Ethnobotanical investigation of Caballitos (Schoenoplectus californicus: cyperaceae) in Huanchaco, Peru

Indigenous Peruvians have used totora (Schoenoplectus californicus: Cyperaceae) vessels or caballitos for fishing along the coast of Peru since pre-Inca times. Presently, caballito use and construction are declining in numerous fishing towns. Participant observation techniques were employed to investigate aspects of caballito construction. S. californicus stems were used to make four bundles to serve as the caballito body. The bundles were lashed together with single and double twist rope made from Furcraea andina (Agavaceae) leaves. The stem of Guadua angustifolia (Poaceae) was used as a paddle for the vessel. Caballito construction has varied little through time. We documented a decline in the use of traditional plant materials due to their scarcity. Huanchaco fishermen have played an important role in maintaining the tradition of building caballitos.     

Use and management of Totora (Schoenoplectus Californicus, Cyperaceae) in Ecuador

The New World aquatic macrophyte Schoenoplectus californicus (= Scirpus californicus) is widespread along the Andes of Ecuador, where it is of great economic and cultural importance to indigenous people. Most importantly, its stems are used to make mats that are sold throughout the country with some exported to Colombia, Peru, the United States, and Italy. The estimated area of production in the Ecuadorian provinces of Imbabura, Cotopaxi, and Chimborazo is 442 hectares. One mat can be made from a 0.75 m² totora stand area. In Imbabura, 100 m² of totora stand yields 266 mats annually, bringing in a gross income of US $251, corresponding to 22% of the official minimum salary in Ecuador. The plant also provides highly nutritional forage and is an excellent food source for cattle during periods of drought.     

The Totora (Scirpus Californicus) in Ecuador and Peru

Economic Botany - The totora (also known as matara and merme),Scirpus californicus, is widely used in Ecuador and Peru for a number of purposes. Floats made from it are still found at L.ake San...     

Dung as an essential resource in a highland Peruvian community

The present paper examines the use of dung for two essential human resources, fuel and fertilizer, in a highland community of southern Peru. The limited energy availability and the poor soils of the region, primarily the result of high-altitude climate and topography, necessitate this practice. Alternatives to dung use are costly or unavailable. Grazing herbivores transform the widely dispersed puna grasses into a compact and easily gathered source of energy and nutrients. Native choice among available dungs corresponds to their qualities: sheep dung, richest in nutrients, is applied as fertilizer; llama and cattle dungs, each with a high caloric value, are burned as fuels. Dung use is interpreted as an energetically efficient response to the highland environment and as central to the subsistence pattern in the area.     

Shadows of the colonial past – diverging plant use in Northern Peru and Southern Ecuador

This paper examines the traditional use of medicinal plants in Northern Peru and Southern Ecuador, with special focus on the Departments of Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Cajamarca, and San Martin, and in Loja province, with special focus on the development since the early colonial period. Northern Peru represents the locus of the old Central Andean "Health Axis." The roots of traditional healing practices in this region go as far back as the Cupisnique culture early in the first millennium BC. Northern Peru and Southern Ecuador share the same cultural context and flora but show striking differences in plant use and traditional knowledge. Two hundred fifteen plant species used for medicinal purposes in Ecuador and 510 plant species used for medicinal purposes in Peru were collected, identified,. and their vernacular names, traditional uses, and applications recorded. This number of species indicates that the healers, market vendors, and members of the public interviewed in Peru still have a very high knowledge of plants in their surroundings, which can be seen as a reflection of the knowledge of the population in general. In Ecuador much of the original plant knowledge has already been lost. In Peru, 433 (85%) were Dicotyledons, 46 (9%) Monocotyledons, 21 (4%) Pteridophytes, and 5 (1%) Gymnosperms. Three species of Giartina (Algae) and one species of the Lichen genus Siphula were used. The families best represented were Asteraceae with 69 species, Fabaceae (35), Lamiaceae (25), and Solanaceae (21). Euphorbiaceae had 12 species, and Poaceae and Apiaceae each accounted for 11 species. In Ecuador the families best represented were Asteraceae (32 species), Euphorbiaceae, Lamiaceae, and Solanaceae (11 species each), and Apiaceae, Fabaceae, Lycopodiaceae (9 species each). One hundred eighty-two (85%) of the species used were Dicotyledons, 20 Monocotyledons (9.3%), 12 ferns (5.5%), and one unidentified lichen was used. Most of the plants used (83%) were native to Peru and Ecuador. Fresh plants, often collected wild, were used in two thirds of all cases in Peru, but in almost 95% of the cases in Ecuador. The most common applications included the ingestion of herb decoctions or the application of plant material as poultices. Although about 50% of the plants in use in the colonial period have disappeared from the popular pharmacopoeia, the overall number of plant species used medicinally has increased in Northern Peru, while Southern Ecuador shows a decline of plant knowledge since colonial times.     

