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Performance of rice systems, irrigation and organic carbon storage
No full textThree-year (2007/2008–2009/2010) field experiment was conducted at the Directorate of Water Management Research Farm under Deras command in Odisha, India to assess the crop yield, irrigation water use efficiency (WUE), sustainable yield index (SYI), land utilization index (LUI) and changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) for dominant rice systems, viz. rice-maize-rice, rice-cowpea-rice, rice-sunflower-rice, rice-tomato-okra and rice-fallow-rice. Results revealed that crop yield, in terms of total system productivity (TSP) increased by 273, 113, 106 and 58% in rice-tomato-okra, rice-sunflower-rice, rice-maize-rice and rice-cowpea-rice, respectively, when compared to rice-fallow-rice. Irrigation WUE was 49–414% greater in rice-based diversified systems than the existing rice-fallow-rice (2.98 kg ha−1 mm−1). The SYI ranged from 0.65 to 0.75 indicating greater sustainability of the systems. Three crops in a sequence resulted in greater LUI and production efficiency compared to rice-fallow-rice. The gross economic return and benefit-cost ratio was in the order: rice-tomato-okra > rice-maize-rice > rice-sunflower-rice > rice-cowpea-rice > rice-fallow-rice. The SOC storage ranged from 40.55 Mg ha−1 in rice-fallow-rice to 46.23 Mg ha−1 in rice-maize-rice system. The other systems had also very close values of SOC storage with the rice-maize-rice system; there was a positive change of SOC (7.20 to 12.52 Mg ha−1) for every system, with highest in rice-maize-rice system and the lowest in rice-fallow-rice. It is concluded that the appropriate rice-based system would be rice-tomato-okra followed by rice-maize-rice, rice-sunflower-rice and rice-cowpea-rice. Rice-fallow-rice is not advisable because of its lower productivity, lower LUI and economic return
Oxidative stress of maize roots caused by a combination of both salt stress and manganese deprivation
No full textSalt stress impaired Mn imbalance and resulted in accumulation of ROS, and caused oxidative stress to plants. However, very little is known about the oxidative damage of maize roots caused by exposure to a combination of both salt stress and Mn deprivation. Thus the main aim of this study was to determine the effects of a combination of salt stress and Mn deprivation on antioxidative defense system in maize roots. Maize plants were cultivated in Hoagland’s media. They were subjected to 80 mM NaCl administered in the Mn-present Hoagland’s or Mn-deficient Hoagland’s media for 14 days. The findings indicated that the growth and root activity of maize seedlings cultivated in a combination of both salt stress and Mn deprivation were significantly inhibited; the compatible solute accumulation, malondialdehyde, carbonyl, 8-OHdG, and ROS were higher than those of the individual salt stress or Mn deprivation as expected. Nevertheless, the antioxidative enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione-S-transferase and antioxidants such as ascorbic acid, glutathione and thiol were lower than those of the individual salt stress or Mn deprivation. In view of the fact that salt stress impaired Mn nutrition of maize seedlings, the findings suggested that Mn deprivation at the cellular level may be a contributory factor to salt-induced oxidative stress and related oxidative damage of maize roots
Souvenir – avenir. Die Mehrsprachigkeit des Romans von A. Kuśniewicz. Lektion in einer toten Sprache
No full textThis study deals with the work The Hour of a Dead Language, a novel of an important figure of modern Polish literature, A. Kuśniewicz. The story is set on the periphery of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the last year of World War I. The protagonist, Kiekeritz, who suffers from a lung disease, collects the fragmented object memories of the past in the hope of reconstructing it by building up a coherent story after returning home. The plot signifies the intertwining of microhistory and macrohistory. The death of the officer and the dissolution of the Monarchy run on parallel courses: the past cannot be brought to the present, it remains fragmental. After having looked for the language of the present in vain, the officer realises the universal decay. The language of the officer and that of the Monarchy parish, which is also shown by the allegory of nature, are perceived in the novel
Konceptualizacja pojęcia <ciało> we frazeologizmach języka polskiego i węgierskiego oraz w środkach masowego przekazu
No full textThe main aim of this article is to compare the Polish and Hungarian phraseological and mass media expressions concerning the name of human body. The analysis of the material showed the certain similarities but in a lot of cases evident differences as well. The majority of metaphors found in set phrases suggests anthropocentrism and shows that people not merely acquire knowledge of and experience the world but also assess it in their own particular ways. The reconstruction of the linguistic image of the world as a language- and culture-specific phenomenon makes it possible to gain a possibly adequate idea of the categorisation of the world by humans and the conceptualization of information thus attained. The conceptualization of the notion of human body includes for example: a body as a MAN; as an ENEMY; as a FLAT; as a CONTAINER, as an OBJECT; as an OBSTACLE; as a PATTERN/MODEL; as a GOODS; as an OBJECT OF ATTACK; as a MEANS OF PAYMENT, etc
