Demythologizing environmentalism

Conclusion In the early 1950s Grant McConnell, Jr., called for a political adjudication of our environmental and political visions. He pointed out the arbitrary nature of Gifford Pinchot's noble-sounding formula (The greatest good for the greatest number over the longest time), noting that such a determination depended on whom you asked. No technocrat can determine the greatest good on the basis of some secret expertise or privileged knowledge. We need to resolve our disparate visions of the uses of nature and human beings politically, without recourse to privileged knowledge.But does such a political adjudication imply the unimpeded domination of the will of the majority? Not necessarily, because there is no overall majority for a total bundle of policies and programs — these must be horse-traded and haggled over on the basis of shifting coalitions. Yet, can it not be argued that even so, some very deeply held values of minorities will be trounced and trampled? It would be dishonest not to admit to such a danger. What we must do is try to define and develop a workable conception of baseline human rights that will be inviolable by the will of temporary majorities, and this itself is a tenuous political process which we have only just embarked on in recent times.The danger of Valentin Rasputins, Vernadskii cultists, and Deep Ecologists everywhere is that they are arguing from privileged knowledge. We know what is really best for you, what will cure you, they assert. They alone know the distinction between natural harmony and disorder, social health and corruption, pollution and purity, alienation and unity. They do not recognize the social construction of their ethical beliefs and political visions; they absolutize their individual truths. They may be right, but what if they are not...?It is therefore all the more important for those of us who wish to preserve a maximum of biotic and human diversity for our-selves and for future humans (and nonhumans) to be explicit about the moral and political agendas we embrace. The soundest way for us to prevail is to persuade our neighbors on this planet that our visions have something of value for them, too. We must keep in mind the fact that in a world where there exists more than one fanaticism, peaceful coexistence is in principle impossible.And if fanaticisms, including ecological ones, are the products of the fear or the fact of material, cultural, or spiritual dispossession, then we must work harder to make a world in which each of us and our interests are treated with equal respect. We cannot get there through the tainted means of absolutizing individual truths.Aldo Leopold, in his testament Sand County Almanac, as much as called for a new myth, for us to think like a mountain.⁵⁷ He called for a new myth because he believed that humans were dangerous (to ourselves, first of all, and to the planet), and that inculcating a myth was the only way to effect a deep behavioral change on a massive enough scale to save the situation.⁵⁸ It is my belief that myths are often more dangerous than the situations they seek to remedy. We need to cultivate a taste of de-mythologizing, of making our lives more self-aware. We need to become aware of our needs and our value preferences and to take responsibility for them as individual preferences. Then we will be in a good position indeed to respect and compromise with the preferences of our neighbors all around this planet, just as we would have them respect and compromise with ours. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A8402064 00005 *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A8402064 00006 *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A8402064 00007     

DA Forum: <Emphasis Type="Italic">De eso que llaman Anthropología Mexicana</Emphasis>

De eso que llaman Antropología Mexicana (of that known as Mexican Anthropology) first appeared in 1969 in Mexico at critical national and international conjunctures in an effort to both take the pulse of Mexican anthropology and move the discipline in new directions. As the text approaches its 50th anniversary, Dialectical Anthropology organized a forum, soliciting six critical evaluations of the book’s historical role.     

The logic of catastrophe

It has been assumed that public or collective goods, such as resource conservation or pollution reduction, will not be created or maintained since rational actors in the international system will choose to consume these goods while avoiding the cost of preserving them. I argue that on the contrary private and public goods are so interrelated that cooperative coalition behavior over their generation is possible. The problem of the maintenance of such cooperative coalitions, via an internal bargaining process, is considered. It is suggested that local optimizing behavior by a coalition may bring about qualitative change in the system, to the extent that the stability of the coalition is destroyed. Such a catastrophic change could lead to entirely new patterns of cooperation, and hence to qualitatively different development paths for the economic and ecological system.An earlier version of this paper, entitled The Logic of Collective Action and the Law of the Commons, was presented at the XIX International Meeting of the Institute of Management Science, on Management Science and the Quality of Life, Houston, Texas, April, 1972.     