Caught Between Mediation and Local Dependence: Understanding the Role of Non-government Organisations in Co-management of Coastal Resources in Eastern Indonesia

Resolving contestations over resource management rights around coastal villages remains a focal challenge for co-management initiatives in remote coastal zones. Contemporary socio-political settings increasingly see local people having to negotiate between local long-standing (horizontal) relationships and new emerging (vertical) relationships which involve collaborations with outside actors who try to assume neutral mediating positions. Using two conflicts, this article examines the rise and fall of a participatory coastal resource management program in eastern Indonesia involving a fishing community engaged in a co-management arrangement with a conservation non-government organisation (NGO). An actor-oriented approach is applied to analyse how these conflicts shape, drive and direct collaborations across the community–NGO interface. We discuss how these impact the implementation of the conservation ethics and sustainable natural resource management practices, and show how particular mediating capacities of an NGO may overcome, and even build forth on, conflict in some contexts but fall short in others. We argue that local resource user groups and conservation teams operate according to strong local relationships that are entrenched in cultural–historical hierarchies of power. We moreover note that these local relationships significantly influence the extent of neutrality of external groups in their mediating, coordinating and technical advisory roles. The effectiveness of co-management partnerships hinges on the ability to balance actors’ mediating capacity with their local dependence for operation.     

Home Gardens Sustain Crop Diversity and Improve Farm Resilience in Candelaria Loxicha,Oaxaca, Mexico

Home gardens are land use units embedded in a larger land use system, in this case in Candelaria Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we investigated how home gardens are integrated into local farming practices and how these influence biodiversity. Our findings suggest that home gardens harbour high levels of biodiversity, which are maintained and enriched by farmers’ practices, particularly plant and seed exchange. Plant diversity is higher in younger home gardens and in home gardens where owners actively exchange plant material with other people. Through plant exchange, seed storage, and the dispersion of seeds and plants in different land uses, farmers encourage plant diversity and consequently increase the resilience of their farming system in changing climatic, demographic and economic conditions. Both men and women participate in the establishment, care and management of home gardens, but they are responsible for different plants and home garden functions. For economic reasons, the inhabitants of Candelaria Loxicha are increasingly engaging in international migration. Migrants, upon their return bring new ideas and plants that might transform the rural landscape.     

Glacial records of Global climate: A 1500-year tropical ice core record of climate

A general discussion is given of climate variability over the last 1500 years as interpreted from two ice cores from the Quelccaya ice cap, Peru. The possible role of climatic variability in prehistory over this period is discussed with emphases on (1) relationships between climate and the rise and decline of coastal and highland cultures; (2) the possible causes of two major dust events recorded in the Quelccaya ice cores around AD 920 and AD 600; and (3) implications of climatic variation for the occupation and abandonment of the Gran Pajaten area. The remarkable similarity between changes in highland and coastal cultures and changes in accumulation as determined from the Quelccaya ice cores implies a strong connection between human activities and climate in this region of the globe. Two ice cores drilled to bedrock from the 6047 masl col of Huascarán in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru in 1993 offer the potential of an annual to decadal climatic and environmental record which should allow the study of human-climate and human-environmental relationships over 10,000+ years. The 1991 and 1993 evidence from the Quelccaya ice cap indicates that recent and rapid warming is currently underway in the tropical Andes. Thus many of the unique glacier archives are in imminent danger of being lost forever.     

