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The Newly Identified Latin Prototype of the Marian Homilies of Jan of Szamotuły
No full textIn the present paper, the Latin source of the Marian Sermons written by Jan of Szamotuły (c. 1480–1519) is identified and discussed. The collection of Sermons, survived in a manuscript dated to the early 16th century, consists of a number of texts concerning the Immaculate Conception, the Nativity, the Holy Name, and the Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although closely related to medieval scholastic treatises in their structure and theological content, the Sermons were generally believed to be Jan of Szamotuły’s own work. However, the author of this paper argues that the actual source of this collection was a volume of sermons Stellarium coronae Benedictae Mariae Virginis written by the Hungarian Franciscan Pelbárt of Temesvár (c. 1435–1504). The two texts are compared with a view of identifying the characteristic features of the Polish translation. The paper also discusses some issues concerning the date and circumstances of the creation of the collection of Sermons
The Subject Perspective of Causal Relations (in the Cases of Russian and German)
No full textThe present article attempts to reveal the subject perspective of causal relations in the cases of Russian and German. The subject is represented as a central figure: his or her perception and knowledge of the reality are manifested in her or his cognitive state, mental perception, and subjective judgments about objective causal relationships. Subjectivity acts are the main principle of categorization and conceptualization of causal relations. They play the key role in building a notional structure of causal utterances and in creating cognitive integrity in oral and written discourse. As the author of various epistemic judgments, the subject can be in a cognitive state of knowing, ignorance, certainty, uncertainty, supposition, remembering, and guessing. The type of state depends on the information’s authenticity degree and on the information’s character: direct, indirect, and potential, based on which the speaker comes to a conclusion about the event. The article also reveals the means for verbalization of cognitive states and subjective causal relations
Plant assemblages respond sensitively to aluminium solubility in acid soils
No full textAluminium as a growth limiting factor has been recognized for many years. At high concentrations, aluminium (Al) ions reduce nutrient availability in soils, harm plant cells and thus inhibit plant growth. In addition, Al concentration may be a major factor filtering species composition on acid soils in favour of Al-resistant plants. In this study we analyse species responses and turnover along soil pH and Al gradients and we attempt to interpret the results with respect to the recognised aluminium solubility patterns. Plant community and soil data collected from mesophilous and acidophilous submontane broad-leaved forests of Western Slovakia were used for this purpose. Topsoil horizons were analysed for soil reaction (pH), organic carbon and extractable total aluminium. Species responses to the Al measurements were analysed and tested using CCA and the Huisman-Olff-Fresco (HOF) model. We calculated species turnover by accumulating the first derivatives of all HOF response curves, and interpreted them with respect to the Al solubility pattern observed in the soil dataset. We also performed a bioindication experiment to test how a species assemblage indicates the aluminium gradient. In total, 81% of species shows a significant response to the soil Al gradient. We identified that a rapid retreat of many species and, in consequence, high compositional turnover (ecotone) corresponded with a discontinuity in Al solubility observed at 130 mg Al kg−1 (pH 3.8). Here, the exchangeable Al became increasingly under-saturated with respect to the equilibrium attained at higher pH. This discontinuity was also visible in the bioindication experiment, where the prediction algorithm operated better at the acidic end of the gradient. The results indicate that the studied plant assemblages respond sensitively to soil Al solubility. Changes in aluminium solubility in soils correspond with ecotone between adjacent types of vegetation
Integrating importance and intensity: a novel approach to normalize measurement of neighbour effects
