Stress rehabilitation through garden therapy: A caregiver perspective on factors considered most essential to the recovery process

At the Alnarp Rehabilitation Garden in Sweden, people suffering from stress-related illness are rehabilitated through garden therapy. Empirical data were collected through in-depth interviews and focus-group interviews with the rehabilitation team. The present article is based on team members’ understandings of significant factors to the stress recovery process. On-site observations were conducted to achieve a broader comprehension of the empirical data. The article is based on the caregivers’ points of view, as they are presumed to be close to the course of events occurring in the garden therapy programme as a whole. The results reveal a generally complex picture of the rehabilitation form, but at the same time indicate three factors that are of primary importance: (1) sensory impressions, (2) self-chosen places in the garden, and (3) interactions between concrete and symbolic activities. The garden environment tends to “prepare, receive and open up” the participants before and after therapeutic elements, which is thought to be especially appropriate for this group. The results provide important knowledge about what kinds of factors contribute to relief and recovery from stress-related ill-health in the context of stress rehabilitation through garden therapy.     

Therapeutic interventions in a rehabilitation garden may induce temporary extrovert and/or introvert behavioural changes in patients,suffering from stress-related disorders

Patients being treated for stress-related mental illness were observed during two summer programs in order to investigate the influence of multimodal nature-based therapy in a specially designed healing garden on patient recovery. The aim was to distinguish specific qualities, patterns and/or processes during the participants' stay in the healing garden. The study is a single-case study, using participatory observation. The data were coded following an inductive research process. The results showed that patients who underwent psychotherapy were more open and contact-seeking, and carried out extrovert recreational walks. By contrast, patients who underwent physiotherapy were introverted, emotionally withdrawn and performed introvert recreational walks. Interpretation of the data suggested that treatment combined with activities in certain parts of the rehabilitation garden induced and supported different psycho-physiological processes. The mechanisms and progress of these are discussed from the theory of situated cognition, and how these processes are stimulated and supported by characteristics in the garden. Oxytocin, a hypothalamic peptide which stimulates social interaction, induces anti-stress effects and stimulates growth and healing, may hypothetically be involved in these processes.     

Urban background of air pollution: Evaluation through moss bag biomonitoring of trace elements in Botanical garden

Urban background air pollution is the lowest level of pollution representative for the exposure of general urban population and mainly originates from non-local sources of pollution. Moss bag technique has been predominantly adopted for biomonitoring of trace elements across anthropogenically devastated areas, such as urban and industrial zones. However, the technique has been rarely used for measurement of background air pollution. In this study, element content and concomitant physiological parameters were assessed in the moss Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw. after its exposure within the bags in the Botanical garden (Belgrade, Serbia), as the presumable background area. During the summer of 2014, the moss bags were exposed for 60 days in total, and the sample analyses were performed every 15 days. As a control of the measured physiological parameters, a set of the moss bags was kept within the phytotron, under conditions of optimal-like growth. The total content of 21 elements, photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids), phenolics, and antioxidative capacity were determined in the moss samples. The levels of trace elements were markedly lower within the Botanical garden in comparison to the street ambient, but still significantly higher than in the moss pristine habitat. However, the performed physiological tests indicated that the vulnerability of the moss during exposure time was not caused by the low trace element enrichment, but probably by the harsh meteorological parameters in an urban area. Finally, the Botanical garden could be assumed as control site for measurement of the urban background pollution, and it might be effectively measured by the moss bag technique.     

The impact of typhoon on post-volcanic-eruption forest landscape recovery: a study in Changbai mountain through 300 years of historic landscape reconstruction

Landscape Ecology - Study of interplay of disturbance and forest succession is key to understand forest landscape dynamics, especially under changing climate and disturbance regimes. However, most...     