Factors shaping Ernst Mayr's concepts in the history of biology

Conclusion As frequently pointed out in this discussion, one of the most characteristic features of Mayr's approach to the history of biology stems from the fact that he is dealing to a considerable degree with his own professional history. Furthermore, his main criterion for the selection of historical episodes is their relevance for modern biological theory. As W. F. Bynum and others have noted, the general impression of his reviewers is that one of the towering figures of evolutionary biology has now written a towering history of his discipline.¹³⁸ Bynum is here referring to The Growth of Biological Thought, but this observation holds equally true for Mayr's other historical writings: One must surely read this book [One Long Argument] not only for its content in itself, but for what it tells of its author. And certainly as one does so, one comes away full-handed. Many, if not all, of the disputes and controversies that have driven Mayr through his long intellectual life reappear, stated as forcefully and elegantly as ever.¹³⁹ Up to this point, most reviewers agree; the bone of contention is, rather, how to evaluate Mayr's historical work, considering this observation. The two related characteristics of his work-I will call them subjectivity and presentism-stand in opposition to a widespread approach in the history of science exemplified by Kuhn's suggestion that insofar as possible..., the historian should set aside the science that he knows. His science should be learned from the textbooks and journals of the period he studies.¹⁴⁰ There are, however, historians who consider the close connection between Mayr and the subject matter of his historical studies to be an advantage.¹⁴¹ On the other hand, it is assumed that the connection between past and present must result in a distortion of the historical truth and lead to a historiographical fallacy, commonly referred to as Whig history. Herbert Butterfield, who in 1931 gave the term its now generally accepted meaning, believed that real historical understanding is not achieved by the subordination of the past to the present, but rather by our making the past our present and attempting to see life with the eyes of another century than our own¹⁴². Unfortunately, Butterfield's definition of what he considers Whig history remains somewhat vague, and modern authors have emphasized what they consider most important. Butterfield's subordination of the past to the present is referred to in respect to the selection of subjects (there are more biographies of Charles Darwin than of, let's say, Louis Agassiz),¹⁴³ to the evaluation of historical authors,¹⁴⁴ or, more generally, to all kinds of histories with one eye, so to speak, upon the present.¹⁴⁵ The underlying tendency of Whig historians is to produce a historical account told from the viewpoint of those in power,¹⁴⁶ leading to a glorification of the present.¹⁴⁷ It is obvious that Mayr's strongly presentist approach to the history of biology can be called Whiggish, if we apply the criteria of selection or reference. However, it might be worth mentioning that the program of writing a strictly historicist account of the history of science is challenged by various authors.¹⁴⁸ For Mayr, it is not only legitimate but necessary to compare the present situation with the past. Whiggish is only the evaluation of an author in terms of our time.¹⁴⁹ I cannot discuss the Whit/anti-Whig controversy in any detail here, apart from saying that Mayr has defended himself rather extensively against the charges of being Whiggish.¹⁵⁰ Nevertheless, it may be useful to touch on some of the criticisms that are predominant in reviews of his writings. First, we encounter the notion that historians can write a true and convincing historical account only if they have no personal interest or interpretation of their own; Mayr, on the other hand, because he has such strong interpretations of his own, ... cannot possibly convince everyone that he is right about everything.¹⁵¹ It makes one wonder, what historian has ever been able to convince everyone that he or she is right about everything? But apart from this peculiar idea, it unquestionably poses certain dangers if the subject matter of historical scrutiny and the author are identical. At the same time, this identity brings certain advantages with it, especially firsthand experiences of the period in discussion. Whether these personal memories ultimately result in a distorted picture of the past has to be decided in every particular instance. The notion that a scientific study can be conducted by a completely detached observer from a neutral standpoint has been shown to be impossible in physics, and it is also an illusion in historiography. The question is not whether, but which kind of interest are the underlying motivation for a historian. At this point, Mayr is ahead of his critics when he suggests that our understanding of the past always has a subjective component: The main reason, however, why histories are in constant need of revision is that at any given time they merely reflect the present state of understanding; they depend on how the author interpreted the current zeitgeist of biology and on his own conceptual framework and background. Thus, by necessity the writing of history is subjective and ephemeral.¹⁵² Second, the temporal proximity between the event and the historical analysis makes difficulties inevitable and will finally result in certain false assessments. But this applies to all historians when they discuss recent problems, regardless of whether they are personally involved or not: As long as the battle between Darwinism and Lamarckism was raging, it was quite impossible to undertake an unbiased evaluation of Lamarck. ...[The] definite refutation of Lamarck's theory of evolutionary causation clears the air. We can now study him without bias and emotion and give him the attention that this major figure in the history of biology clearly deserves.¹⁵³ Third, Mayr is primarily interested in biological problems and not, for instance, historiographical, sociological, or psychological questions. Several authors have remarked that since the beginning of the professionalization of the history of science in the 1960s, a rift between two groups has developed, resulting from the heterogeneous professional backgrounds and interests of the people involved: the authors who were originally biologists and became interested in the history of their discipline only later on, and the authors who were trained as historians.¹⁵⁴ Whereas the first group, the biologists, tend to be laymen in history proper, the historians are in most cases laymen in biology. Different professional backgrounds obviously shape the historical perspective in both groups, but neither approach is necessarily superior. The great number of important books in the history of biology written by biologist documents how valuable this point of view can be. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the writings of biologists in the history of science tend to have a strong internalist tendency and often neglect the professional, cultural, and political context of science. Mayr's approach is that of a biologist; it is internalist, and typical for scientists who turn to the history of their discipline.I want to conclude my analysis with a quotation from a review by Douglas J. Futuyma, which gives a perceptive glimpse of Mayr's personality and style: One cannot help standing in awe of the germanic capacity for vast, allembracing synthesis: consider the lifelong devotion of Goethe to Faust, or Wagner's integration of the arts into a Gesamtkunstwerk in which all of human history and experience is wrought into epic myth. It is perhaps in this tradition that Ernst Mayr's The Growth of Biological Thought stands: a history of all of biology, a Ring des Nibelungen complete with leitmotivs such as the failures of reductionism, the struggle of biology for independence from physics, and the liberation of population thinking from the bounds of essentialism.¹⁵⁵ Within this style of thinking Mayr has to offer...nothing less than a vision of biology that places neodarwinian evolutionary theory firmly at the centre.¹⁵⁶ There may be other visions of biology, but few of them have as indefatigable and able representatives as Darwinism has in Ernst Mayr.     

