Search results for "sme"
showing 10 items of 11064 documents
A multisite-cooperative research programme on risk assessment of transgenic crops
1999
Genetically modified plants are now being commercialised in several countries as regulatory authorities consider that the balance of risk versus benefit is beneficial. However, numerous questions remain unanswered, especially the impact of these plants when used over large areas and under a range of variable environmental conditions. Some issues need to be re-evaluated [1, 2]. Risk/safety analysis, as well as prospects of transgenic crops depend on the scale which is to be considered. Extrapolation of methods, and laboratory and greenhouse results, to large-scale farmers’ fields, may provide useful preliminary data, but is not a sound approach to the study of the consequences of the commerc…
Raspberry breeding and biotisation for increasing plant stress tolerance and antioxidant activity
2008
International audience; Chemical inputs used in red fruit production can be detrimental to the environment and pesticides are not always efficient in controlling plant diseases. In addition, it is suspected that conventional agricultural practices have a negative impact on antioxidant activities in red fruits. Therefore new cultural approaches are required in order to produce red fruits of high quality. This involves an integrated programme of plant breeding and development of sustainable agricultural practices. Antioxidant activity was compared in leaves and berries of six raspberry cultivars for the selection of varieties for a breeding programme. This showed that cultivars that had the h…
Limits and targets for a regional sustainability assessment: an interdisciplinary exploration of the threshold concept
2008
Part 5. Regional and local evaluation-18 ; International audience; Some encompassing terminology is required in order to accommodate different conceptual approaches in the three pillars of sustainability. So, this chapter provides a literature review exploring the threshold concept. In environmental research – especially in ecology – thresholds are often associated with limits which have certain system-inherent processes. In social and economic disciplines, if the notion of limit or critical limit is present, the concept of targets is often more appropriate which are linked to political objectives and social acceptability. The concept of threshold is accommodated within the general framewor…
Microbial communities as ecological indicators of ecosystem recovery following chemical pollution
2017
International audience; ‘Ecosystem recovery’ is a concept that emerged from the need to preserve our environment against increasing contamination from human activity. However, ecological indicators of ecosystem recovery remain scarce, and it is still difficult to assess recovery of ecological processes at relevant spatial and temporal scales. Microbial communities hold key relevance as indicators of ecosystem recovery as they are ubiquitous among diverse ecosystems, respond rapidly to environmental changes, and support many ecosystem functions and services through taxonomic and functional biodiversity. This chapter summarizes the state-of-the-art in knowledge on the processes driving the st…
Experimental Introgression To Evaluate the Impact of Sex Specific Traits on Drosophila melanogaster Incipient Speciation
2019
AbstractSex specific traits are involved in speciation but it is difficult to determine whether their variation initiates or reinforces sexual isolation. In some insects, speciation depends of the rapid change of expression in desaturase genes coding for sex pheromones. Two closely related desaturase genes are involved in Drosophila melanogaster pheromonal communication: desat1 affects both the production and the reception of sex pheromones while desat2 is involved in their production in flies of Zimbabwe populations. There is a strong asymmetric sexual isolation between Zimbabwe populations and all other “Cosmopolitan” populations: Zimbabwe females rarely copulate with Cosmopolitan males w…
Habitat quality is more important than matrix quality for bird communities in protected areas
2018
Protected areas are meant to preserve native local communities within their boundaries, but they are not independent from their surroundings. Impoverished habitat quality in the matrix might influence the species composition within the protected areas through biotic homogenization. The aim of this study was to determine the impacts of matrix quality on species richness and trait composition of bird communities from the Finnish reserve area network and whether the communities are being subject of biotic homogenization due to the lowered quality of the landscape matrix. We used joint species distribution modeling to study how characteristics of the Finnish forest reserves and the quality of t…
Macrophytes in boreal streams: Characterizing and predicting native occurrence and abundance to assess human impact
2016
Abstract Macrophytes are a structurally and functionally essential element of stream ecosystems and therefore indispensable in assessment, protection and restoration of streams. Modelling based on continuous environmental gradients offers a potential approach to predict natural variability of communities and thereby improve detection of anthropogenic community change. Using data from minimally disturbed streams, we described natural macrophyte assemblages in pool and riffle habitats separately and in combination, and explored their variation across large scale environmental gradients. Specifically, we developed RIVPACS-type models to predict the presence and abundance of macrophyte taxa at …
Echo-sounding can discriminate between fish and macroinvertebrates in fresh water
2008
SUMMARY 1. Acoustic scattering from fish and macroinvertebrates was studied in a boreal Finnish lake at three echosounder frequencies (38, 120 and 200 kHz). Split-beam transducers with partly overlapping 7� beams were employed. Acoustic, fish and invertebrate sampling were undertaken simultaneously. Vertical gradients of temperature and oxygen concentration were measured during the exercise. 2. At all frequencies, a narrow scattering layer coincided with the thermocline. At 38 kHz, fish were detected well with practically no reverberation from invertebrates while 200 kHz detected both fish and invertebrates. 3. Minor differences in the magnitude of acoustic scattering from fish were found b…
Fast pyrolysis of hot-water-extracted and soda-AQ-delignified okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) and miscanthus (miscanthus x giganteus) stalks by Py-GC/MS
2018
Abstract The thermochemical behavior of various samples of okra ( Abelmoschus esculentus ) and miscanthus ( Miscanthus x giganteus ) stalks (initial, hot-water-extracted, and those from sulfur-free delignification) were studied by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). In all cases, major GC-amenable condensable products were measured semi-quantitatively and classified into several product groups. The formation of these product groups from different feedstock samples with varying mass portions of their structural constituents (carbohydrates and lignin) was investigated at 500 °C and 700 °C with a residence time of 5 s and 20 s. The main product groups were aliphatic comp…
Antioxidant activity and enzymes inhibitory properties of several extracts from two Moroccan Asteraceae species
2018
Abstract The present work reports investigation on phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity and enzyme inhibitory activities (acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, tyrosinase, α-amylase and α-glucosidase) of different extracts from two Moroccan Asteraceae species; Bubonium imbricatum Cav. and Cladanthus arabicus (L.) Cass. B. imbricatum extracts contained the highest amounts of phenolics and flavonoids, and also exhibited higher antioxidant activity. In this species, the highest total phenolic (1611.13 ± 14.23 μmolGAE/gextract) and flavonoid (376.11 ± 8.22 μmolQE/gextract) contents were observed in aqueous-methanol extract obtained by maceration. Further, UHPLC–MS analysis of C. arab…