scholarly journals The taxonomic circumscription of Aconitum subgenus Aconitum (Ranunculaceae) in Europe

Webbia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-45
Author(s):  
Józef Mitka ◽  
Andriy Novikov ◽  
Walter Rottensteiner

In this article, we present a revised taxonomic circumscription of Aconitum subg. Aconitum (Ranunculaceae) in Europe. In total, the subgenus contains some 250 species with the major center of diversity in Eastern Asia. Altogether 94 taxa (species and infraspecific taxa, including hybrids) occur in Europe. Among them, 22 are native species, and 28 are nothospecies (including hybrid formulae). The research is based on former (since Linnaeus) and recent species diagnoses integrating herbarium and field studies carried out in the Alps, Carpathians, Balkans, Spanish Sierra Nevada, Sudetes, and Corsica. The subgenus includes three sections in Europe: the diploid sect. Cammarum, the tetraploid sect. Aconitum, and the monospecific, allopolyploid sect. Angustifolium. Additionally, a triploid, hybridogenous nothosection Acomarum (sect. Aconitum × sect. Cammarum) is presented. For each species, type citation, a concise morphological description, including infraspecific variation and hybridization, geographical distribution, and iconography sources are given. Also, a key to the determination of all taxa is presented. The proposed system scrutinizes former and recent species concepts and gives a base for further studies on the genus’ phylogeny and biotechnology.

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
V. Volkogon ◽  
I. Korotka

Aim. To determine physiologically expedient rates of mineral nitrogen in winter rye production on sod-podzol- ic soils based on the orientation of the processes of biological nitrogen transformation in the plants rhizosphere. Methods. Field studies, gas chromatography determination of potential nitrogen fi xation activity and potential emissions of N 2 O. Results. The results obtained have demonstrated that the rates of mineral nitrogen, not ex- ceeding 60 kg/ha, can be considered physiologically expedient for winter rye production on sod-podzolic soils. Under the application of microbial preparation Diazobakteryn, there is a higher physiological need of plants for nitrogen, which allows increasing the rates of nitrogen fertilizers up to 90 kg/ha. Conclusions. The orienta- tion of the processes of biological nitrogen transformation in the root zone of plants is a reliable indicator of determining the appropriateness of nitrogen fertilization of crops.


Author(s):  
T. V. Krestovskaya

On the base of a critical review of the material kept in the most of main European and some Asian Herbaria, a synopsis of the genus Stachys L. section Satureoides R. Bhattacharjee is given. The description of the section is enlarged (calyx 5–10(15)-veined, upper floral leaves often with short spinescent tip, stamens slightly exserted from the corolla tube). The section is represented by 4 species distributed in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The keys for determination of its species and infraspecific taxa are compiled. The data on main synonyms, ecology, geographical distribution and types are given. The lectotypes of S. satureioides Montbret et Aucher ex Benth., S. ramosissima Montbret et Aucher ex Benth., S. burgsdorffioides (Benth.) Boiss. and S. burgsdorffioides subsp. ladanoides Hand.-Mazz. are designated.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suciu Felicia ◽  
Arcuș Mariana ◽  
Roșca Adrian Cosmin ◽  
Bucur Laura ◽  
Popescu Antoanela ◽  
...  

"Preliminary pharmacochemical research on Lysimachia nummularia L. was performed by dint of pharmacognostic analysis (macroscopic examination, global chemical analysis, preliminary quantitative determinations).The article includes the analysis of the macroscopic characters of the vegetative organs (root, stem and leaf), as well as of the reproductive organs (flower, fruit, seed) belonging to the spontaneous native species Lysimachia nummularia L. Morphological features were described and discussed. The identification of these aspects was done with the naked eye, but also with the help of a hand magnifier and a binocular magnifier. The results revealed that the external appearance of the plant justifies the species belonging to the genus Lysimachia, family Primulaceae. They are found in the glabrous and creeping appearance of the plant, opposite, almost round leaves, solitary, yellow flowers, axillary with vigorous pedicels, perianth pentamer, actinomorphic, dialisepal and dialipetal, globular capsule fruit. The semi-hydrophilic nature is found in the presence of adventitious roots that develop both from the rhizome and at the nodes of the stem. The preliminary quantitative determinations performed were loss by drying as well as soluble substances of the species Lysimachia nummularia L. Following the global chemical analysis, active principles known in the literature for the antioxidant potential were identified. Following the preliminary quantitative determinations (drying loss, determination of soluble substances) results comparable to those in the literature on the content of volatile substances and soluble substances were obtained."