What alpine peasants have in common: Observations on communal tenure in a Swiss village

An ecological approach to the persistence of communal tenure in a Swiss village suggests that such rights are neither historical anachronisms nor aspects of the closed corporate community. The adaptive value of group holdings in alpine pasture, forest, water, and access routes is compared to that of individual rights in arable land, meadows, and buildings within the same community. The nature and exploitation of resources are related to communal acquisition, conservation, and distribution.This research was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, a grant from the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, and National Science Foundation Grant No. GS-3318.This article is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the symposium, Cultural Adaptations to Mountain Ecosystems, given at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 28, 1973.     

Biologizing social facts: An early 20th century debate on Kraepelin‘s concepts of culture,neurasthenia, and degeneration

This paper uses an historical approach toelucidate two alternative modes ofconceptualizing the relation between socialfactors and psychological phenomena perceivedas pathological.The core features of Neo-Kraepelinianpsychiatric nosology associated with theintroduction of DSM-III in 1980 were also atthe center of a debate in early 20th centuryGermany. The protagonists were EmilKraepelin and Oswald Bumke. Kraepelinsempirical research selectively focused onsomatic factors as independent variables,such as alcohol, syphilitic infection, andheredity. The ensuing nosology marginalisedsocial factors which might contribute to theetiology and symptom formation of psychiatricconditions. For Bumke, the disorders in question(including the category of neurasthenia) didnot represent qualitative deviations fromnormal psychological states, but quantitativevariations of ubiquitous psychologicalfunctions caused by a multitude ofsomatic, psychological, and social factors.The main arguments of the historical debateare reconstructed, with special regard to theprofessional and political context. The paper illustrates the importance ofcontext-bound pre-scientific decisions forthe process of formulating theoreticalconcepts in psychiatry and related disciplines.     