No full textAn intense debate is underway on the different approaches to measuring the importance of neighbour interaction. Both the ecological meaning and the statistical suitability of one of the most popular indices have been seriously questioned, but no simpler and practical alternative tools have been proposed up to now. This paper proposes a novel approach based on the use of new normalized indices which scale the effects of neighbours and environment to the maximum target-plant potential. Two indices related to environmental suitability and size-asymmetry are suggested as tools to stratify data in homogeneous subsets before analysis, and an index of normalized neighbour effect (Nn) is proposed to integrate the measuring of neighbour importance and intensity. When tested on literature data, Nn index proves to be very highly correlated to the most currently used importance index. At the same time, it is moderately but significantly correlated to the intensity index. Yet, an accurate reanalysis of three published datasets proves that several detected trends are predictable on the basis of the inherent properties of the used indices. This is inextricably linked to the use of the same phytometers at different productivity levels. Thus, a glimpse is proposed towards the opportunity to use groups of equivalent competitors, each one working at a different point of the gradient, but all in a comparable range of environmental suitability and potential size-asymmetry relative to neighbours. Once defined these equivalence conditions, the normalized Nn metric is suited to measure how the relative weight of neighbour impact changes along the productivity gradient
No increase in fluctuating asymmetry in ground beetles (Carabidae) as urbanisation progresses
No full textEnvironmental stress can lead to a reduction in developmental homeostasis, which could be reflected in increased variability of morphological traits. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is one possible manifestation of such a stress, and is often taken as a proxy for individual fitness. To test the usefulness of FA in morphological traits as an indicator of environmental quality, we studied the effect of urbanisation on FA in ground beetles (Carabidae) near a Danish city. First, we performed a critical examination whether morphological character traits suggested in the literature displayed true fluctuating asymmetry in three common predatory ground beetles, Carabus nemoralis, Nebria brevicollis and Pterostichus melanarius. Eight metrical (length of the second and third antennal segments, elytral length, length of the first tarsus segment, length of the first and second tibiae, length of the proximal and distal spines on the first femurs) and one meristic (the number of spines on the second tibiae) traits were examined. Most of them showed FA but not consistently. Females generally displayed a higher level of FA than males. Finally, we examined the changes in the level of FA in bilateral morphological traits along an urbanisation gradient (forest - suburban forest - forest fragments in urban park) to test whether environmental stress created by urbanisation is reflected in FA. Ground beetles common along a Danish urbanisation gradient did not seem to indicate differences in habitat quality by their level of FA
Bird and beetle assemblages in relict beech forests of central Italy: a multi-taxa approach to assess the importance of dead wood in biodiversity conservation
No full textThe awareness of the importance of deadwood in forest ecosystems has increased in recent decades. Today, dead wood is recognized as a key factor affecting diversity of forest communities. Hole-nesting birds and saproxylic organisms represent an active part of the animal community through the recycle of decaying wood into the forest soils. Three relict beech forests of central Italy were surveyed for both saproxylic beetles and hole-nesting birds, using two different types of interception traps for the former group and point count method for the latter. The variables of dead wood quality were recorded from ten plots, particularly the decaying class and typology of all the wood debris with a diameter ≥ 5 cm. In order to correlate richness and abundance of beetles and birds in a symmetric way, we used co-inertia analysis (CoIA). To correlate in a predictive way the dead wood attributes (dead wood typology and class decay) with birds and beetles assemblages we used partial redundancy analysis (RDA). Our results showed a significant relationship between saproxylic beetle and hole-nesting bird communities. Three dead wood variables (the volume of standing dead trees, stumps and large branches on the ground) appeared to be good predictors of saproxylic beetle richness while the volume of standing dead tree and of dead trees on the ground were the same for hole-nesting birds. These results suggest specific recommendations useful for forest management and planning
On the functional diversity of partially distinct species: some theory and a practical example
No full textDue to its nonlinearity with respect to species addition, some applications of the Rao quadratic diversity are meaningful only if they are first transformed into their equivalent number of species, which is the theoretical species richness of a maximally distinct and perfectly even community with the same diversity as the original community. In this paper, relaxing the requirement of maximal distinction among species, we generalize the notion of the equivalent number of species for the Rao diversity to partially distinct species. The biological meaning of this proposal is illustrated with one dedicated case study in sand dune communities in Italy. According to our results, the proposed approach proved appropriate for comparing the functional diversity of different plant communities with varying levels of environmental constraints