Mapping genetic diversity of cherimoya (Annona cherimola Mill.): application of spatial analysis for conservation and use of plant genetic resources

There is a growing call for inventories that evaluate geographic patterns in diversity of plant genetic resources maintained on farm and in species' natural populations in order to enhance their use and conservation. Such evaluations are relevant for useful tropical and subtropical tree species, as many of these species are still undomesticated, or in incipient stages of domestication and local populations can offer yet-unknown traits of high value to further domestication. For many outcrossing species, such as most trees, inbreeding depression can be an issue, and genetic diversity is important to sustain local production. Diversity is also crucial for species to adapt to environmental changes. This paper explores the possibilities of incorporating molecular marker data into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to allow visualization and better understanding of spatial patterns of genetic diversity as a key input to optimize conservation and use of plant genetic resources, based on a case study of cherimoya (Annona cherimola Mill.), a Neotropical fruit tree species. We present spatial analyses to (1) improve the understanding of spatial distribution of genetic diversity of cherimoya natural stands and cultivated trees in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru based on microsatellite molecular markers (SSRs); and (2) formulate optimal conservation strategies by revealing priority areas for in situ conservation, and identifying existing diversity gaps in ex situ collections. We found high levels of allelic richness, locally common alleles and expected heterozygosity in cherimoya's putative centre of origin, southern Ecuador and northern Peru, whereas levels of diversity in southern Peru and especially in Bolivia were significantly lower. The application of GIS on a large microsatellite dataset allows a more detailed prioritization of areas for in situ conservation and targeted collection across the Andean distribution range of cherimoya than previous studies could do, i.e. at province and department level in Ecuador and Peru, respectively.     

Thoracic skeletal morphology and high-altitude hypoxia in Andean prehistory

Living humans from the highland Andes exhibit antero-posteriorly and medio-laterally enlarged chests in response to high-altitude hypoxia. This study hypothesizes that morphological responses to high-altitude hypoxia should also be evident in pre-Contact Andean groups. Thoracic skeletal morphology in four groups of human skeletons (N = 347) are compared: two groups from coastal regions (Ancón, Peru, n = 79 and Arica, Chile, n = 123) and two groups from high altitudes (San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, n = 102 and Machu Picchu and Cuzco, Peru, n = 43). Osteometric variables that represent proportions of chest width and depth include sternal and clavicular lengths and breadths and rib length, curvature, and area. Each variable was measured relative to body size, transformed into logarithmic indices, and compared across sex-specific groups using ANOVA and Tukey multiple comparison tests. Atacama highlanders have the largest sternal and clavicular proportions and ribs with the greatest area and least amount of curvature, features that suggest an antero-posteriorly deep and mediolaterally wide thoracic skeleton. Ancón lowlanders exhibit proportions indicating narrower and shallower chests. Machu Picchu and Cuzco males cluster with the other highland group in rib curvature and area at the superior levels of the thorax, whereas chest proportions in Machu Picchu and Cuzco females resemble those of lowlanders. The variation in Machu Picchu and Cuzco males and females is interpreted as the result of population migrations. The presence of morphological traits indicative of enlarged chests in some highland individuals suggests that high-altitude hypoxia was an environmental stressor shaping the biology of highland Andean groups during the pre-Contact period.     

Management of Local Stressors Can Improve the Resilience of Marine Canopy Algae to Global Stressors

Coastal systems are increasingly threatened by multiple local anthropogenic and global climatic stressors. With the difficulties in remediating global stressors, management requires alternative approaches that focus on local scales. We used manipulative experiments to test whether reducing local stressors (sediment load and nutrient concentrations) can improve the resilience of foundation species (canopy algae along temperate rocky coastlines) to future projected global climate stressors (high wave exposure, increasing sea surface temperature), which are less amenable to management actions. We focused on Fucoids (Cystoseira barbata) along the north-western Adriatic coast in the Mediterranean Sea because of their ecological relevance, sensitivity to a variety of human impacts, and declared conservation priority. At current levels of sediment and nutrients, C. barbata showed negative responses to the simulated future scenarios of high wave exposure and increased sea surface temperature. However, reducing the sediment load increased the survival of C. barbata recruits by 90.24% at high wave exposure while reducing nutrient concentrations resulted in a 20.14% increase in the survival and enhanced the growth of recruited juveniles at high temperature. We conclude that improving water quality by reducing nutrient concentrations, and particularly the sediment load, would significantly increase the resilience of C. barbata populations to projected increases in climate stressors. Developing and applying appropriate targets for specific local anthropogenic stressors could be an effective management action to halt the severe and ongoing loss of key marine habitats.     