Reduced Pesticide Use in Scandinavian Agriculture

In all industrialized countries, the use of individual pesticides has been regulated on the basis of the presumed hazard that each poses to health and the environment. In Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, programs aimed at reducing total pesticide use have been initiated as well.

In Swedish and Danish agriculture, the amount of active ingredients used has decreased steadily since around 1980; however, the area treated has increased during the same period. The reduction during the 1980s can be ascribed to several factors affecting pesticide use in agriculture. First, old pesticides have been replaced by new ones that are active at lower doses. A general decrease in herbicide doses applied has been possible because of decreased weed pressure. Improved spraying technique also is important.

Environmental concern and political ambitions to reduce pesticide use in Scandinavian agriculture must be understood primarily within the historical framework of societal values and political and social experiences. The success in the reduction of pesticide use, however, cannot be measured and evaluated without taking into account the specific technical and agroecological prerequisites existing in Scandinavian agriculture. As in many other areas of complex changes in modern society: Opinion proposes, Technology disposes.     

Flower colour variation in the montane plant Gentiana lutea L. (Gentianaceae) is unrelated to abiotic factors

Background: Flower colour variation among populations may result from the spatial variation of selective agents. The structure of phenotypic variation informs on the ecological processes related to this variation. Variation in floral traits is mainly attributed to variation in the pollinator fauna, while variation in vegetative traits is usually linked to abiotic factors or herbivores.

Aims: We investigated the geographical variation of flower colour (and correlated traits) in Gentiana lutea and the relationship with the variation in abiotic factors.

Methods: Phenotypic variation (flower colour, petal length, petal width, stalk length, leaf length, flower number, petal number and number of basal leaves) was assessed in 429 plants of 12 populations located at north-west Iberia. Additionally, we obtained data on the geographical coordinates, elevation, temperature, rainfall and radiation for each population.

Results: Populations mostly differed in flower colour, from orange to yellow from west to the east. Abiotic factors were unrelated to variation in either floral or vegetative traits.

Conclusions: Phenotypic variation among G. lutea populations does not result from adaptation to environmental factors. Other factors, such as historical events or selective pressure exerted by biotic interactions, might explain the flower colour variation in G. lutea along the Cantabrian Range.     

The dynamic properties of melittin in solution

Molecular dynamics simulations are described for the peptide melittin. The atomic trajectories are calculated both with normal potential energy functions and with additional distance restraints deduced from nuclear Overhauser effects observed in NMR experiments. The results are compared with NRM data on coupling constants and amide exchange rates and witt B-factors from X-ray crystallography. The observed correlations between experiment and molecular dynamics simulations suggest a relatively mobile C-terminus and relatively high flexibility around residue 11. It is noted that the high conformational variation around residue 11 is due in part to the presence of a proline at position 14 which results in a missing H-bond in the largely -helical structure. It is also noted that a proline is a common feature of many putative membrane spanning helices. A role for such prolines is suggested.     

Problems of studying coral-reef ecosystems

The term reef has still to be defined in ecological terms. It is essential to discuss and to classify the most significant characteristics of coral-reef ecosystems. Coral reefs involve a number of interdependent problems of semantics, planeteary and regional geotectonics, paleo geography, geomorphology, ecology, hydrobiology and zoogeography. From an ecological point of view, the solution to these problems requires analyzing the correlation between the notions biocoenosis and ecosystem. We may regard a coral reef either as a super organism or as a complex aggregation of almost mutually independent organisms, more or less randomly composed during evolution. The pros and cons, as well as contraditions between these two possibilities can be largely setteled by means of historical anlyses.     

