Search results for "RATIO"

An Empirical Evaluation of the Utility of Convex Hull and Standard Ellipse Areas for Assessing Population Niche Widths from Stable Isotope Data

2013

Stable isotope analyses are increasingly employed to characterise population niche widths. The convex hull area (TA) in a δ¹³C–δ¹⁵N biplot has been used as a measure of isotopic niche width, but concerns exist over its dependence on sample size and associated difficulties in among-population comparisons. Recently a more robust method was proposed for estimating and comparing isotopic niche widths using standard ellipse areas (SEA), but this approach has yet to be tested with empirical stable isotope data. The two methods measure different kind of isotopic niche areas, but both are now widely used to characterise isotopic niche widths of populations. We used simulated data and an extensive e…

Isozyme analysis of genetic diversity in wild Sicilian populations of Brassica sect. Brassica in view of genetic resources management

2004

In Sicily and in the small surrounding islands the section Brassica of the genus Brassica comprises five species, B. insularis Moris, B. incana Ten., B. macrocarpa Guss., B. rupestris Raf. and B. villosa Biv. These taxa represent a genetic resource as relatives of kale crops but some populations are endangered or threatened, thus isozyme analyses were performed to assess the genetic diversity degree at population and species levels in order to assist the design of conservation management programs. Eleven loci from five enzyme systems (aconitase, leucine aminopeptidase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, phosphoglucoisomerase phosphoglucomutase) were analyzed in sixteen natural population (fi…

Landowner preferences and conservation prioritization: response to Nielsen et al.

2017

Impact of sewage sludges on Medicago truncatula symbiotic proteome

2004

The effects of sewage sludges were investigated on the symbiotic interactions between the model plant Medicago truncatula and the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus mosseae or the rhizobial bacteria Sinorhizobium meliloti. By comparison to a control sludge showing positive effects on plant growth and root symbioses, sludges enriched with polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons or heavy metals were deleterious. Symbiosis-related proteins were detected and identified by two-dimensional electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry, and image analysis was used to study the effects of sewage sludges on M. truncatula symbiotic proteome.

A new ursane-type triterpene oxoglucopyranoside from Crossopteryx febrifuga.

2019

Abstract A new saponin, 3-O-β-d-3-oxo-glucopyranosyl-ursa-12,20(30)-diene-27,28-dioic acid (1), was isolated from the methanol extract of stem bark of Crossopteryx febrifuga together with the known 3β-d-glucopyranosyl-ursa-12,20(30)-diene-27,28-dioic acid (2), shanzhiside methyl ester (3), shanzhiside (4), β-sitosterol (5), β-sitosterol-3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (6), ursa-12,20(30)-diene-27,28-dioic acid (7), hederagenin (8), and oleanolic acid (9). The structures were established by comprehensive interpretation of their spectral data 1D- (1H and 13C), 2D-NMR (1H-1H COSY, HMQC, HMBC), spectroscopic, and electrospray ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis. The isolated compounds …

Towards understanding isotope variability in elephant ivory to establish isotopic profiling and source-area determination

2016

Abstract We present here new isotopic data (δ 13 C, δ 15 N, δ 18 O, δ 2 H, and δ 34 S) from pulverised ivory powder, measured by continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry from an unprecedented large dataset of 507 ivory samples, derived from twenty-eight African and six Asian elephant range states. The aim of this study is to assess the accuracy of isotopic fingerprinting and to evaluate its forensic potential and limitations to predict the provenance of ivory of unknown origin. We constructed a nominal assignment framework for the African reference samples, consisting of 208 different sites and applied the weighted k -Nearest Neighbor Classifier with reference site as classifier and …

Can green infrastructure help to conserve biodiversity?

2017

The gradually decreasing connectivity of habitats threatens biodiversity and ecological processes valuable to humans. Green infrastructure is promoted by the European Commission as a key instrument for the conservation of ecosystems in the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. Green infrastructure has been defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas, designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. We surveyed Finnish experts' perceptions on the development of green infrastructure within the existing policy framework. Our results show that improving the implementation of existing conservation policy instruments needs to be an integral part of developing green infr…

Co-Designing Urban Carbon Sink Parks: Case Carbon Lane in Helsinki

2021

In order to achieve the goals of carbon (C) neutrality within next 20 year, municipalities worldwide need to increasingly apply negative emission technologies. We focus on the main principles of urban demonstration areas using biochars for C sequestration and explore the lessons learned from a co-creation process of one such park, Hyväntoivonpuisto in Helsinki, Finland. Demonstration sites of urban C sinks in public parks must be safe, visible and scientifically sound for reliable and cost-effective verification of carbon sequestration. We find that different interests can be arbitrated and that synergy that emerges from co-creation of urban C sink parks between stakeholders (scientists, ci…

Measuring environmental performance in the treatment of municipal solid waste: The case of the European Union-28

2021

Abstract This paper proposes a measure of environmental performance in the treatment of municipal solid waste, which is defined as a ratio between a composite indicator of waste treated through environmentally desirable operations –recycling and recovery in our case study– and a composite indicator of waste treated through undesirable operations –landfill and incineration. Moreover, it contributes both overall and treatment-specific indicators of performance. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques are used to compute the environmental performance indicators and they are illustrated with an empirical assessment of the environmental performance of the European Union-28 (EU-28) members in …

Narrow genetic base in forest restoration with holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) in Sicily

2007

International audience; In order to empirically assess the effect of actual seed sampling strategy on genetic diversity of holm oak (Quercus ilex) forestations in Sicily, we have analysed the genetic composition of two seedling lots (nursery stock and plantation) and their known natural seed origin stand by means of six nuclear microsatellite loci. Significant reduction in genetic diversity and significant difference in genetic composition of the seedling lots compared to the seed origin stand were detected. The female and the total effective number of parents were quantified by means of maternity assignment of seedlings and temporal changes in allele frequencies. Extremely low effective ma…