Garden Game: Shifting Cultivation,Indigenous Hunting and Wildlife Ecology in Western Panama

Participatory research documented the hunting yields of 59 households in five neighboring indigenous villages in western Panama. These households captured 2,580 kg of game over 8 months, with 47% of the harvest coming from agricultural areas. The quantity of game captured in anthropogenic habitats is influenced by the hunting strategies employed. Only 25% of game captured during hunting trips was captured in agricultural areas, as opposed to 93% while “awaiting” and 65% using traps. Reliance on different strategies is in turn dependent on age, gender, and access to firearms. I argue that garden hunting is not a response to game depletion, but rather a productive activity that is complementary to broader cultural and economic patterns, and that simultaneously protects crops from animal predation. The creation of heterogeneous habitat mosaics through shifting cultivation has played a key role in the relationship between people and wildlife in the humid neotropics, leading to adjustments in both animal foraging patterns and indigenous hunting practices.     

New species of Malouetia (Apocynaceae): A trio from Amazonia

Three new species ofMalouetia (Apocynaceae) are described and illustrated:M. amazonica andM. pumila from Brazil andM. gentryi from Peru.Malouetia amazonica grows in inundated igapó forest, whereas the other two are found in non-inundated habitats:M. pumila incampa fechada, andM. gentryi in upland forest.     

Amazonia and the modern carbon cycle: lessons learned

In this paper, we review some critical issues regarding carbon cycling in Amazonia, as revealed by several studies conducted in the Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA). We evaluate both the contribution of this magnificent biome for the global net primary productivity/net ecosystem exchange (NPP/NEE) and the feedbacks of climate change on the dynamics of Amazonia. In order to place Amazonia in a global perspective and make the carbon flux obtained through the LBA project comparable with global carbon budgets, we extrapolated NPP/NEE values found by LBA studies to the entire area of the Brazilian Amazon covered by rainforest. The carbon emissions due to land use changes for the tropical regions of the world produced values from 0.96 to 2.4 Pg C year⁻¹, while atmospheric CO₂ inversion models have recently indicated that tropical lands in the Americas could be exchanging a net 0.62±1.15 Pg C year⁻¹ with the atmosphere. The difference calculated from these two methods would imply a local sink of approximately 1.6–1.7 Pg C year⁻¹, or a source of 0.85 ton C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. Using our crude extrapolation of LBA values for the Amazon forests (5 million km²) we estimate a range for the C flux in the region of −3.0 to 0.75 Pg C year⁻¹. The exercise here does not account for environmental variability across the region, but it is an important driver for present and future studies linking local process (i.e. nutrient availability, photosynthetic capacity, and so forth) to global and regional dynamic approaches.     

The Nature of Shifting Cultivation: Stories of Harmony, Degradation, and Redemption

Shifting cultivation is identified as a major cause of tropical deforestation. Sources that recount such impacts routinely employ an Eden-lost narrative structure that represents shifting cultivators as having their relatively harmonious human-environment relationships disrupted by various forces. While such disruptions lead to land degradation, official development institutions via research into alternatives to such agriculture offer redemption, or the return to relative ecological harmony. This Edenic narrative vehicle allows shifting cultivators to be represented as primitives in need of modernization, yet it also more commonly allows a sympathetic representation as holders of valuable, albeit threatened, indigenous knowledge that can be applied to the development of solutions. However, embedded within both hostile and sympathetic accounts from both scientific and policy sources are cultural images that persist as a legacy of colonialist assumptions of social evolution and cultural hierarchy.     

Shifting Cultivation and Conservation of Biological Diversity in Tripura, Northeast India

Shifting cultivation (jhooming) has been identified as one of the main human impacts influencing biodiversity in Tripura, Northeast India. Over the last few years a new class of shifting cultivators has emerged that has adopted non-traditional forms of jhooming, which have been responsible for the loss of biological diversity in the state. This paper describes the successes achieved by the state government in providing the jhumias (tribes practicing jhooming) with various non-jhooming options. Recommendations include the need for short and long term control measures, improvement of existing jhooming methods, and integration of traditional knowledge with new practices.     

