Unrecognized Ant Megadiversity in Monsoonal Australia: Diversity and Its Distribution in the Hyperdiverse Monomorium nigrius Forel Group

We document diversity and its distribution within the hyperdiverse Monomorium nigrius Forel group of the Australian monsoonal tropics, an unrecognized global centre of ant diversity. The group includes a single described species, but several distinct morphotypes each with multiple clearly recognizable taxa are known. Our analysis is based on 401 CO1-sequenced specimens collected from throughout the Australian mainland but primarily in the monsoonal north and particularly from four bioregions: the Top End (northern third) of the Northern Territory (NT), the Sturt Plateau region of central NT, the Kimberley region of far northern Western Australia, and far North Queensland. Clade structure in the CO1 tree is highly congruent with the general morphotypes, although most morphotypes occur in multiple clades and are therefore shown as polyphyletic. We recognize 97 species among our sequenced specimens, and this is generally consistent (if not somewhat conservative) with PTP analyses of CO1 clustering. Species turnover is extremely high both within and among bioregions in monsoonal Australia, and the monsoonal fauna is highly distinct from that in southern Australia. We estimate that the M. nigrius group contains well over 200 species in monsoonal Australia, and 300 species overall. Our study provides further evidence that monsoonal Australia should be recognized as a global centre of ant diversity.

SARIMA modeling of the monthly average maximum and minimum temperatures in the eastern plateau region of India

The SARIMA time series model is fitted to the monthly average maximum and minimum temperature data sets collected at Giridih, India for the years 1990-2011. From the time-series plots, we observe that the patterns of both the series are quite different; maximum temperature series contain sharp peaks in almost all the years while it is not true for the minimum temperature series and hence both the series are modeled separately (also for the sake of simplicity). SARIMA models are selected based on observing autocorrelation function (ACF) and partial autocorrelation function (PACF) of the monthly temperature series. The model parameters are obtained by using maximum likelihood method with the help of three tests [i.e., standard error, ACF and PACF of residuals and Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) and corrected Akaike Information Criteria (AICc)]. Adequacy of the selected models is determined using diagnostic checking with the standardized residuals, ACF of residuals, normal Q-Q plot of the standardized residuals and p-values of the Ljung-Box statistic. The models ARIMA (1; 0; 2) × (0; 1; 1)12 and ARIMA (0; 1; 1) × (1; 1; 1)12 are finally selected for forecasting of monthly average maximum and minimum temperature values respectively for the eastern plateau region of India.

Influence of spacers on mass transport in electromembrane desalination systems

In electromembrane desalination systems, ion transport near ion exchange membranes induces inevitable concentration polarization, which complicates mass transport. To mitigate the effect of concentration polarization and increase mass transport, spacers which promote mixing and change the flow velocity distribution in the channel. The authors investigated the effect of several spacers (from one to three) on the electromembrane system and varied the size and shape of the spacers, distance to the membranes and flow rate. It has been shown that the presence of spacers actually makes it possible to redistribute the speed and direction of the flow in the system and to increase the current efficiency. The article analyzes the impact of the spacers in the distant exorbitant conditions on mass transport and electroconvective vortices. In the article, we calculated and compared the current-voltage characteristics in the ohmic region, the “plateau” region and overlimiting region for channels with and without spacers. The work investigates fundamental laws depending on the location, size and number of spacers. This paper investigates the effect of non-conductive spacers. It has been shown that, for example, the presence of several spacers (three) near the center of the channel, slightly shifted towards the anion-exchange membrane, increases the mass transport by about 24% -25%. In addition, the influence of spacers on the emergence and development of electroconvective vortices has been studied.

Discovery of a new species of Adder’s tongue fern from India with comparative analysis of morphological and molecular attributes

Eusporangiate fern genus Ophioglossum L. is commonly known as Adder’s tongue fern as its fertile frond gives the appearance of snake tongue. A new species in this fern genus, O. trilokinathii belonging to Ophioglossaceae family has been discovered from the plateau region of Rajasthan State of northwestern India. The new species can be distinguished from other taxa of this genus by its smaller habit, subglobose-tuberous rhizome, basipetal emergence of young roots, aggregation of old decaying roots on rhizome apex, fertile stalk as well as spike short and thick, trophophylls in rosette, ovate or orbicular and a unique sporoderm sculpture pattern under SEM having broad reticulations with thick and raised muri enclosing large hexagonal or irregular areas on the distal and proximal faces of the spores hitherto unreported in any of the presently known taxa of Ophioglossum. In addition, comparative study of stomatal structure, foliar anatomy and nucleotide sequence data of its three chloroplast DNA markers (trnL-F, rbcL and psbA-trnH) was carried out. In view of all the attributes including habitat, ecology, morphology, foliar anatomy, stomatal features, palynology and molecular phylogenetic data, the present study suggests that the Ophioglossum specimen collected from plateau region of Rajasthan represents a hitherto undescribed species thereby warranting its establishment as O. trilokinathii sp. nov. A detailed comparative account of the new taxon with its allied species has also been provided.