How robust are community-based plant bioindicators? Empirical testing of the relationship between Ellenberg values and direct environmental measures in woodland communities
No full textThere are several community-based bioindicator systems that use species presence or abundance data as proxies for environmental variables. One example is the Ellenberg system, whereby vegetation data are used to estimate environmental soil conditions. Despite widespread use of Ellenberg values in ecological research, the correlation between bioindicated values and actual values is often an implicit assumption rather than based on empirical evidence. Here, we correlate unadjusted and UK-adjusted Ellenberg values for soil moisture, pH, and nitrate in relation to direct environmental measures for 50 woodland sites in the UK, which were subject to repeat sampling. Our results show the accuracy of Ellenberg values is parameter specific; pH values were a good proxy for direct environmental measures but this was not true for soil moisture, when relationships were weak and non-significant. For nitrates, there were important seasonal differences, with a strong positive logarithmic relationship in the spring but a non-significant (and negative) correlation in summer. The UK-adjusted values were better than, or equivalent to, Ellenberg’s original ones, which had been quantified originally for Central Europe, in all cases. Somewhat surprisingly, unweighted values correlated with direct environmental measures better than did abundance-weighted ones. This suggests that the presence of rare plants can be highly important in accurate quantification of soil parameters and we recommend using an unweighted approach. However, site profiles created only using rare plants were inferior to profiles based on the whole plant community and thus cannot be used in isolation. We conclude that, for pH and nitrates, the Ellenberg system provides a useful estimate of actual conditions, but recalibration of moisture values should be considered along with the effect of seasonality on the efficacy of the system
Trophic links and the relationship between predator and prey body sizes in food webs
No full textThe relationship between predator and prey body sizes is an important property of food webs with potential implications for community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. To shed more light on this issue I here analyze the relationships between prey size, predator size and trophic position of consumers, using body size estimates of 697 species in 52 food webs. First I show that the relationship between predator and prey body sizes across many systems can be different from, and potentially obscure the true relationship within systems. More specifically, when data from all webs are aggregated average prey size is positively correlated to predator size with a regression slope less than unity, suggesting that predators become less similar in size to their average prey the larger the predator is, and consequently that the relative size difference between a predator and its prey should increase with the trophic position of the consumer. However, despite this I find the predator-prey body mass ratio to be negatively correlated to the trophic position of the consumer within many webs. The reason for this is that the across-webs pattern is not representative for the within-web relationship. Second, I show that the pattern observed is not compatible with a simple null-model for the distribution of trophic links between predators and prey. The observed relationship between predator size and mean prey size is for most webs significantly steeper than that predicted by the cascade model. Furthermore, the observed relationship also deviates significantly (but less so) from an ecologically more realistic model for the distribution of trophic links (the niche model). The results contradict the traditional Eltonian paradigm that predator-prey body mass ratios do not vary consistently across trophic levels. It is concluded that more studies are needed to establish the generality of the results and explore its dynamical implications
The effect of small-scale land use on vegetation in the Valdivian Coastal Range (Chile)
No full textToday, native vegetation in the Valdivian Coastal Range (VCR) is restricted to areas where small-scale land use dominates resulting in a vegetation mosaic. This study (1) provides a description of the vegetation types (VT) within the vegetation mosaic, (2) identifies land use drivers that lead to either degradation or recovery processes and, (3) attempts to provide an explanation for the vegetation mosaic with a conceptual model. In two regions of the VCR we sampled 102 plots for composition of vegetation and indicators of livestock browsing, timber cutting and coppice forestry. We classified the vegetation using a flexible beta method and Bray-Curtis distance. Diagnostic species were identified by an extended indicator species analysis. The clustering results were visualized in NMDS and recursive partitioning was used to explain variations in the VTs as a function of the land use variables. Differentiating effects were tested using PERMANOVA and a conceptual model for the vegetation dynamics was developed from the