Women and political violence in contemporary Peru

Conclusions It follows from the discussion of the question of women and political violence in the contemporary Peru which I attempted to explore in its historical perspective in this essay, that the peculiarity of the division of labor in the Andean Sierra, based on the gender ideology which recognizes women's work as a complementary to men's work as relatively capable of resisting the extra-economic pressures of underdeveloped capitalism, has facilitated women's incorporation into an armed struggle led by the Sendero Luminoso. For Vicky Peláez, a leading Peruvian journalist, in the conditions of the Andean Sierra the movement could not survive and expand without the participation of women whose historical heritage of struggle has been multiplied by socio-economic and political crisis of the Peruvian state. On the other hand, the organizational framework of the PCP-SL, which recognizes and applies in practice the principle of equality between men and women, has stimulated female political activity. The inclusion of issues important to women in Sendero Luminoso's agenda has given additional impetus to the incorporation of women into class struggle not only as supporters or militants, but also as political and military leaders. Increasing participation of women in political and military actions creates additional conditions for the survival and expansion of collective action started by the PCP-SL years ago, using political violence as the main instrument of a new democratic revolution in Peru.

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Bacteriophage lambda DNA-dependent synthesis of endolysin in a membranous cell-free system of E. coli

Summary We have previously shown that a membranous cell-free system derived from uninfected penicillin spheroplasts of E. coli transcribes early and late messenger RNA's from DNA.This in vitro system will also transcribe and translate the endolysin gene R of DNA. The enzyme activity that results from in vitro synthesis corresponds to endolysin (a typical late protein) by several criteria.DNA from C_I857 sus R5 ts 9B and C_I857 sus S7 pgal, mutants carrying nonsense mutations in genes involved in the host lysis, are inactive in the synthesis of endolysin with an extract of non permissive cells, although they are fully active with an extract of permissive cells. Furthermore, suppression of these mutations is entirely dependent on addition of supernatant from suppressor strains.The endolysin synthesis from a thermosensitive C_I mutant is observed at 40°C and not at 30°C. This suggests that the product of C_I gene is formed and acts in the in vitro system at 30°C.Enzymatic activity is detected after a 15 min lag period.Membranes and double stranded DNA are absolutely required for the enzyme synthesis. Ribosomes and supernatant highly stimulate the in vitro system.Inhibitors of RNA, DNA and protein synthesis (actinomycine D; cytosine arabinoside; DNA-ase; and chloramphenicol respectively) will prevent endolysin production when added at zero time. If DNA-ase or actinomycine D are added after 20 min of incubation, only partial inhibition of endolysin synthesis occurs. It is therefore concluded, according to our previous observations, that messengers are stable enough to allow enzyme synthesis after delayed addition of the inhibitors in the in vitro system.It appears that there is a complete regulation in the membranous system like in vivo and which starts with the early and late messenger formation and leads to active late protein synthesis.     

Toward a more expansive conception of ecological science

There are two competing conceptions of the nature and domain of ecological science in the popular and academic literature, an orthodox conception and a more expansive conception. The orthodox conception conceives ecology as a natural biological science distinct from the human social sciences. The more expansive conception views ecology as a science whose domain properly spans both the natural and social sciences. On the more expansive conception, non-traditional ecological disciplines such as ecological psychology, ecological anthropology and ecological economics may legitimately be regarded as sub-disciplines of ecology, and the practitioners of such disciplines as ecologists. The orthodox-expansionist issue is significant both for the practice of ecology and for the self-identity of the philosophy of ecology. I argue in favour of the expansionist conception of ecology on general conceptual grounds, and by developing the case for one particular non-traditional ecological discipline, ecological psychology.     

Changes in Resistance to Salinity and Temperature in Some Species of Polychaetes from the White Sea in Early Ontogenesis

We studied the effects of different salinities on plankton larvae of some polychaetes in the White Sea. It has been found that the salinity resistance of Alitta virens (Nereidae) increases during ontogenesis. Successful fertilization and further larval development in this species occur at the salinity of 22 to 34; embryos taken into the experiment at the stage of 32 blastomeres, trochophores, and early nektochaetes could survive and normally develop at the salinity of 16–32, 14–45, and 12–45 respectively. The rate of settling and metamorphosis in late nektochaetes of A. virens at normal or lowered (down to 14) salinity is dependent on temperature in the range of 5 to 23°C. It is found that the larvae of Harmothoe imbricata (Polynoidae) show the greatest salinity resistance at the stage of nektochaeta, whose lower limit of salinity is 14. Later larval stages of these species can survive in a wide range of salinity due to the development of a provisory nephridial system. The eurybionty of larvae of Spirorbis spirorbis ready for metamorphosis was higher than that in the larvae of Circeus spirillum (Spirorbidae). Under salinity reduced down to 10 the larvae of S. spirorbis die in 8–14 days, whereas more stenohaline larvae of C. spirillum die by the 3-rd day of the experiment. At water temperatures under 5°C the survival of S. spirorbis was the highest at three examined values of salinity, whereas C. spirillum showed the highest survival only under normal salinity.     

