Structure and composition of savanna vegetation in northern Bolivia: A preliminary report

The vegetation of seasonally flooded savannas iin the tropical lowland of the Departamento La Paz, northern Bolivia, was studied. A first collection of vascular plants in this area includes about 600 species, at least three of which are new to the Bolivian flora and four are new to science. The eight major vegetation types distinguished within the savannas are dry bunchgrass savanna (“altura”), seasonally flooded bunch-grass community (“sartenejal”), palm swamp (“palmar”), two types of river floodplains (”bajíos”), a tall shrub community (“chaparral”), the vegetation of termite mounds, and gallery forest. The study area is among the least known in Bolivia. There is a strong need for further studies of these savannas.     

Disparate views of community in primary health care: understanding how perceptions influence success

The importance of community in primary health care (PHC) is evident in the role of community participation and in the types of programs that are routinely implemented (community health-worker [CHW] programs, community clinics, community-based disease-control programs). Few health care providers and program administrators, however, have considered the meaning of community. Instead, they frequently impose their own definition of community and assume that it corresponds to local realities. This is problematic because target populations may have different ideas about what a community is and how it functions. When disparate ideas of community exist, they can affect the implementation of PHC programs, leading to low rates of acceptance, participation, and utilization. Using two examples, a community clinic in El Alto, Bolivia, and a CHW program in Rio Branco, Brazil, this article discusses some of the problems that arise when local definitions of community do not correspond to programmatic definitions.     

The spread of the House Sparrow Passer domesticus in Bolivia

Bolivia lies within the Tropics and contains extremes from desert to jungle and from low to high altitudes. House Sparrows entered the south of Bolivia from Argentina about 1930 and have now spread to towns and villages scattered through about half of the country. These are principally in the semi-arid Andean descents of south and central Bolivia and in the lowlands in Santa Cruz city and certain nearby towns. In the high altiplano they have reached only two cities and are not numerous in either. They appear to be absent from the humid Andean slopes and from most of the eastern and northern lowlands, with the exception of two isolated towns which they could have reached either from Brazil or from elsewhere in Bolivia. House Sparrows do not occur away from human settlements in Bolivia.     

Vicuñas and Llamas: Parallels in behavioral ecology and implications for the domestication of andean camelids

The age structure, sex composition, and territorial behavior of wild camelids is compared to that of llama herds from the community of Alota, southwestern Bolivia. The parallels suggest that herd management techniques are designed to replicate wild camelid social organization. The predictable camelid territorial behavior in turn facilitates the management of llama herds. The implications of these organizational and territorial parallels are discussed with reference to camelid procurement strategies and domestication.     

Packaging Indigenous Media: An Interview with Ivan Sanjinés and Jesús Tapia

An interview with two key figures in the indigenous video movement in Bolivia conducted at the Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival in New Mexico. In the interview, Ivan Sanjinés and Jesús Tapia describe the development of indigenous video centers and organizations in Bolivia, their work with video makers across Latin American, their goals during their 2002 U.S. video tour, their reactions to their audience's questions, and notions of authorship and collaboration as a process that extends from communities in which videos are made to hemispheric networks of media makers. I introduce the interview by situating indigenous video in Bolivia within the wider and significant historical shift toward indigenous politics in Bolivia in the 1980s and 1990s and draw from the interview new meanings for the term indigenous media that involve the ways video makers assemble and package a multiplex of technologies, resources, social organizations, cultural principles and imagery into a representational form that extends beyond the completed videotape.     

青海省甘蒙柽柳群落植被区系分析

为了探明青海省甘蒙柽柳(Tamarix austromongolica Nakai)群落植被的区系特征,对同德县然果村甘蒙柽柳古树林群落的古树资源基本特征和结构特征进行了分析,并对该古树林群落及同德县班多村和贵德县曲卜藏村甘蒙柽柳幼树林群落的科属组成、生活型和区系特征进行了分析和比较;在此基础上,提出甘蒙柽柳古树林群落的保护策略.调查结果显示:在然果村古树林群落中,胸径大于1.40 m的甘蒙柽柳百年古树有203株,最高植株的株高、胸径和地径分别为22.85、1.78和3.39 m;群落中小叶杨(Populus simonii Carr.)百年古树有15株,最高植株的株高和胸径分别为25.00和4.18 m.在垂直结构上,然果村古树林群落分为乔木层、灌木层和草本层3个层次,其中,草本层包括多年生丛草层和一年生杂草层2个层次;在水平结构上,甘蒙柽柳均匀散布在群落内,小叶杨呈带状聚集分布,大部分灌木呈丛状分布,草本植物则呈小丛或单生态分布.然果村古树林群落有种子植物8科18属21种,班多村幼树林群落有种子植物10科18属20种,曲卜藏村幼树林群落有种子植物8科12属12种.区系分析结果表明:在科水平上,3个甘蒙柽柳群落均以世界分布型为主;在属水平上,然果村古树林群落和班多村幼树林群落均以北温带分布型为主,占总属数(不包括世界分布型)的37.50%和43.75%,而曲卜藏村幼树林群落则以世界分布型为主,中亚分布型次之.比较结果表明:3个群落的甘蒙柽柳植株大小差异明显,物种组成和区系成分也有一定差异.综合考虑认为,甘蒙柽柳古树林群落保护应采取就地保护和迁地保护相结合的方式.     