results. Four VTs such as (1) extensively grazed non-native grasslands (EGN); (2), closed and semi-closed grazed Ugni and Berberis shrublands; (3) severely impacted evergreen forests; and (4) sparsely disturbed evergreen forests were recognized. The browsing indicators were important for differentiating the VTs. The EGN grasslands were differentiated by having more than 0.075 dung piles/m2. Areas with fewer dung piles but direct browsing effects had the greatest impact on vegetation. Forests were preserved when the mean browsing index was equal to or lower than 0.5. The cutting frequency was significant in determining overall floristic composition. We showed that shrublands and evergreen forests within the vegetation mosaic and the result of small-scale farming led to high native forest species richness. This makes the vegetation mosaic especially valuable in a landscape dominated by exotic tree monocultures
Woodland bird response to landscape connectivity in an agriculture-dominated landscape: a functional community approach
No full textOver the last 30 years, ecological networks have been deployed to reduce global biodiversity loss by enhancing landscape connectivity. Bird species dwelling in woodland habitats that are embedded in agriculture-dominated landscapes are expected to be particularly sensitive to the loss of connectivity. This study aimed to determine the role of landscape connectivity in woodland bird species richness, abundance, and community similarity in north-east Brittany (north-west France). An exhaustive woodland selection protocol was carried out to minimize the effects of woodland size on the response variables. Connectivity of the woodland and forest network in the study area was evaluated using graph-theory, accounting for matrix permeability, and a characteristic median natal dispersal distance at the community level based on the bird species pool recorded in the sampled woodlands. Information-theoretic model selection, controlling for woodland size in all the cases, depicted the response of woodland birds at the community level to the connectivity of agriculture-dominated landscapes. On average, the sampled woodlands (n = 25) contained 15.5 ± 2.4 bird species, with an abundance of 25.1 ± 3.9, and had highly similar bird communities (species composition and proportion); eight species represented 57% of total abundance and were present in at least 22 woodlands. The performance of models improved when using effective, rather than Euclidean, interpatch distances in the connectivity assessment. Landscape connectivity was only significantly related to similarity of proportional species composition. Large woodlands contained communities with more similar species proportions in an inhospitable agricultural landscape matrix than in a more permeable one. Woodland size was the most relevant factor determining species abundance, indicating that the bird population sizes are primarily proportional to the local habitat availability. Connectivity in relation to landscape matrix permeability did not seem to induce the flow of woodland-dependent bird species that are dominant in the community but rather of matrix-dwelling bird species that are less dependent on woodland patch area. In conclusion, both habitat conservation and restoration (i.e., amount and quality), in combination with permeable landscape structures (such as heterogeneous land cover mosaics), are advocated for community level conservation strategies
Influence of NPK fertilization on weed flora in maize field
No full textPlant nutrition is one of the most important intensification factors of crop production. The utilization of nutrients, however, may be modified by a number of production factors, including weed presence. Thus, the knowledge of occurring weed species, their abundance, nutrient and water uptake is extremely important to establish an appropriate basis for the evaluation of their risks or negative effects on crops. That is why investigations were carried out in a long-term fertilization experiment on the influence of different nutrient supplies (Ø, PK, NK, NPK) on weed flora in maize field.The weed surveys recorded similar diversity on the experimental area: the species of A. artemisiifolia, S. halepense and D. stramonium were dominant, but C. album and C. hybridum were also common. These species and H. annuus were the most abundant weeds.Based on the totalized and average data of all treatments, density followed the same tendency in the experimental years. It was the highest in the PK treated and untreated plots, and significantly exceeded the values of NK fertilized areas. Presumably the better N availability promoted the development of nitrophilic weeds, while the mortality of other small species increased.Winter wheat and maize forecrops had no visible influence on the diversity and the intensity of weediness. On the contrary, there were consistent differences in the density of certain weed species in accordance to the applied nutrients. A. artemisiifolia was present in the largest number in the untreated control and PK fertilized plots. The density of S. halepense and H. annuus was also significantly higher in the control areas. The number of their individuals was smaller in those plots where N containing fertilizers were used. Contrary to them, the density of D. stramonium, C. album and C. hybridum was the highest in the NPK treatments