To better understand the potentials of the soil seed banks in facilitating succession towards a more natural forest of native tree species, we quantified the size and composition of the soil seed banks in established plantations in South China. The seed banks were from four typical 22-year-old plantations, i.e., legume, mixed-conifer, mixed-native, and Eucalyptus overstory species. Species dive...

Traditional medicinal knowledge has gained much attention recently due to rejuvenation of faith in traditional system of medicines. The Indian Himalaya is a source of plant based indigenous medicinal knowledge based on local plant diversity. Surveys were conducted in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand, India to collect indigenous information on primary health care. 29 formulations using 159 pl...

This paper examines the status of research on indigenous Australian and Brazilian fishers’ knowledge. In Australia, research involving indigenous ecological knowledge has been done mainly in terrestrial environments. The marine environment has gradually increased its profile and share of this research over the last 15 years, following research and management issues associated with indigenous us...

BACKGROUND Historically, fishing is an important activity for riverine communities established along the São Francisco River, including indigenous communities. In the present study, we researched fishing activities in two villages of the Truká ethnic group, both located in the State of Pernambuco along the sub-middle section of the São Francisco River, Northeast Brazil. We recorded the richness...

BACKGROUND Traditional medicinal plant species documentation is very crucial in Ethiopia for biodiversity conservation, bioactive chemical extractions and indigenous knowledge retention. Having first observed the inhabitants of Gubalafto District (Northern Ethiopia), the author gathered, recorded, and documented the human traditional medicinal plant species and the associated indigenous knowled...

South Africa is considered to be a “hotspot” for biodiversity and more than 22,000 plant species occur within its boundaries. This represents 10% of the world’s species, although the land surface of South Africa is less than 1% of the earth. The country is divided into seven biomes and into 68 vegetation types (Low and Rebelo 1996). The Savanna biome covers 33% of the surface of the country, bu...

The biosphere in evolutionary and ecological time has been structured by episodes of geographic and host colonisation that have determined distributions of complex assemblages of microparasites and macroparasites, including helminths circulating among vertebrates. Biological invasion is an intricate phenomenon often involving 'extra-range dispersal' and establishment of exotic (non-indigenous) ...

Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a globally distributed pest composed of at least 34 morphologically indistinguishable cryptic species. At least seven species of endosymbiont have been found infecting some or all members of the complex. The origin(s) of the associations between specific endosymbionts and their whitefly hosts is unknown. Infection is normally vertical, but horizontal t...