Sacred sites as habitats of culturally important plant species in an Indian megacity

Cultural ecosystem services related to urban green spaces contribute significantly to liveable cities. While previous studies highlight the intersection of cultural ecosystem services with societal values, spiritual or religious values associated with urban nature have received less attention. In India, as in other parts of the world, sacred sites are known for their biological richness, but analyses from urban sacred sites are largely missing. Based on a stratified random sampling approach, we analysed the cultivated and wild plant species assemblages of 69 sacred sites in the megacity of Bengaluru, India, in relation to biological and cultural features, and parameters related to the urban matrix and type of sacred sites (temple vs. katte). Unlike other urban studies, we found a dominance of native species in the cultivated and spontaneous species pools (121 species in total), with Ficus religiosa and Azadirachta indica as most frequently planted species. Culturally relevant species prevailed in the species pool (89%), with overlaps between religious (36%), medicinal (50%) and ornamental (62%) plants; only 11% of species were weeds. Urban matrix parameters (age of development, housing density) and size and type of sacred sites were related to differences in species assemblages. We identified key species for different classes of age and housing density, and for types of sacred sites. Our study demonstrates that urban sacred sites have an important potential in harbouring both native and culturally significant species that can support urban livelihoods in developing countries by a range of cultural and provisioning ecosystem services, including medicinal uses. As such sites are conserved by communities for spiritual or cultural beliefs, local biodiversity can be enhanced, e.g. by adapting management practices through community participation. This would strengthen the important contribution of sacred sites within the green infrastructure of rapidly growing megacities.     

Investigations on the Occurrence of Hereditary Diseases in the Danish Cattle Population 1989-1991

Agerholm, J.S., A. Basse and K. Christensen: Investigations on the occurrence of hereditary diseases in the Danish cattle population 1989-1991. Acta vet. scand. 1993, 34, 245-253.– The methods of the Danish Bovine Genetic Disease Programme are outlined, and the results obtained during the first 3 years in function are described. The most common disease reported was spinal muscular atrophy in calves of the Red Danish Dairy breed with 312 reports. Necropsy was performed on 162 cases, and spinal muscular atrophy was diagnosed in 82 of these. Bovine progressive degenerative mye-loencephalopathy, rectovaginal constriction, syndrome of arthrogryposis and palatoschisis, hereditary chondrodysplasia (2 different types), syndactylism, epitheliogenesis imperfecta, and osteogenesis imperfecta was diagnosed with 1 case each. Lethal trait A46 was diagnosed in 4 calves. Some of these diseases have not previously been described in Denmark, and epitheliogenesis imperfecta was for the first time diagnosed in the Hereford breed. Chromosome translocation 1/29 was detected in the Blonde d’Aquitaine (BAQ), Limousine, and Red Danish Dairy breed. The aberration occurred frequently in BAQ. Furthermore, a complex chromosome translocation t(l;8;9)(q45;ql3;q26) was detected in the Red Danish Dairy breed.     

无特定病原体京白鸡的核型研究

采用腹腔注射秋水仙素,取骨髓细胞制备染色体标本,对无特定病原体京白鸡的核型进行了分析.并根据前10对染色体相对长度、臂比值及着丝点指数的测量结果,与已公布的其它地方鸡品种进行了比较.     

我国牦牛染色体研究现状

综述了近10年来我国牦牛染色体研究的情况,认为牦牛与普通牛在部分常染色体和Y染色体结构上的差异是导致犏牛雄性不育的原因之一,并指出我国牦牛染色体的研究,今后应以染色体带型标准化,染色体带型与经济性状的相关性,牦牛与其它牛种染色体的比较研究等为主攻方向。     

人工培植羊体羊黄的研究

本试验以外科手术方法在北京农户所养绵羊胆囊内放人异物网核和注入致黄菌(SEBF8,50亿/ml),诱发羊黄,均获成功.其间,对术前术后血清胆红质、胆固醇、谷草转氨酶和GROS反应等项进行测定.结果表明:上述各项指标在术后8天内与术前比,均有降低,差异显著,但以后逐渐恢复正常.而体重、临床表现,以及饲养指标本出现异常.预示着,人工培植羊体羊黄可行.同时,本试验还为进一步提高人工培植羊黄的产黄量,提供了参考数据.     