Shifting Cultivation and Fire Policy: Insights from the Brazilian Amazon

Fires in humid tropical forests are increasingly frequent due to severe dry seasons, forest degradation and agricultural expansion. One agent implicated in current discourse surrounding tropical forest fires is the small-scale farming peasantry who rely on fire in swidden (shifting cultivation, slash-and-burn) agriculture. The environmental degradation associated with fire has led to government responses at multiple scales (international, national, state, regional) via policies aimed mainly at managing ignition sources. However, continued increase in forest fires suggests that these policies may be having limited impact and a fresh evaluation of current policy approaches to fire management is needed. We review fire policy measures with insights of caboclo farming practices and perspectives from Eastern Amazonia and examine the congruence between policy and practice. We demonstrate a significant disparity between policy requirements such as firebreaks and actual fire management practices, in which measures rarely meet requirements outlined in legislation. We explore the origins and the impacts of these disparities, focussing on smallholder farm-level management measures and local capacity. Incomplete knowledge coupled with marginal awareness of legal requirements served to propagate widespread erroneous beliefs in what these are. This analysis at multiple scales (international, national, state, regional) will contribute to developing greater congruence between fire policies and smallholder farming practices.     

The variable roads to sacrifice: Isotopic investigations of human remains from Chotuna‐Huaca de los Sacrificios,Lambayeque, Peru

This study investigates two key variables—residential context and subsistence—among sacrificial victims dating to the Late Horizon (A.D. 1450–1532) in the Huaca de los Sacrificios at the Chotuna‐Chornancap Archaeological Complex in north coastal Peru. We investigate whether aspects of sacrifice in this distant coastal province mirrored that found in Inca heartland contexts such as the capacocha, or remained more typical of coastal sacrificial traditions. Stable carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotope values were characterized in bone carbonate, bone collagen, and hair keratin to estimate geographic residence during the decade before death and diet in the decade, versus months, before death. Bone δ¹⁸O_carbonate values have a mean (±SD) of 26.8 ± 1.1%, bone δ¹³C_carbonate values ?6.7 ± 1.7%, and bone δ¹³C_collagen values 11.8 ± 1.3%; bone δ¹⁵N_collagen values have a mean of 11.5 ± 1.3%. Combined hair δ¹³C_keratin values have a mean of ?12.8 ± 1.6%, and hair δ¹⁵N_keratin values 10.8 ± 1.3%. In contrast to contemporaneous coastal and highland contexts, we are unable to identify immigrants among the sacrificed individuals or changes in diet that indicate provisioning with a standardized diet leading up to death. Instead, results suggest that victims were local to the area, but consumed moderately variable diets consistent with local subsistence patterns. These findings suggest a distinct pattern of human sacrifice in the Late Horizon and underscore the regional and temporal variation in sacrificial practices in the central Andes. Am J Phys Anthropol 151:22–37, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Lycianthes moziniana (solanaceae): An underutilized Mexican food plant with “new” crop potential

Lycianthes moziniana is an agrestic (weedy) perennial encouraged by traditional farmers for its edible, sweet-tasting fruits. This species is endemic to the Mexican highland plateau and Oaxaca where the ethnotaxonomic and ethnohistoric data reflect a long-standing relationship with human populations. Today, the fruits of this plant are used for domestic consumption, small-scale commercialization, and ceremonial purposes. To ensure the production of fruits, traditional farmers afford the plants a special management which has evolutionary repercussions. Recently, modern agricultural practices have placed this species in danger of extinction. Preliminary chemical analyses and yield data suggest thatL. moziniana is particularly well-suited for development as a “new” crop for Mexico.     

