Lord Howe is an oceanic and relatively young island situated in an area of complex geological and therefore biogeographical processes. The island boasts a large number of endemic species, including many beetles, however, few groups are in an adequate state of systematic knowledge for biogeographic investigation. Recent advances in the systematics of the hyper-diverse rove beetle tribe Staphylin...

Tragopogon pratensis is a small herbaceous plant that uses wind as the dispersal vector for its seeds. The seeds are attached to parachutes that increase the aerodynamic drag force and increase the total distance travelled. Our hypothesis is that evolution has carefully tuned the air permeability of the seeds to operate in the most convenient fluid dynamic regime. To achieve final permeability,...

Dmitri Pavlov and Jakob Scholbach have pointed out that part of Proposition 6.3, and hence Proposition 4.28(a), of [2] are incorrect as stated. While all of the main results of that paper remain unchanged, this necessitates modifications to the statements and proofs of a few technical propositions.

For an old-growth forest edge in the Sierra Nevada, we quantified the extent of edge effects from a group selection harvest. Across transects from the interior of the old-growth forest through the group selection opening, we quantified changes in resource availability (light, soil moisture, and seedbed) and vegetation composition (cover, richness). We found a steep change in light availability ...

The invasion and spread of exotic plants following land disturbance threatens semiarid ecosystems. In sagebrush steppe, soil water is scarce and is partitioned between deep-rooted perennial shrubs and shallower-rooted native forbs and grasses. Disturbances commonly remove shrubs, leaving grass-dominated communities, and may allow for the exploitation of water resources by the many species of in...

Experimental studies have shown that phenolic compounds have antiproliferative and tumour arresting effects. The aim of this original study was to investigate the content of phenolic compounds (PhC) in flowers of Allium schoenoprasum (chive), Tragopogon pratensis (meadow salsify) and Rumex acetosa (common sorrel) and their effect on proliferation of HaCaT cells. Antiproliferative effects were e...

1 Population dynamics of the biennial plant Tragopogon pratensis have been monitored 2 in the Park Grass Experiment at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK, over many 3 years. Observations of diseased T. pratensis, systemically infected by the autoecious 4 demicyclic rust Puccinia hysterium, were made over the period 1995-2008, and 5 confirmed an outbreak pattern of dynamics, characterised by an ...