Analysis of rho mutability in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Summary Two additional types of nuclear determinants involved in the control of spontaneous mutability of rho in S. cerevisiae have been identified: mmc and the pet-ts 1, 2, 10, 52 and 53 genes.These genes in their mutated recessive form increase at various extents the number of respiratory deficient cytoplasmic petite mutants accumulated.The gene mmc does not affect the respiratory activity and is not temperature-dependent whereas the pet-ts genes determine at the non permissive temperature a respiratory deficient phenotypes even if they affect the mutability of rho at the permissve and at the non permissive temperature.The data here reported suggest that a replicative complex exists for the mitochondrial DNA.It is in the purpose of this paper to deal with the relative contrition that mmc and pet-ts gene products have in ensuring the fidelity of this replicative complex.     

Climate and land use change impacts on Mediterranean high-mountain vegetation in the Apennines since the 1950s

Background: High-mountain ecosystems are centres of plant diversity that are particularly sensitive to land-use and climate change.

Aims: We investigated the ecological trends associated with land use and climate change since the 1950s in different vegetation types in high-mountain habitats in the central Apennines.

Methods: We analysed temporal changes in: Pinus mugo scrub, calcareous subalpine grasslands and alpine scree vegetation, comparing historical and recent vegetation records from vegetation plots from two periods (1955–1980 and 1990–2014) for their ecological indicator values (Landolt temperature and nutrient indicators) and structural traits (growth forms) over time using generalised linear models (GLMs).

Results: We observed significant temporal differences in the ecology and structure of the analysed habitats. In the Pinus mugo scrub we detected a reduction of subalpine and herbaceous species and in calcareous alpine screes we observed an increment of the lower montane, montane and subalpine species and of dwarf shrubs. Conversely, subalpine grasslands were stable over time.

Conclusions: Ecological changes that have occurred in the Central Apennines, following changes in type and intensity of land use and recent warming are consistent with those observed in other European mountains, for which climate and land-use changes are claimed as the main driving forces.     

GroE-mediated folding of bacterial luciferases in vivo

In this study we present evidence indicating that GroE chaperonins mediate de novo protein folding of heterodimeric and monomeric luciferases under heat shock or sub-heat shock conditions in vivo. The effects of additional groESL and groEL genes on the bioluminescence of Escherichia coli cells expressing different bacterial luciferase genes at various temperatures were directly studied in cells growing in liquid culture. Data indicate that at 42° C GroESL chaperonins are required for the folding of the subunit polypeptide of the heterodimeric luciferase from the mesophilic bacterium Vibrio harveyi MAV (B392). In contrast, the small number of amino acid substitutions present in the luciferase subunit polypeptide from the thermotolerant V. harveyi CTP5 suppresses this requirement for GroE chaperonins, and greatly reduces interaction between the subunit polypeptide and GroEL chaperonin. In addition, GroESL are required for the de novo folding at 37° C of a MAV luciferase fusion polypeptide that is functional as a monomer. No such requirement for luciferase activity is observed at that temperature with a fusion of the CTP5 and subunit polypeptides, although GroE chaperonins can still mediate folding of the CTP5 fusion luciferase. Bacterial luciferases provide a unique system for direct observation of the effects of GroE chaperonins on protein folding and enzyme assembly in living cells. Furthermore, they offer a sensitive and simple assay system for the identification of polypeptide domains required for GroEL protein binding.     

Inter- and intra-specific diversity of Cuban Pinguicula (Lentibulariaceae) based on morphometric analyses and its relation with geographical distribution

Background: Phenotypic variations have been observed in populations of west Cuban Pinguicula species. Such populations occur in patches under different ecological conditions associated with specialised habitats and separated by geographical and ecological barriers, which can lead to morphological differentiation.