A geospatial approach for assessing denitrification sinks within lower-order catchments

Local decision makers can influence land use practices that alter N loading and processing within the drainage basin of lower-order stream reaches. Because many practices reduce water retention times and alter the timing and pathways of water flow, local decisions regarding land use can potentially exert a major influence on watershed N export. We illustrate a geospatial approach for assessing the role of denitrification sinks in watershed N delivery at the local level using: (a) widely available geospatial data, (b) current findings from peer-reviewed literature, (c) USGS stream gage data, and (d) locally based data on selected stream attributes. With high resolution, high quality GIS data increasingly available to local communities, they are now in a position to guide local management of watershed N by targeting upland source controls and by identifying landscape sinks for protection and/or restoration. We characterize riparian wetlands, lentic water bodies, and stream reaches as N sinks in the landscape and use geospatial particle tracking to estimate flow paths from N sources and evaluate N removal within sinks. We present an example analysis of the Chickasheen drainage basin, RI, USA, comparing N flux from three equivalent hypothetical N source areas situated in different regions of the watershed and illustrating the role of each N sink type in mediating N flux. Because our goal is to generate a tool that is used by and useful to decision makers we are exploring methods to better understand how decision makers understand and respond to the manner in which information is presented.     

The effects of habitat and competitive/facilitative interactions on reintroduction success of the endangered wetland herb,Arenaria paludicola

Establishing new populations is essential for preventing the extinction of critically endangered plant species. However, defining the range of environmental conditions suitable for the most severely endangered species is challenging, since few wild populations remain for study. Experimental reintroductions of these species can achieve multiple conservation goals by improving our understanding of habitat and management requirements while simultaneously establishing new populations. We demonstrate this with Arenaria paludicola, a critically endangered wetland plant species now known from a single wild population in coastal California. Before transplanting, we tested salinity tolerance in the greenhouse, and found tolerance of a broader range of soils than expected based on the current distribution. We then transplanted A. paludicola in three different habitat types, with and without neighbor removal. Success of A. paludicola transplants differed dramatically between the three habitat types, indicating the importance of variation at the habitat and microhabitat level. The best practices for transplant management are context-dependent: neighbor removal may promote the growth of A. paludicola, but neighbors may also facilitate transplant establishment in unstable substrates. After one year, A. paludicola continued to thrive in habitats dominated by Oenanthe sarmentosa with open canopies and moist soil. This habitat differs from that of the remaining wild population. Our discovery of an additional habitat type suitable for A. paludicola will allow more effective selection of future transplant sites.     

Coastline Dune Vegetation Dynamics: Evidence of No Stability

Coastal dune ecosystems are subjected to severe stress and disturbance factors that are particularly high in the beach-foredune environment and generally decrease with distance from the coast. The present study aimed to link plant species composition of coastal foredunes with the physical dynamical processes of the coastline in central Italy. A random hierarchical sampling design, based on two spatial scales (quadrant and parcel), was applied to estimate the variation in plant community composition. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) revealed an approximately similar amount of variation with respect to both the coastal dynamic class and the parcel level. In addition, principal coordinate analyses showed that three taxa ?C Ammophila arenaria, Elymus farctus and Otanthus maritimus subsp. maritimus ?C were mainly linked to the coastal dynamics: A. arenaria increases its abundance where erosion of the shoreline is very high, while E. farctus and O. maritimus are more abundant in the prograding coast. Finally, similarity percentages analysis (SIMPER) highlighted that where the erosive processes were strongest, the number of the species contributing to the total similarity was the highest. This is likely to indicate instability and a strong disturbance of plant communities that results in an unstable equilibrium. These findings have important implications for management and conservation actions.     

