwood, semihardwood and soft wood) was taken from a clone in a forest in South-eastern Nige...