Landscapes as continuous entities: forest disturbance and recovery in the Albertine Rift landscape

Kibale National Park, within the Albertine Rift, is known for its rich biodiversity. High human population density and agricultural conversion in the surrounding landscape have created enormous resource pressure on forest fragments outside the park. Kibale presents a complex protected forest landscape comprising intact forest inside the park, logged areas inside the park, a game corridor with degraded forest, and forest fragments in the landscape surrounding the park. To explore the effect of these different levels of forest management and protection over time, we assessed forest change over the previous three decades, using both discrete and continuous data analyses of satellite imagery. Park boundaries have remained fairly intact and forest cover has been maintained or increased inside the park, while there has been a high level of deforestation in the landscape surrounding the park. While absolute changes in land cover are important changes in vegetation productivity, within land cover classes are often more telling of longer term changes and future directions of change. The park has lower Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values than the forest fragments outside the park and the formerly logged area—probably due to forest regeneration and early succession stage. The corridor region has lower productivity, which is surprising given this is also a newer regrowth region and so should be similar to the logged and forest fragments. Overall, concern can be raised for the future trajectory of this park. Although forest cover has been maintained, forest health may be an issue, which for future management, climate change, biodiversity, and increased human pressure may signify troubling signs.     

Urban garden as lived space: Informal gardening practices and dwelling culture in socialist and post-socialist Belgrade

This paper considers urban gardens as lived spaces which have an important role in reconnecting with nature in an urban environment, but also as an archive of concepts related to culture and everyday life. In this context, the paper studies the character of three of Belgrade’s urban gardens and their contribution to the quality of everyday life in the large-scale socialist residential settlements built during the 1970s. Focus is placed on establishing relations between the dwelling culture, social and cultural needs and changes, and the dominant architectural and planning paradigms of modernism and post-modernism. Belgrade’s urban gardens were created and developed spontaneously (most often non-legally) as self-organized citizens’ acts. Research presented in our case studies confirms the paper’s initial assumption that the urban gardens in Belgrade are still considered marginal and certainly not representative urban practices, overshadowed by the planned urban conceptions and socio-political actions. In this sense, we may notice the lack of a systematic approach to managing these gardens, and complete absence of legislation either provided by authorities, private or public bodies or even associations. Although the urban gardens emerged in socialism outside of any rules and regulations, they promoted the values of an active relationship between the user, dwelling culture and immediate residential surroundings, and contributed to improving the dwelling culture of the “new working class” in the socialist dwelling units. Also, the gardens were not only a place for producing food in financially difficult times, especially during the post-socialist transition of the 1990s, but above all a place associated with socialization and a “sense of home”. Recognizing the benefits of urban gardens and accordingly raising awareness about this concept in the city, together with the adoption of appropriate regulations, would certainly be of immense relevance to urban gardening and generally landscape quality in Serbia.     

桃树在观光采摘园建设中的地位

山东省齐河县地处省会济南市主城区近郊、黄河北岸。近年来,20多家企业、种植大户紧跟“国家乡村振兴战略”实施和“美丽乡村”建设,立足本地优势,发展都市近郊观光果树采摘园、生态园,打造集休闲、生态、观光、旅游、养生为一体的生态观光采摘果园景区。齐河县和乐采摘园自2009年建园运行以来,通过多年的发展,建成占地25 hm^2设施完善配套的现代化农业果蔬观光采摘园,其中高标准温室20个、大棚28个,定植早熟油桃、毛桃棚8个,葡萄棚、大樱桃棚各3个,草莓棚10个;露地果园15 hm^2,栽植苹果、梨、桃、葡萄、大樱桃、杏、李子、石榴、核桃、山楂、枣树、桑葚、柿子、木瓜等120多个品种的果树2.5万多株,实现了果树生产的均衡化、多样化、优质化、娱乐化,可供周年采摘。     

Quantifying the effects of remnant seed sources on post-volcanic-eruption forest recovery through historic landscape reconstruction from 1710 to 2010

Landscape Ecology - The rate and trajectory of forest landscape recovery after a volcanic eruption rely largely on available seed sources and patterns of seed dispersal. However, quantifying the...     

LTSER platforms as a place-based transdisciplinary research infrastructure: learning landscape approach through evaluation

Landscape Ecology - Place-based transdisciplinary research involves multiple academic disciplines and non-academic actors. Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platform is one concept with ~...     

