Estimation of daily nutrient allowances for pigs fed with alternative feed resources in smallholder enterprises in Kenya

Tropical Animal Health and Production - This study estimated the daily nutrient allowances from conventional commercially compounded feed and alternative feeds resources in smallholder pig...     

三种高原常见沉水植物对不同浓度铵氮的生理响应机制研究

分析植物受到高铵态氮胁迫时的响应特征,明确高浓度铵态氮对沉水植物产生毒性机制,为利用沉水植物修复高浓度铵态氮污染水体提供理论指导。选取苦草（Vallisneria natans）、大茨藻（Najas marina）和穿叶眼子菜（Potamogeton perfoliatus）3种沉水植物为研究对象,研究了不同浓度铵态氮（0、0.1、3、15和50 mg/L）对3种沉水植物的生理影响,初步探讨了沉水植物在高铵态氮浓度水体中退化的原因。当水体铵态氮浓度超过15 mg/L时,植物体内叶绿素和蛋白含量呈下降趋势,而游离氨基酸的含量呈上升趋势,植物叶绿素荧光值显著降低,植物无法正常进行光合作用。当铵态氮浓度低于15 mg/L时苦草对铵态氮的去除率明显低于大茨藻和穿叶眼子菜。铵态氮浓度较高时,大茨藻组织总氮含量高于穿叶眼子菜和苦草,而FAA和可溶性蛋白含量则是穿叶眼子菜最高。当水体中铵态氮浓度达到15 mg/L时,湖泊中广泛分布的沉水植物无法存活,植物光合能力下降是影响其存活的主要因素。本研究从机理层面初步揭示了3种广布沉水植物物种在高铵态氮水体中消失的原因。     

Land-use and land-cover dynamics in response to changes in climatic,biological and socio-political forces: the case of southwestern Ethiopia

Few studies of land-use/land-cover change provide an integrated assessment of the driving forces and consequences of that change, particularly in Africa. Our objectives were to determine how driving forces at different scales change over time, how these forces affect the dynamics and patterns of land use/land cover, and how land-use/land-cover change affects ecological properties at the landscape scale. To accomplish these objectives, we first developed a way to identify the causes and consequences of change at a landscape scale by integrating tools from ecology and the social sciences and then applied these methods to a case study in Ghibe Valley, southwestern Ethiopia. Maps of land-use/land-cover change were created from aerial photography and Landsat TM imagery for the period, 1957–1993. A method called `ecological time lines' was developed to elicit landscape-scale explanations for changes from long-term residents. Cropland expanded at twice the speed recently (1987–1993) than two decades ago (1957–1973), but also contracted rapidly between 1973–1987. Rapid land-use/land cover change was caused by the combined effects of drought and migration, changes in settlement and land tenure policy, and changes in the severity of the livestock disease, trypanosomosis, which is transmitted by the tsetse fly. The scale of the causes and consequences of land-use/land-cover change varied from local to sub-national (regional) to international and the links between causes and consequences crossed scales. At the landscape scale, each cause affected the location and pattern of land use/land cover differently. The contraction of cropland increased grass biomass and cover, woody plant cover, the frequency and extent of savanna burning, and the abundance of wildlife. With recent control of the tsetse fly, these ecological changes are being reversed. These complex patterns are discussed in the context of scaling issues and current conceptual models of land-use/land-cover change.