A sight and video record of the oilbird, Steatornis caripensis , in Peruvian lowland Amazonia

This paper reports on the observation of an oilbird, Steatornis caripensis, in Peruvian lowland Amazonia in September 2006, and discusses this sighting in relation to other lowland reports of oilbirds. Taken together, available information indicates that oilbirds seem to occur in lowland Amazonia more regularly than previously known.     

Environmental Consequences of the Demise in Swidden Cultivation in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia: Hydrology and Geomorphology

The hydrological and geomorphological impacts of traditional swidden cultivation in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia are virtually inconsequential, whereas the impacts associated with intensified replacement agricultural systems are often much more substantial. Negative perceptions toward swiddening in general by governments in the region beginning half a decade ago have largely been based on cases of forest conversion and land degradation associated with (a) intensified swidden systems, characterized by shortened fallow and extended cropping periods and/or (b) the widespread cultivation of opium for cash after the Second World War. Neither of these practices should be viewed as traditional, subsistence-based swiddening. Other types of intensive agriculture systems are now replacing swiddening throughout the region, including semi-permanent and permanent cash cropping, monoculture plantations, and greenhouse complexes. The negative impacts associated with these systems include changes in streamflow response, increased surface erosion, a higher probability of landslides, and the declination in stream water quality. Unlike the case for traditional swiddening, these impacts result because of several factors: (1) large portions of upland catchments are cultivated simultaneously; (2) accelerated hydraulic and tillage erosion occurs on plots that are cultivated repetitively with limited or no fallowing to allow recovery of key soil properties, including infiltration; (3) concentrated overland flow and erosion sources are often directly connected with the stream network; (4) root strength is reduced on permanently converted hillslopes; (5) surface and ground water extraction is frequently used for irrigation; and (6) and pesticides and herbicides are used. Furthermore, the commercial success of these systems relies on the existence of dense networks of roads, which are linear landscape features renowned for disrupting hydrological and geomorphological systems. A new conservation focus is needed to reduce the impacts of these intensified upland agricultural practices.     

Shifting ecological baselines and the demise of Acropora cervicornis in the western North Atlantic and Caribbean Province: a Pleistocene perspective

 In recent years, marine scientists have become increasingly alarmed over the decline of live coral cover throughout the Caribbean and tropical western Atlantic region. The Holocene and Pleistocene fossil record of coral reefs from this region potentially provides a wealth of long-term ecologic information with which to assess the historical record of changes in shallow water coral reef communities. Before fossil data can be applied to the modern reef system, critical problems involving fossil preservation must be addressed. Moreover, it must be demonstrated that the classic reef coral zonation patterns described in the early days of coral reef ecology, and upon which “healthy” versus “unhealthy” reefs are determined, are themselves representative of reefs that existed prior to any human influence. To address these issues, we have conducted systematic censuses of life and death assemblages on modern “healthy” patch reefs in the Florida reef tract that conform to the classic Caribbean model of reef coral zonation, and a patch reef in the Bahamas that is currently undergoing a transition in coral dominance that is part of a greater Caribbean-wide phenomenon. Results were compared to censuses of ancient reef assemblages preserved in Pleistocene limestones in close proximity to each modern reef. We have determined that the Pleistocene fossil record of coral reefs may be used to calibrate an ecological baseline with which to compare modern reef assemblages, and suggest that the current and rapid decline of Acropora cervicornis observed on a Bahamian patch reef may be a unique event that contrasts with the long-term persistence of this taxon during Pleistocene and Holocene time. Accepted: 19 May 1998     

Phylogeny of the Rodent Genus Isothrix (Hystricognathi, Echimyidae) and its Diversification in Amazonia and the Eastern Andes

