Rain forest ‘conservation-through-use’? Chambira palm fibre extraction and handicraft production in a land-constrained community, Peruvian Amazon

Does the use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) lead to species conservation and protection of the tropical rain forest? This paper examines the use and fate of the chambira palm (Astrocaryum chambira) – a prime candidate for ‘conservation-through-use’– around a traditional peasant community in northeastern Peru where land scarcity has forced households to draw increasingly on NTFPs to supplement their incomes, including palm fibre for the production of handicrafts. Using household survey data (n = 36), we identify the specific factors that influence handicraft production, household use and economic reliance on palm fibre-based handicrafts, and the planting (semi-domestification) of the chambira palm. Our findings question the promise of rain forest ‘conservation-through-use’ and indicate the scope of challenges for species conservation, particularly among the rural poor.     

Runa realism: Upper Amazonian attitudes to nature knowing

Stories about the forest recounted in a Quichua-speaking Runa village in Ecuador's Upper Amazon point to an element of ecological understandings that is rarely studied; these are primarily about capturing and sharing the experience of the process of knowing rather than trafficking in stabilized tokens of ecological knowledge. Runa understanding of nature is achieved through a poetic language rich in what philosopher Charles S. Peirce terms iconic and indexical signs. This way of talking about forest experience is advantageous because these forms of representation can capture qualities and events in the world in ways that what Peirce terms symbols cannot. Iconic and indexical signs mediate the world in distinctive ways. Accordingly, this article suggests some implications that iconically and indexically rich modes of communicating experience have for engaging with the nonhuman realm, acquiring knowledge of the world, and establishing a certain kind of interpersonal social intimacy.     

小煤炱科二个新种

报道了中国小煤炱科Meliolaceae2个新种。它们是南蛇藤双孢炱负AmazoniacelastriY．X．HuetB．Songsp．nov．和乌桕生小煤炱MeliolasapiicolaY.X.HuetB.Songsp.nov.。模式标本存放在广东省微生物研究所（GDIM）。     

Variation in wood density determines spatial patterns inAmazonian forest biomass

Uncertainty in biomass estimates is one of the greatest limitations to models of carbon flux in tropical forests. Previous comparisons of field‐based estimates of the aboveground biomass (AGB) of trees greater than 10 cm diameter within Amazonia have been limited by the paucity of data for western Amazon forests, and the use of site‐specific methods to estimate biomass from inventory data. In addition, the role of regional variation in stand‐level wood specific gravity has not previously been considered. Using data from 56 mature forest plots across Amazonia, we consider the relative roles of species composition (wood specific gravity) and forest structure (basal area) in determining variation in AGB. Mean stand‐level wood specific gravity, on a per stem basis, is 15.8% higher in forests in central and eastern, compared with northwestern Amazonia. This pattern is due to the higher diversity and abundance of taxa with high specific gravity values in central and eastern Amazonia, and the greater diversity and abundance of taxa with low specific gravity values in western Amazonia. For two estimates of AGB derived using different allometric equations, basal area explains 51.7% and 63.4%, and stand‐level specific gravity 45.4% and 29.7%, of the total variation in AGB. The variation in specific gravity is important because it determines the regional scale, spatial pattern of AGB. When weighting by specific gravity is included, central and eastern Amazon forests have significantly higher AGB than stands in northwest or southwest Amazonia. The regional‐scale pattern of species composition therefore defines a broad gradient of AGB across Amazonia.     

Investigating the timing of origin and evolutionary processes shaping regional species diversity: Insights from simulated data and neotropical butterfly diversification rates

Different diversification scenarios have been proposed to explain the origin of extant biodiversity. However, most existing meta‐analyses of time‐calibrated phylogenies rely on approaches that do not quantitatively test alternative diversification processes. Here, I highlight the shortcomings of using species divergence ranks, which is a method widely used in meta‐analyses. Divergence ranks consist of categorizing cladogenetic events to certain periods of time, typically to either Pleistocene or to pre‐Pleistocene ages. This approach has been claimed to shed light on the origin of most extant species and the timing and dynamics of diversification in any biogeographical region. However, interpretations drawn from such method often confound two fundamental questions in macroevolutionary studies, tempo (timing of evolutionary rate shifts) and mode (“how” and “why” of speciation). By using simulated phylogenies under four diversification scenarios, constant‐rate, diversity‐dependence, high extinction, and high speciation rates in the Pleistocene, I showed that interpretations based on species divergence ranks might have been seriously misleading. Future meta‐analyses of dated phylogenies need to be aware of the impacts of incomplete taxonomic sampling, tree topology, and divergence time uncertainties, as well as they might be benefited by including quantitative tests of alternative diversification models that acknowledge extinction and diversity dependence.