The levels of mineral elements in foliage of 10 Coprosma species growing in secondary forest in Dunedin were compared using canonical discriminant analysis. The results revealed distinctive patterns of nutrient accumulation separating divaricating and non-divaricating growth forms. Foliar concentrations of N, P and Na were higher in divaricating species, particularly those with small, membranou...

Once, Europe was one large natural area, across which species of animals and plants were able freely to move and disperse. Today, a satellite image of Europe looks like a Persian carpet cut into millions of small rectangular pieces, each fashioned by the plough and the spade over thousands of years of cultivation. The consequence of this change is that species have disappeared. For example, ani...

Soil erosion is a key threat to many ecosystems, especially in subtropical China where high erosion rates occur. While the mechanisms that induce soil erosion on agricultural land are well understood, soil erosion processes in forests have rarely been studied. Throughfall kinetic energy (TKE) is influenced in manifold ways and often determined by the tree's leaf and architectural traits. We inv...

Stigmatomma is the most speciose ant genus in the subfamily Amblyoponinae. In the present paper, the worker caste of a new species is described, S. luyiaesp. n., which was collected from a soil sample in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in Taiwan. An identification key to the females of Stigmatomma species with 11 antennomeres occurring in Asia is also provided.

A plant phenotyping approach was applied to evaluate growth rate of containerized tree seedlings during the precultivation phase following seed germination. A simple and affordable stereo optical system was used to collect stereoscopic red-green-blue (RGB) images of seedlings at regular intervals of time. Comparative analysis of these images by means of a newly developed software enabled us to ...

To reduce future loss of biodiversity and to allocate conservation funds effectively, the major drivers behind large-scale extinction processes must be identified. A promising approach is to link the red-list status of species and specific traits that connect species of functionally important taxa or guilds to resources they rely on. Such traits can be used to detect the influence of anthropoge...

Pinnate compound leaves have laminae called leaflets distributed at intervals along an axis, the rachis, whereas simple leaves have a single lamina. In simpleand compound-leaved species, the PHANTASTICA (PHAN) gene is required for lamina formation. Antirrhinum majus mutants lacking a functional gene develop abaxialized, bladeless adult leaves. Transgenic downregulation of PHAN in the compound t...

Pinnate compound leaves have laminae called leaflets distributed at intervals along an axis, the rachis, whereas simple leaves have a single lamina. In simple- and compound-leaved species, the PHANTASTICA (PHAN) gene is required for lamina formation. Antirrhinum majus mutants lacking a functional gene develop abaxialized, bladeless adult leaves. Transgenic downregulation of PHAN in the compound...

In temperate trees, the extension growth history of stems and branches is easily inferred from the positions of the rings of over-wintering bud-scale scars, allowing one to assess environmental responses from surveys of saplings (Beaudet & Messier 1998, Canham 1988, King 2001). But tropical trees rarely show such distinct demarcations of growth flushes. Furthermore, the frequency of flushing ma...