Between a rock and a hard place: the impacts of climate change and housing development on breeding birds in California

Although the effects of climate change on species distributions have received considerable attention, land-use change continues to threaten wildlife by contributing to habitat loss and degradation. We compared projected spatial impacts of climate change and housing development across a range of housing densities on California’s birds to evaluate the relative potential impacts of each. We used species-distribution models in concert with current and future climate projections and spatially explicit housing-development density projections in California. We compared their potential influence on the distributions of 64 focal bird species representing six major vegetation communities. Averaged across GCMs, species responding positively to climate change were projected to gain 253,890 km² and species responding negatively were projected to lose 335,640 km². Development accounted for 32 % of the overall reductions in projected species distributions. In terms of land area, suburban and exurban development accounted for the largest portion of land-use impacts on species’ distributions. Areas in which climatic suitability and housing density were both projected to increase were concentrated along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and areas of the north coast. Areas of decreasing climatic suitability and increasing housing density were largely concentrated within the Central Valley. Our analyses suggest that the cumulative effects of future housing development and climate change will be large for many bird species, and that some species projected to expand their distributions with climate change may actually lose ground to development. This suggests that a key climate change adaptation strategy will be to minimize the impacts of housing development. To do this effectively, comprehensive policies to guide land use decisions are needed at the broader scales of climate change.     

微生物有机肥对茶园土壤肥力、产量和质量的影响

日照市是山东茶叶主产区，茶园面积已选12万亩，多年来，由于茶农盲目追求产量，长期大量施用化肥，忽视有机肥的施用，造成茶园土壤酸化、板结，生物活性降低，磷钾等养分的利用率不高，难以供应茶叶生长所需均衡充足的营养，使产量和品质的提高受到较大的限制。     

Changes in volume and specific gravity of cucumber fruits after harvest in relation to the recovery from a flaccid appearance

Detached fruits of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) developed a flaccid appearance at first, but showed a recovery while stored at a temperature of 12.5°C or above. The recovery occurred in spite of the decline of fresh weight during storage. The higher the storage temperature, the sooner the fruits regained a turgid appearance.After harvesting of cucumber fruits, both their fresh weight and their volume decreased initially, while the specific gravity increased slightly. Accompanying the recovery from a flaccid appearance, however, the specific gravity of the fruits decreased and the rate of decrease in volume was retarded until eventually the fruits began to swell. The increase in volume occurred at any part of a fruit, although in a slightly different manner at the distal quarter.Fruits held at a temperature of 10°C and below, however, remained in a flaccid state during storage. In this case, fruit volume as well as fruit weight continued to decrease, but specific gravity increased gradually.Developed seeds with ivory colored seed coats were found in fruits at the end of storage at 15.0° or 17.5°C, but not in those stored at 12.5° or 10.0°C.     

强光胁迫下SOD对姜叶片光抑制破坏的防御作用

晴天条件下,田间姜叶片的光化学效率（Ｆｖ／Ｆｍ）和表观量子效率（ＡＱＹ）上午随ＰＦＤ升高而降低,１２￣１４时后随ＰＦＤ的降低而升高,中午前后丙二醛（ＭＤＡ）含量达到最高,而光全速率（Ｐｎ）出现低谷,表明午间强光使光合作用发生光抑制,甚至光氧化。超氧物岐化酶（ＳＯＤ）１４时以前呈增加趋势,之后逐渐降低。苗期遮荫６０％,Ｆｖ／Ｆｍ与ＡＱＹ明显提高ＭＤＡ含量降低,ＳＯＤ活性减弱,Ｐｎ降低且日变化曲线变为     

The yield gap of mango in Phrao,Thailand, as investigated through comparative performance evaluation

Farmers in Phrao, north Thailand, have often, on a “trial-and-error” basis, planted mango (Mangifera indica L.) in orchards composed of mango, lychee (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) and longan (Dimocarpus longan Loureiro). This met with varying success. In 1993, a comparative performance analysis (CPA) of 45 orchards containing mango was done to identify land and management aspects that condition the level of the mango productivity. The orchards were often situated on podzolic soils on hills, footslopes, and terraces that dry out deeply during the dry season. Yields were expressed in farm-gate prices since middlemen purchased the produce from farmers “on the tree”. With many orchards having “low” yields and 18 having “0” yield, the yield data had a loglinear distribution. Using data from all sites, a final model that estimates Ln(yield+1) was derived; it quantifies contributions to the total yield gap for each identified specific yield constraint. It suggests that yields increased if: (i) it was not an “off” year (caused by the biennial bearing behaviour of mango; use of growth regulators may remedy this); (ii) the orchard was situated on a hill or on soils with a relatively high pH or poor water holding capacity (mostly shallow soils with SCL topsoil; water stress causes crop dormancy and induces flower initiation); (iii) the possibility existed to apply supplemental irrigation water (orchards having a growth flush or in a fruit bearing stage require adequate water management possibly including supplemental irrigation); (iv) in established orchards weeding by tractor was practised (this causes root pruning that affects the trees physiological cycle); (v) pruning was practised (this was normally done to remove branches damaged by stem boring caterpillars, all orchards suffered from this serious problem); (vi) spraying by motor sprayer was done that dispenses pesticides, preferably Azodrin (monocrotophos), deep into the canopy. Based on data covering one production season only, the model suggests that environmental factors (location and pH) account for some 30% of the yield gap defined by the difference of the average production situation with the anticipated best one, that management factors account for 49% and the year effect (species attribute) for 21%. Management of mango orchards requires use of up-to-date technology since responses provide exponential returns. It not only demands that farmers are knowledgeable and experienced but also that a well-informed extension service collaborates closely with researchers.     

Escaping the flames: large termitaria as refugia from fire in miombo woodland

At finer scales, spatial heterogeneity can influence fire intensity and severity. To test whether Macrotermes termite mounds act as fire refugia for woody plants, we assessed effects of fire on individual plants, woody plant structure and composition in a miombo woodland in Zimbabwe, where elephants have decreased tree cover, leading to increased grass cover, fuelling greater intensity fires. We compared exposure to fire on 47 paired mound-matrix plots at three sites. Mound-based woody plants were less exposed to fire than those in matrix positions. Woody species composition differed between mound and matrix, and there were more tall trees on mounds. We assessed grass cover, elephant damage, fire damage and resprouting response for all woody plants found on 10 paired mound-matrix plots that had been equally exposed to severe late dry season fires. Grass cover was three times greater for matrix sites, where 85 % of woody species experienced heavy fire damage, compared to 29 % for mounds. Matrix species were nearly 31 times more likely than mound species to exhibit a vigorous resprouting response after fire damage, all else being equal. The distinct composition of termitaria vegetation has been attributed to edaphic factors. To this should be added the fire-retardant properties of mounds, allowing woody species that might otherwise have been excluded, to persist in a fire-prone system. Thus, spatial pattern created by termitaria is reinforced through exclusion of fire, allowing different species composition and structure. Since termitaria are important for productivity and biodiversity, the refuge effect is significant for the system.     

平邑甜茶MhHSP70的特征及其对镉和渗透胁迫的反应

 以平邑甜茶为试材,通过RT-PCR及RACE技术,获得了一个热激蛋白基因HSP70的全长cDNA序列,命名为MhHSP70,GenBank登录号为HQ876864;该基因全长2 307 bp,序列高度保守,编码650个氨基酸,与苹果、番茄和烟草亲缘关系最近。在根系和叶片中,热激蛋白基因MhHSP70的表达均受镉和渗透胁迫（非热胁迫）诱导,并且随着硫酸镉和氯化钠处理浓度的升高以及聚乙二醇（PEG）处理时间的延长,MhHSP70的表达量逐渐增强。     

Fire place preferences of forest visitors in northwestern Switzerland: Implications for the management of picnic sites

Some recreational activities in urban forests can cause extensive damage to soil and vegetation. In Switzerland, forest visitors frequently build fires outside picnic sites for barbecuing. This indicates that the existing picnic sites are either not attractive enough for these visitors, or that there are not enough sites for all the visitors during peak days. We used an on-site survey to assess the requirements of picnickers in two forest areas in the vicinity of Basle. Results showed that the existing picnic sites do not meet the requirements of some visitor groups, causing the respective visitors to make their own fires in locations that suit them better. There was a preference for sites near streams, away from forest roads and close to open spaces. Furthermore, while some visitors highly appreciated the well-equipped official sites, others preferred more natural infrastructure with pieces of stones forming a fire ring rather than concrete rims, and logs to sit on instead of benches. Picnic sites that are closer to the requirements of visitors who normally steer away from official sites might reduce the number of self-made fire rings. The study shows that understanding visitor behaviour is a prerequisite for the implementation of measures to reduce ecological impacts.