WSL, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Ecosystem Boundaries Research Unit, Wetlands Research Group, Station 2, Lausanne, Switzerland, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Laboratory of Ecological Systems, Station 2, Lausanne, Switzerland, Plant and Soil Laboratory, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Department of Zoo...

A model for a database system that provides a standardized environment for submission, storage, and retrieval of ethnomedicinal data was developed. The model is based on object oriented database technology, and is suitable for not only storing data, digital images, sound and video, but also for modeling domain knowledge associated with plant-based medicinal preparations utilized in systems of t...

Phylogenetic reconstructions of diverse tropical groups have yielded biological insights that extend well beyond the field of systematics, illuminating such topics as biome assembly and plant–insect coevolution. In this issue of New Phytologist, De-Nova et al. (pp. 276–287) present a rigorous time-calibrated phylogeny of the Neotropical tree genus Bursera in order to estimate lineage ages, and ...

SCOPE In the second part of a two-part review, the ubiquity and universality of epigenetic systems is emphasized, and attention is drawn to the key roles they play, ranging from transducing environmental signals to altering gene expression, genomic architecture and defence. KEY ISSUES The importance of transience versus heritability in epigenetic marks is examined, as are the potential for st...

The Siluro-Devonian primary radiation of land biotas is the terrestrial equivalent of the much-debated Cambrian "explosion" of marine faunas. Both show the hallmarks of novelty radiations (phenotypic diversity increases much more rapidly than species diversity across an ecologically undersaturated and thus low-competition landscape), and both ended with the formation of evolutionary and ecologi...

the invention of polymerase chain reaction (pcr) has been a milestone in the history of biological and medical sciences. the applications of pcr have not only completely revolutionised the research in the field of molecular genetics as well as animal and plant biotechnology, but the technique has also proved its relevance and ingenious utility in other fields of forensic sciences, molecular sys...

Over the last three decades, the philosophy of Karl Raimund Popper has had a strong influence on the field of systematic biology. Unequivocally, no other philosopher's work has had such an influence during this formative period in systematics. Much, but not all, of the early discourse on Popper and systematics dealt with the philosophical basis of systematics as a science. More recently Popper'...

The major contributions of John N. Belkin to the field of mosquito systematics are noted. Hallmarks of his publications are presented and his hypotheses about the evolution, speciation, competition, distribution and classification of mosquitoes are summarized. The current status of the field of mosquito systematics is examined. It is argued that mosquito systematics is still largely at the alph...

Spatially varying depth and the characteristics of observing conditions, such as seeing, airmass, or sky background, are major sources of systematic uncertainties in modern galaxy survey analyses, particularly in deep multi-epoch The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 226:24 (13pp), 2016 October doi:10.3847/0067-0049/226/2/24 © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved....