Performance evaluation of forest co-management: a case study of Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary,Bangladesh

The objective was to evaluate the performance of the co-management of Nishorgo Support Project at Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary in Bangladesh. I adopted the Focus Groups Discussion method for opinion survey and applied the SWOTAHP technique for data analysis. Local people did not participate in the decision-making process of forest management and they perceived co-management as a threat to their livelihoods. Moreover, mistrust and misunderstanding among different stakeholders, political and ethical conflicts, lack of property rights of tribal communities, and lack of accountability and transparency were identified as the drawbacks of co-management.     

Influence of larval and juvenile life history on age at first maturity in two tropical amphidromous fish species

This study investigates how age at first maturity of two tropical amphidromous species Sicyopterus lagocephalus (Pallas, 1770) and Cotylopus acutipinnis (Guichenot, 1863) varies in relation to their larval and juvenile life history. Reproductive stage was estimated based on histological observation of ovaries of more than 200 females of each species caught monthly over 1 year. The age of fish was estimated by interpreting the daily increments deposited on otoliths during the oceanic larval phase, and the juvenile phase in the river. The age at first maturity was approximately 9 months for S. lagocephalus and 7 months for C. acutipinnis, corresponding to approximately 70–130 and 90–130 days after they returned to freshwater respectively. For both species, the time spent in freshwater before maturity was significantly influenced by the duration of the pelagic larval stage at sea (PLD) and the season of return in freshwater. Individuals with a long PLD, or returning in freshwater during the warmer season, maturated faster once in freshwater. This reproductive advantage may minimise the risk of extirpation due to catastrophic events at each generation and thus probably benefits amphidromous species living in very unpredictable tropical rivers.     

保定地区几个早熟苹果品种(系)生长观察

为筛选适宜保定地区栽植的早熟苹果品种,以嫁接在SH40中间砧上的不同早熟苹果品种(系)为试材,测定了不同品种(系)早熟苹果树体生长发育指标和果实品质。结果表明:除嘎啦早熟变异外,其他供试品种(系)树体生长较好,3年生时Xu2-7、Xu3-2树高330.0~352.5 cm,4年生时为394.0~417.5 cm,Xu3-2、藤牧1号、信浓红4年生为336.5~381.0 cm。4年生时,干径以Xu2-5最大;短枝、中枝、叶丛枝均以Xu2-5最多,长枝以Xu2-7最多,总枝量以Xu2-5最多;藤牧1号短枝所占比例最高(57.4%)。应用模糊综合评判法得出Xu2-5、Xu2-7、信浓红、藤牧1号果实品质较高。