Efforts to clarify the affinities of the torós or brush-tailed rats (Isothrix) and document the radiation of these distinctive echimyids have been limited. The discovery of a new Andean species prompted a reanalysis of Isothrix and its relatives. Prior morphological analyses of skulls, mandibles, teeth, and external characters permitted robust diagnosis but offered little resolution of within- or between-group relationships. Analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences (798 bp), which are available for numerous echimyids, confirm the monophyly of recognized genera, including Isothrix, and resolve a number of interspecific relationships. Strikingly, the Andean toró (Isothrix barbarabrownae) is consistently recovered as sister to the remaining species. These are allied into three clades: I. sinnamariensis + I. pagurus in the lower Amazon Basin and Guianan Shield, I. orinoci + I. negrensis in the Rio Negro and Río Orinoco drainages, and I. bistriata across much of the western and southern Amazon Basin. However, the addition of a new basal taxon does not aid in identifying the sister taxon of Isothrix. These relationships are confirmed in combined analyses of cyt-b with sequence variation in the mitochondrial control region (D-loop; 450 bp) and in the nuclear RAG1 gene (1,072 bp). Analyses identify the Andes, or proto-Andes, as an important theater for the group’s evolution and may offer an explanation for the luxuriant fur of this genus. However, neither the biogeographic history of Isothrix nor the remarkable pelage evolution of the Echimyidae can be understood until the deeper nodes within the arboreal spiny rats (Echimyinae) are more fully resolved.     

Molecular phylogeny, biogeography and insights into the origin of parthenogenesis in the Neotropical genus Leposoma (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae): Ancient links between the Atlantic Forest and Amazonia

Leposoma is a conspicuous component of leaf litter herpetofauna of South and Central American rainforests. The 15 bisexual and one parthenogenetic species are allocated to the parietale and scincoides groups based on morphology. Phylogenetic analyses of 1830 bp (mtDNA + nuclear) were performed on 63 specimens of four species from Amazonian and Panamanian rainforests, and six species and one undescribed form from the Atlantic Forest. Different methods of tree reconstruction were explored, with Anotosaura vanzolinia and Colobosauroides cearensis as outgroups. The monophyly of the parietale and scincoides groups is strongly supported. Contrary to previous hypotheses suggesting a recent contact between Atlantic and Amazon forests, our estimates point to an initial split in Miocene. The position of Leposoma baturitensis, endemic to relictual forests in the semiarid Caatingas northeastern Brazil, and its divergence from the remaining species of the Atlantic Forest, suggests an ancient isolation with no indication of a secondary contact with forests of the eastern coast. Our data do not permit unambiguous assignment of parental species of the unisexual Leposoma percarinatum or the mechanism involved in the origin of parthenogenesis, but revealed two highly divergent diploid and triploid lineages within L. percarinatum, indicating that the unisexuals represent a species complex.     

The future of the Amazon: new perspectives from climate, ecosystem and social sciences

The potential loss or large-scale degradation of the tropical rainforests has become one of the iconic images of the impacts of twenty-first century environmental change and may be one of our century's most profound legacies. In the Amazon region, the direct threat of deforestation and degradation is now strongly intertwined with an indirect challenge we are just beginning to understand: the possibility of substantial regional drought driven by global climate change. The Amazon region hosts more than half of the world's remaining tropical forests, and some parts have among the greatest concentrations of biodiversity found anywhere on Earth. Overall, the region is estimated to host about a quarter of all global biodiversity. It acts as one of the major 'flywheels' of global climate, transpiring water and generating clouds, affecting atmospheric circulation across continents and hemispheres, and storing substantial reserves of biomass and soil carbon. Hence, the ongoing degradation of Amazonia is a threat to local climate stability and a contributor to the global atmospheric climate change crisis. Conversely, the stabilization of Amazonian deforestation and degradation would be an opportunity for local adaptation to climate change, as well as a potential global contributor towards mitigation of climate change. However, addressing deforestation in the Amazon raises substantial challenges in policy, governance, sustainability and economic science. This paper introduces a theme issue dedicated to a multidisciplinary analysis of these challenges.     

Plant virtues are in the eyes of the beholders: A comparison of known palm uses among indigenous and folk communities of Southwestern Amazonia

Despite its central importance to tropical forest conservation, the understanding of patterns in traditional resource use still is incipient. To address this deficiency, we compared known palm uses among two indigenous (Yawanawd and Kaxinawá) and two folk (rubber tapper and ribeirinho) communities in Southwestern Amazonia (Acre, Brazil). We conducted one-hundred-and -forty semi-structured “checklist” interviews about palm uses with male and female adults in the four communities. The knowledge of each community about the uses of the 17 palm species common to all communities was compared by testing for significant differences in the mean number of uses cited per informant and by calculating the Jaccard similarity index of known uses of palm species among the four communities. The following three hypotheses were confirmed: 1) the use of palms differs according to the cultural preferences of each community; 2) indigenous communities know significantly more about palm uses than folk communities; and 3) part of the indigenous knowledge was acquired through contact with Amazonian folk communities.     