动物细胞遗传学研究现状及其应用

本文介绍了细胞遗传学在动物方面的研究现状及其在畜牧业上的应用。细胞遗传学的研究主要以染色体为对象。目前世界上现存的哺乳动物约4100多种,其中进行过染色体研究或核型分析的有1468种,我国已研究过的有242种。细胞遗传学在人类医学上的应用是众所周知的,在畜牧业上主要用于对种畜进行细胞学检查,以消除对家畜繁殖性能有影响的畸变染色本,以染色体标记来识别家畜品种,对环境污染的监测及遗传操作中的染色体工程。     

系统耦合与荒漠─绿洲草地农业系统─—以祁连山一临泽剖面为例

生态系统内部自由能的积累，使系统失去平衡并趋于同其它生态系统结合，自由能驱使两个或两个以上的生态系统或亚生态系统，通过会聚，超循环和耦合而联合，从而形成具有特殊结构一功能的更高一级的新系统。系统耦合可以多途径解放生态系统中的自由能而增加农业生态系统的生产力，亦即从催化潜势，位差潜势，多稳定潜势及管理潜势中取得能输出。上述过程可作用于农业系统中的四个子系统，这四个子系统各有自己的产品：前植物生产，植物生产，动物生产，外生物生产，从而大幅度提高其生产力。在荒漠─绿洲草地农业生态系统中，本文分别计量了各个子系统的能流单位及其流程，证明它的子系统也可以成功的发生系统耦合，其中绿洲子系统应居关键地位。     

大豆叶面积变化对田间微气象条件及产量的影响

作者通过1977～1981年和1987～1989年,分别在绥化、哈尔滨和合江地区的田间试验和生产调查,发现大豆叶面积指数的大小可造成不同的田间微气象环境条件,叶面积指数6左右时,植株似倒非倒,株间采光量和CO_2分布较为合理,光合效率高,大豆单株生育良好,群体产量高;在生产上可依据当地土地条件、施肥水平、不同品种和不同种植方式用叶面积动态变化方程式计算出适宜的密度,以使大豆群体最大叶面积指数保持在6左右,创造较理想的田间微气象效应。     

A Comparison of Techniques for Preparing Somatic Chromosomes in Ribes Species

Ribes plants,like most of other fruit trees ,are characterized by their large number but small size of somatic chromosomes.In the light of these spccial characteristies,we have examined several factorial combinations of material,pretreatment,slide preparing method and stain to identify the most promising techique for studying the chromosomes and further analyzing the karyotypes and chromosome banding of Ribes plants.The resuts indicated that the combination of root tip with pretreatment of 2m molL^-1 8-hydroxyquinoline plus 0.05% colchicine or 0.3% balm for 3-5 hours at 14℃,pre-hypotonic treatment of 0.07mol L^-1 KCl for 30min,fixation in Carnoy‘s fluid,hydrolysis in 5% cellulase and 5% pectinase mixture for 4-5 hours at 25℃,post-hypotoic treatment in distilled water for half an hour and staining in Giemsa Could make the chromosome preparation superior to other treatment combinations.     

景观植物信息查询系统(LPIIS)的构建

近年来，我国的景观植物产业得到了很大发展，但仍存在很多问题，为了解决这些问题，我们开发了景观植物信息查询系统(简称LPIIS)。LPIIS的构建包括后台数据库和管理系统2部分，以Microsoft Access开发后台景观植物数据库，实现各种零散的景观植物数据资料的数字化；采用面向对象的开发语言VB进行信息系统的界面设计和系统集成，实现了人性化的界面，操作更为方便。LPIIS的出现改变了过去景观植物信息管理的手工方式，具有可视化人性化的界面、提供多媒体信息、数据的维护和更新具有继承性、后台数据库可方便的移植于网络等特点。