大相岭自然保护区珙桐群落植物区系、结构及动态

在多次调查的基础上,对四川大相岭自然保护区珙桐(Davidia involucrata)群落的植物区系组成、群落结构、更新现状以及群落演替进行了探究。结果表明:(1)大相岭自然保护区的植被为亚热带向温带过渡的区系类型,大量古老孑遗属的存在反映出珙桐群落植物区系的孑遗性和古老性。(2)群落整体径级结构呈偏正态分布型,高度级结构呈倒J型,群落结构发展趋势较为稳定。(3)大相岭自然保护区珙桐种群整体年龄结构近似呈金字塔型,为增长型种群。总体来说,珙桐纯林(C类型群落)搭配优势度最优,处于后期稳定型演替阶段,是大相岭自然保护区珙桐群落中的顶极群落。研究认为,设立专门的珙桐保护区开展就地保护是针对此类珙桐原生群落有效的保护方法。     

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of metabolic end products of the Bolivia strain of Trypanosoma cruzi and three of its clones

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) was used to study the in vivo metabolism of Trypanosoma cruzi, the pathogen causing American trypanosomiasis (Chagas' disease). Three clones were isolated from a strain of T. cruzi (Bolivia strain), The clones I, II and III and the original strain were characterized according to the spectra of their metabolic pathways to test the hypothesis that clonal evolution of T. cruzi has a major impact on biologically relevant properties of this parasite. T. cruzi (Bolivia strain) excreted acetate, alanine, glycerol, and succinate as major end products, in the proportion 6:4:2:2. Comparing the spectra of T. cruzi clones with the original Bolivia strain revealed both quantitative, as well as qualitative differences in the metabolites excreted: the clones I and II, as opposed to the Bolivia strain and clone III, excreted significant quantities of ethanol.     

Ancient Leishmaniasis in a Highland Desert of Northern Chile

Background

Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease endemic today in many areas of South America.

Methodology

We discovered morphologic and molecular evidence of ancient infections in 4 female skulls in the archaeological cemetery of Coyo Oriente, in the desert of San Pedro de Atacama, Northern Chile. The boney facial lesions visible in the skulls could have been caused by a number of chronic infections including chronic Leishmaniasis. This diagnosis was confirmed using PCR-sequenced analyses of bone fragments from the skulls of the affected individuals.Leishmaniasis is not normally found in the high-altitude desert of Northern Chile; where the harsh climate does not allow the parasite to complete its life cycle. The presence of Leishmaniasis in ancient skulls from the region implies infection by the protozoan in an endemic area–likely, in our subjects, to have been the lowlands of North-Eastern Argentina or in Southern Bolivia.

Conclusions

We propose that the presence of the disease in ancient times in the high altitude desert of San Pedro de Atacama is the result of an exogamic system of patrilocal marriages, where women from different cultures followed their husbands to their ancestral homes, allowing immigrant women, infected early in life, to be incorporated in the Atacama desert society before they became disfigured by the disease. The present globalization of goods and services and the extraordinary facile movement of people across borders and continents have lead to a resurgence of infectious diseases and re-emergence of infections such as Leishmaniasis. We show here that such factors were already present millennia ago, shaping demographic trends and the epidemiology of infections just as they do today.     

Seasonal Variations in Diet and Foraging Behavior of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ateles chamek</Emphasis> in a Southern Amazonian Tropical Forest

I present data regarding the diet and feeding ecology of a spider monkey community at Lago Caiman in northeastern Bolivia. The community was highly frugivorous, only consuming significant amounts of folivorous material during times of relative fruit resource scarcity. Spider monkeys fed on parts of 86 plant species, but the majority of the diet comprised a few dominant fleshy fruit species that were available at temporally distinct periods across the year. Accordingly, I identified candidate keystone resources for the region and discuss the results with reference to previous studies on Ateles and the importance of considering keystone fruit resources in the management of forestry concessions.     

Timerendering: reflections on chronopolitical praxis in Bolivia

This article uses reflections on chronopolitical praxis during the period 2006-19 in Bolivia in order to make a more general contribution to the anthropology of time and temporalities. The article proposes the theoretical concept of ‘timerendering’ in order to examine the ways in which time emerged as a pervasive register that mediated and also deepened political, social, and ethnic conflict in Bolivia. After illustrating the mechanisms through which timerendering in Bolivia gave way to forms of allochronic denial that are described as ‘hypertemporal exclusion’, the article explains how and why the MAS government's timerendering strategies unravelled, which left it susceptible to the right-wing coup of October/November 2019. The article concludes by narrating the endtimes of the Morales government in Bolivia, before considering what this moment and its afterlives have to say more generally about the anthropology of time as a disciplinary orientation.     

秦岭天然锐齿栎林群落区系研究

锐齿栎林是秦岭林区的主要森林类型之一。通过对秦岭天然锐齿栎林群落的野外调查,报道了组成该群落的植物种类１８３种,隶属于６０科,１３１属,并在此基础上对该群落区系特点作了较为详细的分析。分析表明：１．该群落区系具有明显的温带性质。２．该群落区系是奠基在秦岭古老植物区系的基础上,通过种间竞争、群落演替形成的。３．锐齿栎本身不是一个古老的类群,其出现的时间不会早于上新世。     

Heterotrophic microbial communities use ancient carbon following glacial retreat

When glaciers retreat they expose barren substrates that become colonized by organisms, beginning the process of primary succession. Recent studies reveal that heterotrophic microbial communities occur in newly exposed glacial substrates before autotrophic succession begins. This raises questions about how heterotrophic microbial communities function in the absence of carbon inputs from autotrophs. We measured patterns of soil organic matter development and changes in microbial community composition and carbon use along a 150-year chronosequence of a retreating glacier in the Austrian Alps. We found that soil microbial communities of recently deglaciated terrain differed markedly from those of later successional stages, being of lower biomass and higher abundance of bacteria relative to fungi. Moreover, we found that these initial microbial communities used ancient and recalcitrant carbon as an energy source, along with modern carbon. Only after more than 50 years of organic matter accumulation did the soil microbial community change to one supported primarily by modern carbon, most likely from recent plant production. Our findings suggest the existence of an initial stage of heterotrophic microbial community development that precedes autotrophic community assembly and is sustained, in part, by ancient carbon.     

Classification of the high-Andean Polylepis forests in Bolivia

This work investigates the Polylepis-dominated forests in the high Andes of central and southern Bolivia, using both the Braun-Blanquet approach and multivariate analysis. These are among the highest altitude forest types in the world, and the region under study is a center of diversity for the genus, and is located at the confluence of four biogeographical provinces. Nine main plant communities were distinguished. Correspondence Analysis revealed a strong dependence of community composition primarily on biogeographic as well as on bioclimatic features. The greatest forest type diversity is found in the central part of the Cordillera Oriental in the Tropical pluviseasonal bioclimate, within a Supratropical thermotype and a Subhumid ombrotype.     

Four new species and new records of Symplocos (Symplocaceae) from Peru and Bolivia, and a key to all species of Symplocos known to occur in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia

Four new species of Symplocos (Symplocaceae) are described from montane forests in Peru. Symplocos cuscoënsis Ståhl (from Dept Cusco) is distinguished inter alia by enlarged floral bracts and anthers that are longer than wide, S. excoriata Ståhl (Dept Amazonas and Cajamarca) by the exfoliating bark on young shoots, S. serratifolia Ståhl (Dept Cajamarca and Cusco) by tomentulose young shoots and lower leaf surfaces as well as long petioles, and S. trichocarpa Ståhl (Dept Cajamarca) by its tuberculate young shoots and pilose fruits. Symplocos guianensis (Aubl.) Gürke is reported as new to Bolivia and S. nitens (Pohl) Benth. is reported as new to Bolivia and Peru. A key to all 67 species of Symplocos known from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia is provided.     

A New Green Species of Frog,Genus Eleutherodactylus,from Bolivia and Perú (Amphibia,Anura, Leptodactylidae)

Eleutherodactylus olivaceus sp. n., a member of the E. unistrigatus group is described. The new species is known from montane rainforests of the Departamento Cochabamba, Bolivia, as well as from lowland rainforest of the Departamento Madre de Dios, Perú. E. olivaceus is mainly characterized by its predominantly olive green dorsal color and a papilla on the tip of the snout. Advertisement call and habitat of E. olivaceus are described. The occurrence of Eleutherodactylus mendax in Bolivia is briefly discussed.     

Notes on the Biology and Uses of the Motacú Palm(Attalea phalerata,Arecaceae) from Bolivia

The motacú palm (Attalea phalerata) is widespread in Bolivia and is an economically valuable species as a source of vegetable oil. In Bolivia it is utilized as construction material, food, medicine, cosmetic, and edible oil. Oil extracted from the kernel (60–70% of dry weight) is high in lauric and myristic oils and compares favorably with other tropical oil crops. The palms reach reproductive maturity in 7–10 years and potential oil production from cultivated stands is 1.1-2.4 tons/ha/yr.     

Phytogeographical relations of the Andean dry valleys of Bolivia

Aim The objective of this study is to examine the phytogeographical affinities of the Andean dry valleys of Bolivia in order to contribute to a better understanding of the Andean dry flora's distribution, origin and diversity. Particular emphasis is given to the analysis of the floristic connections of this flora with more austral parts of South America. Location The dry valleys of Bolivia are located in the Andes of the southern half of the country, at elevations between 1300 and 3200 m. Methods An extensive floristic list compiled by the author to evaluate plant diversity in these Andean regions was used as the base for this study. To accomplish this, all recorded genera and species were assigned, respectively, to 11 and 12 phytogeographical elements established previously by the author. Two phytogeographical spectra were thus obtained and analysed. Results At the genus level, the Andean dry valleys of Bolivia are clearly dominated by genera that have widespread distributions (cosmoplitan and subtropical genera). Many of these reached the Andes from the lowland region of the Chaco. At species level, Andean elements constitute more than 60% of the species total, most of which are restricted to the central‐southern Andes. This suggests that Chaco‐related and Andean genera had considerable levels of speciation in these valleys. Many genera and more than half the species have their northernmost distribution in the dry valleys of Bolivia, thereby underlining strong relationships with central‐southern South America (mainly Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil). The data supports the belief of the existence, in central‐southern Peru, of a floristic disjunction in dry to arid environments that separates a tropical dry flora north of this limit from a dry subtropical/warm temperate flora south of it. Main conclusions The Andean dry valleys of Bolivia are diverse plant communities with high levels of endemism (c. 18% of the species). The species of this region are more related to those present in central‐southern South America than to the flora of northern South America that ranges southwards to Peru. Many of the species have restricted distributions in the dry Andes of Bolivia and Argentina, and many genera of these dry valleys have their northernmost distribution in Bolivia/southern Peru, too. The data point to high levels of speciation also in the central Andes.     

Restoration of the understorey layer of recent forest bordering ancient forest

Abstract. Recently established forests are commonly characterized by an impoverished understorey. Restoration is mostly based on spontaneous secondary succession, but little is known about the time period needed to achieve a community species pool with species composition equal to that of ancient forests. Vegetation in transects of 197 plots in 13 recent forest stands contiguous to the Meerdaalwoud ancient forest complex was surveyed. The recent forest stands ranged in age from 36 to 132 yr. The community species pool was described with an ecological, functional and phytosociological approach and based on groups derived from a CCA. Differences in community species pool between age classes of recent forest stands were analysed. During establishment of a new forest competitive species, forest edge species and species with high Ellenberg values for light and nitrogen and a more persistent seed bank will dominate the understorey. After 90 yr of succession the cover by these species decreases and reaches equal values to ancient forest after ca. 105 yr. A large number of forest species will be able to colonize the forest in less than 90 yr. Some typical forest species, however, have very low colonization rates and still have low cover in recent forest more than 105 yr old, so that complete restoration of the understorey requires a time period of over a century. Anthropogenic introduction of forest plant species may reduce the time required for ancient forest vegetation equality.     

Genetic Characterization of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus from Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru: Identification of a New Subtype ID Lineage

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) has been responsible for hundreds of thousands of human and equine cases of severe disease in the Americas. A passive surveillance study was conducted in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador to determine the arboviral etiology of febrile illness. Patients with suspected viral-associated, acute, undifferentiated febrile illness of <7 days duration were enrolled in the study and blood samples were obtained from each patient and assayed by virus isolation. Demographic and clinical information from each patient was also obtained at the time of voluntary enrollment. In 2005–2007, cases of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) were diagnosed for the first time in residents of Bolivia; the patients did not report traveling, suggesting endemic circulation of VEEV in Bolivia. In 2001 and 2003, VEE cases were also identified in Ecuador. Since 1993, VEEV has been continuously isolated from patients in Loreto, Peru, and more recently (2005), in Madre de Dios, Peru. We performed phylogenetic analyses with VEEV from Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru and compared their relationships to strains from other parts of South America. We found that VEEV subtype ID Panama/Peru genotype is the predominant one circulating in Peru. We also demonstrated that VEEV subtype ID strains circulating in Ecuador belong to the Colombia/Venezuela genotype and VEEV from Madre de Dios, Peru and Cochabamba, Bolivia belong to a new ID genotype. In summary, we identified a new major lineage of enzootic VEEV subtype ID, information that could aid in the understanding of the emergence and evolution of VEEV in South America.