Aims: To analyse morphological diversity among species and populations of Cuban Pinguicula; and to test if morphological variability is associated with geographical distribution and distance between populations.

Methods: We sampled a total of eight populations of P. albida, P. cubensis and P. filifolia and tested for morphometric differences among them by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) based on 31 quantitative traits. We also assessed the geographical isolation with respect to morphological distance.

Results: The studied species showed high morphological variability at both species and population level. Reproductive characteristics appeared to be more promissory than vegetative ones in distinguishing geographical groups since they clearly defined populations; nevertheless a strong component of individual variation was observed. According to the distance analysis, such morphological variations were correlated with fragmented populations and isolation and allowed the differentiation of two morphotypes of P. albida and two of P. filifolia.

Conclusions: We conclude that high phenotypic variation of the analysed species is related to geographical and ecological isolation which have led to the differentiation of morphotypes within species.     

Long-Term Habitat Use by Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei). 1. Consistency, Variation, and Home Range Size and Stability

Mountain gorillas are highly folivorous. Food is abundant and perennially available in much of their habitat. Still, limited research has shown that single gorilla groups heavily used areas where food biomass and quality were relatively high and where they met daily nutritional needs with relatively low foraging effort. Also, ecological factors influenced solitary males less than groups with females. Long-term data on habitat use by multiple mountain gorilla social units and more extensive data on variation in food distribution, presented here, confirm that food distribution influences areal occupation densities across groups and over time. These data also confirm the group/solitary male distinction and show that food distribution became more important for one male once he acquired females. Groups used 25 km ² , and inter-annual home range and core area overlap was often low. Annual home range and core area size varied considerably within groups and across years. It bore no simple relationship to group size and estimated group biomass. Core areas were biased samples of total home ranges and were relatively good foraging areas. One group abruptly shifted its home range in response to male mating competition. Home ranges of two others expanded from 1981 to 1987, though at a decreasing rate. Data on one such group, which varied considerably in size, are consistent with arguments that costs of scramble competition are low except in unusually large groups. Low site fidelity, low scramble costs, and high home range overlap should decrease the ecological costs of female transfer.     

An indirect gradient analysis of the ecological relationships between ancient and recent reiverine woodlands to the south of Bruges (Flanders,Belgium)

Summary Riverine forests to the south of Bruges were sampled according to the principles of the Braun-Blanquet approach. Cartographic data allowed a distinction between old (pre-1775) and recent (planted after 1775) woodland. Using a chi-square criterion and/or a Fisher exact probability test, the association of species with the two historical types of woodland was tested. Corylus avellana, Lamium galeobdolon, Primula elatior, Anemone nemorosa, Deschampsia cespitosa and Thamnium alopecurum are confined to ancient woodland. Glechoma hederacea, Prunus padus, Lysimachia nummularia, Ribes rubrum and Lychnis floscuculi have a significant affinity for recent woods.R-type prineipal components analysis produced an effective ordination of species and relevés. Interpretation of the scatter diagrams was performed using indicator values for the species and some environmental parameters for the relevés. Two major gradients were detected: the first one is the coenocline from wet, basic clay soils towards drier, more acidic, sandy soils. Anthropogenic dynamics, through the general management which effects the micro-climate in the wood, particularly the relative light intensity, has been recognized as the second ecological parameter.The potential natural vegetation of the valleys is thus determined primarily by soil texture and soil moisture, and secondarily by former land use (and age). It takes at least 200 years before old woodland species start to colonize recent woodland.We are much indebted to Prof. Dr. P. Van der Veken for his criticism of the manuscipt and to B. Kuziel en G. Dujardin for reviewing the English text.Nomenclature follows De Langhe et al. (1978) for vascular plants and Margadant (1973) & Margadant & During (1973) for bryophytes.Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Ir. G. Sissingh (1912–1979).This study was supported by a grant from the Instituut tot aanmoediging van het Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek in Nijverheid en Landbouw and since 1 October 1979 from the Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek.