Annual plants in the floral design of the exhibition areas of the National Dendrological Park "Sofiyivka" of NAS of Ukraine

Aim. The National Dendrological Park "Sofiyivka" of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is an example of the tandem of nature and human creativity, where a significant place in the formation of landscapes belongs to floral design. It is one of the most colorful architectural and artistic elements of landscaping. The aim is to describe and to define the main features of flower beds of the Dendrological Park “Sofiyivka”, and to describe the range of annual plants used in flower arrangements. Methods. The study was conducted in the dendrological park during 2019-2021. Examples of flower design have been described according to the classification of flower beds by V. V. Pushkar. Latin names of plant species were given according to “The Plant List, 2013”. Results. The analysis of flower design in the dendrological park “Sofiyivka” using annual plants was carried out. The features of flower beds are clarified by: shape and location, duration of their existence, flowering period, location of plants in the vertical plane and the type of plant combination. Conclusions. Five exhibition areas in “Sofiyivka” park have been defined. They are decorated with 12 flower compositions. This floral design belongs to the landscape and regular type of planning.

ANATOMICAL PROPERTIES OF STRAW OF VARIOUS ANNUAL PLANTS USED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF WOOD PANELS

The aim of this study was to determine basic anatomical features of annual plant fibers used as wood substitutes for the production of wood-based panels. For this purpose rye, wheat, triticale, rape and corn straw were used. The determination of the morphological features of the fibers was conducted on the macerated material. Fiber lengths, fiber diameters and lumens were measured, and then the fiber wall thicknesses and slenderness ratios were calculated. The result clearly showed significant differences among all fiber characteristics of the tested plants. The strength and direction of the relationship between the anatomical properties determined in the study and the physicomechanical properties of the boards produced with straw from the tested annual plants were identified.

Comparison of the Floristic Composition and Diversity of Two Wetlands in Ethiopian

The main purpose of this study was to determine and compare the floristic composition and diversity indices of Washa and Borale Wetlands, located in Central Ethiopian. As revealed in the result, 74 species belonging to 26 families, and 57 genera were identified. Asteraceae and Poaceae were the most dominant families contributing 24.56% and 14.04% to the total genera, and 20.27% and 16.22% to the total species identified, respectively. Of the total, about 92% plant species were herbs, whereas 1% was climber, the least one. The alpha diversity of the Washa and Borale wetlands were 51 and 64, respectively. The average richness of the Washa and Borale wetlands were 12.3 ±0.91, and 15.35 ± 0.89, respectively. Likewise, the Shannon diversity (H’) and evenness (E) of Washa and Borale sites were 2.24 and 0.87, and 2.67 and 0.97 respectively. Accordingly, based on their average values, the diversity, evenness and richness indices were higher in Borale than Washa sites, and showed significance difference between the two wetlands (P < 0.05). Likewise, in both sites, especially in Borale, the majority of the species were native, annual and upland, implying the suitability of the wetlands to these native, but to annual and upland invaders due to the ecological and hydrological modifications of the wetlands, and competitive exclusion of the native aquatic plants by upland annual plants. Generally, many of the wetlands’ species were annual and upland invaders. Hence, in-situ and ex-situ strategic plans are required for restoring the wetlands via giving priority.

Towards a Socio-Economic Model for Southwest Asian Cereal Domestication

Mechanisms of selection for domestication traits in cereals and other annual plants are commonly explained from agro-technological and genetic perspectives. Since archaeobotanical data showed that domestication processes were slow and protracted, research focused on genetic constraints and hypothetical ‘non-selective’ management regimes to explain the low selection rates. I argue that these factors only partially explain the observed patterns and develop a model that contextualises the archaeobotanical data in their socio-economic settings. I propose that developments towards individual storage by small household units and the gradual increase in storage capacities with the development of extended households represent key factors for establishing the conditions for selection, as these practices isolated individually managed and stored cereal subpopulations and gradually reduced the need to replenish grain stocks with grains from unmanaged populations. This genetic isolation resulted in stronger and more persistent selection rates and facilitated the genetic fixation of domestication traits on a population level. Moreover, individual storage facilities within buildings reflect gradual developments towards households as the social units that mobilised agricultural labour, which negotiated new sharing principles over cultivated resources and drove the intensification of cultivation practices. In this sense, selection rates and the slow domestication process can be understood as a function of limited food sharing networks and increased labour-inputs into early arable environments—socio-economic processes that also unfolded gradually over a protracted period of time.

Niche difference determines coexistence and similar underlying processes in four ecological groups

Understanding how species interactions affect community composition is an important objective in ecology. Yet, the multitude of methods to study coexistence has hampered cross-community comparisons. Here, we standardized niche and fitness differences across 1018 species pairs to compare the processes driving composition and outcomes, among four community types (annual plant, perennial plant, phytoplankton, and bacteria/yeast). First, we show that niche differences are more important drivers of coexistence than fitness differences. Second, in all community types negative frequency dependence is the most frequent process. Finally, the outcome of species interactions differs among community types. Coexistence was the most frequent outcome for perennial plants and phytoplankton, while competitive exclusion was the most prevalent outcome in annual plants and bacteria/yeasts. Overall, our results show that niche and fitness differences can be used as a common currency that allow cross community comparisons to understand species coexistence.

Forest Protection through Sasi: Local Environmental Law in Ambon Island Post COVID -19 Pandemic

This study discusses forest protection through Sasi (Local Environmental Law) in Ambon island post-COVID-19. Sasi is a customary norm and rules and sanctions regarding the prohibition of taking plant or plant products, fish and game time before the time agreed and determined by community leaders and leaders together with community members. The main goal is to conserve natural resources, control and limit human greed in overexploiting natural resources. The research method used is a qualitative research method with normative legal research. The research was conducted at Universitas Kristen Indonesia from January to March 2021. The objects studied were documents either in reports or regulations related to indigenous peoples' local wisdom. The research instrument used was a document checklist. The data analysis technique used is the descriptive analysis technique. The research results are that traditional Sasi wisdom has values ??and norms to protect forests, water sources, annual plants, and food plants. With the concept and understanding of how environmental managements with various customary rules to obtain benefits and maintain the kinship value of area units that already have an identity and must continuously be maintained in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The genetic interaction of REVOLUTA and WRKY53 links plant development, senescence, and immune responses

In annual plants, tight coordination of successive developmental events is of primary importance to optimize performance under fluctuating environmental conditions. The recent finding of the genetic interaction of WRKY53 , a key senescence-related gene with REVOLUTA , a master regulator of early leaf patterning, raises the question of how early and late developmental events are connected. Here, we investigated the developmental and metabolic consequences of an alteration of the REVOLUTA and WRKY53 gene expression, from seedling to fruiting . Our results show that REVOLUTA critically controls late developmental phases and reproduction while inversely WRKY53 determines vegetative growth at early developmental stages. We further show that these regulators of distinct developmental phases frequently, but not continuously, interact throughout ontogeny and demonstrated that their genetic interaction is mediated by the salicylic acid (SA). Moreover, we showed that REVOLUTA and WRKY53 are keys regulatory nodes of development and plant immunity thought their role in SA metabolic pathways, which also highlights the role of REV in pathogen defence. Together, our findings demonstrate how late and early developmental events are tightly intertwined by molecular hubs. These hubs interact with each other throughout ontogeny, and participate to the interplay between plant development and immunity.

The Use of Very-High-Resolution Aerial Imagery to Estimate the Structure and Distribution of the Rhanterium epapposum Community for Long-Term Monitoring in Desert Ecosystems

The rapid assessment and monitoring of native desert plants are essential in restoration and revegetation projects to track the changes in vegetation patterns in terms of vegetation coverage and structure. This work investigated advanced vegetation monitoring methods utilizing UAVs and remote sensing techniques at the Al Abdali protected site in Kuwait. The study examined the effectiveness of using UAV techniques to assess the structure of desert plants. We specifically examined the use of very-high-resolution aerial imagery to estimate the vegetation structure of Rhanterium epapposum (perennial desert shrub), assess the vegetation cover density changes in desert plants after rainfall events, and investigate the relationship between the distribution of perennial shrub structure and vegetation cover density of annual plants. The images were classified using supervised classification techniques (the SVM method) to assess the changes in desert plants after extreme rainfall events. A digital terrain model (DTM) and a digital surface model (DSM) were also generated to estimate the maximum shrub heights. The classified imagery results show that a significant increase in vegetation coverage occurred in the annual plants after rainfall events. The results also show a reasonable correlation between the shrub heights estimated using UAVs and the ground-truth measurements (R² = 0.66, p < 0.01). The shrub heights were higher in the high-cover-density plots, with coverage >30% and an average height of 77 cm. However, in the medium-cover-density (MD) plots, the coverage was <30%, and the average height was 52 cm. Our study suggests that utilizing UAVs can provide several advantages to critically support future ecological studies and revegetation and restoration programs in desert ecosystems.