Goat Production and Fodder Leaves Offered by Local Villagers in the Mid-Hills of Nepal

More than 50% of Nepal’s population lives in the hill regions, usually with small land holdings, and over 60% are considered below the poverty line. Livestock, and particularly goats, provide these small-scale farmers with about 55% of their on-farm income. We studied goat production in Katteldanda, a mid-hill village of 78 households, mainly Brahmins, in Ghorka District. Subsistence farmers raise six or seven goats and one or two buffalo, and cultivate mainly maize, millet and rice. Tree fodder constituted about 70% of dry matter intake of goats for large parts of the year and was collected by lopping branches from trees on upland, rain-watered, private terraces (bari) near the household compound. Local farmers ranked the fodder trees they considered best and we measured the actual fodder they offered to goats. In addition, we evaluated and ranked 23 fodder species on the basis of laboratory in vitro nutritional and metabolizable energy yields. Using a Mantel test, a significant correlation was found between what the farmers thought was best fodder and fodder offered to goats (Mantel r = 0.398; P = 0.037) but non-significant correlations were found between either what the farmers thought was best fodder or fodder offered to goats and laboratory rankings (Mantel r = −0.027; P = 0.49 and Mantel r = 0.187; P = 0.18, respectively). We concluded that biomass produced and availability throughout the year, in addition to nutritional and energy yield, are important criteria for selecting fodder trees for goat production.     

Specificity and retinotectal projections of quarter-eye fragments in Xenopus laevis

Three quarters of the eye anlage in Xenopus embryos of stage 33/34 were eliminated in three different sets of experiments. The remaining quadrant originated from the nasoventral part of the retina, from its ventral portion, or from the temporo-ventral area of the retina. All the fragments developed into small eyes of normal shape. The retinotectal connections did not deviate from those found in the control groups, even though mirror-image duplication was fairly frequent. For all fragments the tectal projection fields were rather limited. There was some indication of fragments retaining their original specificity. Irrespective, however, of their different origins, the optic projections always occupied the rostrolateral area of the tectum.     

Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Flora der Dinarischen Alpen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Flora der Dinarischen Alpen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

High level of variation at Abies alba chloroplast microsatellite loci in Europe

Based on two polymorphic chloroplast microsatellites that had been previously identified and sequence characterized in the genus Abies, genetic variation was studied in a total of 714 individuals from 17 European silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) populations distributed all over the natural range. We found eight and 18 different length variants at each locus, respectively, which combined into 90 different haplotypes. Genetic distances between most populations were high and significant. There is also evidence for spatial organization of the distribution of haplotypes, as shown by permutation tests, which demonstrate that genetic distances increase with spatial distances. A large heterogeneity in levels of diversity across populations was observed. Furthermore, there is good congruence in the levels of allelic richness of the two loci across populations. The present organization of levels of allelic richness across the range of the species is likely to have been shaped by the distribution of refugia during the last glaciation and the subsequent recolonization processes.     

XXXVI.Rheum Rhaponticum L. in Europa

Ohne Zusammenfassung