1939 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Perry Byerly

Summary Least-squares adjustments of observations of waves of the P groups at central and southern California stations are used to obtain the speeds of various waves. Only observations made to tenths of a second are used. It is assumed that the waves have a common velocity for all earthquakes. But the time intercepts of the travel-time curves are allowed to be different for different shocks. The speed of P̄ is found to be 5.61 km/sec.±0.05. The speed for S̄ (founded on fewer data) is 3.26 km/sec. ± 0.09. There are slight differences in the epicenters located by the use of P̄ and S̄ which may or may not be significant. It is suggested that P̄ and S̄ may be released from different foci. The speed of Pn, the wave in the top of the mantle, is 8.02 km/sec. ± 0.05. Intermediate P waves of speeds 6.72 km/sec. ± 0.02 and 7.24 km/sec. ± 0.04 are observed. Only the former has a time intercept which allows a consistent computation of structure when considered a layer wave. For the Berkeley earthquake of March 8, 1937, the accurate determination of depth of focus was possible. This enabled a determination of layering of the earth's crust. The result was about 9 km. of granite over 23 km. of a medium of speed 6.72 km/sec. Underneath these two layers is the mantle of speed 8.02 km/sec. The data from other shocks centering south of Berkeley would not fit this structure, but an assumption of the thickening of the granite southerly brought all into agreement. The earthquakes discussed show a lag of Pn as it passes under the Sierra Nevada. This has been observed before. A reconsideration of the Pn data of the Nevada earthquake of December 20, 1932, together with the data mentioned above, leads to the conclusion that the root of the mountain mass projects into the mantle beneath the surface layers by an amount between 6 and 41 km.


2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Nadia Elizabeth Tapp

PRESERVING Wildlife: An International Perspective is an anthology of twenty papers exploring the issues related to the preservation of wildlife, with an emphasis on related management approaches. This topic is introduced philosophically with a discussion of moral values associated with human activities. Sport hunting, the medical aid of injured wild animals and the manipulation of wildlife during ecological field studies are discussed within this context. The focus then shifts to a selection of wildlife management strategies including habitat protection, captive breeding, culling of non-native species, eco-tourism and marketing of wildlife products.


Author(s):  
Caroline Schaumann

European forays to mountain summits began in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with the search for plants and minerals and the study of geology and glaciers. Yet scientists were soon captivated by the enterprise of climbing itself, enthralled with the views and the prospect of “conquering” alpine summits. Inspired by Romantic notions of nature, early mountaineers idealized their endeavors as sublime experiences, all the while deliberately measuring what they saw. As increased leisure time and advances in infrastructure and equipment opened up once formidable mountain regions to those seeking adventure and sport, new models of masculinity emerged that were fraught with tensions. This book examines how written and artistic depictions of nineteenth-century exploration and mountaineering in the Andes, the Alps, and the Sierra Nevada shaped cultural understandings of nature and wilderness in the Anthropocene.


2021 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
pp. 392-423
Author(s):  
Ana Verónica Ortiz ◽  
Pablo Moroni ◽  
Fabiana Mirra ◽  
Rosa María Villanueva Espinoza ◽  
Nataly O'Leary