嗜酸乳杆菌固态发酵的初步研究

研究了嗜酸乳杆菌在 4种不同固态基质 (豆渣、麦麸、芋艿渣、纤维素 )中的生长情况 ,结果显示 :1)豆渣作为基质时嗜酸乳杆菌生长最佳 ,最高活菌数可达 1.6 45× 10 9cfu/g ,麦麸次之 ,达 3.2× 10 8cfu/g ,纤维素最差 ,仅为 2 .1× 10 7cfu/g ,并且豆渣固态培养基优于对照的 3种液体培养基 ;2 )豆渣的含水量以 75 %左右为宜 ;3)通过加入可中和所产酸量的CaCO3 ,并用缓冲液代替水配制培养基 ,结果发现用pH 6 .0的缓冲液配制的培养基 ,培养后活菌量可达 2 .12 4× 10 9cfu/g ,,比对照用自来水提高了 4.2倍 .     

Cultivation and transfer of porcine type A spermatogonia

A cell population enriched with type A spermatogonia has been isolated from the boar testes. Cell types occurring during isolation were morphologically characterized, factors maintaining the cultured spermatogonia in the undifferentiated state were studied, and these cells were transferred to sterile recipients preliminarily treated with busulfan. The cells of spermatogenic epithelium cultivated in vitro for 24 h were used for transfer experiments. The transfer efficiency was estimated within 27 and 29 days according to the histological picture of the testes and the isolated cultures. Spermatogenic cells at various developmental stages and a few Sertoli cells and spermatozoa were found on sections and in cell suspensions. Sperm samples could be taken from recipient boars within nine months after the transfer. Microsatellite analysis of DNA showed the endogenous pattern of spermatogenesis. Thus, it was shown that spermatogenic donor cells can restore and maintain spermatogenesis of a recipient for at least 30 days. However, the donor cells were fully forced by the recipient reserve cells, type A₀ spermatogonia, within eight to nine months.     

Purification, stabilization, and concentration of very weak protein-protein complexes: Shifting the association equilibrium via complex selective adsorption on lowly activated supports

Very weak protein-protein interactions are very difficult to detect because these complexes could be under the detection limit or they tend to dissociate. Here, using as a model the antibody-antigen interaction weaken by the presence of dioxane, we have shown a strategy for the protein complexes purification by selective adsorption of the associated proteins. This strategy is based on the use of poorly activated anionic exchanger supports to selectively adsorb large complexes. This selective adsorption of the associated proteins shifted the association equilibrium of the soluble proteins toward the associated form. Thus, in the presence of 15% v/v dioxane, a concentration that is able to almost fully break the immunocomplex (less that 3% of the immunocomplex appeared associated when soluble antigen-antibody mixture was cross-linked with aldehyde-dextran), we can obtain more than 90% of the fully pure immunocomplex from the non-associated protein, adsorbed on anionic exchanger supports having a very low activation. This simple strategy may be a very useful tool to solve one of the most relevant challenges in the modern proteomics, the detection of very weak protein-protein interactions.     

Indigenous Medicinal Plants in Mexico: the Example of the Nahua (Sierra de Zongolica)

As in most peasant cultures medicinal plants are a very important resource for the Nahua of the Sierra de Zongolica (Mexico). Documentation of the current indigenous medicinal uses of 203 plants in this region was conducted during 18 months of fieldwork. The 816 individual reports documented were divided into nine groups of indigenous uses. The frequency of usage of the individual plants reported was employed in the analysis of the ethnobotanical importance of the respective plants. Plants cited more frequently in a group of indigenous uses are regarded as of greater ethnobotanical importance than those cited only by a few informants. Data on phytochemistry, pharmacology and ethnobotany from the scientific literature were used to evaluate possible biological or pharmacological and toxicological effects of some particularly important plants. For most plants detailed studies on these actions are still lacking, which would allow a conclusive evaluation. This ethnobotanical evaluation forms the basis for such studies which have been started on some plants, and for better understanding their potential as minor economic products of the region. These uses may also give incentives to the conservation of the local biodiversity.     