Development of an Indicator to Monitor Mediterranean Wetlands

Wetlands are sensitive ecosystems that are increasingly subjected to threats from anthropogenic factors. In the last decades, coastal Mediterranean wetlands have been suffering considerable pressures from land use change, intensification of urban growth, increasing tourism infrastructure and intensification of agricultural practices. Remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques are efficient tools that can support monitoring Mediterranean coastal wetlands on large scales and over long periods of time. The study aims at developing a wetland indicator to support monitoring Mediterranean coastal wetlands using these techniques. The indicator makes use of multi-temporal Landsat images, land use reference layers, a 50m numerical model of the territory (NMT) and Corine Land Cover (CLC) for the identification and mapping of wetlands. The approach combines supervised image classification techniques making use of vegetation indices and decision tree analysis to identify the surface covered by wetlands at a given date. A validation process is put in place to compare outcomes with existing local wetland inventories to check the results reliability. The indicator´s results demonstrate an improvement in the level of precision of change detection methods achieved by traditional tools providing reliability up to 95% in main wetland areas. The results confirm that the use of RS techniques improves the precision of wetland detection compared to the use of CLC for wetland monitoring and stress the strong relation between the level of wetland detection and the nature of the wetland areas and the monitoring scale considered.     

Predictors of mammal species richness in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

The management of multi-functional landscapes warrants better knowledge of environment-richness associations at varying disturbance levels and habitat gradients. Intensive land-use patterns for agricultural purposes lead to fragmentation of natural habitat resulting in biodiversity loss that can be measured using landscape metrics to assess mammalian richness. Since carnivores and herbivores are likely to show different responses to disturbance, we calculated carnivore, non-carnivore, and total mammal species richness from camera surveys using a first order Jackknife Estimator. Richness was compared along a habitat gradient comprising coastal forest, Acacia thicket, and highland in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We used standardized OLS regression models to identify climatic and disturbance variables, and landscape metrics as predictors of species richness. The estimated total and non-carnivore species richness were highest in coastal forest, while carnivore species richness was highest in highland followed by coastal forest and Acacia thicket. Average monthly maximum temperature was a significant predictor of all richness groups, and precipitation of the wettest month and isothermality determined total and non-carnivore species richness, respectively. These climatic variables possibly limit species distribution because of physiological tolerance of the species. Total mammal richness was determined by mean shape (+) and habitat division (−) while diversity (+) and patch richness (−) explained carnivore species richness. Mean shape index (+) influenced non-carnivore richness. However, habitat division and patch richness negatively influenced total mammal richness. Though habitat patch size and contiguity had a weak positive prediction, these metrics demonstrated the importance of habitat connectivity for maintaining mammal richness. The identification of these climatic and landscape patterns is important to facilitate future landscape management for mammal conservation in forest-mosaics.     

Response of the two rare arable weed species Lithospermum arvense and Scandix pecten-veneris to climate change conditions

Rare weeds are currently under pressure due to intensifying arable management practices, and as a consequence of climate change, these practices will likely become even more intensive, together with a greater uniformity of land use. As a result, ecological stresses will increase for most species of rare weeds, in some cases leading to their further decline or even extinction. Moreover, climate change will alter the suitability of the environment for many plants, since average temperatures are predicted to increase and precipitation extremes to become more common. For most arable weed species it is unclear, whether the anticipated changes in environmental conditions are disadvantageous or beneficial. Little is known about specific biological responses of rare weeds to climate changes, and this study attempts to close some of these knowledge gaps. Here, the rare arable weed Lithospermum arvense and the endangered arable species Scandix pecten-veneris were investigated with regard to the effects of higher temperature and different crop densities on flowering time, shoot development, plant height, dry mass and seed production. Semi-field experiments were conducted with winter wheat crop for 3 years, involving 48 climate cages, in which every second was a variant of warmer temperature and contrasting crop density. We observed that S. pecten-veneris flowered earlier under warmer conditions and had fewer seeds and less biomass in the dense wheat crop compared to control conditions, while L. arvense grew taller, it produced fewer seeds in the high density crop. We suggest that such data concerning the biological responses of weeds can improve the precision of bioclimatic distribution models. Finally, we discuss strategies, such as relocation or non-intrusive management practices, for preventing further disappearances of rare arable weeds. Our results should be of considerable interest for the fields of plant ecology, biodiversity research and conservation.