Morphological boundaries between South American species of Euphrasia L. are controversial, rendering determination of specimens an arduous task. In this context, a comprehensive taxonomic revision of Euphrasia in South America is here provided for the first time. This study, based upon a classical morphological study of ca. 400 herbarium specimens, supports the recognition of eight species and one subspecies distributed in the Andean regions of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. From among native species, six belong to section Trifidae Benth. and one to the monotypic section Paradoxae Pugsley, endemic to Juan Fernández Islands; one adventive species, E. officinalis L., belongs to the section Euphrasia. The previously misunderstood presence of E. cockayniana Petrie is here untangled, and, consequently, the species is excluded from South America. A key to all Euphrasia taxa in South America, plus morphological descriptions, nomenclature items, geographical distribution and maps, habitat notes, illustrations, photographs, and discussion notes are included for the nine taxa. Eleven names are here synonymized, and lectotypes are designated for E. andicola Benth., E. debilis Wettst., E. flavicans Phil., E. intricata Phil., and E. philippii Wettst. Euphrasia andicola is reported for the first time for Argentina. This collaborative effort will represent a baseline for further investigations on Euphrasia in South America.


Author(s):  
Naomi Oreskes

In 1901, Karl Zittel, president of the Bavarian Royal Academy of Sciences, declared that “Suess has secured almost general recognition for the contraction theory” of mountain-building. This was wishful thinking. Suess’s Das Antlitz der Erde was indeed an influential work, but by the time Suess finished the final volume (1904), the thermal contraction theory was under serious attack. Problems were evident from three different but equally important quarters. The most obvious problem for contraction theory arose from field studies of mountains themselves. As early as the 1840s, it had been recognized that the Swiss Alps contained large slabs of rock that appeared to have been transported laterally over enormous distances. These slabs consisted of nearly flat-lying rocks that might be construed as undisplaced, except that they lay on top of younger rocks. In the late nineteenth century, several prominent geologists, most notably Albert Heim (1849 –1937), undertook extensive field work in the Alps to attempt to resolve their structure. Heim’s detailed field work, beautiful maps, and elegant prose convinced geological colleagues that the Alpine strata had been displaced horizontally over enormous distances. In some cases, the rocks had been accordioned so tightly that layers that previously extended horizontally for hundreds of kilometers were now reduced to distances of a few kilometers. But in even more startling cases, the rocks were scarcely folded at all, as if huge slabs of rocks had been simply lifted up from one area of the crust and laid down in another. Heim interpreted the slabs of displaced rock in his own Glarus district as a huge double fold with missing lower limbs, but in 1884 the French geologist Marcel Bertrand (1847–1907) argued that these displacements were not folds but faults. Large segments of the Alps were the result of huge faults that had thrust strata from south to north, over and on top of younger rocks. August Rothpletz (1853–1918), an Austrian geologist, realized that the Alpine thrust faults were similar to those that had been earlier described by the Rogers brothers in the Appalachians. By the late 1880s, thrust faults had been mapped in detail in North America, Scotland, and Scandinavia.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 2597-2613 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Balzani Lööv ◽  
B. Alfoldy ◽  
L. F. L. Gast ◽  
J. Hjorth ◽  
F. Lagler ◽  
...  

Abstract. Methods for the determination of ship fuel sulphur content and NOx emission factors based on remote measurements have been compared in the harbour of Rotterdam and compared to direct stack emission measurements on the ferry Stena Hollandica. The methods were selected based on a review of the available literature on ship emission measurements. They were either optical (LIDAR, Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS), UV camera), combined with model-based estimates of fuel consumption, or based on the so called "sniffer" principle, where SO2 or NOx emission factors are determined from simultaneous measurement of the increase of CO2 and SO2 or NOx concentrations in the plume of the ship compared to the background. The measurements were performed from stations at land, from a boat and from a helicopter. Mobile measurement platforms were found to have important advantages compared to the land-based ones because they allow optimizing the sampling conditions and sampling from ships on the open sea. Although optical methods can provide reliable results it was found that at the state of the art level, the "sniffer" approach is the most convenient technique for determining both SO2 and NOx emission factors remotely. The average random error on the determination of SO2 emission factors comparing two identical instrumental set-ups was 6%. However, it was found that apparently minor differences in the instrumental characteristics, such as response time, could cause significant differences between the emission factors determined. Direct stack measurements showed that about 14% of the fuel sulphur content was not emitted as SO2. This was supported by the remote measurements and is in agreement with the results of other field studies.


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