A Systems Perspective on the Conservation and Erosion of Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge in Central India

Many scholars are concerned that globalization and scientization of local management systems threatens the survival of valuable indigenous knowledge of agriculture and agroforestry. This paper addresses such concerns by drawing on a field study of knowledge about tree and crop cultivation in central India to examine dynamics of knowledge system change. It uses concepts from systems studies, including hierarchy, adaptability, connectedness, and scale, to show how parts of indigenous knowledge systems might be more likely to be lost or preserved under various socio-economic circumstances. It then suggests some concrete lessons for those interested in conserving indigenous knowledge: that knowledge is best conserved in situ; that concepts can be more important to communicate and preserve than mere facts or practices; that researchers might identify those parts of a knowledge system most in need of conservation attention; and that technical innovation might allow local-scale indigenous knowledge to interface more effectively with large-scale global technologies.     

A Fluid System for the Cultivation,Light Microscope Examination and Manipulation of Obligate Anaerobes*

A chamber in tandem with oxygen-free gas supply and gas-collecting reservoirs constitutes a system capable of anaerobic maintenance within the range of 0.8–20 μM at 13 C. Cultures contained within the chamber portion of this system are examined through exposed oculars of a microscope otherwise sealed from room atmosphere. Materials are interchanged between the 2 atmospheres through an air lock. Shoulder-length gloves enable all manipulations common to aerobic cultivation procedures without undue restraint.     

Questioning the relevance of shifting cultivation to Neolithic farming in the loess belt of Europe: evidence from the Hambach Forest experiment

Despite widespread criticism, the shifting cultivation model continues to inform discussion of Neolithic farming in Europe, beginning with early Neolithic (Linearbandkeramik or LBK) communities concentrated in the loess belt of western-central Europe. Hundreds of LBK and later Neolithic sites have been excavated in this region and many of them sampled for charred plant remains. Archaeobotanical data on the weed floras harvested with crops provide the most direct archaeological evidence of crop husbandry practices, including the permanence of crop fields, but have played a limited role in the debate over shifting cultivation. The Hambach Forest experiment, conducted in the 1970s-80s near Cologne, Germany, provides valuable comparative data on the weed floras growing in newly cleared cultivation plots in an area of longlived mixed oak woodland on loess-based soil. Correspondence analysis of the Hambach weed survey data suggests that weed floras of fields managed under a shifting cultivation regime would be rich in perennial species, including woodland perennials. Comparison of these results with Neolithic weed assemblages from the loess belt of western-central Europe strongly suggests that Neolithic crop fields were not recently cleared of woodland vegetation but were long-established. Received September 5, 2001 / Accepted February 26, 2002     

Economic transition and household food consumption: A study of Bulgaria from 1985 to 2002

Major economic transitions typically entail changes in the availability of and purchasing power for different types of foods leading to long-term changes in the composition of the diet. Bulgaria, a former Eastern Bloc country, underwent a difficult and protracted transition from a centralized to market economy with acute economic crises and a much slower recovery of income levels than in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Using annual data from the Bulgarian National Household Survey, we study changes in the reported consumption of major foods (excluding alcoholic drinks) and their constituent macronutrients from 1985 to 2002, examining also the differences in dietary patterns between the period prior to and following the transition. The consumption of most major food items decreased, resulting in a fall in per capita energy consumption of 429 kcal/day (1.80 MJ/d), following the economic transition of 1991. As expected, the consumption of foods that were more expensive per unit of energy decreased greater than cheaper foods, -34% for animal products and -19% for visible fats, but only -10% for carbohydrates. These changes are related to the changes in income and market prices as well as the general negative trend in economic growth and hyperinflation in the mid-1990s. Thus, Bulgaria experienced a decrease in food consumption without significant changes in the dietary pattern following the economic transition of 1991. The fact that part of this decline may be attributed to continued economic challenges suggests that future transitions in the diet may be expected as economic development proceeds.